Wangechi Mutu is an internationally recognized Kenyan-born artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. She creates collaged female figures composed of human, animal, object, and machine parts. Mutu’s constructions of the female body provide a transcultural critique on the female persona in Western culture. This paper contextualizes Mutu’s work and artistic strategies within feminist, postmodern, and postcolonial narratives on collage, while exploring whether collage strategies are particularly useful for feminist artists. In their fusion of machine and organism, Mutu’s characters are visual metaphors for feminist cyborgs, particularly those outlined by Donna Haraway. In this paper, I examine parallels between collage as an aesthetic strategy and the figure of the cyborg to suggest meaningful ways of approaching differences between women and how they experience life in contemporary Western culture.

This dissertation examines the figures of the shaman and the cyborg, arguing that both act as intermediaries between the organic world of bodies and the artificial world of culture and machines. Using the sf of Robert Holdstock, David Zindell and Kathleen Ann Goonan as starting points, new forms of embodiment in the context of the cyborg and the shaman's shared narrative of radical boundary dissolution are critically and imaginatively examined. Throughout this thesis, the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Sadie Plant, Manuel De Landa, Erik Davis, Donna Haraway, Terence McKenna, and other speculative theorists who operate at the nexus of technological culture and the shamanic imagination serve as guidelines. / English Studies / M.A.

In hierdie studie word die manifestasies en ontwikkelings van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in die Afrikaanse poësie vanaf 1990 tot 2012 ondersoek. Relevante uitgangspunte van die fenomenologie, posthumanisme en transhumanisme dien as teoretiese begronding om die gekompliseerde en gevarieerde aard van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in die Afrikaanse poësie te bestudeer. Die studie beoog om deur kwantitatiewe data-analise die manifestasie van tegnologiese terme en verwysings na tegnologiese objekte in Afrikaanse poësie vanaf 1990 tot 2012 te karteer. Hierbenewens word deeglike kwalitatiewe ondersoek gedoen na die verskillende representasies van mens-masjien-verhoudinge in geselekteerde Afrikaanse gedigte. Laastens word rolle en metaforiese betekenisse van digitale tegnologie in posthumane subjekte se belewing op drie tematiese vlakke ondersoek, naamlik liefde en seks, spiritualiteit en die dood. / In this study the different manifestations of human-machine relationships in Afrikaans poetry between 1990 and 2012 are investigated. Relevant viewpoints from the phenomenology, posthumanism and transhumanism form part of the theoretical framework in which the often complicated and varied nature of human-machine relationships are studied. It is the goal of this study to map the manifestations of technological terms and references to technological objects in Afrikaans poetry from 1990 to 2012, utilising quantitative data analysis. Furthermore, the in-depth qualitative analysis will investigate various representations of human-machine relationships in selected Afrikaans poems. The roles and metaphorical meanings of digital technology within the experiences of posthuman subjects are investigated on three thematic levels, namely love and sex, spirituality and death. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M. A. (Afrikaans)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:13:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1684.pdf: 1154750 bytes, checksum: 1633dff45db74e09b4b96af809718c99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-11-07 / The cyborg theme, concerning the combination of organisms and machines, has been extensively explored recently. In this text, the theme is once again discussed, first, through a brief historical overview and, then, through a shift in the paradigm, proposed by the philosopher of mind Andy Clark, known as Extended Mind or Activ Externalism: it s not necessary for a man to have implants or chips in his body, to receive a transplant or to use wearable computers to gain the status of cyborg. The human being is naturally a cyborg, because it has always incorporated tools that extend the mind. Therefore, there is a redefinition of the notion of mind, which frees it from the limits of the skull and extends it to the limits of human action, involving body, brain and world. The brain carries the fate of controlling this material mind, upon which its existence depends / O tema do ciborgue, da mistura dos organismos com as máquinas, tem sido bastante explorado nos dias atuais. Neste texto, o tema volta a ser discutido, primeiramente, através de um breve panorama histórico e, em seguida, através de uma quebra de paradigma, proposta pelo filósofo da mente Andy Clark, conhecida como Mente Estendida ou Externalismo Ativo: não é necessário que o humano porte implantes, chips, submeta-se a transplantes ou use computadores vestíveis para que ganhe o estatuto de ciborgue. O ser humano é, naturalmente, ciborgue, pois incorpora, desde sempre, ferramentas que ampliam sua mente. Portanto, há uma redefinição do conceito de mente, que a liberta dos limites da caixa craniana e a estende até os limites da ação humana, abarcando corpo, cérebro e mundo. Ao cérebro é dado o papel de controlador dessa mente material, de cuja existência ela depende

