︎ Matter as Machine


March 18, 2022


As everyone knows, universal history is largely confused with the history of materials. From the outset of the Neolithic era, there is not one aspect of society that has really been independent of the possibilities offered by new techniques for the production of materials, whether these aspects are tools for hunting or combat, objects of pleasure, or objects of real or symbolic exchange. Nevertheless, there is one thing that matter - or more precisely materials - had never been capable of until the age of the electronic computer and silicon: calculating. This new possibility, which marks an unprecedented mutation in human history, leads us to reconsider our relationship to materiality. It is this relationship that we will deal with during our talk, and the way in which architecture contributes to redefining it.


(Philippe Morel)