Animus: In his book entitled Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility, Ashon Crawley points to the “ongoing act of racial animus, anti-black racism, violent policing, policing as segregation and the implementation of dispossession and displacement as policy that structures life in the United States” (1). This feeling of hostility permeates the societal infrastructure that is meant to protect all citizens. I believe this use of “animus” more closely relates to the derivative “animosity”; yes, it is a driving force but it is one that fuels negative emotion.
This word comes from the Latin word “animus” (pronounced ah-nee-moose), which translates literally to heart or soul. Sometimes the word mind is even used to indicate an immaterial part of the self. Today, we get the word “animate”, which carries a positive connotation.
Embodied Practice: In the reading “What Can a Body Do?” by Ben Spatz and the subsequent 900 room movement exercises, the core of embodied practice is to take a step into the body and understand its power to alter itself. This can be movement, spatial position, speed, perception, the act of being perceived, and so much more. There continues to be novelty, things never done within one’s own body. We don’t know everything our bodies can do because we simply haven’t done everything. Specifically related to the exercises, there was an aspect of mindfulness–of grounding the mind into the body. Realizing that the mind is a function of the body (in Spatz’s view) is what allows the connection to flow.
An example of this is found in Susan Bennett’s “On the Threshold of Theater”. She outlines the history of the theater in that it was both a spectacle to see the production but also one to be seen. With the interplay of spectator and “spec-actor”, there is a reclamation of agency. To embody one is to conform to the historical and societal expectations; to embody the other is to be aware of one’s place, both as the audience and the attraction.
Cyborg: In her manifesto aptly titled “The Cyborg Manifesto”, Donna Haraway outlines the futuristic, intersectional identity known as the cyborg. She defines it first as being “resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity. It is oppositional, utopian, and completely without innocence.” While this is a complex definition, the cyborg is meant to be the embodiment of a superior identity. It is an identity that does not totalize or limit others, encompassing every possible facet.
In The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang, there are these cyborgian, digital entities known as “digients”. A combination of digital and sentient, these are beings that have self awareness and grow with each interaction. They experience emotion and in the work, it is debated whether or not these entities are subject to certain inalienable rights. The cyborg in this case is the literal combination of animal and digital technology. Though because these beings exist in a virtual world, there is more credence given to their technological aspects.
Morality: In their conversation, James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni described morality as “a certain sense of life which everybody needs” or an “energy” of some sort or another. Similar to the above definition of “animus”, they believe morality is the motivating factor within each individual. It’s what drives choices to be made and inspires the empathy that they believe human beings should have.
In his 2013 work entitled “Collective Responsibility”, Kenneth Shockley described morality as involving “being the proper subject of praise or blame”. It revolves around intentions and attitude–a more reactive perspective than Baldwin and Giovanni’s. He brings moral responsibility into question, explaining that it has to be brought about by a set intention with the awareness of that intention. Similar to the first definition, it acts in respect to internal processes, but it also encompasses an idea of external judgment.
Objectification: Martha Nussbaum, a proponent of judgment theory, outlines a list of possible ways of objectification. The mechanism of treating human subjects like objects or denying them their humanity is nuanced. Some of the most recognizable ways would be what she calls “Ownership” and “Denial of Subjectivity”. These are characterized as acting as if the subject is a commodity of sorts and treating the subject as if their emotions/feelings need not be taken into account.
As Foucault explains in “Docile Bodies”, the body is constantly objectified, recognizing “the body as object and target of power”. In a society that is constantly surveillance and policed, the body is delineated into smaller and smaller categories until the holistic view of the person is lost. Instead of Nussbaum’s objectification, this is something to which we are all subjected.
Patois: Defined by Shane White and Graham White in their “To Translate Everyday Experiences into Living Sound”, patois is the dialect of the common people or the vernacular used (as the title indicates) in day to day interactions. It differs from slang in the sense that it occupies the space of its own language. In the reading, they spoke of the calls and music that functioned as its own communication system. Emphasis was placed on rhythm, pitch changes, or tones as opposed to words and lyrics.
In the 2019 BBC article “Why the Future of French is African”, patois is referenced as the linguistic landscape becomes a blend of French, Arabic, English, Pidgin, and Mandarin. In more detail the author writes “They [the speakers] bring with them entirely different linguistic backgrounds that will shape the future of French.” As the world becomes more interconnected, the boundaries of language become ever more blurred.
Patterns: The idea that the material that makes up something changes but it still has the same pattern (given the name “Patternism”) was introduced in Susan Schneider’s “Could You Merge with AI?”. Simply, individualism and self-identity revolve around the fact that “you” are made of the same hypothetical material. For example, the pattern that water makes in a stream; it’s different water rushing by each second, but the pattern it makes/exhibits allows it to claim the identity of that same stream. This idea is a blend of “computational approach” and the more traditional “psychological continuity” view.
In section, we discussed a phenomenon known as apophenia, which is the human tendency to identify patterns or connections that might not even exist. Our minds have an innate desire to relate everything to what we’ve previously seen and relate those experiences to each other, categorizing them. This is why we believe in the existence of a “self” and why we anthropomorphize inanimate objects.
The Self: In her piece “Machine Minds”, Amy Kind explores whether or not a computer can think. Simply, whether or not it has consciousness or self-awareness. There have been claims of “self-thinking” and “sentient” machines, but none have been recognized as such; they are cast off as rumors, hoaxes, or incredibly complex programming. Through thought experiments, she makes the reader question their own sense of self. She touches on emotion and feeling, the behaviors that humans and thinking organisms display.
Susan Blackmore goes into more detail on the human perception of the self in her book Consciousness: An Introduction. In chapter 16 entitled “Egos, Bundles, and Theories”, she outlines the multiple theories of self, presenting what is known as the ego theory and the bundle theory. “The Self” is a deeply pondered subject, one that is unique among almost all who theorize about it. But there exist two camps: there is a self and there is not a self. In one instance, there is a continuous self that is the subject of experiences. In the other, there is only that experience; there is no unified self that can be tied to it.
