Journal articles on the topic 'Physiological attunement'

This study investigated the effects of dispositional and experimentally induced perspective-taking (PT) on physiological attunement between romantic partners during a conflict resolution task. Young adult couples ( N = 103 dyads) rated their trait PT 1 week prior to participating in a conflict resolution session with their romantic partner. Immediately before the conflict task, participants were given one of the following three instructions: to take their partner’s perspective (PT condition), to approach the conflict mindfully (mindfulness condition), or to focus on their own perspective regarding the conflict (control condition). Participants provided four saliva samples over the course of the laboratory session, and the samples were assayed for alpha-amylase to measure autonomic nervous system activity. Multilevel modeling results revealed that couples in the PT condition displayed greater autonomic attunement over the course of the conflict session compared to those in the other conditions. In addition, female partners’ dispositional PT enhanced the effect of the PT induction on couples’ attunement. Furthermore, secondary analyses provided support for the beneficial role of autonomic attunement. Specifically, attunement was decreased by negative conflict behaviors and predicted increased post-conflict negative affect in females. Implications for dyadic functioning and intervention are discussed.

AbstractA growing number of research studies have examined the intradyadic coregulation (or attunement) of hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis functioning in mothers and their children. However, it is unclear how early this coregulation may be present in dyads at clinical high risk and whether certain factors, such as maternal depression or positive parenting, are associated with the strength of this coregulation. The present study examined cortisol attunement within mother–infant dyads in a high-risk sample of 233 mothers who received treatment for psychiatric illness during pregnancy and whose infants were 6 months old at the study visit. Results showed that maternal and infant cortisol covaried across four time points that included a stressor paradigm and a mother–infant interaction task. Greater maternal positive affect, but not depression, predicted stronger cortisol attunement. In addition, infants’ cortisol level following separation from the mother predicted mothers’ cortisol level at the next time point. Mothers’ cortisol level following the separation and the laboratory stress paradigm predicted infants’ cortisol levels at each successive time point, over and above infants’ own cortisol at the previous time point. These findings suggest that maternal and infant cortisol levels influence one another in a bidirectional fashion that may be temporally and context dependent.

AbstractPrimary, or basic, colors have been discussed for centuries. Over time, three criteria have emerged on their behalf: (a) their physical mixture yielding all other spectral colors, (b) the physiological attunement of receptors or pathways to particular wavelengths, and (c) the etymological history of the color term. These criteria can be applied usefully to taste to clarify issues.

AbstractNeural delays, which are generally defined as visuomotor delays in interceptive actions, must be compensated to enable accurate timing in movement. Visuomotor delays can depend on the kind of task, the use of information, and the skill of the performer. The compensation for such delays does not necessarily require prediction or representation but can be made by an attunement of some parameters in what is called a law of control.

AbstractAutism is characterized by an impaired development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted repertoire of activities and interests. This paper summarizes the research into the social abnormalities in autism, and reviews the empirical support for two behavioural hypotheses on autism, i.e. that autism results from impaired attachment, or from intense and prolonged approach-avoidance conflicts. The core social impairment of autistic subjects seems to be a deficit in attunement and timing of actions and reactions rather than a difference in frequencies of behaviours. Attachment behaviour of most, if not all autistic children tends to be disorganized; nevertheless, they do form attachment relationships in terms of preferential proximity seeking or reunion behaviour in the Strange Situation Test. Attachment studies performed sofar however have methodological limitations ; particularly the study of maternal-infant attunement and reciprocity has been neglected. Empirical evidence fails to support the presence of approach-avoidance conflicts in autistic subjects, and is further at variance with the predicted consequences of such conflicts. Insufficient attention has hitherto been paid to the clinical heterogeneity of autism in behavioural studies. A promising approach to deepen our understanding of the development of the autistic symptomatology is the early detection and subsequent behavioural study of 1-2 year old children at high-risk for autism. Finally, behaviour observation studies in autistic subjects are likely to benefit from the concurrent assessment of physiological indices of arousal, and from the integrated measurement of social-cognitive processes.

