CYLINDER
The International Society for the Philosophy of Tools & Space
We are an interdisciplinary organization, small but growing, dedicated to
thoughtful discussion about and research into issues concerning tools and
space. Currently, we maintain a membership list and circulate a short
newsletter. Our future plans call for expansion - a regular journal and
a number of conferences are possible in the coming year.
Our membership list includes philosophers, artists, computer programmers,
scientists, graphic designers, architects, teachers - as well as those whose
professions are still unnamed. We are not a school or a sect or party because
we are not in agreement over particular doctrines. Our society is bound by an
implicit faith in the silent potency of tools, space, meaning and metaphor, in
a wide range of seemingly unrelated fields. Within the scope of our talks to
date, members have raised diverse and fascinating issues for consideration:
- A phenomenology of humor, tools and toys
- Space and the banality of cause and effect
- Rhetoric and metaphor: language as tool/toy
- The iconology of computers
- Speed and annihilation
- Victimless crimes and crimes of trespass
- The mechanics of the dreamwork in psycho-analysis
- Architectural theory and practice
- Political theories of reterritorialization
- Viruses: information systems and genetic engineering
- Media theory
- Virtual Reality: the emergence of simulacra in social space
- Transit technology and urban planning
- Infrastructure catastrophes
The thematic study of tools and space forces us to reconsider and sharpen
the boundaries separating the various specialties of our members. Many of
us are involved in concrete and ongoing projects which undo customary lines
of inquiry and uncover fruitful new questions in what was formerly considered
"obvious" and explained. We seek to move beyond conventional genres without
abandoning meaning and beauty for the sake of novelty.
For more information about Cylinder, including membership materials,
please write us with your name and address.
CYLINDER
c/o Graham Harman, Secretary
Philosophy Dept., DePaul University
Chicago, IL 60614 USA
email: cylinder at uiowa.edu
(If you have already written to Cylinder, please refrain from doing so a
second time. Your name and address have been added to our mailing list and
you should be expecting membership materials in the coming months.)
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Cylinder: The International Society for the Philosophy of Tools and Space
c/o Graham Harman Philosophy Dept, DePaul University Chicago, IL 60614
cylinder at uiowa.edu
Graham Harman, Secretary <phlgrdgh at orion.depaul.edu>
