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The Aesthetic Object and the Technical Object

Author(s): Mikel Dufrenne


Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 23, No. 1, In Honor of Thomas
Munro (Autumn, 1964), pp. 113-122
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/428144
Accessed: 03-08-2017 17:16 UTC

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MIKEL DUFRENNE

The Aesthetic Object and


Technical Object*

TECHNICAL ACTIVITY AND AESTHETIC It is necessary, nevertheless, to choose a


ACTIVITY constitute two fundamental line of thought; it is that of a phenome
modes of the praxis. Discernible, yet nology
not al-of objects which I shall pursue thus
ways distinct, and often interdependent: for a too-brief span. But I should like first
does not neolithic pottery disclose to in
sayits
a few words regarding a remarkable
own manner, even before any theories workof from which I often drew my inspira-
the beautiful or of the useful are elabo- tion. G. Simondon, in his book Du mode
rated, the problems of the industrial d'existence
aes- des objets techniques, selected
thetic? In his own manner, does the instead potterthe genetic approach: after having
conceive his vase in the same sense as the studied "the genesis and evolution of tech-
engineer determines a bridge or annical auto-objects," he arrives, in a section on the
mobile? Does he conceive it even as today'sessence of technical objects, at the "genesis of
museum visitor might? Is this vase bound technical objects." Now this genetic not
up with the intention that presided during only brings into question very profound
its production? Thus, two paths arephenomenological
open analyses of objects but
for consideration: on the one hand, weitcan presupposes also a theme which is at the
examine either the activities themselves or very heart of phenomenology and in par-
their result. On the other hand, in order to ticular of the works of Merleau-Ponty-that
study the interrelationship of these terms, is, that the fundamental is the harmony of
we can elaborate either a genetic analysis or man and the world. "The general hypoth-
a phenomenological analysis. These choices eses that we are making regarding the be-
are not, however, mutually exclusive: one coming of the relationship of man to the
can hardly study an activity without exam- world consists in considering as a system
ining that which it produces any more than, the unity formed by man and the universe"
as Husserl would say, a noetic analysis of (p. 159). Little does it matter that the idea
intentions can dispense with a noematic is expressed here in the language of natural
analysis of the object. Similarly, whether philosophy, because it is the lived experi-
phenomenology is genetic or not, a genesis ence which is called upon to bear witness
always implies a phenomenology, and all to this unity of man and the universe and
the more in the case of an aesthetic object its development.
of
which, when presenting itself to perception, The first phase, in fact, of this becoming,
is a phenomenon par excellence. which would correspond to what is per-
ception for Merleau-Ponty, is for Simondon
"the magic phase," a primitive form of
* This paper has been translated into English by
Miss Louise Mahru, a student at the University ofbeing-in-the-world which "defines a both
Delaware.
subjective and objective universe, preceding

