Introductory description

“‘Nothing’ is | the force | That renovates | the World” — Emily Dickinson

On Nothing proposes a pedagogical exclosure for the critical and practical development of mental space within the crowded time of our digitally accelerated and saturated learning environment: a seminar for slowing down to recover, together, the lost art of thinking and doing nothing. The ten hours a week this module asks of you (including our time together in seminar) will not be crammed to overflowing with readings, resources, media, links to explore. We’ll read one carefully selected group of texts per week—a poem, some excerpted critical or theoretical resources, a short work of literary fiction, though on occasion we may look at visual art or listen to music—and do lots of thinking (and talking) together. The syllabus won’t overwhelm you with an agenda for which there never is enough time. We’ll check our instruments of distraction (smartphones and laptops) at the seminar door. Instead, you’ll bring physical books (or a hard copy reading packet) to seminar and a readiness to open your mind. (On occasion, we can use the in-class A/V to watch or listen to something together.) With weekly group meditation practice, and daily practice on your own, we’ll introduce ourselves to techniques for attention, concentration, and mindfulness, and we’ll cultivate inner resources for disengaging from chains of reaction, for being fully present to one another in openness to dialogue. We’ll introduce ourselves to the mentally challenging concept of ‘nothing’—which, without a disciplined approach, can all too easily encompass everything—through reading (along with some looking and listening) that covers, over nine weeks: meditation techniques, some introduction to philosophies of nothing both Western and Eastern, a glimpse into contemporary particle physics and cosmology, some literature (poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction) about saying or doing nothing, creative practices that seek to ‘dematerialise’ the work of art and the media theory that accompanies these practices, critiques of nothing from (and negative approaches to) feminist, Black studies and Decolonial perspectives, and theories and practices for ‘degrowth’ in the face of a capitalist-induced ecological crisis. Assessment includes a midterm meditation journal (24 x 50-word entries, worth 20% of the final mark), a challenge to ‘do nothing’ (documented by a 1000-word and/or video or audio report at the end of term, worth 20% of the final mark; NB: not doing anything—for reasons we will explore in the seminar—won’t count for much), and an essay or creative project on an aspect of ‘nothing’ covered on the syllabus (worth 60% of the final mark: essays are 2,500 words, while creative projects, the format of which is to be determined in consultation with the instructor, must be accompanied by a 1,000 word reflection).

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1 ‘Beginner’s mind’: techniques for attention, concentration, and mindfulness. Philip Whalen, “Sourdough Mountain Lookout,” Joanne Kyger, “Dragon Wind of Universal Influence Whalen Says.” Selections from Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki, by By Eihei Dogen, Trans. Shohaku Okumura (Wisdom Publications, 2022). Maha-suññata Sutta: The Greater Discourse on Emptiness, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Week 2 ‘On the being of nothing’: philosophies of nothing. Guilhem de Peiteus, “Poem on Nothing. Fragments of Parmenides. Fridugisus of Tours, On the Being of Nothing and Shadows. John Scotus Erigena, Periphyseon (excerpts). Meister Eckhart, selections from German Sermons. Jean Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (excerpt).

Week 3 ‘I have nothing to say and I am saying it’: boredom, saying and doing nothing, or ‘doing life’? Andy Warhol, Sleep. John Cage, “Lecture on Nothing” (Silence), 4’33.” Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street.” Selected Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh.

Week 4 ‘Everything from nothing’: contemporary particle physics and cosmology. Rosmarie Waldrop, “Zero, or the Opening Position.” Frank Close, Nothing: A Very Short Introduction. (Optional meeting with the Elementary Particle Physics Group at U of Warwick.)

Week 5 ‘Literature of the unword’: writing nothing, or ‘at degree zero.’ Anne-Marie Albiach, “Winter Voyage.” Roland Barthes, “Writing and Silence.” Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, “Ping,” Three Dialogues.

Reading Week

Week 7 ‘No medium’: art of nothing. Information as Material, “NOTHING: A User’s Manual.” Lucy R. Lippard and John Chandler, “The Dematerialization of Art.” Craig Dworkin, No Medium (selections). Robert Rauschenberg, White Paintings. Ad Reinhardt, “Twelve Rules for a New Academy.” Ben Lerner, “Institute for Totaled Art” (excerpt from 10:04).

Week 8 ‘Much ado about nothing’: (un)gendering the void. Shakespeare (excerpts). Emily Dickinson, Envelope Poems, ed. Marta L. Werner and Jen Bervin (‘The Gorgeous Nothings’). Anna C. Chave: “Agnes Martin: ‘Humility, the Beautiful Daughter . . . . All of Her Ways Are Empty.’” Audrey Wollen, “Beware Male Artists Making Artwork About Emptiness: Nothing Does Not Belong to You.” Lee Edelman, Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing (excerpts).

