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Book launch ‘Factories of Knowledge, Industries of Creativity’

Gerald Raunig

In the light of the recent publication of the Dutch translation of Fabriken des Wissens. Industrien von Kreativität by Gerald Raunig, Octavo is organising a night full of discussion about resistance and activism in higher and art education.

In the first part of his diptych (also translated into English), philosopher and art theoretician Gerald Raunig considers the future of the university within the knowledge economy. Although universities, as producers of knowledge, increasingly serve the regime of cognitive capitalism, they are still among the places where social struggle and resistance remain possible. The comparison with the classical factory opens new perspectives on alternatives to the knowledge industry in its crudest forms.

In the second part, Raunig explores the transformation of creative practices and art education. Over the past decades, these have first been incorporated into the culture industry, only to be made subservient to the so-called ‘creative industries’. Raunig shows how creative practices can disavow the temporal and spatial regimes of the economy. In both parts of the book, Kafka’s story about Josephine and the mouse folk forms a playful and inspiring chorus.

At the book launch, Gerald Raunig, philosopher Ruth Sonderegger, and Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, will join into conversation with theoreticians, teachers, students, artists and any other interested parties, both in a general discussion and in workshops open to all. By relating the book to different topics, all of the public will explore the implications of the book in a Dutch context, and see whether Raunigs suggestions for subtle but radical resistance might be put into practice. We will look for moments and places within which new times and spaces become possible.

The book launch was organised with the support of the Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam, the Austrian Embassy, Den Haag, and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

More info on the Octavo website.

6 October 2017

17:00

About the participants

-Gerald Raunig

Philosopher and art theoretician. He works at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste and the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies (eipcp). He is co-editor of the multilingual publishing platform Transversal Texts and the Austrian journal Kamion. His books have been translated into English, Serbian, Spanish, Slovenian, Russian, Italian, and Turkish.

-Ruth Sonderegger

Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetic Theory at the Akademie der bildende Künste in Vienna. From 2001 to 2009 she worked as lecturer and professor of metaphysics at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on aesthetics, critical theory and resistance studies. 

-Charles Esche

Director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven since 2004. 

Workshop moderators

– Tashina Blom

RMA-student of Cultural Analysis en Research Assistant at the University of Amsterdam. 

– Eke Rebergen

Philosopher and lecturer in Communication and Multimediadesign at the Avans University of Applied Sciences in ‘s Hertogenbosch.

– Jack Segbars

Visual artist, curator and writer, also working on a PhD project at Leiden University which focuses on ‘the artistic object’.

– Anne Breure

Artistic director of the Veem House for Performance, and co-founder of the Transitiebureau.

And whosoever submits a topic for discussion.

Author:
Gerald Raunig

Publisher:
Octavo