PhD | Novelty and (Self)Referentiality of the Material: Critiques, Limits and Possibilities of/in the Material Turn

Novelty and (Self)Referentiality of the Material: Critiques, Limits and Possibilities of/in the Material Turn
PhD-candidate: Aldo Kempen | Open Universiteit | Supervisor: Eddo Evink

In his PhD research, Aldo Kempen critically assess the rise of new materialism through the lens of contemporary French philosophy (Laruelle/Nancy) and anglophone media-theory. Researching the rich heritage of French thought on the im/possibility of metaphysics, it will research how this critique of metaphysics can productively relate to contemporary formulations of metaphysics within the field of new materialism. Furthermore, building on the works grouped around the header of the ‘pictorial turn’, this PhD will analyse how an extended notion of thinking (one that includes film as a form of thinking) could benefit articulations of a new materialist metaphysics. 

Image: Leviathan, scene still. Dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel.