The 1st season of Ouroboros, our annual reading and discussion seminar series, began in March 2021. It focused on the opus of Francisco J. Varela, one of the pioneers of enactivism. In a series of sessions spanning across the year, experts, former collaborators, and friends introduced some of his key works, followed by discussion among participants and outside guests. Below you may find information on the format as well as a schedule with links to past streams and summaries of events.
Organised by: Sebastjan Vörös (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts), Metanoia, and Mind & Life Europe.
Format
The sessions take place online on Zoom for presenters and invited guests. In addition, there is a public stream to the Mind and Life Europe Youtube channel (a link to it will always be provided on this page as well). Stream viewers may ask questions, and they will be forwarded to the moderator.
Contact: Any questions should be addressed to metanoia.ouroboros@gmail.com. Note however that invites to the Zoom portion of the event are closed. You are welcome to join us on the Youtube stream instead.
Discord Community
We have also set up a Discord community for additional discussions before and after the seminars. To join it, write a short application to our email at metanoia.ouroboros@gmail.com with the subject-line “Ouroboros Discord Application”. Provide an introduction of yourself, your CV/academic background, and why you want to join the community, and after reviewing, we’ll send you a link to the Discord.
Session Structure
- Introduction by moderator.
- Presentation of article by speaker of the day (20-40 minutes)
- Discussion (60 minutes)
- Attendants write their questions to the moderator privately on Zoom, specifying whether they wish to voice them themselves or have the moderator do it in their stead.
- Keep questions short and to the point. No long lead-ins, please.
- Raise hands using the Zoom function if you wish to respond to a point and the moderator will invite you to speak when the opportunity arises.
- Postfestum: The events will be uploaded to our Youtube channel, and a precis of the session will be posted on this website for easier tracking.
Schedule
Every session will begin at 18:00 Central European Summer Time.
| Date | Topic | Presenter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 March | Varela, “Calculus of Self-Reference” (1975) and Varela & Gougen “The Arithmetic of Closure” (1978) | Louis Kauffman | » Watch » Summary |
| 7 April | Varela, “Not One, Not Two” (1976) | Evan Thompson | » Watch » Summary |
| 21 April at 10:00 CEST | Varela, “Autonomy and Autopoiesis” (1981) & “Steps to a Cybernetics of Autonomy” (1986) | Tom Froese | » Watch » Summary |
| 5 May at 18:00 CEST | Thompson, Palacios, Varela, “Ways of coloring: Comparative color vision as a case study for cognitive science” (1992) | Adrian Palacios | » Watch » Summary |
| 19 May at 18:00 CEST | Varela, “Organism: A Meshwork of Selfless Selves” (1991) & “Patterns of Life” (1997) | Ezequiel A. Di Paolo | » Watch » Summary |
| 2 June at 18:00 CEST | Varela, “Whence Perceptual Meaning” (1992) | Mog Stapleton | » Watch » Summary |
| 16 June at 18:00 CEST | Varela, “A Cognitive View of Immune System” (1994) | Hugues Bersini | » Watch » Summary |
| July/August = break | |||
| 1 September at 18:00 CEST | Varela, “Neurophenomenology” (1996) | Antoine Lutz | » Watch » Summary |
| 15 September at 18:00 CEST | Varela, “The phenomenology of Sunyata” | Michel Bitbol | » Watch » Summary |
| 6 October at 18:00 CEST | Varela, Depraz, Vermersch, “The Gesture of Awareness” (1999) | Claire Petitmengin | » Watch » Summary |
| 20 October at 18:00 CEST | Varela, Weber, “Life after Kant – Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality” | Andreas Weber | » Watch » Summary |
| 3 November at 18:00 !!CET!! | Varela, “Steps to a Science of Inter-being” | Hanne De Jaegher | » Watch » Summary |
| 17 November at 18:00 CET | Varela, Depraz, “At the Source of Time” (2005) | Natalie Depraz | » Watch » Summary |
| 1 December at 18:00 CET | Final Session: Varela, “Intimate Distances” (2001) | Amy Varela | » Watch |
Speakers
Click on any of the speakers to learn more about them.
