This article aims to highlight how Oiticica engaged with significant issues surrounding the political and aesthetic challenges of underdevelopment, popular culture, and the formation of a Brazilian artistic system. To this end, we will revisit some of his works, specifically: (i) Metaesquemas (1956–1958); (ii) Relevos espaciais (1959–1960); (iii) Núcleos (1960–1966); (iv) Penetráveis (1961–1980); (v) Bólides (1963–1979); (vi) Parangolés (1964–1979); and (vii) Tropicália (1967). We suggest that Oiticica played a crucial role in constructing a Brazilian image of art in the world, although this process was not without contradictions.

The present article approaches two post-Yugoslav literary texts, Zovite me Esteban (Call Me Esteban) by Lejla Kalamujić (2015) and U zoni (In the Zone) by Lamija Begagić (2016), through the conceptual lens of queer utopian hermeneutics by José Esteban Muñoz. Focusing closely on a few moments/chapters from the texts, it aims to sketch out one way of recognizing futurity and hope in post-Yugoslav literary narratives. At the beginning, the article explores how queer desire produces ecstatic moments in the chapter/story “Bella Ciao” from Zovite me Esteban. Remembering the ecstatic moments further nurtures the narrator’s utopic imagination, as well as her emotional recovery, propelling the narrative forward. In the next section, the article analyzes how queer desire generates joys of gender dissidence and the pleasures of collective belonging, serving as glimpses of future in the present in the novel U zoni. Ultimately, the analysis reveals that both texts suggest queer futurity is inextricably linked to the knowledge of the past, specifically of the local anti-fascist heritage, offering a distinct regional perspective on the concept of queer time.

This essay contrasts two different approaches in media theory. One approach is traced back to Immanuel Kant’s understanding of the Enlightenment as progress toward human autonomy. For Kant, the “public use of reason” in the mass media of his time (books and journals) was essential for bringing about enlightened individuals and an enlightened society. In the wake of Kant, “critical media theory” until today often normatively questions in how far the media empower or undermine agency and authenticity. A different theoretical approach, represented by Marshall McLuhan and Niklas Luhmann, conceives of the media as conditioning human experience and emerging in the context of historical and technological evolution rather than viewing them through an Enlightenment lens. A contemporary version of such an “emergent media theory” can describe the media as a virtual second-order observation reality enabling the curation of profiles.

The integration of AI, particularly deep learning, has significantly altered the landscape of photography, offering tools that redefine workflows and expand creative horizons. AI enables photographers to create new images and manipulate existing ones, thereby pushing the boundaries of artistic expression. However, this capability also raises concerns about the blurring of lines between authorship and originality. This research investigates AI's impact on traditional photography, with a focus on creativity and authorship, particularly through technologies like GANs and AICAN. The study examines how AI-generated images challenge the distinction between reality and fiction, influencing the art and reshaping concepts of creativity in AI-produced works. As the distinction between truth and falsehood becomes increasingly blurred in a world of misinformation, the research explores AI’s role in deepening this crisis. The research problem centers on the need to re-evaluate the role of photographers as AI takes over many photographic tasks, raising questions about how this technology redefines artistic creativity, authenticity, and authorship. The study questions whether artistic vision and the human touch will remain crucial or if the focus will shift toward collaborative creativity between humans and AI. The significance of this research lies in its ability to provide insights into AI’s impact on photography, helping navigate the future of this art form. This research aims to analyze the artistic and expressive qualities of concrete examples of artificial intelligence applications in photography, as well as to deconstruct the concepts of art, creativity, authorship, and authenticity in photographic artworks considering modern technology.

Understanding the concept of representation as a key factor involved in the process of meaning production in a society, can help us answer the following questions: what does the concept of representation mean in the context of constituting and producing political power, what does the process of representation entail, and how does it function? Our focus will be on the idea that political power is produced through regimes of verbal and visual representation that actively shape our perception of reality, including existing social norms and values. Representation is not only the result of certain social tendencies and changes, but also their instigator. The status of a ruler is determined not only based on their historical or social relevance, but also on how they are represented. In shaping the perception of a ruler as a legitimate holder of power, representation often plays a more dominant role than the subject itself. We will treat the concepts of power and representation as interdependent and interconnected variables. We will pay attention to how their reciprocal subordination produces two effects: the institution of power appropriates representation as something inherently its own, and representation is actually what transfers its power onto it.

Louisiana

Contemporary art, reflecting present-day realities, adapts to the evolving social, technological, and societal changes in developed and capitalist-oriented countries. This adaptation involves breaking down disciplinary boundaries and embracing trans-tactics, where knowledge from diverse fields informs artistic creation. Art becomes a multifaceted endeavor, engaging with political, social, and ecological issues, contributing to deeper creativity and consumer engagement. The fusion of science, technology, and art raises ethical and aesthetic questions, particularly regarding the use of sustainable materials and environmental impact. Meanwhile, artists explore natural and cultural complexities, emphasizing political dimensions like ecology, sustainability, and social justice. Projects such as Silenthio Pathologia and Haruspex by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva exemplify these themes, inspiring discussions on eco-social crises and sustainable practices.

In recent decades, part of the human sciences has been dedicated to rethinking the separations between subjects and objects, or, in another sense, between nature and culture. If, in part of the Western context, this separation guaranteed the ontological primacy of subjects, other strands of thought have sought to rediscover the interactions between subjects and objects, including finding ways to establish the conditions of autonomy of objects by themselves. In particular and turning to the cultural context and the production of objects in capitalist societies, we ask about the conditions of autonomy of commodities. Depending on the perspective we adopt, the commodity loses its economic attribute, reappearing with other constitutive meanings. In this paper, we trace a brief conceptual course about the separations between subjects and objects and the contemporary interpretations that intend to undo such separation. First, we start with Sigmund Freud’s critical comments about the animistic practices of indigenous people and Karl Marx’s comments about commodity fetishism. According to Peter Stallybrass (2009), Marx would not be antagonistic to the fetish as a possible cultural form, but solely a critic of the commodity fetish in capitalist societies. Losing its harmful character, the fetish reappears as a potential agent of relations between human and non-human bodies, according to Latour (2005). Finally, we speculate on the commodity-object to reactivate the interlacements between subjects and objects in contemporaneity.

Earth’s climate is ever changing; yet for the first time in our planet’s history, Homo sapiens are the primary agents of this change. With this realization in mind, some geologists hope to rename our current terrestrial epoch the Anthropocene. Critical theorists have responded with alternate names – such as the Capitalocene or the Plantationocene – that point directly to the kinds of human activity that have led our planet to its current predicament. This paper begins with the premise that we are currently living through what environmental philosopher and multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway has named the Chthulucene: the age of monsters. If rationalocentric thinking of Enlightened Man helped bring about the Anthropocene, then what kind of worlds can emerge by turning away from Man and towards a radical reimagining of ourselves as monsters? What can chthonic stories teach us about how to live and die well together during a time of mass extinction? Drawing primarily from the emerging interdisciplinary field of art, science, and technology studies (ASTS), this paper offers a creatively narrated analysis of three chthonic narratives: Cold War satirical film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Octavia E. Butler’s post-nuclear-apocalyptic novel Dawn, and my own psychotic episodes involving nuclear apocalypse. These narratives, along with the Chthulucene itself, challenge the Western cultural distinction between the real and the imagined in order to make room for radical forms of relationality that can change how we Earthly beings identify, respond to, and care for each other as we collectively move through our planetary crisis and into other possible worlds.