“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.
Morse, Margaret. "Sunshine and Shroud: Cyborg Bodies and the Collective and Personal Self." . http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themen/cyborg_bodies/kollektive_koerper/scroll (accessed 12 March 2011).
The author of the article suggests that our bodies have gone beyond the skin. Human bodies is no longer bounded by the flesh or skin, it has extended to the space. Margaret further illustrated her view by examples such as pens, forks and computers. Take computer cursor as an example, we use our hand in order to control it on the computer screen, the cursor is an avatar in cyberspace and we have embodied ourselves into cyberspace. We use tools in daily life, ourselves are embodied in the machines or the mediums and become a cyborg as Donna Haraway’s defined that the combination of organism and machine. I agreed our bodies are no longer bounded by visually skin, we are able to extend our future embodiment into space and which is a more conceptual and imaginational ‘body’ to us. We can virtually embodied ourselves into machine, for instance, when we are using mobile phone, our bodies are not visually being seen, however, we are embedded ourselves in machine, we are therefore end at the machine but not our visual skin.
Sandra, Seekins. "The Monstrous Future." http://tributaries.thecapilanoreview.ca/2008/02/20/the-monstrous-future(accessed 14 Mar. 2011).
From our preservative and culture, we defined bodies into categories; human, animals, female, male, flesh or mental. However, due to technology development, bodies cannot be sharply separated. Mechanical development blurred and extended the possibility of future embodiment. When we mention future embodiment, images of cyborg, biological creatures are representational as we saw in the science fiction films. I support author’s idea that future embodiments will be no boundary among gender, sexuality, races. What is more, in my opinion, future embodiment will also lessen the boundary of human species and other creatures or even machines. Because of the technology development, nowadays we already used machine to assist disable for daily functioning, without the machine, people in needed cannot live normally. The reliance on machine and the integration of organism and machine made us become cyborg or in author’s word it is a stage of transhuman. The meaning of transhuman is which using technology to achieve physical capacity. Furthermore, I find the word – ‘post-human’ enlightening, in future our body embodiment rely on technology and might develop into blur in various way, we are not able visually identify gender, ethnicity, robot, animals or human. Therefore, ‘post-human’ is applicable when the word human are no longer the best description of our living species.
"Cyborgs in Science Fiction Movies." Web. 15 Mar. 2011. http://www.explore-science-fiction-movies.com/cyborgs.html#axzz1gmwplvea
This article indicated how cyborg images are presented in films, the concept of future embodiment is inspiring. Cyborg is explicitly a mixture of organism and mechanism, cyborg is highly relying on the machine for living. The visual image of cyborg can go beyond normally human skin. In this article, it demonstrated a few of possibilities. For example, the layer of cyborg can be made of titanium or metal, meanwhile, the inner structure is no longer flesh and blood but high technology mechanic structure. With the artificial characteristic of our possible future embodiment, we are no longer bounded by our natural skin. Meanwhile, we are able to choose from skin color, ethnicity and even the body part we wanted to become machine (hand, head or legs). The high autonomy is one of the crucial characteristic of our future embodiment, we can intervene our nature, born bodies/ skin and transform to the ideal presentation of oneself.
Ballard, Susan. "My Viewing Body Does Not End at the Skin." . http://www.voyd.com/ttlg/textual/ballardessay.htm(accessed 16 March 2011).
The author has a clear view point that she thinks our bodies do not end at the skin. The writers using a interaction approach to explain her view point. She indicated that we have already participated in a techno-sphere which communication technologies are highly situated in our daily life. The technologies we experienced, as telecommunication, break through the boundary of body. Voice are not tight to body and skin were not barrier anymore. With the increasing frequency and intensive technology involved in our daily life, I agree that the truth is that our bodies are no longer bounded by our skin. The further example of “Cyberflesh Girlmonster” in the article is much closer to our daily use of technology – the Internet. Girlmonster scanned her bodies’ parts and made them become CD-ROMs. Viewers by clicking the mouse, images are able to response by sounds. Therefore, Girlmonster is obliviously a cyborg and her body is not bounded by the skin, it divided into parts and interactive with viewers.
Schick, Lea. "Unfolding and Refolding Embodiment into the Landscape of Ubiquitous Computing." http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t5741s0;jsessionid=d229a2a75f9028fc58c1fd0e4816edb4#page-3 (accessed 15 Mar. 2011).
This article proposed possible future embodiment when human meet technology. Schick seen clothing as a second skin of human and the security function of it has already embedded clothing in the part of our life. Due to the rapid of technology development, the author thinks that an interactive textile or technological skin will be established in the future. Such interactive skin was imitating human natural biological skin. However, it has the function of interaction between the environment and other bodies, the focus of this article is not how the technological-skin transmitting emotions or feelings but the interaction of human and technology. The technological-skin unfolds human skin and blurring the boundary of human/ machine, inside/ outside. The interaction between environments extends our body possibility. For example, our technological-skin can transform automatically without our notification, therefore, when temperature changes we no longer feel that, as our technological-skin automatically transform it. The interaction with other bodies is also transformative, when interactive built; we can regard our bodies as a whole, no physical interactions needed. The shared embodiment, writer suggests it is not only bounded between human to human, it can also interact with non-human species. The unfolding of human skin support human is no longer bounded or end at the skin, it is only an envelope of body, and the future embodiment is unlimited with the assist of technology.
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