847 research outputs found
Fictocritical Cyberfeminism: A Paralogical Model for Post-Internet Communication
This dissertation positions the understudied and experimental writing practice of fictocriticism as an analog for the convergent and indeterminate nature of âpost-Internetâ communication as well a cyberfeminist technology for interfering and in-tervening in metanarratives of technoscience and technocapitalism that structure contemporary media. Significant theoretical valences are established between twen-tieth century literary works of fictocriticism and the hybrid and ephemeral modes of writing endemic to emergent, twenty-first century forms of networked communica-tion such as social media. Through a critical theoretical understanding of paralogy, or that countercultural logic of deploying language outside legitimate discourses, in-volving various tactics of multivocity, mimesis and metagraphy, fictocriticism is ex-plored as a self-referencing linguistic machine which exists intentionally to occupy those liminal territories âsomewhere in among/between criticism, autobiography and fictionâ (Hunter qtd. in Kerr 1996). Additionally, as a writing practice that orig-inated in Canada and yet remains marginal to national and international literary scholarship, this dissertation elevates the origins and ongoing relevance of fictocriti-cism by mapping its shared aims and concerns onto proximal discourses of post-structuralism, cyberfeminism, network ecology, media art, the avant-garde, glitch feminism, and radical self-authorship in online environments. Theorized in such a matrix, I argue that fictocriticism represents a capacious framework for writing and reading media that embodies the self-reflexive politics of second-order cybernetic theory while disrupting the rhetoric of technoscientific and neoliberal economic forc-es with speech acts of calculated incoherence. Additionally, through the inclusion of my own fictocritical writing as works of research-creation that interpolate the more traditional chapters and subchapters, I theorize and demonstrate praxis of this dis-tinctively indeterminate form of criticism to empirically and meaningfully juxtapose different modes of knowing and speaking about entangled matters of language, bod-ies, and technologies. In its conclusion, this dissertation contends that the âcreative paranoiaâ engendered by fictocritical cyberfeminism in both print and digital media environments offers a pathway towards a more paralogical media literacy that can transform the terms and expectations of our future media ecology
To have done with theory? Baudrillard, or the literal confrontation with reality
Baudrillard, Eluding the temptation to reinterpret Jean Baudrillard once more, this work started from the ambition to consider his thought in its irreducibility, that is, in a radically literal way. Literalness is a recurring though overlooked term in Baudrillardâs oeuvre, and it is drawn from the direct concatenation of words in poetry or puns and other language games. It does not indicate a realist positivism but a principle that considers the metamorphoses and mutual alteration of things in their singularity without reducing them to a general equivalent (i.e. the meaning of words in a poem, which destroys its appearances).
Reapplying the idea to Baudrillard and finding other singular routes through his âpasswordsâ is a way to short-circuit its reductio ad realitatem and reaffirm its challenge to the hegemony of global integration. Even in the literature dedicated to it, this exercise has been rarer than the âhermeneuticalâ one, where Baudrillardâs oeuvre was taken as a discourse to be interpreted and explained (finding an equivalent for its singularity).
In plain polemic with any ideal of conformity between theory and reality (from which our present conformisms arguably derive, too), Baudrillard conceived thought not as something to be verified but as a series of hypotheses to be repeatedly radicalised â he often described it as a âspiralâ, a form which challenges the codification of things, including its own. Coherent with this, the thesis does not consider Baudrillardâs work either a reflection or a prediction of reality but, instead, an out-and-out act, a precious singular object which, interrogated, âthinksâ us and our current events âbackâ.
In the second part, Baudrillardâs hypotheses are taken further and measured in their capacity to challenge the reality of current events and phenomena. The thesis confronts the âhypocriticalâ position of critical thinking, which accepts the present principle of reality. It questions the interminability of our condition, where death seems thinkable only as a senseless interruption of the apparatus. It also confronts the solidarity between orthodox and alternative realities of the COVID pandemic and the Ukrainian invasion, searching for what is irreducible to the perfect osmosis of âvirtual and factualâ.
Drawing equally from the convulsions of globalisation and the psychopathologies of academics, from DeLilloâs fiction and Baudrillardâs lesser-studied influences, this study evaluates the irreversibility of our system against the increasingly silent challenges of radical thought. It looks for what an increasingly pessimistic late Baudrillard called ârogue singularitiesâ: forms which, often outside the conventional realms one would expect to find them, constitute potential sources of the fragility of global power.
