HE ART OF ANSELM KIEFER THROUGH THE LENS OF MARTIN HEIDEGGER ON TECHNOLOGY, ART, AND TRUTH
Only a God Can Save Us Now: Martin Heidegger on Technology and Art
For Martin Heidegger ,technology and art are TWO modes of revealingHUMAN being-in-the-world.Technology sets up a TYPE of revealing that he calls enframing
(Gestell)
while art opens a path that he calls
poiesis
or bringing-forth
(Her -vorbringen).
Heidegger CLEARLY saw artistic
poiesis
as an alternative to technological enframing.However, he was not interested in a mere description of the characteristics of technologyand art.For Heidegger technology is not a
"problem for which there can BE a solution but an ontological condition from which we can be saved
.
"
1
Heidegger begins his DISCUSSION of technology by making an important distinction between
mere technology
and the
essence of technology. Mere technology
INCLUDES thetools and techniques of modern science, along with all the gadgets created to add MATERIALcomfort to human life.The
essence of technology
refers to the structure of thetechnological world and our way of existing in this world. This is what we mustcomprehend if we are to gain a FREE relation to technology. If all we ever do is gain anincreasingly sophisticated understanding of
mere technology
, the mastery of tools andinstruments and the APPLICATION of techniques, even THOSE that indisputably improve our standard of living, without gaining an understanding of the
essence of technology
, our understanding will not free us but only further enslave us.In
his analysis, Heidegger reinterpreted Aristotle's four causes: the
material
, the
formal
, the
final
, and the
efficient