Creating Commons: Affects, Collectives, Aesthetics

The commons have become a powerful vehicle for conceptualizing and experimenting with ways of being, becoming, and working together, within and across conflicting settings. As they are based on a careful handling of resources, they are mostly discussed within the framework of alternative economies, leaving aside the affective drive that shapes their multiple forms. Focusing on concrete practices, this panel brings together concepts of affect with structural definitions of the (digital) commons and addresses a number of questions: What kind of aesthetic can contribute to a practice of commoning? How to create conditions for the production of free resources? What can the focus on affect add to the fostering of the commons?

This panel discussion is hosted by Cornelia Sollfrank and Felix Stalder on behalf of the research project Creating Commons at the Zurich University of the Arts.