ONLINE | Netflix and Chills: On Digital Distraction in the Time of Quarantine with Dominic Pettman

Social-distancing and global lockdown orders have only magnified our already deep dependence on technologies of distraction, reminding us that electronic stimulation and profound boredom not only often co-exist, but are mutually reinforcing. This talk is a meditation on the liminal temporality of quarantine, and the ways in which rapidly coalescing digital environments reshape our sense of time, mortality, and the rather abstract gestalt that Marx called “species-being.” As such, this speculative talk models some of the interdisciplinary and creative approaches taught within the Liberal Studies program.

Presented by Dominic Pettman, University Professor of Media and New Humanities.

Prep reading: Agamben, Profound Boredom.

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In The Current Moment: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities, 11 professors from The New School for Social Research share their own in-depth analyses on how a variety of contemporary social, political, economic, cultural and ethical problems have been amplified by the pandemic.