the OBSCENE machine

History of the Obscene Machine Cyberhive...

The Obscene Machine is an ever-evolving "ARTkive" chronicling cultural studies advancements in something I call the "ersatz human"--broadly understood, it is a series of links to stories that document the history of human self-fashioning, from ancient "primitive" totems and fetiches, to contemporary digital avatars and dolls.

In other times, this blog has served as a community exchange vehicle for my students at San Diego State University. In Fall 2011, The Obscene Machine was a cultural studies seminar at San Diego State University entitled TECHNOSEXUALITIES--the course is led by head cyborg Professor William A. Nericcio. Previously, it was the host cyberHIVE for a Spring 2011 undergraduate English 220 seminar: Robotic, Erotic, Electric: Televisual Nightmares, Seductive Hallucinations, and Naked Pscyhes in Literature, Film, Art, and the Web.

Know, also, that this blog had earlier incarnations and aspirations: The Obscene Machine began its life as an online supplement both to English 493, a literature and film undergraduate class at San Diego State University, and English 725, an Ethnic American cultural studies graduate seminar--both were directed in the Spring of 2007 by the aforementioned Dr. Nericcio and the posts associated with those two classes remain online here as an ersatz gallery and a living memorial.

These mirrored courses, both experimental, fuse an interrogation of Ethnic American critical theory with a more general probing of "fictional humans"--hence the term "Ethnic Mannequins" as a subtitle for the graduate seminar and its coincident obsessions with cyborgs, novels, stereotypes, and film. Both courses may be interpreted as supplements, if not revisions, to Tex[t]-Mex (UT Press, 2007) book and precursors to Eyegiene.

The Robot Running this Site...

William Anthony Nericcio is the Director of MALAS, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at San Diego State University. When not shepherding brilliant graduate student devotees of cultural studies, Nericcio also hangs his hat as a Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Chicana/o Studies, and serves on the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies. Utterly more than is necessary to know can be found in his perplexing, image-laced online autobiography and a complete digital index of his web-based shenanigans is located here. Lastly, can also see a graphic design portfolio by Guillermo Nericcio García, his, er, 'cousin,' at memogr@phics designcasa.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Breast Cancer and Ersatz Humans: Shopping Interventions

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Uncanny and Humanesque: Tânia Falcão

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Packs of Human Hunting Robots!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

I Robot, redux

Friday, October 03, 2008

Robotic Soft-Porn from the Seventies

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Marriage Made in a Factory

Monday, September 01, 2008

Payback in the Near Future!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Escher Revisited, Courtesy of BoingBoing.net

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Uncanny Virtual Triplets!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Have Mannequins, Will Torture

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Wow! An Allegory on Human Fabrication

Monday, August 04, 2008

Baudrillard Didn't Know the Half of It: Simulacra City

Sunday, August 03, 2008

sexy robots from bbtv!

Friday, August 01, 2008

Cool Robots!

More Meditations on the Ersatz Human | Mannequins

doll face | huang

Random Photographic Allegory

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

An Emotional Bot!

Wonderland of Human Facsimiles, aka Toys!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ersatz as a Means to an End