From signal to signification: lessons from Gilbert Simondon’s course on communication

Abstract

This paper discusses and unfolds the main topics of Gilbert Simondon’s course on communication, lectured between 1970 and 1971 but published only in 2010. We believe that the French philosopher, who has been receiving a growing posthumous acclaim, brings forth an original theory of communication, still to be assimilated by our field. As a step towards rebuilding such theory, this text presents the main arguments from Simondon’s course and, confronting them with information theory, defends signification as a key concept for understanding communication as a science of transformations.