Bruno Latour philosophe ? Les intervenants poursuivent leur dialogue sur la science, l’économie, l’art et la religion.

Session animée par Antoine Hennion, avec Isabelle Stengers, Didier Debaise, Bruno Karsenti, et Fabian Muniesa.

Archive vidéo de cette session : https://www.csi.minesparis.psl.eu/une-journee-avec-bruno-latour/apres-une-lecture-de-lenquete-sur-les-modes-dexistence/

Programme complet : https://www.csi.minesparis.psl.eu/une-journee-avec-bruno-latour/

Quatre journées sur l’Enquête se sont tenues à l'Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), du 30 novembre au 3 décembre 2022. Ces rencontres s’inscrivent dans le projet des « reprises » possibles de l’Enquête. Sa mise en pratique a donc été privilégié. Il s'agissait à fois d’explorer les propositions du livre (durant les matinées autour principalement des modes suivants: [REF], [HAB], [MET] et [REL] dans la mesure où ils étaient mobilisés dans les ateliers des après-midi) et de les engager autour de terrains (« Ecologie des invisibles »; « Terrains toxiques » et « L’Enquête à l’épreuve des pratiques terrestres »). L’idée qui a guidé l’organisation de ces journées est que l'Enquête est moins l’exposé d’une pensée générale qu’un ensemble de ressources pour diagnostiquer les poisons qui enveniment la plupart des modes d’expérience des modernes, et une précieuse boîte à outils de problématisation des situations dans lesquelles nous sommes engagé.e.s. Nous avons proposé à certain.e.s participant.e.s de prendre en charge ces ateliers, c’est-à-dire de les introduire à partir d’une situation spécifique, ensuite travaillée collectivement. Les participant.e.s furent invités à alimenter ces situations en les mettant en relation à d’autres situations, à d’autres ressources possibles.

Mercredi 30 novembre 2022, après-midi (14h-17h)

Introduction générale

Reprises possibles (D. Debaise, V. Despret, A. Hennion, P. Pignarre, F. Louzeau, I. Stengers)

Discussion collective sur les reprises de l’Enquête

Jeudi 1er décembre 2022, matin (9h - 12h30)

Lectures et reprises du texte autour de [MET] et [REL] (Introduit par D. Brosteaux et A. Mortiaux)

Jeudi après-midi (14h - 17h30)

Atelier « Ecologie des invisibles » (organisé par F. Louzeau et K. Solhdju)

Vendredi 2 décembre 2022, matin (9h - 12h30)

Lectures et reprises du texte autour de [REF] et [HAB] (Introduit par K. Hendrickx et F. Thoreau)

Vendredi après-midi (14h - 17h30)

Atelier « Terrains toxiques » (organisé par B. Zitouni et C. Gamaglia)

Samedi 3 décembre 2022 (9h - 12h30)

Atelier « L’enquête à l’épreuve des pratiques terrestres » (organisé par D. Debaise et I. Stengers)

DIDIER-DEBAISE-MAI-22-EME.mp4 from Bruno Latour on Vimeo.

Thanks to France Culture, we now have the chance to have a fairly comprehensible general introduction to the Enquête sur les modes d'existence (EME). It is four hours with Adèle Van Reeth (in French) :

Episode 1: The Plurality of Modes (La pluralité des modes) - March 21, 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-lundi-21-mars-2022

Episode 2: The practice of science and the question of nature (La pratique des sciences et la question de la nature) - March 22, 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-mardi-22-mars-2022

Episode 3: The inquiry and the anthropological diplomacy it allows (l’enquête et la diplomatie anthropologique qu’elle permet) - March 23, 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/vers-la-fin-de-l-universel

Episode 4: The question of political truth and the intrusion of Gaia (la question de la vérité politique et l’intrusion de Gaia) - March 24, 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-jeudi-24-mars-2022

Grâce à France Culture, nous avons maintenant la chance d’avoir une introduction générale assez compréhensible à l’Enquête sur les modes d’existence (EME). Il s’agit de quatre heures avec Adèle Van Reeth :

Episode 1 : la pluralité des modes - 21 mars 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-lundi-21-mars-2022

Episode 2 : la pratique des sciences et la question de la nature - 22 mars 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-mardi-22-mars-2022

Episode 3 : l’enquête et la diplomatie anthropologique qu’elle permet - 23 mars 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/vers-la-fin-de-l-universel

Episode 4 : la question de la vérité politique et l’intrusion de Gaia - 24 mars 2022.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/les-chemins-de-la-philosophie-du-jeudi-24-mars-2022

Extrait du message envoyé aux participants :

