Figures of Posthumanism in Contemporary Performance : From Cyborg to the Apparatus

This book analyses how artists work through and reflect upon processes that together form a posthumanist condition. It critically revises the figure of the "cyborg", central to posthumanist thinking and performance, and proposes an alternative figure through which to think about and create with technology: the "apparatus". It draws on the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, Donna Haraway and other contemporary thinkers of ecology and technology; recent philosophical theories, such as speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, dark ecology and new materialism; as well as the work of leading contemporary performance makers, such as Kris Verdonck, Mette Ingvartsen, Guemhyung Jeong, Romeo Castellucci and Okada Toshiki. Through doing so, the book captures an important shift away from anthropocentrism and the consequences for the dramaturgies that subsequently unfold.

This book analyses how artists work through and reflect upon processes that together form a posthumanist condition. It critically revises the figure of the "cyborg", central to posthumanist thinking and performance, and proposes an alternative figure through which to think about and create with technology: the "apparatus". It draws on the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, Donna Haraway and other contemporary thinkers of ecology and technology; recent philosophical theories, such as speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, dark ecology and new materialism; as well as the work of leading contemporary performance makers, such as Kris Verdonck, Mette Ingvartsen, Guemhyung Jeong, Romeo Castellucci and Okada Toshiki. Through doing so, the book captures an important shift away from anthropocentrism and the consequences for the dramaturgies that subsequently unfold.