Trans_Thinking I: Architecture & the Mind, from Bio-Politics to Noo-Politics
October 31 & November 1, 2008
Delft School of Design: TU Delft
Organized by Deborah Hauptmann and Warren Neidich
Download Conference Outline as PDF (636 kb)
Speakers and Participants:
Yann M. Boutang, Charles Wolfe, John Proveti, Keller Easterling, Markus Miessen, Bruce Wexler, Scott Kelso, Jordan Crandall, Andreas Angelidakis, Abdul – Karim Mustapha
The aim of the TRANS_THINKING THE CITY series is to bring together experts and scholars in both the sciences and the humanities to discuss issues of relevance to current architecture and urban practices; issues effecting our cities, polis, ethos, communities. Trans_Thinking is a term employed to indicate a new mode of intellectual activity, thinking as part of mental mechanism brought to bear on emergent fields in both theoretical discourse and practice based activities operating at the margins of what has often been referred to as trans-disciplinarity. As such, Trans_Thinking attempts to think in the intervals between art, technology, politics, science and philosophy – between the so called empirical and speculative.
Outline
ARCHITECTURE IN MIND: from bio-politics to noo-politics colloquium invites thinkers in the areas of political and aesthetic philosophy, neuroscience, socio-cultural theory and visual & spatial theorists and practitioners such as architects, urbanist and artist. Two general concepts will guide the discussion: First, plasticity, generally indicating the idea of mutability, transformation and the inherent potential for change whether productive or prohibitive, positive or negative. For some this can be understood as a theoretical notion; for others a property of brain; for others still a metaphoric or diagrammatic concept applied to the culture surrounding built environment, as well as spatial analysis and design. Second, noo-power, understood generally as a power exerted over the life of the mind, including memory and attention which together form the ever evolving concept of the general intellect (nous). For some this will be directly related to current theoretical discussions on ‘noo-politics’ and ‘societies of control’; for others the term will indicate the ways and means by which the neurobiological architecture may be reconfigured; for others this will be a new and yet unconsidered concept with respects to built environments and spatial analysis and design, and this, is precisely one of the principle aims of this colloquia – to bring an understanding of the importance of this issues to the fore with respects to thinking on the City.