Date of Award

5-31-2018

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English/Creative Writing

First Advisor

Jill McDonough

Second Advisor

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Third Advisor

Lloyd Schwartz

Abstract

InspiroBot Says: The Singularity Is Invisible in a Mirror is a book of poetry in progress. This project imagines a collision of transhumanism and what Robinson Jeffers would call “inhumanism.” It’s concerned with how humans conceptualize their bodies and minds in relationship to other kinds of bodies and other kinds of consciousness. It asks, in its own way, what it would look like if a human and a furby believed in the same god. Through an examination of robotics/AI, animal rights, operant conditioning, neuropsychology, toys, and pop culture, I aim to create an inclusive spectrum. My intention is for this cross-section to be revealing in its scope, but also intimate in the attention it provides to its subjects. There are too many voices in this project, but none of them are isolated. Every subject is connected to another via shared concerns or paralleled poetic structures. My aim is not for uniformity or even harmony, but rather for a kind of multivalence and multiplicity that don’t seek to smooth out all of the edges.

Comments

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