keberselfiecommonplacebook-blog

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"Analysing stories created in these workshops, we assert that they engender post-humanistic becoming pedagogies, productively disrupting the ideas of the human as autonomous, 'able and useful' (under neoliberalism), and instead expanding possibilities for what a body can do and become

(Carla Rice, Eliza Chandler, Kirsty Liddlard, Jen Rinaldi and Elisabeth Harrison 644)

In their article “Pedagogical possibilities for unruly bodies” these authors postulate on the ability for creative artistic projects produced in disability curated workshops to efface change against ableist views. Discussing how technological interfaces allow for the production of new post-human subjectivities, which are disruptive of long-standing ideals on the conception of the human, they state: technological tools produce the post-human condition, by providing the means by which filmmakers might explore, develop and come to terms with their embodied subjectivities (669). I question this viewpoint as the limitations of artistic endeavours mediated through technological capabilities problematize the achievement of an embodied experience. As the embodiment - taken on the debatable presupposition that technological medium can create this state - is governed by limitations that require a return to an original state, entailing that this post-human disposition is temporary and aware by the participant. As such, this post-human disposition acts as a form of play (as Hans-Georg Gadamer’s defines the term), which entails that the player cannot be immersed enough to achieve a transformative post-human embodiment as claimed - to suggest otherwise denies the corporeality of the player/watcher). 

In addition, the authors build off of the work of theorist Garland-Thomas in considering how “pedagogical possibilities for unruly bodies provokes us to consider the complex ways that intense looking can remake viewers’ perceptions (669). As Garland-Thomas work places too much emphasis on the disabled to correct the ableist gaze - investing exhaustive labour and patience that is not rewarded - this summation seems problematic for use in continued pedagogical practices. Such issues that are generated from this viewpoint are seen in the authors demand that the creative energy of the disabled artist must be focused on creating post-human subjectivities which are corrective/inform the ableist gaze. While it is undeniable that this along with other fantastic work is being done to challenges ableist views and discrimination, I suggest at what cost is this work placing on the individual disabled artist and is there fair compensation for this labour?

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Oliver Assayas’s film Personal Shopper presents a modern ghost story mediated through the technological devices that we utilize. Following Maureen (Kristen Stewart) who is grieving after the death of her brother, it profiles her tenure in the house that her deceased brother lived in to fulfill an agreement that they had where she would wait for a sign of his spiritual return. Spooked from encountering a spectral presence in the house - which may or may not be her brother - when she leaves the main conduit of her communication with a possible haunting spirt is through text messages (which seems to have an omniscient knowledge of Maureen). Assayas in conflating social media and ghost narrative highlights the spectral nature of the platform.

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Queering Van Dijck’s “Digital Photography: Communication, Identity, Memory”

In Van Dijck’s assessment of family-making practices involved in earlier use of widely available technological devices, such as the home camera, it provokes my own curiosity on what re-definition on the conception of the family is made possible through selfies. As Alexander Cho in his piece “Queer Reverb: Tumblr, Time, Affect” sought to understand queering practices mediated through technological platforms, can a queer temporality be transmitted through selfie use that disturbs the normative heteropatriarchal photographical practices? Building off Van Dijck’s keen assessment that “pictorial memory might be changed through ease of distribution,” the ubiquity of cellphone photographic technology seems to liberate the camera from the domain of the family unit’s control. This liberation allows for documentation of non-typified experiences beyond the heteronormative, which works to build an archive that can counteract the absence in historical records surrounding queer/non-normative lives (asserting their real lived presence)

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like democratic thought, physiognomic thought universalized people by offering a generalizable taxonomy by which all could intuitively judge the value of our fellow human beings

(Garland-Thomas 99)

The positive assessment that Garland-Thomas summarizes physiognomic discourse neglects the historic eugenic application that this thought has inflicted: the mass sterilization and extermination of determined undesirable populaces. While he does address this briefly in his writing, an overall summation that argues there is still something to be gained from this thought is problematic. If such thought’s application has produced horrific results, we must not reproduce these theoretical frameworks, but rather find new discourses to work within that can challenging existing stigmas. Hedva’s “Sick Women Theory is one such discourse which presents a better theoretical basis as it offers an intersectional approach that challenges all forms of discrimination - being founded on not reproducing existing forces that cause marginalization.

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Gender Theory in Relation to John Berger

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger discussion on how women are conscientious of being watched by the male gaze and are knowingly performative in this position provides an interesting account on societal relations and historic artwork. But what it neglects to include is a wider discussion on how masculinity is performative. Rather than an innate voyeur, men re-enact traditional patriarchal masculine roles and constructs that are pre-existent. To acknowledge this performative aspect, it better captures the distinctive position that various men occupy and attempts to understand masculinity beyond simple generalizations. Informed by the work of gender theorist such as Judith Butler who highlights a variety of expressions of performativity which are reflective of unique subjective identity; this work advances a notion of gender expression that has greater relevance to understand these constructs.

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seeing comes before words... [where] the child looks and recognizes before it can speak

(John Berger 7)

John Berger’s comments offer an occularcentrist argument which privileges an assumed ability of sight as intrinsic to identity formation. This overemphasizes the necessity of sight - building off a philosophical tradition that has similarly over-privileged this ability (seen in the Lacanian tradition where world formation is necessitated through witnessing the mirrored self or in Levinas thought in the importance of witnessing the face). Such presumed necessitation of sight is ableist in its assumption as a categorically normalized/intrinsic attribute, neglecting the lived experience of differently abled individuals - such as the visually impaired - who function sufficiently without this ability.

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Spectres in Social Media Content

The common attribution of the ephemerality of digital content - that its vapid nature resembles a gesture - makes me wonder about the neglected spectres or continued posterity of this material. Stored on digital servers and corporate archives, rather than be ephemeral  these digital actions seem to have the ability to haunt an individual for the rest of their lives - from resurrected twitter comments that can lead to being fired from a job (seen in James Gunn’s case) or to data-mining activities which are shared to corporate conglomerates without an individual’s knowledge or consent. This entails that there must be a form of spectrality operating in this online information which contains the presence of an individual beyond liminal boundaries of morality and space/time. An interrogation of the ramifications of these spectres must be accessed to better understand our relationship with social media platforms.

Links:

- James Gunn: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-gunn-exits-guardians-galaxy-vol-3-1128786

- Social Media Data: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicabaron/2019/02/04/life-insurers-can-use-social-media-posts-to-determine-premiums/#313a274f23ce