Life Expansion: Toward an Artistic, Design-Based Theory of the Transhuman / Posthuman

The thesis’ study of life expansion proposes a framework for artistic, design-based approaches concerned with prolonging human life and sustaining personal identity. To delineate the topic: life expansion means increasing the length of time a person is alive and diversifying the matter in which a person exists. For human life, the length of time is bounded by a single century and its matter is tied to biology. Life expansion is located in the domain of human enhancement, distinctly linked to technological interfaces with biology. The thesis identifies human-computer interaction and the potential of emerging and speculative technologies as seeding the promulgation of human enhancement that approach life expansion. In doing so, the thesis constructs an inquiry into historical and current attempts to append human physiology and intervene with its mortality. By encountering emerging and speculative technologies for prolonging life and sustaining personal identity as possible media for artistic, design-based approaches to human enhancement, a new axis is sought that identifies the transhuman and posthuman as conceptual paradigms for life expansion. The thesis asks: What are the required conditions that enable artistic, design-based approaches to human enhancement that explicitly pursue extending human life? This question centers on the potential of the study’s proposed enhancement technologies in their relationship to life, death, and the human condition. Notably, the thesis investigates artistic approaches, as distinct from those of the natural sciences, and the borders that need to be mediated between them. The study navigates between the domains of life extension, art and design, technology, and philosophy in forming the framework for a theory of life expansion. The critical approach seeks to uncover invisible borders between these interconnecting forces by bringing to light issues of sustaining life and personal identity, ethical concerns, including morphological freedom and extinction risk. Such issues relate to the thesis’ interest in life expansion and the use emerging and speculative technologies. 4 The study takes on a triad approach in its investigation: qualitative interviews with experts of the emerging and speculative technologies; field studies encountering research centers of such technologies; and an artistic, autopoietic process that explores the heuristics of life expansion. This investigation forms an integrative view of the human use of technology and its melioristic aim. The outcome of the research is a theoretical framework for further research in artistic approaches to life expansion

European Avant-Garde: Art, Borders and Culture in Relationship to Mainstream Cinema and New Media

This research analyses the impact of transformation and hybridization processes at the intersection of art, science and technology. These forms of transformation and hybridization are the result of contemporary interactions between classic and digital media. It discusses the concept of 'remediation' presented by Bolter and proposes the concept of 'digital ekphrasis,' which is based on Manovich' s analyses of the interactions between classic and digital media. This is a model which, borrowed from semiotic structures, encompasses the technical as well as aesthetic and philosophical transformations of contemporary media. The thesis rejects Baudrillard's and Virilio's proposed concepts of 'digital black hole' as the only possible form of evolution of contemporary digital media. It proposes a different concept for the evolutionary model of contemporary hybridization processes based on contemporary forms of hybridizations that are rooted in aesthetic, philosophical and technological developments. This concept is argued as emancipated from the 'religious' idea of a 'divine originated' perfect image that Baudrillard and Virilio consider to be deteriorated from contemporary hybridization experimentation. The thesis proposes, through historical examples in the fine arts, the importance of transmedia migrations and experimentations as the framework for a philosophical, aesthetic and technological evolutionary concept of humanity freed from the restrictions of religious imperatives

PROTOTYPING RELATIONAL THINGS THAT TALK: A DISCURSIVE DESIGN STRATEGY FOR CONVERSATIONAL AI SYSTEMS

This practice-based research inquiry explores the implications of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, ‘relational things that talk’, on the way people experience the world. It responds directly to the pervasive lack of ethical design frameworks for commercial AI systems, compounded by limited transparency, ubiquitous authority, embedded bias and the absence of diversity in the development process. The effect produced by relational things that talk upon the feelings, thoughts or intentions of the user is here defined as the ‘perlocutionary effect’ of conversational AI systems. This effect is constituted by these systems’ ‘relationality‘ and ‘persuasiveness’, propagated by the system’s embedded bias and ‘hybrid intentions’, relative to a user’s susceptibility. The proposition of the perlocutionary effect frames the central practice of this thesis and the contribution to new knowledge which manifests as four discursive prototypes developed through a participatory method. Each prototype demonstrates the factors that constitute and propagate the perlocutionary effect. These prototypes also function as instruments which actively engage participants in a counter-narrative as a form of activism. ‘This Is Where We Are’ (TIWWA), explores the persuasiveness and relationality of relational things powered through AI behavioural algorithms and directed by pools of user data. ‘Emoti-OS’, iterates the findings from TIWWA and analyses the construction of relationality through simulated affect, personality and collective (artificial) emotional intelligence. ‘Women Reclaiming AI’ (WRAI), demonstrates stereotyping and bias in commercial conversational AI developments. The last prototype, ‘The Infinite Guide’, synthesises and tests the findings from the three previous prototypes to substantiate the overall perlocutionary effect of conversational AI system. In so doing, this inquiry proposes the appropriation of relational things that talk as a discursive design strategy, extended with a participatory method, for new forms of cultural expression and social action, which activate people to demand more ethical AI systems