Nous partons du principe que l’Enquête fournit d’incroyables matériaux de problématisation des situations qui forment notre présent, qu’elle donne une perspective absolument singulière sur l’expérience des modernes et qu’elle permet d'en cerner les poisons et les dangers. L’Enquête, lors de sa publication, avait été portée par l’espoir de mettre en oeuvre des situations collectives où pourraient se transmettre et s’inventer d’autres manières d’articuler les modes d’existence. Malheureusement, le projet est resté, pour un temps, en suspens. Nous voudrions voir avec vous comment reprendre l’Enquête et si une telle reprise à un sens et à quelles conditions. Nous ne chercherons pas à en faire une lecture interne, à en déployer la logique, à en mettre en évidence les axes, mais nous voudrions la mettre au travail, voir le type de ressources qu’elle donne en situation. La journée que nous organisons se veut avant tout préparatoire. Nous voudrions voir avec vous comment pourraient s’articuler des reprises de l’Enquête. Nous l’avons imaginée de la manière suivante: chacun choisit deux ou trois passages de l’Enquête qui lui permettent de situer le type de reprise qu’il veut faire importer et, brièvement, pendant 10-15 minutes, il situe cette reprise en en fournissant le cadre et en lui donnant sa consistance. Une grande part sera donnée aux discussions qui suivront chaque présentation et qui permettront de s’approprier, collectivement, cette possibilité de reprise. Afin d’organiser la journée et de distribuer au mieux la parole, nous vous demandons de bien vouloir nous envoyer pour le vendredi 11 février les citations que vous avez choisies afin que nous puissions les partager lors de la journée et éventuellement regrouper certaines présentations selon les proximités des passages choisis. 

Didier Debaise, Bruno Latour, Frédéric Louzeau

Adresse : Collège des Bernardins, 20 rue de Poissy, 75005 Paris, salle E (sous-sol)

Horaire de la journée :
9h30 Accueil (café)
10h00 Commencement des travaux
Milieu de journée : déjeuner dans le quartier
Fin prévue vers 17h

Liste des participants :

Juliette Woitchik (Bruxelles)
Elsa Maury (Bruxelles)
Alice Mortiaux (Bruxelles)
Philippe Pignarre (Paris)
Antoine Hennion (Paris)
Isabelle Stengers (Paris)
François Thoreau (Liège)
Daniel Bogner (Fribourg)
Olric de Gélis (Paris)
Frédéric Louzeau (Paris)
Didier Debaise (Bruxelles)

A good occasion to rekindle your interest in the empirical extension of the AIME project, this time thanks to the virtual book launch "We have always been medieval" https://t.co/aDCX3xhP5m June 30th 7pm (England time).

— BrunoLatour (@BrunoLatourAIME) June 9, 2020

IAS Journal issue launch: We Have Always Been Medieval-Bruno Latour and the Premodern

30 June 2020, 7:00 pm–8:30 pm

Miri Rubin (Queen Mary), Sarah Salih (King's College) and Jan Miernowski, (University of Wisconsin and University of Warsaw). Chaired by Robert Mills (UCL).

Panel Discussion to Launch Romanic Review 111.1 (2020): Category Crossings: Bruno Latour and Medieval Modes of Existence. Guest Editors: Marilynn Desmond (Binghamton University), Noah Guynn (UC Davis)

Contributors: Anke Bernau, Emma Campbell, Marilynn Desmond, Mary Franklin-Brown, Jane Gilbert, Miranda Griffin, Noah Guynn, Catherine Keen, Luke Sunderland. Afterword by Graham Harman.

From We Have Never Been Modern to An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Bruno Latour’s philosophical project has long been conceived as a critique of ‘Modernity’, starting with Enlightenment dualisms (nature/culture, words/things, sacred/secular) and extending to the Cyber Age’s promise of unmediated access to knowledge (what Latour calls ‘Double Click’). The contributors to this volume consider the relevance of this critique for the study of the medieval premodern and ask how Latour’s call for a renewal of metaphysics – and for a diplomatic encounter between the various modes of existence – might be used to defamiliarize ‘Modern’ intellectual habits. The essays assembled here examine a range of medieval artifacts and genres, including travelogues, historiography, diplomacy, romances, manuscripts, encyclopedias, bestiaries, theology, and theatre.

Free registration

URL to access the event (via Microsoft Team Live)

Organiser : Jane Gilbert j.gilbert@ucl.ac.uk

Location : IAS Forum, Ground floor, South Wing, UCL London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom

Sources : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/events/2020/jun/virtual-event-ias-journal-issue-launch-we-have-always-been-medieval-bruno-latour-and

“We Have Always Been Medieval”. It's comforting to see that a new publication making good use of the AIME project, comes from specialists of the Middle Age https://t.co/a6OV0aOqJb. A great boost to go on with the Inquiry. (And thanks Graham Harman for his conclusion.)

