The Time Complex Armen Avanessian Post-Contemporary and Suhail Malik, eds Andreas Töpfer drawings by and SuhailMalik —Armen Avanessian Time Complex The Speculative

5 Fractured Mediations Victoria Ivanova the movement of the pastandthe future onthe later, isthat itisnolongernecessary to explain mention straightaway, butwillneedto return to of thedeprioritization of thepresent we can call atime-complex.¹ Onetheoretical ramification be), alsolosesitspriority infavor of what we could what timeis(or, at least,what itispresumed to basis for both theunderstanding of timeandof biological sentience at least—which hasbeen the primary category of humanexperience—in its based onit.Correspondingly, thepresent asthe its primacy, asdothesemantics andpolitics individual humanagents, humanexperience loses infrastructures andnetworks rather than conditions of complex societies are systems, scale of socialorganization today. Iftheleading reorganization of timeisthecomplexity and Yes, andthemainreason for thespeculative or withinaspeculative temporality. getting usedto livinginsuchaspeculative time think, that they have—or we allhave—problems or itisn’tasusedto be, thenthereason is,I joint, orthat timedoesn’tmake senseanymore, If peoplehave theimpression that timeisoutof before thepresent, timearrives from thefuture. rather theother way around: thefuture happens followed by thepresent andthenthefuture. It’s have alineartime, inthesenseof thepastbeing direction of time—haschanged.We nolonger time oraccelerated time, buttimeitself—the time ischanging.We are not justlivinginanew The basicthesisof thepost-contemporary isthat Suhail Malik Armen Avanessian

7 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 8 determination—are thoseinwhich thepast, the organization that surpassphenomenological than-human societies at scales of sociotechnical the leading configuration of time. the system andthisovershadows thepresent as future are equally important intheorganization of can beobtained inthefuture. Thepast andthe constructed historically andwithaview to what even subordinated to—more complex formations where human experience isonlyapartof—or basis of thepresent. We are instead inasituation ¹ Thetime-complex (Oxford: Polity, (Stanford, CA: Volume 1:The Stiegler. Seefor Symbolic Misery Stanford University Stephen Barker Barnaby Norman Epoch, trans. Hyperindustrial Press, 2008)and Disorientation, trans. of individuation and Time, 2: exampleTechnics technical andpsychic structures of integrated socio- is specific to the mnemic systems proposed by Bernard Complex societies—which meansmore- (ii) thespeculative 2014). Butthe configurations. complexifying constituted constitution of complex isdistinct experience of an aesthetically- appeal to rescuing against Stiegler’s a speculative time-complex temporalization, and time rather than that (i)itcomprises to Stiegler’s thesisin sociotechnical speculative time- individuation despite is here affirmed memory andhuman distinct to it— the conditionsof thetime-complex butisalso experience. That project iscertainly attached to thought of knowledge of what isbeyond human by establishing theconditionswithin conceptual finding more-than-human forms of knowledge to reset the notion of speculation as thetask of Realism, philosophy too hasrecently beentrying Equally, undertheheading of Speculative and technical organization of complex societies. with thesubordination of thehumanto thesocial and social processes have been practically dealing new, of course:for alongtimepoliticaleconomy structuring aspect of time. This isnot absolutely where thefuture replaces thepresent asthelead where maybe noneof thesemodesisprimary, or present, andthefuture enter into aneconomy

9 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 10 we dohave to learnhow to deal withitin I don’tthink that allthisisnecessarilybad, but it islikely that itwillbesomething you willneed. to say inadvance that “I’llsend itback” because aware of themyourself. Itdoesn’t make sense they know your needseven before you become service.² We know aversion of thisfrom Amazon: you haven’t explicitly asked for from acommercial or information aboutwhat you might want that personalization ishow you get acertain package What hasbeencalledpreemptive personalityor Could you outlinethesephenomena? preemptive personality— like preemptive strikes, preemptive policing,the phenomena that usuallystart withtheprefix “pre,” experience orfrom dailynews. Theseare time-complex that we know from everyday And to someconcrete examples of thespeculative ² Rob Horning, “Preemptive The New Enquiry (September 11,2014), accessed on[http:// thenewinquiry.com/ personalization,” personalization/]. blogs/marginal- utility/preemptive- AA AA SM AA

know your desires; company’s algorithms actually want. The a product that you step ahead: you get personality isone but thepreemptive one’s actual choices books associated with recommendations for procedures give us its algorithmic

is preemptive policing. You have itinscience speculative temporality discussedalot nowadays the media. called atendency towards premediation in and of course thisisalsolinked to what hasbeen present isbasedonapreemption of thefuture, or prevention. Rather, what happensinthe twentieth century logicof thebalance of threats the enemy strikes. It’s alsovery different to the enemy you expected.³ You produce asituation somewhere andthenafterwards you willfindthe kind of recursive truththey produce: you bomb Massumi andothers have written aboutthe a new phenomenonof the21st century. Brian of preemptive strikes, whichisalso a productive ormore pro-active manner. “Potential Politics ³ BrianMassumi, & Event, 10:2, 2007. Preemption,”Theory and thePrimacy of Another everyday example of thisnew Another thing,often criticized, isthepolitics a deterrence before to avoid something, is not made inorder to reiterate, thestrike here isrecursive and, speculation. Thelogic that was initiallya

