Virtual Colloquium: Johanna Mehl – Cyborg Troubles. Ecological Design and the Technological Fix

In this week’s session of the Virtual Colloquium we will have Johanna Mehl as our guest. Her talk is titled “Cyborg Troubles. Ecological Design and the Technological Fix”.

In this talk I will interrogate two ecological cyborgs that look alike and sound alike, though they are two very different creatures. One is stargazing, the other one earthbound. One is confined in small spaces, the other exposed and open. One is a prosthetic god, one is trans-corporeal. Survival and Vulnerability. Technocracy and insurgence. 

Tracing my encounters with critical posthumanism throughout my practices as a designer, scholar, and educator, I will introduce the work of the Design+Posthuman Network and talk about my current research about environmental design practices via the cyborgs they accommodate.

Johanna Mehl (she/her) is interested in the politics and relations that take shape through and around design practices. She holds a B.A. in Communication Design from the Niederrhein University of Applied Science and an M.A. in Art and Design Studies from the University of the Arts Folkwang, Essen. Besides her artistic and curatorial practice, she has taught in the fields of digital media, culture studies, and design theory at different design schools across Europe. She holds a research associate position at TU Dresden where she is a PhD candidate at the Chair for Digital Cultures.

For the speakers list of this semester and for information on registration, please have a look here.