— BrunoLatour (@BrunoLatourAIME) May 9, 2020

Special Issue Editor(s): Marilynn Desmond, Noah D. Guynn Bruno Latour’s philosophical project has long been conceived as a critique of modernity, starting with enlightenment dualisms (e.g., nature/culture, words/things, sacred/secular) and extending to the cyber age’s promise of unmediated access to knowledge (what Latour calls “Double Click”). Contributors to this special issue consider the relevance of this critique for the study of the medieval premodern and ask how Latour’s call for a renewal of metaphysics—and for a diplomatic encounter between the various modes of existence—might be used to defamiliarize modern intellectual habits.

Contributors: Anke Bernau, Emma Campbell, Marilynn Desmond, Mary Franklin-Brown, Jane Gilbert, Miranda Griffin, Noah D. Guynn, Graham Harman, Catherine Keen, Luke Sunderland.

ARTICLES :

We Have Always Been Medieval: Bruno Latour and Double Click, Metaphysics and Modernity Marilynn Desmond (Noah D. Guynn)

On the Trail of the Sibyl’s Mountain: Antoine de la Sale’s Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle (Miranda Griffin)

Form and/as Mode of Existence (Jane Gilbert)

Extracomunitario?: Networks and Brunetto Latini (Catherine Keen)

Fugitive Figures: On the Modes of Existence of Medieval Automata (Mary Franklin-Brown)

“Go Little Book”: The Matter of Troy and the Ecology of the Medieval Codex (Marilynn Desmond)

Visualizing Elemental Ontology in the Livre des propriétés des choses (Luke Sunderland)

Sound and Vision: Bruno Latour and the Languages of Philippe de Thaon’s Bestiaire (Emma Campbell)

Bruno Latour and the Loving Assumptions of [REL] (Anke Bernau)

Binocular Vision: Enchantment and Disenchantment, Metaphysics and Phenomenology on the Late Medieval Stage (Noah D. Guynn)

Response from a Quasi-Latourian (Graham Harman)

Sources :
https://www.dukeupress.edu/category-crossings
https://read.dukeupress.edu/romanic-review/issue/111/1

In the world of research, you have to be a little patient...

Presses Universitaires de Liège have recently published the results of an interdisciplinary research seminar entitled The Call of Fragile Entities: Inquiring with the modes of existence of Bruno Latour, edited by Ariane D'Hoop et François Thoreau.

Back in June 2014 we had been invited to the last debriefing session during which all the contributors provided us with an update on their research. We then combined the work done into a collaborative text, which we then included in our catalogue during the Reset Modernity! exhibition.

This book presents several types of inquiry. We come across, pell-mell, projects championed by architects, a psychiatric care facility undergoing renovation, the development of an algorithmic surveillance system, a battleground between British miners and police forces, a winegrower struggling with the consequences of elusive climate change, and even an artist seeking to portray the manufacture of images as evidence during a trial for genocide.

The common feature running through all these inquiries are the uncertainties about the entities involved. What are their gradients of reality? How can we characterise the quality of their existence? Specifically, why do these entities matter and what difference do they make? Whether the situation involves learning processes automated by machines, the layout of a space that makes it conducive to care, or the gradual rise of architectural forms, the inquiry is enhanced an attentiveness paid to these entities and their fragile existences. To tackle these vital questions, this book builds on the inquiry proposed by Bruno Latour in the Inquiry into the Modes of Existence. The modes of existence allow for all kinds of unexpected explorations. They gradually lead to being able to discern some of the forces at work, that could otherwise be so easily overlooked. Each contribution proposes, in an experimental manner, ways to define the issues that matter in each situation. Along the way, we must be careful not to trample on the paths taken by these entities when populating their respective worlds and contributing to making them habitable places.

Retour sur les travaux d’EME, un beau travail édité par François Thoreau & Ariane d’Hoop « L’appel des entités fragiles - Enquêter avec les modes d’existence » aux Presses universitaires de Liège. Tout est dans le « avec ».

— BrunoLatour (@BrunoLatourAIME) 29 mai 2018

[Translation: "The Call of Fragile Entities - Inquiring with modes of existence". This superb volume edited by François Thoreau & Ariane d'Hoop, and published by Presses Universitaires de Liège offers an opportunity to look back at the work done during AIME (hint : it's all in the "with").]

PS: Blog post kindly translated by Cormac O'Keeffe

Resources:

Presses Universitaires de Liège. L’Appel des entités fragiles: Enquêter avec les modes d'existence de Bruno Latour. URL: http://www.presses.uliege.be/jcms/c_19827/lappel-des-entites-fragiles

AIME Seminar in Bruxelles - 26 June 2014 - Results. http://modesofexistence.org/seminar-ulg-results/

Dans le monde de la recherche, il faut savoir être patient...

Voici publié aux Presses Universitaires de Liège le résultat d'un séminaire de recherche interdisciplinaire: L’Appel des entités fragiles: Enquêter avec les modes d'existence de Bruno Latour, sous la direction d'Ariane D'Hoop et François Thoreau.

