MobileAcademy

At the Table - Narratives on the Technological, the Imagined, and the Dead Body

A dialogue installation in 5 acts by Mobile Academy Berlin as part of the Episodes of the South by the Goethe-Institut.

The project assembles narratives of the ongoing conglomeration between bodies and implantations, between humans and devices, of the interfaces between the human body with artefacts and different technologies.

Technological modifications to and transformations of the body seem sensible and legitimate whenever they have a therapeutic or socially integrative character, for example a cardiac pacemaker, a set of dentures, or a leg prosthesis. Nevertheless, the question inevitably arises as to where the boundary needs to be drawn regarding this self-reshaping. At what point should the problems of resources and social justice take priority over the right to self-optimization? Does – ultimately – the desire for self-transformation correspond to the logic of a global ideology of growth that fantasizes itself into an intricately networked, neoliberal, appallingly unjust, militarized future? Or can we imagine fantastic techno-bodies, cyborgs, which propagate recognition of difference and are able to coalesce machines, the organic, desire, and the imagination?

Experts from different disciplines take a seat at the table and tell of the transformative potential – through technology and fictions – of our bodies. We begin with the dead, the bodies forgotten and unidentifiable, in which our future lies buried. This is followed by dialogues on bodies with disabilities which challenge our technological and social possibilities. And we end with the desires for and the imagining of bodies that are on the threshold of something different, a nascent form of existence that potentially fuses with other humans, animals, gods, and machines.

Take a seat at the table. Or take part in the image karaoke and let us interpret those inexplicable images of bodies together.

Episodes of the South is a project initiated by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with Sesc which reflects metaphoric, cultural, social, historic and political dimensions of the so called 'South'.

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all Photos: Camila Picolo

15:00
The narration of the bones: The body as a mnemonic device
Dialogue : Clara Ianni & Luiz Fontes

16:15
The 2006 Disability Act and the 2010 Anti-Inclusion Manifesto - How the right to imperfection is challenging society
Dialogue: Estela Lapponi & Marta Almeida Gil

17:30
Deep Brain Stimulation I: Neural prostheses for Parkinson’s disease
Dialogue: Erich Fonoff & Victor Rosetto Barboza

18:30
Deep Brain Stimulation II: Neural prostheses for depression
Dialogue: Christian Dunker & Erich Fonoff

19:30
Shamanism as a Technology of the Body: How to approach virtual worlds, information, and inter-species relationship
Dialogue: Fabiane M. Borges & Laymert Garcia dos Santos

20:45 Current speculations and anticipations on a future body
Dialogue: Amara Moira & Jean Wyllys & Laerte Coutinho

Every dialogue is followed by a 20 minute discussion with the following hecklers and guests: Max Hinderer Jorge Cruz, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, Benjamin Serroussi, Marcia Tiburi, and Rita Wu.

Dialogues and discussion in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English. Free entrance

Amara Moira is a writer, transgender prostitute and activist. She is currently acquiring her PhD in Theory of Literature at the University of Campinas. She is the author of the blog What if I was a prostitute in which she writes about her experiences as a prostitute in the city of São Paulo and raises questions related to transfobia and prostitution.

Born in Paris, France, Benjamin Seroussi now lives in São Paulo, Brazil and works as a curator, editor and cultural manager. He is currently the director of Casa do Povo and curator at Vila Itororó. Both projects consist in developing cultural institutions based on collective management techniques, in a close dialogue with their respective surroundings and wider urban issues, aiming to reach local and international relevance. Seroussi holds a Masters in Sociology (Ecole Normale Supérieure and Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), and a Masters in Cultural Management (Sciences-Po). He was deputy director at Centro da Cultura Judaica [Jewish Cultural Center], São Paulo, from 2009 to 2012; associate curator at the 31st Biennial of São Paulo How To (...) Things That Don't Exist, in 2014; and lectures regularly on curating and cultural management.

Christian Ingo Lenz Dunker is a psychoanalyst and professor at the Department of Clinical Psychology of the Psychology Institute at the University of São Paulo (USP). He completed his habilitation thesis in Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis (Department of Clinical Psychology, 2011) and his postdoctoral training at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is an Analyst Member of the School (A.M.E.) of the Lacanian Field Forum. He coordinates the Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Social Theory Interunit Lab at USP (LATESFIP), he is the author of “Mal-Estar, Sofrimento e Sintoma” (Boitempo, 2015), “The Constitution of the Psychoanalytic Clinic - a history of its structure ad power” (London: Karnac, 2010), “O Cálculo Neurótico do Gozo” (Escuta, 20002), and “Lacan e a Clínica da Interpretação” (Hacker, 1996). Columnist and regular contributor for several newspapers and magazines, he conducts research on clinical psychoanalysis of Lacanian orientation, and its relations with Language Sciences and Philosophy.