Extreme Audio Culture in the New Digital Underground

This thesis examines the use of technology – particularly obsolete technologies and residual¹ media – within underground and experimental music, using extreme audio culture (the genres of noise music and power electronics) and its relationship with the new digital underground of music and art as a primary focus. It seeks to illuminate issues surrounding not only the survival of underground music culture into the internet age (zines², mail order and independent production and distribution networks) but also broader, philosophical and sociological notions concerning humanity’s relationship with technology within contemporary urban society, as well as examining how these notions have influenced alternative and extreme music cultures. This includes how these issues are addressed within underground and avant-garde scenes; specifically, the manner in which extreme audio culture (beginning with industrial music) voices critique upon the digital age and post-industrial environments by illustrating the negative and grotesque aspects of contemporary urban society through the employment of transgressive themes and subject matter, coupled with the use of materials, practices and ideas coded as residual or as ‘noise’ (reappropriating what dominant culture perceives as unwanted, unfashionable, ‘wrong’ or taboo). By addressing these issues, we may work further towards understanding the progression of musical thought and the influence of sound upon the human psyche, as well as the ways in which music aids the continual transformation of culture within the digital/post-industrial age. This research was undertaken from February 2012 until July 2013 with the primary methodological approach consisting of discourse analysis coupled with anthropological observations and historical contextualisation as we trace extreme audio culture back to its genesis within industrial music and the avant-garde. Drawing from the theories of Jacques Attali, Donna Haraway and Pierre Bourdieu, it will be argued that such music is prophetic of the way in which a society may develop over time, particularly in regards to our perceptions and attitudes towards technological advancement and urbanisation, not to mention our increasingly symbiotic relationship with machines as a prescriptive element of everyday urban existence. With these factors in mind, phenomena such as extreme audio culture and the new digital underground offer rich and striking considerations for the examination of digital age, post-industrial society from the perceptions of marginal creative scenes, extreme music, the avant-garde and contemporary underground music cultures. ¹ As discussed by Michelle Henning, Will Straw, et al., residual media are those media technologies and techniques which are no longer useful, fashionable or profitable within dominant culture and are thus seen as obsolete or ‘noise’ (residue). These technologies, laid to rest upon the ‘scrapheap of dominant culture’ (as we shall discuss in Chapter One) may be acquired, utilised and reappropriated by dominated, marginal – i.e. alternative and underground – cultures and, as examined here within the context of underground music culture, be given a new use-value within creative communities or fetishised by collectors. See Acland, Charles A., ed. Residual Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2007. Print. ² A.k.a. Fanzines: Independently produced, often hand-made, magazines

Fictions et théories du posthumain: de la créature au concept

The posthuman is a multidimensionally hybrid figure: it denotes both the post-biological or technological being that mostly inhabits science-fiction stories as well as the ensuing reconceptualisation of what it means to be human (which is often called ‘posthumanism’). Even within these conditions, it remains hybrid: posthuman beings are mixes of organic and non- organic materials while posthuman conceptualisations combine philosophical and technological perspectives. This dissertation claims that the profoundly hybrid nature of the posthuman forces its texts – whether fictional or theoretical – to adopt similarly hybrid statuses. More concretely, on the one hand, its fictional (and fictitious) nature forces the presence of fiction into theoretical texts, which mainly materialises intertextually (i.e. through references to fictional works). On the other hand, the posthuman’s philosophical extent as well as its hybridity as a being make it highly probable for theory and philosophy to manifest in posthuman-featuring fiction. This last phenomenon – which will be the focus of my presentation - may operate through three mechanisms: (1) intertextuality, where theories of the posthuman are referred to in fiction; (2) reflexive discourse, where philosophical reflection or theoretical content are conveyed by various narrative devices (narration, dialogue, and (free) indirect speech, amongst others); and (3) double referentiality, where philosophical reflection emerges out of the science-fictional juxtaposition of a cognitively estranging world with the actual world. The dissertation exemplifies the first aspect with the Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell 2 and the Belgian play Cocon!, which both feature characters named Haraway. The second and third aspects are described through the analysis of three novels: LoveStar by Andri Snær Magnason, The Possibility of and Island by Michel Houellebecq and Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood

Transhumanism and Society: The Social Debate Over Human Enhancement

This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists\u27 call to bypass human nature and conservationists\u27 argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies. Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the social and ethical implications of technological advancements

