Unnamed: A Conversation at the Edge of Sense

Unnamed: A Conversation at the Edge of SenseFeaturing Bayo Akomolafe and Nora BatesonHosted by Alex ForresterThere is a strange doubling in our times.On one hand, an over-inflation of sense-making: everything must be explained, processed, optimized, and made legible to algorithms and governance. On the other, a profound exhaustion of sense: the feeling that nothing makes sense anymore, that our categories are failing us, that the old maps no longer describe the territory.These are not separate crises. They are one movement: they mark the dynamics of the frantic work of trying to restore coherence to a world that keeps exceeding our grasp.And what rushes in to do this work?Authoritarian movements are winning the sense-making game right now. They offer clean hierarchies, clear enemies, the comfort of knowing exactly who belongs and who doesn't. Meanwhile, progressive responses often remain trapped in the soft governance of betterment: more therapy, more processing, more wellness initiatives, more breakthroughs. One offers the sword. The other offers the gentle nod. But both attempt to seal the cracks, to make the world legible again.What if there is something else? What if there’s a staying with the non-legible that lies in excess of the usual parameters of the political? Perhaps, not another position, not another program, but attention to what moves in the gaps, the places where mastery fails and something unnamed slips through. The French fries eaten in the rain might be closer to justice than the courtroom. A child's nonsense song might carry more weight than a policy brief. The spider, the spit, the laughter that arrives for no reason. These are not absences of meaning. They are refuges from capture.Unnamed gathers two thinkers – Nora Bateson and Bayo Akomolafe – to sit at this edge. They gather not to explain. They gather not to solve. They gather to notice what trembles just before language coheres, and to ask: what forms of aliveness are stirring outside the logics of healing, justice, and progress?This in-person event will take place in The Sanctuary at Saint James Place, Great Barrington, MA.