selfnet thursday @ 5

Reflective Post

2008-11-03T22:08:00.003+09:00

I'm sorry this is so LATE but I completely forgot we had to do one of these!! I really liked the blog aspect of this unit, and found that it was really useful in distinguishing certain ideas and different opinions from everyone in the tute. It also gave me an opportunity to think about what to say and what the issue really meant to me...instead of just thinking of random stuff like in a regular tutorial!

I found this unit overall really interesting - especially with the evolution of technology and the virtual world. I'm pretty sure the line between human and machine will continue to become even more blurred as technology evolves...we'll probably look back on this day and wonder what all the fuss was about with virtualized worlds and cyborgs! I mean we depend so much on technology and machines nowadays its hard to think what life would be without them...therefore human/machine relations are probably somewhere in the future - its just a matter of when.

Reflective Post

2008-10-28T11:32:00.000+09:00

For me the blog was very useful as it enabled me to participate more than I ever would in a physical tutorial. The fact that the blog is asynchronous gave me the time to think and construct a better argument, as opposed to simply trying to say anything in tutorials in order to fulfil the participation criteria for the unit. Also I agree with a previous comment that it ensured the readings were completed and fully engaged with as opposed to merely skim reading. Additionally I think it was beneficial having people present each week via the blog as this offers a different perspective each week and conjures up ideas that I may not have thought of. Overall I thought the blog was successful and an idea that could be useful in other units.

In terms of being a cyborg, in concurrence with others, I too am uneasy with the idea of us all being cyborgs. I understand that society and individuals are now closely linked to technology and it is intrinsic to our everyday lives but I’m not sure I’m convinced with the whole concept. I appreciate that with so many body-altering/enhancing products available in contemporary consumer society people are slowing veering away from being completely natural but still as I have said I’m still not completely comfortable with the idea.

Reflective Post

2008-10-25T15:56:00.002+08:00

The weblog for me is a new learnig experience, and it is really useful because the particular timeslot for the tute would become more flexible. Also the weblog offers us a longer presentation and comments. We don't necessary attend the tute on the fixed time (because 5-6pm I must have dinner! lol), instead we can post on our comments whenever and wherever we have our thoughts. The course material and the readings are very relevant to the lecture. But I think the workshop can be replaced by the posts and comments in weblog because sometimes the material for these two are duplicated.

Actually,I still have the difficulties of understanding "to be a cyborg" as Donna Haraway suggested. Of course nowadays, our lives are surrounded by technologies. But is it necessarily to collapse those dichotomies: human/machines, natural/artificial, flesh/technologies? Why don't we just merge them when we need them, either separate or together?

It is same as my idea: why don't we have a large weblog without the separation of tute groups and bring with the ideas from other groups together?

One problem for the weblog is that when editing the post or posting the comment, the original post doesn't come up to the top. We cannot identify which one is the most popular post.

Reflective Post

2008-10-25T14:57:00.004+08:00

I felt that the weblogs were useful for learning purposes. They were a good break from real tutorials because they were so much more flexible. Also I felt that I gave more attention to the readings because I had to write about them. Furthermore I felt that weblogs were a useful way of demonstrating some of the issues that were explored in the lectures. Weblogs take away the intimidation that can be felt in real tutorials and allowed for a more free exchange of ideas, especially for people much like myself who have trouble verbalisng their thoughts in public spaces. Overall the weblogs were one aspect of the course which I enjoyed.

I personally do not believe that I am a cyborg. Yes, I rely on technology, both for my physical well being as well as for my life in general however I still don’t think this alone makes me, or any of us, cyborgs. I still believe that the term cyborg has connotations with a being that is largely artificial and is more machine than human. I think the ability to feel, to have emotions, to be individuals is what keeps us from becomming cyborgs. Furthermore I wouldn’t ever want to see myself as a cyborg.

Reflective Post

2008-10-24T10:03:00.001+08:00

I found the weblogs useful because it provided a more flexible arrangement to tutorials. However, I found it difficult to clarify concepts using the weblogs. Overall though the weblogs worked for me, it was a nice change of pace and useful to put theory into practise. It actually felt strange having face to face discussions in tutorials after webloging.

I still do not feel entirely comfortable identifying as, or being perceived as, a cyborg. The concept is great but I would prefer a different term. The term cyborg feels dated and stirs up images of cartoon aliens rather than offering future for feminism. The unit felt like a history of the internet and cyberspace and it was useful to have an understanding of the founding concepts. It was difficult at times to apply the theories in a contemporary context. That said, I enjoyed this unit and hope more units go online.

Week 12 Reflective Post

2008-10-23T14:06:00.002+08:00

I think the weblogs were useful for learning purposes. I thought that you were forced to put more time and effort into thinking through the readings than you probably would in a tute. I also enjoyed the weblog's flexibility. Not having to go to a tutorial at a set time each week was great! It meant I could do my blog post's on the weekend, late at night... whenever I had a spare moment!

I am still not sold on the cyborg idea... I can understand Haraway's argument, but I believe to be a cyborg you need to be made-up of part of a machine, such as prosethic limbs etc, I do wear glasses occassionally, but I am not fully convinced that they would make me a cyborg...

The things I most liked about this unit was the way tutorials were broken up into halves- half being in-class tutes and half being posts on this blog. The usual routine of going to a tutorial at the same time and day every week does get monotonous, and it was good to be able to break up this routine a bit!

The think I most disliked about this unit was probably some of the workshops. While some week's topics were quite interesting, some other weeks were slightly less captulating.

All in all, though I quite enjoyed this unit :)

Do we....

2008-10-14T11:42:00.000+08:00

I missed last weeks lecture, do we have an RL tute this week or is it online?

