The Politics of the Artificial

IF DESIGN CAN BE CONSIDERED “THE CONCEPTION AND PLANNING OF the artificial,” then its scope and boundaries are intimately entwined with our understanding of the artificial’s limits. There is no longer agreement on a distinction between the natural and the artificial, and contemporary cultural critiques have made references to nature difficult without qualifications. Critiques of nature have also striven to abolish any presence, whedier we call it God or die spirit, that exists beyond the frame of a socially constructed discourse. This paper seeks to reinstate spirituality as a category diat is associated with a new conception of nature, one that does not reductively resist incursions of technology into what was formerly considered the domain of nature but which preserves a realm of the spirit that is beyond technological manipulation. This new sense of spirituality can address the increasingly complex relations between the natural and the artificial and offers the basis for a new project for designers.