{"title":"Drew Ayers","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"spectacular-posthumanism-book-drew-ayers-9781501340086","title":"Spectacular Posthumanism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the ways in which VFX imagery fantasizes about digital disembodiment while simultaneously reasserting the importance of the lived body. Analyzing a wide range of case studies—including the films of David Cronenberg and Stanley Kubrick, image technologies such as performance capture and crowd simulation, \u003ci\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTerminator: Genisys\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePlanet Earth\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003e300\u003c\/i\u003e—Ayers builds on Miriam Hansen’s concept of “vernacular modernism” to argue that the “vernacular posthumanism” of these media objects has a phenomenological impact on viewers. As classical Hollywood cinema initiated viewers into the experience of modernism, so too does the VFX image initiate viewers into digital, posthuman modes of thinking and being. Ayers’s innovative close-reading of popular, mass-market media objects reveals the complex ways that these popular media struggle to make sense of humanity’s place within the contemporary world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e argues that special and visual effects images produce a digital, posthuman vernacular, one which generates competing fantasies about the utopian and dystopian potential of a nonhuman future. As humanity grapples with such heady issues as catastrophic climate change, threats of anonymous cyber warfare, an increasing reliance on autonomous computing systems, genetic manipulation of both humans and nonhumans, and the promise of technologically enhanced bodies, the anxieties related to these issues register in popular culture. Through the process of compositing humans and nonhumans into a seemingly seamless whole, digital images visualize a utopian fantasy in which flesh and information might easily coexist and cohabitate with each other. These images, however, also exhibit the dystopic anxieties that develop around this fantasy. Relevant to our contemporary moment, \u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e both diagnoses and offers a critique of this fantasy, arguing that this posthuman imagination overlooks the importance of embodiment and lived experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52668169388305,"sku":"NLS9781501340086","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781501340086.jpg?v=1786100722"},{"product_id":"spectacular-posthumanism-book-drew-ayers-9781501373824","title":"Spectacular Posthumanism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the ways in which VFX imagery fantasizes about digital disembodiment while simultaneously reasserting the importance of the lived body. Analyzing a wide range of case studies—including the films of David Cronenberg and Stanley Kubrick, image technologies such as performance capture and crowd simulation, \u003ci\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTerminator: Genisys\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePlanet Earth\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003e300\u003c\/i\u003e—Ayers builds on Miriam Hansen’s concept of “vernacular modernism” to argue that the “vernacular posthumanism” of these media objects has a phenomenological impact on viewers. As classical Hollywood cinema initiated viewers into the experience of modernism, so too does the VFX image initiate viewers into digital, posthuman modes of thinking and being. Ayers’s innovative close-reading of popular, mass-market media objects reveals the complex ways that these popular media struggle to make sense of humanity’s place within the contemporary world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e argues that special and visual effects images produce a digital, posthuman vernacular, one which generates competing fantasies about the utopian and dystopian potential of a nonhuman future. As humanity grapples with such heady issues as catastrophic climate change, threats of anonymous cyber warfare, an increasing reliance on autonomous computing systems, genetic manipulation of both humans and nonhumans, and the promise of technologically enhanced bodies, the anxieties related to these issues register in popular culture. Through the process of compositing humans and nonhumans into a seemingly seamless whole, digital images visualize a utopian fantasy in which flesh and information might easily coexist and cohabitate with each other. These images, however, also exhibit the dystopic anxieties that develop around this fantasy. Relevant to our contemporary moment, \u003ci\u003eSpectacular Posthumanism\u003c\/i\u003e both diagnoses and offers a critique of this fantasy, arguing that this posthuman imagination overlooks the importance of embodiment and lived experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52671357092113,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52671358697745,"sku":"NLS9781501373824","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781501373824.jpg?v=1790879956"},{"product_id":"action-bodies-book-drew-ayers-9781477334386","title":"Action Bodies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExploring how digital visual effects have changed the representations of the body and identity in action films.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Harrison Ford appeared digitally de-aged in \u003ci\u003eIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny\u003c\/i\u003e, audiences witnessed more than a technical feat; they saw how visual effects are reshaping what bodies can be on screen. In \u003ci\u003eAction Bodies\u003c\/i\u003e, Drew Ayers examines how the contemporary action genre redefines embodiment across human, superhuman, animal, and machine forms. Ayers argues that action films are a crucial site for understanding how popular media both reflect and shape cultural debates about identity, citizenship, disability, and ethics in the era of big data and algorithmic culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough case studies including \u003ci\u003eTop Gun: Maverick\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Woman King\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Fast \u0026amp; the Furious\u003c\/i\u003e franchise, and \u003ci\u003eAvatar: The Way of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, Ayers explores how VFX-altered bodies carry ideological weight. While the action genre has long leaned conservative in its politics of identity, its digitally mediated bodies also generate unexpected opportunities: glimpses of more inclusive and flexible modes of embodiment. As aritifical intelligence and synthetic imagery continue to transform film production, \u003ci\u003eAction Bodies\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates why careful attention to action cinema is essential for understanding how contemporary culture imagines and engineers the future of the body.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53341459579153,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53341463085329,"sku":"NGR9781477334386","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781477334386.jpg?v=1787751430"},{"product_id":"action-bodies-book-drew-ayers-9781477335703","title":"Action Bodies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExploring how digital visual effects have changed the representations of the body and identity in action films.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Harrison Ford appeared digitally de-aged in \u003ci\u003eIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny\u003c\/i\u003e, audiences witnessed more than a technical feat; they saw how visual effects are reshaping what bodies can be on screen. In \u003ci\u003eAction Bodies\u003c\/i\u003e, Drew Ayers examines how the contemporary action genre redefines embodiment across human, superhuman, animal, and machine forms. Ayers argues that action films are a crucial site for understanding how popular media both reflect and shape cultural debates about identity, citizenship, disability, and ethics in the era of big data and algorithmic culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough case studies including \u003ci\u003eTop Gun: Maverick\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Woman King\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Fast \u0026amp; the Furious\u003c\/i\u003e franchise, and \u003ci\u003eAvatar: The Way of Water\u003c\/i\u003e, Ayers explores how VFX-altered bodies carry ideological weight. While the action genre has long leaned conservative in its politics of identity, its digitally mediated bodies also generate unexpected opportunities: glimpses of more inclusive and flexible modes of embodiment. As aritifical intelligence and synthetic imagery continue to transform film production, \u003ci\u003eAction Bodies\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates why careful attention to action cinema is essential for understanding how contemporary culture imagines and engineers the future of the body.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53576820162833,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53576820424977,"sku":"NGR9781477335703","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781477335703.jpg?v=1779281374"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-drew-ayers.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}