O principal objetivo desta pesquisa é traçar um panorama sobre a trajetória da mulher no contexto da sociedade contemporânea a partir da Revolução pós- industrial utilizando-se para isso: o cinema, a propaganda e a internet . O ponto de partida é a revolução tecnológica a partir dos anos 70, seguindo com a revolução robótica, ciborgue e virtual. O intuito é mostrar como a representação da imagem da mulher vem se moldando às novas tecnologias, e como ela neste processo se adapta aos novos paradigmas sociais apresentados, onde as metáforas do robofem e do mulher-máquina que proliferaram na sociedade industrial estão hoje em decadência. Numa metamorfose balizada pela teleinformática e pelas biotecnologias, tais imagens estão sendo substituídas por outras: aquelas que começam a esboçar a mulher-informação, a mulher-comunicação, a mulher-ciborgue, a mulher virtual. Emerge, assim, uma nova imagem do feminino condenada a um upgrade constante, tanto do seu hardware (corpo/organismo) como de seu software (mente/código), e que visa a ultrapassagem dos limites espaciais e temporais que constringem a condição humana. Esta passagem do ser orgânico-inorgânico está em constante mutação. Basta que haja um esforço de adaptação às novas mudanças. E a mulher é peça fundamental neste novo contexto histórico. Por isso ser importante esta análise da representação de sua imagem em vários momentos sociais, que retomam alguns conceitos históricos através da sociologia, da antropologia e das teorias da comunicação. Para isso, basta estar aberto para estas novas incursões e aprender a conviver com o inusitado, pois a mulher, enquanto gênero, também está em constante upgrade pessoal, em uma eterna metamorfose, onde passa muitas vezes, de ditadora das regras a uma simples seguidora de modismos, que tem como consequência um downgrade de si mesma, pois apesar de estar intelectualmente, economicamente e socialmente mais sedimentada na sociedade, mesmo assim sente um vazio interior, provavelmente proveniente de um aceleramento sem consciência e sem muita direção de onde pretendia chegar e qual seria realmente a sua ascensão social. E é isso que se pretende analisar no decorrer da pesquisa: provar, através de vasta argumentação apoiada na bibliografia levantada, que esta mulher procura saídas plausíveis e substanciais para se firmar nesta constante e pouco segura sociedade que se metamorfoseia conforme as exigências do tempo e do espaço. / The main objective of this research is to draw a picture about the history of women in contemporary society from the industrial revolution after using it for two media: the cinema and advertising. The starting point is the technological revolution from 70 years following the revolution in robotics, and virtual cyborg. The aim is to show how the woman has developed in contemporary society and explore why this company is slowly dematerializing, where the metaphors of the robot and the human-machine that proliferated in industrial society are now in decline. A metamorphosis baptized by teleinformática and the biotechnology, such images are being replaced by others: those that begin to sketch the man-information society technology. In this way a subject bound to a constant upgrade both your hardware (body body) as its software (mind / code), aiming at exceeding the spatial and temporal boundaries that constrict the human condition. The image of the organic-inorganic is constantly changing. Just as we strive a little to adapt to many changes, that started with the post-industrial revolution in places and surprise us at every moment. The woman is a key part in this new historical context. Therefore it is important that analysis of the representation of your image in various social moments, returning with some historical concepts of sociology, anthropology and theories of communication. To do this just to be open to these new incursions and learn to live with the unexpected, as women, while gender is also in a constant upgrade of staff, in an eternal metamorphosis, which is often a dictator rules to a simple follower of fashion, which leads to a downgrade of itself, because despite being intellectually, economically and socially more established in society, still under a vacuum inside, probably from a speeding without conscience and without much direction he wanted to come and which would really be their social mobility. And that\'s what we intend to analyze during the research: to prove, through extensive argument supported by the bibliography reviewed, this woman looks plausible and substantial outputs in order to confirm this constant and uncertain society that transforms according to the demands of time and space.

