About this EpisodeIn this episode, we explore how agency, authorship, and creativity have long been imagined in spatial terms—from ancient poets and muses to modern artists like Cézanne and Cindy Sherman. Drawing on philosophical, anthropological, and artistic accounts, this chapter unpacks the surprisingly persistent idea that the self must be "emptied" before it can be filled. Is agency something we possess—or something that possesses us?About this Series
Scripting for Agency: An Artistic Enquiry into Selfhood, Character and Agency in the Age of AI is a video lecture series based on Dr Katarina Ranković’s practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Combining philosophy, performance, creative writing, and AI theory, the series explores how our understanding of the self shapes our personal lives, our politics, and our relationship to intelligent technologies.Links
Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/sfa-series
PhD thesis (PDF format): https://bit.ly/sfa-pdf
Thesis artworks: https://bit.ly/sfa-art
References
- Blanchot, Maurice. The Book to Come, trans. Charlotte Mandell. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003.
- Burke, Sean. Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.
- Deleuze, Gilles. Difference and Repetition, trans. Paul Patton. London: Continuum, 2001.
- Gell, Alfred. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
- Lau, Heidi. “Heidi Lau’s Spirit Vessels.” Art21, uploaded 1 June 2022.
- Pamuk, Orhan. Snow, trans. Maureen Freely. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.
- Plato. Ion, in Authorship, ed. Sean Burke, 14–18.
- Sherman, Cindy. “Characters.” In The Essential Cindy Sherman, ed. Amanda Cruz et al., 173–75. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.