InterCcECT

May 24, 2017 · 10:50 PM

October in June

Amidst its present Russian turmoil, 2017 is also distinct as the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Karl Marx’s Capital, Volume 1.

Join InterCcECT for 2 linked sessions on what is to be done.

Session 1 reads the novelist/critic China Mieville’s new narrative history of the Russian revolution, October (excerpts) alongside Lenin’s The State and Revolution (chapters 1 and 5).

Session 2 reads Capital (lol, just excerpts) alongside William Clare Roberts’s recent brilliant polemic
Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital.

Thursday 15 June, 4pm, HandleBar 2311 W North Ave
Wednesday 12 July, 4pm, location TBD

Contact us (interccect at gmail) for the readings, like us on the facebooks for frequent links, and, as always, send proposals for group endeavors!

On our calendar:

26 May, Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction

28 May, Mieville himself at Seminary Coop

9 June, Poems, Prose, & Possibility

15 June, Summer of Cage

21 June, The Political Conscious

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April 4, 2017 · 1:56 PM

The outraged traveller, the disappointed gourmet, the lazy tweeter, the postoffice grouser: there are as many complainer genres as there are varieties of neurosis or flavors of potato chips. Everyone’s a critic, but what possible theory can unite these diverse types? What could carping and griping, lamenting and whining, tell us about subjectivity itself?

InterCcECT welcomes Aaron Schuster to lead a mini-seminar on the art, science, and pleasure of the complaint. We’ll read selections from his book The Trouble with Pleasure: Deleuze and Psychoanalysis, and his recent essay “Primal Scream, or Why Do Babies Cry? A Theory of Trump,” along with an excerpt from InterCcECTer Adam Kotsko’s book Awkwardness.

Join us Tuesday 18 April, 4:30-6:30pm at Volumes BookCafe 1474 N Milwaukee Ave (Blue Line: Damen). Coffee, booze, and snacks available amid the great indie book selection.

To request the readings, contact us.

Also on our calendar:

11 April “Designing Infrastructure”
13 April Jared Hickman, “Black Prometheus”
21 April Rodolphe Gasche

As always, get in touch to propose events, and follow us on facebook for frequent links and updates.

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Filed under Miniseminars

January 11, 2017 · 9:16 PM

the theory of desire in the era of id

When the unconscious is engaged in “work,” a favorite of Freud’s conceits, what is it producing? What sort of value is the value that is enjoyment? Who might articulate a labor theory of the unconscious, and what would it offer the analysis of regulated desire, social cohesion, and ideology under capitalism run amok?

Join InterCcECT for a discussion of Samo Tomsic’s The Capitalist Unconscious: Marx and Lacan Tuesday February 21st, 5pm, at The Newberry Library (red line:Chicago).

Drop at line to interccect at gmail dot com to request the readings.

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November 13, 2016 · 1:17 PM

mourning becomes utopia

In this fresh hell, InterCcECT stands by our founding project, the pursuit of abstraction as both explanation for existing situations and inspiration for new situations, and we stand for the thinkers, makers, doers, survivors, gatherers who have lived other hells and will fight this one too. We theorize and teach and struggle as we can with and for the oppressed and the objectified, and anyone who strives to build something more.

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Join us Thursday 15 December for a reading group on thought in catastrophe and thought out of catastrophe, focusing on selections from Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia and Jose Esteban Munoz’s Cruising Utopia. The Map Room, 4pm.

Write interccect at gmail for the readings.

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October 6, 2016 · 2:12 PM

the party as form: Jodi Dean at Gallery 400

o15_0rtxxtdx What infrastructures can sustain the momentum of an event of political massing? What are compelling idioms, amidst ideologies and theories of anarchic post-politics, for affirming formations as integral to political struggle? In her book Crowds and Party, Jodi Dean argues that the party must be reclaimed as a site and modality of politics; InterCcECT previously hosted a lively mini-seminar on the book and is thrilled to now host Professor Dean herself for a talk and debate.

Join us Thursday 20 October, 5pm, in the lovely environs of our frequent collaborator Gallery 400.

400 S Peoria St, 60607 (Blue Line: UIC Halsted)

made possible by generous support from The UIC Institute for the Humanities, The Great Cities Institute, Institute for Policy & Civic Engagement, Gallery 400, Departments of English, Art History, Gender&Womens Studies, Political Science, and Anthropology.

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September 19, 2016 · 8:51 PM

speculation upon speculation

What does the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and our ongoing catastrophe have to do with the recent surge of scholarly interest in speculative philosophy? How do proliferating materialisms engage with, or symptomatize, toxic collateralized debt obligations? What is the shared terrain of speculative action, and where does political action intervene to remake that terrain?

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InterCcECT is pleased to welcome Josh Robinson (Cardiff University) for a special works-in-progress session on Speculative Capital, Thursday 6 October. Join us at 4pm at the UIC Institute for the Humanities, 701 S Morgan St (Blue Line: UIC/Halsted). Pre-circulated paper available by request to interccect at gmail.

Josh will also be at the Poetry&Poetics workshop at UofC on Monday 10 October.

Also on our fall calendar:

Arendt’s The Promise of Politics, 3 October

Jodi Dean at UIC, 20 October

Etienne Balibar and Veronica Gago at 3CT, 28 October

Debt Dialogues at Northwestern

Aaron Schuster at InterCcECT, 28 November (ditto)

Knox Peden at UIC, 2 December (ditto)

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July 11, 2016 · 8:47 PM

Anxiety, the seminar, Depression, the album

ingrid-bergman-02 InterCcECT allays summer angst with a special session on Jaques Lacan’s recently translated Seminar X: Anxiety, led by Professor Chris Breu. We’ll focus on the first section (chapters 1-6); readings available by request to interccect at gmail. Join us Thursday, 11 August, 5pm, at Volumes Bookcafe (back room), 1414 N Milwaukee Ave (Blue Line: Damen).