The ICI lecture series Reduction explores the critical potentials of notions and practices of ‘reduction’, within and across different fields and approaches. One of the most devastating charges levelled against theories, analyses, and descriptions is that of being reductive or of amounting to a full-blown reductionism. Conceptual frameworks are scolded for being impoverished and descriptions for being too sparse or flat. And conversely, to call something ‘irreducible’ seems to confer an immediate and indisputable dignity to it. And yet the history of science and knowledge cannot be told without acknowledging the importance of reductionist programmes; reductive paradigms have periodically revitalized the arts. What lies at the root of such different attitudes towards ‘reduction’? Can one embrace forms of reduction that are not in the service of production, allowing for the possibility of a ‘less’ that would no longer have to amount to ‘more’?
Monday, 15 Nov 2021, 19:30
Suraj Yengde
Tuesday, 22 Feb 2022, 19:30
Ana Teixeira Pinto
Tuesday, 3 May 2022, 19:30
Sybille Krämer
Monday, 16 May 2022, 19:30
William P. Franke
Monday, 13 June 2022, 19:30
Urs Stäheli
