BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.6.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news350@eikones.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20260818T174251 DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261002 SUMMARY:Ecologies of Mind in the Cold War DESCRIPTION:Amid today’s geopolitical turmoil\, armed violence\, and info rmation warfare\, parallels could be drawn to the charged global tension a nd ideological polarization of the Cold War. Since the advent of the nucle ar age\, militarized nationalist and (neo-)colonial regimes have rarely re lied on ideological agitation alone. Rather\, they are characterized by th e use of data processing and communication technologies for mobilizing\, e xtracting\, analyzing\, and manipulating information and collective affect s: a form of subjectivation dependent on complex media environments that a re neither exclusively civil or military\, commercial or public\, epistemi c or governmental. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore such “ecologies of mind” and their shaping of the psychologized self durin g the Cold War. \\r\\nResponding to the moment of charged geopolitical te nsions\, ideological polarization\, and technocratic rationalities\, psych ologist and anthropologist Gregory Bateson coined the notion of “ecology of mind” to account for a distributed subjectivity that resists a mecha nistic understanding. Drawing on the transdisciplinary language of cyberne tics\, as well as from anthropology\, psychology\, evolutionary biology\, and information theory\, Bateson described cognitive and psychic processes as embedded within—and in constant feedback with —the broader social systems of information exchange. In his 1972 anthology Steps to an Ecolog y of Mind\, he remarked:\\r\\nFreudian psychology expanded the concept of mind inwards to include the whole communication system within the body—t he automatic\, the habitual\, and the vast range of unconscious process. W hat I am saying expands mind outwards. And both of these changes reduce th e scope of the conscious self.\\r\\nAccording to this vision\, the organic and inorganic worlds\, the tangible and the discursive\, the social and t he political\, as well as the technological and the aesthetic constitute a n environment intertwined with the self that expands the mind and decenter s the subject. This recursive epistemology foregrounds context instead of atomization\, feedback instead of linear causalities.\\r\\nUpsetting the l imited focus on Bateson’s immediate sphere of activity\, we welcome rese arch on parallel and intersecting projects across disciplines and politica l boundaries that share a common orientation toward the subjectivity as di stributed\, relational\, and ecological. Rather than casting Bateson as an anomaly within Cold War rationality\, this conference asks how his ecolog ical approach was itself situated within a broader discursive\, political\ , social\, and techno-scientific environments. In this way\, it invites to decenter Bateson’s inquiry through various related and simultaneous inv estigations into the environments of the self––namely\, the ecologies of mind––in the Cold War.\\r\\nA detailed Program will follow. X-ALT-DESC:

Amid today’s geopolitical turmoil\, armed violenc e\, and information warfare\, parallels could be drawn to the charged glob al tension and ideological polarization of the Cold War. Since the advent of the nuclear age\, militarized nationalist and (neo-)colonial regimes ha ve rarely relied on ideological agitation alone. Rather\, they are charact erized by the use of data processing and communication technologies for mo bilizing\, extracting\, analyzing\, and manipulating information and colle ctive affects: a form of subjectivation dependent on complex media environ ments that are neither exclusively civil or military\, commercial or publi c\, epistemic or governmental. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore such “ecologies of mind” and their shaping of the psychologize d self during the Cold War. \;

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Responding to the mom ent of charged geopolitical tensions\, ideological polarization\, and tech nocratic rationalities\, psychologist and anthropologist Gregory Bateson c oined the notion of “ecology of mind” to account for a distributed sub jectivity that resists a mechanistic understanding. Drawing on the transdi sciplinary language of cybernetics\, as well as from anthropology\, psycho logy\, evolutionary biology\, and information theory\, Bateson described c ognitive and psychic processes as embedded within—and in constant feedba ck with —the broader social systems of information exchange. In his 1972 anthology \;Steps to an Ecology of Mind\, he remarked:

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Freudian psychology expanded the concept of mind inwards to inc lude the whole communication system within the body—the automatic\, the habitual\, and the vast range of unconscious process. What I am saying exp ands mind outwards. And both of these changes reduce the scope of the cons cious self.

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According to this vision\, the organic and i norganic worlds\, the tangible and the discursive\, the social and the pol itical\, as well as the technological and the aesthetic constitute an envi ronment intertwined with the self that expands the mind and decenters the subject. This recursive epistemology foregrounds context instead of atomiz ation\, feedback instead of linear causalities.

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Upsettin g the limited focus on Bateson’s immediate sphere of activity\, we welco me research on parallel and intersecting projects across disciplines and p olitical boundaries that share a common orientation toward the subjectivit y as distributed\, relational\, and ecological. Rather than casting Bateso n as an anomaly within Cold War rationality\, this conference asks how his ecological approach was itself situated within a broader discursive\, pol itical\, social\, and techno-scientific environments. In this way\, it inv ites to decenter Bateson’s inquiry through various related and simultane ous investigations into the environments of the self––namely\, the eco logies of mind––in the Cold War.

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A detailed Program will follow.

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