problematic pronoun for all of us participating in this discussion, I'd like to
add something more about it, and I draw on Haraway again.
› Dicle writes "how
do we theorize or at least talk about the inequalities in the status of
becoming cyborgs. can we come up with norms for all cyborgs without discussing
the unequal ontological status of these and different ways of becoming
cyborgs? and the hierachies in the ways in which we see and judge them?"
In a
interview with Constance Penley and Andrew Ross ("Cyborgs at Large" - 1991),
Haraway appears well aware of the risks that the assumption of every
theoretical and linguistic system of classification (every protocol?) implies,
specifically the risk of essentializating and making pantheistic claims ("we
all"), or the reinstatement of binary distinctions (such as we/they,
subject/object). That is why she proposes a system of figures (and the cyborg
works first of all as figuration, which is something very different from a
metaphor) that allow us to establish connections beyond those Euro-American-
centric technologies of description (something which, often, the cyborg has
become) that still rely on the othering of the other.
The encounters among
cyborgs happen on a different level: cyborgs share what Haraway calls "the
possibility of being accountable to each other" without taking (even
discursively) the place of the other (or the place of the self). Cyborgs tell
stories of relationality, made of commonalities as well as differences (a more
complex and layered vision of connectivity), in order to imagine a different
kind of politics. Thus, "we" can even stop talking about cyborgs, if we use it
as an identity/identificatory fetishizing category in the traditional sense.
Since, according to Haraway, the inappropratedness (see Minh-ha again) of
cyborgs does not reside in their taxonomical difference, but in their
continuous practice of dislocation, that creates connections "that exceed
domination".
Above all, cyborgs' dislocation is also a movement of self-
difference (we can call it self-reflexivity, maybe) that constantly dislocate
their same privileged location (if they are given one). I would insist on this:
the harawaian cyborg practices a politics of location and dislocation, so it
would be better intended as a mode of articulation rather than as a
representation.
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
>----Messaggio originale----
>Da:
nanelikek@gmail.com
>Data: 12/07/2009 17.03
>A: "YASMIN DISCUSSIONS"
<yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
>Cc: "fmarineo@libero.it"
<fmarineo@libero.it>
>Ogg: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg - the
harawaian cyborg
>
>maybe it is because i am a bit foreign to the art scene and
all. but
>reading haraway i constantly feel like asking whom do we call cyborgs
>and who remains outside of it?
>
>whether the cyborgs wear burkas or not i
agree with roger in that what
>matters is what becomes visible. and in what
becomes vsibile i guess
>what matters is what federica calls ontological
status. I agree with
>her when she writes: '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.'
>
>what matters then for instance building on ekmel's suggestion
to think
>on protocols may be the ontological status of that connectivity. our
>constant inclination to think of a totally integrated cyborg and the
>invisibility of (to put it simply) poorer cyborgs. a kurdish or
>afghani kid
who is the victim of a landmine but is left out of our
>digital protocols as
well as our social proptocols to see her as such.
>or a child who cannot become
a cyborg because does not have the money
>for the prothesis. our dream of all
those who need to become cyborgs
>must be becoming one.
>
> our constant
thinking in lines such as ' it cannot be that bad, there
>must be internet
cafes down there too' in a world where one in seven
>people are sturggling with
hunger ( according to UN numbers) our dream
>of an all encompassing
connectivity. constant neglect of the fact that
>one in seven people is reduced
to the status of a hungry animal
>spending her life searchign for food. and
this together with
>forgetting about all the violence. our dream of equation of
violences.
>big armies that turn soldiers into cyborgs, soldiers wearing
seventy
>pounds of tehcnology and covering themselves with technology, becomign
>cyborgs vis-avis guerillas and civilians. documentaries shot in green
>light.
is it a surprise to see what these cyborgs are doing to the
>civilians? yes
guerillas have arms too but is this really the way it
>needs to be?
>
>
children with stones facing israeli tanks or turkish combat cars.
>maybe the
soldier in the tank or the combat car at that moment when he
>is scanning the
street with that long-range lens is a cyborg and the
>child not. What do we
say about that? when one is so vulnerable and
>the other hyper-invulnerable.
when the existing legality adjudicates
>them as is the case in Turkey by making
up a crime as 'acting for the
>purposes of helping the aim of the organization'
. throwing a stone to
>the police in a city where there is dirt level poverty
and an
>undending war and unkept promises for eighty years. chronic poverty
>feeling of no hope. and a rising racism. and a child throwing a stone
>. the
law recognizes that they are not helping the organization. but
>still these
children who are rebelling probably against the poverty
>around them more than
all else- are adjudicated in terror related ways
>so this strange article is
used. how do we judge them when
>situations where cyborgs meet non-cyborgs are
often also sites of
>unfair legalities?
>
>
>how do we theorize or at least
talk about the ineqaulities in the
>status of becoming cyborgs. can we come up
with norms for all cyborgs
>without discussing the unequal ontological status
of these and
>different ways of becoming cyborgs? and the hierachies in the
ways in
>which we see and judge them?
>
>
>
>On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 2:29 AM,
ekmel ertan<eertan@forumist.com> wrote:
>> Federica says:
>> "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
>>
>>
>>
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