| Docile Body |
| In Focault’s Discipline and Punish, he defines “docile bodies”’ as bodies that are pliable and able to be acted on by a disciplining force or practice, such as a societal structure or construct. He uses the example of the panopticon as an example, further connecting the concept of surveillance as a controlling factor. W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of a veil ties into this, as being surveilled by society under a specific lens and therefore acting differently captures the concept of a docile body. He describes this concept within his The Souls of Black Folk, but also within his The Comet, where he examines the inward and outward societal pressures placed on a Black American. Additionally, a similar concept of “mechanised bodies” is referenced in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Boal claims that everyday motions condition the body into mechanisation through limiting its physical expressivity, which in turn prevents the body to express a range of emotions. Oppression in this method is similar to that which a docile body is exposed to, as some outside force places restriction or exerts control over the body, and thus, the person. |
| Double-Consciousness |
| Double-Consciousness is defined as an “irreconcilable twoness” by W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. In this text, he outlines how the perceptions of a Black individual are modified by a veil. The veil metaphor connects to both the Black person’s perception of society, and the perception of society towards a Black person. This veil creates the rift in the individual, which makes the sensation of “two-ness” less complete than a unified self-consciousness. |
| Patternism |
| Susan Schneider, in her book Artificial You : AI and the future of your mind, defines patternism as a theory that merges computational software approaches to the mind with psychological continuity for personal identity. Specifically, she cites it to be a “computational, or patternist, account of continuity,” in reference to the psychological continuity. Schneider is concerned with addressing both the psychological continuity and the continuity of the mind, which generates a liminality between person and machine. Although not named, Ted Chiang uses a similar theory in his The Lifecycle of Software Objects, where the digients experience a degree of liminality between person and machine. Near the end of the text, there is a dialogue between the digient Marco and Derek, in which they are debating about the alteration of Marco’s “preference map,” where Derek is opposed to editing it. Marco believes it is “wrong if they edit digients not want be edited. But if digient agree before be edited, then not wrong.” His argument reflects some semblance of patternism as the digients are the same software pattern before and after with some modification. |
| Cyborg |
| In Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, the cyborg enjoys a definition split between four different ideas, being the “cybernetic organism,” the “hybrid of machine and organism,” the “creature of a lived social reality,” and the “creature of fiction”. With regards to the first term, cybernetic is used in reference to structures of communication and control, which makes a cybernetic organism one that considers both of these. A hybrid of man and machine combines that which is considered alive and that which is automated. The creature of lived social reality would be that which has experienced the social relations and norms of the present, and the creature of fiction is the future. Importantly, Haraway claims that the creature of fiction and the creature of lived social experience are similar in that the creature of the present continuously reshapes that of the future. This cyborg liminality is also examined in Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle of Software Object, regarding the uncertain status of the digients. The cyborg relationship is readily observable in the relationship shared between Derek and Marco. Stylistically, the reader is made emotionally distant, which is mimicked within Derek’s seemingly cold action in selling the rights to the company. Simultaneously, the digient Marco acts especially human in consenting to the sacrifice. As a dynamic, this fits into Haraway’s definition of the cyborg in her description of the humanisation of machines and dehumanisation of humans: “ “Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.”. |
| Epistemology of Practice |
| The Epistemology of Practice is a concept introduced by Ben Spatz in his work What Can a Body Do?. This idea is adopted from the titular question, “What can a body do?” that Spatz believes equates “the structure of a body with its capacities,” in turn approaching several philosophical questions about difference, coherence, and the mind. Spatz draws from “three major areas: physical culture, performing arts, and everyday life,” and unifies it within the concept of technique. He defines technique as “knowledge that structures practice,” which allows him to develop an epistemological definition – as epistemology is concerned with the nature of knowledge. Augusto Boal’s work Theatre of the Oppressed is concerned with this concept in that his concept of “mechanised bodies”, and the “muscular structures” that play into structuring the person as an individual. Boal believes that in his exercises, one is “able to disjoin one’s own muscular structures,” and thus “be able to assemble structures characteristic of other professions and social classes”. He believes that this would aid in interpreting the characters of others, which helps in understanding the experience of another person. |
