• Title/Summary/Keyword: posthuman

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Reinterpretation of Snowpiercer : Posthuman, Cyborg, and the New World

  • Kim, Hye Yoon
    • International journal of advanced smart convergence
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.29-36
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    • 2020
  • We aim to reinterpret Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer through theory of posthumanism. Posthuman is a compound word of 'post' and 'human', which means transcendent-man. However, we would like to extend the meaning of posthuman or cyborgs as not only to "new human figure, or transcendent-man" but as to "human living in a digital age of converged technology". Through the extension of the meaning of posthuman, we would be able to not only find posthuman in Science Fiction movies but also apply it to our real world. Also, through the extended meaning, we will reinterpret all the elements from the film as cyberspace and as posthuman or cyborgs. Moreover, through examination of these "cyborg figures" in Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer (2013), we argue that the film is criticizing posthumanism in the reality that these days, people are losing the humanity due to the combination with the machine. It seems that he claims of the collapse of the current system, suggesting new human generation as the solution.

An Analysis of Posthuman's Body Type and Fashion in SF Movies (SF 영화에 나타난 포스트휴먼의 신체 유형 및 패션 분석)

  • Choi, Jung-Hwa
    • The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.473-487
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    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the body type and fashion of posthuman in SF movies. The method of this study was to analyze documentaries, internet web site, fashion books and so forth. The results were as follows: The body types of posthuman were expressed as mutation type, prosthetic type, clone type by biological hybrid or renovation and digital type by computer simulation. The mutation type was expressed as reinforcement of masculinity or feminity and reinforcement of body functions. The fashion item was expressed as a black tailored suit, leather jacket, cat suit, whip, black sunglass, garter belt, high heel shoes, short pants, black one piece dress and functional body suit. The prosthetic type was expressed as reinforcement of body functions and reinforcement of masculinity or feminity. The fashion item was expressed as a military item, high-tech power suit and ergonomic armor suit. The clone type was expressed as the plural ego with reinforcement of body functions. The fashion item was expressed as a power shoulder jacket, fake fur coat, vinyl, black see-through look and functional suit. The digital type was expressed as reinforcement of masculinity or feminity and the plural ego with reinforcement of body functions. The fashion item was expressed as a data suit, leather jacket, black over coat, boots, black sun glass, ethnic items and military items. The meanings of posthuman fashion in SF movies were impurity of posthuman, display of superhuman's power by sexuality, metaphor of power and fantasy of superhero in opposition futuristic dystopia. As mentioned above, posthuman body type and fashion in SF movies become the conversational topic in the real world. The fact that we think about utopia and identity of posthuman in the future is of great significance.

The Expressive Characteristics of the Posthuman Body in Fashion Illustration (패션 일러스트레이션에 반영된 포스트휴먼의 신체 표현특징)

  • Choi, Jung-Hwa
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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    • v.35 no.9
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    • pp.1085-1098
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    • 2011
  • In the $21^{st}$ century, technology is a tool for the expansion of the five senses and physical ability that works as an element for posthuman identity. This study analyzes and theorizes on the characteristics of the posthuman body in fashion illustration. The method of this study analyzes documentaries about posthuman and fashion illustration. The results are as follow. Posthuman body types are classed as hybrid body, plastic surgery body, and digital body. The characteristics of the posthuman body are categorized as ultra- functional prosthetic, mythical undifferentiated, radical plastic surgery type and post-physical digitization type. The ultra-functional prosthetic type shows a restored body and upgraded functional body through a machine hybrid, cyborg suit and mannequin hybrid. It is a break from classical gender identity to form a nerve sense extension that displays physical and abstract power. The mythical undifferentiated type shows a therianthropic form, parts of an animal body, radical skin and gender bending. It represents the return to an undifferentiated world, the desire of a powerful being and the possibility of radical transformation. The radical plastic surgery type shows a photomontage of an ideal body, transgendered body, grotesque body marking, absence of partial or overall face organ and the expansion of abnormal body organs. It represents the expression of narcissism, unconscious desire, fantasy, fear and suggests an alternative ideality, sexual attachment and ambiguous gender identity. The post-physical digitization type shows an imperfect form or duplicated ego image through the omission of the body silhouette or detailed form, fragmented image using net, representative self like optical illusion using typography, an imperfect vague silhouette and immaterial body outline through the use of virtual light. It represents the lack of desire, narcissism, fluidity in a virtual space, the continued creation of a new self, ambiguous gender identity and the liberation of environment, sex, and race. Likewise, the posthuman in fashion illustration shows the absence of a species boundary, destruction of classical gender identity, a new personality and virtual self image.

