In his latest book, Recursivity and Contingency (2019), the Hong Kong philosopher Yuk Hui argues that recursivity is not merely mechanical repetition. He is interested in “irregularity deviating from rules.” He develops what could be called a neovitalist position, which goes beyond the view, dominant in popular culture today, that there is life inside the robot (or soon will be). In the “organology” Hui proposes, a system mimics growth and variation inside its own technical realm. “Recursivity is characterised,” he writes, “by the looping movement of returning to itself in order to determine itself, while every movement is open to contingency, which in turn determines its singularity.”Following On the Existence of Digital Objects (2016) and The Question Concerning Technology in China: An Essay in Cosmotechnics (2017), Recursivity and Contingency is Yuk Hui’s third and by far most ambitious book. Divided into five chapters that deal with different eras and thinkers, it starts with Kant’s reflective judgement, which Hui sees as a precursor to recursivity. The book then moves on to Hegel’s reflective logic, which anticipates cybernetics. According to Hui’s organology (and that of Bernard Stiegler), science and technology should be understood as means for returning to life, as paths towards true pluralism, or “multiple cosmotechnics,” to use Hui’s own key concept from his earlier book.Our understanding of computational possibilities should not be limited to the “disruptive” technologies of Silicon Valley, oriented as they are towards short-term profits. Hui looks beyond this myopic view of technology. His foundational project is to dig into the philosophical foundations of today’s digitality, to examine the episteme that presents itself as a new form of totality (or as a “techno-subconsciousness,” as I have described it elsewhere). How can we think individuation in an age when the online self is surrounded by artificial stupidity and algorithmic exclusion in the name of ruthless profit maximization and state control? Is there a liberated self inside cybernetics?
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This article displays a quasi-experimental case-study into how vocational educators stimulate the development of students' PPTs. No differences were found between the contingent modeling condition and the student condition concerning the development of PPTs. The two vocational domains did show differences. These results are explained by the relatively small extent of diagnosing in vocational educators' contingent modeling as well as the lack of high-level interactions in the discussions.
In two covariation bias experiments, we investigated whether socially anxious women overestimate the contingency between social events and signs of rejection and/or to underestimate the contingency between social events and approval. Participants were exposed to descriptions of ambiguous or negative social events, situations involving animals, and nature scenes that were randomly paired with disgusting, happy, and neutral faces. Socially anxious participants reported enhanced belongingness between ambiguous events and signs of rejection, together with reduced belongingness between negative events and approval. This contributes to previous findings suggesting that socially anxious individuals suffer from fear-confirming interpretive biases. There was no evidence for enhanced negative or reduced positive covariation bias in socially anxious individuals.
Being diagnosed with incurable cancer often leads to experiences of contingency and to existential concerns when patients struggle to search for meaning. The aims of this project are to (1) investigate how Art-Based Learning(ABL) – an art education method for experiencing art – has the potential to affect meaning-making processes of cancer patients in palliative care; (2) to investigate how to integrate this in (patient) education programs; (3) to enable health and art professionals to extent their capabilities to care for PC patients. This project builds on previous research on contingent experiences and narrative meaning-making, and on a pilot-study regarding the feasibility of carrying out ABL in PC. Aims and questions have been developed in a long-lasting process of problem analysis with PC and art education professionals, patients, and researchers. We will a) conduct participatory research to make an inventory of considerations that play a role in designing an art exhibition for the purpose of ABL among patients with advanced cancer, resulting in a manual to be used in future practice and research; b) conduct an explorative study and evaluate which factors hinder and promote patients’ meaning- making processes in online/on-site interventions; c) conduct a formal analysis of patients’ experiences with regards to meaning-making; d) formally compile a full list of conclusion and advices and embed the result in a new educational program for PC and art education professionals. This project is led by the professorship Art education as Critical Tactics(ArtEZ University of the Arts) and is carried out by a consortium of experts and complementary partners: University of Amsterdam and University of Twente (research partners); Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Museum, Museum Arnhem, Museum Jan Cunen, Leren van Kunst (public institutional partners); Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Radboud University, Story Lab-University Twente (knowledge experts); Living with Hope, SPKS, NFK(experience experts/patients advocacy).