| Humancentricism / Anthropocentrism |
| Humancentricism is used by Amy Kind in the chapter “Machine Minds” of her larger work Philosophy of Mind: The Basics. She initially asks the question “Why should we constrain machine intelligence to a human mould?” which she believes is essential in addressing artificial intelligence, because if machines can think, it is possible that they do so in such a way that is drastically different from human thought. This in itself helps the reader think about exclusionary thinking in such cases as the concepts written about by W. E. B. Du Bois in The Comet. Dehumanisation of the Black American operates with humancentric ideals which is one of the key factors that creates a veil, where Black Americans were not seen as equal or relatable by white Americans. Furthermore, after the events of the comet, society has degenerated because (to the reader’s knowledge) only two people are alive. At this point, |
| Originality |
| Originality is another term referred to by Amy Kind in her work Philosophy of Mind : The Basics, in which she describes a common counterargument to the Turing Test, in which an English noblewoman observes that an early computational machine “has no pretensions to originate anything”. Within the context of the Turing Test, one could claim that the machine is merely well-programmed in passing the test. However, Kind rebuts this belief by citing an old quote: “there’s nothing new under the sun”. In this, Kind supposes that true originality is difficult to find, and if it is a necessity to be regarded as a person, many that we regard as persons at present will no longer be classified as such. Furthermore, Kind also mentions the nuance that people are also programmed in a way, as creatures that learn empirically, using the example of an individual covering one’s mouth when sneezing. This nuanced notion of originality is further elaborated upon by Susan Schneider between the two of her texts “Could You Merge With AI?” and “Getting a Mindscan,” in which she explores the concept of transhumanism, which betrays originality in the sense of modifying oneself physically or mentally. For example, “maybe deleting a few bad chess-playing habits,” or “adding a single cognitive capacity”. This concerns originality in the sense that the mental programming mentioned by Kind would thus be modified and seemingly increase the ambiguity between person and machine mind. |
| History |
| History was one of the first concepts introduced within the second semester. Examining the Chambers connections to Davidson College in collaboration with the video Davidson College’s Painful History and a Path Forwards. History is characterised to be a recollection of the prior human experience, as opposed to documentation of events. This is significant in the examination of creating meaning and imagining futures, given that history is subjective. |
| Afropessimism |
|---|
| Jared Sexton’s notion of Afropessimism is the structure of the semantic world in an anti-Black fashion. This is the deep ‘charging’ or connotation of words that symbolically impose anti-Black meanings. He does distinguish that understanding this connotation ‘creates room’ for understanding the future. Afropessimism is also reflected in Outkast’s music video “ATliens,” which employs visual imagery to consider how prominent anti-Black sentiment is. The name of the song also makes reference to this idea, feeling like aliens in Atlanta. |
| Choreography |
| In Susan Foster’s “Choreographies of Protest,” she examines choreography as a method of arranging bodies. Importantly, she recognises the body as an articulator and explores how physicality allows for effective protest, as well as changing the meaning of the message based on the bodies present. Choreography is also explored by activists like Nick Estes, who wrote the essay “Siege”. Estes led and advocated against water line construction that damaged indigenous lands in America. These actions were deeply involved with choreographic planning, as they were all non-violent forms of protest utilising the body. Nick Estes’s choreography incorporated traditions from prior activist movements which gives a new meaning to the work by historically anchoring it in a pacifist memory. |
| Afrofuturism |
| Afrofuturism is characterised by Mark Dery in his paper “Black to the Future”. The idea of Afrofuturism is the imagining of possible futures by a community that has had its “past deliberately rubbed out”. It is also the cultural products, innovations, and other elements of African-American life in America. This is a concept explored by authors such as W.E.B Du Bois in his short story The Comet from the first semester. Du Bois examines what could be imagined in the Post-Race American future. The Souls of Black folk also embodies Afrofuturism in striving to escape the oppressive systems. For example, the very first chapter calls for the rights to vote and equality, tools that would allow for further deconstruction of discriminatory systems. |