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114 MIKEL DUFRENNE

any arousing in man the aesthetic experience


distinction be
the and spurring technical
object." But and religious
alre
of thought to renounce their emerg
distinction abstraction and
of the to express themselves in the language
isolation and of
mediation between man and the universe" beauty: thus the useful attains spontane-
(p. 164): the first structure is a network of the form of beauty. But the conscious-
ously
ness of beauty as separate, exclusive, and
privileged points-keypoints, sacred places
jealous appeared only later. Aberrant hy-
such as the depths of the waters, the moun-
tain peaks, the heart of the forest-through
pertelia, suggests Simondon, since what was
which are effected the exchanges betweencalled to be concrete returns by that to the
man and the universe; the first objects are
abstract, but justified, nevertheless, because
it is the moment when technicality, be-
therefore singular figures which still adhere
to the background against which they stand
coming exasperated, wreaks violence upon
out and from which they drain all their the natural world, when work, having be-
force, as "the peak is the lord of come the inhuman, produces ugliness: techni-
mountain." This reticular structure de- cality, in affirming itself, fulfills itself in
phases itself, and, while man distinguishes
terror. Then art, which had already pre-
himself from the world, the separation sentedof itself to Pascalian religion as a di-
the figure and the background gives version,
birthbecomes evasion. But that is not
to the duality of technicality and religion.
all: when becoming conscious of itself, art
"The mediation objectivizes itself in realizes
tech-that it renounces itself in accom-
nicality and subjectivizes itself in religion,
plishing itself; it reveals a world, and this
causing the first object to appearworld as the is an expression of the world insofar
technical object and the first subject as the toartist cannot help being in the world:
appear as divinity, whereas before therein the was natural world as Merleau-Ponty
only a unity of the living and its environ-
reminds him when criticizing Malraux, in
ment." The keypoints have become the
the social world as Sartre reminds him. So
technical objects, fragments detached
artfrom
today has recovered its mediatory func-
the universe, abstract and amenable and tion between man and the universe. At
always effective: the technique shows a first
the same time, technicity humanizes itself,
objectivization of the world, which science
both in working conditions and in the form
will take up for its own account or, moreof its products: the two go together, a
precisely, since the world remains a unity,
Olivetti's experiment proves. The research
it marks the emergence of objects in for thean industrial aesthetics has considerable
world, as intermediaries between the uni- meaning: in learning to live up to techni-
verse and the subject. As for aesthetic ac-cal progress, man can dominate the world
tivity, it goes back on the dissociation and
without breaking with it, he can still live
in it as his fatherland, he can remain in the
recalls the "lost unity"-unity of the world,
unity of man and the world. "The aesthetic fundamentals while still creating his his-
character of an act or of an object is its
tory.
function of totality, its existence both sub- In order to understand better the sense
jective and objective as a remarkable point"
of such a reconciliation between technicity
(p. 181). Of course a work of art does notand aesthetics, it will be necessary at first,
actually recreate the magical primitive uni-
leaving the genetic perspective, to stress
verse, but it maintains and preserves the their opposition. Let us first introduce some
ability to experience an aesthetic impres-
distinctions. The technical object is not
sion.
easily defined; there is a great difference be-
Consequently, and here I freely interprettween a digging stick and a plough, between
Simondon, a dialectic appears between tech-a saw or a hammer and an assembly line.
nicity and aesthetics. One understands thatThe same technical essence-the assymetri-
aesthetic experience is at the same time cal conduction which defines the diode, or
very antiquated and very modern. The nos- the steam engine-in addition to the fact
talgia for lost unity appeared very early,
that it does not rise from nothing, re-

