To master the forms we produce we must first understand the mechanisms within
which we operate. The strong association of the machine with Western modernityhas a long history behind it. From the tool-making early humans to the Indo-
European *magh (“power, force, capacity,”) to the performative and conceptualmechane of ancient Greek theater, and the Latin ex-machina, to ancient China’s
mechanical inventions, the magic and fetishistic allure of the machine seem to
have accompanied the human experiment from its very beginnings. But what has
made the “machine” a powerful signifier of modernity has been its widespread
reach, as it became integral to the development of capitalism and colonialism,
both as a “thing-commodity,” and as worldview that accorded to the logocentrism
of the European Enlightenment and the new mechanistic sciences. The grafting of
emotion, digital connectivity, and AI machine learning onto the industrial, financial
and consumer apparatus of neoliberal modernity has resulted in the exponential
acceleration of an enslaving machinic regime of debt and desire, where design,
image and algorithmic dividuality have played a crucial role. This regime has
contributed to a “social subjection” that has fragmented the commons into isolated
and commodified selves.
In exploring these perspectives, we will reference world changing ideas and
creations ranging from the Antiquity to the Bauhaus and now algorithmic
strategies. We will consider our selves within the regime of emotional capitalism,
as well as our anthropocentric coexistence with the “non-human” in its many
conflicted forms.
Machinic Modernity is an interdisciplinary class. Working through a mix of
conversations, and design essays, we will articulate our interpretation of seminal
texts and the fundamental concepts they stand for. We will combine theory and
form, to demonstrate how their synergy can be a foundation for the design of
images, products, architectures, interfaces, services, and/or systems. Ultimately,
this class is an opportunity to investigate the drivers of our collective and individual
praxis to then confront one of the great questions of our times: Why, what and
how must we design to engage our rapidly transforming world?

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