Post-Anthropocene: Libidinal Foldings
Building upon IFPA’s ongoing research, which persistently aims to highlight the most complex issues regarding humanity within the contemporary post-digital era, we view artistic creation as a radical poetic, social, and political act. Combined with a lucid philosophical and psychoanalytic discourse in relation to scientific evolution, our post-digital reality calls us to transition our thinking toward the Post-Anthropocene condition. Thus, we approach the concept of Post-humanism and, consequently, the body in its hybrid essence and its libidinal foldings.
Post-humanism refers to a philosophical and cultural logic that re-examines the boundaries of the human body, identity, and lived experience in conjunction with rapid technological advancement. Within this framework, sexuality—or the libidinal state—holds a significant position, as it is directly linked to the body, desire, pleasure, and the constitution of subjectivity. The relationship between post-humanism and sexuality is not merely technological but deeply political, social, and philosophical.
A crucial intersection of post-humanism and sexuality is the partial decoupling of desire from the biological body. This involves so-called digital sexuality, virtual bodies, and relationships with non-human entities (such as gendered robots or digital companions). In the post-humanist context, the sexual experience is not limited to physical contact but can be mediated by technological means, extending forms of pleasure and emotional bonding. The question arises as to whether the immediate experience of the living body in living space can be replaced, even partially.
However, the relationship between post-humanism and sexuality within this framework is fraught with concerns and questions regarding the commercialization of the body through its reification (objectification). Moreover, inequality in technological access and the risk of new forms of control and imposed normalization constitute serious ethical and socio-political problematics. Thus, instead of being liberated, sexuality may become subordinated to algorithms, data, and standards that reproduce power structures.
