Existence Beyond Transhumanism – Context-based Research-creation for Critical Art Making

Already before the pandemic, environmental pollution, societal inequalities and religious struggles were worrying us. The consequences of global market forces and the exponential growth of production and consumption have provoked us to ponder about the flaws in current-day humanity. Artists and researchers are more than ever probing ways and methods to interact with and care of what matters in the realms of our era. Combining the practice of Research-creation with the concept of Critical Making, and applying a systemic perspective, can help to develop encouraging ideas and alternatives for the near future. To illustrate the model of the artist as a mediator for structural change, the creation of a feature clip ‘Existence Beyond Transhumanism’, inspired by the ongoing discussion on Transhumanism serves as case study for explaining the approach. Whereas the debate around Transhumanism mainly focuses on body enhancement and lifespan extension through technology, the artistic intervention creates meaningful ideas for stimulating multiple new connections between the real and the imaginary, the human and non-human. Artistic agency using machines and non-human intelligence for co-creation can act as interpreter, connecting the outcomes into sound-, visual-, language- und performance-based artworks that make the future emotionally experienceable for a larger audience.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Peter Friess

Conference

Publication date: September 2021

Publication date (Print): September 2021

Pages: 278-284

Affiliations

[0001]Independent Artist and Researcher

Brussels, Belgium

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/POM2021.36

SO-VID: 64337d46-d66d-4a8d-8bc8-8f60cdeb9cf9

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines - Rogue Research 2021

Conference acronym: POM 2021

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Berlin, Germany

Conference date: September 14-17, 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: debate and devise concepts and practices that seek to critically question and unravel novel modes of science

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.36

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

Bratton, Benjamin H. (2016) The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (Software Studies). Cambridge, MIT Press.
Brooks, Rodney A. (2002) Robot: The Future of Flesh and Machines. London, Penguin Books.
Cramer, Florian et al. (2018) Position Paper Critical Making. http://making-matters.nl/ publications/ critical-making-position-paper (01.12.2021).
Frey, Carl Benedikt. (2019) The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. Princeton University Press.
Harari, Yuval Noah. (2015) Sapiens. New York, Harper.
Hertz, Garnet. (2012) Critical Making. http://www.conceptlab.com/criticalmaking/ (01.12.2021).
Huxley, Julian. (1957) Transhumanism. In New Bottles for New Wine (pp 13-17). London, Chatto & Windus.
Johnson, Les & Hampson, Robert E. (2019) Stellaris: People of the Stars. Riverdale, Baen.
Lee, Hyun-Jung. (2018) Human view of trans-humanism and human view of Yu-Buddhist ideology. Humanities Research Vol. 113, No. 0 (pp. 169–192).
Miller, Arthur I. (2019) The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity. Cambridge, MIT Press.
Morin, Edgar. (2020) Changeons de voie. Paris, Editions Denoël.
O’Donnell, Christine. (2019) Art and Critical Thinking. http://www.artsmanagement.net/ Articles/Why-Art-Matters-Art-and-Critical-Thinking,3984 (01.12.2021).
Petermfriess. (2021) Robosoul and the Dream of Ethical Harmony. http://www.robosoul.us/ (01.12.2021).
Petermfriess & Rojina, Martine-Nicole. (2021) The Institute for Desirable Being. http://www.the institutefordesirablebeing.art/ (01.12.2021).
Roth Gerhard Roth & Schwegler Helmut. (1990) Self-Organization, Emergent Properties and the Unity of the World. Philosophica 46, 45–64.
Schnugg, Claudia. (2019) Creating ArtScience Collaboration, Bringing Value to Organizations. London, Palgrave Macmillan.
Stiegler, Bernard. (2018) The Neganthropocene (Critical Climate Chaos). London, Open Humanities Press.
Thomas, Alexander. (2017) Transhumanism and inequality: Enhancing human life could bring dystopian consequences. http://geneticliteracy project.org/2017/09/21/transhumanism-inequality-enhancing-human-life-bring-dystopian-consequences/ (01.12.2021).
S. E Truman & S Springgay (2016) Propositions for walking research. In P. Burnard, E. Mackinlay, & K. Powell (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook for intercultural arts research (pp. 259–267). New York, Routledge.
Vita-More, Natasha. (2020) The Transhumanist Manifesto v.4. http://natashavita-more.com/ transhumanist-manifesto/ (01.12.2021).
Walker, Mark Alan. (2021) The rise of God-like beings. Overcoming the limits of being human. http://iai.tv/articles/the-rise-of-god-like-beings-auid-1756 (15.08.2021).
Weber, Andreas. (2017) Matter and Desire. An Erotic Ecology. Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing.
Young, Liam. (2021) Planet City. Melbourne, Uro Publisher.
Yunkaporta, Tyson. (2020) Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. San Francisco, HarperOne.
Zhan, Wu. (2013) Video Gaming: Perceptions and Decisions. http://sites.duke.edu/lit80s_02_f 2013_augrealities/gaming-perception-decision/ (01.12.2021).

