Faculty of English, Judith E Wilson Drama Studio, Cambridge
Friday 28 October, 7–9 pm

Artist-in-residence Gary Zhexi Zhang presents a pecha kucha on the posthuman. Pecha Kucha is a fast-paced series of short-form presentations (20 slides x 20 seconds each = 6min40s). 

POSTHUMAN PECHAKUCHA is a collaboration between ten contemporary artists and researchers working at the intersection of cultural, scientific and political developments of the posthuman — broadly understood as the extension, reconceptualisation, or supersession of human being and its environment. Nebulous in scope, topics in discussion range include synthetic biology, queer archives, and teledildonics. Participants include artists, poets and sciences and humanities researchers and will comprise an energetic array of posthuman performances and provocations. After the individual presentations (and a break for drinks) there will be a discussion/debate/argument between the participants, loosely chaired by Gary Zhexi Zhang.

Kris Beaghton is a writer, artist and filmmaker currently undertaking a PhD in Screen Media and Cultures at University of Cambridge. Her research is focused on queer theory, and she has a background in Virtual Reality storytelling.

Agnes Fury Cameron is completing an MEng in electronic and information engineering at the University of Cambridge. Her research is in holographic interaction.

Dr Roberto Zanchi is a scientific consultant and a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biology. He will be speaking on the life-cycle of the social amoeba, dictyostelium discoideum.

Henry Driver is a digital artist whose work spans photography, film, sculpture and CGI, exploring perceptions of real and virtual worlds. Exhibitions include Aesthetica Art Prize 2016 and Late at Tate, Tate Britain.

Klara Kofen is an opera director, stage designer, and librettist. She is the Associate Artistic Director of Waste Paper Opera Company, and has worked with companies including Birmingham Opera Company, Theatron Novum, and Raucous Rossini. Klara holds an MSt. In the European Enlightenment from the University of Oxford, and is presenting on ‘Automatons, Animism and Angst’.

Dr Thomas Meany is an Interdisciplinary Research Fellow at the Department of Plant Sciences. His current research brings new optical and microfabrication techniques to the study of synthetic biology. He will be speaking on photonics and quantum computing.

Oscar Farley is a writer, musician and academic working on comics formalism and Charles M Schulz's Peanuts. His writing has been published in The Mays. He has also worked in bookshops, on West Gallery transcriptions, and archaeological digs.

Mathilde Sergent is an artist and writer who holds a Masters in American Literature from the University of Cambridge. Current interests involve the queer archive and the role of grief and anger in the formation of political subjectivity for marginalised communities.

The artists David Blandy and Larry Achiampong will be screening part of their project ‘Finding Fanon’, an investigation into how identities are continually shaped by colonial histories and mass- media art forms, such as television, video-games, music and the internet. Their works have been shown in the UK and internationally, including Tate Britain and Logan Center, Chicago.

Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist and a staff contributor for Frieze magazine. His work concerns personal and political narratives of the digital; current research includes slime moulds and the Chinese internet. Recent exhibitions/screenings include Tenderflix 2016 at ICA, London, and ‘Would You Like Help’ at EMBASSY gallery, Edinburgh.