El cuerpo humano ha sido, desde siempre, objeto de estudio y ha sido usado como expresión por los artistas en ese continuo redescubrirniento del mismo visto a través de sus diversas prácticas y representaciones; de su belleza seductora, de su carnalidad, de su mortalidad, de su agresividad... En un contexto como el actual en donde el término de arte se diluye cada vez más, el artista/creativo se ceba en el cuerpo convirtiéndolo en su campo de batalla para plasmar las transgresiones de los convencionalismos relacionados con a la enfermedad, la muerte la sexualidad o la violencia; así como también en un parque de atracciones para los sentidos, intensificando emociones en producciones artificiosas ligadas al espectáculo mediático a través de un cuerpo que trasciende de sus límites y que ha provocado la expansión de la imaginación colectiva a través de una serie de nuevos mitos que los medios de masas se han encargado de expandir. Las diversas concepciones que giran entorno a lo corporal durante estos años, se han visto potenciadas a otros espacios fuera de ámbitos tan elitistas como son el arte, la filosofía, la sociología o la medicina; espacios abiertos que se nutren de todo tipo de culturas, teorías, leyes y representaciones, para crear las suyas propias, las cuales se basan en el cuestionamiento y replanteamiento de las anteriores. La cultura del espectáculo dada desde los medios de masas y a través de las tecnologías, canales y procesos que están a su servicio, ha supuesto un atractivo espacio para las nuevas proyecciones del cuerpo que se alimentan de las diversas problemáticas e inquietudes del ser humano (como individuo y como sociedad) para mostrar otras realidades corporales que cuestionan anteriores conceptos y creencias plasmadas en nuevas mitologías y figuraciones que dejan paso tanto a nuevos modelos de belleza exhibidos como pura sugestión a un público consumidor como a nuevos terrores a través de diversos estados de crisis representados en un cuer / Ferrara Garro, D. (2008). El cuerpo humano entre el arte y los medios de masas en el tránsito del siglo XX al XXI [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/2925 / Palancia

This thesis explores the metaphoric cyborg concept, based on the classic essay "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna J. Haraway, through Claudia Springer and her analysis of cyborgs in popular culture, and in relation to Judith Butler and queer theory. By extending the cyborg term to include contemporary forms of cyborgship such as our internet lives and personas, I advocate discussion of philosophical matters concering man/machine-compounds today rather than tomorrow. The main purpose is to restore the cyborg concept as a meaningful analytic and philosophic tool for studying man/machine-relations, in a world where other theories concerning nature/culture, man/machine/animal, subject/object, and similar dichotomies, partly lack a technological perspective. Hopefully, this thesis manages to connect three decades of cyborg reflections from several points of view, posing interesting questions about our dealings and feelings towards our dear friends – the machines.

In his celebrated 2007 novel El mundo, Juan José Millás tells the story of the development of Juanjo, a simulacrum of himself, and describes a series of negative developments that the protagonist faces in his childhood. While much has been written about Millás and the “testimonial realism” of his literary generation, little has been written about the psychological factors that influence his characters. In this paper I analyze Juanjo's development as understood from the gradation of guilt to shame, depression, and later suicidal thoughts. Because Juanjo is not able to find an appropriate mechanism of release for his guilt, he spirals into an ever-increasing psychological distress. Thus, his actions do not become an escape per se from the oppressive forces in Spain; but rather, they are mechanisms of delay caused by the subconscious effects of living under Franco's Spain during the 1950s. Mike Wilson-Reginato's first novel El púgil, published in 2007, mixes intertextual references to music, film, and literature to craft a space for the posthuman identity. The two protagonists of El púgil—Art and his olive-green refrigerator, Hal—combine in a new cyborg-like formation. Unlike the cyborg envisioned by Donna Haraway in “A Cyborg Manifesto,” the mechanical-biological union never takes place at the corporeal level, but their union occurs in a psychological dimension within Art's hallucination. To describe the union of Art and Hal, I use Jacques Lacan's concept of the mirror stage to explain Art's adoption of a perceived superior identity and Jean Baudrillard's study of simulacra to show how this adopted identity is an imagined simulacrum. Thus, the combined image of the two characters creates a cyborg identity that erases the distance between man and machine.

[pt] Região de conflito de interesses econômicos e ambientais, no oeste do estado do Pará, fica a Floresta Nacional do Tapajós, que é alvo de crescentes ataques por atividades ilegais como o garimpo, a extração de madeira e o plantio de soja em larga escala. No intuito de fortalecer lutas sociais através da comunicação, o Projeto Amazônia (Universidade de Brasília) é uma série de ações feitas por grupo de pesquisadores que atuam junto a aldeia de etnia Munduruku. Na intenção de contemplar o entre-lugar que há na pós-colonialidade latino-americana, o presente trabalho serve-se da ideia de ciborgues: manifestações existenciais físicas constituídas no apagamento de suas identidades originais, e, ao focalizar o aspecto de responsividade que o vídeo oferece aos que se encontram em tal realidade, o estudo também busca conceituar o que seria afinal esse suporte eletromagnético. Para tanto, serão rememoradas vivências de ensino do audiovisual no território mencionado. A reflexão está calcada em autores como Phillipe Dubois; Donna Haraway e Silviano Santiago. Em conclusão, esta dissertação elogia o uso da tecnologia digital em questão enquanto possibilidade de registro da memória e projeto de sociedade para transformação de futuro. / [en] A region of conflicting economic and environmental interests, in the west of the state of Pará there is the Tapajós National Forest, a target of increasing attacks due to illegal activities such as mining, wood extraction and large-scale soybean planting. In order to strengthen social struggles through communication, the Amazon Project (University of Brasília) is a series of actions carried out by a group of researchers who work with a Mundurucu ethnic village. With the intention of contemplating the in-between place that exists in Latin American post-coloniality, this work uses the idea of cyborgs: physical existential manifestations constituted in the erasure of their original identities, and, by focusing on the aspect of responsiveness that the video offers those who find themselves in such a reality, the study also seeks to conceptualize what this electromagnetic support would ultimately be. To this end, audiovisual teaching experiences in the aforementioned territory will be recalled. The reflection is based on authors such as Phillipe Dubois; Donna Haraway and Silviano Santiago. In conclusion, this dissertation praises the use of the digital technology in question as a possibility for recording memory and a societal project for future transformation.