Week 11: Tutorial Presentation

2008-10-12T19:06:00.002+08:00

Greetings! My tutorial presentation is on Henry Jenkins and Justine Cassell's article (2008) 'From Quake Grrls to Desperate Houswives: a decade of gender and computer games'.

Jenkins and Cassell’s short and informative article explores the relation between gender and gaming over the past decade. In particular the article explores the types of games being targeted towards the growing number of girl gamers.

Although progress has been made the gaming industry it is still catering for a stereotypical image of girl gamers. The stereotypical girl gamer, for instance, isn’t interested in the latest action release. It is a stereotype which suggests girls need to be taught how to cook, care for pets and play virtual dress ups. Girl gamers are being conditioned into games which perpetuate images of the perfect housewife and mother. It made me wonder how many racing car games had a majority of female characters to select from. So whilst this stereotype continues to be perpetuated by the gaming industry, games haven’t become a gender free zone.

The gaming industry is a growing field. A decade ago, Jenkins and Cassell point out, a feminist conference about gaming was controversial. A lot has changed over the past decade and the article reflects the authors continued interest in this field. Jenkins and Cassell were particularly interested in what games were being made and targeted towards girls. Despite the developments made in the past decade women are still the minority in the field of digital design technology and the implications of this cannot be ignored. If women are the minority working on developing games, men must make up the difference. How profitable are girl games? What kind of benefits do these companies receive for tailoring towards a gendered consumer?

Consider Desperate Housewives verus The Sims. I haven’t played either of these games but I suspect that The Sims is kind of never ending game. Desperate Housewives on the other hand places the gamer into the community. What happens once the gamer has solved the puzzles and fitted into the community? Restarting the game won’t be like creating another sim. The game, I imagine, would simply repeat the same formula over and over again. The end result: a new game must be brought to satisfy the gamers thirst for challenges and change. It suggests the constant need for girl gamers to purchase new games, thus becoming a target audience. Is it any wonder there aren’t many girly games available or variations of existing games for the millions of girl gamers? What kind of computer or video games do we engage in? Does gender affect your choices or attitude towards the idea of gaming itself?

The article also highlighted a diverse range of opinions. The ideas presented stemmed from a feminist understanding of gaming as ‘site to right all kinds of wrongs’ (303). An idea which didn’t really seem compatible with the gaming industry catering towards established gender roles. The games for girls tended to have a softer selection of background colours (how many car rallies take place with a pale lilac track?) and interface designs which were more ‘friendly’ for the user. The smaller, newer companies on the market which could offer a potential alternative to stifling gendered games currently on the market are under strong pressure to acquiesce to the major companies. Sadly these larger companies aren’t pushing for feminist games.

I feel like the article didn’t really reach a conclusion. It felt like one long discussion. Although it did get me thinking, is it common to hear or see girls buying or playing videogames? Every time I’ve stepped into a computer store, women have been the minority. Scanning the latest games available, the gender gap seems enormous. My local target catalogue, for instance, devoted an entire page to ‘girly’ games and in a small box on the opposite page were the ‘serious’ games. All the games were from large electronics companies. The girly type games included Hannah Montana, pet animals and fashion advice. Although it appeared games geared towards a female market received more attention, the intention of the games certainly weren’t screaming pro-feminism. These are hardly the kind of games which transgress the gender divide.

The relationship between gender and technology needs to be explored further. Is the seemly large focus on girly type games in target catalogues a form of feminist backlash? The majority of games aimed at girls today seem to propagate the stereotypical image of the girl gamer. So, do you think we should be critical of the games available? Is the relationship between gender and technology something that needs more attention?

Week 10 Tutorial Presentation -The Virtual Community: Reading Digital Culture

2008-10-07T10:35:00.003+08:00

Hey guys, three weeks to go! Yippee, here’s my tutorial presentation for The Virtual Community: Reading Digital Culture

Since the summer of 1985 Howard Rheingold has been a member of the virtual community WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), progressively seeing it grow from consisting of a few hundred members to consisting of a few thousand members. Rheingold defines virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace”. Becoming interested in the impact of virtual communities, Rheingold wishes to “inform the wider population about the online and offline importance of cyberspace to political liberties and the way virtual communities are likely to change our experience of the real world as individuals and communities”.

Kicking off this article, Rheingold explains his own involvement with WELL, colouring a picture of what it is like with his own personal experiences in the virtual community where his ‘online’ life with his ‘online’ communities and his ‘online’ friends transcend IRL (“in[to] real life” as Rheingold explains).

His own experiences illustrate the very expansive capabilities of online virtual communities where Rheingold highlights the number of intercontinental sub-communities he became a part of, and the different realms of information he was able to access because of the various branches of the network he belonged to. Furthermore, Rheingold points out that what happens in virtual communities is, in essence, exactly the same to real life interaction minus our bodies. Adding to this, Rheingold discusses people’s uses for virtual communities, where some use virtual communities as a form of psychotherapy and others to pretend to be someone else away from their real life.

Do you agree that what happens in virtual communities is in essence, the same as what happens in real life interaction, minus our physical presence?

Rheingold’s illustration of his time spent on WELL made me think about my own experiences online and in virtual communities and I found that his ideas rang very true with my own experiences. One of my experiences in particular seemed to have fit the cookie cutter shape of what virtual communities provide in terms of personal fulfilment and the effects on real life.

Are you a part of a virtual online community or have you ever been? (MySpace, Forums, Facebook, Bebo, Freindster, Hi-5) If so, what have been your experiences in terms of the transcendence from offline to online, your purpose in being part of that virtual community and how this use could have effectively changed your real life experiences?

