Cyborgs & Robots 2

This week's reading "The Cyborg Mother: A Breaches Boundary" by Jaimie Smith-Windsor strikes a much more emotional tone to last week's Haraway piece. This weeks article and screenings (Sarah Connor Chronicles) have certainly raised the question on whether humans are already cyborgs, this has been addressed earlier in the course but now I truly feel the topic has come to the surface of our focus; and I have found the reading highly engaging in terms of the ideas explored.

Windsor writes of a highly personal moment in her and her baby's lives, I believe that the sincerity of the moment helped Windsor to explore the human cyborg beyond what she originally may have believed. Her maternal rights have been tested, and in essence nature has been brushed aside; one could argue that without today's technology would Quinn have survived? very likely not. "My daughter's birth was a post-human, cyborg moment. She became a cyborg [...] part human, part machine, never completely either". It is hard to come to come to terms knowing that your offspring is part machine, however despite the loss of biological consciousness and being, the human has been saved from death. This has certain comparisons with the Sarah Connor Chronicles whereby John suddenly feels empathy towards the Terminator, we ask ourselves why? From Windsor' argument we can conclude that when a machine has human emotional and physical features we sub-consciously gain an element of empathy, especially when the being in question is our offspring or has a close personal connection. What is more alarming in the SCC however is that Sarah Connor herself obviously feels the need to protect and nurture John, it is maternal and part of a symbiotic relationship. However as John becomes increasingly more involved with the terminator he becomes more pro-machine and starts to base his actions and feelings on a machine; one could argue he essentially becomes 'part-machine'. This threatens Sarah Connor's position in life, however we discover an interesting dualism. While technology improves or facilitates infancy it damages the natural bonds mother have with their children, yet without this technology there could possibly be no bond at all.

The article highlights the idea of the 'external' womb, we can see this in eXistenZ with the odd playpod being the organic device for future creation. As a mother Windsor becomes threatened and due to this suspicious of technology, what it effect it has on human offspring. She suggests that when allowing the womb to become external (through technology) the human body becomes subject to manipulation, you don't have to be a human rights activist to understand the highly controversial material that could arise from this; Genetic Engineering, Cloning, Bionic Advancement etc. They are areas that we have covered and by large panic society as we ever increasingly reach that state of the true 'cyborg', unable to distinguish ourselves not only from machine, but also from one another.

Sometimes a strange complex phenomena can arrive whereby humans or juveniles, because of their increased exposure to technology and machinery cannot distinguish between human/machine or themselves/machine.

"What happens when technology begins to work itself into the infantile discourse, severing the symbiosis between mother and child? What happens when the infant, instead, becomes incapable of distinguishing between itself and - the machine?".

Some argue that this is the way human's advance themselves, Warwick would certainly agree as his research facilitates these ideas, however Windsor is extremely negative, and like many people, is concerned for the lack of humanity in beings subjected to the morphology resulting from cyborg creations. "To become a cyborg is to commit suicide". This quote presents for me the final line in the argument, Windsor is strongly disturbed by the level of machinery applied to assist human beings, but she can't help feeling uneasy in her argument as after all, her child was saved by the same technology she denounces. This is perhaps the pitfall of technology, it can never be praised or damned, because essentially it fulfills so much that without we would be lost and broken; and to suggest otherwise is slightly hypocritical.

I found the reading deeply engaging and presents a real world scenario that truly outlines what it means to be, or be involved with, a cyborg. You can't help feeling uneasy at the events that she describes and how hopelessly reliant on technology we are.

Cyborgs & Robots 1

This week we look in more detail at 'The Cyborg', focusing on Donna Haraway's Manifest for Cyborgs. Cyborg have featured in a variety of representations already on the course; and the topic is quickly becoming more and more relevant to today's modern culture as we continually fuse technology with our organic material. The most improtant thing to consider when analyzing Haraway's arguments is that the piece is titled 'A Manifesto', by its true nature a manifesto is a political document, this essay is no different; it was written at a radical time in socialist-feminism movements, it was designed for longevity and revolution.

Haraway firstly states that a cyborg, by her definition, is "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism". This would seem rational at first when considering the majority of cyborg representation to be in line with this explanation; it is largely correct especially when taking on board Johnny Mnemonic, Robo-cop, Screamers etc. They all feature cyborgs in this way, Haraway further suggests that as 21st century citizens we are all 'chimeras', and that we have become cyborgs through both 'imagination and material reality', for example, pacemakers, artificial limbs and other bionic technologies.

Where Haraway rightly or wrongly differs from other cyborg theories is her notion of a social cyborg; the idea that a cyborg is a symbol of changing social structures and the breakdown of borders and polarities; for example, masculinity vs femininity, black vs white, gay vs straight etc. Now when reading Haraway's argument there is I feel areas where she strays slightly from the original context of the cyborg; to assume that a cyborg represents "the utopian tradition of imagining a world without gender" is rather limited, for every cyborg we have seen, they are in fact gendered; whether the emphasis is on masculinity or femininity, there is simply still gendered society with cyborg's, for after all both have different physical features and therefore the technology used must be different. I do partially agree with Haraway's 'otherness' notion, though, the idea that a cyborg can eliminate the otherness of certain ethnic, disabled peoples etc; for everyone would assume very similar physical attributes, however if more in depth analysis is conducted there is controversial boundaries that provide flaws in this argument (e.g. Religious traditions - the mutilation of the human form). Even though Haraway is correct that a cyborg stimulates the pleasure in breaking down boundaries, I do not feel it is for the purpose of such sociological factors as gender.

One area of the text that I found to be very interesting and void of fault, I believe, is the area that she describes as the 'second leaky distinction':

"... machines were not self-moving, self-designing, autonomous. They could not achieve man's dream, only mock it. They were not man, [...] but only a caricature of that masculinist reproductive dream. [...] Late twentieth century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed [...] Our machines are disturbingly lively, while we ourselves are frighteningly inert". (p. 30)

This quote of course follows many popular cyborg theories, that technology has become so advanced that it is starting to become more powerful than us; the idea that the boundary between organism and machine is disappearing. This does frighten mankind, it is evident in the amount of films that display this fear - Gamer, and Surrogates both have a strong representation the nano-technologies; they both suggest the 'evil' capitalist exploits of these new technologies, their potential to invade our lives and society, breaking down the modern world. The film that displays the power of this concerns is The Matrix; the dystopian reality of how out of touch we are with what we have created. I particularly enjoy Haraway's idea that pre-cybernetic creations were only there to facilitate man's reproductive dream, It firstly seems a strong base for Haraway's argument for the un-gendered world post-cyborgs, however that does break down when understanding the true militarism and capitalism that fuels and funds cyborg technologies. But more importantly the idea finishes with the notion that machines are in some way achieving man's dream, but at the expense of man's freedom. Take Screamers for example, they were developed to help men achieve freedom and peace (admittedly they were created for a military purpose), but suddenly they learned how to modify and encroached upon man's freedom. Minority report offers us this in a different light - the pre-murder technology has helped man to achieve the elimination of homicides, yet as the technology develops it inevitably turns on us and restricts our liberties and brings down the society it helped to build.

This may be the reason for the mixed reactions to Andy Clark - who has decided to test cyborg and nano-technologies on himself; in an attempt to demonstrate the capability of the human form when advanced by technology. It is interesting reading Kevin Warwick's website page that even though his research is highly commended and generally seen as a massive contribution to the advancement in science and to mankind as a whole; he still works with Dr Daniela Cerqui about the social and ethical issues that arise regarding his research. It seems that even though one hand we are so excited and awed at such technology; it seems that inevitably we must have the other hand as well, the fear. The fear that what he is creating will infringe our human rights or damage our social structure.

After this week I did come away with this feeling that cyborgs are just going through a similar process that we as humans go through as we develop - we learn to talk and walk, and then 10 years later we are able to read competently and understand material we previously couldn't have. We develop the ability to create, to advance ourselves. Why is it strange to comprehend a machine doing this? In my eyes IT is still in it's early stage - a juvenile, if you will. There is much more that will be developed, and soon we will start to see this in our daily lives as technology moves at faster and faster rates.

Play 2: eXiztenZ

This week we take a look at David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999), it's important to note that the release of the film was set firmly in the shadow of the Matrix, and even though it was widely considered a financial failure and imitation, it does in fact provide us with just as much stimulating material as the Matrix - Essentially they deal with the same subject, the immersion of the self into a computerized world/program.

When reading Lia Hitchkiss' article "Still in the game: [...]", what struck me was the very beginning Cronenberg quote " he look[s] at each film as sort of a lab experiment". This is very true of eX as the film centres around the release of a new game - an experiment. Furthermore the film features spheres of experimentation (e.g. Gas' station, The Pod surgery room, etc), this follows nicely with the notion of cyberspace; essentially being a sub-genre of experimentation whereby humans use technology to advance themselves for better, and as displayed in eX, can also produce very negative effects on mankind.

