Towards a posthumanistic knowledge production. Multimedia artistic research during the rise of neoliberalism in Mexico

Although for the government officials who inaugurated the state-run Centro Multimedia (CMM) in 1994 in Mexico City it had less to do with artistic experimentation than with the promotion of a neoliberal agenda of national modernization and competitiveness, CMM has come to embody a reformulation in artistic research and education via new media. Focusing on one specific form of knowledge production that CMM promoted - the Biomediations Festival and its proposal of an open-ended Living Book - this article will conceptually frame CMM as a space of artistic research that appropriated and circulated academic knowledge. It will also argue that the way in which it translated that knowledge has strengthened the path towards what shall be termed posthumanistic knowledge circulation. CMM's paradoxical relationship with the neoliberal agenda in which it originated made room for a posthumanistic ethos that has challenged acquired notions of author, knowledge, and ownership that are the backbone of the hegemonic global copyright laws prevailing since the rise of neoliberalism during the 1990s.

Automated summary

Although the government officials who established the Centro Multimedia (CMM) in 1994 in Mexico City did not focus on artistic experimentation, CMM has become a space for artistic research and education through new media. The article argues that CMM's appropriation and circulation of academic knowledge has led to a posthumanistic knowledge circulation.