Papers by Ludovic Garattini, PhD
HT2S Le CNAM - GF R&D, 2025
This article closes a five-part inquiry into the ontological status of artificial objects. Parts ... more This article closes a five-part inquiry into the ontological status of artificial objects. Parts 1-2 reconstructed how Western metaphysics kept artefacts in a secondary, derivative mode of being from antiquity to the industrial age; Part 3 showed how modern logic and mechanismlevel analysis re-center operation and organization; Part 4 traced a genealogy from Kapp and Leroi-Gourhan to Simondon to ground an ontology of technical beings without importing life or mind as prior norms. Here, I assess Science and Technology Studies (STS) programs that promised to "open the black box." I argue that in canonical works by Latour, Callon, and Akrich, technical objects remain signs or support within agonistic fields rather than analyzed
HT2S Le CNAM - GF R&D, 2025
This article reconstructs the philosophical and anthropological genealogy of thought on technical... more This article reconstructs the philosophical and anthropological genealogy of thought on technical objects, from Ernst Kapp to André Leroi-Gourhan. It argues that, from three torchbearers of a an original and groundbreaking promise for a metaphysical discourse stemming from the mode of existence of artificial objects, it is only with Simondon's theory of individuation and concepts developed in his main and secondary thesis (Individuation in Light of the Notions of Form and Information; Of the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects) that artificial beings can be analyzed from their own ontic state. By analyzing both early and late formulations of Leroi-Gourhan, forming hypotheticals on how this could have been inspired by the contemporaneous elaboration (and defense) of Simondon's doctoral dissertation, the article highlights how Leroi-Gourhan's technical environments evolve suddenly as becoming autonomous milieus. The conclusion calls for a renewed ontology of artificial beings adequate to the age of complex machines and so called "Artificial Intelligence".
HT2S Le Cnam - GF R&D, 2025
Modern logic and philosophy of science unsettle long-standing ontological privileges by re-center... more Modern logic and philosophy of science unsettle long-standing ontological privileges by re-centering analysis on operation, regulation, and organization rather than imitation or ends. This article asks how that modern turn enables a positive ontology of technical objects without importing life or mind as prior norms. Methodologically it offers a historicalconceptual reconstruction paired with a mechanism-level illustration (we take the example of the automatic telephone switching) to specify what "operational autonomy" entails. The argument shows how technical objects can be treated as norm-bearing and historically individuating through their functioning, while also identifying limits (Eurocentric corpus, risks of analogical transfer) and a forward program toward individuation, associated milieus, concretization, and ensemble/network levels. The contribution is to clarify the conceptual operators needed to exit instrumentality and to prepare the ontological grounding developed in the next paper.
HT2S Le Cnam - GF R&D, 2025
In this article, we argue that even though the century of rapid industrialisation in Europe does ... more In this article, we argue that even though the century of rapid industrialisation in Europe does not seem to have affected the status of technical and artificial objects in philosophies concerned with ontological issues, the first important tools for thinking about technical beings were nevertheless developed during this period, notably by Kant and Hegel. The former formulated a very precise idea to discuss the autonomy of art in relation to knowledge, liberating the concept of 'doing' from its secondary status (which it had since the Platonic “pure Idea”), while the latter made it possible to create an operational identity between thought and object, which in turn made it possible to consider both thoughts and objects ontologically (something Hegel did not do though). But an ontology this time under the category of functioning, that is to say no longer as separated by a chasm imposed by psychologistic or vitalistic positions. But it is above all with Marx and Husserl that we find, in Marx, the serious consideration of machines as "technical entities", greatly modifying the relationships that humans maintain with each other, and, in the case of Husserl, fundamental operational concepts that would later be used by thinkers such as Gilbert Simondon, Georges Canghuillem, André Leroi-Gouhran or Jacques Ellul (such as the concepts of "technical historicity", "technical genesis", the notion of “operation”, “mode of being” and the notion of the "becoming" of science and technology).
