Ontology of what?

Two days with a rowdy bunch of supremely articulate Australian & Tasmanian philosophers in Paris? What’s not to love about that?

Last week we spent two days exploring at the American University in Paris – a summer school named The Ontology of the Prototype, and established in collaboration with Goldsmiths and Carnegie Mellon School of Design. This heady mix, combined with a wide variety of students, guaranteed some truly broader thinking. The focus of the summer school was to explore prototyping, which we love and use often, but also the notion of second order prototypes – that is, not just the thing, but the effect of the thing in the world – whether positive, critical or dystopian.

This allowed us to try out some classics – paper prototyping – through to role play and life-sized theatrics. Great to meet Elliot Montgomery from The Extrapolation Factory.

Very much our kind of thing.

What’s so enjoyable about working with academic philosophers is their within a breath accuracy of precise naming and referencing. Never again will I have any challenge with my Latourian perspective…well, hopefully!