Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding Question no. 1:

“Why should our bodies end at the skin?” asks Donna Haraway. Discuss the idea of skin in relation to how we might imagine our future embodiment.

Reference 1:

Balsamo, Anne Marie. (1996) “Chapter 1: Reading Cyborgs, Writing Feminism: Reading the Body in Contemporary Culture.” Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women. http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=lkr11mXPYKEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Technologies+of+the+gendered+body:+reading+cyborg+women&hl=zh-TW&ei=8wp9TfyyEM2ccf_rnLgG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed 13 March, 2011)

The author suggests that skin and human body are kinds of products, which are produced with specific sensations and feelings. They are material embodiment of racial, gender and personal identity. Besides, they are also a process to know and mark a “self”. Gender is the primary effect of the construction of human bodies. It is related to sexual characteristics of the human body and it can be identified through skin. Technological engagement makes the body and skin reconstruction possible. Gregory Bateson suggested that machines contain organic functions and the body can be redesigned through newly developed technologies which operate on the flesh of human bodies. Cyborg bodies are not bounded by skin but include all external pathways along so that information can travel through wires. They are hybrid, organic and technological, which redevelop the theoretical concept about the construction of the body and skin as a material entity. The reasons of how the material female body and the gender identity are being reproduced and reconstructed with new technologies are also mentioned.

Reference 2:

CNN. (22 March, 2002) “Scientists Test First Human Cyborg.” http://articles.cnn.com/2002-03-22/tech/human.cyborg_1_cyborg-nerve-signals?_s=PM:TECH (accessed 13 March, 2011)

The news article is about cyborg technology being applied on human skin. Kevin Warwick, a 48 years old professor from a British university, became the first cyborg in the world. He had already had a chip implanted into his arm in 1998, which he was able to control lights and doors. After sets of experiments, Warwick underwent a more complex surgery, having a silicon implanted and electrodes attached into his left wrist. His nervous system was linked to a computer. Nerve messages like movements, sensations and feelings were transmitted to a computer and recorded for further testing. The history-making surgery had only been applied in animals like cats and monkeys, but it had never been carried out on humans before. The surgery was said to be a scientific breakthrough transforming human skin into a robot arm and lead to a medical breakthrough which was beneficial to patients with spinal injuries. It is believed that after further development the cyborg technique would be able to restore movement to paralyzed patients. Still, there was ethnical concern involved about changing the nature of a human.

Reference 3:

Kirkup, Gill. (2000) “Chapter 1.4 Envisioning Cyborg Bodies: Notes from Current Research.” The Gendered Cyborg: a Reader. http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=nhAi3mKU_w0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gill+Kirkup&hl=zh-TW&ei=iGh-Tf6FBcGXcaSzpbkG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed 13 March, 2011)

The author mentions that cyborg body refers to the possible being which is embedded and inhabited within the real. Several types of cyborgs are introduced: an organic cyborg refers to the hybrid of species; a mechanical cyborg refers to the combination of human and technological devices. Some visual representations of cyborg bodies are included in the chapter because of the incarnation of significant features for a cyborg body. Example is mechanical mistress, as a machine, she shows the skill and potential of an engineer; while she also represent a female body shape which is sexually objectified. It is also said that human skin is a representation of race and gender, while the cyborg bodies possess the attribute of both human sex which become hybrid. It is said that the possible construction of cyborgs help eliminate the racial identity. Sexual reproduction about this kind of future embodiment is also examined. The authors suggested that the forbidden nature of the intersection of human and machine become problematic to the conceptions of cyborg embodiment.

Reference 4:

Morse, Margaret. “Sunshine and Shroud: Cyborg Bodies and the Collective and Personal Self. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/cyborg_bodies/collective_bodies/scroll/ (accessed 13 March, 2011)

The author focuses on the discussion of theoretical and artistic implications of machine-based embodiments. Some Donna Haraway's theories have been mentioned, that she regards cyborgs as tools of thought and an intervention affecting existing relations among society, science and technology. She points out the general misunderstanding of imagining cyborg, that people see it as a container, which can be self-sufficient with the machines replaced inside. The author clarifies that the conceptual ideas of cyborgs are not only bounded by the linkage between human and machines, but imply more deeply on artificial intelligence. With the machine-based cyborgs, the term post-human is derived. Also, the discourse on the construction of future artificial bodies is discussed. It is also described that not all cyborgs contain skin, or even bodies, which make these robots interesting regard to skin since they are supposed to be create in relation to human as well as human intelligence. While others argue that cyborgs do have skin, which bring out a question of what a robotic skin is if the concept of skin is bodily surrounded which is a part of constituent of human body. One more question raised is that if humans nowadays are already cyborgs and what the difference between human and cyborg skin would then be.

Reference 5:

Muri, Allison. (2003) “Tropes of Cybernetic Disembodiment in Contemporary Culture.” http://headlesschicken.ca/archive/Shit&Soul.pdf (accessed 13 March, 2011)

This paper suggests in the cybernetic era, human skin and bodies are vanishing as they are interfaced with the machines, causing the change of self and an individual identity. It is argued that the boundaries of human bodies and the inherent humanity have therefore been violated since real and natural physical embodiment and presence are eliminated. Instead, they are being replaced by electronic bodies. It is mentioned that the future of the human body would become a distributed and shared embodiment because of the change in humans’ perception of embodiment caused by the technological movements. It also implies the possibility of an unfolded body that doesn't end at one's skin, but becomes a kind of combination of bodies and technological innovation. The way that new technologies challenge the traditional notions of embodiment and the subject is exemplified. The paper also tells how the new embodiment clarified the philosophy of the body as something changing and unstable, and how the reconstruction of bodies can be useful for developing future embodiment.