Artificial Immanence Arc - Le Cnam HT2S/ GF, 2025
This article is limited to Greco-Roman / post-Socratic and medieval frameworks in Western Europe.... more This article is limited to Greco-Roman / post-Socratic and medieval frameworks in Western Europe. My claim is that prior to the twentieth century, Western metaphysics does not formulate a sui generis mode of existence for artificial objects. Where artefacts are treated, they are theorized negatively (as privations of physis), metaphorically (as likeness/participation), or instrumentally (as use, intention, or sign). In each case, the criteria of "being" are imported from living, divine, or mental orders; no autonomous ontogenetic regime proper to technical beings is articulated. A positive account appears only later (e.g., Simondon), which I treat in a separate study.
This paper argues that modern scientific challenges-especially those involving complex, fluid phe... more This paper argues that modern scientific challenges-especially those involving complex, fluid phenomena-require more than the traditional unit-based2, reductionist approaches that have long dominated Western epistemology. It calls for the reintroduction of a relation-based methodological framework: one that neither rejects nor subordinates unit-based logic but complements it. Through historical, philosophical, and technical analysis, the paper identifies the ontological commitments implicit in mainstream scientific reasoning and contrasts them with an alternative paradigm grounded in relational primacy. This complementary framework, inspired by insights from pre-Socratic philosophy, East Asian thought, and contemporary philosophy of technology, provides novel epistemological tools for navigating interdisciplinary and emergent phenomena.
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, 2015
Here is the English translation of the text, preserving its academic tone and nuance:
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The r... more Here is the English translation of the text, preserving its academic tone and nuance:
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The reflective work presented here is based on a set of four qualitative studies conducted between 2012 and 2013, involving supervisors, mediators, and science facilitators. The objective was to identify the expectations and needs of the profession in terms of training.
The first observation is that there is a striking uniformity in the way the profession is represented and in what is considered essential *by* and *for* mediators. This is true despite the diversity of interviewee profiles and the differing interview methodologies across the four studies. Mediators primarily define themselves through their “public-facing” activity and the way in which they carry it out (interactivity with audiences, adaptability to diverse situations and profiles, etc.). More significantly, they also define themselves by what they *do not* do—often positioning themselves in contrast to the figures of the tour guide, the teacher, or the researcher.
Moreover, these studies reveal that the profession is marked by a high degree of precariousness and a lack of recognition (both in terms of status and expertise), which even appears to be long-standing. This precariousness exacerbates an already evident lack of availability—especially for training. This is an important factor to be taken into account by the École de la Médiation.
As for the training itself, few explicit or spontaneous requests are formulated, with some exceptions (such as training in theatrical techniques). However, mediators are very clear about the formats they expect: no theoretical courses disconnected from professional practice. On the contrary, in contrast to theoretical training—often viewed as ineffective and inapplicable—what is hoped for is a very concrete grounding in their actual practices, along with opportunities for reflective engagement with those practices.
Les frontières du Travail, 2017
The prevailing conception of "work" is often associated with professional activity undertaken in ... more The prevailing conception of "work" is often associated with professional activity undertaken in exchange for financial or social compensation. In this context, robotics emerges as the contemporary successor to this utilitarian view of labor. Due to its emphasis on automation—whether required, generated, or deployed—robotics is frequently perceived as a force that will supplant human labor across a wide range of industries, displacing workers and eroding accumulated expertise.
This interview examines an alternative perspective through the case study of Berenson, a scientific robot designed by an interdisciplinary team. Described as an "art amateur," Berenson was not only developed and tested in laboratory settings but also deployed in a public cultural context, specifically at the Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac in Paris between 2012 and 2016. Situated at the intersection of developmental and bio-inspired robotics and the social anthropology of interaction, Berenson represents a unique research object. It challenges dominant narratives about robotics and labor by integrating the dimensions of creation and discovery within the overlapping domains of scientific inquiry and cultural engagement.
Gender Reverse Bootcamp in Madagascar, 2022
Around the world, gender inequalities are striking. Men hold 50% more wealth than women, while 61... more Around the world, gender inequalities are striking. Men hold 50% more wealth than women, while 61% of the poorest people are women. The global gender pay gap stands at 19%, and women perform more than three-quarters of unpaid domestic work. Additionally, two-thirds of the world's illiterate population are women, and one-third of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.