Week 9 ‘The position of the unthought’: Black and Decolonial negativity. “Mutron,” Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell. Fred Moten, “Blackness and Nothingness (Mysticism in the Flesh)” (excerpts). “On Black Negativity, Or the Affirmation of Nothing: Jared Sexton, interviewed by Daniel Barber,” Society & Space (2017). Albert Wendt, The Book of the Black Star. “Overturning the Doctrine of Terra Nullius: The Mabo Case.” John Kinsella, “Is There an Australian Pastoral?” (excerpts)

Week 10 ‘Nothing at all’: the case for degrowth. Giorgos Kallis et al., “Research on Degrowth.” Andrew James Thompson, “Growth and degrowth: Dewey and self-limitation.” Marco Deriu, “Conviviality,” Sylvia Lorek, “Dematerialization,” and Chris Carlsson, “Nowtopians,” from Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, eds. Giacomo d’Alisa et al. Stefania Barca, “The Labor(s) of Degrowth.” Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (excerpts).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• initiate individualised methods for a regular practice cultivating mindfulness and concentration;
• gain a broad overview of the history and literary, philosophical and artistic practices surrounding the concept of 'nothing', along with sharpened interpretive and critical skills in reading 'nothing' across a variety of media ;
• articulate a nuanced understanding of the conceptual, social and material dimensions of the concept of 'nothing';
• understand the social and networked basis of media;
• grasp the conceptual turn in artistic production, enabling appreciation of an expanded range of practice;
• acquire familiarity with 'negative thinking' in approaches to feminist, Black studies and Decolonial perspectives as well as critiques, from these perspectives, of the role of 'nothing' in hegemonic structures of thought;
• develop cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives on 'nothing';
• implement exclosures for independent concentration within the networked attention economy.

Indicative reading list

Anne-Marie Albiach, “Winter Voyage.”
Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, eds. Giacomo d’Alisa et al.
Stefania Barca, “The Labor(s) of Degrowth.”
Roland Barthes, “Writing and Silence.”
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, “Ping,” Three Dialogues
John Cage, “Lecture on Nothing.”
Anna C. Chave: “Agnes Martin: ‘Humility, the Beautiful Daughter . . . . All of Her Ways Are Empty.’”
Frank Close, Nothing: A Very Short Introduction.
Emily Dickinson, Envelope Poems, eds. Marta L. Werner and Jen Bervin.
Craig Dworkin, No Medium.
Meister Eckhart, selections from German Sermons.
Dogen, Edei, Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki, Trans. Shohaku Okumura.
Lee Edelman, Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing
John Scotus Erigena, Periphyseon.
Fridugisus of Tours, On the Being of Nothing and Shadows.
Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming.
Information as Material, “NOTHING: A User’s Manual.”
Kyger, Joanne. “Dragon Wind of Universal Influence Whalen Says.”
Giorgos Kallis et al., “Research on Degrowth.”
John Kinsella, “Is There an Australian Pastoral?”
Maha-suññata Sutta: The Greater Discourse on Emptiness, Trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Ben Lerner, 10:04.
Lucy R. Lippard and John Chandler, “The Dematerialization of Art.”
Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street.”
Fred Moten, “Blackness and Nothingness (Mysticism in the Flesh).”
Fragments of Parmenides.
Guilhem de Peiteus, “Poem on Nothing.”
Ad Reinhardt, “Twelve Rules for a New Academy.”
Jean Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness.
“On Black Negativity, Or the Affirmation of Nothing: Jared Sexton, interviewed by Daniel Barber.”
William Shakespeare, “King Lear,” “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Andrew James Thompson, “Growth and degrowth: Dewey and self-limitation.”
Rosmarie Waldrop, “Zero, or the Opening Position.”
Albert Wendt, The Book of the Black Star.
Whalen, Philip, “Sourdough Mountain Lookout.”

Research element

Some independent research will be required for an essay or creative project on an aspect of ‘nothing’ covered on the syllabus (60% of final mark).

Interdisciplinary

Week 4 of the syllabus, focused on particle physics and cosmology, includes a meeting with the Elementary Particle Physics Group at U of Warwick.

International

Syllabus includes both Western and Eastern perspectives on the concept of 'nothing,' with some introduction to secular techniques of meditation derived from Buddhist practice, as well as consideration of decolonial critiques and contexts from the Southern hemisphere and Pacific region.

Subject specific skills

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concept of 'nothing' as it has informed, and been informed by, a broad range of literary and artistic expression.

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of some of the philosophical theory around the concept of 'nothing,' including context from the physical sciences.

Demonstrate familiarity with feminist, critical race theory, decolonial and ecocritical perspectives in contemporary literary-critical studies.

Demonstrate capacity for appreciating and interpreting aesthetic experience across a range of media.

Transferable skills

Demonstrate developed oral and written communication skills focused on complex theoretical material.

Demonstrate critical thinking and an ability to analyse literary and aesthetic productions to uncover theoretical contexts and to synthesise ideas across a range of media and disciplines.

Demonstrate independent research skills and ability to engage both creatively and critically with challenging concepts.

Demonstrate familiarity with techniques of mindfulness and concentration.