The Centre for Cultural Research Seminar Series are a regular feature of CCR’s events calendar and provide local and international scholars with the opportunity to present their ongoing work.
Thursday 10 March 2011
2:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Matteo Pasquinelli, Amsterdam/Berlin
Informationalism, Environmentalism and the Notion of Surplus
Today the information commons are often presented as the realm of the ‘digital abundance’ against the scarcity of the natural commons and the environmental crisis. Along this polarization between immaterial abundance and material scarcity many theoretical and political schools have been shaped. Opposite to a plain notion of ‘surplus’, my contribution will discuss how the information revolution features a specific form of ‘excessive production’ that is misunderstood by critical theory and political economy. We are still in need of a theory of value to properly describe contemporary capitalism in its network and cognitive extension. New definitions of immaterial surplus and energetic surplus will be scrutinized in order to provide a different perspective on both media theory and environmental discourse.
Web Page: www.uws.edu.au/centre_for_cultural_research
