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| start [2026/07/09 12:07] – [Systems that Matter] joost | start [2026/07/09 12:53] (current) – [Systems that Matter] joost |
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| ===== welcome ! ===== | ===== welcome ! ===== |
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| This is the public start page of my personal labyratoire: an online scrapbook that I am using in the course of the research project 'Systems that Matter' that started mid-November 2024. It is the successor to the [[http://librarinth.joostrekveld.net|librarinth]], a similar scrapbook that I used in the project 'Dialogues With Machines' during the period 2017-2024.\\ | This is the public start page of my personal labyratoire: an online scrapbook that I am using in the course of the research project 'Systems that Matter' that started in November 2024. It is the successor to the [[http://librarinth.joostrekveld.net|librarinth]], a similar scrapbook that I used in the project 'Dialogues With Machines' during the period 2017-2024.\\ |
| I work on 'Systems that Matter' as a postdoctoral researcher in the 'Disobedient Practices' research cluster at [[https://schoolofartsgent.be|KASK & Conservatorium]], the school of arts of HoGent and Howest in Ghent. The project is financed by the HoGent Arts Research Fund. | I work on 'Systems that Matter' as a postdoctoral researcher in the 'Disobedient Practices' research cluster at [[https://schoolofartsgent.be|KASK & Conservatorium]], the school of arts of HoGent and Howest in Ghent. The project is financed by the HoGent Arts Research Fund. |
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| Practical work currently consists in two larger projects and several smaller experiments.\\ | Practical work currently consists in two larger projects and several smaller experiments.\\ |
| In the first larger project I am exploring the sculptural and generative use of semiconducting materials other than silicon. A number of historical experiments that relate to precursors of our present-day solid-state electronic technology will be re-enacted, with the aim to develop new devices that speculate on how our technology could have been and can still be different. Currently I am working to re-enact the 'Salt Transistor' experiment by the early solid state physicist Robert Wichard Pohl from the late 1930s, and to follow through on some of the ideas it suggests. I am intrigued by the vision of a non-toxic, anti-fascist, fully transparent technology that is several orders of magnitude too slow to be of any obvious practical use, and which has a historical link with what seems to be an important example of technological refusal. I am working towards a lecture-performance in which I re-enact the public presentations of Pohl's experiment and address his views on science, transparency and the highly visual physics demonstrations for which he was famous. On the basis of my re-enactments I am developing an installation that hopes to actualise some of its speculative potential.\\ | In the first larger project I am exploring the sculptural and generative use of semiconducting materials other than silicon. A number of historical experiments that relate to precursors of our present-day solid-state electronic technology will be re-enacted, with the aim to develop new devices that speculate on how our technology could have been and can still be different. Currently I am working to re-enact the 'Salt Transistor' experiment by the early solid state physicist Robert Wichard Pohl from the late 1930s, and to follow through on some of the ideas it suggests. I am intrigued by the vision of a non-toxic, anti-fascist, fully transparent technology that is several orders of magnitude too slow to be of any obvious practical use, and which has a historical link with what seems to be an important example of technological refusal. I am working towards a lecture-performance in which I re-enact the public presentations of Pohl's experiment and address his views on science, transparency and the highly visual physics demonstrations for which he was famous. On the basis of my re-enactments I am developing an installation that hopes to actualise some of its speculative potential.\\ |
| The second larger project is inspired by the cybernetic experimental devices built by Gordon Pask and Stafford Beer and by more recent work on evolvable hardware. I will use evolutionary algorithms to evolve patches for the analogue computer that I built over the past years. This will be used as a platform to interface with different reconfigurable materials. The aim is to channel the specific anarchic potential of such hardware-based evolutionary methods towards the production of complex video images. I am especially interested in how such methods are able to ignore human beliefs about the demarcation and limitations of systems. The result will be a series of single-channel works and video installations that reflect on processes of collective evolution. | The second larger project is inspired by the cybernetic experimental devices built by Gordon Pask and Stafford Beer and by more recent work on evolvable hardware. I will use evolutionary algorithms to evolve patches for the analogue computer that I built over the past years. This will be used as a platform to interface with different reconfigurable materials. The aim is to channel the specific anarchic potential of such hardware-based evolutionary methods towards the production of complex video images. I am especially interested in how such methods are able to circumvent human beliefs about the demarcation and limitations of systems. The result will be a series of single-channel works and video installations that reflect on processes of collective evolution. |
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| Theoretical investigations continue to build on my earlier engagement with the writings of Gilbert Simondon and Isabelle Stengers, attempting to articulate a vision of a technology that includes unpredictable material processes. Currently I am reading about the philosophical and cultural history of chemistry (Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Hélène Metzger, Esther Leslie, William R. Newman), about the possible intersection of material engagement theory and materialist ecological theories (Lambros Malafouris, Val Plumwood, Ariel Salleh, Jason W. Moore, Baruch Gottlieb), and about ways to apply Whiteheads process metaphysics to thinking about technology (Anne Fairchild Pomeroy, Mark Hansen). | Theoretical investigations continue to build on my earlier engagement with the writings of Gilbert Simondon and Isabelle Stengers, attempting to articulate a vision of a technology that includes unpredictable material processes. Currently I am reading about the philosophical and cultural history of chemistry (Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Hélène Metzger, Esther Leslie, William R. Newman), about the possible intersection of material engagement theory and materialist ecological theories (Lambros Malafouris, Karen Barad, Val Plumwood, Ariel Salleh, Jason W. Moore, Baruch Gottlieb), and about ways to apply Whiteheads process metaphysics to thinking about technology (Anne Fairchild Pomeroy, Mark Hansen). |
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| ===== public presentations ===== | ===== public presentations ===== |