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Aesthetic Object and Technical Object 115
leases when it is invented aIt history
is still necessary
duringto distinguish the
aesthetic object
which, before becoming properly from the beautiful one.
concrete,
it actualizes itself in manifold objects.
The aesthetic object is the work of art
Simondon distinguishes also which claims beauty
different exclusively and which
forms
of the object: the elementprovokes an aesthetic
(the valve), theperception where
individual (the motor), the ensemble
this beauty (the and consecrated.
will be fulfilled
industrial complex), to which one may
The beautiful add
object can be beautiful with-
the whole technical environment. But one out wishing to be so, that is, without seek-
can propose still another distinction ingbe-
its aestheticization, and without losing
tween the technical object and the itscon-
other virtues-its pleasantness, its func-
sumer's goods. On one hand the tool, the
tionality, its intelligibility-when it is aes-
machine, the factory, and on the other, theticized,
the since it then expresses them in
dress, the piece of furniture, the sensible
house. form. I may find beautiful a bird's
These two sorts of objects have in commonsong which pleases my ear and tells me of
their being manufactured, their attestinganimal spontaneity; it is not beautiful in
to technicity, and their serving as meansthe same
to way as is a composition of Mes-
an end.' What differentiates them is that, siaen: the music is not harmonized with the
whereas the latter already constitute prod-
blue of the sky or the perfumes of the earth
ucts which find their immediate end in as is the song of the lark; it is the principle
consumption and enjoyment, the former
of a world which it keeps entirely in reserve,
and it refuses all association, be it in idea,
are dedicated to the process of production
and perform a work which aims atwith other sensible forms; it does not wish
other
ends; that is why they require both the any meaning save from itself. One
to have
knowledge and the complicity of man, who also that the technical object can be
realizes
must serve them as they serve him: the without identifying itself with an
beautiful
worker must be able to regulate andaesthetic
main- object.
tain his machine, as the equestrian curries
Let us first specify the differences. The
and saddles his horse before mounting it;
technical object is at first sight anonymous
this does not mean that he must become
and abstract-anonymous even if it bears
an inventor's
its slave: this inhuman relationship, that name, because it is not the
authentic technicity denies and that
same has
for Diesel to invent a new engine and
been made possible by a certain stage of Gogh a new pictorial style. Even
for Van
technical development, has been imposed
the coming of the object into history differs
upon the worker only by the social in system,
both cases: the aesthetic object rises in
an hand,
by capitalistic violence.' On the other instant, in an unforeseeable manner; not
the technical object can become consumer's
outside all history, since it fixes the image
goods: a boat or a car, each a technical
of a ob-
people and of an era as it is experienced
ject not only for the designers but also
by thefor
artist, who opens a future, itself un-
the sailor or the mechanic, that is for the
foreseeable and sinuous because it depends
man who knows and uses it, can become on the public's welcome and on the re-
capturing of the work in the singular con-
exclusively a useful object for the indifferent
or lazy consumer who does not know sciousnessits of other artists. For the artist
make-up and relies upon automation, even
engages himself entirely in his work, and it
is on this condition that the work has mean-
more so for those who care only for ostenta-
tious consumption. One can guess that it and expresses a world which witnesses
ing
is the consumer's good which may seek most
the world; the beautiful is without concept
but proceeds from the sentiment of the
easily to please, joining the useful to the
agreeable, and perhaps to the beautiful,entire person. The technical object, rather,
proceeds from the concept since it is no
while the technical object, more rigorously
serving functional requirements in its pro-
longer the product of a spontaneous praxis;
duction and its use, can be beautiful only
it as
does not call for anything but intelligence
an addition, though not without some pre-in the inventor; it does not engage the en-
meditation. tire person. And that is why it registers it-

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116 MIKEL DUFRENNE

self in a withlogical
the condition that man maintains the
his
time initiative
international and the control.
As Simondon On the contrary, aesthetic
profou life, as tragic
fests as it may be itself
within for the creator, is for the
itscon-
of the sumer a happy life. The aesthetic
technical objec object
specific nature, are
is concrete: it exists fully, definitely, ac-
consistencycording to an andintrinsic necessity,
conv in the
(p. 20). To the
glory of the cont
sensible. Certainly the aesthetic
momentobjectof
realizes itselfhistory
only in aesthetic percep-
necessity tion;of is this nota true, logical
however, of all per-
nical ceived things? This
culture mustepiphany is accom- n
But isn't plished
the all the more easily as it produces
technic
in two itself en vase clos. First,
ways? Is this to say that the a
serves, in that
aesthetic object is in this the no
sense also abstract?
exterior Sartre, in different
to it:words, itscalls it an unreal,
sen
immanent to
because it requires its offo
the neutralization the
can speak immediate
real world; but perhaps Sartre is then more
inviting us
attentive to to rest
the subject of the work than to o
tion-but its substance: a if Charles VIII is in fact un-
motor te
norant; if
real, hisitportrait is speaks
not. If the aesthetic object t
not with distinguishes its itself very from the world, it ap
is in
structure; order to it
claim an exclusive
makes attention and n
of signs of which
because it carries in itself a world which is on
meaning. a senseSecond,
or a possibility of the real world. it
alienates itself from the world and, to And it can quite readily come to exist in
master it, tends to do it violence; the axe this world and be in accordance with it
tears apart wood, the car severs space, the
without doing violence to it: if it is better
railroad pierces the mountains. When it
to listen to Mozart in the concert hall
more directly serves knowledge, as a micro-
rather than when dining in a park as the
scope or a Geiger counter, it is a knowledge
Archbishop of Salzburg, it is better to see
that aims at giving us mastery of the world
statue in a park rather than in a museum,
and that substitutes, for a natura naturans and Merleau-Ponty is not wrong in de
which inspires the seer or the poet, a naturanouncing, in the pensive atmosphere of th
naturata which the engineer organizes. And,museum, "a calm of the city of the dead,
throughout, the technique is violent: theand in the story which the museum presents
railroad built in the Congo, as Gide re- solidified, "the somber pleasures of retro
ported it, had each tie paid for with aspection." It is perhaps when it can be
man's life.2 Certainly, true violence, assituated in the world that the work of art
ethics condemns it, spreads out in inter-attests best not only to the work which
subjective relations, but perhaps maturesengendered it but also that it is a possible
in the relation of man with nature, when meaning of the world.
nature becomes natura naturata, concept- In any case, if the aesthetic object de-
ualized and elaborated matter, as this mands for its own realization that we as-
stranger which turns against man when sociate with it, that we participate in the
man tries to impose upon it his seal and creator's action, and that we penetrate his
to find himself in it. In technical life, man
world, it requires our feeling and not our
enters a contention with the world-and acting: the good usage of art does not raise
with the technical object itself: this uprela-
a dialectic, even less an anti-dialectic,
tion of association and almost of familiarity
according to which we should be possessed
which Simondon advocates has rarely beenby the result of our own acting. The re-
established to the present time and canlationship
un- with the aesthetic object is a
doubtedly not arise except within new happy one because it is a luxury-like love,
after all, when it does not limit itself to a
social and cultural structures, and always

