Abstract Sustainability is a catchword for contemporary concerns of environmental and societal vulnerability. Scholars, policymakers, designers, and educators alike find themselves knotted increasingly within fabrics of sustainability, approached as an object of concern in education and technoscientific projects. In relation, scholars drawing from posthuman and new materialist thinking have begun to re-imagine sustainability. Considering human subjectivity as part of the world in its ongoing, reiterative becoming has introduced new possibilities to rethink responsibility in and for sustainable change. This research is rooted in my engaged practices of participatory design and education on violence, violence prevention, and non-violence, which form the empirical research terrain of this study. This dissertation includes four articles that inquire into the practices in question by exploring possibilities for nurturing non-violence—and by scrutinising responsible participatory practices in design. This synopsis re-engages with the results presented in the articles mentioned and participates in calls to rethink sustainability. In order to reconsider sustainability in and for practices of sustainable change, I develop theoretical thinking based on response-ability and touch, as discussed by Karen Barad and Donna Haraway. Through a diffractive, affirmative engagement with sustainability in the engaged practices of change-making, I aim to unfold the affordances of feminist (new) materialist renegotiations of ethics and responsibility, in order to inform responsible participatory practices of change-making and, in particular, change towards non-violence. This research offers insight into the intricate ways sustainability reconfigures in and through practices of change-making in participatory design, education, and everyday engagements for non-violence. I begin by proposing a thinking and practice of response-able engagement. Then, through the idea of touchable matters, I foreground how the co-constituted conditions of ethically sustainable response become reconfigured in the designerly, the researcherly, the pedagogical, and other everyday practices, challenging for a shift to a new mode of entangled response-ability for sustainable change and towards non-violence. / Tiivistelmä Kestävyys on aikaamme läpileikkaava, sosiaalisiin ja ekologisiin epäkohtiin tarttuva haaste, joka yhdistää tutkijoita ja muita toimijoita moninaisina jaetun huolen ja interventioiden kohteina myös koulutuksellisissa ja teknotieteellisissä projekteissa. Posthumanistinen ja uusmaterialistinen ajattelu on haastanut ymmärryksiä kestävyydestä asettamalla inhimillisen toimijuuden erottamattomaksi osaksi maailman jatkuvia tulemisen ja tuottumisen prosesseja. Painopiste kestävyyden, muutoksen ja niihin liittyvien vastuullisuuksien tarkastelussa on siirtynyt arkisten käytänteiden moniulotteisiin kietoutuneisuuksiin. Väitöstutkimukseni sisältää neljä artikkelia, jotka perustuvat kahteen empiiriseen kokonaisuuteen. Työni aineisto on tuotettu tutkimalla työpaikkakiusaamiseen liittyvän osallistuvan suunnittelun vastuullisia käytänteitä sekä väkivaltaa, väkivallan ehkäisemistä ja väkivallattomuutta käsittelevää akateemista koulutusta. Väitöskirjaan sisältyvissä artikkeleissa olen tarkastellut pyrkimyksiä kohti väkivallattomuutta sekä muutokseen sitoutuneita ja siihen moninaisesti kietoutuvia käytänteitä. Työni yhteenveto-osassa työstän artikkeleissa esitettyjä osallistumista, refleksiivisyyttä, välittämistä ja väkivallattomuutta käsitteleviä tuloksia diffraktiivisesti. Työstämisen teoreettis-käsitteellisenä kumppanina toimivat Karen Baradin ja Donna Harawayn kosketusta ja vastuullisuutta käsittelevät keskustelut. Yhteenvedon tavoitteena on tarkastella feministisen (uus)materialistisen ajattelun mahdollisuuksia tuottaa uutta ymmärrystä kestävyydestä osana vastuullisia osallistuvia toimintatapoja muutoksen – ja erityisesti väkivallattomuuteen pyrkivän muutoksen – jokapäiväisissä käytänteissä. Kestävän muutoksen ja väkivallattomuuden mahdollisuudet tuottuvat osallistuvan suunnittelun, koulutuksen ja arjen käytänteissä moninaisin tavoin. Vastuullisuutta tarkastellessani esitän ajatuksen ”koskettavista kudelmista”, mikä kutsuu tunnistamaan, kuinka eettisen kestävyyden ja suhteisuuden mahdollisuudet ”kanssatuottuvat” arkisissa kohtaamisissa. Samalla se haastaa rakentamaan uudenlaista, tähän eettis-ontologiseen kietoutuneisuuteen sitoutunutta vastuullisuutta jokapäiväisissä suunnittelun, tutkimuksen, koulutuksen ja arjen pyrkimyksissä kohti kestävää muutosta ja väkivallattomuutta.

