Alien Aesthetics: Xenofeminism and Nonhuman Animals
Symposium:
- ISEA2016: 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art
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More presentations from ISEA2016:
Session Title:
- Post-Human 3
Presentation Title:
- Alien Aesthetics: Xenofeminism and Nonhuman Animals
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Abstract (long paper)
The recently published Xenofeminist Manifesto re-fashions accelerationist politics into radical feminism. Arguing for a universalist xeno-politics borne out of alienation, xenofeminists see in nature an arch-enemy, aligning with the algorithmical intelligence of technology instead, celebrating artifice and strangeness as the foundation of revolutionary politics to come. In this paper, I argue that nature is but a phantom limb tied to the decaying body of post-Enlightenment modernity. Following the ontological turn in anthropology, I argue that by legitimizing constructed dualisms of nature and technology, xenofeminism fuels the very logic that it seeks to overrun. Enlisting only with nonhumans that it perceives as technological, xenofeminism excludes a number of allies, such as nonhuman animals. Passing beyond the limits of this nature/culture dualism could open xenofeminism up to a full spectrum of nonhuman confederates and lay foundation for speculative aesthetics for all alien subjects.
