We are currently transitioning from an economic system dominated by artisanal and industrial production to one ruled by information with its emphasis on communication, affect and cognition. Not without controversy, the term cognitive capitalism has been coined to describe these new sets of conditions. This symposium continues to pose many of the same questions asked in Part 1, held in Los Angeles in collaboration with California Institute of the Arts and Art Center College of Design, and Part 2, hosted by the ICI-Berlin but with special emphasis on what has been referred to as its ‘cognitive turn’.

Although cognitive capitalism has been investigated quite intensely in relation to such topics as abstract and immaterial labour, informational capital, real and formal subsumption, social production of surplus value, its connection to the brain itself has been so far limited. This symposium will consider the brain from a developmental point of view using such terms as neural plasticity and epigenesis to understand cognitive capitalism in light of theories of extended mind.

The symposium will consider the relationship between the attention economy, the 24/7 demagoguery of the sleepless society always on call, valorization, consumer neuroscience and conditions such as ADD, ADHD, panic disorders, autism, narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. It will utilize experts from archeology, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and politics to consider whether a new form of anti-psychiatry can be developed for the 21st century. This conference means to inform the theoretical community on all sides of these issues in the hope of producing the epistemological tools necessary to combat the new forms of authoritarian governmentalization now on the horizon.

Organized by Mark Fisher, Warren Neidich,
Speakers: Franco Berardi, Scott Lash, John L. Protevi, Bruce Wexler, Lambros Malafouris, Dimitri Papadopoulos, Amanda Beech, Matt Fuller, Luciana Parisi, Alexei Penzin, Andrea Phillips, Steven Rose, Kerstin Stakemeier.
 
23 May 2014, 12:00 - 21:00
24 May 2014, 10:00 - 19:00
 
More info here