Abstract Child solitary and collaborative mother–child play with 21 children with Down syndrome and 33 mental-age-matched typically developing children were compared. In solitary play, children with Down syndrome showed less exploratory but similar symbolic play compared to typically developing children. From solitary to collaborative play, children with Down syndrome increased their exploratory play, attaining the same level as typically developing children. Pretense significantly increased from solitary to collaborative play only in typically developing children. Differences between mothers' play in the two groups mirrored those between their children. Both groups showed similar attunement and synchrony. Mothers contribute to the play development of children with Down syndrome through their own adaptation to their children's limitations and potentialities.

Elméleti háttér: Az anya–magzat kötődés gyakran vizsgált, ugyanakkor bizonytalan tartalmú konstruktum. A korábbi kutatásokban egymásnak ellentmondó eredmények születtek a jelenség dimenzionalitásával és korrelátumaival kapcsolatban. Cél: A szerzők célja, hogy a magyarországi várandósok populációjára reprezentatív mintán vizsgálják meg az anya– magzat kötődés konstruktumát, és felmérjék annak bizonyos szociodemográfiai és pszichoszociális változókkal való együttjárását. Módszerek: Az elemzés a Kohorsz ’18 Magyar Születési Kohorszvizsgálat első, várandós szakaszának adatain történt, harmadik trimeszterben járó várandósok körében (n = 7115). Az adatok forrását a védőnők által szóban, valamint önkitöltős formában begyűjtött kérdőíves adatok szolgáltatták. Az anya– magzat kötődés felmérése a Maternal–Fetal Attachment Scale magyar nyelvű, 20 tételes változatával történt. Eredmények: A Maternal–Fetal Attachment Scale-HU-20 kétfaktoros struktúrába szerveződött, egy 15- és egy 5-tételes alfaktorba. Az elfogadható belső konzisztenciájú faktorokat Hangolódás (Cronbach-α = 0,795) és Interakció (Cronbach-α = 0,606) alskáláknak neveztük el. Kétváltozós statisztikai elemzésekben az anya–magzat kötődés összpontszáma a vizsgált változók (kor, gesztációs hét, társas támogatottság, pozitív és negatív párkapcsolati interakciók, depresszió, általános és várandóssággal összefüggő szorongás, paritás, iskolai végzettség, partnerkapcsolati helyzet, jövedelem) mind-egyikével szignifikáns összefüggést mutatott, legszámottevőbb összefüggést a társas támogatottsággal (τb = 0,166; p < 0,001) és a pozitív párkapcsolati interakciókkal (τb = 0,202; p < 0,001). A két aldimenzió számos prediktor változóval eltérő mértékben és/vagy irányban függött össze. Többváltozós elemzésben a vizsgált változók hatása, a kor, a negatív párkapcsolati interakciók és a partnerkapcsolati helyzet kivételével szignifikánsnak bizonyult, továbbá az alacsonyabb iskolai végzettségű és alacsonyabb jövedelmű csoporthoz való tartozás inkább a kötődés interaktív aspektusaival, míg a magasabb végzettség a kötődés hangolódó aspektusaival járt együtt. Következtetések: Az anya–magzat kötődés reprezentatív mintán való vizsgálata hozzájárulhat az anya–magzat kötődést befolyásoló demográfiai és pszichoszociális tényezők kölcsönhatásainak megismeréséhez és az eltérő társadalmi hátterű nők várandósság-élményének jobb megértéséhez.Introduction: Maternal–fetal attachment is a widely studied concept with debated latent content. Previous research found controversial results considering its dimensionality and associations. Aim: Investigation of the construct of maternal–fetal attachment, and its associations with certain sociodemographic and psychosocial variables in a representative sample of Hungarian pregnant women. Method: The analysis was conducted among pregnant women in the third trimester (n = 7115), from Cohort ’18 Growing up in Hungary. Questionnaire data were collected from participants by health visitors. Maternal–fetal attachment was assessed using the 20-item version of the Hungarian Maternal–Fetal Attachment Scale. Results: A two-factor solution emerged, consisting of the dimensions „attunement” (15 items, Cronbach’s α = 0.795) and „interaction” (5 items, Cronbach’s α = 0.606) with acceptable internal consistencies. Bivariate analyses showed significant associations between the total score of maternal–fetal attachment and maternal age, education, parity, partnership status, income, gestational age, perceived social support, positive and negative interactions with the partner, depression, general and pregnancy related anxiety. Highest correlations were found with perceived social support (τb = 0.166, p < 0.001) and positive interactions with the partner (τb = 0.202, p < 0.001). The two subscales were associated with the variables with varied magnitude and/or direction. In the multivariate analyses, all the variables had significant effect on maternal–fetal attachment except maternal age, negative interactions with the partner and partnership status. Lower maternal education and income were more strongly associated to “interaction”, while higher maternal education was more strongly associated to “attunement”. Conclusions: The study of maternal–fetal attachment in representative samples helps us understand the interaction between relevant sociodemographic and psychosocial variables and provides insight into the varied experience of maternal–fetal relation of women from different social background.

