Frankenstein Reanimated: Creation & Technology in the 21st Century

Overview

Frankenstein Reanimated: Creation & Technology in the 21st Century is a book for our strange times. Bang up to date it includes essays and artworks that engage with the Covid-19 pandemic, through to weird new imaginings of human-machine hybrids. A striking cover with flaps displays a triptych by artist Carla Gannis, a bespoke narrow format, and over 100 illustrations inside make this an attractive book for a wide range of audiences. Mary Shelley’s classic gothic horror and science fiction novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has inspired millions since it was published in 1818. Today, we are witness to many different horrors and phantoms of our own creation. Chronic wealth and health inequalities, climate change, democratic collapse, and the spectre of nuclear apocalypse are among the diffuse, monstrous products of our “advanced” technological moment. Frankenstein Reanimated presents a dynamic collection of artworks, essays, and conversations, addressing surveillance, biohacking, viruses, colonialism, digital culture, and more. It retraces and contextualises three international art exhibitions exploring themes within Frankenstein, and speculates on what Mary Shelley would think about the world today. Collectively, the book offers a lens through which to look at our current situation, and how art practices shape, and are shaped by, contemporary society.