Taylor and I are pleased to present to you the initial results of an ongoing experiment: recording our theoretical jam sessions, so we could capture our thinking more immediately. We invite you to take a listen.

We have imposed no agenda on these sessions. But they have started to find a kind of logic of their own. For those curious what sort of process emerged, the machine operates something like this:

gather (regularly)

read texts/translations (together, aloud)

take notes individually (by hand)

record an hour or so of an open/innocent discussion as you can manage while the recording-device is staring you down

So far we’ve completed more than 10 episodes of varying length. The average is an hour. I’ve done the post-production myself, adding original music and voice overlays to facilitate re-listening.

We are having a really good time doing this. It has definitely helped to accelerate my thinking. But what I’m reflecting on now is how useful it has proven to put aside space and time for dialogue. Not necessarily to collaborate on any concrete project, but “merely” to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of someone else’s work/thought — a more adequate valorization, maybe. And of course this understanding can maybe motivate new thoughts, feelings, projects… But it doesn’t have to and doesn’t need to be structured around some definite end. The titles of the episodes have been drawn retrospectively.

We invite you to join us! Subscribe. Rate us. Connect with us on Twitter @theory_talk. We welcome your feedback. We are actively engaged in an experimental process of elaborating the capacities of this machine. We would love your help.