Abstract
The implications of the issue of the Anthropocene and human effected climate change is slowly getting a grip on the humanities and social science, in the sense that it involves with a strong undercurrent and still more intense interest in materialism, from issues of vibrant matter (Jane Bennett) and self-organisations of the physical and assemblage theory (Manuel Delanda), to John Protevi’s proposition of geophilosophy, Timothy Morton’s and others debate on object oriented ontology (OOO) and hyperobjects, the social life of things (Arjun Appadurai) and material culture and stuff (Daniel Miller).
The chapter presents a genealogical reflection on a topology for systems based on artifacts involving and meshing with all forms of human cohabitation today: such systems constitute very intense conglomerates of aggregated, coherent and networked artifacts, from large technological systems and infrastructures to pervasive wireless systems for monitoring, control and communication. The classical theory of ‘thing-making’ – with all it’s importance for modernity, not least critical and historical materialism – can be rewritten as a genealogy of continuous artifice, in this sense a topology – where artifacts become emphasized by things and objects rendering an aggregated and networked relationality.
The idea of “making into thing” – “reification” (from 'res': thing, in Latin), developed from the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century in Marxism and critical theory, can be relaunched in a highly modified version, which signals a break with classical critical theory in favor of an ontology for the artificial with topological features; an “artificial environment” (Ezio Manzini) with a term that have run through many debates in design thinking in past 50 years without ever coming really to the fore.
The chapter suggest on this background three modalities of a topology for the artificial environment concluded by a critical assessment of the current trends of new materialism and their very strong posthuman tenor. As a contrast a critical alternative described as a new anthropo-eccentric approach is suggested.
The chapter presents a genealogical reflection on a topology for systems based on artifacts involving and meshing with all forms of human cohabitation today: such systems constitute very intense conglomerates of aggregated, coherent and networked artifacts, from large technological systems and infrastructures to pervasive wireless systems for monitoring, control and communication. The classical theory of ‘thing-making’ – with all it’s importance for modernity, not least critical and historical materialism – can be rewritten as a genealogy of continuous artifice, in this sense a topology – where artifacts become emphasized by things and objects rendering an aggregated and networked relationality.
The idea of “making into thing” – “reification” (from 'res': thing, in Latin), developed from the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century in Marxism and critical theory, can be relaunched in a highly modified version, which signals a break with classical critical theory in favor of an ontology for the artificial with topological features; an “artificial environment” (Ezio Manzini) with a term that have run through many debates in design thinking in past 50 years without ever coming really to the fore.
The chapter suggest on this background three modalities of a topology for the artificial environment concluded by a critical assessment of the current trends of new materialism and their very strong posthuman tenor. As a contrast a critical alternative described as a new anthropo-eccentric approach is suggested.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Titel | Architecture and Postphenomenology |
| Redaktører | Lars Botin, Inger Berling Hyams |
| Antal sider | 20 |
| Forlag | Lexington |
| Status | Under udarbejdelse - 2020 |