Phenomenological Approaches to the Computal: Some Reflections on Computation

3D Haptic Technology, University of Hull 2013

Computation is transforming the way in which knowledge is created, used, shared and understood, and in doing so changing the relationship between knowledge and freedom. It encourages us to ask questions about philosophy in a computational age and its relationship to the mode of production that acts as a condition of possibility for it. Today's media are softwarized which imposes certain logics, structures and hierarchies of knowledge onto the processes of production and consumption. This is also becoming more evident with the advent of digital systems, smart algorithms, and real-time streaming media. We could therefore argue that the long predicted convergence of communications and computers, originally identified as “compunication” (see Oettinger and  Legates 1977; Lawrence 1983), has now fully arrived. The softwarised media leads us to consider how mediation is experienced through these algorithmic systems and the challenges for a phenomenology of the computal.

Contribution to Keynote Symposium at Conditions of Mediation ICA Pre-conference on 17th June 2013, Birkbeck, University of London.