In the spring of 2025, Notam, in collaboration with Axel Vatne Barratt-Due and nyMusikk, launched a reading group for technology, music, art and philosophy. 

This autumn we're starting up again, and over the next few months we'll continue to read and discuss the books The Real World of Technology by Ursula Franklin, and On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects by Gilbert Simondon. We follow a reading guide set up by music philosopher Patrick Valiquet, and together explore how these works enter into dialogue with each other.

The next meeting will be LIVE at Notam on 02 October, 18:00 - 20:00, but you can also participate online here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84944597860.

This time we will read Gilbert Simondon, part 3, chapter 2, Relations between technical thought and other species of thought (s. 191 - 222).

Patrick Valiquet introduces the reading as follows:
"In Simondon, Part 3, Chapter 2, 'Relations between technical thought and other species of thought' (191 - 222), we find the 'memory' of magic returning through the 'reticular' nature of 'aesthetic feeling'. What differentiates art objects from tools and instruments? Are there specifically technical forms of beauty and value? How should art (and philosophy) mediate technical evolution? Simondon affirms Franklin's image of the human-operated telephone switchboard as 'beautiful not because of its characteristics as an object, but because it is a key-point in collective and individual life' (198). What images can work for us today? At the end of the meeting, we will begin to gather a short list of terms for a glossary to guide experimental instrument builders in the upcoming symposium through key terms in Simondon's and Franklin's thinking."

In the reading circle, we have so far read the following:
- Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 (p. 48 - 134) of The Real World of Technology by Ursula Franklin. 
- Introduction, Part I, Part 2 (pp. 15 - 159 and Part III, Chapter 1 in On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects by Gilbert Simondon. 

We hope that as many people as possible will join the reading circle. It's open to everyone, and you can choose whether you want to attend all the sessions or just a selection. You do not need to have read all the material in advance. PDFs for both books can be found via the links above.