Samet Yalçın
Ein Totengespräch: Topoi of (In-)Finitude in Platonov, Heidegger, and Fedorov

Through an imaginary dialogue between Andrei Platonov, Martin Heidegger, and Nikolai Fedorov, this thesis focuses on topological articulations of finitude and infinitude. It asks the following question: How is the work of the uncontainable—or that which cannot be appropriated (be it finite groundlessness or the in(de)finite cosmic expanse)—spatially articulated in their writings? Central to this inquiry is the question of what kind of topos is being worked through in their treatment of space and place, and what happens to the image and imagery when the spacing out of the space itself enters into them? The dialogue traces a tension that unfolds between two poles: an earth-bound phenomenological orientation and a more cosmic, skyward trajectory, the latter particularly resonant in early Soviet thought and art. 

Supervision
Anne von der Heiden

Short Bio
Samet Yalçın (*1987 in Istanbul) is a PhD candidate at the University of Arts Linz, Department of Art History and Art Theory, and a university assistant in the PhD Research Collective. With a background in philosophy and sociology, his research focuses on 20th-century continental philosophy, conceptions of world, place, and space, planetary thought, the philosophy of technology, concepts of temporality, the Russian avant-garde, and affect theory.