the live feed from Rio

There seems to be a 35-second time lag in the live feed (I tested it during Shaviro’s talk), but the technical quality of it is excellent.

Rio de Janeiro event, Day 1 wrap-up

The title of Latour’s keynote was, of course, music to my ears: “Where do objects reside if not in the res extensa?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question. He doesn’t think objects are res extensa, or “matter” of any sort, and used his new “modes of existence” model to argue the point.

Latour also seems to be hot in Brazil right now. There were 1,200 requests for the 200 seats, and people were reportedly lining up at 7 AM (roughly 9 hours ahead of time) simply in hopes of getting the seats of no-shows.

After the lecture there was a speaker’s dinner at a nice neighborhood restaurant on a hillside in Santa Teresa. And how could I not be satisfied with banana stew for dinner? Great item.

We’re starting again at 9 AM tomorrow. (I’m going at 11 AM, which I suppose is 10 AM in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone.) It will be live-streamed HERE.

One thing about the panels at this conference. All are two-person panels featuring one Brazilian and one non-Brazilian. All the Brazilians are speaking in Portuguese as far as I know, and while those of us here on the ground get good simultaneous translation from the Portuguese, if you’re watching at home I doubt that will be the case.

The first panel tomorrow is Lucia Santaella from São Paulo (she’s an important Peirce scholar in Brazil) along with Steven Shaviro. Then Erick Felinto and I go next, I’m not sure in which order. Erick is, among other things, the logistical mastermind who put this very complicated show together.