Arts of Subjectivity: A New Animism for the Post-Media Era

Description

Bringing thinking from the arts and digital humanities into dialogue with one another, this book investigates what it means to be alive in a world that is structured by technology, the media, and an ever expanding sense of a global community. In this unique time in our history, when we are bombarded by signs and symbols and constantly connected into gadgets, apps, and networks, it has become increasingly difficult to navigate what has been dubbed a 'post-truth' world. Critiques taken from post-colonial studies and neoanimism help challenge the paranoia that has become endemic and, indeed, symptomatic to global realities we are now witnessing. This pertains not only to the ecological degradation of the planet but also to the lingering remnants of eurocentrism and racism that have taken the forms of nationalism and fascism. As a guide, an updated version of what Michel Foucault called an arts of existence may help us sail in these treacherous and confusing waters. Diving into post-structuralist French theory, through American feminism, and emerging out of media studies, this book argues for an ethical and aesthetic form of self-fashioning that runs counter to processes subjection and mediatization. This craft of life, as Plato called it, is a space of disjunction and liberation, between subjectivity and other, where something new and different has the potential to emerge and mould to our likeness.

Jacob W. Glazier is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Positive Human Development and Social Change at Life University, USA and an online Adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University - Steinhardt, USA. Also a licensed counselor, his research tends towards a transdisciplinary approach via theoretical and philosophical models and includes subjects like critical theory, embodiment, and desire as well as their relation to praxis and clinical practice.

The conditions of 21st century global capitalism call out for new theories and political projects that re-think who we are and who might become. Jacob Glazier's book is a powerful step in that direction. Glazier extrapolates a theory of subjectivation as an alternative to the processes of mediatization today. * Hans Skott-Myhre, Professor of Human Services, Kennesaw State University, USA * Glazier's book is a timely series of meditations linking technology, media, and art to current conditions of global capitalism. Charting an all too often ignored history of philosophical animism, this text offers a fresh take on questions fundamental to humanity, ecology, and what it means to be a body in a world where boundaries are constantly shifting. * Timothy Beck, PhD Assistant Professor of Psychology, Landmark, College USA *