Tag: ideas

Project Update and Overview

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An update on where I am with my project & an informal annotated bibliography

Update:

-A few weeks ago I had a meeting with Simon Western, CEO/Founder of The Eco-Leadership Institute, and we had a discussion about my project. He has a podcast, Edgy Ideas, on which he invites various guests to talk about their expertise and ideas about the world. Some relevant episodes I have listened to so far are: Purpose Upgrade with Paul Skinner, Becoming Digital Savvy with Anni Rowland-Campbell, and Lurking Monsters with Nora Bateson. These were very interesting and although his work centers more on coaching and psychoanalytic perspectives, some ideas discussed could come into play in my project. He is interested in a plethora of theory including Latour and Haraway, who I had planned on including or centering my project around. We therefore discussed these ideas briefly and he gave some suggestions for further reading. He suggested: Latour’s We Have Never Been Modern – https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=latour+modern&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

He also suggested to look at John Law and actor network theory https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Organising+Modernity%3A+Social+Ordering+and+Social+Theory-p-9780631185130

as well as this paper “a classic the pasteurisation of France- a must read!”:  https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674657618    http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/215.html

and an unpublished paper of his own which is extremely relevant and discusses Haraway and technology.

Project:

Cyborgs and Intersectionality in Sci-fi and Speculative Fiction – Narratives of bodies, machines, and nature

– connection / disconnection / re-connection

My research will be an essay looking at contemporary speculative literature and theory surrounding speculative fiction, speculative futures, and technology and the body. It will largely use qualitative analysis and also contain some small sections of my own creative writing. The data will be literature and academic texts. I will undertake a literature review to outline my main texts and their perspectives and potential biases. The aim will be to explore and outline how we can make the world better and counter oppressive systems by envisioning hopeful futures through speculative fiction that contains intersectionality and the blurring of boundaries between nature (the body) and technology. The main research question will be something akin to, how do intersectional cyborgs in speculative fiction create hopeful futures?

It will expand on the ideas in Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ and accompanying texts, including the academic literature which responded and followed as well as fiction focused on those topics.

A preliminary overview of and reflection on the academic literature that I will be drawing on for my project – Informal Annotated Bibliography
-HARAWAY, DONNA J., and CARY WOLFE. Manifestly Haraway. University of Minnesota Press, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1b7x5f6. Accessed 2 April 2024.

I will particularly focus on the chapter ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ which was originally published in 1985, and its ideas. In ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ Haraway outlines how the idea (and potentially the reality) of the cyborg – a synthesis of human and technology – has the potential to be a tool of feminist emancipation.

-Cutanda, Grian A. The Earth Stories Collection: How To Make Another World Possible with Myths, Legends and Traditional Stories. The Earth Stories Collection, 2019.
Collects and sometimes alters traditional stories from various cultures around the world and adds to them. Discusses counter stories or counter narratives and their importance as well as the importance of oral storytelling traditions.
-DUNNE, ANTHONY, and FIONA RABY. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. The MIT Press, 2013. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qf7j7. Accessed 2 April 2024.
-Latour, Bruno. On the Emergence of an Ecological Class : A Memo : Subject – How to Promote the Emergence of an Ecological Class That’s Self-Aware and Proud / Bruno Latour and Nikolaj Schultz ; Translated by Julie Rose. Edited by Nikolaj Schultz and Julie Rose, Polity Press, 2022, https://contentstore.cla.co.uk/secure/link?id=4e47c45f-629e-ee11-ad36-a04a5e5d2f8d.
-Womack, Ytasha L. Afrofuturism the World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Lawrence Hill Books, 2013, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57718389725e25272beacd64/t/5f998f434c2ae52feda5ca70/1603899211765/Afrofuturism+the+world+of+black+sci-fi+and+fantasy+culture++by+Ytasha+L.+Womack..pdf.
-VanderMeer, Ann, and Jeff VanderMeer. The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Vintage Books, 2016.

Project Update

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Week 1

Refine the rationale for and scope and format of your project on the basis of any reading or thinking done over the break.