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Aesthetic Object and Technical Object 117

world by means
vital motion-but it engages of an aesthetic object. All
us profoundly
and maybe transformsthat can
us:be said-but
this this is essential-is
luxury is
neither superfluous nor
that the superficial.
aesthetic object, inIt is
its production
has involved
good that after being recourse more and in
more the
to technical
di-
alectics of man and world, means. Iaroused
will cite twoby tech-
examples, architectur
nique, we return to that which
and concrete is the
music, basis
without counting the
of this dialectic, to this unity
techniques of man or
of reproduction andof recording
world perhaps alreadywhich lostnot forever
only allow as soon
the diffusion of the
as man accedes to language, works butand form
also give dis-
them sometimes a new
tinguishes itself from appearance, ground, as Malraux
but hasclose
still so well shown
to the age of magic and about
made the pictorial
close to object
usinby which the
the magic of art. camera isolates and magnifies significan
One sees therefore the difference between details, and as could be shown about poetry
technique and aesthetics: the technical ob- which is set down as words. Experimental
ject is at the same time, by rapport with themusic demands more from technicity:
world, separated and separating and itself new material, filtered noises converted into
separated as well, whereas the aesthetic sounds, stockpiled; the musician works di-
object is one, and invites us to a new unityrectly upon them instead of working on an
with the world. However, this analysisinstrument-which
is was already in itself a
partial. And what invites us to correct it technical
is object-or even, if his auditory
at the same time the existence of these in- memory is sufficiently good, on a sheet of
termediate objects which are the usual ob- paper. Obviously, this extension of sonorous
space may confer a new orientation to
jects or the consumer's goods, and the recon-
ciliation which is today looked for between music; a new vocabulary asks for a new
technique and art. syntax and perhaps a new semantics. But
The objects of use are not technical ob- the creative act is not radically altered:
jects, but their production brings into playamong the possibilities offered while the
techniques which are sometimes quite work is being composed, it is always taste
elaborate, such as the kiln, loom, or con- which is infallibly choosing. As for architec-
crete. Now these objects may be spontane- ture, it produces consumer's goods that
ously beautiful, as is a barn or a shield, or sometimes aim at being aesthetic objects.
deliberately beautiful, as a velvet, an am-It uses in this production more and more
phora, or a palace, so that we attribute them elaborate techniques which impose new
to minor arts or even, as with architecture, forms and, when the awareness of these
to major ones. In their production, which possibilities is sufficiently clear, suggests a
is the role of technique and which that of new style, as the discovery of oil did for
art? The same problem is posed by the so- painting.
called technical object. Its rapport withSuch is everywhere the incidence of tech-
the aesthetic object may be conceived nicity: in it furnishes new methods, but these
two ways. First, the aesthetic object might methods in turn suggest ends, and aesthetic
tend to become a technical object. Butends as well. Its development reveals new
this does not occur in so far as the technical horizons to art not only for the artist who
object is strictly defined as a means of acting is given novel ways of expression but also
upon matter, inscribed in the productionfor the observer whose sensitivity discovers
cycle. (Music may be used to get relaxation new domains. The airplane or the bathy-
or painting to diagnose insanity, but these sphere solicit an aesthetic experience; a
are marginal uses of works of art, and these city or a countryside which one flies over,
pedagogical or psychiatric techniques do the blue of the real sky above the clouds,
not belong to technicity as we now under- can speak to us as well as the natural
stand it.) The beautiful, as Kant says, is beauties seen on the ground. A diving suit
disinterested; aesthetic experience requires makes us bateau ivre, able to see ce que
a neutralization of the real world and for-
l'homme a cru voir. Thus technicity opens
bids any immediate understanding in this to us new doors in the world: our will to

