Organizers: Jochem Zwier & Bas de Boer

This workshop aims to explore why contemporary philosophical approaches to technology tend to seek close proximity to phenomenology, and what this proximity means and entails. Although the role of technologies in contemporary life is carefully analyzed in various ways, what remains undiscussed is how such careful attention must be qualified as having a phenomenological character. How, for instance, does (post)phenomenological writing about technologies differ from sociological or ethnographic studies? How, if at all, does phenomenology differ from sociological analysis? How do the various considerations from the phenomenological tradition inform contemporary phenomenological analyses of temporality, use, cognition, embodiment, and environmentality? We bring together speakers from the field of philosophy of technology that in one way or another relate to phenomenology in their work to explore these questions.

Attendance is free, registration is mandatory. If you want to register for the workshop, please send an email to s.o.m.deboer@utwente.nl. Places are limited, online attendance is not possible

Program: (Titles might be subject to small changes)

1000-1030: Welcome and Introduction by Bas de Boer & Jochem Zwier

1030-1215: Session 1: Technology as Phenomenon

1030-1050:

Galit Wellner – Artificial Intelligence and the Need to Redefine Human Traits

1050-1110:

Martin Ritter – Technological Mediation Without Empirical Borders

1110-1130:

Vincent Blok – Networking Phenomenology as Method to Research the Ontic and Ontological Dimensions of New and Disruptive Technologies

1130-1200

Plenary Discussion

1200-1300: Lunch

1300-1445 : Session 2: Phenomenology’s Potential Impact on Technical Practice

1300-1320:

Annie Kurz – Nothing in Practice: Entanglements of Sartre’s Nothingness and Social Media Practice

1320-1340:

Lavinia Marin – Attending the Online Other. A Phenomenology of Attention for Social Media Platforms

1340-1400:

Janna van Grunsven, Caroline Bollen, and Bouke van Balen – Three Embodied Dimensions of Communication: Phenomenological Lessons for and from the Field of Augmented and Alternative Communication Technology

1400-1420:

Robert Rosenberger – The Activist Potential of Postmodern Phenomenology of Technology (Hybrid)

1420-1445:

Plenary Discussion

1445-1515: Break

1515-1645 : Session 3: The Phenomenological Method in the Philosophy of Technology

1515-1535:

Darian Meacham – The Institution of Technology

1535-1550:

Jan Peter Bergen – Levinas’ Phenomenologies of Technology

1550-1620:

Dana S. Belu – Seeing the Phenomenon: On the Radical Disembodiment of Human Reproduction (Hybrid)

1620-1700:

Plenary Discussion & Closing