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Affirmation: We strongly object to the standard scientific practice of negative criticism. (Latour, Puig de la Bellacasa) We practice (or try to practice) a positive, creative attitude, learning as you go, by testing concepts with situated issues, discussions, realities, etc. Affirmation as a practice asks to gather what is useful, leaving behind what is not sustainable or ethical or truthful. (Braidotti).

 

Latour, Bruno, ‘Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern’, in: Critical Inquiry Volume 30, Number 2 Winter 2004, Chicago: University of Chicago press: 2004

Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria, Matters of care: speculative ethics in a more than human world, Minneapolis/ Londen: University of Minnesota Press, 2017

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

 

Affirmative conversation: A conversation technique we developed and practiced in experiments. The conditions are: what we put on the table belongs to both of us. We first listen and then add or complement what has been shared, we do not correct or criticize. What is on the table and the care for it, comes first. The intention or starting point of a conversation does not need to be the same as the outcome. There is no pressure to produce, we take our time. We can and must change our minds. We trust the path we take. We trust our own and the other’s intuition. Every conversation is an experiment, it might have a different result from what we expected. We try to have a positive and discerning attitude towards ourselves and our conversation partner(s), these could be any people, collectives or other beings. Developing this we were inspired by the socratic dialogue method and the concept of Affirmation by Rosi Braidotti. (Socratic Design, Braidotti) see also: thinking together. 

 

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

Schwab, Humberto, Socratic design: hoe we zelf het bestaan vormgeven, Leusden: ISVW uitgevers, 2021

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Attention: We are conditioned to appraise situations very quickly, produce general overviews, and take things at face value, all at the cost of significant details and deep understanding of continuous and entangled processes that make up this world. Attention generates differentiation in every situation. (Stengers about Whitehead) We are particularly interested in paying close attention to the processes of entangling theory and practice, entangling life and concepts. (Barad) It is continuous, takes time and engenders wonder. 

 

Barad, Karen, Meeting the Universe halfway, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007

Stengers, Isabelle, Thinking with Whitehead: a free and wild creation of concepts, translated by Michael Chase, Harvard University Press, 2011

 

Collectivity: A tiny we hopefully growing into an extended we. An antidote for hyper-individualism, competitive culture, capitalism, antidemocratic tendencies, xenophobia, inequality. Works excellently in combination with a generous attitude and trust, positivity, attention, shared engagement, delights, friendship, openness, time and humour.

 

Concepts: Concepts are ways to describe, represent or define things, they are also ‘metaphysical constructions’ that define how we think and solve problems. (Deleuze) Creating concepts is therefore important in practicing philosophy. Concepts have a plasticity in our use of them. (Bal) We use many theoretical concepts and try to use various concepts for similar issues, trying to approach our experiments from many directions, discourses and disciplines. This flexibility is an affirmative critique on scientific standardisations. In our fiction, we give concepts a life of their own, to show they are living entities with actual influences. See also: doing 

 

Bal, Mieke, Travelling concepts in the humanities. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2002

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guatari, What is Philosophy?, translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchill, London and New York: Verso Books, 2013

 

Conversation: Everything is a conversation. Conversation is always an investment in the other, be it another human or any other being or thing. A conversation is not an interview, it is always an act of listening to the other(s), giving attention, speaking from what you know, feel, experience. It is fine to talk hesitantly, to think at the same time. In conversations you develop and create together. We all should do it more. Life would be so much better.  see: affirmative conversation; thinking together

 

Doing: Instead of only thinking. To create a practice instead of a theory, or a discourse. 

 

Ethics: To do the right thing. Generosity implies the need for an ethical perspective. Generous ethical attitudes and approaches, tools, techniques, methods and habits can be developed in ongoing conversations. Ethics can be directed by an orientation or by a navigation tool. To be ethical is to embrace differences and potentials in yourself and others. To cut off the force of becoming is to be unethical. (Braidotti)

 

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

 

Exercise: Exercising is an instrument for getting better at something; exercising is generating (a) practice. To do and then do it again (and again). We do this with the aim of getting the hang of it, getting used to it, of familiarizing ourselves, and of sometimes changing ourselves. (Oliveros) It is a repetition with differences. (Deleuze) For us, the intention is to exercise in the direction of becoming more generous. This is never a smooth path, always messy. (Puig de la Bellacasa) 

 

