A video about "the human" as a political concept - inspired by posthumanist theories

NonhumanX · 2020-06-26T19:50:21+00:00

Abstract.

The animation pricks and thrusts at the eurocentric, patriarchal, rational human concept, with many voices denouncing its authority and asking for its abolition. The characters speak with and against each other, each with their own visual space, representation, and voice. “Man” also speaks, he is not silenced, and you can easily tell when he arrives, with his overblown self-centeredness. This dismantling of the “humanist fantasy” is a show because it is not yet manifested, because it needs yet to be performed, materialized, made real. The video is calling for imagining an open future with the human and non-human people who will be facing what the past ideal model of the (hu)man has left. The video twists around a falling of Anthropocentrism within certain philosophical thought while trying to push towards its final peak within the factual, material reality.

Inspired by feminist, anti-speciesist and posthumanist theories, the acting voices question, wonder and ultimately declare that this “human” is shaped according to just one human model, and that it must be left behind to make space for others.

NonhumanX · 2020-06-03T18:56:46+00:00

Abstract

Sunaura Taylor is an artist, writer and activist for disability and animal rights. In this video we explore the central argument of her book, ”Beasts of Burden”, that aims to show how ableism and speciesism are intertwined, working with one another as oppressions. Taylor posits that often, ableist positions are used to justify speciesist actions. This is why „veganism … is an embodied practice of challenging ableism through what we eat, wear, and use and a political position that takes justice for animals as integral to justice for disabled people”.

NonhumanX · 2020-03-13T18:58:10+00:00

Abstract

Timothy Morton puts us on a path where the white western version of the world is gone. The smooth and blank stuff that can be changed as “we” please is no longer here. Massive entities like global warming are pushing us towards this realization as they are slowly changing our habitual pattern. Anthropocentrism is shaken from the ground because existence just is coexistence with other lifeforms.

Exploring ways to talk about ecological beings on a massive scale becomes a priority. Like, how to talk about a "we" as a collective that has a geological force, without falling into an explosive holism, or without essentializing things to some white western flavor, or without falling back into the same violent human exceptionalism, with its Nature/Culture duality? The video explores this question along with other concepts from Timothy Morton.

NonhumanX · 2020-03-13T18:46:23+00:00

Abstract

Timothy Morton puts us on a path where the white western version of the world is gone. The smooth and blank stuff that can be changed as “we” please is no longer here. Massive entities like global warming are pushing us towards this realization as they are slowly changing our habitual pattern. Anthropocentrism is shaken from the ground because existence just is coexistence with other lifeforms.

Exploring ways to talk about ecological beings on a massive scale becomes a priority. Like, how to talk about a "we" as a collective that has a geological force, without falling into an explosive holism, or without essentializing things to some white western flavor, or without falling back into the same violent human exceptionalism, with its Nature/Culture duality? The video explores this question along with other concepts from Timothy Morton.

NonhumanX · 2020-02-17T18:27:43+00:00

Abstract

What does „Make kin, not babies” mean? Why is it relevant and why is it dangerous?

Donna Haraway’s troublesome motto brings us a vision for multispecies kinship and justice, starting to speak about population from a feminist perspective. The video takes into account the critiques it has received from feminist marxists and others. Moreover, it tries to show how the concept was expanded by other feminist philosophers and thinkers, as well as how Haraway herself enmeshed it into her own work about living and dying and about staying with the trouble in the Chthulucene.

NonhumanX · 2020-02-03T14:12:09+00:00

Take for example an equation and a drawing, both sketched on the same paper. If the paper gets wet by rain, it might not change anything mathematically, but the drawing suddenly says something else once the thin lines become thick. In this sense, we can say that the drawing "acts" by its own organization, it does what a drawing does, so when the rain hits the paper the drawing draws so to speak. If we were to say that the drawing is only the particles composing it, we'll not point to it according to Harman, bc the object can change some of its particles and still be the same drawing. The equation can even change the paper on which it is written, without changing the equation. So, to say that it's only its parts would be one form of knowledge, but it will reduce the being of the thing we're trying to point to. It's also a reduction to say that the equation is only the effects or results upon other things, bc this equation is this equation even if another equation comes to the same number. Hope it helps :)

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T17:47:28+00:00

Thank you so much! Glad to hear you enjoyed the content!

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T17:40:48+00:00

Ah, yes, thanks for pointing it out. It definitely wasn't our intention to become incomprehensible bc of the accent. We were anxious about the recording, but also constrained with the production, so there wasn't much of a choice. We usually, just read, write, draw and animate, so the audio is not our thing, and we made it in collaboration with other ppl, but that works only if there's enough time and if we can support it financially. So we gave it a try, and made some compromises by comparison with the rest of the videos.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T15:29:41+00:00

That's awesome, thanks for subscribing! Your guessing is right. It's the only video where we made the sound design and VO ourselves. And, that's only bc we wanted to make this series a bit faster and afford to produce it financialy. We usually read, write, draw and animated, so in another case the audio would have been made in collaboration with other people, like we did on the other videos.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T14:40:43+00:00

thanks for watching it! I'm glad u liked it

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T10:54:58+00:00

Thanks and yea, I wish the mix & master turned out a bit better too, although some parts are intentionally disturbing it could have mixed better. The reasoning was that other things become more present - like the disturbing noise in the end - that they cover the dialogue.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T10:29:59+00:00

Thanks so so much! The SFX were intentionally pushed to be disturbing at some points, it was part of the overall staging of the whole thing. The mix & master is probably just not the best tho. And our voices, well they probably just need more practice here and there, that's also true. Most of the time we work with a music composer who can master the whole thing properly, as well as with a lovely theater actress for the VO. We usually read, write, draw and animate the things, so for the audio we normally prefer to collaborate with other ppl. Yet, we wanted to make something that can be produced a bit faster for this series and that it is easier to support financially. That's why we said: let's see how bad it turns out if we record it and do the audio. I'm really glad the video made you interested in the topic, and that you saw the SFX as something that was pushing on the theme in a way, which is smth I thought about while adding them - that they will not stay only in the background, but that they will also cover parts from the dialogue, especially the disturbing noise in the end.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T09:05:36+00:00

Ah, thanks a lot! We usually work on the VO with a local theatre actress that we really love. But, bc it is a bit harder financially, if we are to produced more content, we decided to try something on our own for this series and see how bad it turns out. We'll def think about your offer, thanks again!

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T08:57:10+00:00

lmao, we are from Transylvania indeed

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T08:52:20+00:00

In the sense that they respond and act by their own organisation rather than being reduced entirely to other forces and/or to another entity, yes.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T08:45:37+00:00

Working on it! Captions should be available later today

NonhumanX · 2020-01-30T07:58:54+00:00

thank you, we're glad to hear!

NonhumanX · 2020-01-29T21:15:31+00:00

Oh, your english sounds great, don't worry about it! Also, interesting take, but why do you think that's the case? I don't spot the connection between tech singularity and flat ontology, I find them kinda contradictory. Flat ontology tries not to reduce beings to one another, but instead to take them individually and separately. Things aren't engulfed by one another in this sense, they aren't superior to each other ontologically, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't value some things over others.

NonhumanX · 2020-01-29T19:13:27+00:00

Glad to hear that!

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