Plural approaches to the “dividual” : politics, space, bodies, digital
Approches plurielles au « dividuel » : politique, espace, corps, numérique
Published on Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Abstract
The two-days conference entitled Plural approaches to the “dividual” : politics, space, bodies, digital is a hybrid and transdisciplinary project focused on the current radical transformations of the modern concept of “individual”. Our purpose is to explore the multiple interpretations and implications of the notion of “dividual”.
Announcement
Arguments
The two-days conference entitled Plural approaches to the dividual: politics, spaces, bodies, digital is a hybrid and transdisciplinary project focused on the current radical transformations of the modern concept of “individual”. Indeed, the crisis of this concept has emerged in the contemporary philosophical debate in several ways: the crisis of subjectivity (Foucault, Deleuze), the primacy of the “individuation” metastable process over the stable notion of “individual” (Simondon), the critique of human centrality and the search of new ways of multi-species co-habitation (Haraway), as well as the emergence of relational ontologies (Merleau-Ponty and again Simondon).
Facing this crisis, our purpose is to explore the multiple interpretations and implications of the notion of “dividual”.
The theme of dividuality has become central to anthropological studies in the 1970s and 1980s (Marriott, Strathern). Later, it entered the contemporary philosophical reflexion with respect to the shift from the “disciplinary societies” (Foucault) to the so-called “societies of control” (Deleuze), the rise of today's financial capitalism, the effects of the digital revolution, and in a more general way the current human condition in our globalized world (Appadurai, Raunig, Ott, Carbone).
We propose three general axes of research:
- Dividuality and politics: this axe’s purpose is to highlight the political implications of the idea of dividuality. The individual has been the main character in modern Europe political history. Its link with the notion of subject shows us the difficulty to consider the plurality and the multiplicity that could creep in our “forms of subjectivation”. So, if those subjectivation process turn out to be produced by relational and metastable dynamics, (as revealed by Simondon, even if he never uses the notions of « dividual » or « dividuality »), the use of the notion of « dividual » seems unavoidable. If Deleuze denounced the emergence of the « dividual » as a characteristic of the society of control, we can find in contemporary thinkers (Appadurai, Raunig, Carbone, Ott) an understanding of the « dividual » as a political category able to reveal several challenges of our global condition.
- Dividuality, bodies and digital reality: this axe’s purpose is to re-think the concept of individual in the era of digital technologies. While occidental modernity gives to the individual a stable and indivisible identity, relational ontology lays the relations as foundation for changing identities. This is not to say that a relational ontology would be inherently dividual, but that it may put in trouble the realm of individuality and open the way to a serious investigation of dividual relations. Considering perception, relations, and bodies as fundamental elements of our being in the world, we will question the notion of the dividual and fragmented body in order to understand how the hyper-connection to digital devices (screens, immersive environments) change the relations to corporeality and identity, and what kind of experiences and perceptions emerge through this interfaced world.
- Dividuality and imaginary of space: this axe’s purpose is to understand how spatiality can be considered as a dividual configuration. The works of the artist Laura Sellies in collaboration with the philosopher Bastien Gallet show the emergence of a spatiality where a material and imaginary economy takes form. Dividual space divides itself in the contact with human and not human, real and imaginary agents. In this sense, to live a space does not mean « to take place in it » but « to take part to its dividual configuration ».
Proposals that do not fall within these axes, but are related to the theme of dividuality, will also be welcome.
The conference is organized as part of the activities of the École doctorale 487 and of the IRPHIL department of the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, in collaboration with the International Research Group “Vivre par(mi) les écrans”.
The conference will be held from 24th to 25th of October in Lyon, France. As part of the event, an artistic workshop, open to all participants, is organized on the theme of dividuality.
Submission guidelines
Researchers are invited to submit an abstract for a 20 minutes presentation plus 10 minutes for discussion. The abstracts, in French or in English, must be of 4000 characters (including spaces) maximum, and they must be sent to dividual.lyon@gmail.com
before August 11, 2023.
Keynotes Speakers
- Mauro Carbone (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
- Michaela Ott (University of Fine Arts, Hamburg)
- Gerald Raunig (Zürich University of the Arts)
Important dates
- Abstracts submission deadline: August 11, 2023.
- Notice of acceptance: September 10, 2023.
- Conference: October 24-25, 2023.
Organisers
- Gael Caignard (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
- Cinzia Orlando (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 - Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale)
- Marion Roche (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 - École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon)
Subjects
- Thought (Main category)
- Mind and language > Thought > Philosophy
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology
- Mind and language > Thought > Intellectual history
- Society > History
- Mind and language > Representation
- Society > Political studies
Places
- Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3
Lyon, France (69)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Friday, August 11, 2023
Keywords
- dividual, individual, dividualité, sujet, individuation
Contact(s)
- Gael Caignard
courriel : gaelcaignard [at] outlook [dot] com
Information source
- Gael Caignard
courriel : gaelcaignard [at] outlook [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Plural approaches to the “dividual” : politics, space, bodies, digital », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1bgm
