The Ecological Communication of Mario Perniola: From the Sex Appeal of the Inorganic to Digital Ecosystems

• Grant number: 24/09224-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Massimo Di Felice
• Grantee: Enea Bianchi
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Starting from the aesthetics and communication theory of the Italian philosopher Mario Perniola, this project explores the studies on digital ecologies emerged in the Brazilian cultural context. Digital platforms and architectures are giving rise to unprecedented ways of inhabiting urban space, as well as shaping new collective imaginaries, social relationships, and forms of communication. At the same time, the alteration of our planet's ecosystem is producing lasting consequences that affect both our generation and future ones. These developments expand the traditional Western idea of society and community, which is limited only to the human species and becomes inadequate to address the pressing issues and challenges brought by the changes in our contemporary world. Mario Perniola's thought has long focused on the relationship between human and non-human entities, producing a series of interpretative keys to rethink humanity on the planet (Perniola, 2016, 2010, 2008, 2005). With this in mind, this project will discuss the concept of the "sex appeal of the inorganic", which can be understood, we argue, as an alternative to the Western metaphysical tradition and capable of providing innovative research keys to reflect on the relationship between ecology and communication technologies. Studies published in recent years in the fields of media theory, communication philosophy, and ecological sciences (Baitello Junior, 2010; Di Felice, 2020, 2017; Borges Junior, 2023; Santaella, 2010, 2023; Kopenawa & Albert, 2016; Albert & Kopenawa, 2023; Krenak, 2020; Sztutman, 2019, among others) show how, in the Brazilian context, there is an interest in alternative forms of communication that seek to understand the complex relationship between humans and non-humans. This research aims to provide an overview of these references, in order to expand and articulate them with Perniola's communicative and aesthetic reflections to conceive an alternative communication theory to those formulated within the Western epistemic matrix.