Sulway, Nike 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4133-1303
(2015)
Death and the M(AI)den.
In: Death, Dying and the Undead: Inaugural Conference of the Australian Death Studies Network, 12 Oct 2015, Noosa, Australia.
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Text (Accepted Abstract)
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Abstract
This paper explores the complex and troubling relationship between death and gender in a range of contemporary films and texts about artificial intelligence, focusing most explicitly on Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2015). In particular, this paper explores the ways Garland’s film frames and addresses questions about how to distinguish between the living and the not-living/dead, between the human and the machine endowed with consciousness. The paper draws on the iconic work of Frank Jackson, whose ‘Mary’s Room’ thought experiment about strong artificial intelligence is referenced in Garland’s film, and on Alan Turing’s test for strong artificial intelligence (the imitation game), in exploring the ways that gendered and sexualised AI throw into focus a particular set of ideas and anxieties about the relationship between death and desire.
The paper also explores the implications of Ex Machina’s persistent references to Wittgenstein’s blue book, especially in terms of Wittgenstein’s early exploration, in that text, of language games: of language as a game.
In playing some games of its own, the paper moves from the blue book (and the character Nathan’s beard) to bluebeard, and to the ways in which the film’s iconography echoes and complicates the old French tale’s images of gender, sex, desire, and death.
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Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Commonwealth Reporting Category E) (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | No |
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts - School of Arts and Communication (1 July 2013 - 28 February 2019) |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts - School of Arts and Communication (1 July 2013 - 28 February 2019) |
| Date Deposited: | 21 May 2020 04:10 |
| Last Modified: | 21 May 2020 04:10 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Ex Machina, film studies, queer, gender, sexuality, artificial intelligence, games, language games, death, creative writing |
| Fields of Research : | 08 Information and Computing Sciences > 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing > 080102 Artificial Life 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 1902 Film, Television and Digital Media > 190201 Cinema Studies 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190402 Creative Writing (incl. Playwriting) 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 1902 Film, Television and Digital Media > 190204 Film and Television 08 Information and Computing Sciences > 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing > 080111 Virtual Reality and Related Simulation |
| URI: | http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/28650 |
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