DesignFiction
DSC_9469-2
6th Swiss Design Network Conference 2010 Basel,
Marenko, Betti
Contagious Affectivity. The Management of Emotions in Late Capitalist Design
I am investigating the notion of affect as elaborated by Baruch Spinoza and, drawing from Spinoza, also by Gilles Deleuze and Brian Massumi, who have written extensively about this subject in relation to the constitution of subjectivities. The general framework I am following is given by the critique of current forms of capitalism, which I am inclined to rename semio-chemio-neuro-affective capital. This term underlines the coagulation of different levels of production, reproduction and control concerning regimes of signs, circulation of knowledge and affects, language and desire, the chemical and neurological composition of subjectivities and so on.
I see here a progression from my previous work on how the production of subjectivities within a biopolitical/affective framework is mediated by psychopharmaceutical technologies (Marenko 2009a) and on the emotional entanglement that characterizes our relationship with objects, which I have reframed within a neo-animist paradigm (Marenko 2009b). I argue that we cannot look at design without first addressing how emotion itself is being designed as labour within the current new spirit of capitalism.
In this sense the increasing emphasis on emotion in design reflects and reinforces what is currently at the core of late capitalism, that is, the shift to affect, knowledge, information and experience, what Italian Marxist theorists (Maurizio Lazzarato, Christian Marazzi, Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno) define as immaterial labour. Against this backdrop I refer to Eva Illouz’s notion of emotional capitalism and Bernard Stiegler’s ideas of psychopower and the capture of attention, as well as to Deleuze’s ideas on modulation and control. My intention in this paper is first to map the territory of what we mean by affect, as distinct from emotion (Deleuze, Massumi). The notion of an affective turn in the social sciences will be addressed (Patricia Clough). Then I will look at the transmission of affect (Teresa Brennan) by invoking an epidemiology paradigm (Gabriel Tarde) and ideas of social contagion and viral spreading. Finally I will position these ideas in relation to designed objects and the process and practice of design, specifically in relation to what is known as emotion- driven design.
DSC_9469-2
6th Swiss Design Network Conference 2010 Basel,
Marenko, Betti
Contagious Affectivity. The Management of Emotions in Late Capitalist Design
I am investigating the notion of affect as elaborated by Baruch Spinoza and, drawing from Spinoza, also by Gilles Deleuze and Brian Massumi, who have written extensively about this subject in relation to the constitution of subjectivities. The general framework I am following is given by the critique of current forms of capitalism, which I am inclined to rename semio-chemio-neuro-affective capital. This term underlines the coagulation of different levels of production, reproduction and control concerning regimes of signs, circulation of knowledge and affects, language and desire, the chemical and neurological composition of subjectivities and so on.
I see here a progression from my previous work on how the production of subjectivities within a biopolitical/affective framework is mediated by psychopharmaceutical technologies (Marenko 2009a) and on the emotional entanglement that characterizes our relationship with objects, which I have reframed within a neo-animist paradigm (Marenko 2009b). I argue that we cannot look at design without first addressing how emotion itself is being designed as labour within the current new spirit of capitalism.
In this sense the increasing emphasis on emotion in design reflects and reinforces what is currently at the core of late capitalism, that is, the shift to affect, knowledge, information and experience, what Italian Marxist theorists (Maurizio Lazzarato, Christian Marazzi, Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno) define as immaterial labour. Against this backdrop I refer to Eva Illouz’s notion of emotional capitalism and Bernard Stiegler’s ideas of psychopower and the capture of attention, as well as to Deleuze’s ideas on modulation and control. My intention in this paper is first to map the territory of what we mean by affect, as distinct from emotion (Deleuze, Massumi). The notion of an affective turn in the social sciences will be addressed (Patricia Clough). Then I will look at the transmission of affect (Teresa Brennan) by invoking an epidemiology paradigm (Gabriel Tarde) and ideas of social contagion and viral spreading. Finally I will position these ideas in relation to designed objects and the process and practice of design, specifically in relation to what is known as emotion- driven design.