The zombie narrative has seen an increasing trend towards the emergence of a zombie sentience. The intention of this thesis is to examine the cultural framework that has informed the contemporary figure of the zombie, with specific attention directed towards the role of the thinking, conscious or sentient zombie. This examination will include an exploration of the zombie’s folkloric origin, prior to the naming of the figure in 1819, as well as the Haitian appropriation and reproduction of the figure as a representation of Haitian identity. The destructive nature of the zombie, this thesis argues, sees itself intrinsically linked to the notion of apocalypse; however, through a consideration of Frank Kermode’s A Sense of an Ending, the second chapter of this thesis will propose that the zombie need not represent an apocalypse that brings devastation upon humanity, but rather one that functions to alter perceptions of ‘humanity’ itself. The third chapter of this thesis explores the use of the term “braaaaiiinnss” as the epitomised zombie voice in the figure’s development as an effective threat within zombie-themed videogames. The use of an epitomised zombie voice, I argue, results in the potential for the embodiment of a zombie subject. Chapter Four explores the development of this embodied zombie subject through the introduction of the Zombie Memoire narrative and examines the figure as a representation of Agamben’s Homo Sacer or ‘bare life’: though often configured as a non-sacrificial object that can be annihilated without sacrifice and consequence, the zombie, I argue, is also paradoxically inscribed in a different, Girardian economy of death that renders it as the scapegoat to the construction of a sense of the ‘human’. The final chapter of this thesis argues that both the traditional zombie and the sentient zombie function within the realm of a posthuman potentiality, one that, to varying degrees of success, attempts to progress past the restrictive binaries constructed within the overruling discourse of humanism. In conclusion, this thesis argues that while the zombie, both traditional and sentient, attempts to propose a necessary move towards a posthuman universalism, this move can only be considered if the ‘us’ of humanism embraces the potential of its own alterity.

This thesis investigates three contemporary Canadian texts— Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, and Rita Wong’s forage—that treat information as an object that can be wasted and recuperated. Using information theory and a new sub-field of critical waste theory called “Discard Studies,” I explore how the authors studied in this thesis place these two lines of thought alongside one another to examine how the concept of recycling information challenges the material, cultural, and ideological structures that distance humans from their waste. Specifically, I read the event of recycling as an interruptive act that triggers a reassessment of the (im)material connections that tether humans to their waste, vast (inter)national networks of exchange, and environmental crises related to our garbage.

Based on what body adornment has been throughout history, this project investigates what it might be in the future. The possibilities, forms and methods of body adornment has changed and will continue to change over time, along with our societal and environmental shifts as well as with developments in science and technology. Our bodies are increasingly perceived as malleable objects that we can modify, enhance and improve. I use speculation as a method to explore how the human body may develop and be modified in the future. I envision a world where we have become increasingly intertwined with technologies, where environmental changes and our lifestyle have affected our biology, and where our bodies have continued to be altered based on social norms. Through this project I have become some kind of contemporary Frankenstein scientist, although I am not in a laboratory but in a jewellery workshop. My objects, which I call potential jewellery, or maybe-jewellery, are presented in an installation in the form of a clinical setting. It is a representation of where body adornment meets medical technology, where jewellery meets prostheses and implants. This project does not have any answers or a clear message about what is right or wrong – it is based on a curiosity without having a conclusion in mind. The installation is meant to be a reminder that our bodies are always adorned, modified and in transformation – that we are in an ongoing metamorphosis from one state to another.