11 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 12 deduction of the future that isacting inthe While the“pre-” indexes akind of anticipatory disconnected to historically given conditions.… happening now hassome relation to butisalso indexes that ourunderstanding of what is now seemsto be“post-” something else, which contention of the post-contemporary. Everything are at now, and whichismaybe added to withthe current ubiquityof whichcharacterizes where we complex isalsoaconditionof the“post,” the Along with“pre-,” what’s advanced by thetime- regards to medicineandinsurance. this regulation of thepopulation, especiallywith course ahugelyimportant biopoliticalfactor in to extract value from theiractivities? There isof they produce. How canthey beobserved andhow people insidethesocialspace, withthevalue the exclusion of peoplethanonethat dealswith paranoia? Thisislessasurveillance directed to promises more power, whichcreates afuture- with what they willdo—asifthefuture-position apprehend peopleeven before they dosomething, along thelines:what kindof policingisneededto puts itinchronological terms, seemsto bemore exclusion mechanisms.Thequestiontoday, ifone or documenting what they have done, to reinforce of anolderideaof watching what peopleare doing surveillance strategies; for example, CCTV ismore This hasto bedistinguishedfrom other current are adopted more andmore in policing today. the Spielberg filmbasedonit). Versions of this detection of PhilipK.Dick’s MinorityReport (and fiction, notably withthe“PreCrime” andprecog SM SM

13 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 14 past nor isitanact of apure decisionism, but can nolonger primarilybededucedfrom the necessarily determined by the past.Thepresent the present, theshapingof thepresent isnot That’s theimportant thing,that thechangeof to us(the “post-”). stability orthe conventions that thepast offers propose, we don’tquite have thebearingsor exceeding. Asmany contributors to thisissue but alsoafuture of thepastthat we are already realization of thespeculative future (the“pre-”) and theterms of thepast. are inafuture that hassurpassedtheconditions to bespeculative inrelationship to thepast.We a way inwhichwe recognize thepresent itself for therelationship to thefuture, the“post-” is already exceeded. Ifthe speculative isaname speculative relationship to apastthat we have anymore. So, inaway, thepresent itselfisa historically-given semantics don’tquite work if we are now post-everything—it isbecause postmodern, post-internet, orpost-whatever— of thepresent. The “post-” isalsoamarkof thedeprioritization longer. We are thefuture of something else. relationship to what hashappenedbutisno marks ishow what’s happeningnow isin be organized by thefuture—what the“post-” the primarycategory butisunderstood to the now, again indicating how thepresent isn’t present—so that future isalready working within AA AA Combined, thepresent isnot justthe If we are post-contemporary, orpost-

contemporary) conditionortime-complex. concepts for thispost-contemporary (orpast- looking for theright philosophical orspeculative unique timeaspect. Butobviously we are alsostill just alogicalorphilosophical issuebutnot inits Unfortunately, speculation isoften discussedas parallel to theso-calledspeculative turn. contemporaneity inrecent years that happened the criticalreasoning andquestioningof by thefuture. fails indealingwiththelogicof beingconstituted this presentism hasdifficultiesor even completely called itthehumanfixation on experience—that contemporary withitsfixation onthepresent—you problem andthe key indication that thelogicof the it’s shapedby thefuture. For me, that’s thekey I thinkthat’s partlythereason for all

15 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 16 of speculative realism. operations rather thantheconceptual demands much closerto current businessandtechnical or anexteriority of thought. Thisbringsus futurity, rather thananexteriority to experience primarily asatime-historical speculation, like complex canbethought, with“speculation” taken also outsideof thought. But,inany case, thetime- outside of itself. Idon’tknow at thispoint ifthat is to understand andoperationalize thepresent from thought. Theinterest of thepost-contemporary is of theoutsideof thought and theexperience of conceptual notion of speculation, whichisto think has mostlyargued for anintra-philosophical or both comefrom, nonetheless speculative realism twentieth century modelsof philosophy that we move away from thepoststructuralist orlate- ways to speculative realism, andshared the Yes, asmuchwe are each indebted indifferent shows, withderivatives theuncertainties of the against apresent price. AsElenaEsposito clearly asset andtherisks involved therein to draw profits in that they usetheunknown future priceof an speculative finance, andthey are “speculative” derivatives. Ofcourse, derivatives are now key to operationalized speculative timecomplex is One instructive manifestation of the SM SM SM SM Speculative Time-Complex Operationalizing the

and unactualized.⁴ basis, to reiterate, of afuture that isunknown that isoperationalized to extract profits—on the and itisthisfuture eventuality whichisunknown the future whichisyet to happenisanticipated, the derivative model,ontheother hand,apricein sequence that musthave already happened.With exchange of theproduct isthecompletion of a subsequently exchanged on themarket. The production that hashappenedinthepastand which meansthat theprofits are accrued from price thanthecosts,andprofits made. All of a product made orgrown, thensoldat ahigher and paid,materials are usedat acertain price, in whichafactory isbuilt,workers are employed to traditional industrialmodels of accumulation, variable capital like labororwages. These belong depend uponthehistory of investment, norfrom equipment, plant andconstruction, allof which basis of production orfrom fixed capital like example of how profits are not extracted onthe of past-present-future. Thederivative isaclear and thisscramblesthestandard timestructure future are usedto construct pricesinthepresent

