Touch-sensitive : cybernetic images and replicant bodies in the post-industrial age
This thesis uses Deleuzian cybernetics to advance upon post-modern accounts of the contemporary image economy. It begins with the hypothesis that the schizophrenic behaviours of late capitalism have induced an irreparable crisis in the inherited 'specular economy' (Irigaray). This is manifested as the breakdown of the laws of generalised equivalence between truth, value and meaning and the end of a stable signifier-signified relationship - theorised as the escape of reality into 'hyperreality', or the world become simulation according to Baudrillard. It will expose the insufficiency of post-modern accounts which theorise this crisis in representation via methods which fail to escape their own always already representational terms and it will then rigorously follow through the implications of an image economy which is constituted by simulations which are 'genuinely' sourceless, which do not imitate a prior reality but which rather synthesise forces and relations. To escape the closed loop of representationalism, it will divert attention away from the signifier and will concentrate on the sub-representational power of images to re-engineer reality and to re-invent the limits of the body. Using the theory and
Livingston, Suzanne
B Philosophy (General)
Touch-sensitive : cybernetic images and replicant bodies in the post-industrial age. This thesis uses Deleuzian cybernetics to advance upon post-modern accounts of the contemporary image economy. It begins with the hypothesis that the schizophrenic behaviours of late capitalism have induced an irreparable crisis in the inherited 'specular economy' (Irigaray). This is manifested as the breakdown of the laws of generalised equivalence between truth, value and meaning and the end of a stable signifier-signified relationship - theorised as the escape of reality into 'hyperreality', or the world become simulation according to Baudrillard. It will expose the insufficiency of post-modern accounts which theorise this crisis in representation via methods which fail to escape their own always already representational terms and it will then rigorously follow through the implications of an image economy which is constituted by simulations which are 'genuinely' sourceless, which do not imitate a prior reality but which rather synthesise forces and relations. To escape the closed loop of representationalism, it will divert attention away from the signifier and will concentrate on the sub-representational power of images to re-engineer reality and to re-invent the limits of the body. Using the theory and
touch sensitive image body post industrial age deleuzian advance upon post_modern account contemporary image economy begin hypothesis behaviour late capitalism induce crisis inherit economy manifest breakdown law generalise equivalence truth_value mean end stable signifier signified relationship theorise escape reality world become simulation accord expose insufficiency post_modern account theorise crisis representation via method fail escape always already representational term rigorously follow implication image economy constitute simulation genuinely imitate prior reality rather synthesise force relation escape close representationalism divert attention away signifier concentrate sub representational power image engineer reality invent limit body using theory