Oct 7, 2018
Posthumanist performativity
In summary notes to Barad’s Posthumanist performativity, S.A. Colclough summarizes that “Agential realism is an alternative to representationalist ontologies that split “semiotic” from “material” reality.
Performativity is defined by K. Barad as “a contestation of the unexamined habits of the mind that grant language and other forms of representation more power in determining our ontologies than they deserve” (K. Barad, “Posthumanist Performativity:Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter.” p.802)
matter is not a 'substance' but intra-activity
“agency” is not an exclusively human attribute, but rather the “enactment of iterative changes” across macro/microscopic levels of matter (P.826)