The Politics of Opacity: The Right to Opacity
This series of study sessions explore notions of ‘opacity’, ‘imperceptibility’ and ‘disappearance’ from a number of different perspectives, and in relation to questions of ethics, politics and aesthetics.
In collaboration with Centre for Critical Theory, University of Nottingham and M3C.
The Right to Opacity: Glissant and Beyond, with David Eckersley
The first session will introduce and consider some of the key ideas animating this series of study sessions, beginning with Martinican poet, philosopher and critic Édouard Glissant’s notion of opacity, and the demand for the ‘right to opacity for everyone’ articulated in Poétique de la relation (1990). While, in Glissant’s work, the notion of opacity can be understood in multiple ways, at base it should be considered an ethical stance against multiple forms of objectifying, reductive, and ultimately barbaric ‘transparency’ that permeate both historical and contemporary social relations. Using this ethical position as a backdrop and guide, the session will consider other, related ideas such as imperceptibility, clandestinity, and anonymity.
David Eckersley is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Critical Theory, University of Nottingham and an associate lecturer in the critical practice of photography at Nottingham Trent University. He is currently undertaking a research placement with the public programme team at Nottingham Contemporary, which is supported by the M3C doctoral training partnership.
Event:
The Politics of Opacity: The Right to OpacityDates:
30 May 2017, 6.30pm–8.30pmSupported by:
