‘An Avatar Is an Image of a Posthuman’: Mediacosm Held at HSE University
On February 16, the sixth Mediacosm conference was held. The event traditionally dedicated to discursive and non-discursive ways of presenting the cosmos through media, fashion and music was organised by the HSE Faculty of Creative Industries.
Researchers studying the concept and materialisation of the cosmos in culture through different languages and practices were among the conference participants.
Asya Aladzhalova, doctoral student at the HSE Doctoral School of Art and Design, presented a report on the topic ‘A 60s Suit as an Extension of the Body: The Difference between a Spacesuit and a Crimplene’. Her presentation was based on the study of the relation between the human body and clothing in both space exploration and fashion. She highlighted the fact that before travelling into Earth orbit in the 1960s, astronauts underwent comprehensive training.
‘They trained using the same suits and experienced the same atmospheric stresses that they would later encounter in real space conditions. Such suits were difficult to wear—they weighed about 10 kg, had many layers of different fabrics, and it was difficult to move in them,’ she says . She also compared haute couture women’s outfits of the same era with spacesuits.
‘When we talk about space collections in fashion or about images of astronauts in spacesuits in the 1960s, we often focus on the visual image. And what do we see? We see smiling people in beautiful shiny new outfits. And what did they really experience? What did their bodies experience while wearing those fashionable spacesuits? That's the question,’ says the researcher. She compared spacesuits with women's corsets of the time, which also tightened the body and restricted movement.
Nina Veresova, doctoral student at the HSE Doctoral School of Art and Design, also mentioned corsets while speaking about her study on the topic ‘The Connection with Home: The Role of Textiles in Space.’ She believes that ensuring a tight fit of spacesuit is important. Such outfits can be fixed like a corset: the trousers and shoes can be laced to ensure a better fit and to adjust them, which is quite important, since these items are not made of stretchy material.
‘Spaceships have a lot of textile fabric elements that are fixed like a corset,’ she explains. She also said that since all astronauts should be able to properly repair their suits in space, they master sewing and other skills. ‘If a spacesuit cannot be repaired, then it can be disassembled for parts and used in other, new spacesuits. But it is economically important to make it durable,’ she says.
Oksana Pertel, doctoral student at the HSE Doctoral School of Art and Design, presented the project ‘The Avatar as an Image of a Digital Posthuman Conqueror of the Metaverses and the Cosmos.’ In the modern world, people design avatar images for various functions, including virtual fashion. People should not distance themselves from new technologies. To some extent, avatars can be considered an extension of human capabilities and the transfer of new meanings and syntheses.
‘I suggest considering avatars not as simulacra or phantoms,’ she says. ‘We spend a lot of time online, and avatars now represent people on social media. There are also avatars who live “independent” lives: they sell things, earn money, represent marketing campaigns. And we have to reckon with them. I proceed from the idea that an avatar is an image of a posthuman.’
For more information about the Mediacosm conference, please see this HSE Daily news item (in Russian).
The Mediacosm conference is part of the project ‘Space in Media Culture: Practices of Imagination and Representation’ of the HSE Faculty of Creative Industries. The project is more relevant than ever thanks to the return of the topic of space exploration in the public agenda, increasing public interest in astronomical discoveries and the achievements of cosmonautics, the development of scientific communication and the popularisation of scientific knowledge in this field. The project, which includes several types of activities (research and educational), considers space from a socio-humanitarian perspective and focuses on the research into astroculture, primarily in terms of its media dimension.
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