17 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 18 pre-emptive policing, pre-emptive strikes, that you and others have described through “post.” There’s oneversion of this configuration puts thepresent into apastthat italsois,the constituted present—the “pre-”—actively ⁴ For thedivergence Arkhéderivative,” Collapse VIII:Casino Urbanomic, 2014). Real (Falmouth: Power andthe Malik, “TheOntology of Finance:Price, and valuation and those of derivative based modelsof price between production- models, seeSuhail of aspeculatively very construction started with.The isn’t theonethat you present is:thepresent changes what the future inthepresent but thisminingof the future inthepresent, extraction from the of future-mining, an phrase, aspecifickind in Natalia Zuluaga’s Derivatives are, Anke Henningwere also dealing with inyour the present to thefuture. that isscrambled,butalsothevery opennessof argues, itisnot onlythelinearschematic of time before thepresent hashappened.AsEsposito future isacting now to transform thepresent even condition of theact that shouldthenbemade. The take thisvery proximate future into account asa is generalizable—isitselfmodifiedbecause you in thecaseof derivatives, buttheconstruction may not. It’s rather that your act—price setting what might have happened—butwhichalso eliminate a possibleenemy inorder to prevent taking theexample of apreemptive strike, you also differsfrom thelogic of preemption where, algorithms through consumerinformation. Butit also anticipated through bigdata, andtheuseof pre-emptive personalityandsoon,whichare But aren’t theseconditions what you and

19 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 20 to formal literary andlinguistic analysis?⁵ Speculative Poetics project, beitmore inrelation manipulable medium of the time-complex. for you seemsto beacognitive, plasticand language asakindof time-complex.⁷ Language here, isto introduce grammarstructures within Tense One of the thingsyou andAnke doinPresent of speculative temporality. current speculative philosophy took uptheidea ⁷ ArmenAvanessian ⁶ ArmenAvanessian ⁵ See[http://www. Genealogies of Speculation (London: Bloomsbury, 2016). and SuhailMalik, der-reihe/english. de/programmatik- Bloomsbury, 2015). Poetic (London: Present Tense. A and Anke Hennig, spekulative-poetik.de/ spekulative-poetik. reihe/english.html] programmatik-der- htmlhttp://www. SM SM , whichisreally important to emphasize a prehistory of the and Iexplored how But, inparticular, Anke the lastdecades.⁶ in thephilosophy of speculative dimension looks to vindicate a Speculation, which in the essays collected that oppositionwith sought to rework You andIalso and poststructuralism. speculative realism tension between and oversimplified such asthevery easy initial assumptions, problematize certain Anke andIwanted to Genealogies of AA AA

21 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 22 go into— technical issueshere that Ihad better not analysis of grammar. There are someimportant structural paradoxes—can betackled viaan These basicstructural paradoxes—or apparent was afuture” and“every future willbeapast.” think alot about sentences like “every past example, JohnMcTaggart andGustave Guillaume philosophy andnon-Saussurean linguistics.For instructive thanthosetraditions hasbeenanalytic post-structuralist philosophies.What ismore as well aswithalot of deconstructivist and the grammar. It’s aproblem withphenomenology this system because they don’treally focus on time actually don’tdeal withwhat isspecific to Most continental philosophiesof language or that experience—though not inarelativist sense. than theexperience of timebecause itstructures construction of time, even more fundamental is really important to ourunderstanding and this regard: atense system. Thetense system Language hasoneuniqueandkey feature in AA was abetter understanding of what Iwould calla realism orany kindof speculative philosophy And what struck measnecessaryfor speculative a structuring conditionof thetense structure. formulating thenon-necessity of thepresent as The tense structure of language allows for that, that don’trequire thepresent astheir basis. So determinations of timecanbeestablished structuring inwhichthepresent drops out. contemporary, isthat they articulate atime time-complex we are here callingthepost- particular to theidentification of thespeculative relevant aboutthosetwo formulations, in That’s what Iwas goingto say: what’s very And soon:every present aswell— and “every future willbeapast”— that formulations like “every pastwas afuture” Yes, maybe later. Thecore point seemsto be AA AA SM AA SM

23 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 24 relations within language, especiallythrough are not justdescriptive. They alsoconstruct time past was thefuture andeclipsing thepresent differently? Thesentences formulating that the be operationalized inorder to structure time By “constructive,” do you meanthat tense can of experience. to your earlierpoint, alsoagainst theprimacy [perception] inmodernphilosophy; and,to return aesthetics andthegeneralfocus onaisthesis Because ourwork alsoimpliesapolemic against And why didyou callitspeculative poetics? Yes, butthat’s theirself-misunderstanding. experience that never leaves itself. meaning, effectively, thedimension of human enough because itconsignsto correlationism— take ordinary orliterary language seriously speculative realism, aswe mainlyhave it,doesn’t At thesametime, you make thecriticismthat a tense-philosophy. and to develop not atime-philosophy butrather language understood assomething material— basis of thegrammatical structures of language— and me, thismeant understanding timeonthe speculative andmaterialist temporality. For Anke SM SM AA SM AA SM

present and future. and theprimacy of thepresent equalizes past, the past.The dismantling of the linear ordering and thepresent isbecomingdisconnected from know, gets includedwithinthecurrent reckoning, that thefuture, whichincludesthefuture we don’t we have withthespeculative time-complex is the speculative time-complex surpasses?What Isn’t thislimitation of consecutive ordering what a biography. and we live thistimeastheillusionof having create anontology of chronological timefor us, time really is. It’s thetenses inlanguage that representation of thedirection of timeorof what time are onlyeffects of grammar, not a the construction of something like chronological The point israther that “experience” of timeand we mentioned? for example through thederivative structures tense happenoutsideof humanlanguages, narrative. Doesthesameoperationalization of SM SM AA

