Weaponising Speculation - a non-traditional assembly which has as its impetus the opening up of a dialogue between artists, para-academics and the Speculative Realist “community”

Weaponising Speculation, ed. by Caoimhe Doyle, punctum books, 2014.
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Distinct from the norm. Distinct even from the academic norm. Twice removed the para-academic is doubly unwanted. The ones you have trained are set loose and they know your secrets. They are pests and they want to be armed.

This book contains the proceedings from Weaponising Speculation, a two-day conference and exhibition that took place in Dublin in March 2013. Weaponising Speculation was organised by D.U.S.T. (Dublin Unit for Speculative Thought) and aimed to be an exploration of the various expressions of DIY theory operative in the elsewheres, the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy. The topics covered all come under the welcoming embrace of speculation, spanning a broad range: from art, philosophy, nature, fiction, and computation to spiders, culinary cosmology, and Oscar the Grouch. The book itself aims to be more than just a collection of essays and catalogue of artworks, but also a documentation of the event as a whole. An object that both those present at the event and those who missed it would want to own — bringing something new to both sets of readers.

The range of topics covered in this collection, along with the added elements of design and photography, result in a book that appeals beyond the (para)academic circle within which the Speculative Realist community currently resides. One of the original aims of the Weaponising Speculation conference, and by extension the book, is to expand what might be considered the expected reach of the subject, bringing Speculation to a new audience — artists, designers, fans of fiction, photographers, biologists, film theorists, comedians, culinary artists, illustrators, computer programmers, and individuals from any number of fields.

Before the storms the para-academic needs to equip herself. Not only with tools, but weapons. In this way this collection is not only a book to read, an object to own, or a tool for learning, but a weapon with which to break open academic discourse, to invade and conquer as yet unknown territory, and to aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Continental Realism and Computation: Turing’s Propaganda — Robert Jackson // A Seductive Union: Speculative Realism and Contemporary Art — Rebecca O’ Dwyer // Objects, Actors and Sites of Contingency — Alice Rekab // Taken from/Put in Oscar’s bin — Sam Keogh // How to Make Space-Time and Influence People — Isabel Nolan // ‘[os mentis] mouth to mouth’ with Nicola Masciandaro — MOUTH // Sweet Dreams Are Made of This: Speculation — Ridvan Askin // All That is Liquid Melts into Solid — John Ryan // Mutant: Infiltration of the Hallucinated Mountain — Rob Murphy // The Fossils of Sensation — Alan Boardman // restless tongues expending into rest — Teresa Gillespie // House of Sheaves: The Asymptotic Horror of Nested Nature — Ben Woodard // Spider Universe: Weaponising Phobia in Bataille, Nietzsche, Spinoza — Scott Wilson // + ARTWORKS by John Ryan, Rob Murphy, Alice Rekab, Andy Weir, Teresa Gillespie, Alan Boardman, and Ciara McMahon.

“Weaponizing Speculations” is a non-traditional assembly which has as its impetus the opening up of a dialogue between artists, para-academics and the Speculative Realist “community” here in Dublin and elsewhere. Here is the description:
“Distinct from the norm. Distinct even from the academic norm. Twice removed the para-academic is doubly unwanted. The ones you have trained are set loose and they know your secrets. They are pests and they want to be armed. The contemporary para-academic is untethered. Promises have gone unfulfilled and yet avenues have opened up elsewhere. To the artists, to the creators, to the fringe, wherever the real can be captured. It is in these topoi that the real work happens.
Speculation: to think the world of experience, beyond such experience. But how to seize this reality, how to speculate upon that which the academy has prohibited? Before the storms the para-academic needs to equip herself. Not only with tools, but weapons.
‘Weaponizing Speculation’ is an exploration of the various expressions of DIY theory operative in the elsewheres,the shafts and tunnels of the para-academy. We seek those thoughts that go beyond the institution, beyond the linguistic, beyond the human, to the far reaches of the incommensurate and the extinct; we seek conceptual armoury which will aid thinkers in the siege to reclaim the real.
We invite papers from those lost at sea”.

Caoimhe Doyle is a Graphic Designer and Black Metal Theorist living in Dublin, Ireland.