Economist and essayist, Yann Moulier-Boutang is a professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne, at the Binghamton University of New York and at Shanghai's UTSEUS Complexcity laboratory. He is the director of publication of Multitudes and a member of the steering committee of Cosmopolitiques. He conceives the complexity and the shift in our mental models through his work on the concept of “cognitive capitalism”, and believes that we are shifting from an economy of exchange and production to an economy of pollinization and sharing. Among his recent publications: Capitalisme cognitif : la nouvelle grande transformation (2007) and L’Abeille et l’économiste (2010). Revue Multitudes
Yann Moulier-Boutang is an economist and essayist, professor at the université de technologie de Compiègne, Binghamton University in New York, and Shanghai UTSEUS University, Complexcity Laboratory. The consequences of cognitive capitalism – the shift towards a pollination and contribution economy – is one of its main areas of research. He describes here the impact of this paradigm shift on city planning and contemporary architecture.
As early as the 2000s, Yann Moulier-Boutang discussed in his article for Rem Koolhaas’ Mutations the issues of cognitive capitalism, digital technologies but also the environment—a topic that has finally become pivotal now that it is finally perceived as problematic. He had already foreseen the return to a quest for meaning, which stemmed from the desire to find an approach to life that goes beyond the myth of progress and continuous growth, and to go on to live the “good life”. The destruction of the industrial era has accelerated and he now calls for an “ecology of thought,” referring to widespread urbanization and its main developments, including the consolidation of a “capitalism of intangibles” and the importance of externalities. He presents us with new conceptual tools to understand and to survive this state of complexity—most notably his concepts of “pollinization” and the “halo”, but also the importance of collaborative approaches, trust, and open data. Yann Moulier-Boutang is an economist and essayist. He teaches at the University of Technology of Compiègne, at the Binghamton University of New York, and at Shanghai’s UTSEUS Complexcity laboratory.
Art plays the role of a true matrix in cognitive capitalism; says the economist and philosopher Yann Moulier Boutang. Claimed creativity in management dictates the need for autonomy and self-production for «salaried employees» and for businesses alike, which together stand as the creators of a new aesthetic today. This evolution is explained by a global competition that forces an innovation that is permanent, accelerated, constant and is directing entrepreneurs towards economic segments with higher value: the intangible. It was at this threshold between the explicit and implicit, the merchant and the non-profit, and the interactivity of multiple agents, that innovation would be played. Like the analogy of bees in their «reproductive system,» their utility and their price are more related to the pollination of fruits and vegetables to the production of honey. Yann Moulier Boutang is an economist and essayist. He teaches at the University of Technology of Compiègne, at the Binghamton University of New York, and at Shanghai’s UTSEUS Complexcity laboratory.
Designing an inclusive city implies involving their residents in urban projects, but what is the role of architects and urban planners in this process? For Andrew Freear, the head of the Rural Studio program, they both have the ethical responsibility of getting locally involved via concrete projects. Architectural schools must thus take on training citizen architects by engaging them in learning by doing, and thus have them redevelop a deep connection with context and places, acting as neighbors and activists within communities in order to collectively carry out experimental projects that tangibly improve society and the environment.
The two Lebanese artists and filmmakers were awarded the 2017 Marcel Duchamp Award for Unconformities, a project currently on display at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. This artwork, like their approach, is based on a methodology of investigation and excavation and aims to offer another reading of history and the traces of the past.
Nicolas Nova is a social anthropologist. Inspired by New Media Studies and design fiction, he contends that the future of design lies in recycling and reparation as well as reinventing forms and functions. Did you know that a used flip-flop could serve as a lighter?
The geographer and orientalist Augustin Berque revisits the polysemic dimension of the term “milieu,” and explains the distinction made by mesology—“the area of biology that deals with the relationships between the environments and organisms”—between “environment” and “milieu.” The reality of things differs depending on the environment of each species or culture, the object doesn’t exist in itself but according to its relationship with the subject. In this way, mesology goes much further than the subject/object dualism of modern science. Ontologically “trajective,” the environment is neither objective nor subjective, but firmly between the two theoretical subject/object centers. Berque takes the term “mediance,” meaning the dynamic coupling of the individual and their surroundings, from the Japanese “fūdo,” to which he adds “trajection,” a process that results in the “mediance” of human existence in its concrete surroundings. Taken as a whole, all human environments, distinct from the biosphere through their eco-techno-symbolic dimension, form the ecumene. For architecture, this implies a respect for history and the environment, without mimicking ancient forms, creating from the “mediance” of each place.
Larissa Fassler is a “Neo-Situationist” artist. By exploring places over the course of many hours, she gleans their ephemeral essence, which she then superimposes on the fixed urban master plan. The subjective maps thus generated highlight both urban narratives and history.
Maximum is a design studio that maximizes the value of waste; its material, its form and its engineering. Some materials are transformed in a semi-industrial process while others give birth to unique pieces, such as the glass walls of the Centre Pompidou caterpillar.
Explore More
Eager to share more generously the results of its collaborations and research, PCA-STREAM publishes STREAM VOICES, its online magazine!