e-G8 Forum report (2011)

“Fittingly, this e-book is a virtual incarnation of an event whose physical existence was fleeting, but whose impact will endure. Opened on May 24, 2011 in Paris by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the e-G8 Forum gathered together the finest minds and most skillful operators of the Internet for just two days. But the Forum’s effect as a catalyst—on participants, on the G8 Summit that succeeded it, and on public policy by governments worldwide—was, and will continue to be, far more meaningful.

The Forum was an intense and ambitious gathering of 1500 participants from more than 30 countries. It culminated in a delegation to the G8 Summit of Heads and State and governments, where questions regarding
the Internet were on the agenda for the first time in the history of international summit meetings. The delegation was led by Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, and comprised Hiroski Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten; Yuri Milner, CEO of Digital Sky Technologies; Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom-Orange; Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; and Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook.” (from Preface)

Edited by Ruth Marshall
Produced by PublicisLive
Published in June 2011
76 pages

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Jean-François Lyotard: Duchamp’s TRANS/formers (1977/1990)

“Duchamp’s Trans / Formers” is the renowned late French theoretician Jean-François Lyotard’s elegantly designed contemplation on the work of Marcel Duchamp. Published by Sam Francis’ Lapis Press.

The book reconstructs the Large Glass and Given, Duchamp’s two major works that glorify the body in its topological conceptuality.

Originally published as Les transformateurs Duchamp, Editions Galilée, 1977
Translated by Ian McLeod
Publisher: Lapis Press, Venice, CA, 1990
ISBN: 0-932499-63-5
208 pages

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PDF (pages 2-4 missing; no OCR; updated on 2012-7-17)

Michel Serres, Bruno Latour: Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time (1990/1995)

Although elected to the prestigious French Academy in 1990, Michel Serres has long been considered a maverick–a provocative thinker whose prolific writings on culture, science and philosophy have often baffled more than they have enlightened. In these five lively interviews with sociologist Bruno Latour, this increasingly important cultural figure sheds light on the ideas that inspire his highly original, challenging, and transdisciplinary essays.

Serres begins by discussing the intellectual context and historical events– including the impact of World War II and Hiroshima, which for him marked the beginning of science’s ascendancy over the humanities–that shaped his own philosophical outlook and led him to his lifelong mission of bringing together the texts of the humanities and the conceptual revolutions of modern science. He then confronts the major difficulties encountered by his readers: his methodology, his mathematician’s fondness for “shortcuts” in argument, and his criteria for juxtaposing disparate elements from different epochs and cultures in extraordinary combinations. Finally, he discusses his ethic for the modern age–a time when scientific advances have replaced the natural necessities of disease and disaster with humankind’s frightening new responsibility for vital things formerly beyond its control.

In the course of these conversations Serres revisits and illuminates many of his themes: the chaotic nature of knowledge, the need for connections between science and the humanities, the futility of traditional criticism, and what he calls his “philosophy of prepositions”–an argument for considering prepositions, rather than the conventionally emphasized verbs and substantives, as the linguistic keys to understanding human interactions.

Originally published in French as Eclaircissements by Editions Francois Bourin 1990
Translated by Roxanne Lapidus
Publisher University of Michigan Press, 1995
Studies in Literature and Science series
ISBN 0472065483, 9780472065486
204 pages

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PDF (updated on 2012-7-17)