The Politics of Parametricism: Digital Technologies & the Future[s] of Sociality @CalArts

MA in Aesthetics and Politics presents

The Politics of Parametricism: Digital Technologies & the Future[s] of Sociality

A conference curated and organized by Matthew Poole and Manuel Shvartzberg, happening next Friday and Saturday 15—16 November @ REDCAT.

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This two-day conference includes a range of international experts from architectural practice and theory, and explores urgent questions that concern the social and political ramifications at stake in the evolution of computational design. Parametricism has been heralded as the new avant-garde in the fields of architecture and design—the next “grand style” in the history of architectural movements. Parametric models enable digital designers to create complex structures and environments, as well as new understandings of space, both real and virtual. Whether as tools for democratic action or tyrannical spectacle; self- and community-building capabilities; a post-humanistic subject; or the mediatized politics of our desired futurisms—all these themes are figured and being assembled within the Parametricist discourse.

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Guest speakers are Phil Bernstein, Benjamin Bratton, Christina Cogdell, Teddy Cruz, Peggy Deamer, Andrés Jaque, Laura Kurgan, Neil Leach, Reinhold Martin, Patrik Schumacher.

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Program

7–9pm, Friday 15 November: Keynote event:
“Architecture and politics: Parametricism within or beyond liberal democracy?” – a discussionReinhold Martin: “On Numbers, More or Less”
Patrik Schumacher: “Thesis on the Politics of Parametricism”

Saturday 16 November: Conference panels:10am–noon – Panel 1: Introduction to Parametricism: historical and technological context

Phillip G. Bernstein: “Finding Value in Parameters: How Scripting Beyond Form Changes the Potential of Design Practice”

Christina Cogdell: “Breeding Ideology: Parametricism and Biological Architecture”

Neil Leach: “There is no such thing as a political architecture; there is no such thing as digital architecture”

2–4pm – Panel 2: Parametricism, the commons and social representation

Teddy Cruz: “The New Political: Where the Top Down and the Bottom up Meet”

Peggy Deamer: “Parametric Schizophrenic”

Laura Kurgan: “The Method is the Message”

4:45–6:30pm – Panel 3: Designing subjectivities, curating new models of sociality

Benjamin H. Bratton: “The Always Partial System: For an Inhuman Parametricism”

Andrés Jaque: “Architecture as Rendered Society”

On Society By: Anthony Elliott (Flinders University) and Bryan Turner (The Graduate Center of the City University of New York) - Polity Press, Usa, 2012

‘Society' is one of the most frequently used words in public life; it is also a foundational term in the social sciences. In our own time, however, the idea has never been so much in dispute and so little understood. For some critics, society is simply too consensual for a world of intensive discord. For others, the idea of ‘society' is oppressive - the very notion, so some argue, is dismissive of the infinite social differences that shape global realities.

In this erudite and original book, two of the world's leading social theorists focus on unravelling the different meanings of society as a way of introducing the reader to contemporary debates in social theory. The authors argue provocatively that all ideas of society can be assigned to one of three analytical categories, or some combination of these - structure, solidarity or creation - and develop a fresh characterization of the nature of the social as a means of understanding global transformations.

By integrating abstract problems of social theory with empirical examples and political analysis, On Society provides lucid interpretations of classical and contemporary social theory. The book also critiques recent social theories that simply equate the demise of society with globalization, the communications revolution or multiculturalism, and in so doing provides an original insight into today's world.

Reviews

'The individual writings of Elliott and Turner have long been at the forward boundaries of social theory. Here they turn to an axial concept of social thought to explain why it has never quite done what it was meant to, even while it haunts the collective consciousness. Students will devour, teachers will admire, scholars will quibble, all will be amazed by the brilliant creativity packed into a small book of voluminous achievement.'
Charles C. Lemert, Yale University

'It is rare to find such a combination of lucidity and erudition. Many different readers will find much to engage them here, from first-year students to experienced academics. Tremendous.'
John Urry, Lancaster University

'We all need be thankful to Anthony Elliott and Bryan Turner, two acknowledged masters of conceptual analysis and the art of sociological theorizing, for joining forces to scrutinize the meaning of "society". One could not acquit oneself from such a challenge better than they - nor could readers of their study find more illumination, clarity, and persuasive answers to queries in any other sociological treatise.'
Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction
1 Society as Structure
2 Society as Solidarity
3 Society as Creation
Conclusion: From Feral to Catastrophic Societies
Notes

Anthony Elliott is Professor of Sociology at Flinders University and Visiting Professor of Sociology at the Open University.

Bryan S. Turner is Presidential Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY and Professor of Social and Political Thought at the University of Western Sydney.

Read more on Polity website