A dominant trend in cyberpunk scholarship draws from Fredric Jameson's diagnosis of postmodernism as the logic of late capitalism, using Jameson's spatial pastiche, schizophrenic temporality, and waning of affect, along with Jameson's characterization of Baudrillard's simulacrum to interpret postmodern cultural artifacts. For many cultural critics, the city of cyberpunk is thoroughly postmodern because parallels can be drawn between the cyberpunk city and the postmodern condition. However, very little work has considered the ways in which cyberpunk can defamiliarize the necro-spatial and necro-temporal logic of neoliberalism. This project moves away from more traditional disciplinary aesthetic methods of analyzing power and urban systems, such as interpretation and representation. And, it problematizes the biopolitical present in three different ways. First, by weaving in and out of an analysis of the narratives, discourses, and spatio-temporalities of cyberpunk and neoliberalism, I seek to produce epistemological interferences within these genres/disciplines, and thus, to disrupt the conceptual and lived biopolitical status-quo of late-capitalism. The goal is to open the door for discomfort with and a critical awareness of the necrotic conditions of competition by highlighting the fictive nature of neoliberalism. Second, this study problematizes accelerationism as a viable alternative to leftist politics and suggests in the end that accelerationism is a form of neoliberal resilience. It does this through an analysis of the biohacker that reframes this subject in terms of accelerationism and the logic of intensity. I argue that the biohacker is the accelerationist subject Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek advocate for in their "Accelerationist Manifesto," suggesting that this accelerationist subject is, in the end, a neoliberal subject that fits easily within the conditions of competition. This study argues that the biohacker in its numerous forms reflects an underlying pure neoliberalism at work within accelerationism and its neoliberal governmentalities. I suggest that far from being an alternative to leftist politics, accelerationism may further the goals of neoliberalism in its desire to accelerate to a purified market space. And, finally, this study works towards offering a biopolitics that theorizes death in terms of ordinariness and suggests that biopolitics is still a useful analytic within neoliberalism. In other words, Foucault's biopolitics can do more than theorize a genealogy of biological racism and genocide. Rather than advocate for moving beyond biopolitics, this study argues instead that neoliberal biopolitics can still be understood in terms of Foucault's analytic, and that perhaps, we need to disentangle Foucault's work from Achille Mbembe's "Necropolitics." / Doctor of Philosophy / A dominant trend in cyberpunk scholarship draws from Fredric Jameson’s diagnosis of postmodernism as the logic of late capitalism, using Jameson’s spatial pastiche, schizophrenic temporality, and waning of affect, along with Jameson’s characterization of Baudrillard’s simulacrum to interpret postmodern cultural artifacts. For many cultural critics, the city of cyberpunk is thoroughly postmodern because parallels can be drawn between the cyberpunk city and the postmodern condition. However, very little work has considered the ways in which cyberpunk can defamiliarize the necro-spatial and necro-temporal logic of neoliberalism. This project moves away from more traditional disciplinary aesthetic methods of analyzing power and urban systems, such as interpretation and representation. It problematizes the biopolitical present in three different ways. First, by weaving in and out of an analysis of the narratives, discourses, and spatio-temporalities of cyberpunk and neoliberalism, I seek to produce epistemological interferences within these genres/disciplines, and thus, to disrupt the conceptual and lived biopolitical status-quo of late-capitalism. Second, this study problematizes accelerationism as a viable alternative to leftist politics and suggests in the end that accelerationism is a form of neoliberal resilience. And, finally, this study works towards offering a biopolitics that theorizes death in terms of ordinariness and suggests that biopolitics is still a useful analytic within neoliberalism. Methodologically, the project utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, pulling from political theory, genre studies, discourse analysis, and digital ethnographic research. Professionals and scholars interested in contesting neoliberalism will benefit from this study as it offers ways to problematize neoliberalism’s reality construction.