On “Mid Theory”: What do we mean by ‘mid theory’? In the broadest terms, we mean to mark our interest in theoretical and critical works written in the midst of a present that can feel too close, too fast, too much. We find value in objects in the middle of things—objects that are unfinished, suspended, interposed—as well as in those things that underwhelm, flatten, or agitate expectations. Mid theory might also dilate the middle ranges of an idea—objects and questions situated between genres, between disciplines, or between temporalities. We turn our attention to the atmospheres, scenes, and backdrops that currently surround us and think of ourselves as being among rather than apart from our objects of study. We are excited by work that doesn’t try to hold itself above the present moment, passing judgment from on high, but rather embroils itself, even implicates itself in it.
More specifically, and more importantly, “mid theory” locates the space we want to build: a platform for thinking together that exists somewhere between the university and popular media. We want to wrest public intellectualism back from the universities that have captured it over the past few decades—just as we want to recover agile, shorter-form writing as a worthy vehicle for spreading enthusiasm and doing serious thinking, outside of the hype cycle and the rush to produce content. “Mid theory” isn’t a prescriptive method, nor does it denote a specific set of objects or demands. Think of it as an open, fluid orientation to the contemporary. Think of it as an invitation to begin something together, in media res.
Love this. My recent writing feels very mid—gestures of spaces and people mostly stored in hidden files; present ideas that will likely change into something else. Will that something else be better after refinement? Or worse after losing its immediacy? Just how delicate is rough-and-ready suspension? And should that thing be posted publicly or just put on the refrigerator? My recent fashion also feels very mid—conceptual, accidental pedestrian, pencil marks.
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