The third event of the Technology and Socialization Project — the conference Affects and Their Vicissitudes in the Postdigital Age — was held on 24–25 October 2019, at the College of Artes Liberales (University of Warsaw). Following the title of Freud’s famous paper Instincts and Their Vicissitudes (1915), the conference was an attempt to rethink the categories of affects and emotions in the postdigital age.
The concept of affect gained much currency in recent decades, as demonstrated by the work of authors such as Colette Soler, Brian Massumi, Eva Illouz, Sherry Turkle, Lauren Berlant and Dominic Pettman. Authors concerned with affect draw attention to its connection to both nature (body) and culture (politics, economy and technology). For example, Illouz claims that the development of capitalism goes hand in hand with the emergence of a highly specialized emotional culture: emotional capitalism. What are the manifestations of this phenomenon? What is the relationship between emotions and technology and especially digital technologies? Is it true that the Internet and social media thwart human capacity for affect or, on the contrary, encourage its proliferation and mutation? We hope to find answers to these and similar questions or at least clarify them during this conference.
Here you could view the conference program, book of abstracts, call for papers, venue and information about the organisers.