An Analysis of Posthuman Characters in Digital Games (디지털 게임에 나타난 포스트휴먼 캐릭터 분석)

  • Seo, Jane;Han, Hye-Won
    • Journal of Korea Game Society
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.125-138
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    • 2021
  • This paper analyzed the body images of the posthuman characters in digital games and the nomadic subjects formed through gameplay. Nomadic Subject is the subject with a complex and non-single identity that appears as a posthuman identity. The player experiences posthuman subject directly in the process of controlling characters. Body images of posthuman characters are categorized into three types that imitate idealized bodies, deform the bodies through articulation, and extend the bodies through equipment. The player builds ethical identity by making choices under the constraints of the game.

An Analysis on Posthuman Features of Open-World Adventure Games (오픈 월드 기반 어드벤처 게임의 포스트휴먼 특징 분석)

  • Jo, Min-Sun;Chung, Eun-Hye
    • Journal of Korea Game Society
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.83-94
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    • 2019
  • This paper analyzed the posthuman features of the open-world adventure game. These games represent the player character as Posthuman Subject through the restrictions of information and body. The player explores all of the spaces to perform the quests due to nonlinearity of open-world. The interactions are restricted conflicts and it reveals through gameplay. The experiences as Posthuman Subject allow the player to embody the Hybrid Subjectivity and think about coexistence of human and inhuman.

A Study on Cinematic Representations of Posthuman Girls in South Korea-Focused on The Silenced and The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion (한국 영화에 나타난 포스트휴먼 소녀의 재현 양상 연구 -<경성학교: 사라진 소녀들>, <마녀>를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Eun Joung
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.95-124
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    • 2021
  • As the symbolic images of girls besides its definition have varied according to the age and society, a posthuman girl character recently appears in the digital cinema. This study aims to analyze its cinematic representations and the social contexts in which they are created. For this purpose, the study focuses on what extent the society allows its imagined figurations as a future female body and the meanings revolving around the image of 'technologically body-enhanced female fighter'. Current digital visualization technology has developed to the extent any imaged future humans can be represented, but posthuman girls' representations have its limitation that only a human-like figuration can be allowed in accord with the traditionally idolized image of girls. It is because of the representation logic in which digital cinema is visualized based on perceptual realism that values audiences' experiences. Despite such less critical figuration which does not dare to cross the boundary between the image of human and inhuman, the posthuman girl characters create a new category of the 'dangerous girls' who are both void of sexual femininity and independent of motherhood and heterosexual romance narrative. Of course, they support the modern human-centered belief that humans can take entire control of technology with their moral behaviors and dispel the fear about the negative impact the nature of technology may have on society at large by showing their child-like figuration protecting ethical values. However, the new character of 'unruly girl' exerts her subversive act that seeks to fight against the human-centered liberal humanistic values and melancholic feeling and vulnerability that the neoliberalism and technocracy enforce. When posthuman girl characters are considered to be a marker through which we can see how different social forces are intervening and competing each other in the upcoming posthuman age, the limited figuration of the posthuman girl characters in South Korean movies illustrates the opinionated thoughts toward the instrumentalism in technology but their bloodshed struggles reveal how the corporate or state-governed techno-biopower has oppressively treated and appropriated the human body as the technology-object and also provide a meaningful opportunity to rethink its unethical violence.

Learning the Civilization of Modern Science and Technology through Animation Film: Focusing on Michel Ocelot's (애니메이션 감상을 통한 근대 과학기술 문명 탐구 - 미셸 오슬로의 <세 명의 발명가>를 중심으로)

  • Youn, Kyung Hee;Choi, Jeongyoon;Park, Yooshin
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
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    • s.49
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    • pp.267-297
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    • 2017
  • This paper attempts a close-reading of Michel Ocelot's short animation film, (1979), and proposes it as an available text in art appreciation class for young students. stimulates the students' attention and intellectual curiosity thanks to the exotic and fantastic atmosphere, beautiful mise en scene, and intriguing plot. Ocelot's technique of decoupage used in this film rejuvenates both the traditional folk art and Lotte Reiniger's early experiments in the history of animation film. Ocelot subverts the ideal of modern male adult subject as unique possessor of scientific knowledge and technology, by adopting a female figure and a young child, who is also female, as main characters. The imaginative and subversive power of animation contributes to creating posthuman beings beyond the homocentric figure of Vitruvian Man. The posthuman condition supposes that human beings have the equal relationship of continuum with not only other humans but also non-human beings like all living things and inanimate matters. In order to teach and learn the posthuman condition, it is necessary to conceive an interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum including art, science, philosophy, history, and social sciences. Animation film serves excellently as educational text for the integrated curriculum of the posthuman.