Deleuze, Gilles, Difference and repetition, Translated by Paul Patton, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014

Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria, Matters of care: speculative ethics in a more than human world, Minneapolis/ Londen: University of Minnesota Press, 2017

Oliveros, Pauline, Quantum Listening, London: Ignota Books, 2022

 

Experimental setup: The way we use and install our tools for doing experiments. In traditional science, these setups are isolated, in order to not be contaminated from the outside. (Stengers) The expectation within science is that the experimental setup must guarantee the possibility of repetition without difference. We think like many others, this is impossible. (Latour) Our experimental setups reveal flaws, contaminations, and surprise emergencies. To us, the tissue is always the issue, therefore experiments are embedded in a multitude of entanglements.  See also: tissue 

 

Latour, Bruno & Steve Woolgar, Laboratory life: the construction of a scientific fact, translator unknown, Princeton University Press, 1986

Stengers, Isabelle & Tobie Nathan, Doctors and healers, translated by Stephen Muecke, Cambridge/ Medford: Polity Press, 2018

 

Experimenting: Not quite like the scientific experiment with its protocols and hypotheses. We often start out with an intuition, testing its potential. (Deleuze, Hayles)  Because we are orienting ourselves with what we call generosity, everything might be an experiment, to find out not only if we are on the right track, but also to develop a better sense of what generosity might be or encompass. It involves trying out all kinds of techniques. (Stengers on Whitehead) See also: humor

 

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guatari, What is Philosophy?, translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchill, London and New York: Verso Books, 2013

Hayles, N. Katherine, Unthought. The power of the cognitive nonconscious, Chicago: UCP, 2017

Stengers, Isabelle, Thinking with Whitehead: a free and wild creation of concepts, translated by Michael Chase, Harvard University Press, 2011

 

Event: The simple explanation of events is: a happening taking place. But within the tissue of reality it turns out that this is something which happens all the time. When reading Stengers’ engagement with Alfred North Whitehead’s processual philosophy, we felt a moment of recognition when we read about events as being the continuous translations, shifts, transitions that take place in one moment of reality. It is almost impossible to experience everything in that moment, everything that is going on. We can only access what happens at any given moment by being as attentive as possible. What do we experience now, in this moment, what do we hear, see, feel, know? 

 

Stengers, Isabelle, Thinking with Whitehead: a free and wild creation of concepts, translated by Michael Chase, Harvard University Press, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulation: In many contemporary philosophies, fabulation is seen as a powerful tool. (LeGuin) Telling stories can put change in motion, it can transfer knowledge to new generations, by letting the unheard be heard, by giving a voice to those who were erased from history or not even mentioned from the beginning.(Hartman, Haraway) Fictional stories about possible futures can be a motivating instrument. If we want to make the world a more generous place, telling stories about generosity can be a strong tool. To resist only focusing on the rational or the cognitive value of arguments, stories can also touch upon the imagination, the intuition, the senses and our desires. A powerful tool indeed.

 

LeGuin, Ursula, The carrier bag theory of fiction, London: Ignota Books, 2020

Haraway, Donna, Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene, Durham and London: DUP, 2016

Haraway, Donna, ‘SF: Speculative Fabulation and String Figures’ in: The book of Books: dOCUMENTA (13). Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012

Hartman, Saidiya, ‘Venus in two acts', in: Small Axe, number 26 (Volume 12, Number 2), June 2008, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

 

Failing: Is inherent in experiments and creation and therefore important. Failing is part of any process of learning, practicing and developing. Failing is not dualist – it is not the opposite of succeeding. Often it is not clear where one failed or succeeded. To put emphasis on the importance of failing, and the unexpected that often arises with it, we called one of our threads ‘to explore the muddy road’. See also: humor

 

Generosity: We don’t know exactly what this is. For us it is an attitude and an orientation, we have strong intuitions about it. 

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Humour: A way to have fun in what we are doing, a mode to alter the tone in a conversation, to shift gears, and also, an open attitude towards the world and ourselves. It does not have to be conceptualized, but can certainly be used as a method or tool for storytelling. (Haraway) To have humour, to take oneself with a pinch of salt, as we say in Dutch, referring to self-deprecation is necessary, in order to be open to the unexpected. The outcome of an experiment should always be taken with a bit of humour, to be able to see the lessons that failing teaches us. (Whitehead, Stengers) Humour can open up the presuppositions or even the ground principles of the experimenter. + 1000 aura. 

