<nettime> Galloway: 10 Theses on the Digital

[Matthew Fuller <m.fuller@gold.ac.uk>]

â10 Theses on the Digitalâ
Alexander R. Galloway

5pm, Monday 14th May
Room LG02
New Academic Building
Goldsmiths, University of London

Free, All Welcome

Despite being the object of much discussion these days, the digital does 
not often appear in the writings of philosophers, except perhaps when it 
arrives unwittingly under the aegis of another name. The world of business 
consultancy has accepted it, as has the popular and folk culture, consumer 
society, telecommunications, medicine, the arts, and of course the spheres 
of industrial engineering and information processing (where it plays a 
special role). But is there an ontology of the digital, or even a 
philosophy of it? The goal of this project is not so much to answer such 
questions, but to draw up a map for what is necessary to answer them, 
something like a prolegomenon for future writing on digitality and 
philosophy.

What is the digital exactly? The digital means the one dividing into two. 
Its heart lies in metaphysics, and adjacent philosophical systems, most 
importantly dialectics. By comparison, the analogue means the two coming 
together as one. It is found in theories of immanence: either the immanence 
of the total plane of being, or the immanence of the individual person or 
object. Either immanence in its infinity, or immanence in its finitude.

The goal, then, is not so much to produce a âphilosophy of the digitalâ 
or even a âdigitization of philosophy.â Rather we will explore how 
digitality and philosophy come together, as two modal conditions. They 
exist both in parallel as they diverge and differentiate themselves, but 
also in series as they merge and intermediate. So this project will, if it 
is successful, pay attention to the conceptual requirements of the digital 
(and by contrast the analogue) and the strictures and affordances it grants 
to philosophy.

For directions: http://www.gold.ac.uk/find-us/

Organised by Centre for Cultural Studies 
http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/
and the Department of Media and Communications 
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/


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