In this paper we will relate the term «performance» to what, in different ways, can be considered the components of architecture: the project, the body of the dweller, the space itself, the virtual models. The different ways in which each of these elements can «perform» will be analysed in the paragraphs: (1) digital performalism, which redefines the form of the project with new tools; (2) bodies as performative agents in the architectural space; (3) architecture as a place for artistic performances, (...) which can be defined as a performed object, but also as a performing subject; (4) and finally, virtual space, where architecture finds many possibilities of expression, in relation to the bodily performance of the user. (shrink)

In this essay, I do not want to focus on performativity as such and understand it as an aesthetic expression; instead, I would like to illustrate how performativity takes on the role consequential to an aesthetic experience. Specifically, I want to highlight how aesthetic experience takes place in the spatial contexts of the city. In this regard, I want to define the aesthetic-practical-sensory relationship of the soma, understood as a paradigm of a living body, that is, a body that moves (...) and acts in space, by declining three historical moments that tell the story. I want to define three historical moments from the early twentieth century to the present through the soma-city relationship: 1) The first moment is inscribed in the emergence of the Baudelairian concept of the flâneur, a symbolic figure who introduces a relationship with the city characterized by a disenchanted gaze and a slow, wandering movement picked up, especially by Walter Benjamin in the Paris Passages; 2) The second moment is that of Situationism, in which Guy Debord introduces the concept of dérive, understood as an approach to the city marked by the experiential and emotional relationship; 3) The third and most recent moment concerns Richard Shusterman's embodiment of the somaesthetic exercise, in which the Avatar of the Man in Gold, enters into a relationship with the city, aspiring to reconnect urban spheres and not to a pure somaesthetic experience of the city. The last point to be made is that these three historical and aesthetic experience-based moments of the body in the city are marked by the body moving in space. In the case of the flâneur, the body wanders in an unresolved manner without a precise destination; in the case of the drift, the body is propelled by the many sensations and expressions of the city that are expressed through walking (urban Walkscapes); finally, in the case of the Man in Gold, there is a movement totally absorbed in the experience of places. (shrink)

Review of Keith Moser, Contemporary French Environmental Thought in the Post-COVID-19 Era (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature, 2022).

Review of Andrea Nicolini, Masochism. A Challenge for Ethics (Mimesis International, 2022).

The everyday sense of pragmatic involves ideas of sensible practice, cautious realism about current situations, flexibility allied to technical knowledge, and the prioritisation of what works, as opposed to unrealistic and damaging ideals. I argue against this technical and sensible flavour of pragmatism, pre-sent in many of its historical and contemporary versions. Pragmatism can be taken as technically-minded, realistic and practical, thereby avoiding the excesses of abstract ideologies. Instead, I will defend the thesis that pragmatism should be fantastic, in the (...) precise sense of metaphysically inventive. In making this latter argument, my main critical point will be against the metaphysically «quietist» version of pragmatism, in particular as defended by David Macarthur. My claim is counter-intuitive, since it seems to commit pragmatism to the forms of idealism that it has sought to criticise and escape. If metaphysics propose ideal pictures of the world, as opposed to detailed, local and evidence-based descriptions - allied to rigorous experimentation - then the fantasies of metaphysics are exactly what pragmatism should avoid. In response to this critical counter, I will argue that pragmatism should be metaphysically inventive because it cannot avoid being metaphysical. However, I also argue that it should be self-critical in its fantastic creativity. (shrink)

«Why has the examination of many different aspects of colour been a prominent feature in philosophy, to such an extent that the topic is worthy of a handbook?». This is the question that opens the editors’ introduction to The Routledge Handbook of Colour, whose imminent publication we are happy to announce here.

Christopher Norris is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. He worked on literary criticism, on the question of realism and antirealism in philosophy, on Derrida and deconstructionism and on the philosophy of science. In the past few years he has also authored several philosophical poems. In this issue we present two poems he wrote that are dedicated to color.

I outline five issues in philosophy of colour that deserve greater attention and provide skeletal frameworks for how future work on these topics could be carried out. The issues are: colour and metaphilosophy, colour and artistic practice, colour and virtual/augmented reality, colour and imagination, and colour and the predictive mind. Some of these issues have been a focus of important recent works. Thus, colour conjoined with each of metaphilosophy, artistic practice and imagination have all been examined in at least a (...) few recent publications – see below for references. It is clear, however, that these recent works are signals that there is much still to be done. By contrast, while at present there is a great deal of interest in the predictive mind, the intersection of colour and the predictive mind is vastly underexplored. This is despite the fact that the philosophy and science of colour are rather developed disciplines. Finally, while there have been some very important recent works on virtual and augmented reality, the significance of colour for these studies has yet to be examined. It is my hope that after reading this article readers are convinced not only that the philosophy of colour has a rich, recent history, but also a very bright future. (shrink)

This is the revised transcript of a conversation between Darko Suvin [DS] and Federico Pianzola [FP]. The topics discussed are many and the focus keeps zooming back and forth from the historical context of humanities vs. resurgent fascism to formal remarks on literature, theatre, utopia, narrative, and other themes. Particular emphasis is given to a reflection on the dialectical and constructivist approach deployed by Suvin in his works.

Does evolutionary theory have the potential to undermine morality? In his book The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce (2006) argues for a positive answer. He contends that an evolutionary account of morality would undermine moral judgements and lend support to moral scepticism. I offer a critique of Joyce’s argument. As it turns out, his case can be read in two different ways. It could be construed as an argument to establish a general scepticism about the justification of moral judgements. Or (...) it could be read as an argument that targets only a particular meta-ethical position, namely moral realism. My claim is that it fails on both interpretations. There is no reason to believe that evolutionary considerations undermine morality. (shrink)

This article presents some reflections on the concepts, terminology, and epistemological grounds of narrative theory. Our remarks are focused on the proposals advanced at the first RRN conference and they concern in particular two issues: the theoretical difference between classical and postclassical narratology and the paradigms of the contemporary debate. In the first part of the paper we focus on the definitional task of narrative theory; in the second part we describe the epistemology of and the theories built on two (...) opposite paradigms: the mimetic and the constructivist. Our conclusions highlight the continuity and the break points between contemporary theories, soliciting narratologists to answer to the many questions raised. (shrink)

This long conversation with Meir Sternberg focuses on some crucial points in narrative theory. Special attention is given, in the first part, to the historical evolution of narrative studies, as well as to the theoretical differences between different paradigms, form Aristotle, through French structuralism, to the present days; in the second part he centers on the explanation of his constructivist ant anti-mimetic model and on the difference with other approaches to narrative studies. Providing two fundamental arguments against what he calls (...) «objectivist approaches», he demonstrates the validity and the theoretical value of some of his most thought-provoking proposals, such as the Proteus Principle and the universals of narrative. Thanks to its explanatory power the interview constitutes a simple introduction to Sternberg’s functional-rhetorical approach and a glimpse at the editorial policy of the journal «Poetics Today». (shrink)

This is a brief report of the first conference organized in Fribourg by the Réseau Romand de Narratologie. The title of the conference was Redefinitons of the Sequence in Postclassical Narratology.

The analysis of Byzantine fault tolerance is a compelling riddle. In this position paper, we disprove the deployment of replication. In this paper we disprove that kernels and the World Wide Web are always incompatible.