For the Marina Abramović exhibition, a surcharge applies. See Stedelijk.nl/surcharge, also for exceptions.

Theory — Mar 23, 2017

Three-days conference-festival curated by guest curators Melanie BuehlerWarren Neidich and André Lepecki, who have each inaugurated a discursive and performative program. 

Price
Museum card 3 E | Student 10,50 | Regular 18
Location
Teijin Auditorium
Time
Mar 23, 2017, 9 am until 3.15 pm
Main language
English
Admission
Tickets day 1   Tickets day 2  Tickets day 3 * students of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie receive ticket by presenting student ID.

Culture and brain form complex systems of influence, control and resistance. The present brain seems to have been invaded by technology: machines increasingly perform the previously human tasks of language, memory, and imagination, with our learning processes taken up by automated and algorithmic procedures. What are the philosophical, social and political implications of this cognitive automation for our brains and bodies? What is happening to our subjectivity, identity and free will?

MARCH 23, 2017
Warren Neidich: “The Brain Without Organs: Psychedelic Drugs and Emancipation” 

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelics, particularly the hallucinatory drink Ayahuasca. Its role as a serotonergic analogue with tremendous healing powers has led to its recent popularity. Noteworthy is its neuro-trophic potential, increasing neuroplasticity, especially, in the treatment of depression and drug addiction. However its role in eliciting mystic journeys is by far the most important factor in its rise in popularity, spurring an entire tourist industry around its use. Experts in the field of art history, shamanistic practices, curating, psychoanalysis and neuroscience have been assembled to address the role of these drugs. Keeping in mind the recuperative powers of capitalism we want to consider whether art and drugs might provide a way out of the conundrum, just on the horizon, of neuro-totalitarianism.

With: Warren Neidich, John C. Welchman, Daniel Pinchbeck, Florencia Portocarrero, Lars Bang Larsen.

PROGRAM

10 am Walk-in
10:30  Introduction Warren Neidich
10:45 Daniel Pinchbeck, Amazonian Shamanism, Psychedelic Revelations, and the Future of the Brain 11:30 Break
11:45 Florencia Portocarrero, Notes on Wellbeing and Affective Resistance in Times of Cognitive Capitalism
12:30 Round Table
1:00 Lunch
1:45 Warren Neidich, The Brain Without Organs: Psychedelic Drugs and Emancipation
2:30 John C. Welchman, Beam me Down: Guidance Devices and Aftereffects of the Psychotropic Imaginary in the Work of Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley
3:15 Break
3:30 Lars Bang Larsen, Acid Aesthetics
4:15 Round Table

 Tickets day 2 

For an overview of the full program, please click here

FRAMEWORK

Studium Generale Rietveld Academie, an exploratory theory program aimed at all departments, open to the public.

CREDITS

Chief curator: Jorinde Seijdel
Associate curator: Jort van der Laan