We're joined by Mohammad Salemy, organizer and facilitator of the New Centre for Research and Practice, fierce critic, social media (@inhumansofberlin) hyperstitionist, artist, personality, and force.
This episode provides a lot of background into how the New Centre came to be. If you're unfamiliar with TNC, it's one of the main places
where theory happens today. Check out their website
here, and some of their legendary moments on Youtube:
- Colin Drumm's Capital & Power - a huge influence on our book, and an excellent discussion of Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan (heavily discussed on the pod today).
- Friend of the pod Richard Hames' excellent Critical Collapsology series.
- Laura Tripladi's series on Material Interfaces.
- Reza Negarestani's Draw of the Desert - one of the most incredible and contentious pieces of modern political philosophy around.
While we spend time on the New Centre, we also spend time on Mo and his legendary backround, culminating in a discussion of his (iconic? infamous? lovable? hostile?) social media presence, its relationship to his political philosophy, the 'developmental problem' of post-colonial geopolitics, and on the necessity of breaking up the rust that accumulates around frozen gears.
We also discuss his recent piece on &&&,
Category Theory & Differential Identity, a project close to our heart in terms of understanding how identity is perhaps less constructed than it is mobilized, driven, and how it comes into contact with structures anterior to the strictly
human.
Many, many thanks to Mo for joining us!