Technical object connecting artistic practices

Abstract

This communication explores the technical object and its relation to contemporary artistic expressions such as installations and videos through visual literacy. The technical object functions as prosthesis of the real; a sacred object that nevertheless never attains the status of a cultural object. In functioning so, Simondon’s approach of addressing the understanding the technical object’s mode of existence through philosophical thought is worth exploring further in a context of visual literacy. The investigation of the technical object brings us into the individuation concept of the object as well as the subject. In this perspective, it activates complex connected phenomena, where the object helps us to better perceive the issues at stake related to the artist’s individuation process through a technical effort. In this communication, I examine Lévi-Strauss’ notion of bricolage and the comparison between the bricoleur’s, the scholar’s, the artist’s and the engineer’s approaches, from the bricolé object to the installed object. Through these different practices, I will explain artistic practices and the possibility to develop in education of design. To develop the artistic individuation process I introduce the theoretical model “design - realization - socialization” which was conceived initially as a means of mapping the activity. This model has been developed as a whole and in all its complexity during the manufacture of an object. The foundations of this theoretical framework are numerous and are articulated across three distinct timeframes: design, realization and socialization.