Continuing Rheingold points out the new interconnectedness of technology and the ease at which we connect “two previously independent, mature, highly decentralizes technologies”. This is at most to allow us to gain perspective on the ways technology has changed and affected our real life experiences. Rheingold continues to argue that because of this change in people’s lives due to technology, social experiments arise at the prospect of new technologies because wherever CMC (computer mediated communication) becomes available people build virtual communities within it. Rheingold suggests that the reason for this comes from the break down of community in the real world, while our hunger for community grows.

Rheingold gives the example of APRANET, the first computer network created in the 1970s so that the Department of Defence sponsored researchers could exchange information from computer to computer from which followed the emergence of computer conferencing to build social relationships across space and time. From the emergence of APRANET came computer conferencing which saw the rise of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) where information could be sent over many alternate nodes over the Net and it’s loosely interconnected computer networks. Rheingold explains that such information and communication that was being passed around a distributed resource with no central control saw the birth of anarchic conversation that takes advantage of the Net’s grassroots system where information can pass any of its obstacles on an alternate route.

How do you think Bulletin Board Systems and computer conferencing has changed since the years of APRANET? What are this significant differences between an online community then and an online community now? Do you think the users have changed? In what way? The purpose of BBSs?

So anyone also doing the Communications unit this semester will understand that the Net’s grassroots system is the system where by everything becomes connected, and not from one central location. Like Rheingold explains, from one grass seed grows multiple grass roots, from those roots, grow more adjacent roots and so on and so forth, eventually building into an interconnected tree from which information can be passed around and received.

Rheingold’s purpose in demonstrating this grass root system on the Net and in BBSs is to draw comparisons with the grass root system that connect continents and people, making space and time almost fluid, illustrating the convergence of the Net and computer conferencing systems. Rheingold again draws upon his experience with the WELL where the WELL community went form a contained , small virtual community to one that opens up onto the Net’s worldwide network.

What are some grass-roots connections you can make?
(e.g., My MySpace (virtual community #1) links to Deviantart.com (virtual community #2) which links to a person’s artwork, that is ‘favourited’ by some other user who has artwork ‘favourited’ by other artists who link to their personal artwork sites that are accessed by their friends, family etc, which can all be led back to my MySpace page)

Rheingold concludes acknowledging that he, himself has been colonised because of his involvement with the virtual communities which saw change in his own life. Rheingold talks about his friends all over the world and the fact that his life has been changed by the transcendence of the online into the offline.

Sorry about this blog entry’s length. There were a few technical join-the-dots in this article!

Rheingold, Howard. "The Virtual Community." Reading Digital Culture. Ed. David Trend. Malden, Mass.; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001, pp. 272-80

Week 10 Presentation: Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life

2008-10-06T08:40:00.003+08:00

boyd, danah. (2007) “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.” MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning-Youth, Identity and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

danah boyd’s article investigates the function of social network sites in teenage social life. This article reflects arguments she has formed based on a two year study the way United States youth engage with the social network site, MySpace. <--- Click here if you aren't familiar with this site.

In the first part of this article she examines the demographics of MySpace users. She writes of a study conducted in late 2006 which found that “55% of online teens aged 12-17 have created profiles on social network sites, with 64% of teens 15-17” (p.3). She also speaks about the two types of non-participations: disenfranchised teens and conscientious objectors, with her analysis of this being very interesting.

For my first question, I wondered what the demographics were for this blog. How many of you have a profile on myspace and at what age did you join? For those who are “non-participants” on myspace, why is this? Can you place yourself within one of the two groups suggested by boyd- either disenfranchised teens or conscientious objectors?

boyd also comments on how insignificant the role that race and social class is, in terms of access to MySpace. Rather, “when it comes to social network sites, there appears to be a far greater participatory divide than an access divide” (p.3). In this demographics section, boyd also analyses how gender effects involvement on social network sites.

Boyd then goes onto write about the formation of social network sites, such as when MySpace was first launched (in the autumn of 2003) as a social network site who welcomed bands to join and create profiles, attracting music-loving fans to also join and follow their favorite bands. By mid-2005, MySpace had become a popular place for all types of American high school students (not just those with a music interest).

Boyd then describes how MySpace profiles are created, how friends are added and organized, and how the purpose of comments has changed over time.
Boyd then discusses the topic of the public. She writes “Social network sites allow publics to gather. At the same time, by serving as a space where speech takes place, they are also publics themselves.” (p.8). This follows with boyd suggesting four properties that “separate unmediated publics from networked publics” (p.9). These are:

1. Persistence: Social network sites enable asynchronous communication and extend the life of any speech act.
2. Searchability: Finding someone’s “digital body online” is as easy as a few keystrokes.
3. Replicability: Things can be copied easily online, so it is hard to distinguish an “original” “networked public expression” from a “copy”.
4. Invisible Audiences: We cannot tell just how many people will witness our expressions on social network sites. Offline, it is normally quite clear who is able to listen to our speech.
-can find this list on page 9 of the article

Does this list of four points alarm you about social networking sites? Or as a social networking site user, is this what you enjoy about social networking sites that you can’t experience anywhere else?

boyd also writes, “in short, a mediated public (and especially a networked public) could consist of all people across all space and all time. (p.9)While this is probably not going to happen at this time, this is an interesting point to think about!

Boyd then touches on the subject of participation. She believes that “teens often turn to sites like MySpace for entertainment; social voyeurism passes time while providing insight into society at large (p.10).

Can you think of any other reasons why teens might join Myspace and other social networking sites? What parts of a teen’s character lend themselves to be major participants in this type of culture?

Boyd then investigates how MySpace profiles are created, and how this act, is seen as an initiation process after first joining the site.

The article then goes onto speak about how identities are created online. Boyd writes “because of this direct link between offline and online identities, teens are inclined to present the side of them that they believe will be well received by these peers” (p. 13)

Does this suggest that social networking sites aren’t really liberating, but that teens are forced to act the same way as they do in the playground, online? Is this one of the flaws of social networking sites? Should they instead be a place for personal expression, where teens shouldn’t have to worry about who is acting ‘cool’, or not?

