U Tokyo Liberal Arts Program

Fredric Jameson as Blindspot Machine
A lecture by Eric Cazdyn (The University of Toronto)

Date: December 9, 2024, 17:00-19:00
Place: University of Tokyo-Komaba, 18th Building, 4th Floor,
Collaboration Room 2
Language: English

Abstract:
This presentation will develop Eric Cazdyn's ongoing exploration of
the blindspot. What is a blindspot? And what might it teach us about
how we look, how we think, how we desire, and how change occurs
in the world? Cazdyn argues that the dominant ideology of the blindspot
today (from culture to politics) as something missing, as something to
be disclosed or concealed, is the deadliest weapon used by those in
power. To develop this critique, Cazdyn has built what he calls a
"Blindspot Machine"—a multi-camera optics system that, instead of
exposing blindspots (the violent desire of state surveillance),
produces a new theory and practice of the blindspot itself. In this
iteration of the Blindspot Machine project, Cazdyn will highlight how
the work of Fredric Jameson informs and inspires the key problematics
of the blindspot. Clips from a new film that Cazdyn made with Jameson
(not long before his recent death), will be screened as part of the
lecture.

Organized by The Institute of International Cooperation, Komaba
Organaization of Educational Excellence(KOMEX)