Along, Across, and Against the Grain: On Spectral Densities and Margins of Play

The wood fibre does not decide whether it will break, but only where and how it does so. What would it mean if this were also true of the apparent emptiness of the vacuum?

Taking as its starting point the quantum vacuum fluctuations – the fleeting changes in the amount of energy at a point in space – this roundtable discussion brings together three different thinkers to explore various states and conditions for the possibilities of becoming.

In an interplay between philosophy, quantum physics and radical Black thought, they ask what structures possibilities, how something takes on a defined form, and how individuality can be understood in relation to a common ground.

In doing so, the panellists approach these questions from their own respective perspectives. Cécile Malaspina examines the medieval thinker Duns Scotus and his concepts of individuality (haecceitas), a common nature (natura communis) and the univocity of being (univocitas entis). She examines this alternative understanding of reality and asks whether quantum mechanics today vindicates Scotus’s long-overlooked insights by calling into question certain fundamental scientific assumptions about individuality that date back to the 14th century and have shaped scientific thought ever since.

Sha Xin Wie explores how a state (of being) develops over time through non-discrete topological dynamical systems – whereby conditions of possibility no longer represent individual ‘fixed’ positions or recurring loops, but rather flow through an expanded field of possibilities.

Muindi Fanuel Muindi juxtaposes the polymetric, polyphonic and polyrhythmic soundscape of the Black radical tradition with that of quantum mechanics – thereby revealing an alternative repertoire of techniques of attunement that maintains the interrelationship between things without subjecting them to reduction.

This keynote discussion has emerged from a practice of collective reflection, which is the defining characteristic of the Indeterminacy Group. It also reflects the ongoing conversations with the other members of the group, Alicia Juarrero, Yagmur Denizhan and Sonia de Jager.

Following the discussion, the audience is invited to the ‘Pause on Quantum Matter’ lounge and reading area (Ceija Stojka Foyer in the auditorium entrance hall) to continue exploring open questions and ideas relating to quantum acoustics.

Venue: Safi Faye Hall

In English

Free admission

To assist with planning, all Berlin Science Week guests are asked to register online in advance for a Festival Centre Pass.

Visitors to *Fertile Void* who do not wish to or are unable to provide personal data may still gain entry without a Festival Centre Pass.