Boyd then discusses issues of privacy in regards to social network sites. She talks about the ability to change your profile to a ‘private’ setting, and the two common solutions teens undertake to avoid the watchful, concerned eyes of their parents.

Boyd concludes the topic of the private and public, with the following thought provoking sentences. “While the jury is still out on whether or not the Internet is democratizing, online access provides a whole new social realm for youth. Earlier mediated communication devices- landline, pager, mobile- allowed friends to connect with friend even when located in adult-regulated physical spaces. What is unique about the Internet is that it allows teens to participate in unregulated publics while located in adult-regulated physical spaces such as homes and schools. Of course, this is what makes it controversial” (p. 21).

What are your thoughts on the public nature of social networking sites? Is it the perfect place for paedophiles and the like, and therefore dangerous, and unsuitable for young people? Or does it give teens some sort of freedom while still being within adult-regulated spaces?

Boyd finishes the article by seeing the infatuation with social network sites such as MySpace by America’s youth as being linked to the way America’s culture is largely focused on celebrity worship. Boyd sees reality TV and popular dramas as a “magnified (and idealized) version of the networked publics that teens are experiencing, complete with surveillance and misinterpretation.” (p.22)

Do you think this is a compelling explanation for why teens are drawn to social network sites? Do you think teens enjoy networked publics, surveillance and misinterpretation? Or rather, they enjoy the social factor and convenience of social networking sites and have just have to work around the more undesirable features?

Hope those questions inspire some discussion amongst you, that’s all from me :)

"A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell

2008-10-05T23:11:00.001+08:00

LambdaMOO is a virtual reality game or a multi-user dimension, i.e. MUD. This means that the game is a database especially designed to give users the vivid impression of moving through a physical space that in reality exists only as a descriptive data filed away on a hard drive.

Q.1 Are you a member of a MUD community? If yes, do you find yourself reflecting the events in virtual reality with real life?

“A virtual "rape", also known as "MOOrape", is defined within LambdaMOO as a sexually related act of a violent, acutely debasing, or profoundly humiliating nature against a character who has not explicitly consented to the interaction. Any act which explicitly references the non-consensual, involuntary exposure, manipulation, or touching of sexual organs of or by a character is considered an act of this nature.” [1]

On a Monday night, tens of regular Lambda users gather in the Lambda chateau’s cosy living room to chat and meet friends just like almost every other night. However, that night something strange happens. A hideous clown starts abusing two of his fellow players by using a voodoo doll, which gives him the power to use his victims sexually. That night, ‘Mr. Bungle’ raped ‘Starsinger’ and ‘legba’. To someone, who has never stepped into the world of virtual, these events might sound rather absurd. How could have someone possibly be raped in virtual reality, when no bodies were touched and no one got hurt? Julian Dibbell, or ‘Dr. Bombay’ the author of this article, and a Lambda player himself, states that every set of facts in virtual reality is shadowed by a second, complicated set: the “real life” facts. By this, he tries to explain that especially in the ‘Bungle affair’ real life and the virtual reality seem to integrate, as the rape violates the victim’s personal space and affects them beyond the game environment.

Q.2 Do you think that the rape in cyberspace is a crime against the mind? What are the implications of this to the freedom of speech?

The event sparked an outrage among the Lambda users. In fact, it provoked strong, emotional feelings, which according to Dibbell suggests that “the MUD experiences are neither exactly real or exactly make-believe, but profoundly, compellingly and emotionally meaningful.” Soon, a fierce debate filled the Lambard *social, where tens of players shared their thoughts on the issues of law, civility, ethics and crime inside their community. Indeed, for the first time, the players inside the cyberspace acted as a community, defining themselves politically as they were demanding a punishment for Mr. Bungle. Dibbell found that during the debate groups were formed taking different standpoints on the matter. Issues such as could Mr Bungle’s virtual existence be deleted or could he possibly be punished in real life for committing a sexual offence were raised and discussed extensively. However, Dibbel notes that even if the community had unified under this matter, the conversation seemed to go nowhere, as the decisive authority and the ultimate power, in this case the wizard, was missing.

Q.3 Why was the community formed so effectively during the ‘Bungle-Affair? Why could it not govern itself?

It is very interesting how the real life and the virtual reality moralities and conventions were juxtaposed in the debate that evolved around the Affair. Dibbell suggests that “when it comes to sex, perhaps the body in question is not the physical one at all, but its physic double, the body-like self expression we carry around in our heads.” This idea could also be demonstrated clearly in the *social’s discussion board; “where does the body end and the mind begin?” ‘Quastro’ asked. ‘HerkieCosmo’ replied: “in MOO, body IS the mind.”

Q.4 Do you think the fact that Dibbell was himself part of this community affects his writing and point of view? What does he mean by saying ‘…something truer and more elegant that could be found on LambdaMOO…’ ?
(This is what he says in the last paragraph. I thought it was mystic.)

cheers, Maija

[1] http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue1/lambda.html

Response to Harold

2008-10-02T15:05:00.002+08:00

I think that the tactics used by Adbusters are effective in that they are spreading the message that ad campaigns are shallow and pointless, with their only agenda being to promote consumption of products. I agree that with increased popularity and sales, Adbusters has sold out to the corporate agenda and the processes of greed that plague humanity. Although they have 'sold out', it depends on what they do with the profits made by selling the shoes and stock. If Adbusters uses the increase in resources to continue their grassroots campaign, then they are being effective in spreading the message of anti- ad campaigning and could use the resources to further their message of anti-corporate greed. (Sorry for using a binary here) On the other hand, if Adbusters uses their increased revenue to further bad social realities such as the beauty industrial complex, they could be defined as part of the problem that advertising creates.

