Mauricio Gonzalez

Pointing beyond the domain of onto-teleo-logy – towards an epoché of the tradition of a »technique of nature« – the notion of »second technique« intends to shaken a whole constellation of questions traditionally concentrated under the rubric of »second nature« (habit, adaptation, etc.). It aims at a region of unlikeness of what might be called »techno-ontology«. In it, the question of the ethos turns more incisive than ever. Suppose film is a privileged paradigm of »second technology«: what sort of »ethical resistance« does its medium display? Is there a «technological suspension of the ethical»? And if, at its »ethical substrate«, the difference between documentary-/fictive-intention were on principle put into question, how to approach the real in film?

A hypothesis: »Res Nullius« is the index of another ethos of things. For this limit-concept of antique Roman Law indicates the juridical status of »things« (res, Sache) insofar as they lack any »right of property« already assigned upon them. Thus, it concerns an »ethical core« of reality (res, »real«) that has remained (nearly) unexplored by the »speculative realism« movement. Unsettling the axiological difference (for Kant’s practical philosophy) between »Person« and »Sache«, such res exposes a new »ethical« category: »personne« (»Niemand–Keiner«). Now, if the medial signature of »technical reproducibility« (Benjamin dixit) says Einmal-ist-Keinmal, the structure of its ethos might say: »Einer-ist-Keiner« (multitude/anyone/no-one). Accordingly, a wholly different demand arises in film – a »categorical imperative« coming from ‘things themselves’ – : »Forget not the No-One!«

Mauricio Gonzalez studied philosophy in Colombia, where he taught for some years before leaving to Germany. He is currently finishing a dissertation on the motifs of the »instant« and »repetition«, at the Institut für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft of the Goethe-University, in Frankfurt am Main.