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Keller Easterling

No Youre Not

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

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Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go to Text

The fibonacci ratio applied to the universe.

Jane Bennett, Systems and Things: a

response
to Graham
andthe
Timothy
It is probably a mistake to elevate those attributes of the homo sapiens nervous system that long
for the
right Harman
answer,
Morton, New Literary History 34, 2 (Spring
unified field, the elementary particle, or the universal truth. These beliefs are present not only2013):
in formalized
philosophies,
225.
Go to Text

religions and political regimes of the human, but at the heart of the humans daily activities. Some cerebral constructs
the most immaterial and ephemeral of all the bodys inventionsossify into cast-iron closed loops of logical thinking that
demand to be the one and only. A dictator, professor, spiritual leader, parent or co-worker all practice daily meditations
or tireless litigations about the reasons why they are right. Almost everything else in the soft assemblies of most
organisms works by endless iteration, multiplication, or trial and error. Yet this stray symptom of stubborn self-regard
holds sway over the entire organism, causing it to constantly circle a very limited repertoire of behaviors. Observing the
fact that there do not seem to be other creatures who sit, with fins and flagellates limp, transfixed in thought about
something like dialectic and telos, humans even make the mistake of thinking that this restrictive habit
of -mind
is a gift
Notes
No Youre
Not
1
that sets them above the rest.
1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Since superiority cannot abide contradiction, the whole assembly also often oscillates between
a closed loopthe
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text
circulation of flattering and compatible evidenceand a binary fightthe vilification of non-conforming
evidence.

Fighting is essential to be right. There is no growth or ideation without argument or debate. There is no literature without
2 Stanley
Winning Arguments:
What Works
conflict. Bombastic arguments must naturally ask for successive rather than coexistent thoughts
orFish,
practices.
They must
and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
wipe away the incumbent and establish the new and transcendent. The root of the problemthe
desire
rightis
Courtroom,
andto
thebe
Classroom
(New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
treated as the progressive answer to the problem. The new right answer kills the old right answer,
and the very habits of
Go to Text

mind that help to incite violence are deployed in an impossible attempt to alleviate it. Essentially there is very little
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Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand

difference in spirit or intent between an avant-garde of ideas and an avant-garde of combat formation.
Whether
taking the
Plateaus: Capitalism
and Schizophrenia
form of intellectual sparring or all out war, these are the grisly histories of the humanities.

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

True to the disposition of the closed loop, the argument that is inescapable will, structurally, always be correct. In a recent
4 Gilbert
Ryle, The
Concept
of Mind (Chicago:
book about winning arguments, a human named Stanley Fish quotes an exchange from Monty
Pythons
The
Argument
University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Clinic. Michael Palin, who has come to the clinic to pay for an argument, says, Argument is an
process.
Go tointellectual
Text

Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says. John Cleese replies, It is NOT!
5 all
Janealong
Bennett,
Systems
Things: a
Unwittingly adding to the comedy, Fish uses the exchange to prove that he himself was right
about
theand
ubiquity

response to Graham Harman and Timothy

of argument.2 He and so many others, as if perpetually saying There you are, you see, will always
beNew
human
always
Morton,
Literaryand
History
34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.
be right. And culture continues to congratulate itself on its ability to debate or deploy the logics of reasonable thinking to
Go to Text

arrive at proofs that demonstrate the right answer.

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

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Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand

Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go to Text

Jane Bennett, Systems and Things: a

response to Graham Harman and Timothy
Morton, New Literary History 34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.
Go to Text

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones strike a pose in April 1976.

Beyond the daily preoccupations of individuals, the loop and the binary are scalable. Whole populations
of people and
and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom,
and the
(New York:
huge territories captivated by some universal belief or totalizing regime of control can move in
lock step
to Classroom
demonstrate
Harper Collins, 2016).

that they are right. Muscles and fists harden into weapons. Demonstrating all reasonable outcomes
of aggression or
Go to Text
consumption,
Related statistics, data, or game theory support rationalizing wars and markets. Global infrastructure platforms
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historically portray themselves as ultimate, transcendent, and redemptive; it was as true for railroads
as it isand
now
for
Plateaus: Capitalism
Schizophrenia

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

digital technologies that treat data as the only information of consequence in a world that is Turing
complete. It is not
1987), 15 & 53.

just ISIS teenagers who, gun and sledge hammer in hand, long for their own Caliphate.