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Bratton, Benjamin H. (2016) The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (Software Studies). Cambridge, MIT Press.

[2] Brooks, Rodney A. (2002) Robot: The Future of Flesh and Machines. London, Penguin Books.

[3] Cramer, Florian et al. (2018) Position Paper Critical Making. http://making-matters.nl/ publications/ critical-making-position-paper (01.12.2021).

[4] Frey, Carl Benedikt. (2019) The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. Princeton University Press.

[5] Harari, Yuval Noah. (2015) Sapiens. New York, Harper.

[6] Hertz, Garnet. (2012) Critical Making. http://www.conceptlab.com/criticalmaking/ (01.12.2021).

[7] Huxley, Julian. (1957) Transhumanism. In New Bottles for New Wine (pp 13-17). London, Chatto & Windus.

[8] Johnson, Les & Hampson, Robert E. (2019) Stellaris: People of the Stars. Riverdale, Baen.

[9] Lee, Hyun-Jung. (2018) Human view of trans-humanism and human view of Yu-Buddhist ideology. Humanities Research Vol. 113, No. 0 (pp. 169–192).

[10] Miller, Arthur I. (2019) The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity. Cambridge, MIT Press.

[11] Morin, Edgar. (2020) Changeons de voie. Paris, Editions Denoël.

[12] O’Donnell, Christine. (2019) Art and Critical Thinking. http://www.artsmanagement.net/ Articles/Why-Art-Matters-Art-and-Critical-Thinking,3984 (01.12.2021).

[13] Petermfriess. (2021) Robosoul and the Dream of Ethical Harmony. http://www.robosoul.us/ (01.12.2021).

[14] Petermfriess & Rojina, Martine-Nicole. (2021) The Institute for Desirable Being. http://www.the institutefordesirablebeing.art/ (01.12.2021).

[15] Roth Gerhard Roth & Schwegler Helmut. (1990) Self-Organization, Emergent Properties and the Unity of the World. Philosophica 46, 45–64.

[16] Schnugg, Claudia. (2019) Creating ArtScience Collaboration, Bringing Value to Organizations. London, Palgrave Macmillan.

[17] Stiegler, Bernard. (2018) The Neganthropocene (Critical Climate Chaos). London, Open Humanities Press.

[18] Thomas, Alexander. (2017) Transhumanism and inequality: Enhancing human life could bring dystopian consequences. http://geneticliteracy project.org/2017/09/21/transhumanism-inequality-enhancing-human-life-bring-dystopian-consequences/ (01.12.2021).

[19] S. E Truman & S Springgay (2016) Propositions for walking research. In P. Burnard, E. Mackinlay, & K. Powell (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook for intercultural arts research (pp. 259–267). New York, Routledge.

[20] Vita-More, Natasha. (2020) The Transhumanist Manifesto v.4. http://natashavita-more.com/ transhumanist-manifesto/ (01.12.2021).

[21] Walker, Mark Alan. (2021) The rise of God-like beings. Overcoming the limits of being human. http://iai.tv/articles/the-rise-of-god-like-beings-auid-1756 (15.08.2021).

[22] Weber, Andreas. (2017) Matter and Desire. An Erotic Ecology. Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing.

[23] Young, Liam. (2021) Planet City. Melbourne, Uro Publisher.

[24] Yunkaporta, Tyson. (2020) Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. San Francisco, HarperOne.

[25] Zhan, Wu. (2013) Video Gaming: Perceptions and Decisions. http://sites.duke.edu/lit80s_02_f 2013_augrealities/gaming-perception-decision/ (01.12.2021).

Studying business & IT? Drive your professional career forwards with BCS books - for a 20% discount click here: shop.bcs.org