âTo have done with theoryâ does not mean abandoning radical thought and, together with it, the singularity of humanity. It means, as the thesis concludes, the courage to leave conventional ideas of theory and listen to less audible voices which, at the heart of this âenormous conspiracyâ, whisper â as a mysterious lady in Mariupol did to Putin â âItâs all not true! Itâs all for show!â
Grounds for a Third Place : The Starbucks Experience, Sirens, and Space
My goal in this dissertation is to help demystify or âfilterâ the âStarbucks Experienceâ for a post-pandemic world, taking stock of how a multi-national company has long outgrown its humble beginnings as a wholesale coffee bean supplier to become a digitally-integrated and hypermodern cafĂ©. I look at the role Starbucks plays within the larger cultural history of the coffee house and also consider how Starbucks has been idyllically described in corporate discourse as a comfortable and discursive âthird placeâ for informal gathering, a term that also prescribes its own radical ethos as a globally recognized customer service platform. Attempting to square Starbucksâ iconography and rhetoric with a new critical methodology, in a series of interdisciplinary case studies, I examine the role Starbucksâ âthird placeâ philosophy plays within larger conversations about urban space and commodity culture, analyze Starbucks advertising, architecture and art, and trace the mythical rise of the Starbucks Siren (and the reiterations and re-imaginings of the Starbucks Siren in art and media). While in corporate rhetoric Starbucksâ âthird placeâ is depicted as an enthralling adventure, full of play, discovery, authenticity, or âromance,â I draw on critical theory to discuss how it operates today as a space of distraction, isolation, and loss
2022 GREAT Day Program
SUNY Geneseoâs Sixteenth Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1016/thumbnail.jp
Nature-Based Solutions for Cities
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly being adopted to address climate change, health, and urban sustainability, yet ensuring they are effective and inclusive remains a challenge. Addressing these challenges through chapters by leading experts in both global south and north contexts, this forward-looking book advances the science of NBS in cities and discusses the frontiers for next-generation urban NBS
2008 GREAT Day Program
SUNY Geneseoâs Second Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1002/thumbnail.jp
KI-RealitÀten: Modelle, Praktiken und Topologien maschinellen Lernens
Maschinelles Lernen stellt zunehmend einen wichtigen Faktor soziotechnischen Wandels dar. Zugleich ist es selbst Produkt der RealitĂ€ten, an deren Reproduktion es in Form praktischer Anwendungen wie auch als Spekulationsobjekt beteiligt ist. Die BeitrĂ€ge des Bandes verhandeln gegenwĂ€rtige Manifestationen maschinellen Lernens als PhĂ€nomene, die fĂŒr epistemische Verunsicherungen sorgen und die Bedingungen von SozialitĂ€t rekonfigurieren. Sie begegnen dieser Herausforderung, indem sie konkrete Verfahren in ihrer gesellschaftlichen Einbettung analysieren sowie bestehende theoretische Charakterisierungen sogenannter KĂŒnstlicher Intelligenz kritisch reflektieren
The universe without us: a history of the science and ethics of human extinction
This dissertation consists of two parts. Part I is an intellectual history of thinking about human extinction (mostly) within the Western tradition. When did our forebears first imagine humanity ceasing to exist? Have people always believed that human extinction is a real possibility, or were some convinced that this could never happen? How has our thinking about extinction evolved over time? Why do so many notable figures today believe that the probability of extinction this century is higher than ever before in our 300,000-year history on Earth? Exploring these questions takes readers from the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, through the 18th-century Enlightenment, past scientific breakthroughs of the 19th century like thermodynamics and evolutionary theory, up to the Atomic Age, the rise of modern environmentalism in the 1970s, and contemporary fears about climate change, global pandemics, and artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Part II is a history of Western thinking about the ethical and evaluative implications of human extinction. Would causing or allowing our extinction be morally right or wrong? Would our extinction be good or bad, better or worse compared to continuing to exist? For what reasons? Under which conditions? Do we have a moral obligation to create future people? Would past âprogressâ be rendered meaningless if humanity were to die out? Does the fact that we might be unique in the universeâthe only ârationalâ and âmoralâ creaturesâgive us extra reason to ensure our survival? I place these questions under the umbrella of Existential Ethics, tracing the development of this field from the early 1700s through Mary Shelleyâs 1826 novel The Last Man, the gloomy German pessimists of the latter 19th century, and post-World War II reflections on nuclear âomnicide,â up to current-day thinkers associated with âlongtermismâ and âantinatalism.â In the dissertation, I call the first history âHistory #1â and the second âHistory #2.â
A main thesis of Part I is that Western thinking about human extinction can be segmented into five distinction periods, each of which corresponds to a unique âexistential mood.â An existential mood arises from a particular set of answers to fundamental questions about the possibility, probability, etiology, and so on, of human extinction. I claim that the idea of human extinction first appeared among the ancient Greeks, but was eclipsed for roughly 1,500 years with the rise of Christianity. A central contention of Part II is that philosophers have thus far conflated six distinct types of âhuman extinction,â each of which has its own unique ethical and evaluative implications. I further contend that it is crucial to distinguish between the process or event of Going Extinct and the state or condition of Being Extinct, which one should see as orthogonal to the six types of extinction that I delineate. My aim with the second part of the book is to not only trace the history of Western thinking about the ethics of annihilation, but lay the theoretical groundwork for future research on the topic. I then outline my own views within âExistential Ethics,â which combine ideas and positions to yield a novel account of the conditions under which our extinction would be bad, and why there is a sense in which Being Extinct might be better than Being Extant, or continuing to exist
Virtuelle Wirklichkeiten: AtmosphÀrisches Vergangenheitserleben im Digitalen Spiel
AtmosphĂ€ren sind ĂŒberall: am Arbeitsplatz, im FuĂballstadion, vor dem knisternden Kaminfeuer. Sie prĂ€gen unsere Alltagssprache und sind ganz selbstverstĂ€ndlich gewordener Ausdruck dessen, wie wir uns in bestimmten Umgebungen befinden und wie wir diese empfinden. Ihr Einfluss ist weitreichend: Ăsthetische AtmosphĂ€ren sind eng verbunden mit einer gegenwĂ€rtigen erlebnisorientierten Geschichtskultur, deren Produkte und Praktiken behaupten, einen unmittelbaren Kontakt mit der Vergangenheit herzustellen. Mit den 'VergangenheitsatmosphĂ€ren' bietet der Autor erstmals einen Begriff an, um dieses Streben nach Unmittelbarkeit adĂ€quat beschreiben zu können. Anhand tiefgehender Analysen der Digitalen Spiele "Anno 1800" (2019), "Assassin's Creed Syndicate" (2015) und "Dishonored: Die Maske des Zorns" (2012) wird der Begriff konturiert und die ProduktivitĂ€t einer an Theorien und Methoden der Public History, Game Studies und PhĂ€nomenologie geschulten AtmosphĂ€renforschung unter Beweis gestellt
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