Mr Aleksei Ziniuk

Research project: The Socialist Being of a Thing: The Concepts of Object and Structure in Soviet Constructivism and Bruno Latour's Legacy

Abstract

This thesis gives an ontological interpretation of Soviet Constructivism and critically connects this interpretation to the problem of structure and agency as it is elaborated within contemporary post-human philosophical approaches and their radical cross-disciplinary aspirations. Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory has laid the basic methodological ground for a shift from the problem of the ontological specificity of non-human objects to the more pragmatic and local problem of agency. Yet, Latour's agents sometimes become quasi-objects, sometimes - things; a sign of confusion within the contemporary transdisciplinary field of philosophy which prevents the kind of theoretical unity required for its concrete socio-political credibility. This raises the question of the possibility of finding a different historical elaboration of a similar problem: in the Soviet Constructivist concept of the thing (vesch') and its relationship to everyday life (byt). However, to project Soviet Constructivism into the post-Latourean philosophical framework requires a re-evaluation of its historical legacy and own internal theoretical self-understanding.

  • Research degree: PhD
  • Title of project: The Socialist Being of a Thing: The Concepts of Object and Structure in Soviet Constructivism and Bruno Latour's Legacy
  • Research supervisor: Professor Peter Osborne
  • Other research supervisor: Professor Eric Alliez

Biography

Originally from Nakhodka, Russia, I completed a BA in Humanities, Society & Culture at the Anglo-American University, Prague. I then received an MA in Philosophy & Contemporary Critical Theory (working on Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space and the Soviet Avant-garde) at the CRMEP before starting a PhD at the same place. 

Areas of research interest

  • Critical Art History
  • Philosophical Art Criticism
  • Bruno Latour
  • Post-Kantian Philosophical Constructivisms
  • Contemporary Post-humanism
  • Soviet Constructivism, Productivism, Factography
  • Sergei Tretyakov
  • Nikolai Chuzhak
  • Historical Marxism
  • The Concepts of Thing (vesch'), Everyday Life (byt), Fact

Qualifications

  • B.A. in Humanities, Society & Culture, Anglo-American University, Prague
  • M.A. in Philosophy & Contemporary Critical Theory, Kingston University (CRMEP)

Funding or awards received

  • CRMEP 9900£ Prize Scholarship (2020)
  • Techne AHRC Fully Funded Studentship (2023-2026)