Go to Text

4 Gilbert
Ryle,loop
The Concept
of Mind
(Chicago:
From the ancients to the moderns, those who have so suggestively attempted to break the spell
of the
and the
binary
University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
with other powers of homo sapiens are often drawn back into its vortex. With faith in corporealGoagency,
to Text polytheism and

democracy, the ancients, still often regarded as a pinnacle of culture, offered only a suggestive start in uncovering the
5 Jane
Bennett,
Systems
andright.
Things: a
organisms power. Or, to escape the iron cage of rationalized culture, we choose an ideology
that
is even
more

response to Graham Harman and Timothy

Perhaps a Marxist position will duel with the market until it arrives at a utopian ultimate, oneMorton,
that will
onlyHistory
because
of
Newfail
Literary
34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.
a lack of purity. Deleuze and Guattari provide another vivid example of philosophers so learned
that they are capable of
Go to Text

pointing to things outside their philosophyto animals, everyday practices, or colloquial expressions. Many people have
a tree growing in their heads, but the brain itself is much more a grass than a tree, they write. Yet in trying to break free,
they nevertheless deploy habits of mind that sometimes drift toward monism and binary opposition. So much getting
even, for epistemology is not innocent.3 And isnt the loop and binary securely locked in place when an attempt to escape
the humanities calls itself radical or post-human? Again, the logic that humans have prized thrives on it own selfperpetuating negation.
Notesand
- Noexceeding
Youre Not
But while difficult to express within rational structures of thought, humans are always escaping the cage

the bounds of the human. The world is run on irrationality and comedy that often will not compute
within
ourArguments: What Works
1 Stanley Fish,
Winning
andof
Doesnt
Work in Politics,
the Bedroom,
philosophies. Many things change not because of logical proof or a reasonable plan but because
irrational
desires,
and the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
the most rationalized game theory can be outwitted with a simple series of lies. For philosophers,
Harperthese
Collins,powers
2016). are often
Go to Text
treated like witchcraft or some other unknowable, magical quest, even though they are just another
kind of knowledge

that is often manifest in ephemeral, even practical, activities. This is the knowledge of useof knowing how in addition
2

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

to knowing that.4 These are the powers of Marxs mystical dancing table that is often believed
should
madethetoBedroom, the
and Doesnt
Workbe
in Politics,
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
stand still. But maybe they are really more like Gabriel Tardes social contagions, the life blood
of economies of
Harper Collins, 2016).

exchange. They are persuasions rather than arguments that start nowhere and move across populations.
Perhaps many of
Go to Text
the worlds
most puzzling problemsproblems that resist rational explanationreside in this outlying territory.
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Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand

The most dangerous human bullies and sociopaths are perhaps so sturdy because they not only
haveCapitalism
an abiding
faith in
Plateaus:
and Schizophrenia

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

the loop and the binary, but also a crafty talent for wielding irrationality and fiction. They never
tire of a circular argument
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text
either
exchange.

and engage, almost involuntarily and until their last breath, in a did-did-not or is-is not
Not only will
they not back down; they are eager to deliver an offensive strike. They are happy in the loop because they are the loop.
4 Gilbert
Ryle, The Concept
of Mind
They are the one and only, and any contradiction is not only expelled but also tracked down
and destroyed.
Still,
the(Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.

most successful bullies also know about the contagion of persuasion and how to manipulate it.GoThey
to Textknow that telling one

lie activates and strengthens rational behavior because it calls on the necessity of rational behavior to sort out and restore
5 Jane
Bennett,
SystemsThis
and Things:
truth, yet the presence of many lies begins to build up the Teflon coating on which rationality
slips
and slides.
is thea

response to Graham Harman and Timothy

power of religious leaders, politicians, and celebrities. Their siren song can cause people to stand
in single
file History
to go 34,
over
a
Morton,
New Literary
2 (Spring
cliff. Like a drunk who tries especially hard to walk as if sober and composed, as each follower2013):
falls,225.they will tell you that
Go to Text
they are more right, even more rational, than others not in line. Acting as if they alone have access to the facts, the
followers condescend to litigate the details of their project for the less reasonable or the ill-informed. The familiar human
desire to occupy a superior platform perfectly camouflages the power to seduce and hustle. So, armed only with
rationality or a desire to win the argument, it is nearly impossible to derail or interrupt this seduction or oppression,
whether from a schoolyard menace, a petty administrator or an authoritarian leader of our modern democracies.

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Related
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Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand

Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go to Text

Jane Bennett, Systems and Things: a

response to Graham Harman and Timothy
Morton, New Literary History 34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.
Go to Text

The fibonacci ratio applied to Donald Trump's haircut.

Opposition to a bully is doomed to circle the human tautology about being right, but offering an expanded repertoire of
behaviors is a power that can baffle philosophies by exceeding competition, rationality and righteous self-regard. These
powers are so familiar that they may be almost imperceptible, or perhaps they are only difficult to express within familiar
forms of discourse. In order to exist beyond the human they include the human rather than negate it. They are more than
Notes - No
Youre Not
human and sometimes beyond the skin and the self.5 While often treated as paranormal to the reasonable
human,

everyone possesses the capacity to exercise these powersto wander away from dominant1 constructs
and outwit their
Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works
persistent violence.

