<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi all,<div><br></div><div>Thanks to Kristian Lukic for the great introduction as well as the mention of the important work of Matteo Pasquinelli. </div><div> </div><div>For some reason, often when I read posts by certain members on this list who render theories of value without recognizing value's continued imbrication in capitalist dynamics a little voice in my head intones the old dictim: "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." It seems so clear to me that despite references to socialism and industrialization, when it came to trying Marx, some of us didn't inhale. But Pasquinelli, who has inhaled deeply, takes the reins and heads on down to the river of dialectics once again. </div><div><br></div><div>At the risk of mixing metaphors I have excerpted here from his essay "Immaterial War: Prototypes of Conflict Within Cognitive Capitalism" a fine draught... or is it a toke. Partake at your own risk.<br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><b>3. Lazzarato reading Tarde: the public dimension of value </b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; min-height: 16px; font-size: 14px; "><b> </b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Contemporary criticism does not have a clear perspective of the public life of </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">cognitive products: it is largely dominated by the metaphors stolen from </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Creative Commons and Free Software, which support quite a flat vision with </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">no notion of value and valorisation. For this reason, I want to introduce a more </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">dynamic scenario following Maurizio Lazzarato and Gabriel Tarde that </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">explain how value is produced by an accumulation of social desire and </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">collective imitation. Lazzarato has re-introduced the thought of the French </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">sociologist Tarde in his book <i>Puissances de l'invention</i><span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 11px; ">4</span> [Powers of invention] </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">and in his article “La psychologie économique contre l’economie politique”<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 11px; ">5</span>. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">To sum up in few lines, Tarde’s philosophy challenges the </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">contemporary political economy because it: 1) dissolves the opposition of </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">material and immaterial labour and consider the “cooperation between brains” </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">a main force in the traditional pre-capitalist societies not only in postfordism; </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">2) puts innovation as the driving force instead of monetary accumulation only </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">(Smith, Marx and Schumpter did not really understand innovation as an </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">internal force of capitalism, a vision more concerned about <i>re-production</i> rather </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">than <i>production</i>); 3) develops a new theory of value no more based on use-<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 14px; "> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">value only, but also on other kinds of value, like truth-value and beauty-value </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">(Lazzarato: “The <i>economic psychology</i> is a theory of the creation and </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">constitution of values, whereas political economy and Marxism are theories to </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">measure values”<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 11px; ">6</span>). </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Tarde’s crucial insight for the present work is about the relation </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">between science and public opinion. As Lazzarato put it: “According to Tarde, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">a invention (of science or not) that is not imitated is not socially existent: to be </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">imitated an invention needs to draw attention, to produce a force of ‘mental </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">attraction’ on other brains, to mobilise their desires and beliefs through a </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">process of social communication. […] Tarde figures out an issue crossing all </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">his work: the constituent power of the public.”<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 11px; ">7</span> We could say: any creative </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">idea that is not imitated is not socially existent and has no value. In Tarde the </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Public is the “social group of the future”, integrating for the first time mass </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">media as an apparatus of valorisation in a sort of anticipation of postfordism. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">Moreover Tarde considers the working class itself as a kind of “public </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">opinion” that is unified on the base of common beliefs and affects rather than </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">common interests. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">The Tarde-Lazzarato connection introduces a dynamic or better </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">competitive model, where immaterial objects have to face the laws of the </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">noosphere – innovation and imitation – in quite a Darwinistic environment....</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">But wait, if you've gotten this far, one good hit deserves another. Cheers!