Clara Ianni has completed a BFA in Visual Arts at the University of São Paulo and an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin, with a DAAD scholarship. Clara has worked as assistant of the curator Regis Michel, at the Louvre Museum, and as assistant in the 7th Berlin Biennale, curated by Artur Zmijewski, together with Joanna Warsza, and Voina. She is also a member and contributor of Krytyka Polityczna. Her work is based on the use of several media such as video, installation, intervention, sculpture and texts and her research focuses on the relationship between art and politics, exploring its ideological implications.

Erich Fonoff studied medicine at the Medical School of the University of São Paulo and later did his medical residency in Neurosurgery at the Hospital das Clinicas, FMUSP, specializing in the Division of Functional Neurosurgery at the Hospital das Clinicas, FMUSP (2004-2006). Fonoff holds a PhD from the Department of Neurology FMUSP, and acquired a Full-Professor chair at the same University with research on Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as treatment for Parkinson’s Disease. His current work is based on functional neurosurgical treatment for neuropsychiatric diseases and the anatomical and physiological mapping of the nervous system.

Estela Lapponi is a São Paulo-based artist who creates authorial works in contemporary dance, performance, and visual arts. In 1992 she started in the field of the Performing Arts as a stage actress, in 2004, as a videographer, and in 2005, as a dancer. Since 2009, she has investigated artistically and conceptually the terminology she created while living in the region of Marche, Italy – “Corpointruso” -, in which she advocates taking a different stance regarding everything that is outside normalizing standards. From this term she has developed a series of performances which she has presented in several Brazilian states as well as in different countries. http://zuleikabrit.blogspot.com.br/. She is the creator of the program Second Performance, held in partnership with the Palace Carmelita. http://www.casadezuleika.com/. In 2010, she wrote the Manifesto ANTI-Inclusion.

Fabiane M. Borges who has a PhD in clinical psychology is also an essayist and an artist. Her research focuses on Space-art, art and technology, shamanism, performance , and subjectivity. She is one of the articulators of the technoshamanism network and Technoshamanism Festival. Connecting traditional cultures with DIY (do it yourself) culture is one of her biggest interest at the moment. Using her practical and theoretical experience she has worked with indigenous communities, patients from psychiatric clinics, sex professionals, women newly out of prison, homeless, beggars, and the landless whose borders lines and fights create the political and social consistence of her work. Fabiane has writen a book titled Domínios do Demasiado (Realm of Excess), Ed. Hucitec/2010, and Breviário de Pornografia Esquizotrans (Porn Esquizotrans Breviary), Ex. Libris 2010, and is now organizing two more, one about Space-art, and the other on Technoshamanism. http://catahistorias.wordpress.com.

Jean Wyllys is a lecturer, journalist, and a politician who has an MA in Linguistics from the Federal University of Bahia. He was a professor of Brazilian Culture and Communication Theory at the Faculty ESPM (Rio de Janeiro). Wyllys rose to fame after winning the fifth season of Big Brother Brazil. He was the first openly gay participant in the show, which caused a lot of controversy amongst fans and participants alike. He is also notable as Brazil's second openly gay member of the parliament. In 2010, he was elected federal MP representative of the Socialist and Freedom Party, and is currently a member of the Parliamentary Front in Defense of LGBT rights.

Laerte Coutinho is a recognized and respected cartoonist and caricaturist, who has collaborated with several publications such as Balão, O Pasquim, and Chiclete com Banana magazines, and draws regularly for Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. She has created several comic strip characters, such as Piratas do Tietê (The Pirates of Tietê River). Laerte was part of the Brazilian underground comics scene of the 1980s, together with Angeli and Glauco (and later Adão Iturrusgarai), with whom she drew the collaborative comic strip Los Três Amigos. She regularly releases albums with collections of her strips, mainly published by Devir Livraria and L&PM Pocket. At age 57 she started gender transitioning thus opening a profound discussion about gender identity in Brazil. She is currently the co-founder of the institution ABRAT (Brazilian Association of Transgender).

Laymert Garcia dos Santos is an essayist and university lecturer in the field of sociology and technology at the Campinas University, UNICAMP, São Paulo. He has lived in Paris in the 1970s and gained a PhD in information technology at the University of Paris Diderot, and between 1992 and 1993 he has been Visiting Professor at the St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. He has published on the topics of art culture and technology, and has written a number of books, among which are “Tempo de Ensaio” (Essay Time) and “Politizar as Novas Tecnologias: o impacto so´cio-te´cnico da informac¸a~o digital e gene´tica” (Politicising New Technologies-The Social and Technical Impact of Digital and Genetic Information). He organized Druchsache N.F.6., a German- Portuguese volume on Heiner Müller for the International Heiner Müller Gesellschaft and Richter Verlag in 2001, and published several essays on contemporary art for magazines such as Parachute, Zehar, Via Regia, aut aut, as well as for many catalogues.

