Pierluca D'Amato

As a PhD candidate in French Studies at Durham University (2017--), my research focuses on the area of contemporary French philosophy of digital technologies. I'm interested in process philosophy, assemblage and complexity theory, and specialized in the philosophies of becoming of Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson. The goal of my research is to clarify that the separation between natural and artificial domains is illusory and that it has been deleterious for both humans and the environment: to do so I am producing a holistic and multi-level description of the becomings that involve and relate life and digital technologies. In this context, I am specifically interested in tracing cross-strata dynamics that can be found at different levels of emergence, and I focus on the nonlinear relations and processes that take place between complex systems of different scales and material bases. Structured through the notions of flows, patterns and strata, my work articulates Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Gilbert Simondon's models and philosophies, revolving around the notions of assemblage, emergence and individuation, and converging in the general framework of Digital Studies developed by Bernard Stiegler. My work on these themes has recently converged with my interest in art in an ongoing collaboration with members of the BioCentric Design group, composed by makers and biohackers working in the emerging field of BioDesign.