Drunk on Capitalism. An Interdisciplinary Reflection on Market Economy, Art and Science: 11 (Einstein Meets Magritte: An Interdisciplinary Reflection on Science, Nature, Art, Human Action and Society) - Hardcover

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Robrecht Vanderbeeken received his Ph-D in philosophy at Ghent University in 2003 on a subject in philosophy of science (i.e. the explanation of human action). Afterwards he was a researcher at the theory department of the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. During this two-year-project he worked on the philosophy of G. Deleuze and S. Zizek. From 2005 till 2007 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the philosophy department of Ghent University working on topics in analytic metaphysics and technoscience critique. His current areas of research are the philosophical implications of media art, the interpretation of video art.

Christel Stalpaert is professor at the Department of Performance Studies and Film at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Her main field of study is performing arts at the crossroads of Gilles Deleuze’s aesthetics of intensities and Luce Irigaray’s corporeal philosophy.

Frederik Le Roy is a PhD student affiliated with the Department of Performance Studies and Film at Ghent University. He holds degrees from the Catholic University of Leuven (licentiate in Philosophy, 2003) and Ghent University (candidate in Philosophy, 2001; licentiate in Theatre Studies, 2005). During the spring semester of 2006 he was a visiting research student at the Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies of UC Berkeley. His research, which is funded by the Flemish Research Foundation (PhD fellowship – FWO-Vlaanderen), explores ways in which traditional concepts and methods of history are put into question by aesthetic and performative means in contemporary performing arts.

Diederik Aerts is professor at the 'Brussels Free University' and director of the 'Leo Apostel Centre (CLEA)', an interdisciplinary and interuniversity (VUB, UGent, KULeuven) research centre, where researchers of different disciplines work on interdisciplinary projects. He is also head of the research group 'Foundations of the ExactSciences (FUND)' at the VUB. He is secretary of the 'International Quantum Structures Association (IQSA)' and editor of the international journal 'Foundations of Science (FOS)'. He is a board member of the 'Worldviews group', founded by the philosopher Leo Apostel, which investigates the possibility of constructing integrated worldviews, taking into account the recent scientific findings. He was the scientific and artistic coordinator of the 'Einstein meets Magritte' conference, where the world's leading scientists and artists gathered to reflect about science, nature, human action and society.

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This interdisciplinary collection of essays probes the impact of the market economy on art and science in the post-Berlin Wall era.

Part One: Science for Sale, A Dollar Green Science Scene, focuses on new alliances of contemporary science and education with commercial funding, and the commodification of knowledge. Among the questions addressed here are: Does proximity to economic power eclipse freedom of knowledge? When science and education become businesses, what are the risks for a sell-out of patented knowledge, an abuse of research for business purposes or a commercialization of symbolic power?

Part Two: Art for Sale, Buy Buy Art, elaborates on the multifaceted and ambiguous relationship between art and capital. Contemporary art claims to be autonomous, but art costs money and artists cannot survive on their love for art alone. How do artists respond to the rise of economic strictures in modern culture in general and the art market in particular? When works of art become investments, can art still be critical of economic injustice? What role remains for the artist in a global, late-capitalist society?