LFU:online

The lecture series provides insight into current trends of optimization and enhancement of the human body. Examples of concrete developments will be discussed as well as approaches in theory. The objective is to provide a broadly based, interdisciplinary and critical inquiry into contemporary fantasies of corporeality.

Everybody is able to stage one’s life and one’s body in the media today with the use of smart phones and social web. Together with these possibilities of self-presentation, also the force towards optimization increases. Cosmetic surgery becomes normal, as well as the use of performance- and mood-enhancing drugs. The body becomes a product; its value is supposed to increase both on the labour market and in the sphere of interpersonal relations. The desire to expand limits of physical abilities and to stay forever young seems as significant as never before.

Due to technologically enhanced biology and robotics the cyborg is an imagination that becomes more and more realistic. People even dream of abandoning their biological and mortal condition by means of genetic re-programming, or by fusing humans and machines. Simultaneously, those who provide the technologies and infrastructures gain unprecedented power through the intertwining of man and machine. The potential of surveillance and control increases - already through the use of smartphones.

One might embrace neither euphoria nor paranoia, yet the question emerges: What does actually drive our fantasies of performance and optimization? Are we confronted with a self-referential autopoiesis of technology that subjugates the human body? Or does technological progress, on the contrary, satisfy bodily needs? How can we describe appropriately the interplay of bodies and technologies in the 21st century?

Lecturers from various scientific backgrounds (media studies, philosophy, robotics, sociology,...) will discuss aspects of the topic. The “Medientag” (17.11.2014) is also part of the course.

Written exam 

Will be discussed in the first lesson.

Tanja Kohn
Andreas Beinsteiner