25 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 26 we were interested inishow alltheaesthetic goes very far…. Thetemporal phenomenon have speculated initiates ametanoia. But this your life. Becomingonaparwiththefuture you case thisspeculative feeling makes you change coming from thefuture. Inthemostradical to this issue. Inshort,onefeels time’s power horrific, asDavid Roden shows inhiscontribution hallucinogenic, haunting, urging, hyperstitious, sentience “feeling.” Thistimedoesindeed“feel” Maybe A.N.Whitehead would callthismodeof subject readers to aspeculative somatics of time. century vangardisms, present-tense novels forcing timeoutof joint. Astheresult of 20th dangerous than traditional narrative inreally precisely, present-tense novels are farmore Absolutely. Someof today’s fiction and,more AA AA desynchronizes time. actual phenomenaaspost-X phenomena andit with innumerablepast-presents. Itpresents actively operationalize thissplitting.Itisladen is splitinitself, andthat tense structures can That thepresent isnot fullyexperienceable but Asynchrony? that thepresent tense produces asynchrony. understanding of literature doesn’tunderstand societies.⁸ That isthefundamental limitation of loss of futurity underthecapitalism of complex it often is,with theleftist-critical claimof the without afuture radically distinct from it.And This couldbetaken asanextension of thepresent that thefuture itselfbecomespartof the present. This comesback to what we were saying earlier: ⁸ For anotable “Bifo” Berardi, After Arianna Bove et. al. (Edinburgh: AKPress, 2011). example, seeFranco the Future, trans. AA AA SM SM SM Contemporaneity Left andRight determination of what, with theirspecific to countermand which they look have identified, and and Alex Williams that NickSrnicek contemporary leftism

27 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 28 we live ina new, speculative time structure. of thepresent tense novel intheperiodsince, literature withtheemergence andconsolidation also embodiedincontemporary artandin that we’ve already mentioned, andwhichare transformations since the1960sand70s given thesocial,technological, andpolitical the basichypothesis we are jointly proposing: stage incapitalism, let’s instead focus here on at anew financial feudalism orjustanother of inequality. financial andsocialcrisis,withincreasing depth to disappear, andwe are now inafundamental of monopoliesoroligopoliesetc.—have started profits leading to greater competition instead recovery orgrowth leading to more jobsorhigher other basiceconomic assumptions like economic population andamarket regulating itself, or capitalism—like asafe nation-state, agoverned or foundations of thepoliticaleconomy of financial neofeudalism, inwhich key columns is amove toward something onecancall this stage. For meandothers, neoliberalism I tend to thinkthat we are already goingpast and consolidates increasingly autocratic elites. concentration of capital andpower, whichrequires as astate-business nexus directed to the current state of neoliberalism,whichyou define I thinkwe have aslight disagreement onthe horizon to direct thepoliticsof thepresent. to be“a better future,” whichprovides anactive in theircontribution to thisissue, they identify But instead of debating whether we are AA

speculative time-complex, both are justplaying in emergence of theneoliberalmobilization of the critical andright-reactionary responses to the a speculative time. condition of resistance against thechangeto security butinstead onthepresent asasite or here isnot thepastasaplace of semantic prevalent oneincontemporary art.Thefocus the left orcriticalone, whichisalsothe response to thespeculative timestructure is financial neofeudalism. The other standard disadvantages andmistakes of neoliberal everyone observes andfeels: thefrustrations, balance against thenegative aspects that looking toward thepastasakind of counter- a right-wing orreactionary countermanding, this transformation. Ontheoneside, there is There have beenbasicallytwo responses to Yet, for allthecontentions between left-

29 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 30 as astabilization mechanism for modernization. on. Theauthority of pastconditionsisinvoked social organizations, aesthetics, meaning andso emergence of thenew asthebasisfor actions, characterized the right isadefense against the which thenew happens inthenow, what has this inmodernity:ifmodernity isaparadigm in basis of tradition. Theright hasalways done on thepresent asthedominant moment onthe it, to reduce itasacomplex, andto recenter it time-complex, what theright doesisto simplify or setting upa relationship to thespeculative Though there are many ways of understanding in relationship to both thepastand future. complex andthelossof bearingsthat itinstitutes around theemergence of thespeculative time- and right reactions, andtypicaldefensive moves That isaninstructive formulation of typicalleft criticality, presentness andsoon. celebration of experience: aesthetic experience, surrogate of that futurelessness, withitsconstant name. Contemporary artisboth asymptom and and to have something like afuture worthy of its traction inthepresent, to changesomething, people have thefeeling of not beingableto gain is akindof suffocation, to the extent that most However, withleft-critical reactions too, there the new social,economic, politicalformation. but rather reinforce power structures that enabled reactionary tendencies, whichinnoway disrupt It’s perhaps more obvious withtheright-wing of neoliberalcapitalism, orfinancial feudalism. different ways into thehands of thisnew formation SM SM

