Abstract

This thesis examines the post-biological body’s entanglement with surveillance capitalism through a central research question: how does the internet’s infrastructure transform the nature of bodies in relation to biopower? This research was foundational to creating a net-performance titled Economy of my body, as I looked into the meaning of the post-biological body on the internet to provide a lived account of the experience of the economy and labor attached with being online. Auto-ethnography is part of the critically reflexive practice that allows one to know and experience more deeply the body as it is perceived, understood, and optimized, essentialized, and co-opted by neoliberal forms of power.

Keywords: Post-Biological, Biopower, Surveillance Capitalism, Internet Performance, Performativity

This paper will discuss non-linear narratives and storytelling that are modelled through algorithmic bodies in Database Aesthetics. It will be viewed through the lens of DiNa (2004), an interactive network-based multimedia installation by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Throughout this case study we look more into the creation of meaning on the internet, with an overview of how the arrangement of algorithmic elements and datasets create many narratives that go with the paradigm shift of new aesthetics

This paper is a postphenomenological investigation of cyber bodies and their politics. A case study is made through cyborg microcelebrity Lil Miquela and her role in the attention economy. The relevance of embodiment, re-embodiment and disembodiment is critically considered through Kirk M. Besmer (2015), Donna J. Haraway (1991) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s (1974) theoretical exploration.

In this paper, a critical view is considered between the definition of ownership and its position to museum collections, acquisition and legal rights. Three case studies are made in order to understand the different infrastructures that museums (Walker Art Center), performance spaces (Tanzquartier Wien) and auction houses (Marina Abramović sales at Christy’s) follow. The conversation leads to the appeal of whom is the ownership going to be beneficial? The artist or the institution? And how are collections between theaters and museums fundamentally different?

Written in collaboration with: Diana Pankova, Riad Salameh, Olha Pylypenko and Maryam Mumladze

Taking as a premise that the discourse of online communication, based mostly on texting and visual representations, leaves out an important layer of human self-expression – voice and sound – an investigation into the concept of “muted voice” and its position in cyberspace is proposed.

Existence is always changing so is technology and society. The being is no longer limited to materiality and cognitive behavior as connections with the digital are dictating and reclaiming different ways of existing. The examination of Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman’s, TV Cello provides an example of the distinct approaches and considerations required for the treatment of Object-Oriented Ontology and the distinct relation between bodily and digital existence.