In our presentation we will engage with the topics of disconnection and memory-making. Drawing on Daoist cosmology, critical race theory and queer theory, we aim to re-consider binaries such as West/non-West, relationality/ non-relationality, normativity/ non-normativity, techno/non-techno, by way of close readings of The Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thị diễm thúy and Charmaine Poh’s own on-going work THE YOUNG BODY UNIVERSE, a series of enactments considering the potentialities of the feminist techno-body.
We are especially interested in haunting stories, histories that are barely there but at the same time all-present, in other words, story-telling of seemingly disconnected historical events and affects.
Taking lê thị diễm thúy’s work and the theoretical frameworks of Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi’s Archipelago of Resettlement, as well as Lan Duong’s trans-Vietnamese feminism as starting points, Thao will trace the historical entanglements of boat people resettlement to Orange County, CA, and Palestine, and the affective residues/cultural production of lost memories.
Grounded by Tung-Hui Hu’s concept of digital lethargy and the Daoist logic of xuan, a logic of recursivity put forth by Yuk Hui in his book, Art and Cosmotechnics, Charmaine will examine how the East Asian femme-presenting techno-body has been formed and shaped by larger philosophical, cultural, and historical forces.
Combining our on-going research, the following questions will be discussed: What is Eastern thought, especially for those who are situated in the diaspora? How can postcolonial thought be expanded beyond the “western frame”? How do we contend with these degrees of lostness, whether through the diaspora, or through the ethers of technology?