Opening book details…
Can I read Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) on EtoBox?
Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) by Brian Massumi is a philosophy book available to read on EtoBox.
What is Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) about?
Events are always passing; to experience an event is to experience the passing. But how do we perceive an experience that encompasses the just-was and the is-about-to-be as much as what is actually present? In Semblance and Event, Brian Massumi, drawing on the work of William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Gilles Deleuze, and others, develops the concept of "semblance" as a way to approach this question. It is, he argues, a question of abstraction, not as the opposite of the concrete but as a dimension of it: "lived abstraction." A semblance is a lived abstraction. Massumi uses the category of the semblance to investigate practices of art that are relational and event-oriented--variously known as interactive art, ephemeral art, performance art, art intervention--which he refers to collectively as the "occurrent arts." Massumi argues that traditional art practices, including perspective painting, conventionally considered to be object-oriented freeze frames, also organize events of
Who reads Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts (Technologies of Lived Abstraction)?
It is typically read by self-directed learners exploring a subject in depth.
Common subject areas: history, science, philosophy, social sciences.
- Author
- Brian Massumi
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Published
- 2011
- Language
- EN
- ISBN
- 9780262134910
- Category
- philosophy
- Subjects
- Social Science, Science, Philosophy
- Rating
- 4.21 / 5 (28 ratings)
- Updated
- 2026-03-14
More by Brian Massumi
Browse all works by Brian Massumi
Similar books
- The Rhythmic Event: Art, Media, and the Sonic (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Eleni Ikoniadiou (2014)
- Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Aesthetics (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Steven Shaviro (2009)
- Moving without a Body: Digital Philosophy and Choreographic Thoughts (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Stamatia Portanova (2013)
- Gilbert Simondon and the Philosophy of the Transindividual (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Muriel Combes (2013)
- Contagious Architecture: Computation, Aesthetics, and Space (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Luciana Parisi (2013)
- Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy (Technologies of Lived Abstraction) — Erin Manning (2009)
