Gilbert Simondon and the Technical Mentalities and Transindividual Affects of Art-science

Abstract

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the field of ‘art-science’ collaborations for their perceived capacity to develop new cultural understandings of technology and science. In this article, and through an engagement with the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, I argue that if art-science represents an important site for the formation of an alternate technical culture today, then it is because of the new technical mentalities that such practices might cultivate. Here, creating a new technical mentality is more than just a representational concern with enhancing ‘public awareness’ of technology, instead referring to more material transformations in our embodied capacities for perceiving and affectively engaging with technologies. I flesh this potential out through an encounter with work of Art Orienté objet, whose art-science collaborations challenge the anthropocentric and utilitarian mentalities of contemporary bioscience through explorations of the transindividual conditions of human embodiment and its material immersion within nonhuman ecologies.

Recognition and attunement in migration research

“…In the more empirically-oriented section of the article, it is noted that ‘[t]he main focus of the present work is to provide a reading of the lives of irregular migrants through the lenses of some theoretical concepts (affect/ethics, becoming and information)’. Such a focus certainly resonates with a processual perspective on migrant experience and subjectification, and it also extends the application of Simondon’s work into a new area (building on the work of others in geography, such as Lapworth, 2016, 2020).…”

Perspectives of Bioartists and Community Lab Organizers on Working with Living Organisms

“…There has been attention from several research communities on both the potential and implications of the bioart movement. Much of this research comes from critical media studies and sociotechnical studies [30][31][32][33]44,47]. For example, Lapworth explores the ontogenetic possibilities of bioart, past thinking through the meaning of art, life and the sciences, but to thinking through the reconfiguration of the subject; the material production of new subjects and worlds [32].…”

“…For example, Lapworth explores the ontogenetic possibilities of bioart, past thinking through the meaning of art, life and the sciences, but to thinking through the reconfiguration of the subject; the material production of new subjects and worlds [32]. Lapworth also posits that art-science collaborations not only enhance the public awareness of new technologies, but develop what Simondon termed new technical mentalities, or more material transformations in our embodied capacities for perceiving and affectively engaging with technologies [33]. Straughan focuses on tacit knowledge, specifically through the embodied practice in the lab space to "think through the roles of the somatic senses and non-human others, as well as artists themselves, in the acquisition of knowledge" [47].…”

“…Additionally, a body of work is emerging that focuses on the ethical and practical questions of designing with and for non-human living organisms [20,34,36]. Finally, there is a body of work in the arts and humanities that explores how bioart explores ontological questions [10,30,31,33,52]. Previous research has not yet investigated the perspectives of bioartists, community lab organizers facilitating bioart activities, and researchers working in this area with an aim to inform, shape and influence transdisciplinary HCI practices.…”

On being affected: Desire, passion, and the question of conatus after Spinoza and Deleuze

“…Within geography, Spinoza's philosophy has most often been cited within work that appears under the banner of the "affective turn" (see, for some examples, Anderson, 2014;Ash, 2015;Bissell, 2010;Closs Stephens, 2016;Dewsbury, 2015;Gallagher, 2016;Johnson, 2019;Keating, 2019;Lapworth, 2020;McCormack, 2007;Tedeschi, 2021). Spinoza's renewed presence within geographical discourse is due in large part to the influential work of Brian Massumi, who develops a unique reading of Spinozian philosophy wherein what Spinoza calls "affect" is transformed such that it comes to stand in for the visceral but transient intensities of bodily experience that often pass below the threshold of cognitive awareness (Massumi, 1995(Massumi, , 2002(Massumi, , 2015a(Massumi, , 2015b).…”