Page - 15 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

The Pedigree of Dualistic and Non-Dualistic Media | 15www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 15–22 ABSTRACT The article provides suggestions concerning the cultural relevance and embedded- ness of dualist and non-dualist media and demonstrates that the presence or absence of certain types of media has extra-medial relevance that can contain ethical, political, and social meanings. When I am talking about these kinds of dualities I am referring to distinctions like the one between good and evil, mind and body, culture and nature, the material and the immaterial or the organic and the inorganic. The contemporary examples I mention paradigmatically represent the phenomenon in question. Howev- er, several other artists, composers and designers are central figures, too, e.g. Patricia Piccinini, Eduardo Kac, Stelarc. KEYWORDS media, music, theatre, opera, transhumanism, dualism, non-dualism, ethics, posthu- manism, ontology BIOGRAPHY Professor Dr. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner teaches philosophy at John Cabot University in Rome and is director and co-founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) and Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute for the Humanities at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. He is au- thor and editor of more than 10 books, e.g. “Menschenwürde nach Nietzsche” (WBG 2010). Furthermore, he is in great demand as a speaker in all parts of the world (e.g. TEDx; World Humanities Forum) and a regular contact person of national and interna- tional journalists and media representatives. (e.g. Die Zeit). I became fascinated by questions concerning duality and non-duality during my teen- age years, when I started to realise how widespread categorical dual distinctions are and that they can be found in various fields and strata of culture and life. When I talk about these kinds of dualities, I am referring to distinctions like those between good and evil, mind and body, culture and nature, the material and the immaterial, and the Stefan Lorenz Sorgner The Pedigree of Dualistic and Non-Dualistic Media Grasping Extramedial Meanings