Berry, Josephine. 2019. How to Explain Pictures to a Dying Human: On Art in Expanded Ontologies. The Large Glass Magazine(27/28), pp. 7-18. ISSN 1409-5823 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This article addresses how can we rethink the defining dilemma of contemporary art - the impossibility of its aim to shake off aura and 'blur with life' while remaining art at all – in relation to posthumanist conceptions of self and thought as continuous with a world that is itself living thought?

Artists of the last century increasingly included ‘external reality’ directly within the artwork in such a way that reality is made to re-enter into appearance. By introducing ‘external’ elements into new aesthetic and semantic relationships, artists have tried to blur the artwork with 'life itself'. Yet if art fails to distinguish itself from reality, it fails to be art. How, this article asks, can we rethink this defining dilemma of contemporary art in relation to posthumanist theories of the interdependence of the human with complex living webs, and the non-exclusivity of semiotic processes to human societies? How can we understand the paradox of posthumanist art that gestures to these ideas while maintaining its autonomy and separateness from reality.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	posthumanism, posthumanist art, anthropology, biopolitics
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
Dates:	Date Event 5 September 2019 Accepted 5 January 2020 Published Online 2019 Published
Item ID:	27471
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2019 09:21
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2024 09:48
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/27471

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