Nous avions été invités en juin 2014 à la dernière séance bilan durant laquelle l'ensemble des intervenants nous avait soumis l'état d'avancement de leur recherche. Nous avions par la suite intégrer un texte collectif dans notre catalogue d'exposition Reset Modernity!.

Ce livre relaie plusieurs situations d’enquête. On y croise, pêle-mêle, des projets défendus par des architectes, un lieu de soins psychiatriques en réaménagement, la conception d’un dispositif algorithmique de surveillance, le terrain d’une lutte opposant les mineurs britanniques aux forces de police, un viticulteur aux prises avec les conséquences de l’insaisissable dérèglement climatique, ou encore une artiste cherchant à rendre compte de la fabrique d’images comme pièces à conviction lors d’un procès pour génocide.

Toutes ces enquêtes ont pour point commun d’être traversées par des incertitudes sur les entités qui y sont mobilisées. Quels sont leurs gradients de réalité ? Comment qualifier leur qualité d’existence? En quoi ces entités importent-elles dans tel cas précis et quelle différence y font-elles ? Que la situation mette en jeu des processus d’apprentissages automatisés par des machines, les aménagements d’un lieu qui le rendent propice au soin, ou encore l’avènement progressif de formes architecturales, l’enquête s’enrichit à être attentive à de telles entités et à leurs existences fragiles. Pour aborder ces questions vitales, le présent ouvrage s’appuie sur la proposition d’enquête formulée par Bruno Latour dans l’Enquête sur les modes d’existence. Les modes d’existence permettent toutes sortes d’explorations inattendues. Ils amènent à discerner progressivement certaines des puissances d’agir en jeu, qui pourraient si facilement être négligées. Chaque contribution propose, de façon expérimentale, des manières de qualifier les enjeux qui comptent dans chaque situation. Chemin faisant, il s’agit de se rendre attentifs à ne pas piétiner la façon dont ces entités peuplent leurs mondes respectifs et contribuent à en faire des lieux habitables.

Retour sur les travaux d’EME, un beau travail édité par François Thoreau & Ariane d’Hoop « L’appel des entités fragiles - Enquêter avec les modes d’existence » aux Presses universitaires de Liège. Tout est dans le « avec ».

— BrunoLatour (@BrunoLatourAIME) 29 mai 2018

Ressources:

Presses Universitaires de Liège. L’Appel des entités fragiles: Enquêter avec les modes d'existence de Bruno Latour. URL: http://www.presses.uliege.be/jcms/c_19827/lappel-des-entites-fragiles

Séminaire eme à Bruxelles - 26 juin 2014 - Résultats. http://modesofexistence.org/seminar-ulg-results/

'In AIME, ch 15, p. 421, the English version of the last sentence of the first paragraph is:

"It thus seems essential to her to hold fast to the suppleness—that is, the contingency—of inequalities, never to give them more strength, durability, solidity than what they have acquired through those provisionally irreversible decisions, never to refuse to transform the masters into inhabitants of a transcendent level that would dominate the poor wretches “below” for real."

The last "never" struck me as contrary to what Bruno Latour has always argued, so I checked the French original on the web. It reads:

"Il lui paraît donc essentiel de toujours conserver aux inégalités leur souplesse, c’est-à-dire leur contingence ; de ne jamais leur donner plus de force, de durabilité, de dureté que celles qu’elles ont acquises par ces décisions provisoirement irréversibles ; de refuser de transformer les maîtres en habitants d’un niveau transcendant qui dominerait pour de bon celui des pauvres hères."

Thus the second "never" should be deleted and the English version should be as follows:

"It thus seems essential to her to hold fast to the suppleness—that is, the contingency—of inequalities, never to give them more strength, durability, solidity than what they have acquired through those provisionally irreversible decisions, to refuse to transform the masters into inhabitants of a transcendent level that would dominate the poor wretches “below” for real."'

Although this 52-minute video can not capture everything that has happened during this week (you can also have a look at the resulting 'Specbook'), it particularly reflects the negotiation process at work during this intense week of discussion and writing.

Thanks to Agathe Nieto for her work, as well as to all participants in the workshops and to the co-inquirers of AIME.

Who are the new agents of history? Where do they reside? And finally, in which period of history do they settle themselves?

The Shanghai Project Root Researcher Bruno Latour and his team propose to organize a set of workshops called “Reset Modernity! Shanghai Perspective” from 4-7 May 2017. They will concentrate on a set of issues that modernity encounters at a time of deep ecological mutation, emphasizing a comparative perspective between Europe and China. The four-day program will take place at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, and use documentations assembled specifically for the discussions, which speak to conceptions of science, our understanding of territory and sovereignty, and handling the role of technology.