Presentation: "Pranking Rhetoric" by Christine Harold

2008-10-01T23:51:00.006+08:00

I thought this article was really interesting – it made me snigger aloud in the library, which is never really the done thing, is it? If any of you didn't get round to reading it at all/properly, I urge that you go back and work your way through - it's worth it. Christine Harold provides us with a fairly comprehensive introduction to the ideas behind culture jamming and, more precisely, ‘pranking’. She details some of the major figureheads within this scene over the years, such as ®™ark, BBB and the INFKT Truth campaign, listing the notable achievements they have to their name. She also looks to the past for an overview of the movement, its origins and roots of influence that have led to its current inception. I thought this was a valuable inclusion on her part: it is important to acknowledge the influence of groups such as the Situationist International in the modern day work of these activists.

I felt this article could have focused a little more on the politics behind the action - she touches on why they are carrying out these campaigns, but I thought more time could be spent on what the greater issues are. It was interesting to understand why they adopted the various techniques they did, as well as the methods they employ to manipulate te media and therfore retain a sense of power withint he situation. Whilst the media represents a lot of the issues they have a problem with, they recognise the need to work with them in order to spread the message. Perhaps this can be considered a clever reclaiming of an insitution they so vocally disagree with.

I had some thoughts that cropped up as I read the piece, but was concerned about floating off-topic on one of my infamous tangents (I figure you can get away with that a whole lot more in a verbal discussion). I’ll try to stick to the main crux of the issues, but if anyone has ideas that I haven’t mentioned, please throw them in because I thought this article had things to say on a lot of levels.

a) How did you feel about the INFKT campaign? Do you think it’s unusual for a youth antismoking campaign to succeed (I do) and if it did to a certain degree, as Harold suggests, what factors do you think contributed to this?

b) This is possibly where I digress, but it didn’t sit very well with me that they were consciously pushing a product and the correlative reduction in anti-advertising rhetoric on their website. Don’t get me wrong: I actually really liked the shoes and wanted a pair – I get how they do fit with Adbuster’s work, but similarly, their adverts worked and that didn’t quite sit well with me. Have they become their own enemy here? Talk of relocating the site of manufacture (heavens forbid I use the term ‘factory’) to China. They are selling significant levels of stock: is there a degree of compromise and ‘selling out’ from your radical, grassroots ethics that becomes associated with success?

c) Pranking is portrayed as a more ‘playful’ form of subversive action - how do you think it measures up against the traditional culture jamming? More/less effective?

On a final note, here’s a link you all might enjoy, based on the tute's responses when asked what your favourite website was.

Presentation: Poster, M. (2004) ‘Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday’.

2008-09-29T00:29:00.002+08:00

Poster, M. (2004) ‘Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday’. Cultural Studies 18, 2/3, 409-423.

Hello bloggers! Below is my presentation for this week, any problems/misunderstandings just let me know? If not, happy blogging and I look forward to reading your comments xx

Poster begins by detailing the inescapability from perpetual advertising and the pressures to consume, within contemporary society. He is evidently not in favour of the omnipotent presence of consumption. According to Poster advertising (as the vehicle of consumption) infiltrates into our homes, our work environment, in fact every aspect of our lives. It can be identified that consumption blurs the boundaries between public and private spheres which is an indication of its strength and importance within present society.

Continuing with the theme of binaries, Poster discusses how there has been a division between the consumption/production binary which highlights a ‘unique type of human action’ created by consumption. Different people consume in varying ways and all consumption patterns are subject to change over time thus Poster argues that if one was to identify common features within consumption then it would be possible to label such a practice as a cultural construct with set patterns. This would then possibly refute the notion of individualism which is closely linked in with consumption.

There is discussion upon postmodern consumption patterns and according to Poster the onus is on ‘multiplicity’. Modern consumption was laden with fixed ideas whereas postmodern consumption allows for diversity and change. Poster argues that consumer culture no longer trickles down from the upper echelons of society but in fact climbs up from the lower classes. However a contradiction to this argument is the notion of celebrities setting trends and encouraging consumption. Wealthy celebrities continue to influence the lower classes in society who in turn often strive to imitate them; thus I am not entirely convinced that there is now a climbing up as opposed to a trickling down within consumer culture. An additional disparity between modern and postmodern consumption is that within the former products represented status whereas in the latter period products express one’s identity. Consumption is thus part of self-construction. For more details upon consumerism within postmodernity and liquidity in terms of identity see Zygmunt Bauman.

The final subheading within the article is titled ‘Digital Media and Consumption’. According to Poster digital media transforms both the cultural object and the subject position of the consumer i.e. the cultural object is open for recreation and in turn makes the consumer the creator (e.g. several different audio sources can be merged and altered by the consumer to create a new audio). However Poster also details how there are numerous elements in place to restrict such creation of the consumer and there is a desire to create a ‘pay per use’ digital culture.

Poster concludes the article with suggesting how consumers are expressing resistance to consumer capitalism. With the cultural object as digitised it is possible for the consumer to ignore it via different means. E.g. adverts on TV can be avoided by changing channels or muting the sound. Additionally the development of digital TV recorders enables the user to select automatic elimination of commercials. Thus there are options available in contemporary society to avoid the bombardment of the consumer culture. However Poster suggests that capitalism always has alternative techniques to ‘sustain the market culture’. What do you think....?

Discussion points:

*In contemporary society, can an individual be economically/politically/socially successful without being an active consumer?

*Are consumers merely passive dupes or active agents?

*Consumption is closely linked to femininity as females are placed on the passive side of the passive/active binary. What are your views upon such a connection?

