N. Katherine Hayles + Marilyn Manson this morning i was reading Edward A. Shanken's essay NeMe: Hot to Bot (originally published in Technoetic Arts 3:1) which is now on NOEMA > IDEAS. Shanken begins his essay in part by saying that he intends to discuss the "prevailing attitudes towards robots and other surrogate beings at a certain place and time tell us about the values of that culture." He continues in this beginning, stating that he will be discussing the intersections of art + automata ++ that this discussion will be in relation to our contempary posthuman condition as defined by "social critics from Katherine Hayles to Marilyn Manson..."

i love this pairing so much

while reading this essay i was reminded of Shanken's lecture at the Media Art Histories program in Krems, Austria. Shanken began his lecture in a similar way, mentioning this pairing. he had misplaced his slides + was describing what slides he would like to show, saying that at this point he would show an img of N Katherine Hayles + Marilyn Manson. i excitedly asked him if he actually had an img of N Katherine Hayles + Marilyn Manson together to which he replied no, that he had img of N Katherine Hayles _+_ an img of Marilyn Manson

even though this beautiful chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table (as the Surrealist saying goes) may not have happened or @ least was not documented by the photo i had imagined Shanken would have liked to have shown, i still imagine that mtg + the discussion they would have b/c like Shanken i think of them both as influential/inspiring social critics...

Labels: 2005, Edward Shanken, Marilyn Manson, Media Art Histories, N Katherine Hayles, posthuman, robots

  ¶ 9:21 AM