I look forward to the narcissism/anthropocentrism discussion in YASMIN
and will be interested in seeing how this becomes part of the exhibition
concept you are all organising !!
I found this story very relevant, part of a discussion on Human/Non Human
going on at IMERA at the moment
for medical research, scientists make extensive use of 'animal models' to
try and understand diseases and treat them= and of course the animal
is only interesting if it has the same kinds of diseases as humans ( we
are very much less interested if the animal isnt a good model for humanss)-
a good example of anthropocentrism and how it affects scientific research
there was an interesting story this week
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100316/full/464332b.html
it turns out that in medical studies using mice, almost 80% or more
of the mice used in reseach are male mice not female mice
here is what the researchers say:
Back at the bench, lab animals are still predominantly male, even in
studies of diseases that disproportionately affect women.
Investigators tend to prefer male animals because it is thought that
females might introduce variability through factors such as their
oestrous cycles. But Mogil has reported that in common tests used to
measure responses to pain, data from female mice are no more variable
than those from males (J. S. Mogil and M. L. Chanda Pain 117, 1–5;
2005).
The problem is particularly acute in neuroscience, in which the ratio
of male- to female-only studies is 5.5 to 1. But under-representation
of females occurs in most fields of basic research, according to an
unpublished analysis by Zucker and postdoctoral researcher Annaliese
Beery. They investigated the use of female and male animals in
research published during 2009 in 10 fields across 42 journals. They
found that studies in eight of the fields used only male animals more
often than only females, and that the data were often not analysed by
sex. In two journals that the researchers investigated back to 1909,
the proportion of animal studies using only males had actually grown
since the early twentieth century. The authors speculate that this is
because oestrous cycles in guinea pigs, rats and mice were first
clearly characterized only in the 1920s."""
not only is anthropocentrism very deep it is sexist
roger
Discussion: The newconcept of Humankind Cultural Narcissism
A-non-existing-concept: Humankind Cultural Narcissism, a re-discussion
of anthropocentrism,
The 'narcisistic' artwork is done in order to explore possibilities to
generate a new cultural concept throughout an exhibit process and
having the Yasmin discussion result as material for the same concept;
A concept that has yet to be properly theorised. The term Narcissism
derives from clinical description (Nacke, 1899). Anthropocentrism - is
the tendency to consider the human being as the centre of the
universe. Cultura, in Latin, means cultivation, referred to a person,
it means education and manners, it means civility and refinement.
Humankind culture in this light seems to be a kind of Narcissistic
neurosis in which the individual has little wiggle room and no way to
escape. The individual is obliged to assume a model of the humankind
ideal Ego as the goal of love itself. This Ego is anthropocentric, and
love, when not aimed at the discovery of the other(s), risks becoming
a suicidal weapon against self and society itself. Human, then, seems
to be a kind of cultural 'primate' who suffers from the deep malaise
that spreads beyond the individual sphere and ends up marking, through
the death of communication between species and types of humanity, one
of the limits of our current society. see:
http://technoeticnarcissus.blogspot.com/2010/01/is-there-love-in-technoetic-narcissus.html
- This new concepts would be create also around my 'narcisistic'
artwork, as artist;
- This artwork was done in order to explore possibilities to generate
a new cultural concept throughout the exhibit process;
- This artwork was exhibited aiming the Yasmin discussion result as
material for the same new concept;
as art process Is There Love in Technoetic Narcissus? was just exposed
in Turin at Pav in the exhibit Diverse Forms Most Beautiful , from the
4 of February to the 15 of April,
http://www.parcoartevivente.it/pav/index.php?lingua_sito=2 , after
this dates the concept introduced and explored by the artwork would be
elaborated in this discussion on Yasmine, shifting from video to texts
and then too a book, the book will will be exposed in a new exhibit in
Nowhere Gallery in Milan in June.
Francesco Monico: both a technoetic researcher and artist, today
mainly engaged in directing the Media Design & New Media Art
Department at the NABA, in Milan, Italy. He's teaching Theory and
Method of Mass Media at the same institution, as well play as director
of the Planetary Collegium PhD M-Node [www.m-node.org]. His modus
operandi is based on a combination of science, art, philosophy, and
esoteric knowledge in which the artist recognises the paradoxical
nature of knowledge and the contradictions inherent in formal
epistemologies, and in his deep speculation his dealing with an
hermeneutical approach. His methodology is a syncretic mixing critical
theory and a pragmatic art approach. Among his artworks are The Artist
Formerly Known as Vanda (i.e. Tafkav - 2007/10) [3] and Is There Love
in The Technoetic Narcissus? (2008/10) [4],
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Monico
Discussant:
Pier Luigi Capucci: <plc@noemalab.org> the provost of Italian studies
on technologies and new media;
Amos Bianchi: <amos.bianchi@naba.it> a critical thinker, philosopher
with a dynamic experience on higher education on art;
Natasha Vita-More: <nvitamore@austin.rr.com> a media artist/designer
and theorist known for designing "Primo Posthuman.
Roberto Marchesini: <qbioetic@tin.it>, philosopher and biologist,
author of the zooantropology manifesto.
Francesco Monico
19.04.10 milano
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