Some of the reflections of the IEA's Research Group Humanities and the Contemporary World will be exhibited during the workshop The Society of Undifferentiation: Identity, Trauma and Mythical Violence, organized by Professor Olgária Matos, from the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH).

The discussions to be held from February 22 to 24 are part of the activities of the thematic project "Time Acceleration and Post-Democracy: Violence and Communication" (in Portuguese), that will be transdisciplinarly developed during the period 2014-2017 by the research group coordinated by Professor Matos. The events will take place in the former room of the University Council.

Olgária Matos, a professor at FFLCH-USP.

"The society of communication, information and knowledge lives an intensification of nervous stimuli, producing an acceleration of time and some significant breaks with tradition. The changes impact the notion of identity and consistency of its meaning, and also the memory and the past. We do not know yet if the development of science and technology can be conducive to the emancipation of the human being, or will lead to destruction," says the coordinator.

The meeting will gather researchers from various disciplines of the humanities such as philosophy, anthropology, history, psychoanalysis, psychology and others. The conferencist will be Georges Jean Marie Gaillard, a professor of psychology at the Institut de Psychologie of the Université Lumière Lyon 2.

The event will be broadcast live on the web.

Programme:

February 22

2:00 pm - Death Drive and Traumatic Repetition in Institutions.

February 23

2:00 pm - Death Drive and Traumatic Repetition in Institutions.

February 24

10:00 am - Trauma and Management Technologies in Institutions.
2:00 pm - Death Drive and Traumatic Repetition in Institutions.

IEA-USP's Humanities and the Contemporary World Research Group will hold the seminar Filiation's Crisis: Subjectivity and Suffering on November 28, at 2 pm (this event has been postponed to February, 2015), at USP's Institute of International Relations (IRI). According to the organizers, the event aims to reflect on "the 'time of agression', which once accelerated prevents the formation of the identity experience in its heterogeneous layers, and of bonds of belonging and memory, replaced by successive traumas in the spectacle of pain according to the markets of advertising and politics."

Exhibitors will be Cynthia A. Sarti and Tales Ab'Sáber, both professors at UNIFESP, and Maria Inês Assumpção Fernandes, a professor at USP's Institute of Psychology. Moderation will be in charge of the research group's coordinator Olgária Matos, a professor of USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH).

Sarti will talk about Memory and Forgetfulness, making a reflection on the role of memories in the establishment of a common shared memory on the threshold between narrative, and psychic healing, trauma and resilience of contemporary politicians.

Filiation's Rupture will be the theme of Fernandes. She will examine the sense of loss of psychic transmission and its consequences in the constitution of subjectivity across generations, allowing family, and symbolic and identity belonging narratives.

Ab'Sáber called his exhibition The Music of Infinite Time. He will discuss the uses of time by the young controlled by the rules of drug consumption and the market in its relations with the processes of depersonalization and unfulfillment both in terms of group performances and celebrations, and in their daily lives.

Time Acceleration and Post-Democracy: Violence and Communication is the theme of the seminar that IEA’s Humanities and the Contemporary World Research Group will hold on October 1, at 2 pm, in the Institute’s event room.

According to philosopher Olgária Matos, professor at USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences and coordinator of the research group, the idea is to analyze the time dimension in the contemporary world and to question “what is temporal and what is timeless in modernity". To do so, the meeting will discuss the metamorphosis of the individual due to technological innovations, focusing on the acceleration of the pace of life process.

“The intention is to understand the new figures of otherness, identity and interiority of the new individual, particularly in relationships that require an extensive and qualitative temporality, such as love, friendship or parenting,” she explained.

The theme will be addressed from three analytical perspectives: the thought of French philosopher Henri Bergson on body and memory, the phenomenon of digital culture, and the film "The Strange Case of Angelica," by Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira.

The exhibitors will be philosopher Rita Paiva, a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo’s School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (EFLCH), sociologist Mauro Rovai, also from the EFLCH, and anthropologist Massimo Canevacci, a visiting professor at the IEA-USP. Mediation will be in charge of Matos.

The event will be broadcast live on the web.

Image: Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927).