Ex Machina: Post-Feminization of Artificial Intelligence and Cinematic Reproduction of Female Sinfulness

Year 2023, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 1 - 26, 31.07.2023

Savaş Keskin , Hakan Yılmaz

Abstract

The film Ex Machina, which adds a new paradox to the paradoxes of the cinematic aspects of the other, works as a reproduction mechanism that synthesizes the mythological sinfulness of female identity and the contemporary sinfulness of artificial intelligence, according to the assumption of this study. As a matter of fact, female identity, known for its symbolic performativity in the semiotics of contemporary discourses, renews post-modern images beyond the body as post-femininity. The dominant view, which interprets the future of the relationship between artificial intelligence and human in a meticulous form as post-humanity, is in a heteronormative silence about the future of the relationship between woman and man (human). This study tests the semiotic identities of artificial intelligence, which appears to be a woman, in the context of its relation to human beings, of "artificial intelligence, which is denigrated as a woman" or "a woman who is denigrated as artificial intelligence". The woman who is denigrated / sinned as a woman is a kind of post-femininity with her form of an artificially dishonored / sinful woman. The aim of this study is to analyze the post-femininity in Ex Machina and the codes that show the relation of this performative symbolism with the man, and to understand how the heteronormative view that dominates the cinema is kept alive in the issues of raciality and sexuality of artificial intelligence. For this purpose, a semiotic reading is made on the demonstrators and demonstrations of artificial intelligence as women and male identities as men, their basic oppositions and systems. Because, a world in which an artificial intelligence appears as a woman, whether cinematographic or organic, necessarily points to the existence of a dominant masculinity. The study is skeptical of who the protagonist in the film is, and finds that the artificial intelligence as a woman actually resembles more of an antagonist.

Keywords

Ex Machina, Post-Femininity, Post-Humanity, Masculinity, Artificial Intelligence

Ex Machina: Yapay Zekânın Post-Kadınlaştırılması ve Kadınsal Günahkârlığın Sinemasal Yeniden Üretimi

Abstract

Öteki olanın sinemasal görünümlerine ilişkin paradokslara bir yenisini eklemleyen Ex Machina filmi bu çalışmanın varsayımına göre, kadın kimliğinin mitolojik günahkarlığı ile yapay zekanın çağdaş günahkarlığını sentezleyen bir yeniden üretim düzeneği olarak çalışır. Nitekim çağdaş söylenlerin göstergebiliminde sembolik performatifliği ile bilinen kadın kimliği, beden ötesi post-modern imgelerini post-kadınlık olarak yeniler. Yapay zeka ve insan arasındaki ilişkinin geleceğini post-insanlık olarak metis bir formda yorumlayan egemen görüş, kadın ve adam (insan) arasındaki ilişkinin geleceği hususunda heteronormatif bir suskunluktadır. Bu çalışma, bir kadın olarak görünen yapay zekanın insanla ilişkisi bağlamında, ‘kadın olarak kötülenen yapay zeka’ ya da ‘yapay zeka olarak kötülenen kadın’ önermelerinin göstergebilimsel özdeşliklerini sınamaktadır. Kadın olarak kötülenen/günahkarlaştırılan kadın, yapay zeka olarak kötülenen/günahkarlaştıran kadın formuyla bir nevi post-kadınlıktır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Ex Machina filmindeki post-kadınlığı ve bu performatif semboliğin erkek ile ilişkisini gösteren kodları çözümleyerek sinemada egemen olan heteronormatif bakışın yapay zekanın ırksallığı ve cinselliği meselelerinde nasıl yaşatıldığını anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaçla, filmde kadın olarak yapay zeka ve erkek olarak erkek kimliklerinin gösterenleri ve gösterilenleri, temel karşıtlıkları ve dizgeleri üzerinden göstergebilimsel bir okuma yapılmaktadır. Çünkü, bir yapay zekanın kadın olarak göründüğü bir dünya, ister sinematografik isterse de organik olsun, mutlaka egemen bir erkekliğin de varlığına işaret eder. Çalışma, filmdeki protagonistin kim olduğuna kuşkuyla yaklaşır ve kadın olarak yapay zekanın aslında bir antagonisti daha çok andırdığını saptar.

Keywords

Ex Machina, Post-Kadınlık, Post-İnsanlık, Erkeklik, Yapay Zeka

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