[acc-cca-l] 2025 ICCIT Annual Lecture: Prof. Yuk Hui, University of Toronto Mississauga, April 16

[Tero Karppi]

[△EXTERNAL]



2025 ICCIT Annual Lecture: Prof. Yuk Hui



Acclaimed media philosopher Yuk Hui gives the 2025 ICCIT Annual Lecture titled Political Epistemology and the Megamachine at the University of Toronto Mississauga on April 16:



 “In Machine and Sovereignty, I propose developing a Tractatus Politico-Technologicus to address the discrepancy between political philosophy and technology, a gap that demands both questioning and bridging. I aim to do this by analyzing the relationship between political epistemology and the megamachine. By political epistemology, I refer to the mode of knowing transposed from science to politics, economics, and technology, such as mechanism, organism, and vitalism, among others, thereby constituting a new paradigmatic shift in the organization and functioning of society. The term megamachine, coined by Lewis Mumford, refers to large-scale, hierarchical systems of human organization that operate like a machine. The functioning of the megamachine is both shaped and transformed by political epistemology. As a method, political epistemology contrasts with political theology. With this framework, we will explore the shift from the Hobbesian mechanical state to the Hegelian organic state, as well as Schmitt’s concept of the 'big space.' This approach also illuminates the limits of current discourses on sovereignty and technology, particularly the concept of digital sovereignty.”



About the speaker:

Yuk HUI (Prof. Dr. phil. habil.) is Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he holds the Chair of Human Conditions. Hui studied computer engineering at the University of Hong Kong and philosophy at Goldsmiths College in London where he wrote his doctoral thesis under the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler (1952-2020). He obtained his Habilitation (venia legendi in philosophy, specialising in the question of technology) from the Leuphana University Lüneburg. He has been professor at the City University of Hong Kong as well as visiting professors at the University of Tokyo, China Academy of Art and Strelka Institute Moscow.



Hui is author of several monographs including On the Existence of Digital Objects<http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/on-the-existence-of-digital-objects> (prefaced by Bernard Stiegler, University of Minnesota Press, 2016), The Question Concerning Technology in China <https://www.urbanomic.com/book/question-concerning-technology-china/> -An Essay in Cosmotechnics<https://www.urbanomic.com/book/question-concerning-technology-china/> (Urbanomic, 2016), Recursivity and Contingency<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786600523/Recursivity-and-Contingency> (R&LI, 2019), Art and Cosmotechnics <https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/art-and-cosmotechnics> (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), Post-Europe<https://mitpress.mit.edu/9798985423518/post-europe/> (Sequence/Urbanomic, 2024) and Machine and Sovereignty<https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917418/machine-and-sovereignty/> (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) .



About the ICCIT Annual Lecture:

The ICCIT Annual Lecture is organized by the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, at the University of Toronto Mississauga. ICCIT researches the relationship between humans and technology and is a communication and media department for the 21st Century.

The ICCIT Annual Lecture features invited scholars who bring different theoretical orientations, philosophies, and methodologies to human-technology problems.



Time and Location:

Wednesday April 16, 2025, from 2:30 to 4pm, with reception to follow.

University of Toronto Mississauga, Collaborative Digital Research Space (CDRS), located in Maanjiwe nendamowinan (room MN3230).



Registration:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iccit-annual-lecture-2025-yuk-hui-tickets-1273865308429?aff=oddtdtcreator<https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iccit-annual-lecture-2025-yuk-hui-tickets-1273865308429?aff=oddtdtcreator>






--
Tero Karppi, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Toronto
--Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (UTM)
--Faculty of Information (St. George)
ICCIT Associate Director, Research

Books:
-- Disconnect <https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/disconnect<https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/disconnect>>
-- Undoing Networks <https://meson.press/books/undoing-networks/<https://meson.press/books/undoing-networks/>>


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