= " a "cultural and political international association" dedicated to developing a new industrial politics of the spirit ". Inspired by the work of the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler.

Definition

Via Deepseek:

Ars Industrialis is a French cultural and philosophical association founded in 2005 by philosopher Bernard Stiegler and a group of philosophers and jurists . The association describes itself as a "cultural and political international association" dedicated to developing a new industrial politics of the spirit (politique industrielle des technologies de l’esprit) . Its central mission is to analyze and combat the ways in which digital and communication technologies have been deployed to capture human desire and attention in service of consumer capitalism, while simultaneously exploring how these same technologies can be repurposed to enable new forms of collective life and individual flourishing .

Ars Industrialis was established on 18 June 2005 on the initiative of Bernard Stiegler, then director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Georges Pompidou and former director of IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) . The association's founding manifesto commits members to a new "industrial politics of the spirit," explicitly drawing on Hannah Arendt's concept of the "life of the mind" (vita activa) as a framework for understanding what is at stake in the technological transformation of contemporary society .

The manifesto argues that the "spirit" (or "mind") has been delivered over to the oppressive power of global capitalism through the emergence of new technologies, particularly digital media . These technologies, the association contends, have come to direct and ultimately fabricate human desire—what Stiegler terms "libidinal energy"—toward consumer products in order to maintain the capitalist system of production and consumption .

A second manifesto was published in 2010, updating the association's analysis in light of technological changes that had occurred since 2005 .

Aspects

Theoretical Foundations:

Psychopower and Technologies of the Spirit

Ars Industrialis builds on Michel Foucault's concept of "biopower" (the governance of populations through management of life) to introduce the complementary concept of "psychopower" —the governance of individuals through the capture and modulation of psychic life, attention, and desire . The "technologies of the spirit" (technologies de l’esprit) are understood as the techniques developed via telecommunications and digital platforms to make people buy, and more deeply, to make them yearn for goods and services .

These technologies target the brain and nervous system, resulting in:

Shortened attention spans

A lack of long-term longing or desire

Increasing difficulty in the process of individuation (the formation of distinct individuals)

The disappearance of care for self and others

The promotion of impulse and immediacy over libido (which implies time, construction, and memory)

The Pharmakon

Drawing on Jacques Derrida's reading of Plato, Ars Industrialis conceives of technology as a pharmakon—simultaneously poison and cure . While digital technologies have been deployed to capture and control psychic life, they also contain within them the possibility of liberation. The association's work is oriented toward developing new techniques for the constitution of objects of desire that lie outside the demands of the market, thereby freeing libidinal energy to manifest in new experiences of singularity and new forms of individual and social existence .

Proletarianization and Disindividuation

Stiegler and Ars Industrialis argue that contemporary capitalism produces a condition of generalized proletarianization—a loss of knowledge on the part of individuals and collectives in terms of both savoir-faire (know-how) and savoir-vivre (knowing how to live) . This loss of knowledge corresponds to a process of collective disindividuation, in which the capacity to form distinct individual and collective identities is eroded . The association's project is to cultivate new modes of individual and collective existence through what Stiegler calls "nootechnologies" —technologies of the spirit and mind that support rather than undermine individuation .

Economy of Contribution

Ars Industrialis advocates for a transition from the current "economy of consumption" to what it calls an "economy of contribution" . This is a form of economic and social organization in which participants are not merely consumers but active contributors to the production of knowledge, culture, and value. The association cites Wikipedia as an exemplary model: users are simultaneously consumers and contributors, benefiting from and building the common resource .

The economy of contribution aligns with the broader concept of commons-based peer production explored by the P2P Foundation, in which value is created through distributed, non-hierarchical collaboration.

Care and Collaboration

Ars Industrialis emphasizes the importance of care (le soin) as both an ethical orientation and a practical framework for organizing social and technological life . This emphasis on care has been identified by scholars as converging with Indigenous concepts such as Sumak Kawsay ("living well together") from the Andean tradition—both representing alternatives to the logic of infinite accumulation that drives contemporary capitalism .

Nootechnologies and Hypomnemata

Nootechnologies are technologies of the spirit and mind that support the process of individuation. They are made manifest through hypomnemata—artificial memory supports (writing, recording, digital archives) that serve as pharmacological supplements to memory . The question for Ars Industrialis is not whether to use such technologies (since human beings have always been technical beings), but how to design and use them in ways that support, rather than undermine, the capacity for thought, attention, and collective life.

More information

The Delirium Project on Bernard Stiegler

Bibliography

Suggested by DeepSeek:

References Mingant, Frédérique (2012). "Ars Industrialis, arsindustrialis.org." InMedia, 1. https://journals.openedition.org/inmedia/159

Roodt, Vasti (2012). "Arendt, Stiegler and the Life of the Mind." Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, 52(1): 5-18. https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0041-47512012000100002

Abbinnett, Ross (2017). Technology and Spirit: An Introduction. Taylor & Francis. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315210872-1

Bradley, J. (2015). "Collective Disindividuation and/or Barbarism: Technics and Proletarianization." boundary 2, 42(2): 85-104. https://read.dukeupress.edu/boundary-2/article-abstract/42/2/85/56106

Duchesne Winter, Juan (2019). "El Sumak Kawsay (buen convivir) y Ars Industrialis (economía del cuido y la colaboración)." Diálogo, 22(1): 87-93. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/article/720926

Stiegler, Bernard (2014). The Re-enchantment of the World: The Value of Spirit Against Industrial Populism. Bloomsbury.

Ars Industrialis

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