Vague Terrain

VJing and Collective Individuation

Simondon says that we can understand the interior milieu as a psychic realm of individuation. Efforts to explore how exactly he is using this term return us to the idea of a pre-individual reality from which the living being initiates its phased individuation. Simondon characterises the pre-individual as an initial super-saturation of potentials, a reserve of intensities not yet organised into specific forms. These potentials remain latent within the system, enabling, in part, ongoing individuation from points of temporary equilibrium. The recursive individuations that take place actualise more and more of this interior pre-individual reality. Simondon explains that 'this preindividual reality is individualized as a psychic being that goes beyond the limits of the individuated being and incorporates it in a wider system of the world and the subject' (1995, p. 307).

The pre-individual reality is actualized as the psychic being through individuation. This psychic aspect of the being goes beyond the kinds of nested relationality that we have explored so far. Psychic aspects of the being such as imagination are crucial in terms of relating to systems in the world. The collective performance of Rodger, Dave and Pesh gives us an idea of how central the psychic being is to collective individuation, and yet the situation in which they perform together is one in which ontological boundaries between what is considered 'self' and 'other' are dissolved. The technical ensemble I have been discussing includes the imaginations of the VJs themselves, and visual imagery that alludes to the imaginations of other individuals or collectives (even where these are as simple as clips from iconic television shows).

The movement of the enacting gesture, even as an incremental tweak of the first digit of the thumb on a game controller button, is embodied (enfolded, in-formed) with the images and sounds it effects. In multi-player real time applications, these gestures and images/sounds are also touched, anticipated and enfolded by others. (Doruff, 2006, p. 119)

The experiences of collective VJ performance underline Doruff's formulation. The three VJs are building their image flows together, responding to the speed, theme, shape, or tone of the imagery of the others. Only the person using the mixer knows whose material will be on screen next, so the other two VJs would be anticipating the interlinking of their material on screen. They would be fitting together clips that also match the beat and timbre of the music. In this moment of VJ performance, intuition, selection, composition, mixing, and triggering would be enveloped in a set of actions experienced as collective. Through Simondon's framework VJs are interlinked in a relationality that acknowledges the memory and interpretation of each VJ within the technical ensemble, as well as leaving him open to the potentiality 'eventness' brings.

The existence of pre-individual reality allows for this kind of collective individuation. Simondon explains that 'individuation in its collective aspect makes a group individual, one that is associated with the group through the preindividual reality it carries within itself, conjoining it to all other individuals; it individuates as a collective unit' (Simondon, 1995 p. 307). He understands the existence of pre-individual potentials and intensities carried within the living entity as enabling relationality between living entities. But how does Simondon understand the unfolding of this collectivity? Any understanding of pre-individual reality as a kind of universal essence linking together every living humans would run contrary to all aspects of Simondon's project. The reality is much more radical as Simondon explains:

Through the intermediary of the technical object, an interhuman relation that is the model of transindividuality creates itself. This can be understood as a relation which does not put individuals in relation by means of their constituted individuality, which separates the one from the other, nor by means of that which is identical in each human subject, for example, the a priori forms of sensibility, but by means of this charge of pre-individual reality, this charge of nature which is conserved with individual being, and which contains potentials and virtuality. (Simondon trans. Mackenzie, 2002, p. 202)

Through the technical object, a 'transindividual' relationship between humans can emerge. This relationality between human is based on pre-individual potentialities. Simondon identifies the technological object to be the intermediary or the nexus through which this transindividual inter-human relationality is actualized.

In the case of the VJ collective playing collaboratively, relations between them materialize out of a territory that cannot be reduced to existing models of socialization. Simondon's relational philosophy illustrates the idiocy of carving up a thoroughly heterogeneous and temporalised terrain in terms of social and cultural relations between subjects segregated from an impassive matter. Contrary to accounts of technology as an alienating force, we see that through collective performance it brings humans into new and energetic relations.

Rodger, Pesh and Dave are in complex inter-human relationality in the intense moment of artistic composition. This moment dissolves the possibility of any notion of separate personhood, and opens them up to being mutually shaped by each other and the other elements in the ensemble and milieu, and also to a larger collectivity implied by Simondon's characterization of pre-individual reality as existing in all living beings. Simondon's framework is highly politically significant, as it opens up a way for humans to relate to each other that does not relate to essentialized categories of identity and fixed predicates.

The transindividual in Simondon's framework accounts for the 'systematic unity of internal individuation (psychic) and external individuation (collective)' (1995, p. 307). The psychic aspect of the individual to which Simondon refers is not social. The transindividual is influenced by the pre-individual reality, but crucially, is still able to progress through its own developmental phases, from points of metastability. The living entity is determined by its becoming (which is a part of the overall being), therefore it is proceeding, or becoming according to something that it internal to it. This becoming or emergence affords mediation between different orders and represents the series of successive individuation through which the being goes, propelled through interactions between the pre-individual internal and exterior milieus. Simondon explains that 'the individual is thus no longer either a substance or a simple part of the collectivity' (1995, p. 307).

The individual cannot be reduced to a substance because of the relationality through which it exists. Neither can the living being be thought of as relating simply to other beings collectively, through social relations based on 'difference'. Rather the living entity is already part of a larger collectivity through the pre-individual reality that is individuated. Simondon explains that 'the relation to both the world outside and to the collective is in fact a dimension of the individuation in which the individual participates due to its connection with the preindividual that undergoes gradual individuation' (1995, p. 309). Pre-individual reality is not an 'essence' but is a dimension of individuation. A dimension of the individuation of the technical ensemble emerges from the pre-individual potentials. We can say then that a dimension of any technical action emerges from pre-individual potentialities, which allow for collective individuation, therefore the technical is collective, without having to be first 'social' or 'cultural'. This radical notion brings us back to the central question of the technological intelligibility of collectives. If collectives can be technological before being social or cultural, then it is difficult to understand them through frameworks that constrain technology to the realm of passive materiality. Collectivity in Simondon's account is a state or mode of being, rather than a collection of discrete individuals. Pre-individuality is neither self nor other.

Conclusion

Simondon's theories offer a dynamic framework within which 'cultural' enquiries must acknowledge the influence of technical non-humans. He creates a very original way of understanding relations to the world and to each other, which resonate alongside an analysis of VJing. The divergent set of practices that constitute VJing, begin to reveal the relationality that Simondon explores, through the dissolution of personhood in the technologically mediated, contingent event. The problems of intelligibility within the VJ community illustrate how VJing as a technical practice cannot be satisfactorily thought as primarily social or cultural. VJing offers a strong example of how inter-human relations, and relations with the world take place through technical objects. These are not impoverished experiences, but vital ones, full of potentiality.

This paper is published as an extract of 'Technology, collectivity, and intelligibility - An exploration of Simondon's framework for technological action" (2007)

endnotes