18th International Conference on Contemporary Narratives in English; Recent Approaches to the Posthuman: Cultural Reflections on the (Post-)Human Condition.

Psarologaki, Liana (2023) 18th International Conference on Contemporary Narratives in English; Recent Approaches to the Posthuman: Cultural Reflections on the (Post-)Human Condition. In: Posthumanity and Social Change Research Project, 15-17 May 2023, University of Zaragoza.

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

“Sensing As… From Quorum Sensing to Immersion – a Posthuman Symptomatology” The presentation will explore the opportunities offered by interdisciplinary posthuman humanities used as methodological approach in the so called hard or royal science including medical humanities and a future philosophy and practice of healthcare. It uses dirty theory, a critical term coined by Hélène Frichot to define the extraction of concepts from mixed disciplines in order to trouble and evoke critical thought and praxis. It furthermore digs and dumps critical and constitutive terms coming from neurobiology, architecture, and literary theories to construct an interdisciplinary anabiosis of posthuman humanities in relation to how life and humanity are understood in a nature-culture continuum, which can lead to new modes of thought that are post-anthropocentric. It uses Steven Shaviro’s exploration of the ubiquitous question that surround human life, namely what it means to be human, structuring his book Discognition into chapters that start with “thinking as…” followed by terms such as philosopher, alien, killer, avatar, and slime mould, as a prompt to steer a discussion around what lived experience is constituted by. This leads to the question what it means to be human-becoming-animal-becoming environment starting with the prompt “sensing as”, prioritising affect over the cogito, following from Antonio Damasio and his famous Descartes’ Error and exploring a nature-culture continuum. In response, the research contextualises a new human positioning as Anti-Oedipus-Res who presents a symptomatology of immersion, contemplation and their counterparts of aboulia and neurasthenia, with the latter referring to the maladies of modern life articulated in the book Human Motor by Anson Rabinbach. Using the theory of the symptom as used by Gilles Deleuze and the concepts of quorum sensing, sentience and qualia, the presentation will offer a space for discussing the neologisms informing medical and architectural humanities as well the broader fields of education, environmental sciences, healthcare, and ecology, through two critical constitutive terms that challenge the canonical human: quorum sensing as environmental affordance and immersion as contemplative, environmental ecstasy.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Depositing User:	RED Unit Admin
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2023 12:10
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2023 12:10
URI:	https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18937

Actions (login required)

Edit Item