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118 MIKEL DUFRENNE

power can be
expresses himself. satisf
But the usual object or
sensitivity
the technical can
object is assignedalso
a certain
For the will
function, and isto power
not destined for contempla-
what arouses technical effort is also this old
tion. The meaning which appears in it
feeling of closeness that we experienced
must be this usage: the function must be
originally with the world and which ex-manifested in the structure. Thus Valery
presses itself more spontaneously in aes-
distinguishes, among buildings, those which
thetic contemplation than in scientific curi-
say nothing, those which speak, and those
osity. which sing. But what does sing mean? The
Thus, art often requires techniques, andword suggests that all be said in half-words,
the techniques spur new artistic research.in the gracious apotheosis of the sensible.
The problem which must arrest our atten- The element of gratuitousness may be in-
tion is that which is posed today with thetroduced by ornament, the element of grace
coming of an industrial aesthetics, by theby measure. Because necessity, which is the
tendency of the technical object to appearfirst condition of the beautiful, does not
as an aesthetic one. This tendency has al-
imply that the object be reduced to the
ways been manifested in consumer's goods,
necessary: one must do justice to the flam-
as architecture can confirm. So, on which
boyant and the baroque. But the proper
very general conditions may any object
measure is given by the perceptive man:
whatsoever be beautiful? The very impossi-aesthetically, at least, man is the measure of
bility of formulating an absolute standardall things;4 song is always for the ear, an
for the beautiful teaches us a primary con-
intelligent ear which bars any proliferation
dition: if the beautiful must be met and of ornament.
experienced outside of all norms in anThe al- relationship of the object with the
ways-unique encounter, it is because world
it im-imposes a third condition to beauty.
poses itself every time with a sort ofWhenneces-the beautiful object does not initi-
sity: the object is so, it cannot be otherwise,
ate this relationship and does not open a
it is perfect. The beautiful is the accom-
world proper to it, at least it must get along
with the exterior world. Thus the slate
plished. What convinces us of this achieved
fullness is perception: necessity is felt
roofbe-
agrees with the Loire Valley, Poseidon's
cause it rests in the sensible, in the realm temple with the Cape of Sounion, the
of forms, of colors, of sounds. The slope of arrow at Chartres with the plain of Beauce,
a roof, the height of a mast, the modulation as a crystal goblet with set table and finely-
of tonalities, the harmony of colors, the attired guests; the architectural object be-
comes again that magical place which
polish of cut glass, here it is, so simple, so
evident: it just had to be made. But what organizes the pattern of pilgrimage routes,
then is this necessity? It is a necessity in which at the same time joins in itself the
the sensible; it is not a material necessity force of the site and the soul of a culture,
like that of a brute fact, of any inert or geographic location, and historical moment,
opaque presence, nor a logical necessity,the given world and the lived world. And
such as that of reasoning, which abolishesit is this world which attests to the neces-
the sensible. sity of the object, as if it had itself aroused
This necessity requires-and this is the the object in order to define and perpetuate
second condition of the beautiful-that a itself.
meaning appear in the sensible, totally These three conditions-can they be sat-
immanent to it. What meaning? The very isfied by the technical object? Two pre-
being of the object, its singular essence, liminary remarks: first, the technical object
insofar as it shows itself. In the aesthetic cannot, without denying itself, identify it-
object, when there is no practical use self
in- with the aesthetic object, i.e., to an
volved, essence resides entirely in the mes-
object intended solely for contemplation.
sage it delivers, less by its representing (in
It becomes an aesthetic object only when
figurative art) than by its expressing:devitalized,
it useless, torn from its proper
expresses a world in which the artist in turnmilieu, as when it is transferred to a mu-