These injustices are exacerbated by insufficient legislation: 67 countries do not consider domestic violence a crime, and 43 countries have no legislation regarding marital rape. The consequences of climate change also disproportionately affect women and girls, who make up 80% of climate-displaced persons. In developing countries, women constitute nearly 50% of the agricultural workforce, but only 13% of these female farmers own the land they cultivate.
However, simply presenting these data does not engage men and women in the same way. We hypothesize that the experience of these injustices is primarily embodied in the victims, and that their physical experience is an essential prerequisite for an intimate and thus engaging understanding of the issue of inequalities conducive to action. In behavioral psychology, this phenomenon is roughly illustrated by the difference between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge.
To embody these data, we created an immersive role-reversal experiment (mainly involving the distribution of legislative power and reproductive labor with an unequally distributed currency system) with 20 young Malagasy member of a Youth wing (10 men and 10 women). For one week, they lived in a futuristic dystopia where, following global conflicts and climate disasters, women had "taken back" power and applied the same inequalities that exist today in Madagascar. Each day, workshop sessions allowed participants to "open the archives of the world before," confronting them with the real injustices of contemporary Madagascar amidst their fictional daily lives
Titre : L'être communicationnel des machines : Le cas du robot humanoïde en France et au Japon Ré... more Titre : L'être communicationnel des machines : Le cas du robot humanoïde en France et au Japon Résumé : Cette recherche s'intéresse au statut des objets techniques et artificiels en sciences humaines et sociales. A travers une enquête historique, esthétique, linguistique, philosophique et technique, l'objet technique et artificiel se découvre un statut d'être communicationnel, le redéfinissant à partir des notions de devenir propre, d'information et de mode de participation au réel. Cela permet de dégager un socle philosophique et des outils analytiques communs pour l'étude simultanée des humains, des non-humains et des milieux auxquels ils participent conjointement. La redéfinition du statut des objets techniques à partir d'un cadre épistémique s'intéressant prioritairement à leur fonctionnement plutôt qu'à leur fonction d'usage nous permet d'identifier, à l'aide des concepts opératoires développés par Gilbert Simondon, une série de voies novatrices pour la recherche en sciences de l'information et de la communication. Un certain nombre de conséquences préliminaires sont identifiées, en fin de manuscrit, comme capables de transformer profondément certains des résultats de la recherche en sciences humaines et sociales s'intéressant à l'agentivité des objets techniques.
Berenson, « l’anti robot-travail »
Revue Tracés, May 18, 2017
Le travail est souvent envisage comme une activite professionnelle que nous accomplirions en echa... more Le travail est souvent envisage comme une activite professionnelle que nous accomplirions en echange de gratifications economiques ou sociales. Dans la continuite de cette vision du travail, la robotique est devenue, par les processus automatises qu’elle presuppose, installe ou « remplace » au sein d’activites professionnelles de plus en plus variees, cela meme que l’on identifie comme depossedant des millions d’entre nous de leurs metiers et savoir-faire. Cet entretien est une enquete sur un robot scientifique aupres de l’equipe interdisciplinaire qui l’a concu : Berenson l’« amateur d’art », ayant ete experimente non plus seulement en laboratoire mais aussi dans les couloirs du musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac a Paris entre 2012 et 2016. Objet de recherche tres particulier a la croisee de la robotique developpementale et bio-inspiree et de l’anthropologie sociale des interactions, il permet de revenir sur certains prejuges concernant les robots au travail, en associant des problematiques de creation et de decouverte aux espaces du travail scientifique et de mediation culturelle dans lesquelles il est mis en œuvre.
