'I AM A POSTHUMAN'

I Am A Posthuman Gouache and watercolour on paper 42 x 30 cm 2016

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Code 

The code above appears in my new painting I Am A Posthuman. It actually 'forms', or maybe 'performs', or otherwise 'instructs' a structural element to the 'figure'. You can guess the translation for sure!

But, is this figure me? Maybe? It could also be a posthuman entity from a far distant future expressing itself through me? That's probably a bit far fetched, but worth considering, even if only playfully. However, if we are simulations run by posthuman entities, as per Prof Nick Bostrom's theory, then maybe not such a playful idea! It depends if you believe that the posthuman is something that will occur in the far distant future or whether you think we are already posthuman as a result of various things including drugs, technological devices such as pace makers, glasses, hearing aids and other health oriented devices. Then there are the augmentation or enhancement devices such as [again] drugs, wearable monitoring devices, certain sports gear, cosmetic surgery, developments in AI assisted activities and more.

Extinction

Yet, are these various devices making us posthuman or is it more correct to describe them as part of a transhuman process? The prefix 'post' means after and whilst we humans may have changed over the centuries, unless we are all simulations, I think the 'posthuman' tagline is somewhat premature. Having said that, though, some of our activities may precipitate a human extinction event that does flip the whole idea of the human into the posthuman [ie: no human!] potentially rather quickly. Whilst the chance of such event/s occurring are considered to be very small, the outcomes are considered potentially irredeemable. This kind of risk concern has seen the formation of various research centres that examine existential risk posed by emerging technologies Future of Humanity Institute [Oxford], Center of the Study of Existential Risk [Cambridge], Future of Life Institute [US - out of MIT].

Being Human

If using technology that enhances and augments somehow makes us posthuman then have we been posthuman since our early ancestors picked up rocks and stones to make tools? One could argue that any kind of implement is a technology that enhances chances of survival and progress. Or, maybe just thinking differently about ourselves flips us from human to posthuman? But, history is a complex trajectory of many instances where cultural, political and social changes have triggered new ways of thinking about being human. Examples are feminism, Indigenous rights, post-colonial theories, democracy, science and more! I would argue that these processes are actually what makes us human...just like the cognitive impulses that saw our stone-age ancestors pick up rocks and stones to use as implements.

But, returning to existential risk posed by emerging technologies - the fact that multidisciplinary research in this area is taken very seriously should cause people to take notice. A literal post-human time may occur before we are ready to ensure some kind of human survival! 

I Am A Posthuman

Like some of my other recent 'posthuman' paintings this posthuman figure is formed with a combination of 'codes' ie: binary code and the tree-of-life. The figure seems to float in outer space. There is no horizon line nor indication of precise environment. Is this posthuman simply an entity embedded in a computer or is it a speck of stardust or is it at 'home' in outer space? Or, maybe its 'environment' is my imagination?

Recent other posthuman posts and paintings

MY POSTHUMANS ARE DANCING

A HUMAN'S HOUSE and a POSTHUMAN'S HOUSE

IMAGINING THE POSTHUMAN

MY FUTURE POSTHUMAN

COSMIC ADDRESS OPEN

Other Worlds Ahoy! and Landscape of Everything

 

 

My solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS is up and the doors opened yesterday 15 October.

 

Please click HERE for the COSMIC ADDRESS webpage.

 

I am really happy with how all the paintings 'speak' to each other!

 

I've had a busy couple of days already, with a steady stream of visitors. Lots of talking too!

 

 

 L to R: Cosmic Address, Other Worlds Ahoy! and Landscape of Everything

 L to R: Hope, Stormy Weather, Where? and Cosmic Ouroboros

 Towards The Past And Future and Eternity's Breath

 

 

 L to R: When It Rained On Mars, through the gap is Birth of Wisdom and Faith, Shadow's Secret and Other Worlds Ahoy!

