The Conditions Of Possibility
Abstract
This research-creation dissertation documents and theorizes the January 25th Revolution of 2011, the July 3rd Coup of 2013, and the period of military rule that has followed in Cairo, Egypt. Equal parts critical ethnography, aphoristic reflection, political philosophy, and experimental documentary, the transdisciplinary project is an assemblage of images and texts that examines the political, ontological, and affective conditions of possibility in the city. Based on fieldwork undertaken between 2013 and 2015 in Cairo and drawing upon myriad conversations and pedestrian explorations, the dissertation is divided into three chapters and a conclusion, each reflecting upon a particular historical con/disjuncture while elaborating on concepts that help to orient within their dynamics. The first chapter outlines the experimental methodology of the dissertation and conceptualizes an approach to images that are produced and encountered in their nonlinear possibility. The second chapter examines the January 25th Revolution and theorizes how possibility emerged as a form of power from the assemblies of Midan Tahrir. The third chapter explores the security practices of the military regime that have attempted to extinguish the possibility of the assemblies. The conclusion analyzes how the possibility of the assemblies is preserved in obscure and encrypted practices of remembering. The research-creation version of this project can be found online at: http://www.conditionsofpossibility.com.