To master the forms we produce we must first understand the mechanisms within which we operate. The strong association of the machine with Western modernity has a long history behind it. From the tool-making early humans to the Indo-European *magh (“power, force, capacity,”) to the performative and conceptual mechane 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, and critical ecological disruption, 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. Furthermore, it has provoked an existential planetary crisis in which design has a significant responsibility to bear. Ultimately, machinism, modernity and design have become fully symbiotic. One cannot exist without the other. Together they can lead to progress as well as to unforeseen disruptions. Exploring these perspectives in combination with notions of humanity and more-than-human worlds, we will reference powerful ideas ranging from Antiquity to the Bauhaus and now posthumanism to artificial intelligence. We will consider our responsibilities and agencies both as visionaries, creatives, and engineers of possible futures. Machinic Modernity is an interdisciplinary class. Working through a mix of conversations, and design essays, we will articulate our interpretation of seminal texts, the fundamental concepts they stand for, and especially how they relate to us as designers. We will combine theory and form investigations to demonstrate how their synergy can be a foundation for the making of stories, 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 engage our rapidly transforming world, to address the redesign of value systems, incentives, and social contracts underpinning our daily lives. The class will pursue self knowledge, yet however introspective it may be, it is also by learning from one another and working together that we will grow the skills needed to address humanity’s fundamental challenges.

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