31 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 32 restructuring. Thepolitical question thenis autocracy that goesalongwiththe neoliberal it nonetheless serves to capture theincreasing to describe what ishappeningincapitalism now, adequacy of thephrase“financialneofeudalism” on thisbasis:even thoughIdisagree withthe new condition. reacting against isnolongerthemodernbuta without necessarilyrecognizing that what itis in away carryondoingwhat ithasalways done complex of neoliberalcapitalism, theright can And faced withoperationalized speculative time- conservative orreactive historical formations. effects by callingonwhat are then necessarily modernization butstabilizes itsdisruptive To beclear:theright isnot necessarily against The Rightism of neoliberalism makes sense future, andthe future willbethe past. structures we discussedearlier. Thepastwas the drop out—as inthephrasesdemonstrating tense certainly deprioritizes itandmaybe even makes it the pastwhichfolds into thepresent, inaway that melancholy, theentrenchment of thefuture and identifying itis,by contrast to this leftist revolution, notably). and cancelouttheradically different future (the present isinstead taken to extend outindefinitely seeing thefuture asconditionof thepresent, the and semantic reorganization too. Instead of reconstitution of socialandtimeorganization, or thesite for thinkingaboutandconfronting the complex isto retrench thepresent asthevenue The left’s abreaction to thespeculative time- exemplified by its revolutionary idealsandclichés. is thefetish for changefor theprogressive left, modernism. Thenow inwhichthenew takes place in itsprogressive forms hasbeenattached to contemporary” more evident because theleft In away, leftism makes theproblem of “the And theleft-critical abreaction? established conditions. and perhapsonlysemantics—in thenewly elite formation that stabilizes semantics— is theauthority of arecognized historical or just here because what they endorse, essentially, power isto belegitimized. Theright isvery useful how that autocratic, post-democratic kindof But thespeculative present aswe are SM AA

33 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 34 that leftism ismore attentive to the time-complex have traction onthespeculative present, even if future, ametastable condition. time form that saturates both the pastandthe as indefinitely extended. The contemporary is a contemporaneity isa determination of thepresent tense. Andwhat happenswiththeemphasis on is stillpremised onthepresent astheprimary This isaninsistence on“thecontemporary.” It presentness of action, aesthetics orexperience. maintained withanemphatic insistence onthe Historical, futural, anticipatory relationships are of thefuture orthedisestablishment of thepast. present rather thanitsthinningoutby theforcing complexification of timeisan extension of the What theleft seesinthespeculative twenty-first century. not adequate to thetasks andconditionsof the contribution from several different angles,it’s And, asLaboriaCuboniks remark intheir of contemporaneity—is still vestigially modernist. or theemptiness oropennessof thepresent— That’s why theleft-critical thinkingof theevent future andtheabsenceof thepast. No, it’s constructed by theuncertainties of the in thisspeculative present. There isnocriticalinterruption from thepresent A leftism stillattached to modernism won’t SM AA SM AA

It was “Tomorrow Today.”⁹ an-other occasion. now. That today istomorrow, asyou putitin that what itisactually involved withisthefuture in hercontribution to thisissue, itdoesn’tsee the future asafuture. And,asEsposito remarks and into thefuture, whichsupposedlydestroys holds that thepresent extends into both thepast outside of theleft’s self-reinforcing phantasm), it modernity thantheright (whichisquestionable Even ifit’s accepted that theleft ismore opento maintains aninterest infailedmarket solutions). semantics, whileitssocial-democratic wingnow seem largely interested inrestoring ahistorical a past(thoughitsrevolutionary wingdoes than theright because it’s not trying to restore present at once. construction inorfrom thedirections of past and that isnot aunidirectional flux,butaspeculative instead inatransitionbetween apastandfuture as itwas inmodernism.Thenew is happening decisions are made orthebasis for thenew, ⁹ See[https:// vienna/concept/]. viennabusines- curated-by-vienna/ about-curated-by- ative-industries/ sagency.at/cre- AA AA

the timeinwhich The present now isnot or post-contemporary. in apre-post formation, speculative present is indexes how the Exactly. That title SM SM

35 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 36 the present from that direction. comrades withandof the future andapproach Zukunftsgenossenschaft. We needto become from thefuture (dieZukunft), akindof of thepast,butrather aZeitgenossenschaft Vergangenheitsgenossenschaft—comradeship comradeship of thepresent, nor instead isneitherGegenwartsgenossenschaft simply thewrong way to think.What isneeded and that isnolongeradequate to thetask. Itis traction inthepresent by getting closerto it, Zeitgenossenschaft indicates theideaof having on thepresent. Thecontemporaneity of change thepresent completely withaninsistence because itfartoo often signifiesthewish to literally, “comrade of time”—is problematic Zeitgenossenschaft The wholeideaof what inGermaniscalled ismlt,clnz l ftm nisonterms. dissimilate, colonize allof timein itsown the contemporary canthenaccommodate, The advantage for left-criticality isthat are taken asmodifications of thepresent. premise: thepresent. Thepastandthefuture future that itcancelsto preserve itsreceived modernist left hasakindof melancholia for a Under theguiseof thecontemporary the AA AA SM SM Everything: Contemporary Art An Aesthetics of Contra Futurity —the contemporary, more

— as the mainbenefit of that reorganization. It takes also, aswe said before, individuated experience present orthepast asconditionfor action, and Specifically, ithasstressed thedominance of the its logiconalllevels from aleft-critical angle. matrix of that reorganization by implementing neoliberalism, buthasreally helpedbuild the recent economicandpoliticalreordering of because ithasnot beenjustavictim of the Contemporary artisagoodexample also art’s accomplishment. mechanisms demonstrating contemporary accomplishments, whichare of coursecapture- in generalfor the sake of itsown critical It cancelseven itsown futurity ifnot thefuture which becomesakindof lastword inart. This isreally evident incontemporary art, AA AA

