Knowledge in the Age of Digital Re-/Production: Responsible Epistemologies

Short Description:

The conference explores how digitisation transforms the production, distribution, and use of knowledge. Between the dynamics of digital capitalism and visions of cybernetic futures, the event examines the epistemic implications of an increasingly networked world. The event is hosted by the Schader Foundation and the European University of Technology (EUt+) and organized by ECT Lab+ and the MSCA SE project EpisTEAM.

Long Description:

Our encounter with the world is increasingly digitised. After the advent of digital technologies in science and business and after already having become “personal” (PCs), the networked computer finally entered most people’s intimate sphere as the smartphone more than 15 years ago. We organise our lives and keep in contact with our loved ones through digital messengers. We constitute our (collective) desires on social media, and we create our image of the world through digital media of a wide variety.

Most of these services are provided by a handful of corporations with monopolistic tendencies that design them in a way that ensures ever-increasing profits. Our relationship with the world is mediated through this digital-capitalist nexus. The epistemic consequences of the digital should therefore not only be discussed as a question of technology but also of its socio-economic context and the mutual conditionality of the two. Digital cybernetic technologies seem to be uniquely compatible with a capitalist market that has itself been described as a self-regulating system of quantitative signals by its most fervent proponents. But the very same technology has also given rise to hopes for a more humane and sustainable future, cumulating in concepts such as ‘cybernetic socialism’.

Whether you agree or disagree with these framings of digitization, we would like you to join our collective endeavour to think critically about its epistemic implications. As Walter Benjamin did almost 90 years ago for the then-new image reproduction media of his time, we want to ask: (How) does the practice of knowledge production, distribution and utilization change in the age of digital re-/production?

Here is the link to the event where you can find all the information and download the conference program. Please register if you would like to attend. https://www.schader-stiftung.de/veranstaltungen/aktuell/artikel/knowledge-in-the-age-of-digital-re-production-responsible-epistemologies