Cosmo-Morphology: On the Order and Ordering of Nature

A one-day symposium hosted by the Critical Cultural Research Lab (CCRL) with keynotes Yuk Hui, Angela Last and Ben Woodard

Saturday, 27th June, 2020 - Goldsmiths College, London, UK
9:30am–6pm - RHB 256

The unfolding ecological catastrophe everywhere produces a crisis of order. Cataclysmic planetary events are mirrored by the continued imposition of renewed logics of dispossession, domination and exclusion across biological, political and social dimensions of being. The ordering of nature by economic, scientific and technological practices seek to condition the possibilities for future thought and praxis. Against this determination, we ask: how can the cosmos be constructed otherwise?

“Cosmo-morphology” is a provocation to consider how the order and ordering of nature set the terms of our cosmological adventure. Borrowing the term “morphology” from the earth sciences—which names the study of the origins and evolution of geographic forms and structures—“Cosmo-morphology” asks how a critique of the order of nature produces terms for the construction of the cosmos. To begin to ask what tools are needed for such speculation requires analysis of the social practices and conceptual structures that order nature and recursively instate their own epistemic conditions, from the bureaucratic, colonial, and economic to the scientific, technological, and philosophical.

This one-day symposium aims to initiate discussion covering the cultural, theoretical, political and aesthetic dimensions of the order and ordering of nature and the cosmos. It seeks to explore speculative and transversal epistemologies and cultures that cleave open the potentials for cosmologies which fracture dominant modes of order.

We invite prospective participants to submit a short 350-word abstract paper proposal and a brief biography. Papers on the following topics would be particularly welcome:

Heretical Cosmologies
Geoengineering and Infrastructure
Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction
General Ecology
Decolonial Logics
Cosmotechnics
Naturphilosophie

Presentation abstract deadline: 24th April, 2020 (350 w abstract + 150 bio)
Notification of Acceptance: 1st May, 2020
Please email abstracts to Conrad Moriarty-Cole and James Phillips: ccrl@protonmail.com

http://ccrl.online/