[ecrea] Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology, and Bodies

New Book Announcement (apologies for x-posting)

Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology, and Bodies (Routledge, 2012)
Tama Leaver, Curtin University

Amazon http://amzn.to/wRe4PN
Routledge: http://bit.ly/mivLzx

Artificial Culture is an examination of the articulation, construction, and=
 representation of "the artificial" in contemporary popular cultural texts,=
 with a focus on science fiction films and novels, but also addressing digi=
tal culture more broadly including analysis of Wikileaks, the Visible Human=
 Project and the emergence of synthespians. The book argues that today we l=
ive in an artificial culture due to the deep and inextricable relationships=
 between people and technology, with human bodies as a key marker of these =
symbiotic connections. While the artificial is often imagined as outside of=
 the natural order and thus also beyond the realm of humanity, paradoxicall=
y, artificial concepts are simultaneously produced and constructed by human=
 ideas and labor. The artificial can thus act as a boundary point against w=
hich it is possible in some respects to measure what it might mean to be hu=
man. More importantly, the artificial often blurs the boundary between huma=
ns, technology and the environment at large in often purposefully unsettlin=
g ways.

The core texts analysed in the book are: 2001 A Space Odyssey; the four Ter=
minator films; Greg Egan's novels Permutation City and Diaspora; The Visibl=
e Human Project; William Gibson's bridge trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, and=
 All Tomorrow's Parties); Wikileaks; The Matrix films and franchise; WETA's=
 digital effects in the Lord of the Rings films, with a particular focus on=
 the synthespian Gollum; the Spider-Man trilogy; Wall-E; and Avatar.

Contents:
Part1: Artificial Intelligence
   1. Early Artificial Intelligence Films: 'When are you going to let me ou=
t of this box?
   2. "I am a machine!": Artificial Intelligences in Contemporary Cinema
Part 2: Artificial Life
   3. From Digital Genesis to the Artificial Other
   4. Diasporic Subjectivities: Not Quite 'Beyond the Infinite'
Part 3: Artificial Space
   5. The Fortification of Place in the Digital Age
   6. Resistance is Spatial
   7. The Infinite Plasticity of the Digital?
Part 4: Artificial Culture
   8. Matrices of Embodiment
   9. The Symbiosis of Special Effects
Part 5: Artificial Culture
   10. Before the Mourning
   11. Artificial Mourning: Spider-Man, Special Effects and September 11

For slightly more information (and colour versions of the images used in th=
e book) please visit http://www.tamaleaver.net/artificial-culture/ . My apo=
logies that the book on the expensive side; if you have access to a univers=
ity library, perhaps recommend they purchase it in the first instance.
-Tama

Dr Tama Leaver
BA(Hons) (W.Aust) PhD (W.Aust)
Lecturer, Department of Internet Studies
School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts

Curtin University
GPO Box U1987 Perth,
WA 6845, AUSTRALIA.

Tel | +61 8 9266 1258
Fax | +61 8 9266 3166

Email | (t.leaver /at/ curtin.edu.au)<mailto:(t.leaver /at/ curtin.edu.au)>
Web | http://www.tamaleaver.net<http://www.tamaleaver.net/>
Twitter | @tamaleaver<http://twitter.com/tamaleaver>

[Description: Description: Description: email_logo.png]

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology.
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J (WA), 02637B (NSW)




----------------
ECREA-Mailing list
----------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA.
---
To unsubscribe, please visit http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
---
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Postal address:
ECREA
Université Libre de Bruxelles
c/o Dept. of Information and Communication Sciences
CP123, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, b-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------