My current vision for my futures project is to focus on ideas of ‘the cyborg’ and intersectionality in sci-fi literature, particularly focusing on Afro-futurism and Indigenous Futurism. It will look at the ideas of embodiment and resistance, and resist, break down, and surpass binarisms. It will analyse these texts and argue how their radical potential can change the world – the (speculative) futures which we envision and make reality, and therefore having the potential to change real world systems and science.

This will be mostly academic essay, with elements of a speculative, sci-fi narrative woven in throughout which embody the ideas and narratives discussed.

 

Futures Project Reading List

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-Alicia Yanez Cossio’s “The IWM 1000” from the 1970s

-The big book of science fiction

-Amazing stories

– Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction (1984), David Hartwell

– Rokheya Shekhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” (1905) is a potent feminist utopian vision.

-W. E. B. Du Bois’s “The Comet” (1920) isn’t just a story about an impending science-fictional catastrophe but also the start of a conversation about race relations and a proto-Afrofuturist tale.

– Yefim Zozulya’s “The Doom of Principal City”(1918)

– A. Merritt’s “The Last Poet and the Robots” (1935)

– Frederik Pohl’s “Day Million” (1966)

– Karel Capek- 1920s robot plays and his gonzo novel War with the Newts from the 1930s

– Katherine MacLean

-Margaret St. Clair

-Carol Emshwiller

– Ursula K. Le Guin – essay “American SF and the Other” (1975)

– Joanna Russ – essay “The Image of Women in Science Fiction” (1970)

– James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Russ, Josephine Saxton, Le Guin.

– The Ultimate Cyberpunk (2002), which contextualized cyberpunk within earlier influences (not always successfully) and also showcased post-cyberpunk works.

– Angelica Gorodischer was publishing such incendiary feminist material as “The Unmistakable Smell of Wood Violets” (1985)

– Misha Nogha, whose Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist Red Spider White Web (1990

– Zipes, Jack. Speaking Out : Storytelling and Creative Drama for Children, Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/detail.action?docID=199667.
Created from ed on 2023-11-08 19:27:53.

-‘Narrative fiction creates possible worlds— but they are worlds extrapolated from the world we know, however much they may soar beyond it. The art of the possible is a perilous art. It must take heed of life as we know it, yet alienate us from it sufficiently to tempt us into thinking of alternatives beyond it. It challenges as it comforts. In the end, it has the power to change our habits of conceiving what is real, what is canonical. It can even undermine the law’s dictates about what constitutes a canonical reality.’ —Jerome Braner, Making Stories

– ‘It would be misleading to argue that every story told is utopian or to assert that there is an “essential” utopian nature to storytelling. There is, however, a utopian tendency of telling that helps explain why it is we feel so compelled to create and disseminate tales and why we are enthralled by particular stories. In his monumental three-volume work The Principle of Hope, the philosopher Ernst Bloch argued that real-life experiences are at the basis of our utopian longings and notions. Because our daily lives are not exactly what we want them to be, we daydream with a certain intentionality and glimpse another world that urges us on and stimulates our creative drives to reach a more ideal state of being. It is our realization of what is missing in our lives that impels us to create works of art that not only reveal insights into our struggles but also shed light on alternatives and possibilities to restructure our mode of living and social relations. It is through art that utopia, designated as no place that we have ever seen or truly experienced, is to be realized as a place truly inhabitable for humans, a real humane place different from the brutal artificial places we inhabit and the earth that we are in the process of destroying with dubious notions of progress. All art, according to Bloch, contains images of hope illuminating ways to create a utopian society that offset our destructive drives.’

– Murray, Janet Horowitz. Hamlet on the Holodeck : the Future of Narrative in Cyberspace / JanetH. Murray. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1998. Print.

-The John Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, and Benjamin J. Robertson.

– Contemporary Science Fiction course – resource list

– Rob Lathan – Science Fiction Criticism – Anthology

– Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Week 10

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Project Development

How has your project developed? What were some of the key ideas/texts/resources shared by your peers that moved your project forward? Where have you made changes, where did these decisions arise?