This study discusses the difference between thinking with and about the island of Ai Stratis for knowledge production, advocating for situated research and embodied experience. Having conducted an ethnographic study, on the island of Ai Stratis in the North Aegean region of Greece in the summer of 2021, I look out from the island, assuming a tree-fold research field, including the physical island of Ai Stratis, a plane of reflexivity, as well as a literary plane. From there, I propose that research method assemblages perform reality,rather than solely describing it, and that foregrounding and backgrounding voices is a micro-political process with far-reaching consequences. I look at what is meant by a multiple reality, the relevance of ethics and care in more-than-human entanglements, and multiple worldings for sustainability understood as futurity. What more, I speak about how those entanglements blur species and material boundaries and how things and beings become with one another through molecular contagion whilst forming shifting assemblages. Discussing Ai Stratis as an island, I speak about some of the lure and danger of falling into geographical determinism and representational thinking. Further, I propose that dwelling in landscape whilst using all the senses (not only sight) may be a step towards practicing noticing and learning to be affected. I argue against strictly representational thinking and against a faceless mass of uniformity, and for the individual, intimate, face-to-face, situated, and embodied. Finally, I extend an invitation to have a conversation about guest-host relations, founded on particular, situated relationships of trust, care, respect, and a willingness to engage with change. I discuss this in the context of my entanglement as a stranger with the human and non-human hosts on Ai Stratis, as well as in a multispecies and a more-than-human, and metaphysical context of sustainability

Ce mémoire a reçu la mention « exceptionnel » de la part du jury. / Ce mémoire a pour objet d’étude la maison d’édition Abrüpt, dont la variété et l’hybridité des productions interrogent les frontières de la textualité. On retrouve chez Abrüpt un ensemble hétérogène d’objets numériques et imprimés qui ne se limitent guère au codex classique : espaces web dynamiques, feuillets pliables et imprimables à la demande, installations spatiales en réalité virtuelle, robots littéraires – pour ne nommer que ceux-ci. Si de nombreux choix éditoriaux témoignent d’une continuité marquée avec la tradition imprimée, la particularité d’Abrüpt consiste à investir les potentialités créatives des technologies numériques, notamment par l’écriture du code informatique. La singularité de ce projet de maîtrise repose en partie sur l’étude de l’envers technique, laquelle donne à voir le processus de création et le fonctionnement des productions littéraires que l’on peut étudier en accès libre via des archives (« dépôts ») facilement appropriables (« clonables ») sous des conditions permissives (grâce à des « licences libres »). Nous procédons d’abord à une analyse thématique d’un ensemble de manifestes choisis parmi le catalogue de la maison d’édition, ce qui permet d’en révéler les orientations économiques, politiques et idéologiques. Nous interrogeons ensuite l’« implémentation » de telles visions du monde dans deux études de cas, « Naufrages » et « enfer.txt ». Les études critiques du code examinant les régimes « extra-fonctionnels » du code informatique situé dans son contexte sociohistorique, c’est notamment par elle que nous entendons faire émerger un surcroît de sens au texte « numériquement conditionné » et à en actualiser le discours latent. Nous intégrons à notre démarche une approche conceptuelle, en particulier au détour d’un approfondissement de la notion de « programme », et recourons à des heuristiques issues des pratiques computationnelles et de l’interprétation modélisante. / The subject of this dissertation is Abrüpt, a collective publisher whose diverse and hybrid productions question the boundaries of textuality. Its wide range of digital and printed objects are far from limited to the classic codex: dynamic web spaces, leaflets that can be folded and printed on demand, virtual reality installations, literary bots—to name but a few. While many of its editorial decisions remain in line with the printed tradition, the publisher’s particularity lies in its creative use of digital technologies, in particular through the writing of computer code. This master’s project examines the technical slope of Abrüpt’s works, attempting to reveal both the creative process and functioning of these literary productions which can be studied in open access via archives (“repositories”) that can be easily appropriated (“cloned”) under permissive conditions (thanks to “free licenses”). We begin with a thematic analysis of a set of manifestos selected from Abrüpt’s catalog, unveiling the economic, political and ideological orientations of the publisher. We then evaluate the “implementation” of such worldviews in two case studies, “Naufrages” and “enfer.txt”. The method of critical code studies examines the “extrafunctional” significance of computer source code situated in its sociohistorical context. It is through this method in particular that we intend to bring to the surface the additional meanings of these “digitally conditioned” texts, showing some possible actualizations of their latent discourse. We integrate a conceptual approach to our work, in particular through an in-depth examination of the notion of “program”, and draw on heuristics from computational practices and modeling interpretation.