*Do you agree that the consumer becomes creator in the digitized world or are there too many prevention mechanisms in place?

*Is it possible to ever be completely free from the pressures of consumer society or is society too heavily laden with images/texts of consumption?

Tutorial Presentation - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Mark Poster

2008-09-22T22:30:00.004+08:00

Internet ethics is obviously a very debatable and controversial topic - and is something which is explored in Mark Poster's essay on 'the good, the bad and the ugly' of the virtual space. Our everyday life is constructed in accordance to rules and boundaries, set out to protect and control what people in society can and cannot do. It is important to note, these laws are set out by the government and mostly enforced through the local police.

However, when we move to the virtual space, boundaries and control is all but set free - enabling the entire world's population to interact and communicate with each other. While this "freedom" is often seen as empowering and Utopian like, it also raises some questions of what is 'ethical' and 'morally right' when taking part in the virtual world. There are no police (the governments can control some webspace (ie. China) but for now the internet is at large unregulated), there are no physical boundaries, and people now have an anonymous identity where everyone can talk as equals disregarding age, gender, race and class. These critical aspects of cyberspace is what makes it so unique - it is basically a world entirely separate from reality.

Poster's first discussion underlines the difference between cyberspace and reality, and the two different boundaries and norms. He asks: "...if new ethical rules are required for mediated culture, perhaps the earlier system of ethics was itself flawed..." I think this is a very interesting question, as it attempts to explore just how much of cyberspace can be compared to reality - and if the laws we have today are suitable and adequate enough. Poster also references Nietzsche's approach, in which Nietzsche defines ethics as a historical construction. He also points out the "standpoint of the group is crucial to the type of morality it will create." The 'group' refers to 'the noble' or people in power -in our case, we have governments which create the laws for society to abide by. This leads to my first question: Do you agree with Nietzche's approach, and why?

Poster next describes the pitfalls of the openness of the internet with things such as spamming and flaming. Censorship is also an important issue - including things such as religion and pornography(discussed in the other articles for this week). Censorship is continually pushed in cyberspace - for example one surgeon in the article decided to broadcast on the internet a live surgery of a sex change operation. There has also been other cases which have raised questions over the morals of broadcasting questionable content online. This is slightly on a tangent but I recently saw the movie 'Untraceable' which also has a strong theme of internet morality in it - in fact the whole plot is based on the immense power of the internet and the ability of the public to control what happens on it. People are naturally curious, and because of the openness of the internet(and the almighty Google), people can look up and research anything they want. Protection of young children and teenagers may also come into context here - Poster raises the question of the ethics of child pornography and the downloading of pornography online. This leads to my next question...

Has the public/private changed alongside the growing rise of new media? In fact, is anything private anymore?? Just thinking of sites like Facebook...once information is stored on a database its hard to get rid of. Furthermore there is the issue of the distribution of personal photos and such...

Anonymity is also a very interesting concept in relation to cyberspace. We talked about the case of ICERED a few weeks ago, and that touched on internet ethics and the abundance of extreme views and opinions online. I posted in the comments for one of the other presentations a while ago, but I think the most widely known anonymous forum today is 4chan.org - mainly because it is the source of a lot of controversy and internet fads (most arising from the /b/ board). They are often associated with hackers, and they call themselves 'Anonymous'. Most recently, there was the case of Sarah Palin's yahoo account being hacked by a forumer from that site. Not only did this question the right of privacy, the anonymity of the forum meant all the users could post whatever they wanted without being prosecuted. It also resulted in masses of users attempting to log in to the account, and screenshots being broadcasted of the inbox etc. Read more about it here (the comments section has an interesting discussion about internet ethics and anonymity too!!).

So from this example, anonymity online clearly changes the way people interact with each other, as well as the actions people take. I still remember a few months ago, there was the Youtube scandal of those 6 girls who beat up this other girl at a house in order to gain 'Youtube fame'. Arising from this, some people were posting phone numbers and myspace pages of the accused alongside Youtube videos - resulting in death threats and mass calls from all over the world. Some say the internet "promotes irresponsibility", while others think freedom of speech - no matter what the opinion - is a human right. Of course some of society's culture can transfer on into cyberspace - "netiquette" is a term used to describe how one should behave when online. Anonymity is clearly an important factor when looking at morals online though - the freedoms the internet gives everyone allows people to express their true feelings and thoughts without much consequence. There are pitfalls from this utopian ideal of free speech though - of course not everyone will agree with everything that is suggested online. So from this, I ask:

Has the anonymity on the internet altered your identity online at all (eg. on forums, in online games, commenting on a blog etc.)? Have you taken advantage of anonymity online, and have you been able to express yourself more through the medium?

Identity is further discussed in Poster's essay, with our real life identity compared to the online one. In conclusion, Poster urges us to think about Nietzsche's approach of the good and the bad of the virtual world. With cultural transformation, ethics may also evolve to suit cyberspace - especially through the aspiration for an enhancement of life. Politics are now very much involved with the ethics online - especially since the internet has cut all bounfaries between people of different cultures and countries. It seems politics will continue to be strongly linked to the ethics of cyberspace - linking not just individuals, but communities together in terms of power. This leads to my final question:

Do you think the internet should be regulated, and why?

Week 8 Tutorial Presentation

2008-09-21T23:30:00.000+08:00

The article “Diary of a Webdiarist: Ethics goes online”, written by Margo Kingston, explores the issue concerning the ethics of online journalism. This is discussed in terms of how online ethics are applied, who is responsible for maintaining these ethics and some of the problems that can arise in the area of online journalism and how these problems are overcome from the experience of the journalist Margo Kingston. The article is divided into four main parts each examining a different area of online ethics. These four parts include a general overview of online ethics followed by three sections entitled Nom De Plumes, Offensive Material, Conflicts of Interest and Plagiarism and Corrections.

