Thinking technology for the Anthropocene: encountering 3D printing through the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon. (October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Roberts, Tom
• Is Part Of: Cultural geographies. Volume 24:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 539
• Page End: 554
• Publication Date: 2017-10
• Subjects: Anthropocene -- materiality -- more-than-human geography -- Simondon -- technology; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Human ecology -- Periodicals; Human geography -- Periodicals; 304.23
• DOI: 10.1177/1474474017704204
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-4740

Abstract

The notion that the Earth has entered a new epoch characterized by the ubiquity of anthropogenic change presents the social sciences with something of a paradox, namely, that the point at which we recognize our species to be a geologic force is also the moment where our assumed metaphysical privilege becomes untenable. Cultural geography continues to navigate this paradox in conceptually innovative ways through its engagements with materialist philosophies, more-than-human thinking and experimental modes of ontological enquiry. Drawing upon the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, this article contributes to these timely debates by articulating the paradox of the Anthropocene in relation to technological processes. Simondon's philosophy precedes the identification of the Anthropocene epoch by a number of decades, yet his insistence upon situating technology within an immanent field of material processes resonates with contemporary geographical concerns in a number of important ways. More specifically, Simondon's conceptual vocabulary provides a means of framing our entanglements with technological processes without assuming a metaphysical distinction between human beings and the forces of nature. In this article, I show how Simondon's concepts of individuation and transduction intersect with this technological problematic through his far-reaching critique of the 'hylomorphic' distinction between matter and form. Inspired by Simondon's original account of the genesis of a clay brick, the article unfolds these conceptual challenges through two contrasting empirical encounters with 3D printing technologies. In doing so, my intention is to lend an affective consistency to Simondon's problematic, and to do so in a way that captures the kinds of material mutations expressive of a particular technological moment.