Art as we don't know it

2018 marked the 10th anniversary of the Bioart Society and created the impetus for the publication of Art as We Don’t Know It. For this publication, the Bioart Society joined forces with the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of the Aalto University. The close history and ongoing collaborative relationship between the Bioart Society and Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts in the Aalto University lead to this mutual effort to celebrate together a diverse and nurturing environment to foster artistic practices on the intersection of art, science and society. Rather than stage a retrospective, we decided to invite writings that look forward and invite speculations about the potential directions of bioarts. The contributions range from peer-reviewed articles to personal accounts and inter-views, interspersed with artistic contributions and Bioart Society projects. The selection offers a purview of the rich variety, both in content and form, of the work currently being made within the field of bioart. The works and articles clearly trouble the porous and provisional definitions of what might be understood as bioart, and indeed definitions of bioart have been usefully and generativity critiqued since the inception of the term. Whilst far from being definitive, we consider the contributions of the book to be tantalising and valuable indicators of trends, visions and impulses. We also invite into the reading of this publication a consideration of potential obsolescences knowing that some of today’s writing will become archaic over time as technologies driven by contemporary excitement and hype are discarded. In so doing we also acknowledge and ponder upon our situatedness and the partialness of our purview in how we begin and find points of departure from which to anticipate the unanticipated. Whilst declining the view of retrospection this book does present art and research that has grown and flourished within the wider network of both the Bioart Society and Biofilia during the previous decade. The book is structured into four thematic sections Life As We Don’t Know It, Convergences, Learnings/Unlearnings, Redraw and Refigure and rounded off with a glossary

Technologies, texts and subjects: William S. Burroughs and post-humanism

This thesis addresses the twin questions of technology and the human, ultimately questioning the validity of either category and pointing toward their dissolution in transhumanism. Starting with a discussion of the question of technology in organization studies, the thesis takes issue with the way in which discussion has focused on the technology- object pole of a dualism at the neglect of the human subject that occupies the opposing pole. Following a methodological call for symmetry the thesis reconsiders the question of technology in light of its human other and visa versa. Working with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Deleuze and Guattari, the thesis suggests that there is a problem with maintaining a distinct conception of the human, separated a priori from questions of technology and language. In seeking to avoid an essentialism either of the (technological) object, or the (human) subject, the thesis reconsiders the question of the human, language and technics through an examination of the work of William S. Burroughs. Combining Burroughs' ideas with those of Deleuze and Guattari, a conception of the 'transhuman' is developed which, in opposition to a transcendental humanism, articulates the immanent implication of technology and language in the production of subjectivity, and points to the more radical potentials of new technology in figuring alternative modes of subjectivization and social organization

Engineering humans : cultural history of the science and technology of human enhancement

This thesis investigates the technological imaginary of human enhancement: how it has been conceived historically and the scientific understanding that has shaped it. Human enhancement technologies have been prominent in popular culture narratives for a long time, but in the past twenty years they have moved out of science fiction to being an issue for serious discussion, in academic disciplines, political debate and the mass media.. Even so, the bioethical debate on enhancement, whether it is pharmacological means of improving cognition and morality or genetic engineering to create smarter people or other possibilities, is consistently centred on technologies that do not yet exist. The investigation is divided into three main areas: a chapter on eugenics, two chapters on cybernetics and the cyborg, and two chapters on transhumanism. All three areas of enhancement thinking have a corresponding understanding of and reference to evolutionary theory and the human as a category. Insofar as ‘enhancement’ is a vague and relative turn, the chapters show how each approach wrestles with how to formulate what is good and desirable. When this has inevitably proven difficult, the technologies themselves dictate what and how ‘enhancement’ comes about. Eugenics treats the human in terms of populations – as a species, but also in abstract categories such as nation and race. I follow the establishment of eugenics from the development of a statistical understanding of measuring human aptitude, with emphasis on the work of Francis Galton and the formulation of the regression to the mean. The following two chapters on cybernetics and the cyborg analyses how the metaphor of the body as machine has changed relative to what is meant by ‘machine’: associated with Cartesian dualism, cybernetics marked a shift in how we understand the term. Through a reading of the original formulation of the cyborg, I connect it to evolutionary adaptationism and a cybernetic ‘black box’ approach. The last two chapters look at a more recent approach to enhancement as a moral imperative, transhumanism. Since some transhumanists seek to ground themselves philosophically as the inheritors to Enlightenment humanism, the concept of ‘morphological freedom’ is central, representing an extension of humanistic principles of liberty brought into an age which privileges information over matter. The final chapter looks at how the privileging of information leads to a universal computational ontology, and I specifically look at the work of Ray Kurzweil, a prominent transhumanist, and how the computationalist narrative creates a teleological understanding of both human worth and evolution

Self-knowledge through self-tracking devices: design guidelines for usability and a socio-technical examination from posthumanity perspective

The Digital Era introduces emerging product categories that have evolved around certain habits and concepts. One tendency in the Information Age is recording and storing quantitative and qualitative data based on an individual's life by using ubiquitous computing devices. Such products, bringing self-observation and autobiographical memory capabilities to an extreme level, have the potential to morph human beings by augmenting and altering their self-understanding through presenting previously nonexistent information regarding their lives. The diversity found in this product range is increasing parallel to the growing demand. However, the meaning of these products for human life is rarely discussed. It remains a question whether these personal logs lead to an enriched self-knowledge for their users or not. This thesis aims to investigate the design principles and the influences of self-tracking products and services on daily life within a socio-technical framework in order to establish a connection between selftracking by ubiquitous computing devices and the notion of self-concept