My project has developed a little, I am slowly researching and am more at the widening scope stage at the moment. The different intensives have greatly shaped what I imagine my project will look like, and in talking to my peers I have gained ideas and thought more about it’s structure.

Currently, I am creating a long list of sources and readings, largely helped by the reading from the intensives, especially ‘writing speculative fiction’. Additionally, I have been adding anything I come across which I feel is relevant and have been listening to the podcasts ‘The Digital Human’ and ‘Edgy Ideas’ which are helping me think more about current issues, topics, and problems in the world and ideas about solving them. This has led for me to think about wider research questions and how my work could potentially address them. The two ‘Edgy Ideas’ episodes 62: Becoming digitally savvy with Anni Rowland-Campbell and 65: Purpose upgrade with Paul Skinner have been particularly relevant in terms of issues discussed and thinking holistically. I am interested in delving deeper into these ideas and into the work of the guests, particularly Anni Rowland-Campbell.

Additionally, In talking to my peers about the structure of my project, I have more of an idea of what I want to create. I want my project to be largely research based and centered around the exploration of ideas, however due to the modules ‘world of story’ and ‘writing speculative fiction’, I want to incorporate my own creative work (possibly short pieces of narrative text/a story spread throughout), and embed it in the project to aid and embody the ideas discussed.

I am still looking at the ideas of intersectionality in speculative fiction and science fiction works, and am still exploring texts and art for this. I think the idea of the cyborg and what that means in fiction vs in real life and how they combine is really interesting, and something to keep researching into.

Key Ideas:
  • Cyborg Feminism
  • Cyberpunk
  • Afro-futurism
  • Indigenous Futurism
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Intersectionality
  • AI
  • Science Fiction
  • Speculative Fiction
  • narrative
  • art
Solidified Project Idea:

An essay investigating ‘intersectional cyborgism’ through narrative and scattering my own creative work (narrative) throughout as a response and to embody the ideas discussed.

Week 5

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Refining my provisional project topic

My current idea is to build on my research from my undergraduate degree, in which I wrote a dissertation called ‘Keith Piper and Speculative Narratives: How Visions of the Body and Technology Influence Speculative Futures’. This dissertation focused on the artist Keith Piper and his work, particularly his exhibition ‘Jet Black Futures’ (2022), discussing how his work explores the complex questions surrounding technology and the body, its science fiction influences, and how it creates speculative narratives.

Influenced by the electives so far (Text Remix, Interdisciplinary Futures, World of Story, and Creating Visual Narratives), I have found new texts and areas to explore (for example, the work of the Author Ursula Le Guin) and reconnected creatively, producing works of visual and written narrative that I didn’t know I was capable of. I also learned about many new tools and ways of creating these narratives, including using AI.

Initially, I thought that I might just write an essay, focusing on the texts and works which interested me, however, now I am considering doing a blended project, consisting of both essay and of my own creations (possibly a written or visual narrative which exemplifies my ideas about speculative futures).

At the moment, my developing idea for my project is to explore diverse speculative narratives, focusing on technology and the body, and potentially blend in some of my own creative work as well (creative writing or a visual narrative). I would like to explore this in a interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary way. Additionally, I would like to go more in depth, explore intersectionality, and explore texts and areas that I did not get to explore before or have discovered since.

Some of the new influences I would like to explore include, Ursula Le Guin, Janelle Monet’s work (specifically the book ‘The Memory Librarian’), Alberta Whittle, Rashaad Newsome, and Solomon Enos.

