"Thus, I believe that
speaking about ethnic cyborgs makes sense as soon as ethnicity is seen
as
tactically articulating the boundary condition of cyborg bodies
together with
other differences, rather than being considered as an essential
property used
to perpetuate discriminatory as well as neocolonizing strategies."
Yes, I believe this is why we come with this topic.
But, when we repeat the phrase that "we are all cyborgs" , we point
out another ethnicity
above all the existing / -politically-accepted ones. I now realized
that this was an
attempt to omit the differences and re-unite in another definition
(another ethnicity).
Hence the core problem exist in such sayings, which starts with "we
are all ...".
Therefore as Federica referred to Anna Munster's approach 'engagement
with
differences inside connectivity' is opening a new door...
This made me think on protocols. Even if we take the differences
positively and try to
eliminate them, we still use the same 'protocols' to communicate. May
be not our perceptions
but the protocols are forcing us to create the 'other'. Hence can
we think on "ethnic cyborg"
-ethnicity and cyborgs- in relation with protocols and -furthermore-
interfaces?
ekmel ertan
eertan@forumist.com
+90.532.4738971
www.forumist.com
skype id: ekmelertan
On Jul 6, 2009, at 6:12 PM, fmarineo@libero.it wrote:
Although I am usually in the position of a reader of the posts on this
list,
this time I really feel the need to take part in this extremely
interesting
discussion, since I have been working very much on feminist cyborg
theory for
my research.
I think that if we want to "properly" talk about the cyborg -
that is as the "inappropriate/d other" -, we need to retrieve the
political and
ethical implications of the cyborg figuration in Donna Haraway's
theory, as
well as to consider the recent developments of cyberfeminist theory and
practice in their encounter with postcolonial theory and transcultural
feminism.
The figuration of the cyborg emerges from Haraway's situated
critique of technoscience. In fact, the cyborg is a situated and
political
figuration, whose articulation happens to be linked with the very
possibility
of a politics of location. The harawaian cyborg can be seen as a
figure of
connection and connectivity, but only inasmuch as it is also
considered as a
figure of partiality. Technofeminist connection is partiality, since
it implies
the encounter with otherness, in/appropriatedness, differentiality.
Connectivity, in this context, is not a inclusive, inevitable or
"evolutionary"
process of trascendental communion of subjectivities eventually taking
place in
every corner of the planet, to paraphrase Raquel Paricio, but a situated
practice of networking dealing with contradictions and disjunctures (and
fighting against corporate powers' connections).
Feminist search for
commonalities has gradually been accompanied by the recognition and
articulation of differences within and without, rather than their
inclusion.
Moreover, as Maria Fernandez points out, feminist incorporation is
based on
acknowledging the "power and the legacy of embodied practices",
rather than
overcoming them. For this reason, if "we are all cyborgs", this
doesn't mean
that we all share the same ontological status, but that we are non
unitary,
hybrid formations experiencing multiple connections across different
boundaries.
Lanfranco Aceti writes: "The new nature of the cyborg should have
been that of revolutionizing the status quo, overcoming differences,
surpassing
and moving beyond human differences and even beyond human nature."
But
according to Haraway, cyborg bodies move across differences, rather
than
overcoming them. Here is what Trinh T. Minh-ha
interviewed by Marina Gržinić
affirms in this respect:
"For me, the question of hybridity or of cultural
difference has never been a question of blurred boundaries. We
constantly
devise boundaries, but these boundaries, which are political,
strategical or
tactical-whatever the circumstance requires, and each circumstance
generates a
different kind of boundary-need not be taken as an end in itself. The
notion of
the migrant self, which has taken on a new lease in our times, is very
relevant
here. The self-in-displacement or the self-in-creation is one through
which
changes and discontinuities are accounted for in the making and
unmaking of
identity, and for which one needs specific, but mobile boundaries. For
example,
when do you call yourself a feminist, when you do not call yourself a
feminist,
when do you see yourself as part of the East, and when do you when you
tell
people the West is also in me? When I am speaking about the West I am
not
speaking about a reality outside myself. It is not a question of
blurring
boundaries or of rendering them invisible. It is a question of
shifting them as
soon as they tend to become ending lines." (Inappropriate/d
Artificiality,
1998, http://arch.ced.berkeley.
edu/people/faculty/bourdier/trinh/TTMHInterviews002.htm).
Thus, I believe that
speaking about ethnic cyborgs makes sense as soon as ethnicity is seen
as
tactically articulating the boundary condition of cyborg bodies
together with
other differences, rather than being considered as an essential
property used
to perpetuate discriminatory as well as neocolonizing strategies.
Combining
cyborg feminism and Thirld World feminism, for instance, Chela
Sandoval sees
connectivity as a "crossing network of consciousness", based on the
traversing
of sexual, cultural and national boundaries, rather than on their
erasure; her
approach allows both the dominant and the oppositional power forces
that flow
through the networks to be dealt with. Anna Munster also adopts an
ethico-
aesthetic approach to digitality; reading the digital through the
social, she
foregrounds the engagement with differences inside connectivity,
rather than
the elision of differences through it.
I agree with Ekmel Ertan's statement
that "there is no place for ethnicity in utopias because utopias are
uniform".
That is why I rather consider the cyborg as a techno-topic - neither
utopic nor
dystopic - figuration that combines imagination and responsible praxis,
allowing to account for the contradictions and fragmentations of
networks from
the inside and, at the same time, to produce alternative forms of
technopoiesis.
Federica Timeto
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Plymouth, UK
Planetary Collegium/M-Node
fmarineo@libero.it
federica.timeto@plymouth.ac.uk
http://plymouth.academia.edu/FedericaTimeto
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe
to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address,
name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked.
Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options
page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the
"Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