37 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 38 maintaining acertain stability— by aestheticization, by promoting changewhile a personalgood,anenrichment of experiment of neoliberal capitalist development: itlooks like part of the complexity of thespeculative present way that promotes changeandrevision. Thisis elite beneficiaries, andthosethereabouts, in a neoliberalism’s enrichment of experience for its of stasis: contemporary artisintegrated into so-called “end of history.” between universality andparticularsafter the in globalordering that constructs therelation human rights regime asakind-of counterpart in hercontribution to thisissue, linkingitto the Ivanova draws attention to thisoperational logic at thecostof systemic understanding. Victoria also draws attention to specificsandparticulars through anaesthetic encounter, contemporary art Via thecontinued enrichment of experience which would bethetask of poiesisorapoetics. everyday life at theexpense of itsreconstruction, presentness andof theaesthetic experience of event. Allof thisgoesback to thefetishization of city itselfturned into akind-of continual biennial whose “natural” habitat is,precisely, thesmart production andconsumption withtheprosumer, “disruptive” entrepreneurialism; theconflation of environment andcitiesasspaces of creativity and personal/individual creativity, originalityetc.; the lead inageneralaestheticization at alllevels: Let’s beclearthat thisisnot acondition SM of experiences. That iscertainly theinjunction of to are instead onlythesingularities of what isand totalitarian. What we are obligedto berestricted impossible orjustwrong-headed because be too complex to beapprehended orreworked, systemic determinations. Thelatter are held to of background condition—against making a repudiation—indirectly made, asakind Such anaesthetic/ethical appreciation is A depoliticization because it’s ade-systematization. De-politicization… superliberal— differences without politicaldemand,akind of generalization of ethics too: theappreciation of experience asanaesthetic. That isalsoa Yes, theaestheticization of experience, or everything. An aesthetic experience not justof art,butof SM SM AA SM AA

39 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 40 to do, orwhat itscontent claimsare. no matter what itclaimsto do, what itpretends doing anything butconsolidating thiscondition, contemporary artwhichisthenalsoincapable of of doing.Aswe’ve said,both are combinedin or aesthetic approaches are utterly incapable wing conservative strategies andleft-critical speculative present. Andthat iswhat both right- and that meanstheories—to gaintraction in the such reactions isto have strategies andpraxes— speculative present. complex, asreactive detemporalizations of the flattening outorsimplifyingthespeculative time the two canbeseento have common interests in of increasingly concentrated capital andpower, art’s critical claimswiththerightist interests varieties of anarcho-leftism incontemporary just remaining at thelevel of theconflation of to beemphasized here isthat rather than coherent senseonthisbasis. Butwhat needs model of domination, thisconvergence makes many of art’s criticalcontent claimsagainst that a plaything for bigpower inneoliberalism,despite as Ivanova remarks. but paradigmatic modelfor aneoliberalsociality, its socialnorms.Andto that extent itisaminor contemporary art,operating viaeach artwork and But now thequestion is:how to differfrom a post-contemporary speculative time-complex. We agree that we have to thinkandact within What isnecessaryagainst theseandother The way inwhichcontemporary artbecomes AA

41 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 42 effect of presentness establishing itself andalso a necessarily ongoingprocess of the ideologyor to someextent. Butwith hisdeconstruction, it’s It’s not theworst thing to berepeating Derrida the criticallineage that needsto besurpassed? Derrida again, even thoughheisakey figure in presentification. So, ina way, aren’t we just doing is nolessanextended socialhistorical present, on. We are contending that that contemporaneity presence—ontologically, intime, space, and so reconstituted. For him,thetask isto deconstruct adequate to itselfneedsto bedismantled and Derrida proposes that thepresent heldto be social, politicalandlanguage formations. And Western tradition butalsocorrelative prevailing not justthemain philosophicaldoctrines inthe category of western metaphysics, circumscribing presence? For Derrida,presence istheprimary Jacques Derrida’s criticismof themetaphysics of our wishto get pastcontemporaneity not just understand thedifficultieshere. Namely, why is sure. Onefurthertheoretical point might helpus That isthefundamental politicalquestion,for sense of introducing adifference to it? capable of accelerating thetime-complex, inthe domination? What would beaspeculative politics however elsewe might characterize that form of its exploitative formation by neoliberalism, a difference into thespeculative present from of it?How doesaspeculative theoryintroduce the capitalist orfinancial-feudalistic version AA SM something positive. lineage of critique hebelongsto isnot necessarily and subtracting itendorsedby Derridaandthe anyway, andtheconstant procedure of changing present mustadmit that meaningisalways there all suchattempts, thereworking of thespeculative and alsothelogicof thecontemporary. Contrary to that’s avery modernist,twentieth-century logic, as are emptiness andnon-readability. AndIthink thing, andsubtraction, whichisthegoodthing, between meaning orcontent, traditionally thebad or of a“différance” that plays withtheopposition fetishes of Frankfurt School,of thenon-identical, aesthetic of thenegative, not so far away from the this goesdown alltoo well withatedious modernist time, so it’s anunending procedure. Unfortunately, deconstructed anditdeconstructs itselfallthe being deconstructed: Metaphysics needsto be

