“Harmony and Dissonance”: The Musical Perspective on Posthumanity

Abstract

This paper explores the role of music as a communicative tool between the human and the posthuman. It utilizes the theories of embodiment and performativity of Karen Barad and Deniz Peters, as well as the perspectives of Continental Realism and contemporary phenomenology (Serres, Merleau-Ponty, Harman, and Morton). The examples are drawn from a range of pieces of speculative fiction: dystopia, biopunk and science-fiction. It is shown that the authors bring to attention the enharmonic quality of the relationship between the ALife and its creators and advocate eupsychian coexistence between these, portraying posthumanity as musica ficta: the sounds without notation that, although not recognized by musica recta (“true music”), make the invisible part of reality outside of currently described systems.

Keywords

• music
• dystopia
• posthuman
• phenomenology
• body