About this episode
Evan Calder Williams discusses his essay series 'On Paralysis' with host Brian Kuan Wood, exploring themes of stoppage, sabotage, and the implications of paralysis in contemporary society.
Editor Brian Kuan Wood talks to Evan Calder Williams about his e-flux journal essay series, "On Paralysis." Recorded in May 2025 before the launch of e-flux journal issue #152, the conversation discusses stoppage, sabotage, disability, delay, and damage, as well as the critical tools the "On Paralysis" series finds in the hidden intimacies between limited movement and expressive power. Read all four installments of the series here: Part One , Part Two , Part Three , and Part Four . Paralysis has become a term and idea inseparable from contemporary understandings of subjectivity, infrastructure, politics, and war. Conjuring associations of indecision, physical immobility, and trauma, it names a breakdown of the normal processes of circulation and information that promise systemwide health and seamless flow. But what if the very smoothness of these circuits of production is precisely what debilitates human bodies and broader systems of relay and exchange? And what are the potentials for refusal and unexpected agency that can be found in the interval when nothing works like it's supposed to? Evan Calder Williams is an associate professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies for Bard…
People in this episode
Host: Brian Kuan Wood
Guest: Evan Calder Williams
Topics covered
- paralysis
- subjectivity
- infrastructure
- politics
- disability
- agency
Keywords
- paralysis
- subjectivity
- infrastructure
- politics
- disability
- agency
- stoppage
- sabotage
- delay
- damage
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: e-flux
Books & works: On Paralysis, Combined and Uneven Apocalypse, Roman Letters, Shard Cinema, Towards a Gay Communism, Inhuman Resources
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