Saturday, 7 March 2020, 4 pm to 8 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery
Reading group organised by
Phyllis Metzdorf | Brad Scott
– THE WORKSHOP IS NOW FULLY BOOKED –
The term “cognitive capitalism” has been proposed to name the ways in which capitalism directly targets and shapes cognition in order to make it available for valorisation and exploitation. The intensification of demands made on the subject by the cognitive economy comes with an intensification of psychopathologies such as depression, anxiety and anhedonia. If the site of exploitation is a “social brain”, how can we both describe these effects on the “social brain” and take it up as a site for resistance and action? How are we to politicise our supposedly private psychic experience?
This reading group on the “Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism” arises directly out of a twelve-hour reading of Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism which took place at diffrakt late last year. It will take place as a series of four four-hour sessions, which will take the form of interrupted readings as practised by the No More Miserable Monday Mornings reading group. We will read the texts together with shared moderation and interruptions for questions and discussion. There is no such thing as a stupid question. There is also no pressure for anyone to talk if they don’t feel like it, and you do not have to read the texts in advance to attend.
In the first of these session, we will read “Deprivatizing Anxiety” by Mark Fisher and the zine “We Are All Very Anxious” by the Institute for Precarious Consciousness. Following sessions will draw readings from the three volumes of the collection Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism as well as Warren Neidich’s Glossary of Cognitive Activism.
There is limited space, so please, if you are interested, send an email to psycapitalism@gmail.com.
Future sessions:
Saturday, 28 March 2020, 4 pm to 8 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery
Saturday, 18 April 2020, 4 pm to 8 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery
Saturday, 2 May 2020, 4 pm to 8 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery