A Fantastic Guide to the Cybersiren, and Everything Else You Need to Know about the Love, Death, Origins, Characteristics and Chronicles of the Neapolitan Port
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59490/footprint.19.1.7866Abstract
The separation of Napoli from its port – driven by industrialisation, privatisation and urban neglect – has disconnected the city from the sea. Drawing on the local mythological tradition, the Cybersiren is introduced as an advocate for change and a way to reconnect city, port and people. It is presented as a disruptive force in response to rigid systems of authority and control that currently dominate the Neapolitan port. This is presented in two ways. First, through a guideline that explains the characteristics of the Cybersiren as a queer entity, one that is body- and techno-fluid, is ambiguously alien on the one hand yet familiar on the other. The guideline also speaks of the way in which the Cybersiren attacks, shatters and eventually, dies. Second, these characteristics are translated into a fictional story that uses imagination to consider how change could be brought about in order to foster technodiversity and reconfigure relationships. Mythopoesis, or the formation of a myth, is used as a tool in order to explore how the grotesque could be used to challenge what has become stuck.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Miguel Borst, Qiyu Chen, Koen de Nie, Mees van Rhijn, Jean Rojanavilaivudh

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