Cognitive Architecture

Cognitive Architecture questions of how evolving modalities - from bio-politics to noo-politics - can be mapped upon the city under contemporary conditions of urbanization and globalization. Noo-politics, most broadly understood as a power exerted over the life of the mind, re-configures perception, memory and attention, and also implicates potential ways and means by which neurobiological architecture is undergoing reconfiguration. This volume, motivated by theories such as ‘cognitive capitalism’ and concepts such as ‘neural plasticity’, shows how architecture and urban processes and products commingle to form complex systems that produce novel forms of networks that empower the imagination and constitute the cultural landscape. This volume rethinks the relations between form and forms of communication, calling for a new logic of representation; it examines the manner in which information, with its non-hierarchical and distributed format is contributing both to the sculpting of brain and production of mind. Cognitive Architecture brings together renowned specialists in the areas of political and aesthetic philosophy, neuroscience, socio-cultural and architecture theory, visual and spatial theorists and practitioners; the contributions elucidate original ideas for thinking the city as a framework for possible gestations of noo-politics.

With contributions from Andreas Angelidakis, Lisa Blackman, Ina Blom, Felicity Callard, Suparna Choudry, Jordan Crandall, Elie During, Keller Easterling, Lukas Ebensperger, Boris Groys, Janet Harbord, Deborah Hauptmann, Patrik Healy, Maurizio Lazzarato, Daniel Marguilles, Markus Miessen, Yann Moulier Boutang, Warren Neidich, John Protevi, Steven Quartz, Andreij Radman, Philippe Rahm, John Rajchman, Patricia Reed, Gabriel Rockhill, J.A. Scott Kelso, Terrence Sejnowski, Elizabeth Sikiaridi, Jan Slaby, Paolo Virno, Frans Vogellar, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Bruce Wexler, Charles T. Wolfe.