This event is being organised by the Department of Digital Arts at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences (MAKS).

Towards an understanding of the contemporary imaginary, linked to the history of capitalism and its influence on consumption and the arts.

Attendance is free, however kindly confirm your seat by sending an email to Ms Simone Chircop.

Abstract: Capitalism and the Imaginary

While the importance of imagery in general has been gradually rediscovered during the 20th century, few steps have been taken toward an in-depth understanding of contemporary imagery related to the history of Capitalism and its influence on consumption and the arts. Some notes will be presented during the talk that aim to fill, however little, a still relatively unknown field. The form of the notes allows for temporal and logical leaps without too many formal concerns. As part of a general reflection on human nature, the history of objects and the myth of the State will be reconstructed to see how, after the Second Industrial Revolution, Capitalism reconstructed an imaginary made precisely in its own "image." Consumerism and Cinema are seen in this sense as the mythological reconstruction of the object and the Hero, the last understood as a representation of the State. It will be necessary at times to return to the concept of "imaginary" and those of "symbol" and "ritual" which in turn constitute its presupposition. A quick look at the multiverse, spread from science to literature to cinema especially in the 21st century, is nothing but a representation of the imaginary in its constituent elements.