Techno-aesthetics is a term defined by the philosopher of technics Gilbert Simondon in the early 1980s. This philosophical approach aims to highlight the links that can exist between the fields of aesthetics and technology.
Given their bakground, design students in third year from the Baccalauréat in Environmental Design at UQAM easily understand how this thinking applies to the architectural and design fields. At the scale of the object, the relationships between technique and aesthetics are prevalent. They characterize, for instance, by a causal link between the manufacturing process and its result: the aesthetic of the Thonet chair is the direct result of the steam bending process of wood.
However, beyond the “techno-stigma” left by the process on the object, few designers have explored the aesthetics of the processes other than with a desire for democratisation and exhibition. However, we can wonder if a link between the aesthetics of the process and that of its result exists? It is this question that I proposed students to explore within the framework of this 7 weeks course: designing new materials, machines or processes as a source of singular objects and shapes.