Karen Barad

philosopher · 2 mentions across 2 readings

In this course

Karen Barad is a theoretical physicist and philosopher known for agential realism, a framework that rejects the separation between human discourse and material reality, treating matter itself as an active agent in worldmaking. In the course readings, her concept of "intra-activity" (rather than interaction) is deployed to argue that meaning and mattering are inseparable—that how we talk about systems is not separate from how those systems actually become and evolve. This directly troubles the human-centered assumptions underlying much AI and cybernetic discourse, positioning Barad's work as essential for thinking through how artificial systems participate in the world's ongoing material reconfiguration rather than merely representing or describing it.

Mentioned in 2 readings

Aaron French

The Mandela Effect and New Memory

Memory is therefore more complex and quasi-mysterious than we tend to imagine. As Tulving and others have argued, since this curious reliving in the present of a recalled memory is true for the past, it could also be true of the future. Wha…

Karen Barad

Agential Realism from Meeting the universe halfway_ quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning -Duke University Press (2007)

promote their mutual consideration. Crucially, an agential realist elaboration of performativity allows matter its due as an active participant in the world’s becoming, in its ongoing intra-activity. And furthermore it provides an understan…

Appears alongside

People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.

David Ingvar 1 Endel Tulving 1