Résumé :

Between 1946 and 1953, leading scientists met in New York in the context of the so-called ‘Macy conferences’. They hankered for a new vision of mind and society. The traumatism of WW2 was implicit but omnipresent, and the Cold War was beginning. Nonetheless, Macy key tools and concepts about information, the value of information, and computer architecture have finally produced a new world, in particular an organizational world, which is far removed from their original dreams. Organizational members are now involved in disturbing situations which we analyze as three major ‘ruptures’ in organizing: (1) new modes of performativity which are difficult to comprehend and deal with; (2) a major loss of meaning and knowledge in collective activity; and (3) a threat to well-being and happiness as mental activities, cognition and bodies are more and more disconnected. We use the Macy conferences as an entry point to reveal the ‘longue durée’ evolution of the material underpinnings of information and its relationship with organizing. We first explore the three new conceptualizations at the core of the Macy conferences (information, value of information, and computer artifacts). We then offer a critique by means of two theoretical approaches, iconographical and semiotic; this includes a historical comparison between the ‘screen-images’ or our Information Age and the ‘object-images’ of medieval cathedrals. We show that the three major ruptures in organizing are deeply grounded in a new semiosis which emerged subtly and unobtrusively over the longue durée of collective activity, and was articulated further during the Macy conferences.