Reza Negarestani | Modeling as Tektological Praxis

Modeling as Tektological Praxis
By Reza Negarestani

This talk examines a cross-disciplinary problem: when compression in modeling—across scales or by computational cost—enables explanation and control, and when it effaces the organizational structure on which action depends. It is framed by Alexander Bogdanov’s account of organization (ingression / disingression) and substitution as proto-modeling procedures developed within collective political practice, and it reconsiders Michael Weisberg’s criteria of similarity and simulation as pillars of modeling across disciplines. A pragmatic rubric—fidelity, transfer, logical depth—is proposed to align modeling architectures with the generative structure of their targets, disciplining the use of surrogate models, multiscale simulation, inverse design, and forecasting. In Bogdanov’s register, the upshot is that modeling’s practical expediency—its capacity to travel across domains without loss of organizational constraint and depth—grounds a concrete universalism rooted in collective revolutionary experimental practice and extending across art, science, mathematics, engineering, and collective political action.

The talk will be followed by a roundtable moderated by Ardalan SadeghiKivi (Lecturer of Comparative Media Studies at MIT), in conversation with W. Craig Carter (Toyota Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT), and Gediminas Urbonas (Professor of the Art, Culture, and Technology at MIT).

This event is organized with support from: Renée Green, Tobias Putrih, and MIT.nano.