One prop in eX that I found rather odd is the use of biological technology, the bone gun (which I came to the conclusion that it represents the true nature of the human race, that we will at every opportunity use technology to do acts of evil - the firearm is a fantastic example of technology being used in acts of violence). The Game Pod is an innovative way to connect the biological with the electronic, it represents a primitive form of nanotechnology as users nervous system is calibrated with this strange ugly fleshy pod. The 'umby' cord that connects symbolizes the real human biological tissue, the idea that we are connected to our mothers - and in fact gain our identities through this medium. Perhaps Cronenberg wanted to make a link between the womb (our unconscious environment, and a VR world; whereby we are 'unconscious' so to speak to the real world). He offers us the idea that once again in order to change our identities (to immerse ourselves in an avatar based game world) we must re-connect to the 'mother', "eXistenZ situates itself within the guardedly optimistic critiques of cyberculture whose excitement over electronic technology's potential to reshape identity [...] not only neurally but ethically". The potential to reshape our identities and live a life we want through our avatars (as explained wonderfully by the character Gas - played by Willem Defoe), brings with it excitement but also vulnerability. This is true of many technologies that leave amazed and advantaged yet in some ways left vulnerable - for example, question yourself, how dependent am I on my cell phone? If every cell phone in the world was taken away suddenly would the western world be able to function the same? imagine what we would lose and vulnerable to?

eX has a somewhat cruder method than what was present in the Matrix whereby a slick neck-spike was utilized, this may be a reason for it's lack of success; the film is creative and controversial but lacks finesse. Technology usage in eX is very masculine and sexualized, for example the penetration of the pod into the back; it's alarmingly true of many cyberspace technologies; whereby users must somehow penetrate themselves with the technology; Demolition Man (1993) does however present an opposing viewpoint; instead of being penetrated, the user must wear a helmet to in fact restrict any form of penetration, S. Bullock then reinforces this with her dialogue on AIDS etc. One could look back at eXistenZ and make a connection between that line and J. Laws' worried dialogue parts on port infection; there is an interesting concern that both films display over infection and mutation regarding penetrative technologies.

I personally found the film difficult to follow in the fact that we were, through the cycle of scenes, being challenged over what is real and what isn't. Even though this was very effective in challenging the viewer through what we deem to be real, narratively it felt disconnected at times. However eX does effectively show the dystopian (in terms of the breakdown of social behavior) impact of living in a continually more dissociated society, the assassins at the end succeed in their plan in an attempt to rid the world of the 'evil' of this alternative game world phenomenon. I found the article by Lia Hitchkiss to be very stimulating and provided many interesting thoughts on Cronenberg's works, which I deem to be a staple diet for the cyberspace junky. Even though eXistenZ was by large a faulted film, it should not be passed up as inferior or lacking in stimulating material, even though the sight of the game pods makes me physically nauseous, I do however consider it to be very clever in the context of birth and the human comprehension of thew real.

Play: 1 (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)

The key term for this weeks class: 'The uncanny' first introduced by Japanese Roboticist Mashiro Mori - It refers to a sense of unease of awkwardness or discomfort when we experience the virtual human, especially as they become more realistic and life-like.

When discussing the term 'uncanny valley' in class today, I couldn't help make a connection. We use the term to describe the effect that humans have when viewing another virtual human; we relate this to cinema and popular culture. I feel that in a way cinema has always thrived on the uncanny; for example, when cinema was first being screened (late 1880s), humans were shown, and even though at first they were flesh and blood, their reproduced image was not. There are many cases whereby people felt 'uneasy' or 'apprehensive' when experiencing this new medium; It is for this reason that I feel that films have always used this technique - historically and aesthetically. The final fantasy film is by no means an exception; it's creative use of animation creates another humanoid representation, even though fictional it strikes us as so similar to our own form.

Mori suggests that as a machine / robot develops we feel a sense of empathy - we gain a more emotional attachment as it learns more advanced skills, we start to almost think of it as one of us. Strangely however as the machine becomes more human-like we feel awkward and in a way threatened by it's potential to match us or even out-perform us, also it's appearance (in the case of a cyborg) starts to play tricks on the mind, as humans we are extremely sensitive to this kind of imagery as our brain tells they are real, but again we know they are not. In class we used the example of Michael Najjar's Nexus Project 1 to reinforce this idea - it features digitally modified eyes of certain people; a proposed post-human cyborg representation. However we only understand this context if we read the in formation plaques provided, before this knowledge our preceptions are different - our brain jumping to conclusions, and essentially 'freaking out'. Without clarification of what we are looking at (human, robot, cyborg etc) it is very hard for us to engage with the subject on an emotional or personable level.

