A posthuman landscape i assume represents the context that makes the posthuman perspective necessary, This posthuman investigation is going on in many places, for instance in the exhibitions of the artist Eija Liisa Ahtila.
Braidotti asks: “what new forms of subjectivity are supported by the posthuman?”
The work of Eija Liisa Ahtila challenges the idea of a clearly defined subject and examines the human centered film medium. In a series of works she is testing standard aspect ratios as containers for other than humans. In the video installation Horizontal, 2011 she shoots a giant Spruce tree in six sections, this way extending the screen aspect ratio in order to portray the tree in its full length, displayed horisontally. The whole tree is visible, and the installation is beautiful, still for the Spruce the situation looks a bit uncomfortable. The Spruce portrait visualizes the limitations of human perspective and its inseparable tool, the technology of film. In other pieces she creates a kind of cinematic architecture, using multiple screens, three or four on opposing walls, to tell stories in a way which, as Ahtila herself puts it in an interview “incorporates the space between” (the screens) and “takes away the position of the priviliged viewer”. This way she makes stories that are split in many accounts. In the mentioned interview she uses the analogy of being in nature, not being able to see everything, but you can hear much, and you know that there is always more out there.
Jonatan Lennman
Rosi Braidotti, ‘Introduction’ in The Posthuman, Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013
Moderna museet interview with Eija Liisa Ahtila, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg9IEa9uNGU
Leave a Reply