In the September 2023 issue of Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne, I co-authored, alongside Nicolas Ballet and Juliette Bessette, an article titled Humain, plus qu’humain : Représenter le corps sous influence technologique (Human, More Than Human: Representing the Body Under Technological Influence), accompanied by a visual portfolio. Together, we explore how technological advances are transforming the representation of the body in contemporary art, oscillating between hybridization, alteration, and the surpassing of biological limits.
Article reference:
Nicolas Ballet, Juliette Bessette, Jessica Ragazzini, “Humain, plus qu’humain : Représenter le corps sous influence technologique”, followed by a visual portfolio
Nicolas Ballet, Juliette Bessette, Jessica Ragazzini, “La posthumanité, entre fantasme et cauchemar : Entretien avec Maxime Coulombe” (Posthumanity, Between Fantasy and Nightmare: Interview with Maxime Coulombe)
Reading note by Jessica Ragazzini
Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne, issue edited by Juliette Bessette, Nicolas Ballet, and Jessica Ragazzini
Augmented Bodies and New Aesthetics
The digital age, artificial intelligence, and biotechnologies have profoundly altered the way the human is perceived and represented in artistic creation. Today, artists question the boundary between the living and the inert, the natural and the artificial, through practices ranging from photography to bio-art. This reflection is part of an ongoing posthumanist discourse, where the body becomes a malleable material, a medium for transformation and experimentation.
Interview with Maxime Coulombe: Posthumanity Between Fantasy and Nightmare
In addition to this article, I co-directed an interview with philosopher Maxime Coulombe, a specialist in contemporary imaginaries. In Posthumanity: Between Fantasy and Nightmare, we discuss the paradoxes linked to the fusion between body and technology. While human body augmentation is often seen as progress, it also raises concerns: loss of identity, commodification of the living, dystopia of the body-machine. The interview highlights the tensions and contradictory imaginaries surrounding this mutation of the body in the digital age.
A Critical Analysis of Bodily Mutations
Finally, I wrote a reading note (note de lecture) in the same issue, which deepens the reflection on these themes and their impact on contemporary artistic practices. Through an analysis of artworks and recent essays, I question how art absorbs, critiques, and redefines these technological transformations of the human body.