The Eye in the Media and as a Medium: Materiality and Technical Individuation

Abstract This article examines the material transformations emerging from the interaction between individuals and computational systems. Drawing on Gilbert Simondon’s concept of individuation and Bernard Stiegler’s notion of epoché, it argues that technology is not merely a tool but also a mode of structuring environments and generating new psychic, social, and technical individuation. Contemporary computational systems suspend earlier paradigms centered on vision, perception, and image, demanding a reformulation of these concepts. From Simondon’s perspective, information processing systems highlight the role of technical artefacts in shaping relations, while Stiegler’s idea of deanthropologization highlights the necessity of redefining human–machine interactions. In this context, images are no longer confined to the visual; as code, they are processed by algorithms independent of human sight. The current scale of data further intensifies this shift, as algorithms manage vast datasets beyond individual human capacity. Consequently, practices such as data visualization establish new material relationships of individuation between living beings and algorithms. The article contends that these transformations challenge established anthropological frameworks, proposing a theoretical lens for understanding how computational systems reconfigure perception, representation, and technocultural environments.