Magical realist fiction is marked by a striking abundance of animals. Analysing magical realist novels from Australia and Canada, as well as exploring the influence of two seminal Latin American magical realist narratives, this thesis focuses on representations of animals and animality. Examining human-animal relationships in the postcolonial context reveals that magical realism embodies and represents an idea of feral animality that critically engages with an inherently imperialist and Cartesian humanism, and that, moreover, accounts for magical realism's elusiveness within systems of genre categorisation and labelling. It is this embodiment and presence of animal agency that animates magical realism and injects it with life and vibrancy. The magical realist writers discussed in this dissertation make use of animal practices inextricably intertwined with imperialism, such as pastoral farming, natural historical collections, the circus, the rodeo, the Wild West show, and the zoo, as well as alternative animal practices inherently incompatible with European ideologies, such as the Aboriginal Dreaming, Native North American animist beliefs, and subsistence hunting, as different ways of positioning themselves in relation to the Cartesian human subject. The circus is a particular influence on the form and style of many magical realist texts, whereby oxymoronically structured circensian spaces form the basis of the narratives‟ realities, and hierarchical imperial structures and hegemonic discourses that are portrayed as natural through Cartesian science and Linnaean taxonomies are revealed as deceptive illusions that perpetuate the self-interests of the powerful.

This thesis will be focused on the analysis of the basic types of the female artificial movie characters - the beings connecting "femininity" (humanity) and technology. These characters holds the external female sexual signs or the characteristics stereotypically perceived as female (e.g. cyborg/cyborg woman, android woman, robotess). My issue will be examinated from the perspective of postmodern approach to the process of shaping their bodies and identities in relation to the narrative movie structure. The characters will be divided into categories based on their dominating physical and "social" function in the story. The subsequent identification and interpretation of physicality, identity and relations with other characters of the narrative will be based not only on principles of semiotic analysis, but will take into account especially the approach of postmodernism. The main theoretical basis for this paper will be the theory of poststructuralism and so called post theories - a theory of posthumanism, transhumanism and cyberfeminism.

The thesis focuses on the analysis of the basic types of the film characters portraying artificial women: creatures who combine "femininity" (humanity) and technology, and who show female sexual characteristics or features that are stereotypically perceived as female-like (e.g. female cyborgs, female androids, female robots). The characters are analyzed and approached from the perspective of postmodern philosophy and post-theory studies; the forming of their body and identity is analyzed on the account of the narrative. The aim of the thesis is to explore whether the film representations of female cyborgs are similar to real cyborgs in the sense that they bring liberalization from the point if view of posthumanism and cyberfeminism, or whether they can only be perceived as the prime form of the Foucaltian body-as-machine, i.e. perfectly controllable precise technicist bodies which are created by the current power dispositions. The characters are divided into four categories, based on their predominant physical and "social" functions: a sexbot, a domesticated artificial woman, a destructive artificial woman and an emotional/intelligent artificial woman. The following identification and interpretation of the body, identity, relationships and the narrative structures are based on the theoretical...

The thesis focuses on the analysis of the basic types of the film characters portraying artificial women: creatures who combine "femininity" (humanity) and technology, and who show female sexual characteristics or features that are stereotypically perceived as female-like (e.g. female cyborgs, female androids, female robots). The characters are analyzed and approached from the perspective of postmodern philosophy and post-theory studies; the forming of their body and identity is analyzed on the account of the narrative. The aim of the thesis is to explore whether the film representations of female cyborgs are similar to real cyborgs in the sense that they bring liberalization from the point if view of posthumanism and cyberfeminism, or whether they can only be perceived as the prime form of the Foucaltian body-as-machine, i.e. perfectly controllable precise technicist bodies which are created by the current power dispositions. The characters are divided into four categories, based on their predominant physical and "social" functions: a sexbot, a domesticated artificial woman, a destructive artificial woman and an emotional/intelligent artificial woman. The following identification and interpretation of the body, identity, relationships and the narrative structures are based on the theoretical...