43 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 44 established meaning. experience of vulnerability. He railsagainst emphasis of analways singularandirreconcilable aesthetics. Butitisalsoanethics, withits You are right to say Derridaendsupin an present. possibility of understanding timethanviathe an ontology of time, aslongitgives usanother logic of interruption. Idon’thave aproblem with speculative time-complex we are nolongerinthat of someof Badiou’s tedious disciples).Butwiththe interruption, of emptying out,andsoon(justthink that isanongoingcelebration of thegesture of its other merits are, you endupinanaesthetics of lastcentury’s aesthetic philosophy, whatever SM SM So, withdeconstruction andmostother strands here includes allthe procedures of interruption, speculative time-complex. Contemporaneity of presence against itsdeconstruction by the contemporary” enforces istheretrenchment do itbetter thanDerrida. Inthislight, what “the nexus effectuate that deconstruction, andthey that are involved.¹⁰ Butthepoliticallydifficult and displacements of space, locality, andontology in hisdiscussionof teletechnologies andthe complex. Derridaspeaks to thissomewhat of presence because of thespeculative time- affirmed. We are thennolongerina metaphysics of presence andmeaningintheway that Derrida complex societies isprecisely thedeconstruction instrumental operations are occasionedintime- presence. That is,theway that semantics or economic—operation of thedeconstruction of is thesocietal—meaning mainly technical and the construction of thespeculative time-complex is compatible withyour response, butit’s that Certainly. Idon’tknow ifmy additional observation On thecontrary. We shouldnot beafraid of establishing meaning. ¹⁰ Jacques Derrida (Cambridge: Polity, 2002). Filmed Interviews Echographies of Television: and Bernard Stiegler, SM SM AA

of thestate-business capitalization. The“they” though processes of actually taking place meaning andsoonare deconstruction of time, that thesought-after these discussionsis mostly evaded point in

45 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 46 deconstruction. as well asmany others includingsemantic subtraction, delay andnon-identity you mention, formation of thetime-complex isakind of limited has sosuccessfully done. That capitalized exploitation onthisrevised basis,asneoliberalism just aboutdrawing profits and exacerbating to engage withthetime-complex that isnot in artandelsewhere, what isneededaway speculative present that iscontemporaneity sorry complex of right andleft reactions to the To return to your question: incontrast to the SM SM Speculative Present Grammar of the

No, no. Thecontemporary is aconstant in the1990sonother terms.¹¹ What they callrisk involved inthenotion of “risk societies” diagnosed contingency. That iswhat UlrichBeckandothers that itopensupmore societal andsemantic No, Idisagree. Ithinktheproblem precisely is or contingency of thefuture aswell asthepresent. time-complex because itrepudiates theopenness also reduces thespeculative dimensionof the speculative logic. Buttheneoliberalformation institutions functioning inaccordance withthis temporality, inpartasithasestablished in partbecause itacts withinthe speculative formation of neoliberalismhasanadvantage social, technological, politicalandeconomic The problem isthat onehasto admit that the neoliberal capitalism. be accumulated now aspertheshort-termism of to presentification because theprofits have to present; onethat for allof itscomplexity reverts and restricted organization of thespeculative ¹¹ UlrichBeck,Risk (London: SAGE, 1992). Society: Towards a New Modernity, trans. MarkRitter, AA AA SM AA a quasi-order). (more accurately, for asocietal order future asthecondition complex opensupthe the speculative time- in thepresent of how is theacknowledgement

47 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 48 or asynchronous present; are there different alternative actualizations of thespeculative it, anditshapes ourtemporality. Are there speculative present. Itunderstands it,it practices The post-contemporary works withinthe contemporaneity isto changetime? So thetask of thepost-contemporary against not separable. of language andthemateriality of time, whichare meaning, butreally onthelevel of the materiality And Iamarguing not onthelevel of justsemantic the reduced form of thespeculative time-complex. decorative—objects ormeaningsthat maintain critical artmostlyproduces different—essentially, just seesthecapitalist effects of it.Contemporary speculative timeandreduces itto thepresent. It is not wrong, itdoesn’tseethe possibilitiesof of criticismtypicalof thecontemporary (left) art produces anautomatized future. Whilethekind economic system hardly allows for, because it difference that theneoliberalorneofeudal to thefunctionality of theclock. Andit’s this one.Akzeleration introduced akindof difference ahead—not acircular movement, butarecursive old days, whenaclock was too fast.Adeviation The latter really meanssomething like, inthe acceleration asaspeedingup, andAkzeleration. distinction between Beschleunigung,whichis movement of time. TheGermanallows for doesn’t introduce adifference to the recursive production of innovations anddifferences, butit AA AA SM past and thepresent have to be understood in to understand that alltenses are modal.The philosophy—but alsopolitically—it’s important the conjunctive (“Icouldgo.”). Inlanguage (“Go!”), theindicative (“She goes.”),and There are three modes ingrammar:theimperative What doyou meanby “indicative?” as akindof indicative future. understand the future inanopenway and not just take another example, theissueishow dowe technoscience). Withspeculative poetics, to past (culture) andfuture (entrepreneurial between local anduniversals, orbetween of meaning,scramblingany simpleopposition in Asiaby specifichistorical-culture formations entrepreneurialism supportandare supported and abstractions intrinsic to scientific science.” Sheoutlineshow theuniversalisms anthropology of what shecalls“cosmopolitan highlights someof theseconstructions inher readings of it?Inhercontribution, Aihwa Ong AA AA SM

