An investigation of rhythm from the perspective of critical theory, philosophy and art
Rhythm and Critique presents twelve new essays from a range of specialists to define, contextualise and challenge the concepts of rhythm and rhythmanalysis, and includes newly translated materials from Rudolf Laban and Henri Meschonnic. The book begins with a genealogy of rhythm as it occurs through critical theory literatures of the twentieth century, enabling the reader to situate philosophical and contemporary readings that further define rhythm as a critical term and mode of analysis.
In placing emphasis upon rhythm as cultural technique and locating its significance for the analysis of the everyday, the book offers a clear and engaging overview of a fascinating theoretical field. It helps map a range of histories and approaches and considers how rhythm might now emerge more forcefully and pertinently as a critical framing for contemporary culture.
Paola Crespi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Topology Research Unit at Goldsmiths.
Sunil Manghani is Professor of Theory, Practice and Critique at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

Notes on Contributors

Introductions

Rhythm, Rhuthmos and Rhythmanalysis
Paola Crespi and Sunil Manghani

Could Rhythm Become a New Scientific Paradigm for the Humanities? Pascal Michon

A Genealogy of Rhythm
Paola Crespi and Sunil Manghani

Part I: Modalities of Rhythm

1. Drawing Rhythm: The Work of Rudolf Laba
Paola Crespi

2. What is at Stake in a Theory of Rhythm
Henri Meschonnic (translated by Chantal Wright, Introduced by Marko Pajevic)

3. Rhythm and Textural Temporality
Xin Wei Sha and Garrett Laroy Johnson

Part II: Sites and Practices

4. Attunement of Value and Capital in the Alogrithms of Social Media
Beverly Skeggs and Simon Yuill

5. Idiorrhythmy: An (Unsustainable) Aesthetic of Ethics
Sunil Manghani

6. Adventures of a Line of Thought: Rhythmic Evolutions of Intelligent Machines in Post-Digital Culture
Stamatia Portanova

Part III: Rhythmanalysis

7. The Configuring of 'Context' in Rhythmanalysis
Yi Chen

8. City Rhythms: An Approach to Urban Rhythm Analyses
Caroline Nevejan and Pinar Sefkatli

9. Rhythm, Rhythmanalysis and Algorithm-Analysis
Julian Henriques

Index

Paola Crespi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Topology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Body & Society (2014, print) and Theory, Culture & Society (2015, Online). She is Section Editor for Cultural Studies and Critical Theory for the Open Journal of the Humanities and is a member of the Editorial Board of Evental Aesthetics: An Independent Journal of Philosophy.

Sunil Manghani is Professor of Theory, Practice and Critique at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton