Christian Voller | The ‘technological veil’. Notes on a metaphor in Adorno
02. Dec
6:15 pm, C40.530
There is a metaphor in Adorno that he never developed into a concept: the image of the ‘technological veil’. It originates from discussions he had with Max Horkheimer and other members of the Institute during his exile in California, in connection with the so-called ‘Dialectic Book’, which was published in 1944 under the title Dialectic of Enlightenment. However, the expression does not appear anywhere in the published book, and as far as I can see, Horkheimer does not use it either. Based on the available sources, the ‘technological veil’ seems to be a phrase used exclusively by Adorno, albeit only in manuscripts and discussion papers that were not intended for publication. In this talk, I argue that it is nonetheless worthwhile to examine the metaphor, especially with regard to a critical theory of digital socialization.
Christian Voller is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Media Culture and Media Philosophy. Most recent publication: In der Dämmerung. Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Kritischen Theorie, Berlin, Matthes & Seitz, 2022.
Language: German
An event organized by the Research Initiative The Disruptive Condition
Contact: Nicolas Schneider (nicolas.schneider@leuphana.de)