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Aesthetic Object and Technical Object 119
object by dint
seum for the sake of knowledge as of having
well assolicited under-
standing-because
of aesthetic pleasure. Nevertheless it the
maybeautiful is not the
intelligible.
aspire to be beautiful according to Beauty is never sensual, it is
its nature
in its use. always sensitive, and the technical object
But experiencing its beauty supposes, at must speak to the eye in order to be beauti-
least, that it be aestheticized by us. Now, can ful, just as it speaks to the hand in order
we be both agents for doing justice to its to be useful, or to the mind in order to be
usefulness and spectators for doing justiceunderstood.
to its aesthetic aspiration? Has the sail, So, the aestheticization of this object, if
blown by the wind, the same beauty for theit requires of us a certain attitude perhaps
sailor as for the landlubber? Is the machine difficult to maintain, requires of it that it
which is beautiful for the engineer when he conform to the conditions we have set. And
observes it also beautiful for the workman primordially that it have that unimpeacha-
who uses it? Is it beautiful in the same way ble, triumphant presence of an achieved
for the engineer who knows it and for the being, that it affirm itself in the sensible. In
layman who merely admires its form? The this respect, the livelier colors, gay or
same problem appears, moreover, for restful, the with which machines and industrial
consumer's good: is a palace in the same buildings are painted today, are not with-
way beautiful for the prince who lives out in interest, even if their main function is
it and for the tourist who visits it, the encouraging work and avoiding accidents;
church for him who prays in it and for him in fact, humanization and aestheticization
who just walks in it? The same for thego hand in hand. But it is most important
natural object: is the mountain equally that the object assert itself according to its
beautiful for the climber and for the one essence. First, that it have no shame: that it
who contemplates it? It is clear what pro-not hide itself under ornamentation as cer-
vokes these questions: it is the idea that
tain cars do with their chrome or certain
everywhere contemplation of a work of art water towers with a gothic camouflage.
furnishes the norm for aesthetic experience.
Ornament can be justified, for example, in
I accept this idea.5 But this does not ex-architecture, not so much because it attests
clude the actuality and the value of cer-
to virtuosity but because it shows, contrary
tain marginal experiences, more ambiguous, to mechanical laws to which matter is sub-
more uncertain, but perhaps richer-where ject, a human order which commands na-
beauty is revealed to us in a contact, some-
ture when obeying it. But it is not justified
times more intellectual and sometimes more if it is but adjunctive, arbitrary, and osten-
sensual, with the object. It is in such ex-
tatious. And Vienot could justly say: "We
periences that the technical object can bedo not like the Bank of France notes, we
aestheticized by us: just as the Alpinistdon't like the zinc monument to the dead,
communicates best with the mountain when the Louis XV stove, the 'my dream' villa,
he both climbs it and observes it, so we can
mass-produced cubism." As in architecture,
at times both use and observe the technicalit is matter which must impose the form and
object, and at least we need to know how itwhich, as an aesthetician said, "permits one
works; technical culture is a necessary ele-
to feel the style." 6
ment in aesthetic experience, as is stressed The technical object must still manifest
by Simondon: "The discovery of the beauty its purpose. It is at man's service and ought
of technical objects cannot be left to per-to make this very evident. If it must be di-
ception alone" (p. 186). This is true; but rectly handled, let it be made to the user's
conversely, the mere knowledge of the func-specifications, let it offer itself to him: thus
tion and the functioning does not sufficethe Flaminaire lighter fits into the palm of
to awaken the feeling of beauty. As the one's hand and is within reach of the fingers
natural object can elude real aesthetic ex-
that use it. In the study of a useful machine
perience by having solicited vivid sensa-the aesthetician is primarily concerned with
tions, pleasant or not-since the beautiful
the ergohomy: "The position of man or of
is not the agreeable-so can the technicalmen who will have to work, the height of

