Figures of Posthumanism in Contemporary Performance

From Cyborg to the Apparatus

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

1 919 kr

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This book analyses how artists work through and reflect upon processes that together form a posthumanist condition. It critically revises the figure of the "cyborg", central to posthumanist thinking and performance, and proposes an alternative figure through which to think about and create with technology: the "apparatus". It draws on the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, Donna Haraway and other contemporary thinkers of ecology and technology; recent philosophical theories, such as speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, dark ecology and new materialism; as well as the work of leading contemporary performance makers, such as Kris Verdonck, Mette Ingvartsen, Guemhyung Jeong, Romeo Castellucci and Okada Toshiki. Through doing so, the book captures an important shift away from anthropocentrism and the consequences for the dramaturgies that subsequently unfold.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-10-30
Mått138 x 216 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieThinking Through Theatre
Antal sidor256
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781350347359

Tillhör följande kategorier

Digital konst, videokonst och new media arts inom Kultur
Teater inom Kultur
Internet och digitala medier inom Kultur

Kristof van Baarle is post-doctoral researcher at Antwerp University’s Research Centre for Visual Poetics, BE. As a dramaturg, he works with Kris Verdonck and Michiel Vandevelde among others. Together with Verdonck, he conducts an artistic research project on Beckett and Noh at KASK – School of Arts. He is an associate editor of Performance Research and his work has been published in various journals and book chapters. He teaches regularly in various universities and art schools, such as P.A.R.T.S., KASK and the universities of Antwerp and Ghent.

1. Introduction: figures of posthumanism in performance1.1 Posthumanism and performance1.2 What is a figure? 1.3 Dramaturgy and methodology of the book2.Cyborg Figures and Cyborg-Posthumanism2.1 What is a cyborg figure? 2.2 ORLAN: embodiment as answer to information? 2.3 Stelarc’s obsolete body: transhumanism or posthumanism? 2.4 Eduardo Kac and the anthropological machine2.5 Instrumental demonstration: CREW’s techno-performances2.6 The conceptual limits of the cyborg3. Threshold. Between cyborgs and apparatuse: Mette Ingvartsen and Guemhyung Jeong4.Apparatus Figures and Apparatus-Posthumanism4.1 What is an apparatus figure? 4.2 Beyond the subject: Romeo Castellucci’s Four Seasons Restaurant and Giudizio, Possibilità, Essere4.3 Marionettes and Object-figures: Kris Verdonck (1)4.4 Phantasms: post-digital figures in Michiel Vandevelde’s Anti-thesis and Andrade4.5 The theatre as psycho-political apparatus: Toshiki Okada’s depsychologized performance environments4.6 Posthuman Landscapes: Kris Verdonck (2)5. Conclusion. Indisciplinary theatres and posthumanist theatresBibliographyIndex