Animism/Machinism. Configurations of Critique between Science, Art, and Technology

在目前关于人类世的辩论中，人文和社会科学越来越多地引用万物有灵论的论述和立场。在这方面，万物有灵论同时出现，作为人类和非人类生存模式之间交流的密码，以及一种通过克服根本的二分法(例如，文化/自然、主体/客体、有生命/无生命)来把握资本主义的扩张和应对随之而来的生态危机的范式。在这种背景下，我们的项目追求三个密切相关的目标：(A)阐述和具体说明新的万物有灵论与媒体研究的相关性，(B)概述和利用批评资本主义的万物有灵论的资源和观点，以及(C)为(媒体)科学和(媒体)艺术的建设性对话开辟万物有灵论的话语和立场同样具有自反性和实验性的潜力。在研究战略方面，该项目急于将万物有灵论的论述回归到它最近的发源地之一，即Félix Guattari与Gilles Deleuze共同发展的“机械论”哲学，其中还包括“技术生命论”的传统(Gilbert Simondon、Georges Canguilem、AndréLeroi-Gourhan等)。这种哲学认为机器是“交流因素”，在先进的社会条件下，容易发展出“原主体性”。在方法上，该项目结合了近代科技史和哲学分析与批评的方法，因为它已成为继拉图尔之后媒体研究的标准。此外，我们还采用了艺术研究的方法。一方面，这些方法允许万物有灵论的问题得到表演的回答，从而(自我)反射地回答。另一方面，它们使学术界和非学术界公众更多地参与到研究过程中来。我们的研究主要集中在技术的特定生命形式(“本征”)、文化与自然的关系以及在这些两极之间找到新的平衡的可能性等问题上。因此，我们的工作计划分为三个子项目，分别面向上述目标和方法：1)《机器存在。吉尔伯特·西蒙登与技术问题》；2)《沟通的批判》；吉勒斯·德勒兹和费利克斯·瓜塔里的《智能机器时代的自然哲学》；3)《(不)均衡/平衡。重新定义中间地带》。

In current debates about the Anthropocene, the humanities and social sciences increasingly invoke animistic discourses and positions. In this connection, animism appears at the same time as a cipher for communication between human and non-human modes of existence as well as a paradigm to grasp the expansion of capitalism and to confront the accompanying ecological crisis by overcoming fundamental dichotomies (e.g., culture/nature, subject/object, animate/inanimate). Against this background, our project pursues three closely connected goals: (a) to elaborate and specify the relevance of the new animism for media studies research, (b) to outline and make usable the resources and perspectives of animism that are critical of capitalism, and (c) to open up the equally reflexive and experimental potential of animist discourses and positions for the constructive dialogue of (media) science and (media) art. In terms of research strategy, the project is eager to return the animism discourse to one of its recent points of origin, namely to the philosophy of "machinism" developed by Félix Guattari with Gilles Deleuze, which also includes the tradition of "technological vitalism" (Gilbert Simondon, Georges Canguilhem, André Leroi-Gourhan, etc.). This philosophy considers machines as "communication factors" that, under advanced social conditions, are apt to develop a "proto-subjectivity". Methodologically, the project relies on a combination of approaches from recent history of science and technology and philosophical analysis and critique, as it has become a standard in media studies after Latour. In addition, we use methods of artistic research. On the one hand, these methods allow the question of animism to be answered performatively and thus (self-)reflexively. On the other hand, they make it possible to increasingly involve the academic and non-academic public in the research process. The main focus of our research is on questions of the specific form of life (“Eigenleben”) of technology, the relationship between culture and nature, and the possibility of finding a new balance between these poles. Accordingly, our work program is divided into three subprojects, which are oriented towards the aforementioned goals and methods: 1) "Machine Beings. Gilbert Simondon and the Problem of Technology," 2) "Critique of Communication. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's Philosophy of Nature in the Age of Intelligent Machines," and 3) "(Un-)Evenness/BALANCE. Redefining the Middle Ground."