You are all very much invited to the next human-tech colloquium taking place on April 25, 15:45-17:15 in RA4231.
Maaike van der Horst will give a talk based on the first chapter of her PhD thesis (please find an abstract and bio below this message).
Abstract
In this talk, I will present some parts of the first chapter of my PhD thesis on Lacanian psychoanalysis and sexuality with robots through a philosophy of technology lens. The chapter aims to provide a psychoanalytic understanding of sexuality based on Freud’s Three Essays on Sexuality (1905) as well as the Lacanian aphorism that the sexual relation does not exist. This perspective will provide a perspective on sexuality as something that is neither natural nor fully culturally constructed: sexual practices are ways to cover up an inherent lack of knowledge on what sex is. This view has the following implications: 1) it problematizes the supposed naturalness of heteronormative and binary conceptions of sexuality 2) it problematizes the division between pathological/perverse sexual practices and ‘normal’ sexual practices 3) it shows how sexual identity is an effect of discourse and 4) it shows that sex is a disruptive force that shows the failure of knowledge and is not - as sometimes assumed about psychoanalysis - a beacon of subjective truth. I will also give some pointers towards the relevance of this understanding of sexuality for technologically mediated sexual encounters, more specifically for encounters with sex robots.
Bio
Maaike van der Horst is a PhD candidate at the University of Twente. She is writing her dissertation on Lacanian psychoanalysis and sexuality with robots from a philosophy of technology perspective. She has a background in film- and new media studies (bachelor) and philosophy of technology (master).