Luiz Roberto de Oliveira Fontes is both a doctor of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Forensic Anthropology. As a forensic anthropologist his interest lies in diagnosing the cause and the approximate time of death, and the human identification in cases that are hard to solve by conventional methods.

Marcia Tiburi studied philosophy and visual arts. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Rio Grande do Sul and a PhD in Philosophy from the same University. She has published many books on philosophy, biopolitics, aesthetics and ethics. Amongst them are As Mulheres e a Filosofia [Women and Philosophy] (Ed. Unisinos, 2002), Filosofia Cinza – a melancolia e o corpo nas dobras da escrita [Grey Philosophy – melancholy and the body in the foldings of writing] (Escritos, 2004); Mulheres, Filosofia ou Coisas do Gênero [Women, Philosophy or Gender Issues](EDUNISC, 2008), and also fictions such as Magnólia (2005), A Mulher de Costas (2006), O Manto (2009), and Era meu esse Rosto (Record, 2012). She was one of the hostesses of Saia Justa, exhibited at GNT television channel, a program aimed to discuss questions about and relating to women. She is a professor at the Post-Graduation Program in Education, Art and History of Culture at the Mackenzie University of Sao Paulo.

Marta Almeida Gil is a sociologist who since 1976 has been working to create wider visibility and provide information about and for persons with disabilities. In the 1990s she has set up the Saci network of information (www.saci.org.br) for and about persons with varying types of disabilities. Her aim is to develop the knowledge necessary to understand the extent and nature of the handicaps which affect so many of Brazil's citizens - knowledge important both to form inclusive public policies and, hopefully, to challenge long-standing attitudes towards people with a disability.

Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz works as a writer, editor, cultural theorist, and curator, specializing in aesthetics, political philosophy, colonial economy, psychoactive substances, and Brazilian 20th century art. From 2008-2011 he was curator of the exhibition and publication project "Principio Potosí / The Potosí Principle" (together with Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann), presented at Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and Museo Nacional de Arte / MUSEF in La Paz. Recent projects include the edition and translation of Hélio Oiticica's writings, published as the exhibition catalogue "Hélio Oiticica. Das große Labyrinth / The Great Labyrinth", co-edited with Susanne Gaensheimer, Peter Gorschlüter and Cesar Oiticica Filho (Hatje Cantz / MMK Museum of Modern Art Frankfurt 2013); and the essay collection "Art and the Critique of Ideology After 1989?, co-edited with Eva Birkenstock, Jens Kastner and Ruth Sonderegger (Walther Koenig Books / Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2014). Since 2014, together with Suely Rolnik, Amilcar Packer and Pedro Cesarino, he has been the program coordinator of P.A.C.A. (Program for Autonomous Cultural Action São Paulo).

Rita Wu is an artist, designer and programmer who studied Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (USP). She is a researcher in the DeVIR group (Design, Environments, and Interface) and DIGIFAB-USP (Group of Research into Digital Fabrication), both at USP. Rita also participates in the Lab of Social Theory, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at the Institute of Psychology of USP and the Faculty of Philosophy, Language and Literature, and Human Sciences. She is currently researching technology and sexuality on how technology can improve/change human relations and the way people relate to sex. She runs a group on facebook called TECHNOPORN where she frequently posts on the theme. In her works she explores the relation among body, space, and technology, investigating the expansion that technology can bring to our space perception through wearable interfaces.

Rodrigo Maltez Novaes is a visual artist designer, translator, and editor. He is the translator and editor of the first English editions of several titles by Vilém Flusser, and after five years as a Resident Research Fellow at the Vilém Flusser Archive at the University of the Arts, Berlin, he now heads the long-term project for the translation and publication of Flusser's work from Brazilian-Portuguese into English, to be published with Univocal Publishing, USA, and Metaflux Publishing, UK. With a BA from the University of Gloucestershire and an MA from the University of the Arts in London, his main areas of activity are painting, philosophy, media, and communication. Rodrigo is currently a doctoral candidate at the European Graduate School and the director of Metaflux Publishing.

Victor Rossetto Barboza graduated in medicine and neurosurgery from Santa Casa de São Paulo. Then, he began a one-year medical residency in functional neurosurgery at Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo, in which he received training in surgical treatment of pain and movement disorder. Since 2015 he has been part of the Pain Group for pain treatment at the Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo. He is currently working with deep brain stimulation (DBS) in cases of epilepsy, pain in traumatic spine lesion and Parkinson’s disease.