Animated Bodies: On the Politics of Project Itoh’s Science Fictional Zombies
Speaker: Dr. Baryon Tensor Posadas (Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
Date and time: December 7, 2021 (Tuesday), 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (HK time)
Often understood as an allegory of dehumanization, whether as an effect of capitalist production or colonial governmentality, the zombie has arguably replaced the cyborg as the focalizing figure for articulating a politics of the post-human in science fiction. Such a shift presents a problem for Japanese science fiction, given how the techno-orientalizing figure of the cyborg has so often served as a conceptual apparatus for its discussion. Dr. Posadas’ talk examines the implications of this shift through the writings of Project Itoh and their animated adaptations. he contends that the multiple appearances of the zombie in his work anticipate the emergence of a world increasingly marked by the biopolitical logic of the zombie not only at the level of story, but also in terms of animation itself as a medium generative of zombies, of animated bodies that simulate the appearance of the human.
Meeting ID: 936 3117 5538
Password: 160120