The article begins with a discussion of the interaction that the internet makes possible between journalists and readers. In the case of Kingston she’s sees this interaction as “a big plus for readers” (p. 160). Kingston acknowledges that with this interaction that she is able to enjoy with her readers via email came a set of new responsibilities when she decided to publish these emails. Kingston had total control over what appeared on her Webdiary and with that she realised she was the one who would be held accountable for any problems that may have been encountered. Thus Kingston encountered the concept of online ethics when she was forced to transform her “ethical considerations” (p. 160) in accordance with online journalism. I found in this article that online ethics are a largely ambiguous concept in that they appear to be wholly at the discretion of the author.

This brought up the relationship between ethics, power and trust. Kingston desired to create a space in which there would be mutual trust between herself and her readers. Moreso she did not want a space in which her readers found themselves to be powerless. The issue of power seems to be one of the key problem areas in the journalist reader relationship. To this end Kingston published those emails that were critical of herself, her style and her substance. As these responses as well as complaints were published it meant that Kingston’s online ethics were able to evolve “in consultation with readers” (p. 164). It was through Kingston’s interaction with readers that forced her to both clarify and justify her ethical stance when it came to journalism, especially when it was conducted online.

Writing under nom de plumes is the next issue Kingston considers. Unlike newspapers Kingston is willing to publish comments that are made anonymously, written under nom de plumes, as long as they do not consist of personal slurs or serious allegations. She does however ask that those publishing comments under a nom de plume give reasons as to why they are doing so. This stance by Kingston, in terms of people justifying writing under a nom de plume, came about due to criticism of her publishing anonymous comments.

The next two sections covered are offensive material and conflicts of interest respectively. Kingston takes a relaxed stance when it comes to offensive material stating that “it is a deliberate choice to log on” (p. 167). The article highlights that everyone will have different opinions on what constitutes an offensive comment and it is largely impossible to please everyone with what you write. Some will find fault in what you say and others will find reasons for praise. Racism is the key offensive issue with which Kingston tackles. Her position is that issues surrounding race are a means of people with opposing views to come together.

The matter of conflicts of interest is dealt with briefly by Kingston in an extract from her Webdiary. This issue links back with the matter of trust that was pointed out earlier in the article. This topic involves a trust that people who comment on Webdiary disclose information that could have led to them holding their particular opinion, for example any bias or prejudice that the reader may have held.

The last issue discussed is plagiarism and corrections. The issue of plagiarism is one to which the internet is particularly prone. This is both with people publishing false information and people making false allegations from what they read online. Kingston emphasises the fact that she and she alone has the responsibility for making sure that her work is accurate. Overall this accountability on the part of Kingston has led to a positive response on the part of the public.

Questions to think over:

Do you agree that ethics and trust amount to the same thing?

What are your opinions of comments posted anonymously online? Does a name attached make a comment more or less credible?

What are your feelings on online journalism?

week 8 presentation

2008-09-21T22:42:00.001+08:00

Week 8 - The Ethics of Porn of the Net

This is an interesting article that questions pornography on the internet. Kath Albury undertook research in the field of, “representations of heterosexuality in media and popular culture”. She raises several questions regarding moral and ethically standards in the pornographic world of the internet.

The article begins with Albury asking the underlying question of the article, ‘What is wrong with pornography?’ In answering this question, Albury makes it clear that one must look to the question of morality between the different sectors of society. Firstly she makes reference to Judeo-Christian’s who share a rather conservative view regarding pornography. They strongly believe that sex is something private between married couples, and should be kept in the bedroom. They believe that pornography encourages immoral sex and is therefore immoral. She then presents the Marxist view, which is somewhat similar to a radical feminist view. Essentially the Marxist view is one which believes that ‘porn performers’ are alienated from experiencing their own sexuality since their job is the performance of sex therefore making it labour rather than something which should be for recreation or procreation. Albury then goes on to discuss the feminist approach to pornography making it clear that the vast majority of feminists (largely radical) believe that pornography promotes the exploitation of women. She goes on to say that pornography encourages a sexualised view of women by men (the prime group who access porn) and makes women appear as more of a commodity therefore allowing them to be objectified.

Albury then goes on to discuss that while porn on the internet may be considered immoral and perhaps even unethical, it does allow for certain sub-sections of society to express themselves. In terms of mainstream pornography it is clear that they favour a rather unrealistic beauty, i.e. women with ‘silicone implants, taut aerobicised loins, fake tan, false nails, big hair and Brazilian waxes’, when the reality is that this ideal is far from the natural attributes of everyday women. Through pornography, largely via the influx of amateur pornography producers, women and men are able to move away from perceived norms and express themselves for their own unique sexual beauty. Albury makes reference to several websites that encourage a different view of the sexualised woman and man, for example the ‘hair to stay’ website, which encourages women to embrace their natural beauty including their bodily hair.

She concludes the article by questioning whether pornography on the internet is unethical. Essentially it is up to the individual person based on their own beliefs and opinions to decide whether porn on the internet is unethical. This is an interesting article that calls into question a rather controversial issue. Personally I am unsure where I stand regarding this topic. I do agree with the feminist approach presented in terms of the sexualisation of women and how mainstream pornography largely promotes a rather unrealistic woman, therefore often sending out the wrong message. However I am a supporter of freedom of expression, so provided the pornography does not overstep the law it is up the individual to do as they please.

This is an interesting topic and I am excited to hear your opinions. Some questions to consider would be firstly what is your opinion of pornography on the internet? Do you believe it to be immoral or rather as an opportunity for people to express themselves via another form on the internet? Also perhaps it would be interesting to look at your personal beliefs regarding the moral and ethical arguments that surround the issue.

I look forward to hearing your responses.

