Viscera(l) Views: Performing on the Brink of the Human

This dissertation is a performative exploration of experience within our technoscientific--that is, technologically and scientifically saturated--world. Drawing upon posthumanism and cyborg studies and working through specific, mutated versions of performative inquiry and phenomenology, I aim to encourage creative public participation in technoscientific discourse. That is, I apply an adapted method (cyborg phenomenology) to my own staged personae performances of nonhuman entities in order to investigate technoscientific experience from a less anthrocentric perspective. My goal is to interrogate my performance experience in order to better understand the dynamics of agency and relationship within our technologically infused world, and to employ performance and performative writing as pedagogical tools for educating others about these dynamics. This document might be best read as an example of performative inquiry as a useful approach to the study of technoscience and its consequences. As a whole, this dissertation is a call for, theorization with, and performative demonstration of artful participation in the multi-layered discourses of technology and science that impact the lives of all beings in our world. It is an experiential experiment, an exploration of possibility, and a beginning.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Only Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• MacDonald, Shauna M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gingrich-Philbrook, Craig

• cyborg
• lighthouse
• performance studies
• phenomenology
• posthumanism
• technoscience

Repository record dc:identifier

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/392

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opensiuc.lib.siu.edu:dissertations-1392