Kim Fortun's 2014 article is available on the website for HAU's Journal of Ethnographic Theory.
Abstract:
"I situate Latour’s latest project—An Inquiry into Modes of Existence (AIME)—in the context of late industrialism and query both its conceptual underpinnings and the design of its digital platform. I argue that Latour’s semiotics (and associated conceptions of both networks and ontologies) are functionalist in a way that mimics industrial logic, discounting both the production of hierarchical differentiation within a given system, and the system’s externalizations. The approach thus underestimates the toxicity of its vitalism."
Kim Fortun, "From Latour to late industrialism", contributed by Maggie Woodruff, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 6 August 2018, accessed 23 April 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/latour-late-industrialism
Critical Commentary
Kim Fortun's 2014 article is available on the website for HAU's Journal of Ethnographic Theory.
Abstract:
"I situate Latour’s latest project—An Inquiry into Modes of Existence (AIME)—in the context of late industrialism and query both its conceptual underpinnings and the design of its digital platform. I argue that Latour’s semiotics (and associated conceptions of both networks and ontologies) are functionalist in a way that mimics industrial logic, discounting both the production of hierarchical differentiation within a given system, and the system’s externalizations. The approach thus underestimates the toxicity of its vitalism."