One interesting point raised in the Jason Sperb (addressing Videodrome) reading is his mention of the character Max is in fact perhaps not dead, but is his physical body is indeed spent, he recognizes this as a common post-modern practice. This can be seen in Final Fantasy especially, the final spirit requires the sacrifice of the captain, he is body has been obliterated but interestingly (in accordance with the christian belief in the eternal soul) he lives on in what is described as Gaia.

McLuhan states that media is in fact the extension of the self, this combined with the post-human cyborg becoming an extension of our physical capabilities has alarming similarities. When Sperb deals with 'The New Flesh' he introduces a state of simulation and repetition, so is this to further McLuhan's argument? Final Fantasy is some ways reinforcing this by the fact that we surrounded by virtual characters performing and acting as humans; the film takes what we are, and presents it back to us in the construction of this perhaps possible epitaph of mankind.

When the captain dies he has said to have obtained 'the new flesh' as his transition is from physical to spiritual, as opposed to electronic. FF has copious intangible religious connotations, we are just as inquisitive to religion as we are to post-human technologies; there is also this continual conflict between the two as well. There is an interesting connection between the works of Sperb and McLuhan in regards to FF, if only scraping the surface. I found FF very clever in it's animation, it is flawed as a decent film; but I feel that is not important. What is key is the idea that these virtual characters are carrying out actions and emotions that are very human, and that we find hard to comprehend robots/animations being able to exercise or understand.

Perception

I found the readings this week very interesting, especially Lev Manovich's "The poetics of augmented Space".

AUGMENTED SPACE: The placing of layers of data over the physical space. This aids the tracking, monitoring and delivery of information to users.

I like the way that the texts overall theme is that of augmented space in society, that is to say that virtual reality itself is rather limited in terms of its usefulness to us; what becomes of use is the augmented space, and are that has been enhanced by technology to instruct and aid us in our day to day lives. "The virtual became domestic", this can be seen in sci-fi environments, one that particularly strikes me a s a good example is Bruce Willis' apartment in 'The Fifth Element', from his remaking bed, to the strange shower convertible (a series of tangible interfaces). It is a true representation of augmented space; all the technology features in the physical world, unlike VR. It also complies with the dichotomies of augmented space (physical and assistance), both are present in this example. In some ways it is not far from where humans currently are at. Our continual integration of technology into our recreational environments is changing the way think, we act, and the way we design our physical surroundings; examples that Manovich suggests are, video surveillance, tangible interfaces, intelligent buildings, smart objects (think iPhone Vs wall in Minority Report; are they really that different?), etc.

AR s(augmented reality) systems have become more popular for a variety of reasons, but primarily it the fact that what was being done in the intangible world of VR can now be conducted in our own physical space, uninteresting and incorporating our work and recreational activities. I find Bluetooth an interesting phenomenon, how many times have you seen someone on a an ear piece in looking as if they're talking to an item of clothing in a store?! In someways it's very strange, but yet it's a great example of augmented space, we can communicate with each while still conducting our day to day activities. Before AR we would have had to assign a period of the day to communicate with others, now that is not necessary due to the advancement of technology.

Lev Manovich mentions smart buildings, in particular he goes on to point out augmented architecture. We are continually demanding the need for visual contextual information in our lives; for example, the increasing reliance of school children on power-points and visual aids. This layering of smart information is continually challenging architects in their projects as they attempt to construct more advanced and appealing infrastructure (the Millennium Dome London featured some of the world's largest walk-through interactive spaces - it was mind-blowing and was for many their first experience of a 'smart building'). This new modern focus on architecture helps designers to develop narrative and meaning from the buildings themselves; for example the Prada building, the Jewish Museum of Berlin etc. However contrary to the belief that this is a new phenomenon is rather limited due tot he fact that we have used buildings to portray narrative for hundreds of years - churches and places of worship. The only difference is these do not include the technology we posses today.

The main theme I gained from this week is the advancement of the 3D, before augmented space became possible artists, designers, and even the civilian thought 2D; we presented our works and constructed our homes in such a way, however since technology has arrived we have become increasingly more dimensional - for example, the TV being so integral to the layout of a modern living room. We are already seeing a new approach as well with the way artists will now deal with the entire space of a gallery, as opposed to one or a few main focus features; for example the BANKSY exhibition in the UK, where he managed to incorporate an entire city's museum into one exhibition - interestingly the main theme of this exhibition was surveillance. A product of technology invading the boundaries between public and private lives.

