The Philosophy team at the \;School of Humanities\, Faculty of Arts\,
\nUniversity of Wolverhampton
\nInvites you all to a
\nRoyal Institute of Philosophy open public lecture
\nOn
\nSpeed Limits: The Philosophy of Acceleration
\n\nBy: \;Dr Benjamin Noys
\n\nOn: \;Thursday\, 13 November\, 2014
\n\nFrom: \;5:30 pm &ndash\; 7:30 pm
\n\nAt: \;MC301\, Millennium City Building\,
\nUniversity of Wolverhampton
\n\nAbstract:
\nWe are used to being told our lives are speeding up: we consume more\, work more\, socialise more\, and justlive \;more than ever before. In response we are encouraged to slow down\, to de-stress\, to relax\, and to find ways to resist the increased tempo of contemporary life. Here I want to critically consider a group of thinkers and philosophers who argue the opposite: that we need to accelerate to punch through the limits of contemporary capitalism. In particular I want to explore how these &lsquo\;accelerationists&rsquo\;\, a name which includes a diverse range of thinkers\, develop a philosophy of acceleration that embraces a metaphysics of flux\, flow\, and liquefaction. If Marx famously wrote that in bourgeois society &lsquo\;all that is solid melts into air&rsquo\;\, the accelerationists encourage this &lsquo\;melting&rsquo\;. \; From 1970s France\, via mid-1990s Warwick\, to the present moment\, I reconstruct the different forms of &lsquo\;accelerationism&rsquo\;\, while also developing a critical account of their fascination with speed. At the core of accelerationism\, I argue\, is a desire to exceed the need for labour\, but the &lsquo\;drag&rsquo\; of work cannot be so easily overcome. Against the metaphysics of flux and flow I suggest a critical metaphysics of interruption and disruption.
\nAbout the speaker:
\nBenjamin Noys \;is Reader in English at the University of Chichester. He is the author of \;Georges Bataille: A Critical Introduction \;(2000)\, \;The Culture of Death \;(2005)\, \;The Persistence of the Negative: A Critique of Contemporary Theory \;(2010)\, \;Malign Velocities: Accelerationism &\; Capitalism \;(2014)\, and editor of \;Communization and Its Discontents \;(2011). His research addresses the intersections between contemporary theory\, aesthetics\, and politics. He has published widely on literature\, film\, the avant-garde\, and art. His current research explores a critique of the currents \;of vitalism that dominate our current theoretical moment.
\n\nDr Meena Dhanda \;M.Dhanda@wlv.ac.uk
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