Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation

Paula Gaetano Adi, 2020
15’ 

The video essay Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation is an urgent call to endorse a robot ‘general strike’ that will overthrow the instrumental definition of both technology and humans, while disowning the ‘white man’ as the measure for the definition of humanity. The visual manifesto asserts the importance of unlearning the imperialisms performed by modern robotic and AI technologies that reinforce the racial and colonial logic that maintain social hierarchies and inequality, while upholding the techno-liberal project that promises revolutionary liberation from labour exploitation.

 

Fusing archival and found-footage material, animation, composite imagery and first-person voiceover, the film is divided into three acts: (I) Robots on Strike: Robocalypses Reenacted; (II) Robots Beyond Instrumentality: Humanity Reconquered, and (III) Robots in the Pluriverse: Animism Reloaded. All three acts touch on the central political challenges and aesthetic needs of our time –the decolonisation of the machine and an act of radical imagination that can reclaim pre-colonial ontologies, epistemologies and the technologies of non-destructive modes of life.

Hammam

Hammam

Cura

Cura

Dark Origins

Dark Origins

Stream of Consciousness / The Caves of Hasankeyf

Stream of Consciousness / The Caves of Hasankeyf

Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation

Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation

Behind Shirley

Behind Shirley

Party on the CAPS

Party on the CAPS

Undercurrent

Undercurrent

Female Attires from the Perspective of Painters

Female Attires from the Perspective of Painters

Due to its existence behind closed doors, the lifestyle and attires of the women in the Harem have been one of the most fascinating topics for western painters and art enthusiasts alike.

Postcard Nudes

Postcard Nudes

The various states of viewing nudity entered the Ottoman world on postcards before paintings. These postcards appeared in the 1890s, and became widespread in the 1910s, following the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, traveling from hand to hand, city to city. 

Fluid Rego

Fluid Rego

While Paula Rego belatedly was recognised as one of the leading feminist pioneers of her age, little has been written about her exploration of fluid sexuality. Indeed the current of sado-masochism in her drawings and paintings, has tended to encourage an understanding as a classic clash between the patriarchy and exploited women.