NEW INDUSTRIES CONFERENCE: Money and Debt in the Post-Industrial World

The four-day NEW INDUSTRIES CONFERENCE examines the global financial crisis, the consequences of de-industrialisation, and the emergence of new forms of industry.

Reaching beyond academic hierarchies, it allows participants to familiarise with a number of topical questions: What are the consequences of the collectivisation of debt? Which aims can societies set themselves when they are no longer able to grow? Which forms of meaningful work is there outside a model in which every aspect of social life, education, culture and work is assessed in terms of efficiency and economic productivity?

The conference organised by the HMKV as part of the NEW INDUSTRIES FESTIVAL brings together experts and artists from various disciplines who will discuss these and other questions around money and debt.

They will examine the origins and historic developments of our current, crisis-prone system and chart the technological advances that have prompted a shift from early forms of coin money to virtual currencies such as bitcoins and automated trade based on algorithms.

Their sociological, historical, philosophical and scientific perspectives will be completed by contributions from the realm of visual arts sharing the same objectives, namely to research the complex and highly abstract processes of the global financial and economic system, clarify their structures and backgrounds, and outline the conceptual and practical possibilities this leaves for the individual and society.

The NEW INDUSTRIES CONFERENCE encourages participants to retrace the connections between local, regional and global structural changes in the workplace and the economy, and to discuss the consequences of global economic processes on the individual’s daily life.

Programme preview: A programme of lectures, discussions and panel talks awaits visitors from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. Participants:

Inke Arns (Dortmund)
Holger Bergmann (Mülheim)
Christina von Braun (Berlin)
Wolfgang Coy (Berlin)
Elena Esposito (Reggio Emilia)
Zachary Formwalt (Amsterdam)
Judith Funke (Bochum/Dortmund)
Lars Henrik Gass (Oberhausen)
Adrienne Goehler (Berlin)
Ralph Heidenreich (Biberach an der Riss)
Stefan Heidenreich (Berlin)
Jens Heitjohann (Berlin/Leipzig)
Ulrike Herrmann (Berlin)
Francis Hunger (Leipzig)
Jaromil (Amsterdam)
Michał Kozłowski (Warsaw)
Olaf Kröck (Bochum)
Thomas Krüger (Bonn)
Constanze Kurz (Berlin)
Maurizio Lazzarato (Paris)
Matteo Pasquinelli (London/Berlin)
Volker Pohlüke (Dortmund)
Sebastian Quack (Berlin)
Invisible Playground (Berlin)
RYBN.ORG (Paris)
Fabian Saavedra-Lara (Dortmund)
Jan Sowa (Warsaw)
Kuba Szreder (Warsaw)

The conference will be held in German and English.

It will be accompanied by UTOPIA STOCK EXCHANGE, a trading game developed and organised by the artist collective Invisible Playground.

UTOPIA STOCK EXCHANGE is looking for utopias from inhabitants of Dortmund and its environs. the context of the conference. Everyone with a good idea that has the potential to be implemented may take part. A selection of submitted utopias will become part of the UTOPIA STOCK EXCHANGE game, which takes place at Dortmunder U on 18 January 2014. Here, utopias will be traded as shares and for actual money – exactly like on the stock exchange.

A science slam on ‘New Industries’ will round off the programme.

Video documentation

Press

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