Accelerationism (a rather fast conference in paris june 22-23 2017)
‘Accelerationism’ comes in very different forms. It has roots in the work of Deleuze and Guattari. But what does speeding-up produce: hypercapitalism and exploitation, social control and repression, chaos and complexification, creativity and experimentation, entropy and the decline of civilization? Is speeding up really a form of slowing down?
Take the ‘ferocious but short lived assault’ of Nick Land on complacency and the academic status quo: is he a hero or a shirk? Was he ever the ‘surhomme’ and did he then become dangerous?
Is Noys (2014) right to claim that (hyper)speed-up can never surpass capitalism, but only nourishes it? Have the stock market traders epitomized the acceleration of financial capitalism in all its unknowing and destructive potential (Lightfoot & Lilley)? Have Nietzsche and Hobbes joined forces in a social-political nightmare? Is ‘alt-right’ a perverse re-interpretation of militant Deleuzianism? Williams and Srnicek (2013) have written an accelerationist manifesto wherein they claim that rapid socio-technical change could lead to a liberatory post-work society. They oppose the appeals to (re-)territorialization, to the ‘commons’, and to the ‘local’ by championing a post-industrial future.
Indeed, what does accelerationism mean for ‘organizing’? One thing is clear; it is controversial. Organization studies has drawn its radical and critical voices from the likes of Bataille, Artaud, Blanchot, Deleuze, deLanda, Virilio; theoreticians of motility and vitality. Org. studies has all too often assumed that market capitalism and (post-)Marxist socialism are the only ‘kids on the block’. Does accelerationism point elsewhere, to permanent impermanence? What is really left of ‘organization’ and ‘organizing’ in the (post-)chaos world of acceleration?
The conveners are: Robert Earhart (AUP), Jean-Luc Moriceau (TEM: ETHOS), Hugo Letiche (U. of Leicester) and Stephen Overy (U. of Newcastle). We invite contributions of +/- 20 minutes each to discuss: Deleuze, Nietzsche, Land, thermodynamics, cybernetics, horror fiction, cyberpunk, virtual/virtuality, traders, bitcom, neo-reactionary-ism, (post- and hyper-)capitalism, etcetera from an accelerationist perspective.
Venue: American University of Paris; the afternoon of Thursday 22nd June & all-day Friday the 23rd June 2017. Proposals (one A-4) to be submitted before 01.05.2017 to: accelerationismAUP@gmail.com