The Department of English, University of Madras
&
Department of Journalism and Communication
in association with
Deleuze and Guattari Studies in India Collective
and
The Association of Communication Teachers
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (ACTTNP)
invites you to participate in the
International Conference
on
Contemporary Communication Cultures, Controls and Becomings
16, 17 February 2018
[International Deleuze and Guattari Camp – 14, 15 February
2018]
The contemporary world
has been going through challenging times in the areas of information and
communication, crucially marked by novel surveillance modes and archiving
strategies. In particular, the modern state with its powerful techno-economic
infrastructure becomes the main protagonist here. Its capabilities of
information mapping and communication controls have expanded greatly in recent
times, bringing more and more segments of the people’s life under its panoptic
regime. Perhaps the most pernicious one in this context is the appropriation of
the biological and personal profiles of the citizenry, which is speciously
justified with reasons ranging from security and terrorism to welfare measures
in health and education. Such incursions, which have deep ethical and political
implications, are expedited by the melding of the biopolitical strategies of
the state with the technological sophistication of advanced capitalism.
More importantly, the
handle on communication and information has emboldened the state to further
annex more facets of citizens’ life to its jurisdiction and governmentality.
From what they should eat and wear to what they should believe and worship, the
states, especially in the developing part of the world, are articulating their
preferences and choices with an unabashed candor. Definitely such articulations
are politically suspect.
On the other side, the
semiotic and technological resources of communication and media are drawn upon
by the people to register their dissent and muster social resistance. Those
employed are forms like cinema, literature, painting, theatre, music,
sculpture, street plays, and numerous subaltern forms of representation. The
social media perhaps becomes the most powerful weapon of the weak at present to
fight the excesses of the state and the brutalities of the present global
order.
Deleuze’s paper on the
societies of control untangles the complex strands of the modern information
and communication regime with unusual clarity and verve. He clearly charts the
progression from the “disciplinary society” of yesteryears, so skillfully
analyzed by Foucault, to the present society of information and communication
controls. It is not that the mechanisms and the institutions of the
disciplinary society have disappeared, but that they are further supplemented
and strengthened at present by the new information regime. To our chagrin, the
kind of sophistication now achieved by modern science and technology in
converting everything into information and codes has gone beyond the
imagination of even Deleuze and Guattari. Nonetheless, it could also be
convincingly argued that Deleuze and Guattari provide one of the most
resourceful repertoire of theories and concepts to tackle both the wily and
benevolent legacies of information and communication in the present times.
The Chennai conference
on Deleuze and Guattari in February 2018 seeks to explore the different aspects
of information, communication and controls in the present mediatized world from
a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective. It will provide a platform for academics,
students, philosophers, and activists across the world to present their papers
and exchange their ideas on the conference theme. The conference will be
preceded by the well-known International Deleuze Camp which will help the
aspiring students and scholars to hear and learn about Deleuzo-Guattarian
philosophy from the outstanding scholars in the field. Papers and abstracts for
the conference presentation are invited from wide-ranging areas associated with
information, communication and controls. Papers are also welcomed from relevant
areas, though not listed below.
Themes for the Conference Presentation
Machinic/digital
controls and new subjectivities
New panopticons and
new control societies
Cryptic
journalism/communication, encryption and hacking