 

Haraway, Donna, ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, In: Feminist Studies Vol. 14, No. 3. 1988

Haraway, Donna, Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene, Durham and London: DUP, 2016

Stengers, Isabelle, Thinking with Whitehead: a free and wild creation of concepts, translated by Michael Chase, Harvard University Press, 2011

 

Intuition: Always trust your intuition and the intuition of your collaborator(s). Intuition is our route to a plane of immanence (Deleuze), the start of every creative process. Intuition is an important way of knowing; it is connected to unconscious cognition (Hayles) and embodied experiences. It encompasses what is in the moment. A way to think from within and with the tissue. 

 

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guatari, What is Philosophy?, translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchill, London and New York: Verso Books, 2013

Hayles, N. Katherine, Unthought. The power of the cognitive nonconscious, Chicago: UCP, 2017

 

Iteration: This is an experimental process we value, the doing again, of trying out, following our intuition, being in a flow, stepping back, looking, learning, adjusting, trying again, failing. (Rheinberger) It’s not a linear process. Messiness cannot be avoided. (Puig de la Bellacasa)

 

Schwab, Michael (ed.), ‘Forming and being formed: Hans-Jörg Rheinberger in conversation with Michael Schwab ’ in: Experimental Systems Future Knowledge in Artistic Research, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2013

Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria, Matters of care: speculative ethics in a more than human world, Minneapolis/ Londen: University of Minnesota Press, 2017

 

Knotting: what we wanted to do with the threads. Threads are not only crossing or woven together, they form knots, they touch. And these knots are events, things we did: having conversations with each other and others, visiting exhibitions, reading texts; and things we made: texts, podcasts, drawings, poems, films. We try to connect elements which are sometimes unconnected. But also the other way around: we detect which threads are involved in the event we had, which threads intermingled and entangled. There exists a huge variety of knots, materially and symbolically, as we learned in the library at the Textile Museum in Tilburg, and they are very much connected to cultural frameworks. But for us, the knot is not only a technique of entanglement, it is a poetic thing. It entangles threads in order to understand the event as coming together in a certain way. See also: Event

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Methods: In academia methods are working models attached to discourses, institutions and disciplines. Methods are often both rigid and disciplining. We try to take methods out of their disciplinary realm, and use them in combination with other instruments and techniques. We use methods from different disciplines and also from artistic practices. For us, methods are more plastic. They can be altered through their practicing. 

 

Navigation tool: Often a concept that can be used to point out a direction or a path. It is also a concept to think with. (Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti) Our navigation tool orientates us towards generosity. A navigation tool can also function as a detection tool, to make (hidden) elements appear in a text, (art)work, conversation or situation. (Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti) For example, Laure Prouvost does not literally mention generosity in her artwork, but by examining it with generosity (the concept used as a navigation tool), this element floats to the surface and gives us new ways to interpret and think further. A navigation tool helps you to stay directed to what is actually important, to your orientation. For us, obviously, this tool is generosity. 

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Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guatari, What is Philosophy?, translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchill, London and New York: Verso Books, 2013

 

Open-Heartedness: An attitude that asks us to wear our hearts on our sleeves. It takes bravery. We show the process of developing our practice, not only the clean end product. Our failures, our mistakes, our hesitations and how we change our minds are part of our embodied practice. This is not an accepted or expected procedure for working, which normally presupposes rationalization, objectification and clear-cut results. For us, the separation between professional and personal, between work and private life, between business and ethics, is a false legitimation in order to act without empathy, care, generosity and ethics. Open-Heartedness is a generous attitude that refuses these artificial separations.

 

Re-learning: Instead of Unlearning. Unlearning is aimed at undoing the systematic learning processes we have grown up with in schools, institutes and other communities. More concretely the conditioning we are faced with from our childhood onwards. The aim here is to alter these existing structures by learning new habits, trying to make them more democratic, inclusive, healthy, and so on. It implies that habits can be taught and unlearned. In Unlearning exercises, a book published by Casco Art Institute, unlearning is understood as doing things differently, demonstrating it is possible to bypass normative structures and practices. It is a way to make changes from bottom to top.

