Self-organized matter: design and primitive future of the eidetic categories

Set in the context of semiotics of (artefact) design, this contribution suggests a new frame to examine the "eidetic categories" used in the analysis of the "plastic level" of (visual) artefacts, starting from Gilbert Simondon's thesis. Simondon traces the most essential evolutionary path in relation to the design of "inorganic" artefacts: these products tend to become increasingly "organic", made of integrated parts and bound to their environment. This evolution is not only technical, but also aesthetical, and it leads to consider the matter as something that tends to find the most metastable arrangement.Thus, there is even an evolution in the "eidetic categories" adopted to describe an object: this is explained through the case of Turing's morphogenetic model (1952) and some examples of its recent applications to different fields, from urban studies to decoration and morphogenetic design.