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.
Caroline Goulard is a data journalist and co-founder of Dataveyes. She turns collected data into digital experiences to make it more understandable for everyone. Thanks to new ways of visualization, it is now possible to understand a population’s needs and to develop services that anticipate new uses.
Researcher and data scientist Stanislas Chaillou investigates how AI can enable architects to support and enhance their practice. A small sampler of a new book published by Éditions du Moniteur in March 2021.
François Taddei is a geneticist and co-founder, with Ariel Lindner, of the Learning Planet Institute (formerly known as CRI). Conceived as a school for the 21st century, the institute combines artificial intelligence and collective intelligence to reinvent ways of learning, teaching and doing research.
Hubert Beroche is the founder of the Urban AI think tank, dedicated to the field of urban artificial intelligence. He is the curator of the Eyes on the street lecture series, run together in partnership with the SCAI (Sorbonne Center for Artifical Intelligence), and explains here how urban AI can help us understand the city.
Contemporary architectural research is often fascinated by biological life but with an approach that goes beyond simple organic metaphors thanks to recent technological developments. Alisa Andrasek discusses the link between biology and her architectural practice, and her interest in the distribution of information in natural processes—a complexity that she tries to approach via big data. Her work in computational design is influenced by the convergence between information and materials, in an increasingly complex and open synthesis which enables it to go beyond the production of form and address the dynamic processes of matter itself. Alisa Andrasek is an architect, director and founder of the Biothing laboratory. She teaches at the Architectural Association of London.
Researcher Claire Lesieur works at the CNRS Ampère Laboratory on the Go Pro project, which applies a computational model developed for protein folding to urban environments. The shape-changing properties of proteins are put to use in an attempt to map out the opportunities for urban growth that don’t involve urban sprawl.
In the face of the promises of the prophets of artificial intelligence and the marketing of those major economic players promoting the smart city as a solution to urban ills, Jérôme Denis and David Pontille remind us of the irreducible materiality and fragility of cities. Demystifying what they perceive as a form of “neopositivism” of data, they point out that data doesn’t exist per se, and in fact must be generated and then maintained at a significant cost. As a result, data is never neutral and takes on a fundamentally political dimension. Understanding this framework leads them to promote a paradigm of maintenance and fragility, instead of the more common one of sustainability and resilience, when approaching urban realities.
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