The discussion will start by first asking the European party (proposed by Bruno Latour and his team) to present how they go about resetting their view of modernity. Then the workshop will allow the Chinese party to “test” the set of European propositions as extensively as possible. It is already obvious that none of the formulations offered by the European party would make much sense within the Chinese context. It is exactly this complex process of translating and negotiating differences that the team wishes to launch. The Chinese participants are encouraged to bring documents, examples, sites, situations, and concepts to light, thus sharing a different view of what constitutes modernity.

The purpose of these workshops is to embrace the process of reassessment to compare how European and Chinese thinkers, artists, intellectuals, activists, and officials can handle new situations. The goal is not to reopen the tired cliché of an East/West comparison, but to use the formidable trial of ecological mutation to compare how two cultures react and furthermore, how they reassess their own trajectories of modernization. Cooperating with two highly complex civilizations that were initially shocked by various forms of modernizations and then, more recently, endured an enormous counter shock as a result of the new climatic regime, offers an ideal situation for productive encounters.

Beginning with Bruno Latour’s keynote on the evening of 4 May 2017, workshops the following 3 days will consist of an introductory session, roundtable, and group discussions. To attend the workshop as a non-participatory audience member, please RSVP at exhibition@shanghai-project.org including name, contact, language and occupation. To register for the group discussion open call, please download the Reset Modernity! Application Form and send it to exhibition@shanghai-project.org.

Reset Modernity! Shanghai Perspective Program Keynote by Bruno Latour
May 4, 19:00 – 20:30
As an opening event of the Reset Modernity! Shanghai Perspective Workshop series, Bruno Latour will present his new research, dealing with ecological mutation. On this occasion, the motivations for the workshops on the following days will be explained, as well as what is to be understood with the notion of a Modernity “Reset.”

Please click here for the registration:

External Resources:

http://www.shanghai-project.org/event/workshop-bruno-latour/

http://www.shanghai-project.org/event/workshop-day-1-reset-modernity-bruno-latour/

http://www.shanghai-project.org/event/workshop-day-2-reset-modernity-bruno-latour/

http://www.shanghai-project.org/event/workshop-day-3-reset-modernity-bruno-latour/

https://vimeo.com/user19188868

What makes De Vries' introduction to BL so useful is that he gives equal time to the empirical work & philosophy something never done so far

Description

Bruno Latour is among the most important figures in contemporary philosophy and social science. His ethnographic studies have revolutionized our understanding of areas as diverse as science, law, politics and religion. To facilitate a more realistic understanding of the world, Latour has introduced a radically fresh philosophical terminology and a new approach to social science, ‘Actor-Network Theory’.

In seminal works such as Laboratory Life, We Have Never Been Modern and An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Latour has outlined an alternative to the foundational categories of ‘modern’ western thought Ð particularly its distinction between society and nature Ð that has major consequences for our understanding of the ecological crisis and of the role of science in democratic societies.

Latour’s ‘empirical philosophy’ has evolved considerably over the past four decades. In this lucid and compelling book, Gerard de Vries provides one of the first overviews of Latour’s work. He guides readers through Latour’s main publications, from his early ethnographies to his more recent philosophical works, showing with considerable skill how Latour’s ideas have developed.

This book will be of great value to students and scholars attempting to come to terms with the immense challenge posed by Latour’s thought. It will be of interest to those studying philosophy, anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, and almost all other branches of the social sciences and humanities.

Table of Contents

Preface 1 Empirical philosophy
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Making Paris visible
1.3 The path towards 'empirical philosophy'
1.4 The power of addition
2 Science studies
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
2.3 An anthropologist visits a laboratory
2.4 Anatomy of a scientific paper
2.5 Realism in and about science
3 Science and society
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Pasteurization of France: War and Peace of Microbes
3.3 The Pasteurization of France: Irreductions
3.4 Another turn after the social turn
3.5 The turn to ontology
4 Another social science
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Deploying what makes up the social
4.3 Deploying how the social is stabilized
4.4 Shifting focus
5 A philosophy for our time
5.1 Introduction
5.2 We have never been modern
5.3 The modern Constitution
5.4 Relationism
5.5 Cosmopolitics
6 A comparative anthropology of the Moderns
6.1 Introduction
6.2 A research protocol for a comparative anthropology
6.3 'Empirical philosophy' redefined
6.4 Inquiring 'modes of existence'
6.5 The modern experience: fifteen modes
6.6 Facing 'Gaia'
7 Bibliography
Index

University of Cambridge
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH)
SG1 & SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge

September 14 sees the launch of a major new book by the philosopher Gerard de Vries on the work of Bruno Latour. To mark the event, CRASSH is hosting a talk by Professor Latour, followed by the launch of the book and a moderated conversation between him and Professor de Vries. Afterwards, there will be a drinks reception in the Atrium of the Alison Richard building. All welcome, but it’s important to register beforehand.

