[artinfo] Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art 2020 online: call for applications

[Art & Education]

Call for applications: Care, Caring and Repair in Cognitive Capitalism

Application deadline: June 28, 2020

Session one: July 13-23, online
Session two: August 3-13, online

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The original program for Saas-Fee Summer 
Institute of Art 2020 in Berlin on Care, Caring 
and Repair in Cognitive Capitalism was cancelled 
due to COVID-19 and will now be presented online 
Monday-Thursday in two sessions. 6-10am PST (LA) 
/ 3-7pm CET (Berlin) / 9pm-1am CST (Beijing)

Building upon our past five year engagement with 
topics concerning estrangement, individuation, 
and collectivity in art and politics, Saas-Fee 
Summer Institute of Art 2020 will address the 
present and future conditions of our new pandemic 
reality, including new possibilities it may 
generate.

In the past 20 years, the 
techno-social-scientific revolution has joined 
forces with neoliberal reformers to produce a 
generalized crisis in empathy and thought. 
Through the coronavirus pandemic we have all, in 
one way or another, become cognitariats-isolated 
data workers laboring for free within the 
abstract conundrum of the infosphere. As a result 
of these intensive relations with the virtual, we 
have become prey to a number of pervasive empathy 
disorders related to distinct neurological, 
neuro-psychological and psychic pathologies 
ranging from Asperger's syndrome and autism 
spectrum disorder to narcissistic and antisocial 
personality disorders. As Franco "Bifo" Berardi 
stated in Breathing: Chaos and Poetry, 
"Neoliberal reformers have put competition at the 
core of the daily business of life, and digital 
connectivity has replaced physical conjunction in 
the sphere of social communication: so the 
psycho-cultural conditions of empathy have been 
undermined." Berardi's comments offer an insight 
into the inadequate response to this pandemic as 
a disjunction of comradeship, a pervasive lack of 
social solidarity. These are symptoms of a 
disease in which our community is rotting from 
within and which have broad social-political 
implications beyond the pandemic such as economic 
disparity, white nationalism, the election of 
despots and the resurgence of fascism.

As this already global condition has been further 
complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, Care, 
Caring and Repair in Cognitive Capitalism is the 
focus of this year's Saas-Fee Summer Institute of 
Art which will be presented online. We ask: Is 
the rising global death toll still happening in 
many regions a result of the powerful effect of 
neoliberal capitalism upon empathy making the 
care it necessitates impossible? Will the effects 
of seclusion and the growing importance of 
virtual technology in our daily life (such as 
remote learning, shopping and communication) 
intensify the loss of comradeship and solidarity 
already in progress? Finally, if the pandemic is 
linked to a coming global catastrophe will the 
governments, corporations and other institutions 
which have proved so ineffectual in the current 
moment fail miserably again? In the hope of 
creating awareness and addressing the causes of 
the factors that are breaking our social webs 
apart, we will interweave four broad categories 
of care, caring and repair: (1) Cognitive 
Capitalism and Affective Labor (2) Theory of 
Mind, Empathy and its Psychopathologies (3) Class 
Consciousness and Solidarity (4) Climate Change 
and Global Warming. Through online discussions, 
deep readings and performative lectures, we aim 
to develop strategies of counterinsurgency.

Faculty
Antonia Alampi, Chloë Bass, T.J. Demos, Stefano 
Harney, Stefanie Hessler, Joan Jonas, Amelia 
Jones, Maurizio Lazzarato, Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, 
Fred Moten, Yann Moulier-Boutang, Bonaventure Soh 
Bejeng Ndikung, Warren Neidich 
(founder/director), Clio Nicastro, Ahmet Ögüt, 
Ana Teixeira Pinto, Jasbir K. Puar, Tobias Rees, 
Suely Rolnik, Daniel Ross, Martha Schwendener, 
Barry Schwabsky (co-director), Vandana Shiva, 
Anuradha Vikram, and more to be announced.

Applications
Applications for SFSIA 2020 are open to students, 
practitioners and scholars from the fields of art 
(including video, photography, installation and 
multimedia), design, architecture, critical 
writing, science and technology studies, critical 
theory, cultural studies, film and media studies, 
and beyond. Please see our website for updates 
and further details.

About SFSIA
Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (SFSIA) is a 
nomadic, intensive summer academy with shifting 
programs in contemporary critical theory that 
stresses an interdisciplinary approach to 
understanding the relationship between art and 
politics. SFSIA originated in Saas-Fee, 
Switzerland in 2015 and migrated to Berlin, 
Germany in 2016 where it is currently hosted by 
Spike. Additional programs have been hosted by 
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, and 
Performance Space New York. SFSIA was founded and 
is directed by Warren Neidich and is co-directed 
by Barry Schwabsky. Sarrita Hunn is the artistic 
coordinator.

Please see our 
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or contact 
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for more information.