IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

This essay examines two interconnected nonhuman entities stemming from Shenzhen that have become dominant figures in mapping the city’s – and by extension, China’s – future: the robot and the drone. Featured in numerous cultural productions, these two figures have become salient future makers in envisioning the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay as an extension of the success of Shenzhen. Bringing an interdisciplinary, cultural studies approach to these objects, I employ a mixture of methods, ranging from textual analyses of Shenzhen-originated cultural artifacts to ethnographic observations drawn from everyday encounters. Whether it is the Shenzhen residents’ depictions of a robotic future, or the book AI 2041 co-authored by the computer scientist-turned venture capitalist Kai-fu Lee and science fiction writer Chen Qiufan, or media narratives like the Live from the Greater Bay series produced by China Media Group, these wide-ranging cultural practices lend meanings to a futurity imbued with nonhuman agents. My critical analysis pays specific attention to the intersecting visions for a future that emerged from these practices, which disrupt the binary between the human and the nonhuman. These visions simultaneously normalize aspirations for a future fueled by the power of nonhuman agents while offering glimpses into the uneven power relations between different humans that underpin such future making. At the same time, they also point to the emergent possibilities of meaning making that conjoin the human and the nonhuman.