Video: Lucian Chaffey on Cybernetic Modification in 'Farscape'
Lucian Chaffey introduces the Body & Society article ‘Affect, Excess and Cybernetic Modification in Science-Fiction Fantasy TV Series Farscape‘
Abstract
Responding to the co-production of screen seriality and human subjectivity within contemporary machine cultures and economies of excess, this article examines televisual affect and proposes concepts that address the languages, components and processes of particular televisual subjectivities. Discussions focus on science fiction fantasy series Farscape – a space odyssey fascinated with biotechnological evolution and mutative consciousness. This article aims to invigorate and extend the critical analysis of contemporary televisual affect, taking up questions and methodologies from Félix Guattari’s machinic ontology and Georges Bataille’s formulation of a sacrificial economy to address the conditions of consumption–production relevant to television today.
