The Mattering of Algorithms: Reading the Media Performance of Erica Scourti through Originary Technicity
Symposium:
- ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art
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More presentations from ISEA2020:
Session Title:
- Machinic Sense & Sensibility: Cyborgs and Virtual Bodies
Presentation Title:
- The Mattering of Algorithms: Reading the Media Performance of Erica Scourti through Originary Technicity
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
Against the anthropocentric binaries such as human/machine, subject/object, mind/body, this paper will offer a counter argument through the theory of originary technicty, which advances the perspective that humans have always been mediated, and as such, the privileged position of the human and its exclusive claim on agency and consciousness needs to be questioned. This perspective will be followed by an examination of the media-facilitated performance of artist Erica Scourti. Through a comparative reading with the work of playwright Samuel Beckett, the paper argues that Scourti’s performance asserts the entanglement of the human and algorithmic/linguistic and questions the boundary between the two.