| Future |
| Te The future is a concept developed throughout Luigi Russolo’s Futurist Manifesto. He focuses on music, revealing how the evolution of music has developed over time and compares it to the evolution of the machine. Expectation for new sounds to be vastly different than those of the present and past, as well as the infinite property of rhythms, allows for music to characterise the future as a result of the fact that it is separate from the meanings of the present and past. In Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler uses the ‘distant’ future as a setting. Projecting her story this far uses the futuristic genre of science fiction to portray a dystopia that places the nondiegetic ‘present’ in the diegetic ‘past’. This effectively allows Butler to commentate on the trajectory of society by showing the consequences, as well as wrapping some issues within a ‘fantasy,’ making them easier to digest while also relatable to reality. |
| Apocalypse / Dystopia |
| The “present” apocalypse / dystopia was a concept introduced in Bartolomé de las Casas’s Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. In the Brevísima, Bartolomé outlines the current end-of-the-world that the indigenous peoples were facing at the hands of the Spanish. Dystopia is thus ‘historically situated’ in the past, while also showing how the futures of different peoples can be imagined at any time. Dystopia is also present in works like Seven Miles a Second, the graphic novel by David Wojnarowicz. Portrayal of the city as a ‘contemporary dystopia’ allows the reader to connect with the apocalypse that the AIDs epidemic was for many. . |
| Manifesto |
| Manifestos were present throughout both semesters, but the most recognisable is The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels. The term manifesto here is used as documentation of socio-political intentions. As the name suggests, this form is used to ‘manifest’ intentions and ideas into the future. The Communist Manifesto was a political paper that was co-authored by Marx and Engels, which imagined a future for a collective society in undermining capitalism. |
| Utopia |
| The term “utopia” was first used in Sir Thomas More’s 1516 book Utopia. The titular island society has its name derived from the Greek “ou-” and “topos,” being “not” and “place” respectively. The spelling of this word, “not-place”, is pronounced the same as the spelling for a word that would mean “good-place,” or “eutopia”. Within the novel, More describes a fantastic society with many things that are considered “bad” removed. The unattainability of this world is reflected by its name. Manifestos like The Communist Manifesto interact with the idea of Utopia by seeking to create it. They contain statements of beliefs as well as manifestations for the future, which is often the manifestation of a better reality. |
Works Cited
Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed, Theatre Communications Group, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/davidson/detail.action?docID=1394257
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. New York :Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
Casas, Bartolomé De Las. Breve relacion de la destruccion de las Indias occidentales. Filadelfia, J.F. Hurtel, 1821. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/01020178/>.
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010.
Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil, Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920.
Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk, McClurg & Co., 1903.
Foster, Susan Leigh. “Choreographies of Protest.” Theatre Journal 55.3 (2003): 395,412,587. ProQuest. 2003.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vantage, 1995.
Haraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Social Feminism in the 1980’s. Socialist Review, 1985.
Kind, Amy. Philosophy of Mind: the Basics, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/davidson/detail.action?docID=6121568.
Mark Dery. “Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose”, Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, Mark Dery.
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. London ; Chicago, Ill. :Pluto Press, 1996.
More, Thomas, Saint, J. H Lupton, and Ralph Robinson. The Utopia of Sir Thomas More: in Latin from the edition of March , and in English from the 1st ed. of Ralph Robinson’s translation in 1551. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/01005877/>.
Russolo, Luigi. The Art of Noise : Futurist Manifesto, 1913. [New York] :[Something Else Press], 1967.
Schneider, Susan. Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 72–81. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfjd00r.8.
Sexton, Jared. “Afropessimism: The Unclear Word.” Rhizomes, 2016, 29.
Spatz, Ben. What a Body Can Do : Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research. Routledge, 2013.
Wojnarowicz, David, James Romberger, and Marguerite van Cook. Seven Miles Per Second, Vertigo Imprint, 1996.
