Reticulations Reticulations Jean-Luc Nancy and the Networks of the Political Philip Armstrong Electronic Mediations, Volume 27 University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Th e University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the fi nancial assistance provided for the publication of this book from the College of Humanities at Th e Ohio State University. Frontispiece: Simon Hantaï, Collage, 1953, mixed media on paper, remounted on canvas, 94.5 x 59.5 cm. (37 1/4 x 23 1/3 inches). Courtesy of Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris. Photograph by Jacqueline Hyde. Portions of chapter 2 were fi rst published as “From Paradox to Partage: On Citizenship and Teletechnologies,” TEXT Technology 5, no. 2 (2008), in the issue “Th e Digital Humanities and Technologies of Citizenship,” edited by Patrick Finn and Alan Galey. An earlier version of chapter 4 fi rst appeared as “Res/Réseau/Reticulation” in the online journal the anomalist 1 (2005), edited by Brad Evans and Keir Milburn. Photographs from the series Waiting for Tear Gas courtesy of Allan Sekula.Copyright Allan Sekula. Copyright 2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Th ird Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Armstrong, Philip, 1962- Reticulations : Jean-Luc Nancy and the networks of the political / Philip Armstrong. p. cm.—(Electronic mediations ; v. 27) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-5489-5 (hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8166-5490-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Nancy, Jean-Luc—Political and social views. 2. Political science—France—Philosophy. I. Title. JA84.F8A835 2009 320.092—dc22 2008050301 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Th e University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Undoubtedly, we are still stuttering: philosophy always comes too late, and, as a result, always too soon. But the stuttering itself betrays the form of the problem: we, “we,” how are we to say “we”? Or rather, who is it that says “we,” and what are we told about ourselves in the technological proliferation of the social spectacle and the social as spectacular, as well as in the proliferation of self-mediatized globalization [mondialité] and globalized mediatization? We are incapable of appropriating this proliferation because we do not know how to think this “spectacular” nature, which at best gets reduced to a discourse about the uncertain signs of the “screen” and of “culture.” Th e same applies to “technological” nature, which we regard as an autonomous instrument. We do so without ever asking ourselves if it might not be “our” comprehension of “our-selves” that comes up with these techniques and invents itself in them, and without wondering if technology is in fact essentially in complete agreement with the “with.” We are not up to the level of the “we”: we constantly refer ourselves back to a “sociology” that is itself only the learned form of the “spectacular-market.” We have not even begun to think “ourselves” as “we.” —JEAN-LUC NANCY This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi 1. Th e Deposition of the Political 1 2. From Paradox to Partage: On Citizenship and Teletechnologies 67 3. Th e Disposition of Being 117 4. Being Communist 161 5. Seattle and the Space of Exposure 185 Notes 245 Index 299 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Th is book has benefi ted from a more or less sustained dialogue with two extraordinary groups of people. Th e fi rst is my friends and colleagues in the Department of Comparative Studies at Th e Ohio State University, who, with unusual insistence, continue to open up and reinvent that intellectual space we call the university. Th e second are my fellow anomalists, who off er a permanent reminder—this time at the limits of the university—of what is at stake in the work we do. I trust both groups will understand why in this context I refer to them collectively, why they form part of a larger, critical dialogue to which this book, I hope, contributes. For invitations to speak and for the intellectual and personal support that has sustained the writing of Reticulations, my warm thanks to Mick Finch, Lisa Florman, Paul Ivey, Jan and Ben Maiden (Jan died before the book came to publication, but I hope her rare example lives on in its affi rmation of co- existence), Brad Macdonald, Lucien Massaert, Guy Massaux, Steve and Ruthie Melville, Donald Preziosi, Jason Smith, and Chris Th ompson. Christian Bonnefoi and Simon Hantaï fi rst taught me to think about things reticulated, and for that I am very grateful, as I am to Allan Sekula for permission to feature several of his photographs in the last chapter, and to Elodie Rahard of Galerie Jean Fournier for permission to reproduce the frontispiece. Finally, I thank Sam Weber, who supported and sustained the writing of this book in innumerable ways, and David Horn, who contributed in equally decisive ways to its completion. I remain deeply indebted to them both. At the University of Minnesota Press, I would like to thank an anonymous reader for their generous comments and suggestions, as well as Douglas Armato, Daniel Constantino, Susan Doerr, Alicia Sellheim, Davu Seru, and Mike Stoff el for their wonderful help and advice in bringing the manuscript to publication. Much of the argument that follows turns on thinking an untying and un- binding as constitutive of our ties and bonds, a distancing and detachment as the enabling condition of our attachments to—and with—one another. In order to write this book, Laura, Nikolas, and Keir have come to experience this contorted logic all too oft en, as have my parents. My heartfelt thanks for their patience. ix