Biopolitics and the Commons

This lecture on ‘Biopolitics and the Urban Commons’ was part of ‘Techniques to Make You Doubt’, a two-day seminar at Fluent, Santander, Spain, specifically conceived for researchers, cultural practitioners and students from the MA in Visual Culture MNCARS Reina Sofia. Participants included Sonia Fernández Pan, Sabel Gavaldon, Hanna Laura Kaljo, João Laia, Fran Meana, Enough Room for Space, Borbala Soos, Jochen Volz and Benjamin Weil.

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Through various forms of speculation and debate on how can we use material culture in order to form methodologies that incorporate uncertainty as an artistic and curatorial strategy -within and beyond the institution-, this seminar continues fluent's research on concepts of uncertainty, expectation and suspense started with the group show Overture, and it insists on exploring means of action in a time of constant change.

‘Techniques to Make You Doubt’ aims to create a collective experiment that investigates ways through which humans have tried to speculate, predict and anticipate the future, as well as its potential relationships with socio-political and ecological current issues.

Collectively we will reflect on methodologies used to predict the future, strategic thinking, planning and risk management, divination and spiritual forecasts in relation to cultural management and current curatorial and artistic practices.

How do uncertain conditions affect our thinking, decisions and behavior? What kind of situations we face when we talk about uncertainty?

Departing from a number of presentations and activities developed by guest researchers, curators, artists and activists, the seminar analyses the connection between different problematics and a global sense of uncertainty. Therefore, in a historical time in which these synergies are under processes of transformation, it aims to question the attachment of the individual to certain 'realities' or circumstances, foregrounding the necessity to reflect on how uncertainty has become a key aspect in truly critical practices.

/// Key terms of the event are disorientation, time, expectation and ambiguity ///