25 November 2021

Valeria Graziano

The pragmatics of by-production: on approximation, illegalism and other peripatetic methods

https://hessische-theaterakademie.de/de/ringvorlesung

THE PRAGMATICS OF BY-PRODUCTION: ON APPROXIMATION, ILLEGALISM AND OTHER PERIPATETIC METHODS

In this presentation, I wish to share my work in progress piecing together a theory of byproduction. My starting hypothesis is that the mode of existence of certain concrete and theoretical objects can indeed be comprehended only if we consider them as byproducts, that is, as lateral effects of processes geared to produce something else. While recent ecological thought brought the value of byproducts to the fore, for instance in centering the importance of up-cycling and circularity in economy, byproduction as a distinctive regime of practice that involves bodies in oblique entanglements with their appetites and their environments, remains under-theorized. However, I suspect it could offer a way to sidestep some contemporary aporias of theories of production and reproduction and make available a different ethical-aesthetic horizon for practices geared towards political change.

https://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/fb05/atw/aktuelles/un-settled-performance-protection-and-politics-of-insecurity

Valeria Graziano is a theorist and organizer. Her work focuses on cultural and technical practices that foster the refusal of work in its interconnected dimensions of a redistribution of social reproduction and the politicization of pleasure. Over the years, she has been involved in numerous action research initiatives across the cultural sector and social movements.