Robert Pfaller

Ästhetik der Interpassivität
VOLUME 175

The Concept of Interpassivity

People who record films rather than watch them; students who make copies of writings rather than peruse them; book lovers who array books on the shelf rather than read them: to understand phenomena like these, Robert Pfaller has coined the concept of interpassivity, which describes the delegation of pleasure to others, to devices, animals, or plants. Ubiquitous in everyday culture, it now surfaces with growing frequency in artistic strategies—not least importantly as a critique of the ideas about interactivity that vocal proponents try to sell artists on. Starting out from the fundamental question of why people would prefer to palm their pleasure off on others instead of enjoying it themselves, Pfaller develops an aesthetics of interpassivity, laying out its theoretical principles and refining it in brief case studies, including on Adi Hoesle, Robert Jelinek, Dostoevsky, and dance.

The philosopher Robert Pfaller (b. Vienna, 1962) held visiting professorships in Chicago, Berlin, Zurich, and Strasbourg and currently teaches cultural studies and theory at University of Arts Linz. From 2009 until 2014, he was professor of philosophy at the University of Applied Art Vienna.