The Environmental Vision in Information Technology Culture and Accelerated Future: Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis (정보기술문화와 가속화된 미래에 대한 환경 비전 -돈 들릴로의 『코스모폴리스』)

  • Lee, Chung-Hee
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.58 no.5
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    • pp.943-974
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    • 2012
  • This paper aims to suggest the compromising vision of nature and technology as the solution to get out of the globally accelerated technology environment in Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis. This novel intends to emphasize on the importance of physical environment as a precondition for the survival of human. Eric wants to be a posthuman with the cybernetic idea, pursuing to be the digital self in a vast biosphere that integrates both the nature and the technology. His obsessive worship of technology through his quest for the futurity results in the effacement of the humanity and the insulation from the nature. Cosmopolis is DeLillo's first 9/11 novel, which describes a young-billionaire asset manager Eric's one-day life in New York in April 2000. Eric can be the third Twin Tower as a symbol of global economic hegemony. By the allusion of the 9/11 catastrophic event, it can be said that Eric's fall is caused by his hubris and avarice as a global capitalist. Crossing the 47th Street toward the West in his limousine, his journey is revealed as the environmental reflections on his desires to attain the futurity and transcendence by technology. This novel cautions that the abuse of technology can bring out the obsolescence and erasure of the humanity and the nature. DeLillo suggests that the best hope for the evolutionary possibility of posthuman can be realized through the correlation with nature and technology. This future-oriented novel warns that the excessive technology should not lead to the disappearance of community and humanity, and the separation of self and nature. It admonishes that they should not follow pseudo-cosmopolitanism as the greedy world citizens, devoting on the velocity of newest technology. This novel recommends that humans should be the world citizen of global ecosystem, making the ameliorative environment through the correlation with self/environment and technology/nature, and gardening the restorative biosphere and the younger planet.

"Main Enemies" in the Posthuman Era: Monsters in Three Spanish Films (포스트휴먼 시대의 '주적(主敵)'들의 재현: 스페인 영화와 괴물들)

  • Seo, Eunhee
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.50
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    • pp.53-75
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    • 2018
  • It is commonly emphasized that the metaphor of the monster is a rhetoric universally used to identify the "main enemy" of a society, for its effective function is seen as useful for the uniting of citizens to bend together to survive or succeed before the external threat. The problem of this metaphor is that it homogenizes and dehumanizes the heterogeneous individual members of the subsequently identified enemy group. This study emphasizes the importance of some traits of the posthuman subject, such as the flexibility and the multiplicity of consciousness, to overcome the otherizing binary perspective which is commonly held regarding the concepts of good and evil. To observe specific dimensions of the posthuman consciousness, we analyze three films based on Spanish history and reality: The Spirit of the Beehive, The Day of the Beast and Pan's Labyrinth. All of these films progress around the figure of the enemy-monster(s), showing how to transgress the dichotomous structure of consciousness that defines the self/good dividing it from the other/evil. The heroes in the films seek to overcome the fear about the monster, and approach him to discover new ethical horizons, that can emerge only when an individual's consciousness chooses to stay on the border between the established beliefs and the unfamiliar voice of the dangerous stranger(s).

'A Posthuman Psychology' and the Fate of Autonomous Subjects ('탈인간의 심리학'과 자율적 주체의 운명)

  • Choe, Hoyoung
    • Korean Journal of Culture and Arts Education Studies
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.1-17
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    • 2010
  • The posthumanism, as it is discussed in several areas of the humanities, calls the modern humanist concept of autonomous subject into question. The scientific psychology has been since its birth as independent discipline at the 19th century a 'posthuman psychology' in the sense that there has been always humanistic approaches to humans as autonomous beings on the one hand, and natural-scientific approaches to humans as determined beings on the other hand. I have argued that the concept of autonomous subject makes still sense as a regulating principle of everyday life of purposive agents and as a conceptual framework for interpreting causal knowledges about humans. And I have argued that culture and cultural education should play an important role in reflecting on the meaning and rationality of sciences and technologies.