Re-learning instead departs from the idea that the programming cannot completely be undone, but it can be rewired. We can retrace the ways in which we learned things and change them from within new situations, new frameworks and with different questions and perspectives. Again and again. In the brain new connections can be made, plasticity is possible. It takes time however for changes to become habits, for the neurons in the brain to be really engrained. Old connections will eventually become less deep, but never fully disappear.  Re-learning is important because the world is continuously changing, remember: The tissue is the issue. 

 

Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss, Yolande van der Heide, Liz Allan, Unlearning exercises. Amsterdam Valiz/ Utrecht Casco, 2008

 

Situatedness: Derives from Donna Haraway’s concept of ‘situated knowledges’, which calls for awareness to the fact that all knowledge is situated, coming from some-body, some-where. To acknowledge situatedness is to resist and oppose the God-trick. Speaking from no-where with no-body is still common in many academic disciplines. This is an important feminist critique of knowledge production that we cherish and understand as something that must be practiced and spread. Our notion of ‘the tissue is the issue’ means to be situated. 

 

Haraway, Donna ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, In: Feminist Studies Vol. 14, No. 3. 1988

 

Techniques: Techniques are not the same as methods. Techniques develop during processes of making, experimenting, doing and exercising. You learn while doing, and the learning is also the learning of a technique, often in relation to a specific tool. (Ingold) It is never set, never ‘forever’. A technique is always particular, personal, embodied, and entangled. (Manning & Massumi) It is situated in that sense.

 

Massumi, Brian & Erin Manning, Thought in the act: passages in the ecology of experience, Durham and London: DUP, 2014

Ingold, Tim, Making. Archeology Anthropology Art and Architecture, London: Routledge, 2013

 

Thinking Together: A specific kind of affirmative conversation in which thinking is developed. (Braidotti) It is a mutual process. Donna Haraway calls this: Becoming with and Puig the Bellacasa develops this further into: Thinking with care. Thinking together is the process of the development of thought, before it becomes concrete and stylized. The outcome is not preconceived. (Socratic Design) Therefore there can be quite some hesitations, many cut-off sentences and changes of direction in our conversations. We open-heartedly share this in our podcasts and other publications. 

 

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria, Matters of care: speculative ethics in a more than human world, Minneapolis/ Londen: University of Minnesota Press, 2017

Schwab, Humberto, Socratic design: hoe we zelf het bestaan vormgeven, Leusden: ISVW uitgevers, 2021

 

Threads: In Dutch there is this saying: ’follow the red thread’, which means follow what you think is important or crucial in a story, a process, a complicated matter. We decided to name 9 threads, for us to follow in our quest for care, and later generosity. We like the materiality of threads and have played with woolen ones to visualise how they might be used in knotting and weaving. In other words how and when they cross, entangle, knot when we do something. See the legend to learn more. 

 

Tissue: This is what we are calling the issue. We assume everything is connected, interwoven, entangled. We focus on events and situations, as they are the concrete manifestations of what we are calling the tissue. It can be like the skin organ, and while we were reflecting on it it turned out it can be connected to sedimentation, resemble  a rhizome, or point at a cognitive assemblage, a genealogy, a discourse. 

We used the image of a weave (tissue) on our website to reflect our developments in the grounding phase of our practice. The tissue here is a representation of a cartography, a weave pattern, and infrastructure of change. 

 

Tools: Instruments we use to do experiments or to work on our practice. They are also developed by doing. Tools do not define the experiment. Tools need practice and collaboration. They also work differently in each situation. (Ingold) Some of our tools are: the rack for filming the table, microphones, disco-ball, bubbles, coffee, editing program, drawing material, exhibitions, books. 

 

Ingold, Tim, Making. Archeology Anthropology Art and Architecture, London: Routledge, 2013

 

Walking: Walking is a concrete way, more a technique, for having a conversation. It is also a metaphor for the path of thought we take in a conversation. (Deleuze & Guattari, Braidotti) Walking for us is not predefined, it is not a given route. We do have a direction, an orientation towards generosity. To get there we can take many routes and roads, get off track, get stuck on a muddy road or even reach a dead end. The weaving in our drawing was inspired by the idea of wandering while navigating. (Glissant)

 

Glissant, Édouard, Poetics of relation, Translated by Betsy Wing, The University of Michigan press: 2010

Braidotti, Rosi, The Posthuman, Cambridge, (UK)/ Malden (MA): Polity Books, 2013

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guatari, What is Philosophy?, translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Graham Burchill, London and New York: Verso Books, 2013

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