[Yasmin_discussions] ethnic cyborg

yasminers

re examples of cyborg related art work here is the work of marce li
antunez roca in zero gravity
wearing his exoskeleton

in the zero gravity project he interacted with a virtual creature in cyberspace
while he was floating in zero gravity

re the "ethnic" nature of his work; it is interesting how his work in
zero gravity
grows out of his work in spanish radical street theater= it is very politically
situated and grows out of a long tradition of spanish agit prop

roger

http://www.marceliantunez.com/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=33

Using the Space Station as a metaphor, Marcel.lÌ Ant·nez Roca has
developed a hybrid show alternating performance, concert and lecture.
It is structured in different modules. During the show Ant·nez wears
his Dreskeleton (an exoskeletal body interface) and with it he
samples, activates and modulates sounds as well as controlling the
films projected on two screens.
In the first module he presents some of the mechanical aspects
characteristic of his work such as the Fleshbots, the Dreskeletons,
the Biometries and the Systematurgy.
The second module takes us through recurrent images in his work.
The third module reveals the end result of the process of preparation
for the Dedalus project in Star City in the Russian Federation as well
as the micro performances that were carried out during periods of
microgravity provided by the parabolas. In these micro performances we
witness the Requiem bodybot experiment and the interaction between the
dreskeleton, the softbot and the interactive films.
The last module presents the Transpermia theory and at this point the
performance becomes more like a conference. Ant·nez proposes a new
landscape for a Utopia called Transpermia. He describes some of his
prototypes organized in 4 sections:
1 Interface: new devices with which to perceive the world and take part in it
2 Robots: machines as metaphors for life
3 Fleeting Identities: transitory states of personality as a setting
for new experiences and knowledge
4 New Creations: models of activity in the Transpermia Utopia

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Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

On Fri, July 3, 2009 10:35 am, roger malina wrote:

> Maybe artists on the list who have projects related to cybordhood
> could tell us about
> their projects ?
>
>
> roger
>
> Maybe artists on the list who have projects related to cybordhood
> could tell us about
> their projects ?
>
>
> roger
>

Following Roger's invitation, I am attaching an abstract document about some
experiments that I have been developing in my studio and also together with
some of my graduate students in this program MACAPD - Master in Contemporary
Arts Practice & Dissemination
http://www.lanimal.org/index.php?page=master&lg=eng&act=master

Some of these experiments will be ready for public
presentation/exhibition/discussion next year so it would be nice to hear from
interested editors/curators/peers.

Regards,

r.

Roc Parés (PhD)
Mas Feliu, La Vila
17132 Foixà
Baix Empordà, Catalunya
Mòbil: (+34) 616 484 796
roc.pares@upf.edu
http://www.iua.upf.edu/~rpares/

[Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

Dicle, Lanfranco

As you will remember, I was the one who gave our discussion the title
ETHNIC CYBORG, and you both objected that this maybe seeded our
discussion in a way that loads it negatively given current political crises
around the mediterranean that are often "ethnicised".

Dicle I think correctly points
out that we need to think broadly from children with prosthetic limbs
from land mine explosions to military fighters in their cubicles in usa
bombing the middle east remotely, but also to telemedecine in india
and marceli floating in zero gravity in his exoskeleton

When I am writing ETHNIC CYBORG i often make the typographical
error and write ETHIC CYBORG instead and maybe this would be a better
seed= though I am interested in discussing whether cyborgs have different
rights of privacy than humans ( robots in burkas !)

One way to discuss the ETHIC CYBORG is to look at Asimov"s three laws
of robotics
( from wikip)

In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three
rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots
appearing in his fiction must obey. Introduced in his 1942 short story
"Runaround", although foreshadowed in a few earlier stories, the Laws
state the following:
"

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow
a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except
where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

"
Where a very clear defining line is set between humans and robots as
separate ethnicities ( races ?)
where the robots as defined as subservient to the needs of humans (
reflecting the judaeo christian dominion
of man over the natural world ?)

Artists like Stelarc and Kac advocate strongly that the human being is
"modifiable" in a desirable way=
and that to survive we need to accelerate human evolution. In this
case the Asimovs laws are non sensical
since it may be that only the cyborgs survive climate change and the
coming environmental collapse, and that
the third law must be broken.

so maybe the ethnic cyborg should be thought of as an ethical cyborg ??

Maybe artists on the list who have projects related to cybordhood
could tell us about
their projects ?

roger

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Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

Hi lanfranco, I agree that the term ethnic cyborg is very problematic.
In defense of haraway i would not dispose of her cyborg so easily. i
think she proposes a way to think of the cyborg as a positivity
instead of a negativity. in this sense she transforms the heritage of
critical theory which tends to think of technology as always already
closer to the more powerful.