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120 MIKEL DUFRENNE

the commands,
organized, to close itself, the
to impose itselfv
implements."7 Inclu
upon its environment, which is to say to
signs or manifest in itself the sovereign necessity
inscriptions
no of nature. Besides its function,
insignificant it shows its
detail
ditioning own
of consume
history and thus attests to its intrinsic
is first of all
necessity; the
it is no longer abstract: re
"The
dustrial plants
concrete technical object, thatare
is the evolved n
man: rather than
one, approaches the
the means of existence of
ful, it isnaturalthat of
objects, it tends toward th
interior co-
awaken. But on the condition that there herence, towards closure of the system of
be still something human seen in them, cause and effects which takes place within
its in-
not only in those elements to which the interior boundaries, and in addition, it
dividual remains associated but also in the
incorporates a part of the natural world
that intervenes as a condition of its func-
logic presiding over the plant's ensemble
which may also be apparent. Function tioning ap- and so becomes a part of the system
pears eloquently in the simplest objects, of cause and effect" (p. 46). At the end of
those most easily beautiful-a jar, a scythe, its genesis, for perception itself, if only this
an axe; it again appears in objects whose perception is enlightened by knowledge, the
secular usage reserves them to second technical place object experiences its technicity.
technicity, such as the D.S. automobile or And at the same time it may vindicate the
the Caravelle; but it no longer appears in
aesthetic object's virtue in its relationship
machines reserved for technicians' usage. to the world. It already, as expressive, car-
It is here that a certain technical culture is ries within itself a world to be revealed, not
required for appreciating the object; butthe if world of Mozart or Matisse, subject to
the only matter is to estimate its efficiency certain affective a priori, but the world of
technicity, correlated to a certain human
or its precision, is the object still justifiable
to the judgment of taste? The concept must openness, which is no less true for being
also be embodied in the sensible, the form suggested through praxis rather than
must speak to the eye without being a vain through feeling; so the Caravelle announces
cover-up, as speaks a Roman vault or a fly- haughtily the space it conquers, as the via-
ing buttress. Thus speed is shown by an aer- duct announces the valley it spans. But
odynamic line as an emotion is written on a
above all, the technical object can be in-
face; what is shown is what can be im- scribed in the world and does not tend to
mediately expressed: not the method ofstay us- at a distance as do some aesthetic ob-
ing an object, which must be known, but jects. It harmonizes with its environment;
the result of the use, that can be directly first, with the technical surroundings, as
experienced. What can the aesthetician Simondon
do again observes: "The concrete
here? If he refuses to decorate an object object liberates itself from the original as-
after it has been manufactured, he is at least
sociated laboratory, and incorporates it dy-
willing to build a body for objects whose namically to itself in the play of its func-
usage requires it. But he does not wishtions;to it is its relation to other objects,
impose arbitrary norms upon the engineer. technical or natural, which becomes regula-
tive and permits the self-maintenance of its
"In his first steps he tries not to over-crystal-
lize the forms, but rather to put order in
functioning conditions" (p. 47). Second, with
the organs." 8 His role is basically thatthe of natural world: "The techniques, after
leading the object to express itself. Andhaving mobilized and separated from the
we must add that the object does it spon-actual world the schematic figures of a
magical world, return toward the actual
taneously when it achieves a certain degree
world to unite with it through the coinci-
of maturity. As Simondon has so profoundly
dence of cement and rock, of the cable and
pointed out, this object, at first artificial,
which was just "the physical translation theofvalley, of the pole and the hill; a new
an intellectual system," tends to become reticulation is brought into being, which

