S (Sonia) de Jager, MA

Biography

I am currently completing a dissertation on the philosophy of (natural) language-modulation. The project is premised on Active Inference, a unifying framework which grounds the dynamics of cognition—extended and expanded into collectives, technological tendrils and beyond—under the axis of variational free energy-minimization. My main interest is in exploring the productive constraints implied by this framework, and what these might mean for distant images of ourselves. The PhD project has taken the form of a so-called “living book” and can be found at: www.n-o.ooo. I am part of the EUR Sectorplan SSH-Breed on digitalization.

Besides this, together with five other scholars we function as the Noise Research Union (NRU), where we work on the concept of noise and its multiple (evolving) interpretations. We organize diagramming workshops, research seminars and collective publications. More information can be found at: www.n-r-u-.xyz.

I also teach at the art academy in Rotterdam, and at the design academy in Eindhoven. At both these institutions my focus is exploring philosophy through art and design (and vice versa), and motivating students to chase the philosophical implications of their interests and embeddings.