I think haraway's is an opening to think about cyborgs in context.
what they are to become depends on their interactions with the social
and economic and cultural contexts which alters them and their bodies
in ever new ways. but i think we can start thinking of hierarchies of
cyborgs. the hierarchy between an afghani girl who lost a limb and
wears a wooden prosthesis and an upper class newyorker who wears
digital glasses to enhance his pleasures may offer different
potentials to futures of cyborgs.

take care,

Dicle

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 8:09 PM, Lanfranco
Aceti<lanfranco.aceti@gmail.com> wrote:
> I find the definition of 'ethnic cyborg' problematic. Reasons for my
> position are related to the basic nature of the cyborg, as envisaged by
> Donna Haraway. 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. The
> proposition of the cyborg as ethnically distinct has for me a very dangerous
> connotation, which is that of promoting a future power struggle based on
> augmented and non-augmented beings, racist interpretations of ethnicity
> (augmented-humans vs non-augmented-humans) and a constant quest for a
> bio-mechanical superiority.
>
> What I personally feel is that there is a generalized institutional attempt
> to conquer 'new' territories - the cyborg as well as that of the world wide
> web - and subjugate them by replicating old frameworks. This happens by
> imposing structures and divisions along the lines of already existing
> hierarchies in the realm of the real. The ethnic and consequentially
> national definition of the cyborg may just represent its ideological fall.
>
>
> In this context the cyborg, the Centaur of the futurists, has already failed
> in providing an alternative to the social hierarchies that according to
> Haraway should be altered and revolutionized. The cyborg is presenting us
> with an old framework just transferred and transposed in a different realm,
> that of the cybernetic organism.
>
>
>
>
> http://www.lanfrancoaceti.com
> Dr. Lanfranco Aceti
> Associate Professor in Contemporary Art & Digital Culture
> Sabanci University
> Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
> Room 2082
> Orhanli/Tuzla
> 34956 Istanbul, Turkey
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>
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Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

Hi Yasminers,

Following Roger's post

>
> one can imagine cybernetic organisms which use a plant as the starting organism
> rather than a human body
>
> Stelarc has implanted a third ear into his body, but a plant with
> fingers would be
> a different way of looking at a cybernetic organism !

"The Grafting Parlour" a group of artists that took part
in the eMobilArt project had a project of "providing" plants
with some "extensions" like that. They did not pursue that
during the eMobilArt project but I don't know if they intend
to do it in other contexts. I think some of them are on this
list, so they might just comment as I don't recall all the
details.

There is also the work of Guto Nobrega : www.gutonobrega.co.uk

and Masaki Fujihata with the orchids, providing the plants
with things that look like Stelarc artificial components and
for sure Amy Young who provided a cactus genetically
ingeniered to have no needles with a "armor" that would
close when you come toward it.

>
> a human beings we are rightfully fixated on our own bodies, but if we look
> at the organisms that have thrived the longest on our planet they are
> not primates

and remember that pigs "manufactured" human insuline for
years before we knew how to make it artificially (that is
with the help of bacterias !!!! the most wonderful organisms
in the known world).

But, I may go in a direction that is not really related to
this discussion. If so, I apologize.

Annick
--

------------------------
Annick Bureaud (abureaud@gmail.com)
tel/fax : 33/(0)1 43 20 92 23
mobile/cell : 33/(0)6 86 77 65 76
Leonardo/Olats : http://www.olats.org
-------------------------

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[Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

Yasminers

I thought I would mention Eduardo Kac's latest work

http://www.ekac.org/nat.hist.enig.html

where he has spliced part of his own DNA into a Petunia plant ( yes its fertile)

one can imagine cybernetic organisms which use a plant as the starting organism
rather than a human body

Stelarc has implanted a third ear into his body, but a plant with
fingers would be
a different way of looking at a cybernetic organism !

a human beings we are rightfully fixated on our own bodies, but if we look
at the organisms that have thrived the longest on our planet they are
not primates

roger

Natural History of the Enigma (2003/08) -- The central work in the
"Natural History of the Enigma" series is a plantimal,
a new life form Kac created and that he calls "Edunia", a
genetically-engineered flower that is a hybrid of Kac and Petunia.
The Edunia expresses Kac's DNA exclusively the red veins of the
flower. The gene Kac selected is responsible for the
identification of foreign bodies. In this work, it is precisely that
which identifies and rejects the other that the artist integrates
into the other, thus creating a new kind of self that is partially
flower and partially human. Developed between 2003 and 2008,
and first exhibited from April 17 to June 21, 2009 at the Weisman Art
Museum, in Minneapolis, "Natural History of the Enigma"
also encompasses a large-scale public sculpture, a print suite,
photographs, and other works.
Collection Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis.
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Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Ethnic Cyborg

I find the definition of 'ethnic cyborg' problematic. Reasons for my
position are related to the basic nature of the cyborg, as envisaged by
Donna Haraway. 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. The
proposition of the cyborg as ethnically distinct has for me a very dangerous
connotation, which is that of promoting a future power struggle based on
augmented and non-augmented beings, racist interpretations of ethnicity
(augmented-humans vs non-augmented-humans) and a constant quest for a
bio-mechanical superiority.

What I personally feel is that there is a generalized institutional attempt
to conquer 'new' territories - the cyborg as well as that of the world wide
web - and subjugate them by replicating old frameworks. This happens by
imposing structures and divisions along the lines of already existing
hierarchies in the realm of the real. The ethnic and consequentially
national definition of the cyborg may just represent its ideological fall.

In this context the cyborg, the Centaur of the futurists, has already failed
in providing an alternative to the social hierarchies that according to
Haraway should be altered and revolutionized. The cyborg is presenting us
with an old framework just transferred and transposed in a different realm,
that of the cybernetic organism.

http://www.lanfrancoaceti.com
Dr. Lanfranco Aceti
Associate Professor in Contemporary Art & Digital Culture
Sabanci University
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Room 2082
Orhanli/Tuzla
34956 Istanbul, Turkey
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