IntroductionIn Scandinavia, 6% of infants are born preterm, before 37 gestational weeks. Instead of continuing in the in-utero environment, maturation needs to occur in a neonatal unit with support of vital functions, separated from the mother’s warmth, nutrition and other benefits. Preterm infants face health and neurodevelopment challenges that may also affect the family and society at large. There is evidence of benefit from immediate and continued skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for term and moderately preterm infants and their parents but there is a knowledge gap on its effect on unstable very preterm infants when initiated immediately after birth.Methods and analysisIn this ongoing randomised controlled trial from Stavanger, Norway and Stockholm, Sweden, we are studying 150 infants born at 28+0 to 32+6 gestational weeks, randomised to receive care immediately after birth in SSC with a parent or conventionally in an incubator. The primary outcome is cardiorespiratory stability according to the stability of the cardiorespiratory system in the preterm score. Secondary outcomes are autonomic stability, thermal control, infection control, SSC time, breastfeeding and growth, epigenetic profile, microbiome profile, infant behaviour, stress resilience, sleep integrity, cortical maturation, neurodevelopment, mother-infant attachment and attunement, and parent experience and mental health.Ethics and disseminationThe study has ethical approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (2017/1135-31/3, 2019–03361) and the Norwegian Regional Ethical Committee (2015/889). The study is conducted according to good clinical practice and the Helsinki declaration. The results of the study will increase the knowledge about the mechanisms behind the effects of SSC for very preterm infants by dissemination to the scientific community through articles and at conferences, and to the society through parenting classes and magazines.Study statusRecruiting since April 2018. Expected trial termination June 2021.Trial registration numberNCT03521310 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

This study was aimed at determining how the visual information of an end-effector (racket) and the intermediate extremity (arm) of a tennis server contribute to the receiver’s anticipatory judgement of ball direction. In all, 15 experienced tennis players and 15 novice counterparts viewed a spatially occluded computer graphics animation of a tennis serve (no-occlusion, racket-occlusion, and body-occlusion) and made anticipatory judgements of ball direction on a visual analogue scale (VAS). The patterns of the serve motions were generated by a simulation technique that computationally perturbs the rotation speed of the selected racket-arm joint (forearm pronation and elbow extension) on a captured serve motion. The results suggested that the anticipatory judgements were monotonically attuned with the perturbation rate of the forearm pronation speed excepting under the conditions of the racket-occlusion model. Although such attunements were not observed in the elbow perturbation conditions, the results of correlation analysis indicated that the residual information in the spatially occluded models had a similar effect to the no-occlusion model within the individual experienced participants. The findings support the notion that end-effector (racket) provides deterministic cues for anticipation, as well as imply that players are able to benefit from the relative motion of an intermediate extremity (elbow extension).

AbstractThe maturation of corticolimbic systems that neurobiologically mediate essential affective and social regulatory functions is experience dependent. During the first and second years of life, the infant's affective experiences, especially those embedded in the relationship with the primary caregiver, elicit patterns of psychobiological alterations that influence the activity of subcortically produced trophic bioamines, peptides, and steroids that regulate the critical period growth and organization of the developing neocortex. Interactive attachment experiences of psychobiological attunemcnt, stressful misattunement, and stress-regulating repair and reattunement that maximize positive and minimize negative affect are imprinted into the orbitofrontal cortex — the hierarchical apex of the limbic system that is expanded in the early developing right hemisphere. During the critical period of maturation of thissystem, prolonged episodes of intense and unregulated interactive stress are manifest in disorganizing experiences of heightened negative affect and altered levels of stress hormones, and this chaotic biochemical alteration of the internal environment triggers an extensive apoptotic panellation of corticolimbic circuitries. In this manner less than optimal affect-regulating experiences with the primary caregiver are imprinted into the circuits of this frontolimbic system that is instrumental to attachment functions, thereby producing orbitofrontal organizations that neurobiologically express different patterns of insecure attachments. Such pathomorphogenetic outcomes result in structurally defective systems that, under stress, inefficiently regulate subcortical mechanisms that mediate the physiological processes that underlie emotion. The functional impairments of the cortical-subcortical circuitries of this prefrontal system are implicated in an enduring vulnerability to and the pathophysiology of various later forming psychiatric disorders.

