POSTHUMAN MODES OF BEING?

Posthuman Modes Of Being? Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016 

Many Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

NEWS

ADELAIDE

THURSDAY FEB 4 at 6 PM

Hosted by Southern Hemisphere Space Program 

at the University of South Australia
in conjunction with the International Space University, Strasburg. 

'Space and Popular Culture'

Panel discussion 

With me, under-water performance artist and Everest mountaineer Sarah-Jane Pell and comedian and Mars One candidate Josh Richards with facilitator, space archaeologist Dr. Alice Gorman.

All the details and registration HERE

POSTHUMANIST INSPIRATION

Regular readers will note that I am on a roll with my posthumanist inspiration! 

My more recent inspirations are stimulated by my M. Phil research degree at the University of Queensland. My paintings are not part of the degree, but I am building a body of work reflecting upon my research. Early days.......................................

Existential risk posed by emerging technologies research, which I've previously mentioned many times is scientifically based, future focused and necessarily largely speculative. Given that existential risk means the potential for human species extinction, posthuman scenarios are part of the extended 'conversation'. Here are few reasons why. 

1. We may need to become posthuman in order to 'survive' cataclysmic events which are either human-made or other. 

2. Some people desire a posthuman existence to enable a possibly endless 'life', thus these people will aim to development pathways. 

3. We may morph into posthuman modes of being without really noticing eg: merging with artificial intelligence. The question being whether artificial intelligence or humans have actually orchestrated such an outcome. 

4. Other reasons that you may think of!

So, posthuman futures could occur out of necessity, desire or insidiousness...even accident?

NEW PAINTINGS

Posthuman Modes Of Being? is similar to another recent painting A Posthuman Habitat. In both paintings a mesh of binary code seems to hover above a background that suggests a landscape, a past. The mesh is like an alternative 'habitat'. In both paintings I have painted binary code 'instructing' words I AM, I am, I am? and lots of question marks.Uploaded minds trying to work out who they are maybe? In both paintings the tree, my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life, acts as a beacon, which I argue, is a 'code' in itself. 

TREE - CODE - MY PREFERRED POSTHUMAN FUTURE

How is my tree a code? Well, let's imagine another kind of posthuman future. This is my preferred one. The sun dies, Earth is destroyed in the sun's death throes, Earth is scattered as dust and debris across space. BUT, we humans, possibly long extinct due to Earth's final eons with an inhospitable climate, lie as remains within Earth's dust. SO, we are scattered across space too! We return to the stars as star dust. ALL OF US! And, who knows as universal machinations occur another life-form similar to or possibly the same as humans, could somehow evolve from our 'dust'. Thus, my tree is the code-clue to the power of life and star dust...

I called the second painting Many because this painting could be many things! One is that all those coloured dots could be human star dust scattered across space after Earth is destroyed. Or, each dot could be another universe...idea...option... 

I like the way the two paintings play off each other...in many ways.

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

COSMIC ADDRESS

Cosmic Address oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2013

I love the idea of a cosmic address? Astrophysicist, Prof Joel Primack, and writer, Nancy Ellen Abrams, use this inspirational coupling of words in their book The New Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World When I read those two words pictures sprang into my head and 'Cosmic Address' above is one of them.

The notion of a cosmic address propels you to perspectives way beyond your everyday street address, to horizons that make notation of one's country even seem myopic. If we all thought of ourselves as living at a cosmic address how would Earth and humanity be viewed? Just imagine taking yourself from inside your cells to the far reaches of outer space. Imagine viewing Earth from these intimate depths to the fulsome distances of space. These kinds of perspective are potentially full of knowledge, insight and awareness...if we're game to look up from our smartphones!

COSMIC VOYAGE ZOOM-IN
The video below is from Primack and Abram's website: It uses the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the ouroboros [snake eating its own tail] as a guage/meter, while taking the viewer on a journey through cosmic scales. Regular readers will know of my interest in the ouroboros. Indeed, it appears in my painting 'Cosmic Address' above. My previous post provides more information on the significance of the ouroboros in my work and as a symbol representing the Universe.

COSMIC TIME TOO
Not only is a cosmic address about a place within the cosmos, but also a time within Universal history. Primack and Abrams make a very incisive argument that humanity is now placed at a pivotal time...a time midway through the life of our sun, the celestial powerhouse maintaining life on Earth. At some point in a few hundred million years the sun, as it builds to its cataclysmic demise, will radiate such heat that human life on Earth will be impossible. Humanity's future is probable extinction. But, the Universe will still continue, our Universal address will still exist albeit changed, but we may not/won't be home, literally or consciously. How can humanity A: ensure that the life of future generations is not made worse by actions and decisions taken now? B: come up with plans to possibly mitigate extinction? C: take advantage of any unexpected opportunities to enhance and/or save life? D: identify risk, even a small one, to Earth and humanity, from afar or from within?

COSMIC ADDRESS Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm
I wanted to create an image that appeared to be both intimate and vast, visceral and cosmic. The ouroboros, its body painted with another age-old transcultursl/religious symbol of the tree-of-life, represents time and scale, yet its circular shape is like a portal, a womb, an eye... The ouroboros seemingly floats in an energised space, that could be outer space or the interior of life's womb. Another tree-of-life grows from an 'horizon', pulsing with life and energy, like blood or those dark forces propelling universal space. The lightning at bottom left is a conduit heralding a new landscape, one untethered from Earth, but one that looks back at the same time as observing all perspective, temporal and spatial.

In order to help us vision our cosmic address I suggest notions of landscape need to be untethered from being Earth-bound. We seem to cling to concepts of Earth-bound landscape that, in terms of geographic locale, somehow identifies who we are and where we come from...even a sense of ownership. Yet, the future is calling us to consider our 'home' and identity, to not only be derived from locales such as regions, countries, nations or continents, but also as citizens of the Universe. This kind of expanded address-vision surely must help unite humanity to work together to sustain life and the planet for near and far future generations?

Please also read more about my ouroboros painting at Snakes Eating Their Own Tails

For more on untethering landscape check out my post Untethering Landscape

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com