{"product_id":"spectacular-posthumanism-drew-ayers-9781501373824","title":"Spectacular Posthumanism: The Digital Vernacular of Visual Effects","description":"\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003eexamines the ways in which VFX imagery fantasizes about digital disembodiment while simultaneously reasserting the importance of the lived body. Analyzing a wide range of case studies-including the films of David Cronenberg and Stanley Kubrick, image technologies such as performance capture and crowd simulation, \u003ci\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTerminator: Genisys\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePlanet Earth\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003e300\u003c\/i\u003e-Ayers builds on Miriam Hansen's concept of \"vernacular modernism\" to argue that the \"vernacular posthumanism\" of these media objects has a phenomenological impact on viewers. As classical Hollywood cinema initiated viewers into the experience of modernism, so too does the VFX image initiate viewers into digital, posthuman modes of thinking and being. Ayers's innovative close-reading of popular, mass-market media objects reveals the complex ways that these popular media struggle to make sense of humanity's place within the contemporary world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e argues that special and visual effects images produce a digital, posthuman vernacular, one which generates competing fantasies about the utopian and dystopian potential of a nonhuman future. As humanity grapples with such heady issues as catastrophic climate change, threats of anonymous cyber warfare, an increasing reliance on autonomous computing systems, genetic manipulation of both humans and nonhumans, and the promise of technologically enhanced bodies, the anxieties related to these issues register in popular culture. Through the process of compositing humans and nonhumans into a seemingly seamless whole, digital images visualize a utopian fantasy in which flesh and information might easily coexist and cohabitate with each other. These images, however, also exhibit the dystopic anxieties that develop around this fantasy. Relevant to our contemporary moment, \u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e both diagnoses and offers a critique of this fantasy, arguing that this posthuman imagination overlooks the importance of embodiment and lived experience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Drew Ayers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 150137382X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501373824\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Continnuum-3PL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/29\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.78lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.55d","brand":"Drew Ayers","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47200757907711,"sku":"9781501373824","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8102cfda-a3de-4c32-8c15-a5736c67a6e3.jpg?v=1756787776","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/spectacular-posthumanism-drew-ayers-9781501373824","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}