Ghislain Thibault
Biographic Data
| ID | 3683669 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ghislain Thibault |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ghislain |
| FAMILY NAME | Thibault |
| SIGNATURE | THIBAULT G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université de Montréal |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Celestial Apparitions: Media-Machine, Broadcasting and Aerial Advertising
In the interwar period, as commercial aviation was beginning to take shape, a range of technical innovations led to the development of the field of ‘aerial advertising’. Aerial advertising took on various media forms (sonic, visual, textual) and supports (leaflets, light projections, billboard-like print advertising, smoke, audio speakers) and turned to the sky as screen, support, milieu or medium for mass communication. This essay sets out to re…
L'idée de la ' mécanologie ' à travers le XXème siècle: Production, réception et circulation d’un savoir anatopique
Cet article retrace la production, réception et circulation de l’ouvrage Réflexions sur la science des machines, de Jacques Lafitte, paru en 1932. En complément des nombreux travaux qui ont abordé la valeur théorique des idées véhiculées dans cet ouvrage, cet article propose de suivre le parcours géographique du livre. Dans la première partie, l’article introduit la notion de connaissance en transit, proposée par James Secord, et celle des lieux …
Ethics in Jacques Lafitte's Mechanology
This article argues that the most widely disseminated reading of Lafitte's writings, which aligns his proposals for 'mechanology' with cybernetics, overlooks the broader ethical and social project to which he hoped his ideas would contribute. It is shown that the purpose of mechanology articulated by Lafitte was the development of an ethical relation to machines, a theme he developed in his later publications. It is argued that Lafitte's position…
Understanding Machines: A History of Canadian Mechanology
Background The paradigms of cybernetics and media theory developed in the postwar era in response to new developments in technology and science. At their margins, an intellectual movement called “mechanology,” or the science of machines, also attempted to apprehend such changes. Analysis The article uses the archival material of two major figures of mechanology, Canadians John Hart and Jean Le Moyne, to examine the overlooked contribution of mech…
The Automatization of Nikola Tesla: Thinking Invention in the Late Nineteenth Century
By investigating the conflicted relationship between Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and the electrical engineering community, this essay explores competing representations of "invention" in the fin-de-siècle period. Drawing on the observation that the dominant paradigm of invention was entangled in various inscription practices, I turn to the case of Tesla to examine how inventions that circulated only as discourses were represented and legitimated in …
Éther 2.0: Révolutions sans fil
This article draws on a theoretical distinction between the concepts of “promise” and “myth” to explore the discourses on wireless technology bearing on each. Out of the wireless cult, we have retained two fundamental myths that are constantly and complexly intertwined in the promises of the wireless: the Greek myth of Theseus and the cosmogonic myth of Ether. Through the exploration of two historical chapters during which the wireless was celebr…
Ethics in Jacques Lafitte's Mechanology
This article argues that the most widely disseminated reading of Lafitte's writings, which aligns his proposals for 'mechanology' with cybernetics, overlooks the broader ethical and social project to which he hoped his ideas would contribute. It is shown that the purpose of mechanology articulated by Lafitte was the development of an ethical relation to machines, a theme he developed in his later publications. It is argued that Lafitte's position…
Éther 2.0: Révolutions sans fil
This article draws on a theoretical distinction between the concepts of “promise” and “myth” to explore the discourses on wireless technology bearing on each. Out of the wireless cult, we have retained two fundamental myths that are constantly and complexly intertwined in the promises of the wireless: the Greek myth of Theseus and the cosmogonic myth of Ether. Through the exploration of two historical chapters during which the wireless was celebr…
The Automatization of Nikola Tesla: Thinking Invention in the Late Nineteenth Century
By investigating the conflicted relationship between Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and the electrical engineering community, this essay explores competing representations of "invention" in the fin-de-siècle period. Drawing on the observation that the dominant paradigm of invention was entangled in various inscription practices, I turn to the case of Tesla to examine how inventions that circulated only as discourses were represented and legitimated in …
Understanding Machines: A History of Canadian Mechanology
Background The paradigms of cybernetics and media theory developed in the postwar era in response to new developments in technology and science. At their margins, an intellectual movement called “mechanology,” or the science of machines, also attempted to apprehend such changes. Analysis The article uses the archival material of two major figures of mechanology, Canadians John Hart and Jean Le Moyne, to examine the overlooked contribution of mech…
Ethics in Jacques Lafitte's Mechanology
This article argues that the most widely disseminated reading of Lafitte's writings, which aligns his proposals for 'mechanology' with cybernetics, overlooks the broader ethical and social project to which he hoped his ideas would contribute. It is shown that the purpose of mechanology articulated by Lafitte was the development of an ethical relation to machines, a theme he developed in his later publications. It is argued that Lafitte's position…
Celestial Apparitions: Media-Machine, Broadcasting and Aerial Advertising
In the interwar period, as commercial aviation was beginning to take shape, a range of technical innovations led to the development of the field of ‘aerial advertising’. Aerial advertising took on various media forms (sonic, visual, textual) and supports (leaflets, light projections, billboard-like print advertising, smoke, audio speakers) and turned to the sky as screen, support, milieu or medium for mass communication. This essay sets out to re…
L'idée de la ' mécanologie ' à travers le XXème siècle: Production, réception et circulation d’un savoir anatopique
Cet article retrace la production, réception et circulation de l’ouvrage Réflexions sur la science des machines, de Jacques Lafitte, paru en 1932. En complément des nombreux travaux qui ont abordé la valeur théorique des idées véhiculées dans cet ouvrage, cet article propose de suivre le parcours géographique du livre. Dans la première partie, l’article introduit la notion de connaissance en transit, proposée par James Secord, et celle des lieux …
Philosophy (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Computer security (2 works) · Cybernetics (2 works) · Cybernetics and Technology in Society (2 works) · History of Science and Medicine (2 works)