</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; "><b>4. Enzo Rullani and the “law of diffusion” </b></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; min-height: 16px; font-size: 15px; "> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">Rullani was among the first to introduce the term <i>cognitive capitalism</i><span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 12px; ">8</span>. Unlike </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">most, he does not point out the process of knowledge sharing, but above all </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">the process of cognitive valorisation. He is quite clear about the fact that </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">competition still exists (is perhaps even stronger) in the realm of “immaterial” </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">economy. Rullani is one of few people that try to measure how much value </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">knowledge produces and as a seasoned economist he gives mathematical </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">formulas as well - like in his book <i>Economia della conoscenza </i>[Economy of </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">Knowledge]<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 12px; ">9</span>. Rullani says that the value of knowledge is multiplied by its </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">diffusion, and that you have to learn how to manage this kind of circulation. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">As Rullani puts it, in the interview with Antonella Corsani published on </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">Multitudes in 2000<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 12px; ">10</span>: </div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; min-height: 16px; font-size: 15px; "> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">An economy based on knowledge is structurally anchored to sharing: </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">knowledge produces value <i>if it is adopted, </i>and the adoption (in that format and </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">the consequent standards) makes <i>interdependency.</i> </div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; min-height: 16px; font-size: 15px; "> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">The value of immaterial objects is produced by dissemination and </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">interdependency: there is the same process behind the popularity of a pop star </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">and behind the success of a software. The digital revolution made the </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">reproduction of immaterial objects easier, faster, ubiquitous and almost free. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">However, as Rullani points out, “proprietary logic does not disappear but has </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">to <i>subordinate itself to the law of diffusion</i>”<span style="font: normal normal normal 7px/normal Palatino; font-size: 12px; ">11</span>: proprietary logic is no longer based </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">on space and objects, but on time and speed. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">There are three ways that a producer of knowledge can distribute its uses, still </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">keeping a part of the advantage under the form of: 1) a speed differential in </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">the production of new knowledge or in the exploitation of its uses; 2) a control </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">of the context stronger than others; 3) a network of alliances and cooperation </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">capable of contracting and controlling modalities of usage of knowledge </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11px/normal Palatino; font-size: 14px; ">within the whole circuit of sharing. </div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; min-height: 16px; font-size: 15px; "> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">A speed differential means: “I got this idea and I can handle it better than </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">others: while they are still becoming familiar with it, I develop it further”. A </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">better understanding of the context is something not easy to duplicate: it is </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">about the genealogy of the idea, the cultural and social history of a place, the </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">confidential information accumulated in years. The network of alliances is </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">called sometimes “social capital” and is implemented as “social networks” on </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">the web: it is about your contacts, your PR, your street and web credibility. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">Here it is clear that a given idea produces value in a dynamic </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">environment challenged by other forces and other products. Any idea lives in </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">a jungle – in a constant guerrilla warfare – and cognitive workers follow often </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">the destiny of their brainchildren. In the capitalism of digital networks time is </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">a more and more crucial dimension: a time advantage is measured in seconds. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">Moreover, in the society of white noise the rarest commodity is attention. An </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">economy of scarcity exists even in the cognitive capitalism as a scarcity of </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; ">attention and related <i>attention economy</i>. When everything can be duplicated <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">everywhere, time becomes more important than space.