About the speakers

Bruno Latour is a distinguished philosopher and an anthropologist. From 1982 to 2006, he was a professor at the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Paris and has held visiting professorships at UCSD , the London School of Economics and in the History of Science department at Harvard

Since 2006 he has been professor at Sciences Po, Paris and is now director of the Sciences Po médialab and Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. Recent works include Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory, Our Modern Cult of the Factish Gods, Rejoicing – Or the Torments of Religious Speech and An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. He curated the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe exhibitions ICONOCLASH (2002), Making Things Public (2005) and, recently, Reset Modernity! He has also co-edited the accompanying catalogues, which are published by MIT Press.

Gerard de Vries is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam. From 2005 to 2015 he was a member of the Council of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, an independent think tank of the Dutch government whose members include prominent social scientists, economists, and legal scholars.

A few tweets written by Bruno Latour before and after the event:

Reset Modernity! becomes a procedure to make operational the diplomatic encounters tested with AIME project, hence its limits @CRASSHlive.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 septembre 2016

Audience @CRASSHlive takes interest in BL proposition to reintroduce phusis to designate critical zones instead of nature left for the rest

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 15 septembre 2016

The object of the book and the author of the book share a podium @CRASSHlive things you can't do with white dead men pic.twitter.com/tsbCKTnZG7

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 15 septembre 2016

External Resources:

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26860

Reset Modernity! is an extended, on-going, field experiment, composed of 6 procedures and many different kind of works (art works, documents, etc), in order to reset a few of the instruments that allow us to register some of the confusing signals sent by the epoch.

We’d like to share with you information as well as get get feedback from visitors via Twitter.

We’d also like for you to make your contribution too (by "contribute" we mean something deeper and sustained than the usual "I like / dislike") by:

• Replying on Twitter to the tweets we wrote and that you can find in the list below (each relates to a procedure or a work displayed in our exhibition: just click on one of it to open it in Twitter and then to reply to it). In this case, everybody will be able to follow the whole conversation regarding one specific procedure or work.

See this example:

#ResetModernity! #C5
.@ArminLinke Whirlwind spans the distance with John Martin's #deluge: are you out or in the #spectacle? #Response-able?

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

@AIMEproject Cold shower when you realize this sublime whirlwind crosses sea so many refugees try. Speck of road hints to responsibility #c5

— Oliver Graf (@olivergraf) 18 mai 2016

or:

• Posting a new tweet, using the hashtags #ResetModernity! + the letter/number corresponding to each procedure & work (e.g., #ResetModernity! plus #A1 for the work Powers of Ten in the procedure A). These letters/numbers correspond to what you can/will find in the Field Book [you can find the the online English pdf version here] given to the visitors at the entrance of the exhibition space.

As a result, a selection of the tweets (and other excerpts from various critics, etc.) are included in our "live wall" which is displayed in the exhibition space - and also available at the following link :
http://medialab.github.io/RM-livewall/

Please find the first tweets we wrote below:

In #ResetModernity! exhibition we offer to #reset a few instruments that allow to register some of the signals sent by our postmodern epoch.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 11 avril 2016

#Modernity was like a compass to tell progress from regress: until #Ecologicalmutation made it turn wild. Hence our slogan: #ResetModernity!

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 11 avril 2016

As AIME #ResetModernity is an experiment in collective experience sharing: a thought exhibition #Gedankenausstellung https://t.co/OqCAVr4RaO

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 11 avril 2016

Through those tweets we will explore the show following the #reset procedures written in the Fieldbook given to the visitors to find its way

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 11 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #i1
Pauline Julier's film 'After' opens the show: an exploration into the #GenerationGaps.https://t.co/RPIc7zvCRE

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 11 avril 2016

#ResetModernity!#ProcedureA is about #RelocalizingTheGlobal to situate in space and time #KnowledgeProduction

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 12 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A1
.@EamesOffice #PowersOfTen is one origin of #GlobalView. As if localities could be smoothed up.https://t.co/OtPYSN8cUS

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 12 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A2
The good thing with @OFFPOLINN Superpowers of Ten is to bring as many gaps as there are shifts #RepresentationScale.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 12 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A3
If you look at @EamesOffice Rough Sketch you see how much work they did to give a smooth views of the #ChangesOfScale.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A4
Since Kees Boeke drew the #PowersOfTen instead of filming you see how implausible is the smooth #ViewFromNowhere.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A5
As soon as Peter Galison' students at @Harvard have a camera they give a new view of the practice of science.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A6
Model for a Weather Vane by Sarah Sze makes sure you cannot smooth out the #ScientificView: art trumps science.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A7
A research station built in the spirit of AIME helps #RelocalizingTheGlobal further & disagree with curators' choices.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A8
Incredibly Gaspard Friedrich's Great Enclosure has inserted the globe inside one meander of the river Elbe.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A9
Caspar Friedrich's embedding of the #globe has been lost by his engraver Johann Veith who smoothed things up too much.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A10
Depending on the architecture, we feel like dwarves or giants: no one show this better than @ArminLinke (Cargo Lifter)