New Worlds: Cyber Punk

The first reading (Mischa Peters)I found particularly interesting especially at the beginning when concerning the post-human/cyborg approach. That we somehow have become beyond human; utilizing technology to connect the neurons within our brains to virtual reality, or to some enhancement technology. The first page has a quote from Hockenberry's text from Wired magazine; "Your body. Get over it. (Think mind over matter)". In a way this sums up the digital body, the releasing of our physical matter from our minds; this becomes particularly interesting when applying this notion to the accompanying screened film, "Screamers (1995)". We learn that the character Jessica Hanson is in fact an advanced screamer, yet her physical form and mind is so true to ours; blood, emotion, intelligence etc. The fact that we can be tricked by our own minds when presented with something physical, one has to question whether this would be the case if we were 'plugged' into VR, having our minds separated from the terrestrial plane from which we base our judgements on. Yet the key thing to remeber is that screamers does not however feature a VR environment, or a 'jacking in' of characters.

Cyber punk as a genre I find a paradox of popular science-fiction theory, for example many sci-fi stories are set in utopian societies and settings (admitedly they later present a problem with this), however cyber-punk is often represented as dystopian representing a future dark underworld as a reaction against the norm. Peter's reading suggests that in traditional sci-fi the boundaries between humans and the other are reformed and somehow glorified, she adds that cyberpunk is the breakdown of this feature (think of the replicants in Blade Runner). She separates the natural body from the modified body, when thinking of Johnny Mnemonic he largely has a natural body, and is of course biological like us bar the fact that he can load information from an electronic source directly into his brain. Peter's later identifies the enhanced body, this is where boundaries are extensively stretched (e.g. Wolverine, Robocop etc). The general overall idea of cyber punk regarding the human form is the fact that the mind can continue to exist even if the body has died or broken.

Techno Working Dependancies

Ex-Machina was thoroughly enjoyable and like many graphic novels has many deeper themes running through it. What particularly interested me is directly an analysis based on David Bell's Essentialist Belief and Post-Modernist viewpoints. In a way Ex-Machina is very similar to Robocop (The feature for this week), it has many similar themes regarding the relationships between technology and work/occupation.

ESSENTIALIST BELIEF: This rather limited viewpoint suggests that identity is always there, that we have "real me", so despite any environmental/exterior changes we are still the same, our identities are fixed from the day we enter the world. When looking at Ex-Machina this is marginally true when considering the character of Mitchell. From a young age he seems interested in comics, but realizes that he must of course follow the path of an architect to essentially amount to anything. This is true of his character as he grows froma boy to a man, and realises that he must run for Mayor to do good, rather than fly around like a vigilante. It so seems that this would be true of Robocop; once a cop, always a cop. However there are flaws to this argument, which is where the development of the post-modernist viewpoint arrives from.

POST-MODERNIST VIEWPOINT:

To understand this viewpoint one must consider that our identities are NOT fixed, in fact they are so flexible that we also choose to reveal specific areas of our identity at a given moment; quite simply, a choice. In Ex-Machina Mitchell is left scarred and able to telepathically affect technology, with this power he must CHOOSE when and where to use it. One cannot simply display all of our unique aspects of our identities all the time, for two reasons. 1. We would feel a lack of personal security, and 2. We 'perform' different sections of our personalities depending on the social situation we are within (eg. you wouldn't samba dance in the office!).

Cyberspace often displays the idea that humans will willingly fall without grace if given the opportunity. In machina, like many gritty graphic novels, has sinister scenes take place in largely old, broken environments. A sort of reminder of the evil we are capable of.

One interesting factor of the internet (in particular the phenomenon of Facebook) is that social barriers from existing face-to-face social practice quite simply disappear. This may be the reason for 3rd world cultures being a lot more sociable and open than the western world. Poorer countries do not have access to any near the level or abundance of technology available in the west; as a result we behave differently. In our online cyber-space world, we are free to express and show so many aspects of our personality than before, and the sheer amount of photographic capabilities are of course letting other people view so much more of you; in essence, the destruction of personal well-being.

I found the Tulip theory reading particularly interesting, Sconce puts forward this idea that when something exotic and interesting doesn't actually produce anything it effectually dies out and loses its values. He uses the medieval tulip craze as an analogy. The tulip was "rare, exotic and in demand (though essentially useless accept as orientation), tulips became the foundation for a whole new speculative economy. The people "woke" to realize that there wasn't anything of substance that was worth anything, just a flower. The same could be said for our online network sites, they don't produce anything, they just allow communication. He suggests that eventually the world will "wake" up and move on to a new tulip craze. I partly agree with his theory, technology changes ever-faster every year, when we realize something isn't worth the salt, we improve/change/ or scrap it. The thing is we still have tulips now (they actually have mass), yet our online facilities/cyberspace have no mass really, so what happens to them?? do they disappear forever?