Os monstros de OCO: um espetáculo teatral sob a perspectiva dos estudos em ciência, tecnologia e sociedade

Abstract

This dissertation aims to demonstrate how the symbol of the monster represents technology through the discursive narrative arising from the Technological Age. In this so-called “Technological Age,” theorized by Álvaro Vieira Pinto (2005), apocalyptic, fatalistic, or eschatological predictions about the future of technology often warn about the control and self-consciousness that technology will exert over society. These constructs circulate in the media, in clickbait posts, in works of science fiction, and promote the domination and possible extermination of the artificial over organic life. From these cultural representations, we identify the problem of language that leads to a flawed understanding of the nature of technology by failing to consider its form and social-historical context. We then approach the concept of technology from an existential phenomenological perspective and the concept of representation from a constructivist approach to better understand the interactions involved in the production of meaning in culture and language. As part of this theoretical study, we reflect on the representation of the puppet in theater through its historical significance as a medium and metaphor in culture. With this foundation, we turn to the audience’s perspective in the theatrical performance OCO (2019), produced and staged by TUT – Teatro da Universidade Tecnológica, with the aim of analyzing and interpreting four productions of animated forms according to their representations of meaning. The bestial hybrid puppets represent a realm of the imaginary, bursting with the sacred in the spectacle’s cosmogony and revealing a certain truth about human grotesque nature. Through the symbol of monsters as seen in the construction of the Technological Age, they embody human anguish, the decline of the myth of scientism, and the puppetization of interactions.