Based on the transmission of mathematical, meta-mathematical, and cultural-technical knowledge between China and Europe in the seventeenth century, the project examines the massive, yet subtle influence this transmission has had on the development of contemporary systems of knowledge and technology. The question of “how much of China can be found in technical media and infrastructures” did not originate with Foxconn. It begins with Jesuit translations of Greek and Chinese mathematics, the conceptual differences between alphabets and other systems of writing, and misconceptions and incompletenesses in the translatability of thought. The implications reach into the early twentieth century, when Chinese knowledge again became the silent partner of a soon-to-be-global scientific and technological movement, which continues to shape our present: cybernetics.

Paul Feigelfeld studied Cultural Studies and Computer Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He was an assistant to Friedrich Kittler at the Chair for Aesthetics and History of Media (2004-–10) and a research assistant at the Chair for Media Theories under Wolfgang Ernst (2010–13). He has held positions as the academic coordinator of the Digital Cultures Research Lab at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University Lüneburg (2013–16); Data & Research Architect at the TBA21-Academy of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (2017–18); and in 2019 was the guest curator of the Vienna Biennial at the MAK Museum of Applied Arts (“Uncanny Values: Artificial Intelligence & You”). He regularly teaches courses at the University of Basel, Art Institute Basel, and Strelka Institute Moscow.