On the product as defining conduit of energy and information.
Simondon figures the industrial mode of production as characterised by a separation of the sources of energy and information involved in the act of production ...'namely when the Human Being is merely the source of information, and Nature is required to furnish the energy' (Simondon 2010: 20). He distinguishes the industrial machine from the tool of the artisan in that the industrial machine is a relay; the machine has distinct inputs for energy and information. Information modulates energy in the process of production (20). The input of information is also distributed across time and space, beginning with the invention of the machine, followed by its construction, then by its regulation, and then by the education of the operator and finally its usage. None of these inputs are 'organically linked to and balanced out by the others'. We should note that while Simondon explicitly mentions the 'tool' and the 'machine' as a conduit marshalling information and energy in the production of the object - the instrumentality of the object sees it become a tool itself in a recurrent conduct of energy and information. When we approach the productive assemblage from a processual perspective we are reminded of the role of the object or expression of production becomes instrumental in its recursive development and production. In fact we could argue that it is the potential for the object or expression of production as a recurrent conduit of energy and information that defines the mode of production; the artisanal mode defined by the object as a conduit of energy and information from production through to the context of its use, the industrial on the other hand defined according to ‘the abstract plans of men in general’ and to ‘produce the desire that it was designed to satisfy’ in the service of marginalising the recurrent production of difference. Simondon’s schema tends to focus back on the industrial separation of inputs of energy and information in production - but this separation extends into the form of the product itself, infuses the cultures of production as practice that define a becoming collective.