Figures of Posthumanism in Contemporary Performance
From Cyborg to the Apparatus
Will be published approx. on 30. October 2025
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-34735-9 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
20 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-350-34735-9 (9781350347359)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kristof van Baarle is post-doctoral researcher at Antwerp University's Research Centre for Visual Poetics, BE. As a dramaturg, he works with Kris Verdonck and Michiel Vandevelde among others. Together with Verdonck, he conducts an artistic research project on Beckett and Noh at KASK - School of Arts. He is an associate editor of Performance Research and his work has been published in various journals and book chapters. He teaches regularly in various universities and art schools, such as P.A.R.T.S., KASK and the universities of Antwerp and Ghent.
Content
1. Introduction: figures of posthumanism in performance
1.1 Posthumanism and performance
1.2 What is a figure?
1.3 Dramaturgy and methodology of the book
2.Cyborg Figures and Cyborg-Posthumanism
2.1 What is a cyborg figure?
2.2 ORLAN: embodiment as answer to information?
2.3 Stelarc's obsolete body: transhumanism or posthumanism?
2.4 Eduardo Kac and the anthropological machine
2.5 Instrumental demonstration: CREW's techno-performances
2.6 The conceptual limits of the cyborg
3. Threshold. Between cyborgs and apparatuse: Mette Ingvartsen and Guemhyung Jeong
4.Apparatus Figures and Apparatus-Posthumanism
4.1 What is an apparatus figure?
4.2 Beyond the subject: Romeo Castellucci's Four Seasons Restaurant and Giudizio, Possibilita, Essere
4.3 Marionettes and Object-figures: Kris Verdonck (1)
4.4 Phantasms: post-digital figures in Michiel Vandevelde's Anti-thesis and Andrade
4.5 The theatre as psycho-political apparatus: Toshiki Okada's depsychologized performance environments
4.6 Posthuman Landscapes: Kris Verdonck (2)
5. Conclusion. Indisciplinary theatres and posthumanist theatres
Bibliography
Index
1.1 Posthumanism and performance
1.2 What is a figure?
1.3 Dramaturgy and methodology of the book
2.Cyborg Figures and Cyborg-Posthumanism
2.1 What is a cyborg figure?
2.2 ORLAN: embodiment as answer to information?
2.3 Stelarc's obsolete body: transhumanism or posthumanism?
2.4 Eduardo Kac and the anthropological machine
2.5 Instrumental demonstration: CREW's techno-performances
2.6 The conceptual limits of the cyborg
3. Threshold. Between cyborgs and apparatuse: Mette Ingvartsen and Guemhyung Jeong
4.Apparatus Figures and Apparatus-Posthumanism
4.1 What is an apparatus figure?
4.2 Beyond the subject: Romeo Castellucci's Four Seasons Restaurant and Giudizio, Possibilita, Essere
4.3 Marionettes and Object-figures: Kris Verdonck (1)
4.4 Phantasms: post-digital figures in Michiel Vandevelde's Anti-thesis and Andrade
4.5 The theatre as psycho-political apparatus: Toshiki Okada's depsychologized performance environments
4.6 Posthuman Landscapes: Kris Verdonck (2)
5. Conclusion. Indisciplinary theatres and posthumanist theatres
Bibliography
Index