Genealogies of Technology
Here is a hypothesis: already at the beginnings of technical civilization, the Anthropocene era makes its appearance. The modern idea that human activity influences and shapes the geological composition and evolution of the earth is already inherent in the fragments of pre-Socratic cosmologies. In the theoretical hypotheses of Anaximander, the conception of the world as a technical construct, such as a cylindrical column or a mining furnace, is found.
Anaximander in Fukushima is an artistic project and a poetic essay. It narrates practices of wandering, recording, open readings of pre-Socratic philosophers and genealogies of territorial findings. The on-site wandering becomes at once a journey into universal geography and a journey to modern history, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the shores of Japan. The failed nuclear reactors of Fukushima are technological transformations of the Anaximanderian furnace.
The book is addressed more to those who want to grasp, through the “place-moment”, the generality, the depth of history and the extent of “natural civilizations”. To grasp the genealogy of technology as an experience and personal memory, within the usually boring but sometimes fascinating international debate about the earth and the future of its present.
Katsaniotis Publications
Series: Anachronisms
ISBN: 978-960-03-6275-6