Humans, animals and machines in modern and contemporary art

In mid-1980s feminist historian of science Donna Haraway famously wrote: “Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.” In this 5-session course we explore how humans, animals, machines, and various hybrid creatures are represented in artworks from the early twentieth-century avant-garde to contemporary art. We will study how technological developments have changed our image of what it means to be human, as well as animal. We will discuss the political and philosophical questions generated by changes in the use of human and animal bodies in art and beyond in the course of the last century. This includes examining the focus on animals, both imaginary and real, as images, as dead objects, and even as living actors in works of art.

The course is structured around lectures and class discussions starting with art movements such as Futurism, Constructivism, Dadaism, Surrealism and finishing with the most recent multi-media works. Some of the artists we discuss include Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Umberto Boccioni, Natalia Goncharova, Lyubov Popova, Max Ernst, Joseph Beuys, Valie Export, Rebecca Horn, Mona Hatoum, Mariko Mori, Orlan, Stelarc, John Isaacs, and Patricia Piccinini.