Research project
Augmenting the Body: Disability, Care and the Posthuman
- Start date: 1 January 2017
- End date: 31 December 2017
- Funder: The Wellcome Trust
- Primary investigator: Stuart Murray
Value
£28,922
Description
Body augmentation takes many forms, from personal adaptation to rehabilitation for people with disabilities. It can involve physical, cognitive, philosophical and technological changes. It also questions the constitution of norms and the status and viability of the body.
Our aim is to develop a cross-disciplinary research approach to ideas of augmentation, noting how they reflect and are influenced by cultural narratives about robots and a post-human space ‘beyond’ conventional apprehensions of the body and selfhood.
We will use a broad understanding of augmentation, including ideas of care and psychological wellbeing as well as questions relating to technology and the cyborg/biohybrid body, and will focus on both physical and cognitive augmentation while exploring the interaction of the human and non-human. Ultimately, our project seeks to change the ways in which the experience of disability is represented and understood.