 

 

 Landscape of Everything and Towards the Past and Future

 Are We There Yet? and Cosmic Address

 

 

L to R: Eternity's Breath, Hope, Stormy Weather, Where? and Cosmic Ouroboros

 

 

 

My post where I discuss Cosmic Ouroboros is the most visited post on my BLOG. You can read it by clicking HERE

 

Another popular post is my short story Stirring The Star Dust: A short story about digging. You can read it HERE

 

And, then there's my post stimulated by something motoring guru Jeremy Clarkson wrote. Intrigued? you can read Looking In The Rear Vision Mirror, Cosmically Speaking HERE

 

And then there's my recent post There's Something About Space where I launch into the new movie GRAVITY. You can check it out HERE

 

 

 

 

COSMIC ADDRESS

Earth Maybe Our Home, But The Universe Is Our Environment

 

15-27 October

 

Graydon Gallery

29 Merthyr Rd,

New Farm,

Brisbane,

Queensland,

Australia,

Earth,

Milky Way,

The Universe!

 

OPEN DAILY 10 am - 6 pm

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

MYTH

Towards The Past and Future Gouache on paper 21 x 29.7 cm 2013

 

I am re-reading a wonderful book I bought and read in the early 1990s. It is Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. The book is a transcription of a series of conversations which took place between the two men in the years leading to Joseph Campbell's death in 1987. Joseph Campbell 'was the world's foremost authority on mythology', a scholar with deep insights into the interconnnections between mythologies and how they might 'speak' to contemporary society. For more information, please visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation website HERE 

 

Regular readers will know of my long and deep interest in perspective and the potential to develop skills in seeing multiple perspectives [even simultaneously]. Coupled with this is a keen interest in cosmology and the new insights, and perspectives, humanity gains from the unveiling of distances that seem to be getting both smaller and larger. By taking ourselves away from, and outside, Earth- bound perspectives we have an opportunity to 'see' ourselves and humanity in new ways. As I have written before, for me, the most significant realisation is that we all share the one home...planet Earth. In fact, for the time being, and probably into the unforeseeable future, Earth is our only home. There is nowhere else to go! For humanity to survive, and for Earth to provide a continuing and sustainable home, we all need to work to-gether. My recent short story Stirring The Star Dust is an allegorical story about this very issue.

 

So, back to Joseph Campbell. Apart from many many profound observations and insights, I was struck by an answer Campbell gave to a question asked by Moyers.  

MOYERS: What kind of new myth do we need?

CAMPBELL: We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.

Remember, this conversation ocurred in the mid to late 1980s. We now have people like Prof Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams calling for the same thing, but from a perspective that is steeped in contemporary cosmological research, as well as an understanding of story, myth and the arts. I have previously referred to their recent book, which I have read, keep beside my bed and highly recommend, The New Universe and The Human Future: How a shared cosmology could transform the world. Currently environmental issues, already apparent in the 80s, are now manifesting in noticeable outcomes that threaten food production, climate, water quality and quantity and more. It seems to me that Campbell's call for myths that vision us as dwellers of Earth, and not just by nation, region, religion or race, is vital.

 

 

Seeking The Past and Future Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

 

The basic premises, or resonnances, of age-old symbols can be visually re-articulated to 'speak' to us today. As regular readers know, this is what I search to do in my paintings, particularly with my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life. More recently I have been stirred to paint the ouroboros, the age-old symbol of a snake eating its own tail. This symbol was used by the ancients to visually describe the Universe, as they understood and observed it. Today, modern cosmologists also use it to visually describe the Universe and the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds ie: as we understand and observe. For more on this aspect of the ourboros please check out my previous posts COSMIC ADDRESS and SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS 

 

Symbols can speak across time, history and space. It is up to us to listen, ask, seek and explore. Imagination is a key! Why? Because, imagination draws upon human race memory and sensation, not just individual impulses. Imagination can stir the past, present and future. It agitates and stimulates. It is a gift to humanity...a gift of the stars maybe? If you believe we are all, like everything else in the Universe, are made of star dust...remnants of the Big Bang...then imagination is definitely a key! 

 

You might be interested in a 2009 post I wrote called FAITH IN IMAGINATION

 

All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

All of Us inspired me to paint Eternity's Breath

 

I've just reworked my COSMOLOGY GALLERY on my website. Please click HERE to see it.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com