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

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Henning Schmidgen
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 509434960

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."

• DFG Programme: Research Grants