Esoteric Conceptualism in the People’s Republic of Poland: Transductive Cybernetics, Queer Hauntings, Quantum Cosmologies

A seminar by Dr Radek Przedpełski and as Respondent Prof Harun Šiljak ( both School of Engineering, TCD) as a part of the School of Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS).

The presentation elaborates the notion of “Esoteric Conceptualism,” as a designation for a strand of intermedial performance practices in the 1970s created during the era of post-totalitarian “Real Socialism” committed to the ideology Scientific-Technological Revolution (STR) and attempting to reconcile cybernetics with dialectical Marxism. As will be argued, the intermedial practices I call “Esoteric Conceptualism” are marked by an in-betweenness. On the one hand, they reject the pursuit of a West-inspired analytical Conceptualism. On the other hand, they do not fit with the traditional understating of resistance bound up with the masculinist ethos of the dissident. Instead, Esoteric Conceptualism dovetails with the new expanded model of institutional affiliations foregrounding “multilateral network flows” recently proposed by art historian Tomasz Zanussi.  Wrapped around the case study of marginalised artist Marek Konieczny (1936-2022), the talk will consider Esoteric Conceptualism under the following three rubrics: (1) Transductive Cybernetics, (2) Queer Hauntings, and (3) Quantum Cosmologies.  

The School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series (SLLCS) promotes Literary and Cultural Studies, including political and social thought, narratology and imagology, film, textual and visual studies, questions surrounding language learning and translation studies, and also practice-led research. We encourage comparative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, as our intellectual inquiry is in the service of national and international debate and knowledge advancement, particularly on the construction of identity and otherness in literature and culture. The seminar series provides a forum for the dissemination and exchange of current and developing research from staff and postgraduate researchers within the school, and also from national and international guest speakers.

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: hanrahaj@tcd.ie