Machinology - The Beginning

The word machinology is something I tried to use as the English translation of the title of my first book, Koneoppi. As anyone knowledgeable of the Finnish language knows, its not a direct translation. "Koneoppi" is a bit old-fashioned word that was originally used for all those skills and practices related to greasier machines -- mechanic machines. The term was also much more practical. I did a of concept-poaching and used the term in a more cultural theoretical fashion; to refer to the various practices and discourses (i.e. assemblages) in which modern technology is relayed, and relays culture. In English, "machinology" seemed to convey best the Deleuzian and Kittlerian inspired ideas that characterized that book. Machinology was not then reducible to the merely technical, but referred to the wider process ontology in which I wanted to approach modern media culture. 

The I turned of course to virology -- so to speak. I mean of course the book on viruses (computer viruses to be exact), where some ideas machinological. However, focusing on the quasi-object of "viruses" made it possible to through more concrete case studies look at how the weird materialities of network culture adopt elements from a variety of resources -- not least biology. 

In terms of this blog -- which I might abandon soon if I do not find it useful as a tool-for-thinking -- I try to follow my likes for media anomalies, weird objects, unstable systems, and noisyness of the modern media condition. Its shares characteristics with pataphysics, believes that insects are pioneers of high-tech and we should read more Whitehead to understand the ontology of technical media. We will see what comes out of this.