Design is an excellent arena in which to observe the relentlessly human as well as the

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the

Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text
possibilities
of the more than human.

Within the narrow framework of the human, design can be about the total extension of rationality into the surrounding
2

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

environment with universal systems of proportion or geometry that make claims to natural laws.
While it is easy to
and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
and the Classroom
think of a historical Gesamtkunstwerk reflecting these design ideologies, contemporary digital Courtroom,
environments
are also(New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).

locked around totalizing dreams and the very limited powers of a nervous system oversaturated
Go towith
Text optics and default
sexuality.
But design can also be about extending other powers of that nervous system. There are so many underexploited
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faculties of voice, skin, skeleton, muscles in interplay with other solids, photons, and waves. The
more
than human
doesnt
Plateaus:
Capitalism
and Schizophrenia

University of Minnesota Press,

negate human design; it only multiplies those designs in a larger field so that there are always(Minneapolis:
many instead
of only one.
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go to Text

Jane Bennett, Systems and Things: a

response to Graham Harman and Timothy
Morton, New Literary History 34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.
Go to Text

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

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Coat hangers used to build a crows nest. Photo: Yosuke Kashiwakura

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand

Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

4 Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

Beyond the design of things is the design of the medium in which they are suspended, and beyond
the design of a
University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go only
to Textfor an instant before
totalizing medium is the design of an iterative medium. The right answer is doomed to be right
its superiority is challenged. But just as navigating a river is indeterminate to be practical, time-released designs offer an
5 binary.
Jane Bennett,
Systems
and Things: a
unfolding, indeterminate set of changes that continually redirect away from the loop and the
That
indeterminacy
response to Graham Harman and Timothy
is not marginal or weakjust agile enough to respond to the moment when it is out-maneuvered.
SoNew
in addition
to the
Morton,
Literary History
34, 2 (Spring
2013): 225.

design of master plans we should see the design of reagents, mixtures, interdependencies, chemistries,
chain reactions
Go to Text
and ratchets. These designs offer no correct answer or homeostatic balance, but if there are dispositions of violence
embodied in space, are there not also dispositions that ease or neutralize tension and violence? The documents that
architects present in the future might not be snapshots of perfect moments, but specifications for linkage and
interdependency that remain in place to counterbalance and imbalance each other.
Designing the more than human is a little bit like playing pool. The balls on the table are a topology, a network of
sequenced relationships. There is no single target at which to aim but rather a stretchy network of hard and absorptive
Notes
- No and
Youre
Not
surfaces. The player who sees only one fixed sequence will sink fewer balls, reduce the potentials of the
table,
lose.
Rarely are the cue ball and its target geometrically aligned with the hole, so the majority of 1shots
involve
the expertise
of Works
Stanley
Fish, Winning
Arguments: What
and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
indirect contact and ricochet. The game is played like a chain reaction with multiple branching
possibilities that change
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:

Harper Collins,
2016).
after every shot. And yet with every shot, the most constructive thing that can be done is to increase
the chances
for more
Go to Text
shotsgenerate more branches in the network of possibilities, more information. There is no need to call each shot, and
it is better to keep the spectators guessing. Then there is also the matter of touch, which cant easily be described, but
2

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

only understood by doing it. Pool is only a reminder of all the things that can change when a body,
with
allinofPolitics,
its sentience
and Doesnt
Work
the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
and force fields, brushes against the air. It can be a matter of deliberate speed and impact, coming
from hands through the
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go toball
Text that is later
cue stick and out to the ball. But sometimes it is a matter of Englishthe spin placed on the cue
Related
transferred
to another. English is an advanced technique that cant be predicted, but it can be exploited. It is less about
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the intention of the shooter and more about something between the moving solids outside thePlateaus:
human
skin. and
TheSchizophrenia
player
Capitalism

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

who can continue to set up potentials and options can play the table longer. It is something like
being too smart to be
1987), 15 & 53.
Go to Text

right.
4

Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1949), 2733.
Go to Text

Superhumanity, a project by e-flux Architecture at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, is produced in cooperation with the Istanbul Design Biennial, the
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand, and the Ernst Schering Foundation.
5

Jane Bennett, Systems and Things: a

response to Graham Harman and Timothy
New Literary
Historyof34, 2 (Spring
Keller Easterling is an architect and writer from New York City and a professor at Yale University. Her most recent book,Morton,
Extrastatecraft:
The Power
2013): 225.
Infrastructure Space (Verso, 2014) examines global infrastructure networks as a medium of polity.
Go to Text

Notes - No Youre Not

1

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

Stanley Fish, Winning Arguments: What Works

and Doesnt Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the
Courtroom, and the Classroom (New York:
Harper Collins, 2016).
Go to Text

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