Social interactions accompany individuals throughout their whole lives. When examining the underlying mechanisms of social processes, dynamics of synchrony, coordination or attunement emerge between individuals at multiple levels. To identify the impactful publications that studied such mechanisms and establishing the trends that dynamically originated the available literature, the current study adopted a scientometric approach. A sample of 543 documents dated from 1971 to 2021 was derived from Scopus. Subsequently, a document co-citation analysis was conducted on 29,183 cited references to examine the patterns of co-citation among the documents. The resulting network consisted of 1,759 documents connected to each other by 5,011 links. Within the network, five major clusters were identified. The analysis of the content of the three major clusters—namely, “Behavioral synchrony,” “Towards bio-behavioral synchrony,” and “Neural attunement”—suggests an interest in studying attunement in social interactions at multiple levels of analysis, from behavioral to neural, by passing through the level of physiological coordination. Furthermore, although initial studies on synchrony focused mostly on parent-child interactions, new hyperscanning paradigms are allowing researchers to explore the role of biobehavioral synchrony in all social processes in a real-time and ecological fashion. Future potential pathways of research were also discussed.

Psychotherapy research studies are increasingly focused on the clinical process, which has allowed for the definition of general models about clinical functioning and the role of the therapist. Embodiment-based research has shown that interpersonal processes, such as synchrony and attunement, are critical for the development of crucial therapist skills and that these mechanisms are mediated by physiological processes. Although the connection between these embodied processes and clinical practice is currently a topic of investigation in psychotherapy research, its implications for clinical training are potentially broad, but they remain unexplored. The present contribution proposes the idea of embodied trainings for psychotherapy trainees, which could support their acquisition of clinical skills through implicit, embodied, and affective learning. We present detailed potential mechanisms, study designs, and psychological variables that could be used to develop such an in vivo training and suggest some possible applications, ranging from biofeedback sessions to experimental settings and roleplaying. Additional research in this field can help bridge the gap between psychotherapy research and psychotherapy training, by overcoming some of the limitations of post-session and external evaluations, by enriching psychotherapy training programs, and by facilitating the implicit and automatic attunement of the attitudes of the students who will become tomorrow’s therapists.

Abstract The mother’s attunement to her infant’s emotional needs influences her use of touching behaviors during mother–infant interactions. Moreover, maternal touch appears to modulate infants’ physiological responses to affective touch. However, little is known about the impact of maternal sensitivity on infants’ touch processing at a brain level. This study explored the association between maternal sensitivity when infants (N = 24) were 7 months old and their patterns of cortical activation to touch at 12 months. Brain activation was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Changes in oxy-hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HHb) concentrations were measured in the left somatosensory cortex and right temporal cortex while infants received two types of tactile stimulation—affective and discriminative touch. Results showed that a lower maternal sensitivity was associated with a higher HbO2 response for discriminative touch over the temporal region. Additionally, infants of less sensitive mothers tended to present a higher response in HbO2 for affective touch over the somatosensory region. These findings suggest that less sensitive interactions might result in a lower exposure to maternal touch, which can be further related to infants’ neural processing of touch.

