Hauntology of the machinic

Abstract

The chapter observes the distinction between the mechanical and the machinic, and moves beyond the metaphors of android (Metropolis), or cyborg (Donna Haraway), and considers how the machinic has brought new cognitive patterns for human subjects to interact with their environment and others. Artists' dislocation from the central agent of production has opened passages for the posthuman mode of production. Consequently, the machine has become an integral part of artwork and of the artist. Contrary to this development, some artists retain the machine's materiality as a form of Other. The chapter argues that the machine remains as a form of externalization of the Other within the human subject.