Berenson, « l’anti robot-travail »
Le travail est souvent envisage comme une activite professionnelle que nous accomplirions en echa... more Le travail est souvent envisage comme une activite professionnelle que nous accomplirions en echange de gratifications economiques ou sociales. Dans la continuite de cette vision du travail, la robotique est devenue, par les processus automatises qu’elle presuppose, installe ou « remplace » au sein d’activites professionnelles de plus en plus variees, cela meme que l’on identifie comme depossedant des millions d’entre nous de leurs metiers et savoir-faire. Cet entretien est une enquete sur un robot scientifique aupres de l’equipe interdisciplinaire qui l’a concu : Berenson l’« amateur d’art », ayant ete experimente non plus seulement en laboratoire mais aussi dans les couloirs du musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac a Paris entre 2012 et 2016. Objet de recherche tres particulier a la croisee de la robotique developpementale et bio-inspiree et de l’anthropologie sociale des interactions, il permet de revenir sur certains prejuges concernant les robots au travail, en associant des prob...
Déplacer les frontières du travail
Tracés, 2017
Les reconfigurations recentes du capitalisme industriel dans les societes occidentales ont provoq... more Les reconfigurations recentes du capitalisme industriel dans les societes occidentales ont provoque des processus croises de « de-collectivisation », de « precarisation » et de « re-individualisation » du travail (Castel, 1995) – jetant le trouble sur la definition meme du travail et sa fonction dans la societe. A partir des annees 1970, ces metamorphoses ont suscite, dans le champ des sciences humaines et sociales, un mouvement d’extension consistant a qualifier de travail un nombre croissan...
Sylvie Catellin, Sérendipité. Du conte au concept
Lectures, Jul 24, 2014
Sylvie Catellin, Sérendipité. Du conte au concept
Lectures
Sylvie Catellin, Sérendipité. Du conte au concept
Lectures, Jul 24, 2014
Lex Robotica : Le droit à l'épreuve de la robotique, 2018
Le colloque qui s’est tenu le 21 septembre 2017 au Conservatoire National des Arts & Métiers, fru... more Le colloque qui s’est tenu le 21 septembre 2017 au Conservatoire National des Arts & Métiers, fruit de la collaboration entre l’équipe Histoire des Technosciences en Société du Cnam (HT2S) à laquelle j’appartiens et l’Institut de Recherche pour un Droit Attractif de l’université Paris 13 (IRDA), avait tout d’un laboratoire pour de nouvelles formes de rencontres interdisciplinaires. Cette rencontre n’a en effet pas eu pour objet de faire l’apologie des sciences et techniques, de n’en mentionner que leurs risques et dangers, où de produire sur scène nos expertises respectives. Cette rencontre s’est avérée respecter l’espoir qui l’a vu naître, à savoir construire un socle épistémique commun à partir duquel travailler efficacement entre chercheur·e·s sur les questions de robotique et d’intelligence artificielle. A notre surprise, ce socle commun s’est même transformé en objectif : produire de nouvelles manières, collectives, de comprendre l’incroyable complexité de l’univers technique qui nous entoure et, parfois, nous traverse. La figure du robot humanoïde n’est pas innocente, en ce qu’elle catalyse tout ce qu’il y a de plus problématique, sulfureux et actuel entre nos vies individuelles et le monde des nouvelles technologies. C’est donc, en quelques sortes, un objectif plus culturel que scientifique, technique ou théorique auquel ce rassemblement de chercheur·e·s a donné naissance, un objectif qui dessine comme de nouvelles potentialités pour la mise en culture des objets techniques actuels et futurs, et cela depuis une forme d’attention très particulière portée cette fois-ci sur leur réalité en tant qu’êtres techniques.
Tracés , 2017
A widespread understanding of « work » would be the one of a professional endeavor, undergone for... more A widespread understanding of « work » would be the one of a professional endeavor, undergone for the purpose of some financial or social compensations. Nowadays Robotics is the contemporary heir of this rather dry understanding of work. For the automatism it requires, creates or implements wherever possible in a growing number of professional activities, Robotics is thought to be what is or will take millions of employments across all industries, depriving humans of their work and expertise. This interview investigates a scientific robot with the interdisciplinary team that participated in its conception: Berenson, the “art amateur”, which was experimented not only in the laboratory but also within the museum quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris between 2012 and 2016. A peculiar research object at the crossroad between developmental and bio-inspired Robotics and Social Anthropology of interactions, Berenson deters all anticipations regarding robots at work, by combining issues of creation and discovery with the workspaces of science and culture.