BackgroundWalking is characterized by stable antiphase relations between upper and lower limb movements. Such bilateral rhythmic movement patterns are neuronally generated at levels of the spinal cord and brain stem, that are strongly interconnected with cortical circuitries, including the Supplementary Motor Area (SMA).ObjectiveTo explore cerebral activity associated with multi-limb phase relations in human gait by manipulating mutual attunement of the upper and lower limb antiphase patterns.MethodsCortical activity and gait were assessed by ambulant EEG, accelerometers and videorecordings in 35 healthy participants walking normally and 19 healthy participants walking in amble gait, where upper limbs moved in-phase with the lower limbs. Power changes across the EEG frequency spectrum were assessed by Event Related Spectral Perturbation analysis and gait analysis was performed.ResultsAmble gait was associated with enhanced Event Related Desynchronization (ERD) prior to and during especially the left swing phase and reduced Event Related Synchronization (ERS) at final swing phases. ERD enhancement was most pronounced over the putative right premotor, right primary motor and right parietal cortex, indicating involvement of higher-order organization and somatosensory guidance in the production of this more complex gait pattern, with an apparent right hemisphere dominance. The diminished within-step ERD/ERS pattern in amble gait, also over the SMA, suggests that this gait pattern is more stride driven instead of step driven.ConclusionIncreased four-limb phase complexity recruits distributed networks upstream of the primary motor cortex, primarily lateralized in the right hemisphere. Similar parietal-premotor involvement has been described to compensate impaired SMA function in Parkinson’s disease bimanual antiphase movement, indicating a role as cortical support regions.

