The Phonograph as a Non-Philosophical Machine: From Representation to the Reproduction of the Unimaginable Real

Abstract

By addressing the sound recording technology’s capabilities in catching its objects, this article presents a materialist theoretical ground, connecting François Laruelle’s understanding of immanence in his non-philosophy to Friedrich Kittler’s technomaterialism that employs three fundamental recording technologies. As Kittler inquires in his book Gramophone, Film, Typewriter in depth, the phonograph is the only recording technology that is able to catch its object as it is, without transferring it into any semiotic system that is essentially different from it. It is the sound recording technology’s ability that distinguishes it from the other two recording 1 technologies and the very reason to design a materialist approach to sonic thinking. Ultimately, the theoretical inquiries given by a non-philosopher and a media theorist will give us a new base for sonic thinking and pave the way for various possibilities to approach the reality of sounds and their relationship with technology. The article suggests that nonphilosophy finds its very performance in the practice of the phonograph.

Keywords

• françois laruelle
• friedrich kittler
• media archeology
• non-philosophy
• recording technology