Given his incessant movement across traditional disciplinary boundaries between philosophy, psychology, physics, biology, aesthetics, and engineering, one might suspect Gilbert Simondon to be a household name in and throughout contemporary academic discourses. Has not the century, one might ask, in certain ways, become Simondonian? And yet, despite a growing number of translations and editions, to date, Simondon’s work remains relatively unknown to larger audiences.

Organized within the context of Humboldt University’s interdisciplinary laboratory Image Knowledge Gestaltung, this conference aims to showcase both the full scope of Simondon’s work itself and the variety of ways in which it can be approached today, between and across disciplines. It brings together international scholars from various backgrounds in order to to discover and discuss the importance and the theoretical and practical potential of this singular figure in French philosophy within a transdisciplinary perspective. 

For these purposes, Simondon’s ideas will not only be interrogated within the scientific, technological, philosophical, and political horizons of his time, they will moreover, along with the conceptual tools they provide, be examined through the lens of problems posed by contemporary conditions. The conference will thus shed light on both the genesis and the timeliness of Simondon’s philosophy, combining individual and panelled presentations by renowned and emerging scholars with workshop sections that open up a space for discussions regarding the relevance, the translation and the reception of Simondonian ideas in an interconnected and technologically conditioned world.   

All contributions will be in English.

3-5 December 2015

Program

Participants:

Andrea Bardin (Brunel University London)

Michael Cuntz (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)

Olivier del Fabbro (ETH Zürich)

Erich Hörl (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)

Yuk Hui (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)

Anne Lefebvre (Collège International de Philosophie / ENSASE)

Sacha Loeve (Université de Technologie de Compiègne)

Cécile Malaspina (Paris 7)

Marc Rölli (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig)

Anne Sauvagnargues (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)

Martín Savransky (Goldsmiths / University College London)     

Kaja Tulatz (TU Darmstadt) 

Organised by:

Moritz Gansen

Anne Lefebvre

Samo Tomšič