Introduction The trope of food is often used in the humanities to discuss aspects of a culture that are customarily overlooked by a textualist approach, for food embodies a kind of knowledge that comes from the direct engagement with materials and processes, and involves taste as an aesthetics that exceeds the visual concept of the “beautiful.” Moreover, cooking is one of the most ancient cultural practices, and is considered the habit that defines us as humans in comparison to other animals—not only culturally, but also physiologically (Wrangham). Today we have entered a post-human age in which technological augmentations, while promoting the erasure of embodiment in favour of intelligence (Hayles), create new assemblages between the organic and the digital, thus redefining what it means to be human. In this context, a reassessment of the practice of cooking as the manipulation of what constitutes food—both for thought and for the body—may promote a more nuanced approach to contemporary culture, in which the agency of the non-human (from synthetic materials to the digital) affects our modes of being and reflects on our aesthetic sensibility. In the 1980s, Guy Debord observed that the food industry's standardisation and automation of methods of production and consumption have anaesthetised the consumer palate with broader political and cultural implications. Today the Internet has extended the intertwinement of food and technology to the social and aesthetic spheres, thus further impacting on taste. For instance, cultural trends such as “foodism” and “slow food” thrive on blogs and social networks and, while promoting an artisanal style in food preparation and presentation, they paradoxically may also homogenise cooking techniques and the experience of sharing a meal. This leads to questions regarding the extent to which the digitalisation of culture might be hindering our capacity to taste. Or, given the new possibilities for connectivity, can this digitalisation also foster an aesthetic sensibility associated with different attitudes and approaches to food—one that transgresses both the grand narratives and the standardisation promoted by such gastronomic fashions? It also leads to the question of how such activities reflect on the collective sphere, considering the contagious character of networked communication. While foodism thrives online, the Internet has nevertheless prompted a renewed interest in DIY (do-it-yourself) cooking techniques. As a recent issue of M/C Journal testifies, today cookbooks are produced and consulted at an unprecedented rate—either in print or online (Brien and Wessell). Taking the example of the online diffusion of DIY cheese-making recipes, I will below trace the connections between cooking, computer culture, and taste with the support of Gilbert Simondon's metaphysics of technics. Although Simondon never extensively discussed food in relation to technology, the positioning of technicity at the heart of culture allows his work to be used to address the multifaceted nature of taste in the light of recent technological development, in particular of the Network. As a matter of fact, today cooking is not only a technical activity, in the sense that it requires a certain practical and theoretical skilfulness—it is also a technological matter, for the amount of networked machines that are increasingly used for food production and marketing. Specifically, this paper argues that by disentangling the human—albeit partially—from the capitalist cycle of production-marketing-consumption and by triggering an awareness of the increasingly dominant role technology plays in food processing and manufacturing, the online sharing of home-cooking advice may promote a reconfiguration of taste, which would translate into a more nuanced approach to contemporary techno-culture. In the first part of this discussion, I introduce Simondon’s philosophy and foreground the technical dimension of cooking by discussing cheese-making as a process of individuation. In the second, I focus on Simondon’s definition of technical objects and technical ensembles to position Internet culture in relation to cooking, and highlight how technicity folds back on taste as aesthetic impression. Ultimately, I conclude with some reflections on how such a culinary-aesthetic approach may find application in other techno-cultural fields by promoting an aesthetic sensibility that extends beyond the experience of the “social” to encompass an ethical component. Cooking as Individuation: The Networked Dimension of Taste Simondon is known as the thinker, and “tinkerer”, of technics. His project is concerned with ontogenesis—that is, the becoming of objects in relation to the terms that constitute them as individual. Simondon’s philosophy of individuation allows for a better understanding of how the Internet fosters certain attitudes to food, for it is grounded on a notion of “energetic materiality in movement” (Deleuze and Guattari 408) that explains how “immaterial” algorithms can affect individual experience and cultural production. For Simondon, individuation is the process that arises from objects being out-of-phase with themselves. Put differently, individuation allows for “the conservation of being through becoming” (Genesis 301). Likewise, individualisation is “the individuation of an individuated being, resulting from an individuation, [and creating] a new structuration within the individual” (L’Individuation 132). Individuation and individualisation are processes common to all kinds of being. Any individual operates an internal and an external resonance within the system in which it is enmeshed, and produces an “associated milieu” capable of entering into relation with other individuals within the system. Simondon maintains that nature consists of three regimes of individuation, that is, three possible phases of every being: the physical, the biological, and the psycho-social—that develop from a metastable pre-individual field. Technology traverses all three regimes and allows for further individualisation via transductive operations across such phases—that is, via operations of conversion of energy from one form to another. The recent online diffusion of DIY cheese-making recipes lends itself to be analysed with the support of Simondon’s philosophy. Today cheese dominates degustation menus beside the finest wines, and constitutes a common obsession among “foodies.” Although, as an object, cheese defies more traditional canons of beauty and pleasure—its usual pale yellow colour is not especially inviting and, generally speaking, the stinkier and mouldier it is, the more exclusive and expensive it usually is—it has played a sizeable role in the collective imagination since ancient times. Although the genesis of cheese predates archival memory, it is commonly assumed to be the fruit of the chemical reaction naturally occurring in the interaction of milk with the rennet inherently contained in the bladders made of ruminants’ stomachs in which milk was contained during the long transits undertaken by the nomadic