This talk takes a historical look at some of the concerns we are facing today with the triumph of the neoliberal economy – an economy that is underpinned by a post-democratic political reality populated by atomistic individuals programmed in their desires to compete for possession and wealth but at once overwhelmed by fears, dangers and risks. The talk goes back to what historians call the “financial revolution” that took place in England at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the ensuing financial crisis that shook Europe in the late 1710s. It was during this time that speculation with future gain was first established as a key mode of capital accumulation (in close relation with colonial trade) with significant socio-psychological consequences. The “revolution” was accompanied with the rise of a new kind of “possessive individual” attached to expectations, calculations and imaginary gains, and driven by passions, needs and self-interests – as well as, curiously, with particular media historical developments. Namely, those involved in trading with futures were called “projectors,” and the virtualization of things and relations via speculation became understood with regard to the key entertainment medium of the time: the magic lantern, which first materialized the kind of virtual and fictional imagery that our current media culture is based on. This talk discusses these coincidences; how both economic relations and images were released from their material constraints as (imaginary or optical) projections, and how simultaneously, the forces of egoistic passions were triggered within the individual as a form of government. Here, we might find resonances with our current (visual) media economy in which selfishness and the pursuit of one’s impulses and desires have been, once again, unleashed as political and economic weapons.

KOORDINATION
Dr. Bernd Bösel, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer, Universität Potsdam

Personen

Dr. Pasi Väliaho is Senior Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He studies relations between images, technologies and culture. His work moves across historical periods, from seventeenth-century optical machines to early cinema and contemporary screens, bridging art, science and philosophical thought. His publications include Biopolitical Screens (MIT Press, 2014) and Mapping the Moving Image (Amsterdam UP, 2010), as well as numerous essays and edited collections. His current research project, ‘Kingdoms of Shadows’, investigates the politics and archaeology of the projected image in modernity.

Dr. Bernd Bösel ist seit dem Wintersemester 2015 / 2016 wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Studiengang Europäische Medienwissenschaft an der Universität Potsdam. Er arbeitet an einer Theorie der »Plastizität der Gefühle« mit besonderem Hinblick auf das Wechselverhältnis von gegenwärtigen Affekt- und Psychotechnologien und philosophischen Selbst- und Psychotechniken. Veröffentlichungen: mit Patrick Baur und Dieter Mersch (Hg.): Die Stile Martin Heideggers (2013), mit Eva Pudill, Elisabeth Schäfer (Hg.): Denken im Affekt (2010); Philosophie und Enthusiasmus – Studien zu einem umstrittenen Verhältnis (2008). Mehr unter Bernd Bösel

Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer hat mit dem Wintersemester 2015/16 den Lehrstuhl für Medientheorie/Medienwissenschaft am Institut für Künste und Medien im Studiengang Europäische Medienwissenschaft übernommen und ist seit 2016 geschäftsführende Direktorin des ZeM. Sie war von 2000-2015 Professorin für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaft/Gender Studies an der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, von 1999-2000 Vertretungsprofessorin (Professur Gertrud Koch) am Institut für Film- und Fernsehwissenschaften an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Im Zentrum ihrer Forschung steht das Verhältnis von Körper und Medientechnologien, die Beziehung von sozialen Fantasien und Medien sowie die Erarbeitung einer „posthumanen/relationalen“ Medientheorie. Des Weiteren stehen seit vielen Jahren Fragen von Affekt/Emotion als human- und medientechnisch konstitutive Funktion im Zentrum ihrer Forschung.
Mehr unter Marie-Luise Angerer