 

    

 

   Alberta Whittle, 'Celestial Meditations' (2018), http://www.tyburngallery.com/artist/alberta-whittle/#lg=1&slide=2

 

 

Week 4

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Creating Visual Narratives

The creating visual narratives module was seriously developmental in terms of influences and ideas for my futures project. Not only did I re-familarise myself with the work of some of my favourite artists, particularly Afrofuturist artists, but I also discovered some new key artists and terminology which may feed into my futures project. For example, we were given an amazing talk by the artist Solomon Enos whose work focuses largely on indigenous futurism and speculative futures. In particular, his art often imagines future worlds and landscapes which provide imaginative solutions to global issues, centering the indigenous perspective and utilises the combination of human and organic technology (the blending of humans and nature). This seems particularly relevant due to my interest in the cyborg, an idea also integrated into his art, and  His work has been a key influence for me since, especially in my creating visual narratives project, as they focus on nature and discuss issues such as climate change.

Additionally, a central discussion during the intensive days of this module was the issue of speculative futures and dystopias vs utopias, what these two opposing concepts mean, and how they are applicable to the real world and our issues. These ideas and questions are definitely something that I want to tackle in my futures project. I therefore think that my futures project will focus on cyborgs, dichotomies, and Afrofuturist and indigenous futurist visions of speculative futures.

My final portfolio investigations and art piece for this module investigated these ideas by creating a landscape for both a utopian and dystopian future and melding them together. I found this extremely rewarding and would love to build on these ideas and my investigation of them in my final futures project, including implementing my own creative work. For example, in this final piece, I included a poem I created through a combination of my own writing and using black out poetry. This was also inspired by ergodic literature.

My final piece is the featured image of this post, and is acrylic on paper (A1).

Week 2

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Initial Ideas & World of Story reflection

My first idea is to write an essay – based on my undergraduate dissertation – about speculative narratives, looking at particular works/ a particular work (art, literature, etc) and analysing how it explores hopeful visions of the future. Possibly focusing on embodiment, technology, Afro-futurism, and the blurring of boundaries (e.g. cyborgs) which I explored before. These are topics which I am really interested in and so would like to explore further, with more depth, and perhaps in a new way. Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ (and other similar texts) were key to this and align with my beliefs and passions.

Another idea I think it would be interesting to explore is the phenomenon of stories depicting multiverses (multiple worlds/branching universes/diverging alternate realities) which I think may be a current zeitgeisty trend/ moment or a response to the current zeitgeist (current politics, climate grief, etc). There is a boom/growth/increased popularity of these stories which I think must be reflection of our time in some way- link to technology and metaverse. What does this obsession say about us and about art? Perhaps that we are fed up of existing structures and our current society and operations – that we want to explore alternate universes/ break it apart- break these structures. Or is it some kind of escapist obsession- escapist fantasy? Esp due to increasing climate grief. I think it would be really interesting to research and unpack why we are currently drawn to these sorts of stories and worlds. For example the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Spiderverse, Stranger Things, the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, and a personal favorite of mine: Dimension 20’s Neverafter. People seem to have really latched on to these narratives (specifically where the multiverse is the subject/ key to the themes of the piece and not just the setting). I think it explores the ideas of power, freedom, control, and autonomy and allows us to explore/live in/imagine/escape to worlds different to our own where potentially we are better off – e.g. in relation to climate change. Or potentially it allows us to feel that our decisions and our world are not that important on the grand scale of things, exploring the ideas of free will vs predestination, and potentially relieving our guilt. Perhaps, identifying ourselves with the main characters of these narratives – who often unlock/discover the truth of the universe (that it is one of many) and often gain the power to travel between, influence, and even save different universes. These narratives give us this specific kind of power, perhaps responding to the nihilistic, powerless feeling we all experience in face of the world’s current challenges which feel so unsolvable and so much bigger than any of us. (The idea of a metaverse as an escape/back up world I think also links to this).

Following the World of Story course, I feel that there are more ideas to explore than ever, and have been introduced to new inspirations and influences such as Indigenous Futurism and the artist Solomon Enos, which I would love to explore more. I feel that there are more creative options open to me which I hadn’t fully considered before, such as featuring my own writing in my Futures Project. It was really great to get a crash course in play writing and to reconnect to my practical creative skills, getting to draw again. It really got my creative juices flowing. I think, in response to this, it would be great to incorporate indigenous futurism and my own creative work in my Futures project somehow.