Could icons, images, graffiti, animations, and sundry others, be read as mere satire, adult rage, youthful angst or “just” pop culture? Or, be seen also as a cry for help, perhaps an aesthetic(s) of the common(s), an archaic modern, an ‘otherworldly’ posthuman search? Could they be the projective screen of a passing order, hanging on desperately through the logos of a neoliberal techno-organic delirium, trying to confront the apocalyptic puzzles of this new millennium? Or, maybe, they are the semiotics of a vast posthuman dis/order struggling to emerge? The course will explore aspects of this conundrum through some visual anthropologies and socio-ecologies originating from the vast reservoirs of animation and Anime that may go back to the beginnings of human thought and culture. It will explore some universal philosophical themes: love, soul, wisdom, nature, animal life, gender, beauty, war and peace, youth, old age, human and nonhuman origins, survival, power, cultural diversity, science fiction and cyborg aesthetics and technology– to imagine an otherworldly animated pluriverse of worlds-other and futures to come.Philosophy and Critical Theory (PHCRT) courses focus on developing critical reading and thinking skills, with an emphasis on learning to frame and explore meaningful questions. Students consider multiple perspectives and claims in the process of formulating independent, well-founded opinions.

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