Reading Simondon:
On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects

Instructor: Cécile Malaspina
Program: Art & Curatorial Practice
Credit(s): 2
Date: April 18th, 25th, May 9th, 16th, 23th, 30th, June 6th, June 13th.
Time: 09:00-11:30 ET

Enroll – 435 USD

DESCRIPTION: This Survey Seminar will offer a collaborative close reading of Gilbert Simondon’s book On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects. First published in 1958, this has become a seminal work in the philosophy of technology. In the text, Simondon challenges the conventional dichotomy between humans and machines, arguing for an emancipation of technical objects from the enslavement of mere utility in the cultural sphere and restoring the dignity of technical objects through an unprecedented philosophical account of their modes of existence and evolution. Cécile Malaspina’s own English translation, published by Univocal in 2017, with the collaboration of John Rogove, is the first official translation of this major work.

This Seminar will feature two guest lectures by contemporary philosophers who will discuss the importance of Simondon for their own work. In the other Sessions, Malaspina will delve with the students into key parts of “On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects.”

Session 1: We will introduce Simondon’s critique of cultural alienation from technical objects.
Sessions 2 and 3: We will focus on the genesis of technical objects and their evolution through the “process of concretization,” analyzing the concepts of technicity and technical individualization.
Session 4: We will focus on our relations with technical objects, highlighting the educational and cultural innovations proposed by Simondon based on his distinction between minor and major modes of engagement with technology.
Session 5: We will dive deep into the essence of technicity, tracing its origins in magical thinking and its divergence from religious thought while foregrounding the role Simondon attributes to aesthetic, theoretical, and practical reasoning vis-à-vis philosophy.
Session 6 and 7: Guest lectures TBA.
Session 8: We will conclude with a synthesis and discussion of Simondon’s vision for the integration of technical objects into culture and their contemporary relevance to issues such as artificial intelligence, automation, and ethics.

IMAGE: Zdenek Porcal, Rituals Of Solitude, 2024

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Enroll – 435 USD