“Hybrid bodies: bionic bodies, semi-living bodies, modified bodies” presented by Matewecki
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Posthumanism I
Presentation Title:
- Hybrid bodies: bionic bodies, semi-living bodies, modified bodies
Presenter(s):
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Abstract:
Abstract
This paper depicts different problems arising from the presence of a hybrid in the posthumanism era. Bioart, a hybrid practice combining art, science and technology is taken as a case study.
Intro: Posthumanism and hybrid bodies in bioart
Posthuman, postorganic, postbiological, postsubject and postevolution are concepts which indicate, if not the end, the possibility of the end of an era. This signals the closing of the modern age – characterized by humanistic thought – which divides on one hand, the world into natural laws, and on the other hand, into political representations; it also splits nature from society as well as the technical world of the objects from the language construction of the subjects (Latour 2007). To sum up, it establishes the boundaries between what is considered to be human and that which is not human: things, objects and animals. Within this ‘Great Divide’ between ‘them’ and ‘us’ (Latour 2007), humanism focuses on the extremes (natural elements versus social elements, local issues versus global issues) and not the middle ground. For modern thinkers there’s nothing at all in the middle, just waste and rubbish; whereas for posthumanism thinkers what is found in the middle is very meaningful: hybrids, monsters, mixes.
