Kamil Rajkowski

The review analyzes the exhibition “Cthelll” by Aleksandra Przybysz and Tomasz Kawecki as a study of human geotrauma, focused around the Romanian town of Geamăna. The author of the text analyzes the artistic strategy of the creators, who, utilizing systems of registration of large-scale objects, perform sonification and visualization of the tailings pond of the Roșia Poieni mine. Starting from the speculative geophilosophy of Reza Negarestani and the geotraumatology of Nick Land, the review situates the exhibition in the current of inhumanist materialism. Geamăna is presented as a place of the unsealing of the planetary envelope, through which the inorganic core of the Earth (Cthelll) performs an invasion into the order of the biosphere. A key element of the analysis is the juxtaposition of technocratic hyper-subjectivity (represented by the political decision to flood the valley) with the stance of hypo-subjectivity proposed by Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer. The review indicates that the role of the artist enables a transition from the position of an external observer to an entangled witness, registering processes in which the human species appears as an active vector of geotrauma.

In 'The Aesthetics of Phenomenal Presence,' Seel presents thirteen theses concerning the image and its manifestation, postulated under the influence of contemporary discourse and drawing on the contributions of Nelson Goodman and Gottfried Boehm. The author of this article focuses particularly on Seel's first three theses, discussing them in the context of potential interpretative issues. They subject them to critical analysis, referencing, among others, Ludwig Wittgenstein's concepts, which Seel rejects in his initial assumptions. The author endeavors to reconstruct the proposals of the German philosopher, highlighting the problems that thesetheses may overlook or inadequately problematize. The article examines the phenomenological approach to the material image, especially focusing on its mode of existence and the process of constituting meaning. The author also underscores Seel's attempt to encompass material images in all their forms, such as photographs, mirror reflections, or pictographic signs.

In my review, I discuss the Polish translation of Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie, published by Słowo/obraz terytoria. Originally released in December 2016, Fisher’s collection of thirteen essays explores cultural texts by figures like Howard P. Lovecraft, David Lynch and Joy Division. Fisher employs a theoretical framework heavily influenced by post-Lacanian, post-Derridean and Deleuzean concepts. The translation, of Tymon Adamczewski and Andrzej Karalus, confronted significant challenges, particularly with rendering the terms “weird” and “eerie”. I highlight the paradox of Fisher’s work, which intentionally defies traditional academic boundaries, inducing discomfort in readers accustomed to conventional analyses. Fisher’s exploration of disruptions and unsettling presences or absences is effectively conveyed in the Polish edition. The review notes the vibrant discourse the translation has provoked in Poland, drawing interest from various academic fields. I conclude that Fisher’s work transcends traditional categories, necessitating new frameworks for understanding, and the Polish edition has significantly invigorated philosophical discussions.

This article examines the role of insomnia in Emil Cioran’s philosophy. Taken as a whole, his work appears to be exceptionally significant both from the point of view of anthropology and illness narrative studies. There has never been any doubt that his life and work are dominated by a sense of ennui, loneliness and estrangement. Yet these themes are merely symptoms of more fundamental problems he grappled with, i.e. the grotesque nature everyday life, ecstasy in a life without gods, being an absolute-in-itself and absolute-for itself, etc. This study is focused on insomnia, treated as a primary anthropological category and studied with the help of phenomenological and hermeneutical methodology. Drawing on, among others, the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Arthur Schopenhauer, the article formulates a set of substantially new conceptual propositions that offer a new approach to the problematics of Cioran’s work.