Explosions of ‘Creative Indifference’ : Salomo Friedlaender, Sun Ra, Serendipity and the Idea of a ‘Heliocentre’

Abstract

What might the notion of ‘creative indifference’ have to do with performance philosophy? How can it say something about how performance philosophy acts? This chapter recounts the circumstances of Alice Lagaay’s encounter with the writings of expressionist philosopher Salomo Friedlaender (1871-1946), and with Hartmut Geerken, the instigator and driving force behind the on-going posthumous publication of Friedlaender’s works. It opens up into a conversation with Geerken, in which notions of openness and joyful affirmation, serendipity and jazz, the ability to seize the moment and improvise or take risks interplay and resonate with the idea of a ‘heliocentre’ - the neutral point of connection between all things expressible.