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MACHINIC_ANIMISM

                                          August 31, 2022

                                                ANIMISM_HUMAN_WORLD

While scanning through google scholar hits on "animism",
looking for pieces that discuss the spirits inherit in
objects created by humans, I got interested in this
very prominent hit, though it doesn't seem to be on the
subject:

     "Machinic animism" (2012)
      Angela Melitopoulos and Maurizio Lazzarato

      https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/dls.2012.0060

First question, is "machinic animism" about the spirit of machines?
It doesn't seem so...

      "This catalogue essay is based on a series of
      interviews conducted by the authors with
      international scholars who were asked to
      reflect on Guattari's scattered comments
      concerning animism."

Okay, so these are *scattered comments*, meaning
this author (Guattari) didn't have that much to
say about animism directly.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Guattari

Now, this guy Guattari did use the term "machinic", but
I gather it was mainly in the phrase "Machinic Unconscious"
the title of a book from 1979.

It seems that Guattari didn't think much of Freudian approaches
to the unconscious which he regarded as leaving individuals
trapped by their histories, he wanted a view that allowed for          FREUD
more individual freedom:

"The Machinic Unconscious: Essays in Schizoanalysis" (2011)
Félix Guattari, trans. T. Adkins:

https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/dls.2014.0148?src=recsys


      "These theorists [e.g. Freudians] are essentialist,
      because they ultimately posit a hopeless world
      where a priori sexual instincts constitute the
      basis of all human agency. On the other hand, the
      alternative offered by Guattari claims that if the
      unconscious is machinic, then our psyche can be
      assembled and re-assembled as we so desire within
      very specific material conditions. "


So the idea is that a "machinic" unconscious is one under
human control, one that can be redesigned at will.

That's got a nice existentialist zing to it, but it strikes
me that it's unfair to the Freudians: I don't think the idea
was that you're *trapped* by your sexual instincts, but
rather that you *would* be trapped if you weren't aware
enough of them to enable your ego/superego to override them.



      "Play as an Affective Field for Activating
      Subjectivity: Notes on The Machinic Unconscious"
      (2012)

      F. J. Colman

      https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/dls.2012.0061?src=recsys

      "This paper considers how Guattari argues that
      subjectivities are produced and organised by what
      he describes as machinic assemblages. Machinic
      assemblages are those aspects of life that operate
      to regulate the affective powers of life."

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