cultures of Central Asia. Cheese is an invention that reportedly occurred without human intervention, and only the technical need to preserve milk in high temperature impelled humans to learn to produce it. Since World War II its production is most exclusively factory-based, even in the case of artisanal cheese (McGee), which makes the renewed concern for homemade cheese more significant from a techno-cultural perspective. Following Simondon, the individualisation of cheese—and of people in relation to cheese—depends on the different objects involved in its production, and whose associated milieu affects the outcome of the ontogenetic process via transductive operations. In the specific case of an industrial block of cheese, these may include: the more or less ethical breeding and milking of cows in a factory environment; the types of bacteria involved in the cheese-making process; the energy and costs inherent in the fabrication of the packaging material and the packaging process itself; the CO2 emissions caused by transportations; the physical and intellectual labour implied in marketing, retailing and selling; and, last but not least, the arguable nutritional value of the factory-produced cheese—all of which, in spite of their “invisibility” to the eyes of the consumer, affect physical conditions and moods when they enter into relation with the human body (Bennet). To these, we may add, with specific reference to the packaging: the RFID tags that electronically index food items into databases for a more efficient management of supplies, and the QR codes used for social media marketing purposes. In contrast, the direct engagement with the techno-material conditions at the basis of the home cookery process allows one to grasp how different operations may affect the outcome of the recipe. DIY cheese-making recipes are specifically addressed to laypeople and, because they hardly demand professional equipment, they entail a greater attunement with, and to, the objects and processes required by the recipe. For instance, one needs to “feel” when milk has reached the right temperature (specifically, 82 degrees centigrade, which means that the surface of the milk should be slightly bubbly but not fully boiling) and, with practice, one learns how the slightest movement of the hand can lead to different results, in terms of consistency and aspect. Ultimately, DIY cheese-making allows the cook to be creative with moulding, seasonings, and marinading. Indeed, by directly engaging with the undiscovered properties and potentials of ingredients, by understanding the role that energy (both in the sense of induction and “transduction”) plays on form and matter, and by developing—often via processes of trial and error—technics for stirring, draining, moulding, marinading, canning, and so forth, making cheese at home an exercise in speculative pragmatics. An experimental approach to cooking, as the negotiation between the rigid axioms that make up a recipe and the creative and experimental components inherent in the operations of mixing and blending, allows one to feel the ultimate outcome of the cooking process as an event. The taste of a homemade cheese is linked to a new kind of knowledge—that is, an epistemology based on continuous breakages that allow for the cooking process to carry on until the ultimate result. It is a knowledge that comes from a commitment to objects being out-of-phase, and from the acknowledgement of the network of technical operations that bring cheese to our tables. The following section discusses how another kind of object may affect the outcome of a recipe, with important implications for aesthetics, that is, technical objects. The Internet as Ingredient: Technical Objects, Aesthetics, and Invention The notion of technical objects complements Simondon’s theory of individuation to define the becoming of technology in relation to culture. To Simondon: “the technical object is not this or that thing, given hic et nunc, but that of which there is a genesis” (Du Mode 20). Technical objects, therefore, are not simply technological artifacts but are constituted by a series of events that determine their evolution (De Vries). Analogously to other kinds of individuals, they are constituted by transductive operations across the three aforementioned phases of being. The evolution of technical objects extends from the element to the individual, and ultimately to the technical ensemble. Elements are less than individualised technical objects, while individuals that are in a relation of interconnection are called ensembles. According to Simondon, technical ensembles fully individualise with the realisation of the cybernetic project. Simondon observes that: “there is something eternal in a technical ensemble [...] and it is that which is always present, and can be conserved in a thing” (Les Cahiers 87). The Internet, as a thing-network, could be regarded as an instance of such technical ensembles, however, a clarification needs to be made. Simondon explains that “true technical ensembles are not those that use technical individuals, but those that are a network of technical individuals in a relation of interconnection” (Du mode 126). To Simondon, humankind has ceased to be a technical individual with the industrialisation and automation of methods of production, and has consigned this function to machines (128). Expanding this line of thought, examples such as the viral spreading of memes, and the hypnotic power of online marketing campaigns, demonstrate how digital technology seems to have intensified this process of alienation of people from the functioning of the machine. In short, no one seems to know how or why things happen on the Internet, but we cannot help but use it. In order to constitute “real” technical ensembles, we need to incorporate technics again into culture, in a relation of reciprocity and complementarity with machines, under the aegis of a technical culture. Simondon specifies that such a reconfiguration of the relation between man and machines can only be achieved by means of an invention. An invention entails the individualisation of the technical ensemble as a departure from the mind of the inventor or designer that conceived it, in order to acquire its own autonomous existence (“Technical Mentality”). It refers to the origin of an operative solidarity between individual agents in a network, which provides the support for a human relation based on the “model of transidividuality” (Du Mode 247). A “transindividual relation” is a relation of relations that puts the individual in direct contact with a real collective. The notion of real collective is opposed to that of an interindividual community or social sphere, which is poisoned by the anxieties that stem from a defected relation with the technical ensemble culture is embedded in. In the specific context of the online sharing of DIY cheese-making recipes, rather than a fully individualised technical ensemble per se, the Internet can be regarded as one of the ingredients that make up the final recipe—together with human