Matthew Fuller on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:55:49 +0200 (CEST)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

<nettime> Galloway: 10 Theses on the Digital


â10 Theses on the Digitalâ
Alexander R. Galloway

5pm, Monday 14th May
Room LG02
New Academic Building
Goldsmiths, University of London

Free, All Welcome

Despite being the object of much discussion these days, the digital does not often appear in the writings of philosophers, except perhaps when it arrives unwittingly under the aegis of another name. The world of business consultancy has accepted it, as has the popular and folk culture, consumer society, telecommunications, medicine, the arts, and of course the spheres of industrial engineering and information processing (where it plays a special role). But is there an ontology of the digital, or even a philosophy of it? The goal of this project is not so much to answer such questions, but to draw up a map for what is necessary to answer them, something like a prolegomenon for future writing on digitality and philosophy.

What is the digital exactly? The digital means the one dividing into two. Its heart lies in metaphysics, and adjacent philosophical systems, most importantly dialectics. By comparison, the analogue means the two coming together as one. It is found in theories of immanence: either the immanence of the total plane of being, or the immanence of the individual person or object. Either immanence in its infinity, or immanence in its finitude.

The goal, then, is not so much to produce a âphilosophy of the digitalâ or even a âdigitization of philosophy.â Rather we will explore how digitality and philosophy come together, as two modal conditions. They exist both in parallel as they diverge and differentiate themselves, but also in series as they merge and intermediate. So this project will, if it is successful, pay attention to the conceptual requirements of the digital (and by contrast the analogue) and the strictures and affordances it grants to philosophy.

For directions: http://www.gold.ac.uk/find-us/

Organised by Centre for Cultural Studies http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/ and the Department of Media and Communications http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org