The Lexicon · Genealogy · Contemporary
MOTEN, FRED
b. 1962
The Undercommons (The Reading Room, Without Search)
Moten, with Stefano Harney: the undercommons is the fugitive sociality inside and beneath the institution, neither admitted nor expelled. CoCA's Public Reading Room without search (§3.6) is a small undercommons: the reader cannot query; the reader can only browse. The encounter is unprogrammed. The fugitive connection between two artist entries arises by traversal, not by algorithm. The institution declines to know.