and the food—for the invention of a true technical ensemble. In such a framework, praxis, as linked to the kind of non-verbal knowledge associated with “making,” defines individuation together with the types of objects that make up the Network. While in the case of foodism, the practice of online marketing and communication homogenises culture by creating “social phenomena,” in the case of DIY cooking advice, it fosters a diversification of tastes, experiences, and flavours linked to individual modes of doing and cooking, that put the cook in a new relation with the culinary process, with food, and with the guests who have the pleasure to taste her meal. This is a qualitative change in the network that constitutes culture, rather than a mere quantitative shift in energy induction. The term “conviviality” (from the Latin con-vivere) specifically means this: a “living together,” rather than a mere dinner party. For Simondon, a real technical ensemble is an assemblage of humans, machines, tools, resources and milieus, which can only be éprouve—i.e., experienced, also in the sense of “experimented with”—rather than represented. A technical ensemble is first and foremost an aesthetic affair—it can only be perceived by experimenting with the different agents involved in the networked operations that constitute it. For Simondon “aesthetics comes after technicity [and] it also returns to us in the heart of technicity” (Michaud in De Boever et al. 122). Therefore, any object bears an aesthetic potential—even something as trivial as a homemade block of cheese. Simondon rejects the idea of an aesthetic object, but affirms the power of technicity to foreground an aesthetic impression, which operates a convergence between the diverging forces that constitute the mediation between man and world, in terms of an ethical treatment of technics. For Simondon, the beautiful is a process: “it is never, properly speaking, the object that is beautiful: it is the encounter operating a propos of the object between a real aspect of the world and a human gesture” (Du Mode 191 emphasis added). If an analysis of cooking as individuation already foregrounds an aesthetics that is both networked and technical, the relational capabilities afforded by networked media have the power to amplify the aesthetic potential of the human gesture implied in a block of homemade cheese—which today extends from searching for (or writing) a recipe online, to pouring the milk and seasoning the cheese, and which entails less environmental waste due to the less intensive processing and the lack of, or certainly a reduction in, packaging materials (Rastogi). The praise of technical creativity resounds throughout Simondon’s thought. By using the Internet in order to create (or indeed cook) something new, the online sharing of DIY cooking techniques like cheese-making, which partially disengages the human (and food itself) from the cycle of production-marketing-consumption that characterises the food industry in capitalist society by fostering an awareness of the networked operations that constitute her as individual, is an invention in its own right. Although the impact of these DIY activities on the global food industry is still very limited, such a hands-on approach, imbued with a dose of technical creativity, partially overcomes the alienation of the individual from the production process, by providing the conditions to “feel” how the individualisation of cheese (and the human) is inscribed in a larger metabolism. This does not stop within the economy of the body but encompasses the techno-cultural ensemble that forms capitalist society as a whole, and in which humans play only a small part. This may be considered a first step towards the reconciliation between humans and technical culture—a true technical ensemble. Indeed, eating involves “experiments in art and technology”—as the name of the infamous 1960s art collective (E.A.T.) evokes. Home-cooking in this sense is a technical-aesthetic experiment in its own right, in which aesthetics acquires an ethical nuance. Simondon’s philosophy highlights how the aesthetics involved in the home cooking process entails a political component, aimed at the disentanglement of the human from the “false” technical ensemble constituted by capitalist society, which is founded on the alienation from the production process and is driven by economic interests. Surely, an ethical approach to food would entail considering the biopolitics of the guts from the perspective of sourcing materials, and perhaps even building one’s own tools. These days, however, keeping a cow or goat in the backyard is unconceivable and/or impossible for most of us. The point is that the Internet can foster inventiveness and creativity among the participants to the Network, in spite of the fixity of the frame in which culture is increasingly inscribed (for instance, the standardised format of a Wordpress blog), and in this way, can trigger an aesthetic impression that comprises an ethical component, which translates into a political stand against the syncopated, schizophrenic rhythms of the market. Conclusion In this discussion, I have demonstrated that cooking can be considered a process of individuation inscribed in a techno-cultural network in which different transductive operations have the power to affect the final taste of a recipe. Simondon’s theory of individuation allows us to account for the impact of ubiquitous networked media on traditionally considered “human” practices, thus suggesting a new kind of humanism—a sort of technological humanism—on the basis of a new model of perception, which acknowledges the non-human actants involved in the process of individuation. I have shown that, in the case of the online sharing of cheese-making recipes, Simondon’s philosophy allows us to uncover a concept of taste that extends beyond the mere gustatory experience provided by foodism, and in this sense it may indeed affirm a reconfiguration of human culture based on an ethical approach towards the technical ensemble that envelops individuals of any kind—be they physical, living, or technical. Analogously, a “culinary” approach to techno-culture in terms of a commitment to the ontogenetic character of objects’ behaviours could be transposed to the digital realm in order to enlighten new perspectives for the speculative design of occasions of interaction among different beings—including humans—in ethico-aesthetic terms, based on a creative, experimental engagement with techniques and technologies. As a result, this can foreground a taste for life and culture that exceeds human-centred egotistic pleasure to encompass both technology and nature. Considering that a worryingly high percentage of digital natives both in Australia and the UK today believe that cheese and yogurt grow on trees (Howden; Wylie), perhaps cooking should indeed be taught in school alongside (rather than separate to, or instead of) programming. References Bennet, Jane. Vibrant Matter: a Political Ecology of Things. 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