{"title":"Thomas Riccio","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the captivating works of Thomas Riccio, where gripping narratives and compelling characters await. Explore his thought-provoking stories and discover your next literary adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sophia-robot-book-thomas-riccio-9781032454108","title":"Sophia Robot","description":"This book considers David Hanson’s robots as a performative expression of our cultural moment, serving as a paradigm for the evolution of humanoid social robots.  Mechanical beings have occupied the human imagination since antiquity. Now, they inhabit the pop-cultural imagination, embodying the apotheosis of humanity’s technological aspirations and dread. Sophia, Hanson’s most advanced robot, anticipates the future as she articulates the mythic pattern, narrative, anxieties, and hopes as old as humanity. Gendered as an attractive female with a face inspired by Queen Nefertiti and Audrey Hepburn, Sophia is a cipher, avatar, and turning point that brings humanity and technology a step closer to the emergence of a post-human species. The author is a transdisciplinary artist\/scholar\/educator working internationally in experimental performance, indigenous performance (ritual, shamanism), and social robotics. Hanson’s robots and Sophia are examined as performance media and events, as characters evolving as post-human narratives of technological beings. The emergent, complex, and collaborative relationships social robots have with technology, AI, performance, anthropology, mythology, psychology, sociology, popular culture, social media, politics, and economics are considered.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50698958602513,"sku":"NGR9781032454108","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51017437479185,"sku":"NIN9781032454108","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52589434274065,"sku":"NLS9781032454108","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1032454105.jpg?v=1751269177"},{"product_id":"sophia-robot-book-thomas-riccio-9781032453729","title":"Sophia Robot","description":"This book considers David Hanson’s robots as a performative expression of our cultural moment, serving as a paradigm for the evolution of humanoid social robots.  Mechanical beings have occupied the human imagination since antiquity. Now, they inhabit the pop-cultural imagination, embodying the apotheosis of humanity’s technological aspirations and dread. Sophia, Hanson’s most advanced robot, anticipates the future as she articulates the mythic pattern, narrative, anxieties, and hopes as old as humanity. Gendered as an attractive female with a face inspired by Queen Nefertiti and Audrey Hepburn, Sophia is a cipher, avatar, and turning point that brings humanity and technology a step closer to the emergence of a post-human species. The author is a transdisciplinary artist\/scholar\/educator working internationally in experimental performance, indigenous performance (ritual, shamanism), and social robotics. Hanson’s robots and Sophia are examined as performance media and events, as characters evolving as post-human narratives of technological beings. 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From 1992 to 2002, Thomas Riccio worked with several groups in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, West Africa, and Kenya - the Zulu and the !Xuu Bushmen of the Kalahari among them. \u003ci\u003ePerforming Africa\u003c\/i\u003ecombines a rare, in-the-field perspective with a keen insight into Africa's transformative and tumultuous confluence of tradition, urbanization, politics, history, and the AIDS crisis. The evolution of tradition and the emergence of dynamic new forms of expression are a matter of practical necessity and survival. An interdisciplinary approach and accessible language make \u003ci\u003ePerforming Africa\u003c\/i\u003ea unique resource for those teaching or interested in the fields of cultural anthropology, sociology, drama therapy, theatre, performance, and African studies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52668705374481,"sku":"NLS9780820488998","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780820488998.jpg?v=1762285707"},{"product_id":"performing-body-space-and-place-book-thomas-riccio-9781041168041","title":"Performing Body, Space, and Place","description":"Poverty is not a destination it is a place where people end up when systematic lifestyles are accepted as the norm. The new way of life has to be better than the way we are told to live by those who keep us as molds.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53121386217745,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53121386348817,"sku":"NGR9781041168041","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781041168041.jpg?v=1772705935"},{"product_id":"performing-body-space-and-place-book-thomas-riccio-9781041168010","title":"Performing Body, Space, and Place","description":"Poverty is not a destination it is a place where people end up when systematic lifestyles are accepted as the norm. 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