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A11
A given place is always inside a protective envelope: to the point of folly as in this #SkiDome in Tokyo. @ArminLinke

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #A12
Even when heads of states assemble to #SaveTheGlobe, is still inside a local place, a stadium. @ArminLinke #COP19

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #ProcedureB explores how unnatural is the idea of an #OutsideNature: one interpretation is its origin in painting & art.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B1
When you look at paintings (Thomas Struth's photograph) you also learn to be at the right distance with #catastrophes.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B2
Hard to forget how much hist. of drawing (Dürer) has been put in the building of an artificial distance with the world.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B3
People familiar with AIME will recognize how reference [REF] is actually different from the #ModelCopy format.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B3
The #ModelCopy format has been learned from paintings not from the practice of #science & its cascade of images.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B4
How impressive to be able to see Wall's Adrian Walker & its meditation of what it is to draw an anatomy.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B5
Jeff Wall 2nd work Fieldwork offers a beautiful contrast with Adrian Walker: two powerful ways to insert #ArtInScience.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #B6
Taylor & Paravel @sensethnlab with Leviathan have renewed 'sensory #ethnography' by shifting ways of shooting the sea.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity!#ProcedureC The idea of the show is that each proc. leads to the next: to the horizon of the #Globe is now added the #Earth

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ProcedureC
You could feel the #sublime when at a safe distance from #ecologicalmutation: but now you #FeelResponsible & powerless.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C1
As in the splendid exhib. on #Sublime at @PompidouMetz, we start with a classical image of the 18th century idea of it.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C2
John Martin's Deluge (1828) has become the #cliche of what people were #AbleToFeel when the #sublime was common in art.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C3
The #shock is violent when you shift to Fabien Giraud's minuscule extract from #Fukushima's clod of #radioactive #soil

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C4
With Tacita Dean huge panel you feel that you have entered a #GeologicalEra with #NoSafePlace to simply look at #nature

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C5
.@ArminLinke Whirlwind spans the distance with John Martin's #deluge: are you out or in the #spectacle? #Response-able?

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C6
Always the case with @ArminLinke : how can we deal with huge #ChangeOfScale & the weight of #GeologicalResponsibility?

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C7
Simon Starling's striking set of prints closes the #FeedbackLoop between portraying palladium & printing with palladium

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C8
Artists like Hicham Berrada are trying to work directly on #GeologicalProcesses making their #responsibility explicit.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C9
People familiar with AIME will have no problem recognizing the face of #Gaia, different from the #ideals of the #Globe.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C10#Climate #science labs fully reshuffle the #InsideOutside #boundaries that had been necessary for feeling the #sublime

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 13 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #C11
While artists play with #geology, geologists play with artists to anticipate future #ManMadeFossils!

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

End of #ProcedureC
A strange thing happened on the way towards #globalization. The #globe began to mutate into something else: the #Earth.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ProcedureD draws the lesson of the 3 first: we are probably #landing on a different #territory. The problem becomes how not to crash!

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D1
Ristelhueber's #WestBanks could stand for the whole epoch: roads are cut away, no one can move freely #EndOfGlobal.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D2
Once the #GlobalView is out aside how do we figure out where we stand: Bureau d'Études explores no #maps.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D3
That #territory is shifting under our feet, this is what Folder does with @it_limes : don't expect fixed #boundaries.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D4
Some #scientists have found for #NewSoil a perfect expression: #CriticalZones to describe the small pellicle of life.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D5
To occupy a piece of #land is no guarantee against #landgrab: what @ahti_amed makes visible with his scale models.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D6
Huyghe's Nymphéas Transplant measures the distance between Monet's Giverny time and that of the disputed #Anthropocene

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D7
.@davidmaisel1 Lake Project insures we remember that standing on soil is learning to live in the ruins of what was

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #D8
The whole #agriculture business are now up for grabs if instead of #modernizing we begin to #land on #Earth.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ProcedureD
If the horizon of the #Globe has always been a #utopia & the land of old a pure fantasy, how to shift our horizon to face #Gaia

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ProcedureE#ReligionAndPolitics: each is able to generate violence. But together it's a maelstrom! How to be mundane, secular at last?

