Metamorphosis

Steve Connor & Colin MacCabe

Nec manet sui similis res: omnia migrant, omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit
(Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, V. 828)

The mutability of things is a theme that remains constant from the ancient world to the modern. This issue of Static, inspired by the London Consortium course entitled Metamorphosis: from Ovid to Cronenberg, focuses on the changing forms in which change of form has been thought about and represented, in literature, myth, opera, film, art, science, and digital technology. The movement from form to form can be figured as a process of degeneration and regression (lycanthropy, transformations into lower forms), or a process of perfecting (alchemy, apotheosis). Metamorphosis is the vehicle by which different cultures think concretely about the relations between form and time, fusion and undoing, the singular and the multiple, the absolute and the intermediary.

Static 05 presents a number of essays produced by London Consortium’s students during the three year period of the Metamorphosis: from Ovid to Cronenberg course (2004-2007), along with visual and sound material derived from an open call for contributions on the theme.

The London Consortium tends to run its core courses for a period of three or four years, before replacing them. The courses offer some insight into the areas of work that Consortium faculty and students are interested in pursuing. For details of the Metamorphosis course, and other courses that have taken place at the London Consortium, please visit:

http://www.londonconsortium.com/courses/

The issue was developed in collaboration with the London Consortium PhD students Irini Marinaki, Martine Rouleau, Konstantinos Stefanis and Vlad Strukov.

Proceed to first paper »