Cold War Legacies: Systems, Theory, Aesthetics

'Examining the persistence of the Cold War's massive restructuring of our lifeworld, this fascinating collection provides a series of incisive case studies that explores key sites of interaction between politics, technoscience and various modalities of cultural production since the mid-twentieth century. Taken together, these interlinked microhistories provide both a powerful demonstration of the book's central thesis regarding the Cold War - the degree to which, even 'after', we continue to live within it - and an important resource for the challenge of thinking beyond its legacies.'Mark Dorrian, Forbes Chair in Architecture, University of EdinburghReveals how the twenty-first century is the world the Cold War madeWhat are the legacies of the Cold War? This interdisciplinary collection explores how, in a number of fundamental ways, contemporary life and thought continue to be shaped by theories, technologies and attitudes that were forged during World War II and developed into organisational structures during the long Cold War.From futures research, pattern recognition algorithms, nuclear waste disposal and surveillance technologies to smart weapons systems and contemporary fiction and art, this book shows that we are now living in a world imagined and engineered during the Cold War. Drawing on theorists such as Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Luce Irigaray, Friedrich Kittler, Michel Serres, Peter Sloterdijk, Carl Schmitt, Bernard Stiegler and Paul Virilio, this collection makes connections between Cold War material and conceptual technologies as they relate to the arts, society and culture.John Beck is Professor of Modern Literature and Director of the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture at the University of Westminster, London. Ryan Bishop is Professor of Global Art and Politics at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.Cover image: Ability-Composite, 2015 © Jordan CrandallCover design:[EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN 978-1-4744-0948-3Barcode