Programme without Transmission: On the Translatability of Benjamin’s Radio Work
Dominic Smith (University of Dundee)
5-6:30pm, Wednesday October 9
Dalhousie 2F15
This presentation argues for the strong contemporary relevance of Walter Benjamin’s radio work (1927-1933), despite 1.) his low opinion of it as a means of subsistence (Rosenthal 2014: xvii), and 2.) the fact that auditory fragments of only one of his c.93 broadcasts exist (Baudouin 2022). This is because what calls out for translatability from Benjamin’s surviving radio typescripts is a ‘programme’, less in the sense of a particular radio transmission or ‘show’, and more in the sense of a thoroughgoing manifesto for/demonstration of philosophical practice.
Part one positions Benjamin’s radio work as relevant through how it challenges Heidegger’s historic (and vexed) influence for philosophy of technology. Part two charts an intensifying practice of place in Benjamin’s radio work, and argues for its contemporary relevance in the face of problems of technological displacement and replacement (for instance: ‘human computation’ in translation apps). Part three places Benjamin’s radio work as an exemplary philosophy of education, with reference to three of his written ‘programmes’: ‘On the Programme of the Coming Philosophy’ (1918), ‘Programme for Proletarian Children’s Theatre’ (1928/29), and, especially, ‘The Task of the Translator’ (1923). Whereas these texts offer isolated fragments of a Benjaminian theory of education, I argue that his radio work does something more: in the absence of the radio transmissions, it constitutes a programme for a dynamic and timely philosophy of technology, place and education.
References
Baudouin, P. 2022, Walter Benjamin au micro : un philosophe sur les ondes (1927- 1933), Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme.
Rosenthal, L. 2014, Radio Benjamin, London: Verso
Dominic Smith is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Dundee, and one of the leading experts in the UK on Philosophy of Technology. Dominic’s latest book is Exceptional Technologies: A Continental Philosophy of Technology, and his current writing project involves thinking about how philosophy of technology can be broadened to speak to issues in philosophy of education, design, and creativity, with a focus on the work of Walter Benjamin. This book draws on impact and outreach work that Smith does as co-lead for the ‘Localising Philosophy’ project at Dundee.