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Palatino; font-size: 15px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></div><div><br></div></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br></span></font></div></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Palatino"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Palatino"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; ">from Matteo Pasquinelli, "Immaterial War: Prototypes of Conflict Within Cognitive Capitalism." This essay and others available at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "></span></span></font></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Palatino"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="http://matteopasquinelli.com/bibliography">http://matteopasquinelli.com/bibliography</a></span></span></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">While one might want to insist contra-Lazzarato as cited above that Marxism and political economy are also theories of the creation of value as well as the measure of value (and that the shift in the protocols of production are the material shifts that occasion a reworking of the categories of value and valuation), the above synthesis is correct in seeing the (contemporary) fusion of material and immaterial (industrial and psychological) production. Pasquinelli's article, focusing on Harvey's work on the parasitism of rent, also details certain strategies of capture that were alluded to in a previous post by Andrejivic where he citied Clough: </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">I<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF2A45">t's hard, when looking at these developments, not to be struck by Patricia Ticineto Clough's observation that, "this is a dynamic background, a probablisitc, statistical background which provides an infra-empirical or infra-temporal sociality, the subject of which is, I want to propose, the population, technologically or methodologically open to the modulation of its affective capacities. Sociality as affective background displaces sociality grasped in terms off structure and individual; affective modulation and individuation displace subject formation and ideological interpellation as central to the relation of governance and economy" (from The New Empiricism: Affect and Sociological Method, European Journal of Social Theory 2009). </font> .</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">The article also, interestingly enough, proposes a theory of Immaterial Civil War, a brief plan for forms of semiotic (and affective) activism.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div></div><div>Jonathan Beller</div><div>Professor </div><div>Humanities and Media Studies</div><div>and Critical and Visual Studies</div><div>Pratt Institute</div><div><a href="mailto:jbeller@pratt.edu">jbeller@pratt.edu</a></div><div>718-636-3573 fax</div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; "><br></span></font></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On Oct 14, 2009, at 5:29 PM, Kristian Lukic wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi all,<br><br>Trebor kindly asked me to introduce myself on the list, although Im <br>following and lurking for a several years now,<br><br>Im writer, curator, artist, curently working as curator in Museum of <br>Contemporary Art in Novi Sad, Serbia and also active in Institute for <br>Flexible Cultures and Technologies - Napon. Before I was working in New <br>Media Center kuda.org in Novi Sad as program manager (still <br>collaborating on some projects...).<br><br>The topic of the conference is quite close to something what I was <br>involved recent years. To the play/work/leisure I came mostly through <br>computer games (was and still active in Eastwood group, playing with <br>laws and natures of computer games...) and MMO worlds which is most <br>obvious relation between play and work.<br><br>Also in 2007 in Novi Sad, Serbia we organized exhibition and conference <br>called Play Cultures in 2007, and also exhibition and conference in <br>2008, Territories & Resources (about play/work connection in web 2.0 and <br>social networks).<br><br><a href="http://www.napon.org">www.napon.org</a><br><br><br>Currently Im finishing MA thesis at Theory of Art and Media at Belgrade <br>University of Arts (before that finished MA Art History at the same <br>University)<br> under the name "Commodified Play" which is mixture of lectures under <br>the same name that I had from 2006 on several conferences and events.<br><br>In 2007 together with Stealth group from Rotterdam we did a one semester <br>course at Piet Zwart Media Design postgradute students, that was about <br>MMO and virtual worlds called "meta.life", and one workshop about the <br>same topic in Laboral centre for arts in Gijon in Spain.<br><br>Im mostly interested in conepts of play as free activity definied by <br>Huizinga and Callois and today's problems with these definitions. Also <br>how play is becoming more and more commodified human activity, the <br>concept of agon apears to be "ruling" play element, especially in the <br>notion of Virno's Negation and Inovation and what Pasquinelli describe <br>as Immaterial Civil War. In young animals, play is mostly preparation <br>for survival, learning how to efficiently defend themselves or how to <br>efficiently attack prey. Its interesting for example how game industry <br>is counting on specifically this element / pure agon. Here is useful to <br>realize concept of animal spirits that Virno and Pasqunelli are <br>reffering too, where they regard inovation and culture as the constant <br>battle, (or Immaterial civil war) and prolongation of animal nature in <br>human. In that sense culture is not something opposite to "animal <br>spirit" but rather continuation or even amplification of animal nature <br>in humans. Situationists for examply clearly located problem of <br>competition aspect in play.<br><br><br>On the pure practical level its good to remind us how remote warfare is <br>becoming crucial in contemporary warfare (Reapers / Predators), and how <br>skilled youngsters with excellent reflexes in game playing (150-200 <br>operations in minute) are becoming major task force in remote combats. <br>This activity is for sure blurred area between play and work, but it <br>interesting how its connected to massive training and recruitment of <br>youth throughout world (Currently 46 countries in the world are <br>developing remote warfare). Maybe It is quite time to analyze connection <br>between children/youth and militarism, the last connection on such a <br>scale was youth organization Ballila in Musolini's Italy, and its <br>infamous follower Hitlerjugend...<br><br>http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/23/wus.warfare.pilots.uav/index.html#cnnSTCVideo<br><br>although I will probably physically not attend conference its great to <br>follow discussion on IDC list and I'm looking forward to see the <br>outcomes of the conference!<br><br>many greetings,<br>Kristian Lukic<br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (distributedcreativity.org)<br>iDC@mailman.thing.net<br>https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc<br><br>List Archive:<br>http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/<br><br>iDC Photo Stream:<br>http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/<br><br>RSS feed:<br>http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc<br><br>iDC Chat on Facebook:<br>http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647<br><br>Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>