Introduction – 10

1. The Concept of Subversion in Relation to Critical and Transgressive Practices – 25

Strategies of Resistance in Art – 27
Artistic Resistance – Critique, Transgression, Subversion – 32
The Relationship Between Critical, Transgressive, and Subversive Artistic Practices – 48
Subversion in Relation to the Habitual – 57

2. The Relationship Between Artistic Subversion, Forms of Life, and Art – 65

Machinic and Networked Forms of Life – Hacking the "Machine" – 71
Absurdist and Playful Forms of Techno-Life – Subversion of Function – 75
Cyborgs and Robots, Dangerous Life Forms – Subversion of Control – 77
Algorithmic Governance – Subversive Reprogramming – 90
Hacking the Living – 97
Undermining Scientific Determinism – Subverting Dominant Discourses of Bioengineering – 100
Subverting Anthropocentrism – Dehierarchization of Species – 110
Hybrid Plants – Plantimals and Manplants – 112
Chimeric Micro-Performances – Transgressions of the Human, Subversions of Anthropocentrism – 116
New Beings – Barely-Life – 119
Performing Forms of Life – The Artist as Sovereign – 123
Forms of Life – Dispositifs of Power – 129

3. (Bio)Political and/or Ethical Interpretation of Subversive Artistic Practices – 133

Identity and Identification Politics – Inconsistent Identity Constructions – 142
Security vs. Freedom – The Politics and Ethics of Surveillance – 151
Subversion of Personified Otherness – 160
From Biopolitics to Bio-Philosophy – Art as Life Itself – 164
Radical Subversion – The Reenactment of Social Violence – 166
Bioart and Fuzzy Biological Sabotage – 172
The Anthropocene and Speculative Subversion – Continuation of Instability – 179
Subversive Reflection on Death – Posthumanist Ethics – 184
The Paradox of Subversive Art and Ethical Issues – 189

4. The Relationship Between Subversion in Art and Cultural Institutions – 193

Artistic-Cultural Institutional Dynamics – 195
The Question of Institutional Responsibility – 204
Legal Context – 211
The Imperative of Security – 214
Institutional Critique and Subversion – Exit Strategies – 217
Examples of Best Practices – Hybrid Institutions, the Independent Scene, and the Role of Curators – 224

5. Reception of Subversions – Affect and Cognition – 231

The Relationship Between Cognition and Affect – 233
Affective Networks – 237
Affect and Subversive Art – 240
Uncertain Affective Intensities of Self-Sacrificing (Helpless) Subversions – 250
Powerful Subversions – The Intensity of Techno-Scientifically Aided Subversions – 252
The Excitement of Inventive Intensity – Attachments to the Impossible – Sensory Experience of an Indeterminate Future – 254
Sympoietic Artistic Subversions – 257
Aggressive Intensities of Subversive Art – Ultimate (Violent) Negotiations – 259

6. Case Studies – 273

Siniša Labrović – Stado.hr – 287
Forms of Life – The Nature of the Screen – 290
Media Subversion Through Humor – 293
The Political and the Animal – 295
Affective Impact of Stado.hr – Laughter and Rage – 297
Zoran Todorović – Assimilation and Integration – 300
Biopolitical Potentials of Assimilation and Integration and New Forms of Life – 300
Subversive Affective Modulation of Aggressive Negotiations – Dread, Aversion, Rage – 309
Maja Smrekar – K9_Topology – 312
Hormonal Affective Modulations – Serotonin, Oxytocin, Prolactin, Progesterone, Estrogen – 319

Conclusion – 323

Appendices – 330

Interview with Siniša Labrović – 331
Interview with Zoran Todorović – 338
Interview with Maja Smrekar – 344
Interview with Jurij Krpan – 353
Bibliography – 364

Index – 376

Biography – 386