The Cultural Critique of Bernard Stiegler: Reflecting on the Computational Performances of Klaus Obermaier

Abstract

This chapter examines the digital, interactive dance performance Apparition (2004) by media artist Klaus Obermaier, in order to open up a discussion of Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy of technology. The discourse introduces Stiegler’s key concepts of individuation, organology and the Pharmakon so that the significance of Obermaier’s creative endeavours can be reconsidered ten years after its initial unveiling. Crucially we shall see how, understood within Stiegler’s mobilisation of the concept of the avant-garde, Apparition, which uses bespoke, cutting-edge technology, offers provocative audiovisual metaphors that give rise to questions relating to ontology and tool-use. It will be argued that manifest in the oeuvre is an appeal for a reconsideration of digital technologies as interdependent, artificial organs in an overall evolutionary process that fundamentally challenges means-ends rationale. Viewed through a Stieglerian philosophical lens, a discussion of Obermaier’s work inevitably opens out into a radical critique of inter subjectivity in the digital epoch.