About

Aaron Schuster (born 1974) is a writer and philosopher, currently completing his PhD at the Catholic University of Louvain on the concept of pleasure in philosophy and psychoanalysis. He is a Visiting Lecturer at HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts), Ghent and Theory Instructor at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios), Brussels. In 2005–2006 Schuster was a researcher in the Theory Department of the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. He has lectured and published widely on psychoanalysis and contemporary philosophy and his writings on art have appeared in Cabinet, Frieze, Frog, Metropolis M, and De Witte Raaf. He also co-authored the libretto for Cellar Door: An Opera in Almost One Act (Zürich: JRP|Ringier, 2008). Schuster lives and works in Brussels.

During his residency, Schuster continues his work on a book titled The Cosmonaut of the Erotic Future: A Brief History of Levitation from St Joseph to Yuri Gagarin. The book is a cultural-historical exploration of levitation, bringing together visual art, philosophy, religion, literature, science, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and popular culture. In addition, he is working on a study of the thought of Gilles Deleuze in relation to psychoanalysis (particularly Lacan), with the tentative title The Beyonds of the Pleasure Principle: Deleuze and Psychoanalysis. Part of this project, focusing on Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus–often considered the ultimate “delirious” expression of sixties radicalism–is slated for completion during the course of the residency.