Symposium

The ethics of (im)mortality: technology and the post-human body in "Fringe" and "Terminator: Salvation"

Thursday 27 April 2017

 

Présentation de la communication

«Mortality is an essential component of human nature.

Yet, literature, films and other forms of popular culture are replete with examples of figures who occupy liminal spaces. Such as the space between life and death. And they thus challenge the very nature of these boundaries which they transgress. 

Two shining examples that illustrate dilemmas related to such representations can be seen in the Fox television series Fringe, trough a character named Alistair Peck (who appears in the White Tulip episode), and in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation with the character of Marcus Wright played by Sam Worthington. 

Both of these characters complicate binaries between life and death as well between human/Posthuman, man/machine and thinking/programming. Moreover, both Wright and Peck challenge conventional views on moralityIndeed, both Wright and Peck work well as cases in points to illustrate how messy ontological categories can get.»

 

Archive audio de la communication

Referenced author(s) and artist(s):
To cite this document:
Humann, Heather Duerre. 2017. “The ethics of (im)mortality: technology and the post-human body in Fringe and Terminator: Salvation”. Within Figures de l’immortel(le). Symposium hosted by Revue Post-Scriptum. Montréal, Université de Montréal, 27 avril 2017. Document vidéo. Available online: l’Observatoire de l’imaginaire contemporain. <https://oic.uqam.ca/en/communications/the-ethics-of-immortality-technology-and-the-post-human-body-in-fringe-and-terminator>. Accessed on May 1, 2023.
Research Areas:
Historical Periodization:
Fields of Discipline:
Problematics:
Objects and Cultural Practices:
Figures and Imaginary:
Classification