Inhaltspezifische Aktionen

GCSC/GGK Lecture: Marcello Vitali-Rosati: "The Factory of Thinking: Protocols, Algorithms, Formats, and Worldviews"

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18.01.2022 von 18:00 bis 20:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC100)

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online (Webex Events)

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For some years now, there has been talk of a "new materialism". Criticizing the idea of metaphysics of Aristotelian origin which opposes form to matter, this current - if it is one - tries to return to the materiality of thinking: there is no form without matter, matter makes form, or even better, matter is form. To say it with Karen Barad: "matter matters". This means in particular that text is also always an inscribed text. A certain ideality of the notion of text such as it has circulated in the post-structuralist tradition is thus put to shame. Thinking is always an inscription, a text is always an inscription. And thus there are no neutral tools in the hands of a thinking mind, tools, protocols, formats... are thinking. Protocols, algorithms, formats think. How do they think? What do they think? Based in particular on the example of textual writing formats, I will try to show this fusion between technique and thinking and its cultural and political consequences. In particular I will analyze the format docx and the implications of writing with Microsoft Word, and I will present the text editor Stylo which was created in order to propose an alternative way of writing in the field of Human and Social sciences.


// Prof. Dr. Marcello Vitali-Rosati (University of Montréal, Canada)