Page 81 - META

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ISSN 2309-0103 www.archidoct.net
Vol. 7 (2) / February 2020
1 Introduction
Computer and web-based networks are integral to our digital, in- formation-driven societies. Thus, technologies are interconnected to the conceptual models through which we understand the world (Busch & Palmås, 2006; De Landa, 1991; Deleuze, Guattari, & Massumi, 1987). History has witnessed epochal transformations of worldviews 1 as well as paradigm 2 shifts and industrial revolutions (so-called in- dustry 3.0 and 4.0). Mechanization and later industrialization became decisive for how humans relate to each other, technology and nature (Marx, 1867). By nature, I mean how the material world was viewed epistemically and which active or passive character was attributed to non-living forms and forces. Post-industrial technology transfor- mation and increasing dynamization have begun forming a hybrid reality and an intermediate, continuous state of transformation and becoming (Gilles Deleuze & Guattari, 2014). But our current, rather Biedermeier-like (Gordon & Mihailidis, 2016) approach to technolo- gy and digitality seems to shape our current alienation (Marx, 1932) from our existence (Dasein) (Heidegger, 1967), environment and fel- low humans. In a social metabolic view, we again seem to be facing a turn of worldviews. We need to see the bigger picture of our own doing and acting and draw conclusions from our capitalistic con- sumerism. Some post-colonial, ontological and queering thoughts on digitality and handling of technologies attempt to illuminate this new emerging era, i.e., the post-digital turn (Crafting 4.0).
1.1 The anthropocene
Our present time, the so-called fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0), is no longer phrasable, on either a cultural or an economic level, through a paradigmatic lens. Instead, the metaphor of social metab- olism 3 is used to describe quantitative indicators of a metabolic turn of the Anthropocene (figure1). The Anthropocene captures a feature of human-made, artificial, technological interventions, actions and quantitative constructions over the last 100 years of high capitalism that impacts planet Earth on the level of the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and stratosphere.
In the age of craftsmanship, information, work and energy were coupled. In the digital age, machines take over work and design pro- cesses as well as control design and production information. Digital manufacturing seems to be increasingly eliminating both human, manual work in the production phase and the need for specialized manual skills. However, digital manufacturing techniques also offer opportunities, not least since they enable a new way of dealing with the topic of industrialization, mass production and individualization. Through so-called CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), technolo- gy and generative design enable us to produce copies from digital
1. Worldviews are consti- tutive manifestations of a particular view and deter- mine how the world and its phenomena are interpreted. This applies not only to the interpretation of phenome- na, but also to the selection of phenomena themselves. In this sense, the worldview defines what exists in the world and how we interpret and understand what exists (Wagner, 2011).
2. Paradigms are decisive for how we attribute active or passive character to materi- ality, how we perceive and recognize our material and technological world, based on which things in the world may only form meaningful and constitutive relation- ships between each other. Thus, our relationship with materiality and technology is always shaped by our un- derstanding of the world. What I do not recognize nei- ther exists for me nor can I understand it. Recognition — the recognizable — also concerns visibility, accessi- bility and experiencability. Experienceability implies ex- perience and therefore per- ception.
3. The metaphor of metabo- lism is derived from the phys- ical sciences. The notion of the social metabolism of the Anthropocene offers a frame- work for understanding how human technological and constructional actions can- not be conceived in isola- tion, but as interconnected transformations of the world (over the last hundred years, i.e. the high phase of techno- cratic capitalism) (Baccini & Brunner, 2012; González de Molina & Toledo, 2014)
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Inbetween – A Post-digital Turn – Craftmaking 4.0
Verena Ziegler