Lecture: 'Making the cut: presence as interruption'

Interruption is a fundamental concept in Michel Serres’ ‘The Parasite’ and points to the moment when systems of belief break down. He argues that we should consider this moment of non-functioning not only as a necessity but as a blessing, rather than a curse. For systems should not work!

But what if we become the parasite, the static of our own presence; when we make a cut in who we believe ourselves to be?

We become a dividuum, a split person, a schizoid being, an avatar. Should we be worried? Or should we embrace this transindividual, anonymous, noisy other that we become when we make such a cut? Let’s become the host and parasite of ourselves, the difference that connects.

Bio - Willem van Weelden (Amsterdam, 1960), has a background in social philosophy and visual art. He is a teacher, lecturer, researcher and independent writer on new media culture, media theory and interaction design. He never stopped linking media theory to the dilemma’s and intrinsic ‘problems’ within the tradition of the visual arts, and probes network culture from the vantage point of trying to open new contexts, vistas and habitats for the arts and social emancipation. He is committed to new media culture from 1990 onwards and has published on this topic in various magazines and catalogues. He was involved in numerous new media projects as a creative director and coach. He has taught and teaches at the HKU Art and Media Technology (BA), MAHKU (Editorial Design), Artez (BA&MA), Design Academy Eindhoven (BA & MA), DOGTIME, Rietveld Academie, KABK (BA&MA), and Sint Lukas (BA & MA) in Brussels. In the summer of 2018 he completed his MA at the Sandberg Institute (Critical Studies) with a project on Jean-Francois Lyotard’s media critical philosophy of time (‘Time as Matter, doing philosophy by other means’).

Student's artwork in reaction to Willem van Weelden's lecture

Artwork by Ain Nor Halim

Scrolling through Instagram, streaming video on Youtube, looking at our screens everyday constantly as if it’s a system in our daily lives. With this in mind and Willem van Weelden’s lecture, ‘Making the Cut', where he states that 'moment of non-functioning’ of systems to be a blessing in disguise, emerges the idea for this work. During previous lectures, we’ve seen sculptural or visual work. This time we break the system by creating a work where you experience it through hearing rather than seeing. The ringing of a phone could be heard only when you walk close to it, but it is not your phone. It is a cynical way of showing how much we give attention to our phones. As Willem van Weelden said at the end of the lecture, ‘Cut’.