49 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 50 paradoxically andself-destructively, realizing actualized for fear of instrumentalization and, and justaset of potentials that mustnever be present to construct afuture. The future isonly doing anything ormobilizingthespeculative setting upoptions withpotentials, without actually contemporaneity are emphatically limited only to the present. Claimsincontemporary artand speculative time-complex to thedomination by left today, andalso, again, thelimitation of the “potentiality” everywhere across thecritical potentiality, whichisunrealized. where thesubject of thesentence isleft witha or couldgo,” butthey didn’t.Andthisisasense have happened,butdidnot happen:“they would What itsets upisasensethat actions could Is theconjunctive theform of contemporaneity? subsequently into apasttense. tense istransformed into apresent tense and but themainpoint isthat modeishow afuture not yet going.Maybe that’s too technical for here, mode orthefuture tense inthepresent you are going, sowhether you are usingtheconjunctive conjunctive isconstructed before you are actually get abitmore into thetechnical analysis, the to thepresent (“Iwillhave gone”). But,ifImay misunderstood by theclosure of speculative time by thelogicof thecontemporary logicandisoften possibility. Itisthiscontingency that isreduced close inthat they both deploy thegrammarof future tense andtheconjunctive modeare pretty a modalway—primarily asindicative. Butthe That makes senseof thecelebration of SM

51 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 52 subjected to anautomatized future, whether act differently inthepresent instead of being different future and thepossibility to doand organized difference that opens up not just a the hiddencommand“Go!” (imperative). conjunctive) and“Igo” (future tense indicative) is imperative. Inbetween “Icouldgo” (present tense successfully realized, whichhappensby way of an happens inthepresent onlyifaconjunctive is exclusively to theindicative mode. Afuture time initsopenness,instead of subjecting it grammar isaway of understanding speculative tense into apresent tense. That’s why for me it earlier—are meansfor transforming afuture we live in—aZukunftsgenossenschaft asIcalled praxis adequate to thespeculative temporality Yes, andwhat isneededinstead for athinkingand The contemporary isa-modal? to get ridof ana-modal understanding of time. “is,” justastenses don’trepresent time. We have via theindicative. Butthepresent isnot justan the future orthepresent here are understood only present that becomesreal; ingrammatical terms, to becontingent buttheonlypossiblefuture contemporaneity doesnot understand thefuture The reduction of thetime-complex to the present. in any present afuture radically distinct from For me, it’s exactly thisgrammatically AA SM AA which is to the advantage of arelatively new kind that suggestsa new opennessto thefuture, line against itsreceived andmodernist logics Esposito identifies a scrambling of thetime- present inlarge-scale integrated societies. infrastructures and systemics of thespeculative we are talking aboutare made of thebroad language anditsgrammar. Theconditions the construction of thetime-complex beyond issue demonstrate, we alsoneedto generalize OK, butasnearlyallthecontributions to this via grammatical analyses. conceptual level. Thesecomplexes canbetackled and ontological level, not justonalinguisticor changes meaningandtime—andonamaterial generally, we have to understand that language it’s by preemptive policingorderivatives. More SM SM

53 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 54 with the legacies of feminism given justsuch formation takes place. LaboriaCuboniks wrestle practical manifestations of where andhow identity ethno-cultural terms inAsia,transforming the of ascientific enterprise that makes sense in issues inthespecificcase of thefabrication also takes upthejurisdictional andoperational and, simultaneously, alonglongertime-lines; Ong “Speculative Design”to more specificscenarios extends thesepossibilitiesundertherubricof rendering of humanactivity. BenjaminBratton to transform thefundament of thecapitalist techno-social advance of robotics andautomation while SrnicekandWilliamslookto thesystemic relations between particularsanduniversals, constructed viaunstable restagings of the a new globaljuridico-politicalquasi-order is otherwise. Ivanova makes thecasefor how of capital accumulation butcanbemobilized of contemporaneity and what you identify as formats thanthekindof repressive mechanisms reordering thespeculative time-complex inother it gives usashuman linguistic actors away of organization. So, whilepoetics asyou present and mediation necessaryfor large-scale social, technological, economicstructuring a fundamental conditionof thesystemic, language andtheirordering. That’s of course and affordances of more orlessordinary human seems to meto betoo tiedinto thestructures as anamefor production ingeneral,itstill My divergence isthat, first, even taking poetics language theoryinstead of anaesthetic one. understanding” which,for me, isinformed by but inany casewe needwhat Icalla“poetic We needmore thanalanguage theory, for sure, material andsemiotic condition. wide enoughasamechanismto meet thebroad only partof thisintegrated complex butnot (presumably onlysome)humanlanguages is the speculative present, theconstructions of of experience asabasisfor apprehending of codingat any andevery order. General Intelligence completely changethespace the kindsof intelligence inaugurated by Artificial of a“Disconnection Thesis”according to which Roden scramblesbody, affect, language inlight bodies, identities, andconcepts of selfhood;and futural andtechnoscientific reorganization of SM SM AA In general,andsimilarlyto theinsufficiency

55 The Speculative Time Complex Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik 56 Berlin, 29January2016. a conversation heldin Revised transcript of its widestformation. expansive infrastructure of thetime-complex in however, we needagrammaradequate to the at aplanetary scale. Even more generally, conditions of computation that isinterconnected according to thematerial andinfrastructural “The Stack,” whichrearranges sovereign power time-lines, not leastwithhisidentification of concrete ways andwithspecificsituations and Speculative Designinthisissueputsforward in languages. Thisiswhat Bratton’s proposal of structured interms other thanthoseof human time-complex initsinfrastructures that are more non-linguistic terms. We have to openupthe restructuring are operationalized alsoin the indicative, it’s alsonecessarythat the

—Benjamin H.Bratton On Speculative Design

57 What is at Stake in the Future? Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek