Illich devoted the last two decades of his life to historical studies of the body and sense perceptions. Notable in this regard was his collaboration with Barbara Duden in what she calls their “quest for a past somatics.” That quest was prompted by his growing awareness that self-perception was rapidly becoming disembodied. The theme of the 4th issue is Flesh/Body.
The fifth issue of Conspiratio is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Illich’s Tools for Conviviality. This issue is given to a dissection and elaboration of Illich’s arguments concerning tools. The cover of each printed issue was individually crafted by the artist Ernesto Bonato, whose reflections on the brush as the preeminent artistic tool is one of the articles.
The sixth issue of Conspiratio is devoted to “Nature.” For all its complexity, nature remains a potent keyword to unlock many contested areas of contemporary life. The science of climate change records man’s degradation of nature. The worldwide pursuit of a green economy is justified by the necessity to mitigate those damages. The acrimonious disputes over gender, sex, and identity pivot on the question of human nature. The dream of a post-human future is predicated on replacing the natural by the technical.