We live in a world where it is impossible to exist without, and beyond, technologies. Due to this omnipresence, we tend to overlook their influence on us. Yet on the other hand, this ubiquity makes it possible to realize that we have always been conditioned by technology.

The research project “Technology as a Medium of Existence: Benjaminian Techno-Anthropology” seeks to elucidate the interweaving of technology and humankind by creatively developing Walter Benjamin’s mostly overlooked ideas on technology.

The project connects the philosophy of technology, media philosophy, and Walter Benjamin studies. It has two major aims:

1) To creatively develop Benjamin’s ideas on technology with the help of current approaches in the philosophy of technology, such as postphenomenology or critical theory of technology.

2) To articulate a media anthropological concept of technology as a medium of existence, taking inspiration from current media philosophy.

This two-year research project (10/2020–9/2022) is realized by Martin Ritter (Czech Academy of Sciences) and consulted with Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Vienna) and Christiane Voss (Bauhaus University Weimar).