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #E1
A powerful way to disentangle #ReligionAndPolitics: to revisit films with @JMFrodon Devictor to see how they interfere.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #E2
Sometimes #ReligionAndPolitics potentiate one another as with #ObamaInCharleston reanalyzed by Lorenza Mondada's group.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #E3
14 years ago at the same place @zkmkarlsruhe explored #Iconoclash against #iconoclasm: a task even more urgent today.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #E4
Thanks to Bergmann & Schmuch, we have a look at the practical training needed to become able to #SpeakReligiously.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ProcedureF
Now things get more complicated because we have to regain a positive sense of what #techniques are able to do.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F1
We won't get out of the #ArtificialSpace: the whole question is to learn how to select which artifice is livable.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F2#LivingOrganisms & #TechnicalOrganisms keep exchanging properties as with Ristelhueber's view of Versailles pipes.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F3
Even #digital techniques seem to move #underground as @emmacharlesart shows by following #DataBunkers in Sweden.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F4
Data infrastructures travere our daily life oddly @medialab_ScPo make those interferences visible. #HFT @SniperInMahwah

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F5#TechniquesAndSociety are twice the same thing, so that making a toaster is visiting a whole culture. @Thomas_Thwaites

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F6
UFD offers a way to balance the building of a vase with its weight in #pollution: a way to dig further into techniques.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

#ResetModernity! #F7
AIME Readers will recognize the #modesofexistence [TEC], and the shift from despised objects to moving projects.

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

Just when you thought you had finished, @TerritorialA The Museum of Oil opens its vast #dataviz inventory of how to keep oil in the ground!

— AIME (@AIMEproject) 14 avril 2016

Please find here the full list of hashtags you can use on twitter to share with us and with other visitors your own experience (critics, contributions, etc.) of the Reset Modernity! exhibition.

Please find the references of a few reviews of our exhibition Reset Modernity! below:

Blanchfield, Caitlin. “The Avery Review | Reset, Modernity.” The Avery Review, October 7, 2016. http://averyreview.com/issues/18/reset-modernity.

Blok, Anders, and Line Marie Thorsen. “Reset Latour!” EASST Review 35, no. 2 (June 2006). https://easst.net/article/reset-latour/.

Chardronnet, Ewen. “Le ZKM réinitialise la modernité.” Makery, April 29, 2016. http://www.makery.info/2016/04/29/le-zkm-reinitialise-la-modernite/.

Coulter, Kimberly. “Exit Counselling for the Modern?” Ant Spider Bee. Ant Spider Bee, October 7, 2016. http://www.antspiderbee.net/?p=35827.

Färber, Alexa. “Gedankensprüngeausstellung.” EASST Review 35, no. 2 (June 2016). https://easst.net/article/gedankensprungeausstellung/.

Ferrand Lointier, Mylène. “Reset Modernity! By Bruno Latour at the ZKM.” Seismopolite. Journal of Art and Politics, June 23, 2016. http://www.seismopolite.com/reset-modernity-by-bruno-latour-at-the-zkm.

Hurka, Herbert M. “Philosoph Latour Kuratiert Ausstellung Im ZKM.” Badische Zeitung, May 25, 2016. http://www.badische-zeitung.de/kunst-1/philosoph-latour-kuratiert-ausstellung-im-zkm--122406600.html.

Joanelly, Tibor. “Bruno Latour for Architects.” Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, June 2016. http://www.wbw.ch/fr/revue/edition-actuelle/.

Layet, Clément. “Enraciner la modernité.” La Vie Des Idées, July 1, 2016. http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Enraciner-la-modernite.html.

Leclercq, Christophe. “To Hybridity … and Beyond!” Echo Gone Wrong, October 12, 2016. http://echogonewrong.com/to-hybridity-and-beyond/.

Petersen, Arthur. “Procedures to Deal with Modernity without Irony.” EASST Review 35, no. 2 (June 2006). https://easst.net/article/procedures-to-deal-with-modernity-without-irony/.

Petroni, Marco. “Reset Modernity!” Domusweb.it, July 13, 2016. http://www.domusweb.it/en/art/2016/07/13/zkmresetmodernity_.html.

Quinz, Emanuele. “Spegnere E Resettare. La Modernita.” La Lettura I Corriere Della Sera, April 10, 2016. http://www.pressreader.com/italy/la-lettura/20160410/281608124591021.

Smits, Alice. “Reset Modernity.” Metropolis M, no. 5 (2016): 102–4.

Smolik, Noemi. “Reset Modernity!” Frieze.com, June 2, 2016. http://frieze.com/article/reset-modernity?language=en.

Thadden, Elisabeth von. “‘Reset Modernity!’: So. Jetzt Noch Mal Anders.” Die Zeit. May 7, 2016, sec. Kultur. http://www.zeit.de/2016/18/reset-modernity-karlsruhe-zkm-austellung-bruno-latour.

Zarachowicz, Weronika. “C’est quoi, une expo de philosophe ?” Télérama.fr, July 4, 2007. http://www.telerama.fr/idees/c-est-quoi-une-expo-de-philosophe,144692.php.

Zhong Mengual, Estelle. “Reset Modernity!” Critique d’art. Actualité internationale de la littérature critique sur l’art contemporain, November 20, 2017. https://critiquedart.revues.org/23242.

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