In the way human produce knowledge, I have identified two antagonist though complementary approac... more In the way human produce knowledge, I have identified two antagonist though complementary approaches toward phenomena. From Philosophy and within the Communication sciences that provide the necessary focus on interactions rather than being "object-oriented" (essential switch to undertake a scientific explanation of relational events), I provide a historical background and a set of notions aiming at re-establishing relational approaches as legitimate scientific methodologies for investigation and research. This paper calls for an urgent need for relation-based complementary approaches in all fields of Science and with the help of the science communication shift, for the scientific acknowledgement of such approaches is unavoidable for anyone willing to tackle the so called actual societal and environmental challenges our modern societies are facing. This paper calls upon and sketches out the main angle (the centrality of technic and its philosophic consequences) chosen for both reporting and scientifically founding relation-based approaches.
« La parole est irréversible, telle est sa fatalité.
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Papers by Ludovic Garattini, PhD
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The reflective work presented here is based on a set of four qualitative studies conducted between 2012 and 2013, involving supervisors, mediators, and science facilitators. The objective was to identify the expectations and needs of the profession in terms of training.
The first observation is that there is a striking uniformity in the way the profession is represented and in what is considered essential *by* and *for* mediators. This is true despite the diversity of interviewee profiles and the differing interview methodologies across the four studies. Mediators primarily define themselves through their “public-facing” activity and the way in which they carry it out (interactivity with audiences, adaptability to diverse situations and profiles, etc.). More significantly, they also define themselves by what they *do not* do—often positioning themselves in contrast to the figures of the tour guide, the teacher, or the researcher.
Moreover, these studies reveal that the profession is marked by a high degree of precariousness and a lack of recognition (both in terms of status and expertise), which even appears to be long-standing. This precariousness exacerbates an already evident lack of availability—especially for training. This is an important factor to be taken into account by the École de la Médiation.
As for the training itself, few explicit or spontaneous requests are formulated, with some exceptions (such as training in theatrical techniques). However, mediators are very clear about the formats they expect: no theoretical courses disconnected from professional practice. On the contrary, in contrast to theoretical training—often viewed as ineffective and inapplicable—what is hoped for is a very concrete grounding in their actual practices, along with opportunities for reflective engagement with those practices.
This interview examines an alternative perspective through the case study of Berenson, a scientific robot designed by an interdisciplinary team. Described as an "art amateur," Berenson was not only developed and tested in laboratory settings but also deployed in a public cultural context, specifically at the Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac in Paris between 2012 and 2016. Situated at the intersection of developmental and bio-inspired robotics and the social anthropology of interaction, Berenson represents a unique research object. It challenges dominant narratives about robotics and labor by integrating the dimensions of creation and discovery within the overlapping domains of scientific inquiry and cultural engagement.
These injustices are exacerbated by insufficient legislation: 67 countries do not consider domestic violence a crime, and 43 countries have no legislation regarding marital rape. The consequences of climate change also disproportionately affect women and girls, who make up 80% of climate-displaced persons. In developing countries, women constitute nearly 50% of the agricultural workforce, but only 13% of these female farmers own the land they cultivate.
However, simply presenting these data does not engage men and women in the same way. We hypothesize that the experience of these injustices is primarily embodied in the victims, and that their physical experience is an essential prerequisite for an intimate and thus engaging understanding of the issue of inequalities conducive to action. In behavioral psychology, this phenomenon is roughly illustrated by the difference between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge.
To embody these data, we created an immersive role-reversal experiment (mainly involving the distribution of legislative power and reproductive labor with an unequally distributed currency system) with 20 young Malagasy member of a Youth wing (10 men and 10 women). For one week, they lived in a futuristic dystopia where, following global conflicts and climate disasters, women had "taken back" power and applied the same inequalities that exist today in Madagascar. Each day, workshop sessions allowed participants to "open the archives of the world before," confronting them with the real injustices of contemporary Madagascar amidst their fictional daily lives