“THE MOTHER IMAGESoft-Cyborgs & Neuroqueer, Postmother Speculations” presented by Joy
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“From Lilith to Mary, the monstrous to the virtuous; the mother image is an enduring cultural artifact that reifies heteronormative systems of care and mothering. Many within, and without, these systems- namely the non-compliant, are rendered alien-other and in-turn denied interdependent modes of care. This creative practice research project offers sci-fi speculations of care that neuroqueer the mother image, imagining collective care and kin making, beyond the mother. A photographic (expanded) research method that begins with material/textural soft sculptures and moves through to virtual, experiential outcomes will be used to imagine, propose, and speculate. This creative research defines and explores the mother image and the cyborg-mother; specifically, as represented in contemporary science-fiction film. In response, creative outputs propose divergent soft-cyborg speculations for systemic multi-species care; postmother. Working with an autoethnographic approach, as a neuroqueer mother/child and underpinned by a crip/queer/feminist manifesto-as-method, this research and resultant soft-cyborg imaginings reclaim the cyborg as a neuroqueer site of generative speculation. Beginning with Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, this research aims to propose technologically mediated modes of care for non-compliant bodes; meaningfully holding our othered, alien bodies and our more-than-human kin. “