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Aesthetic Object and Technical Object 121
privileges certain places beyond of the the world in a
idea that technicity is at man's
synergical alliance of technical schemes
service. Simondon andat first sight
could agree
natural powers" (p. 181). with this formula of Heidegger: "As long as
It is this insertion into the world that we conceive of technicity as an instrument,
definitely aestheticizes the technical object:
we remain occupied with the attempt to
master it. We miss the essence." 9 But it is
it is beautiful when it has met a background
which fits it, when it completes and ex-
in explaining this formula that we would
see mystic thought opposed to serious
presses the world. That is why it is beauti-
ful in action, when the wind fills the sail,
thought. For Heidegger the essence of tech-
when the forge crackles, when the highway nicity is ambiguous: instrumentality, think-
climbs the hill. The silent operation ingof
to unveil, actually veils, by limiting the
technicity embodies an aspect of the world revelation to an agreement with the world
which could not without it have been ex-
of things; but it cannot do so except by its
pressed. The sole difference between verythe
unveiling: in this way, technicity is
aesthetic and the technical object is that savedthe
but on the condition that it renounce
aesthetic object exercises a sovereign im-
itself; it is true in so far as it is not itself.
perialism: it neutralizes its environment in
"The essence of technicity is nothing tech-
order to aestheticize it; the park becomes
nical," a
10 and Heidegger suggests that it
decor for the statue, as a wall is a back- must be sought in art (on the condition,
ground for a fresco. Whereas the technical maybe, that art also renounce itself).
object receives its aesthetic value from Finally,
the the elucidation of the essence of
world, when it becomes integrated with technicity,
it: and because this essence is
it completes the process of becoming natural
sought in the past and not in the future,
again in, and by means of, nature; whereasserves to denounce the actual technique:
the aesthetic object, in manifesting forgetting
the existence, technicity devotes it-
glorious necessity of the perceptible, is im-
self to being and suspends it in a vacuum,
mediately nature and more than nature:
it is the "organization of penury." 11 On
thus it attracts nature to itself and makes it
the contrary, for Simondon, if the essence
unreal while expressing it. But it remains of technicity is not actually demiurgy but
that in certain respects it is the technicalrather the establishment of a new intimacy
object which reanimates in us the feeling between man and the world, it is not in re-
of nature. nouncing itself for the benefit of medita-
Thus the relationship between the tech- tion that technicity realizes its essence, but
nical object and the aesthetic object is notinstead in fulfilling itself; and the philoso-
reciprocal: it is the technical object whichpher's task consists in understanding it and
tends to become an aesthetic one. This does not judging it from a distance in the name
not in any way imply that there exists be- of an ontological presupposition.
tween the two a difference of dignity and
University of Paris
that technicity is less noble than art. One
must, on the contrary, note that beauty
cannot be added to efficiency, as to youth
its flower, save on the condition that the
Intermediary between these two objects would
technical object affirm itself without shame,be the status of what the French language calls
according to the logic proper to its de-
ouvrages d'art, as a road or a jetty which itself of-
fers an active enjoyment and not a passive one.
velopment: it does not become aestheticized
2 The Chateau of Versailles also cost dearly in
in denying itself but rather in accomplish-
human lives, as did the Pyramids. It is because the
ing itself. architectural work is also an object of use, whose
One should say the same of technicity erection calls a technique into action.
both as an attitude and as an institution. 8The canvases that I see at the museum, I
And it would then be interesting to con- should willingly see on my wallsl Those which I
have there are appreciated by me and, for me, they
trast Simondon's observation with Heideg-fulfill their purpose in my home as well as in the
ger's. Both search for the essence, both museum.
go

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122 MIKEL DUFRENNE

4It the discovery


happens of the true aesthetic
that impression" (p.
befor
observer 196).
feels almost cr
the sublime, 6D. Huismanand
and G. Patrix, L'Esthdtique
perha in-
great art. dustrielle (P.U.F.,the
But 1960), p. 97. sublim
7 Ibid., p. 97.
possibilities 8 Ibid.,
of p. 97. man is sti
otherwise it is inhuman.
9 Essais et conferences, p. 44.
5 Simondon challenges this: "Established art, arti-
10 Ibid., p. 47.
ficial art, is only a preparation and a language for
x Ibid., p. 111.

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