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Emerging brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) such as Neuralink have profoundly contributed to the social/political imaginaries of western techno-scientific culture. Though currently focused on medical devices that would enable people with quadriplegia to mentally manipulate computer interfaces, ‘cure’ blindness and ‘solve’ autism and schizophrenia, Neuralink ultimately aims to ‘replace the cell phone’ with BCI as the dominant human–technology interface. Inspired by Eli Clare, this article argues that Neuralink’s emphasis on ‘solving’ bodymind troubles with invasive technology smuggles in a pernicious aesthetic of cure – a political aesthetic which treats disabled human bodies and, by extension, humanity itself as something to be transcended, fixed, normalized and overcome. In contrast, this article proposes a cyborganaesthetics, a human–technology framework that does not follow logics of bodily transcendence or overcoming. Riffing on Cressida Heyes’s definition of ‘anaesthetics’ as liminal practices that resist neo-liberalism’s emphasis on productivity and progress, and through the artistic practices of Mallory Kay Nelson and Marco Donnarumma, this article explores the anaesthetics of cure evident in cyborg transgressions, i.e. cyborg and cripborg artistic practices that do not strive towards bodily liberation, overcoming or transcendence, but instead take the body as constitutive for human being and as a locus of exploration, experimentation, cooperation and resistance.
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This content will become publicly available on May 6, 2026
Co‐playwriting between screens: The aesthetics of access in multimodal anthropology
Abstract Foregrounding two original plays about Turner Syndrome written in collaboration with an interlocutor with the genetic condition, this article explores the aesthetic dissonance that emerged while co‐playwriting via Skype and Google Docs. Foregrounding the aesthetic sensibilities and conventions, normative representational concerns, and sensuous knowledges interrogated and produced in the process, this article exemplifies how multimodal collaborations are enmeshed in considerations of access in anthropology that promote ethical discovery and transformation with our interlocutors. To extend this process to the reader, excerpts fromSomeone to Talk ToandHope Deferredare presented in visual dialogue with commentary from the playwriting process.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1947845
- PAR ID:
- 10625857
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Visual Anthropology Review
- Volume:
- 41
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1058-7187
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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