5 documents
# 65
Sharing Instinct: An Annotation of the Social Contract Through Shadow Libraries
Sean Dockray and Lawrence Liang
Foederis aequas Dicamus leges
(Let us make fair terms for the compact.)
—Virgil’s Aeneid , XI
Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. 1
June 30, 2015
Dear Sean,
I have been asked by Raqs Media Collective to contribute to a special ongoing issue of e-flux journal that is part of the Venice Biennale. Raqs’s section in the issue rethinks Rousseau’s social contract and the possibility of its being rewritten, as a way of imagining social bonds and…
e-flux Journal
Posted: May 1, 2015
Category
Internet
Subjects
Libraries & Archives, The Commons
# 56
Ultranationalism: A Proposal for a Quiet Withdrawal
Lawrence Liang
I developed an early suspicion of any form of nationalism courtesy of a geography teacher and an imaginary cricket game. As the only student of Chinese origin in a high school in Bangalore, I was asked by my teacher in a benign voice who I would support if India and China played a match. Aside from the ridiculousness of the question (China does not even play cricket), the dubious intent behind it was rather clear, even to a teenager. Still, I dutifully replied, “Sir, I will support India,”…
e-flux Journal
Posted: June 1, 2014
Subjects
Ultranationalism, Affect, Withdrawal
e-flux Criticism
Posted: March 18, 2014
Subjects
Art Market, Science, The Cosmos, Outer Space, Futures, Indian Subcontinent
# 37
Shadow Libraries
Lawrence Liang
Over the last few monsoons I lived with the dread that the rain would eventually find its ways through my leaky terrace roof and destroy my books. Last August my fears came true when I woke up in the middle of the night to see my room flooded and water leaking from the roof and through the walls. Much of the night was spent rescuing the books and shifting them to a dry room. While timing and speed were essential to the task at hand they were also the key hazards navigating a slippery floor…
e-flux Journal
Posted: September 1, 2012
Category
Utopia, Literature
Subjects
Libraries & Archives
# 27
Is it a Bird? A Plane? No, It’s a Magic Chair
Lawrence Liang
Aren’t our favorite Superman stories the ones in which Superman—drained of all his powers by Lex Luthor, who has hidden kryptonite in a pill or behind a painting, take your pick—must recover his strength to outwit Luthor? Reduced to a pile of muscles, the Man of Steel is momentarily vulnerable and forced to rely on the only superpower he has left—one that we ordinary mortals share with him: his creativity and imagination. The pleasures of these stories arise precisely from the challenge of…
e-flux Journal
Posted: September 1, 2011
Category
Economy, Film
Subjects
Art Market, Documentary