Mineral Aesthetics: On Inanimate Animation by Hester Reeve & Georgios Tsagdis

“The sex appeal of the inorganic,” was Walter Benjamin’s condensation of the logic that weaves together fashion’s attraction. At a moment of unprecedented planetary precariousness, when the need for new modes of cohabitation with the non-human calls on us urgently, we must consider this profound attraction that binds us not merely with other kingdoms of life, but with the inanimate. In this seminar, philosopher Georgios Tsagdis and artist Hester Reeve invite you to a dialogue on the animating potentialities of the inanimate. We will focus on exceptional and less exceptional stones and the ways in which our bodies and imaginations interface with their mineral form and matter. The point of departure for our discussion will be Roger Caillois’ The Writing of Stones (1985), which you are encouraged to read in anticipation of the seminar.

BIOS:

Hester Reeve is Reader in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Her practice encompasses live art, drawing, sculpture, poetry, philosophy and 'Dialogue' (as set out by David Bohm) and her work has been shown internationally including at former Randolph Street Gallery Chicago, LIVE Biennale Vancouver, BONE Performance Festival Switzerland, Tate Britain, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Halle G Vienna and, most recently, Nirox Sculpture Park, South Africa.

Georgios Tsagdis is a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University & Research and lecturer at Leiden University. He is founder of the eco-technical research collective Minor Torus. His essays have appeared in numerous international journals, including Parallax, Philosophy Today, Studia Phaenomenologica, Metodo, Footprint and Technophany. Among his recent editorials are: ‘Of Times: Arrested, Resigned, Imagined’ (International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2020), Derrida’s Politics of Friendship: Amity and Enmity (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and Bernard Stiegler: Memories of the Future (Bloomsbury, 2024).