Helena De Preester’s “Subjectivity and Transcendental Illusions in the Anthropocene” aims to rethink fundamentally the human–technology relationship against the backdrop of the Anthropocene. Essentially, the essay is concerned with the current form of subjectivity that characterizes humankind in the Anthropocene, and analyzes how it embeds knowledge, desire and behavior. De Preester indeed succeeds in creating a potent and engaging reflection on the current form of human subjectivity characteristic for the age of the Anthropocene, by referring to Vilém Flusser’s apparatuses, McKenzie (...) Wark’s vectoralist class, Stiegler’s savoir-vivre and object of addiction, Robert Pfaller’s notion of interpassivity; Williams’ attention economy, etc. However, De Preester throughout her essay, although discussing thoroughly the aforementioned ideas of subjectivity and transcendental illusions in the Anthropocene, falls short in her ambitious aspiration to rethink fundamentally the human–technology relationship against the backdrop of the Anthropocene. Although De Preester provides excellent examples, they do not seem cohesive enough to support this conclusion, primarily as the analysis of the Anthropocene’s triad, as pointed out in the introduction, requires a thorough insight into the role that Technology plays in its constitution. (shrink)

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The paper attempts to raise the question whether human perception is still central to organisational aesthetics, especially if we start to give a stakeholder position to artificial systems and when organisational designs and processes have ceased to rely only on human agency. Algorithmically driven, autonomous agents like high-frequency trading, already exist and are acting within the timeframes and space that are unreachable for human perception. All that calls for serious consideration whether emerging philosophical trends, such as Speculative Realism, Object-Oriented Ontology, (...) New and Speculative Aesthetics have their impact on organisational perception and design. (shrink)

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This article starts from the assumption that Heidegger’s notion of Geworfenheit can be overcome through alternative design or projection of human beings. Designing the body has so far received little attention within the research on Vilém Flusser. The essay begins with a discussion of bodily design moving on to an examination of sexual coitus and orgasm. Human re-invention is depicted in terms of sexual design, by assuming, in accordance with Flusser, a kind of sex, which is entirely independent of procreation (...) or of any other biological consideration and exclusively directed towards orgasm as an intersubjective integration with the other person. This is not so much a form of surrender as an attempt at self-oblivion. The article also deals with the victory over death through orgasm, showing Flusser’s theoretical proximity to Wilhelm Reich’s psychoanalysis. The concept of orgasm will also be discussed in view of techno-imaginary charity as a gesture of love, addressing Flusser’s topos of masquerade, along with the possibilities of its overcoming. (shrink)

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