Response to Menu Driven Identities Workshop

2008-09-19T14:08:00.002+08:00

This is a little bit late but heres my thoughts anyway!
I agree that it is interesting to note that the lavalife home page immediately assumes the perhaps stereotypical options for first time users - female seeking male (or vice versa) aged beteen 25 - 34 for "casual dating." When browsing through the profiles I paid particular attention to the categories of indentification filled out by the lavalife users. I find it interesting that under the 'ethnic background' category, the majority of people have selected 'white' I didn't create an account myself but would be curious to know if anyone else was brave enough to do so - what were the other options? black? brown? and would those of asian background also select white? As this is the colour of their skin? This catergorisation seems problematic as it is far too restrictive - lavalife could substitute 'ethnic background' for skin colour and they would get the same answers. The term 'white' is hardly indicative of your cultural background. I did find a few people who had answered 'mixed.' Also very reductive and could mean anything really.

The body type option was also one that generated the same answers over and over - most users defining themselves as 'fit' or 'average.' Perhaps reluctant to disclose that they are 'skinny' or 'overweight.'

response to Jerry Kang article

2008-09-12T13:21:00.003+08:00

Sorry guys I don't know how to add a hyperlink in a comment so am adding it in a post on the main page instead. Susie Scott's article titled 'Researching shyness: a contradiction in terms?' (2004) can be found here (apologies it's only the abstract) xx Also sorry to anyone who reads this and hasn't read my comments on the Kang article before hand, it will make no sense! Happy blogging xx

Workshop Response to Menu-Driven Identities

2008-09-11T00:48:00.002+08:00

Well, my internet connection is having a bit of a moment so I was only able to access the Lavalifeinternet as the medium to seek out potential partners. I searched for a while under these default settings and noticed that all the men were a variation on the same theme - trying to be friendly, fun, light-hearted, non-threatening. As the men got older in my searches, I found they were less likely to try and appear 'wacky'. What interested me most is how large a proportion of the applicants were white - with some listing their ethnicity as 'other'. Other than white? I did try to get onto the page where you establish a profile for yourself but it wanted me to enter lots of details before that stage so I chickened out. Also interesting to note, every single male I looked at either didn't smoke or was 'trying to quit' and only drank 'socially' - are people afraid to reveal their vices at this early stage? Probability tells us that some of these applicants must love their cigarettes, or sometimes drink a little more than is 'socially acceptable.' I would have thought that the drop-down menu answers available to applicants are possibly a little limiting, and people would be able to convey far more of their personalities if given the chance to reply for themselves. Sure, they'd probably get less interest, but at least they could stand out from the competition!
site. The default search engine settings on the homepage where not surprising to me: aimed at women in the demographic most likely to be active on the dating scene and technologically proficient enough to employ the

Workshop 4 – Menu Driven Identities

2008-09-10T16:51:00.000+08:00

Focusing on the Lavalife dating site:

Interestingly the homepage shows “female seeking male/ age 25-34 /for casual dating”.

Arguably this reinforces the traditional heterosexual relationship, as the site does not immediately advertise homosexual relationships, thus immediately projevting a normalised image of heterosexual relationships. Additionally the option of “For:” is listed as “casual dating” thus is this website encouraging non-committed encounters between individuals. There is not an option of marriage; would such an option be considered too serious? Is there a need to be casual and relaxed, just looking for fun in order to be successful on such websites? There exists a stereotype that men seek non-committed causal fun whereas women are in favour of committed serious relationships thus are such sites geared towards the need s of men? In terms of the age bracket shown on the homepage (25-34) it could be argued that the site is implying that by this age one should be seeking a partner, again possibly reaffirming the norms of a man and woman creating a stable family unit once into the age of maturity (i.e. 30ish).

I typed in female searching for male 18-24 years and then continued to search each 3 categories of “casual dating, a relationship and an intimate encounter”. The same page of results emerged for each category. This raised many questions for me. Is the site using the information of members wrongly and entering their details into each category or are those members simply seeking any type of relationship? Alternatively when one signs up is the “looking for” option still available or is one immediately available in all categories?

The initial information box shows “age, location, status and interested in” (in terms of sexual preferences). Thus are such details the most important to the general public? All details seem optional as some refuse to detail religion and other information which highlights how one is permitted to be whoever they choose. There is no compulsion to detail every aspect of one’s life. I found it interesting that one of the first pieces of information is sexual preferences titled “interested in”. Thus is one of the most important things when looking for a new partner their sexual preferences? If one does not list much in terms of preferred activities, is this viewed negatively? If one lists a lot (i.e. “threesomes, fetishes, swinging/swapping”) will they receive more attention as they are appear more experimental? Is there a need to exaggerate one’s choices and appear open-minded in terms of sexual preferences in order to attract a wide selection of people? As with most types of menu identities one can opt to be whoever they choose, detailing and omitting whatever interests they like.

Workshop Response to Menu-Driven Identities

2008-09-09T17:54:00.002+08:00

All the sites I visited really didn't surprise me at all when I looked at the various different sign up pages. The Hotmail and Yahoo signup pages were pretty similar and basic, and were also comparable to the Second Life questions (I found the avatars more interesting in displaying certain stereotypes of gendered identities..)

Clearly from these sign up pages, age and gender is extremely important in determining your personality and identity - even though cyberspace is virtually anonymous! Lavalife also proved to be similar, where searches are based on gender and age alone.

However, the searches on Lavalife proved to be quite interesting...although you start off with a basic search and the information given about each individual seems to be quite in depth(when you click on a profile), the thing that struck me most was the 'ethnicity' in regards to identity. "White" seems to be an all encompassing construct in which 90% of the individuals on the site seem to be...so in this sense ethnicity also seems very vague and generic when looking at how people judge others online. The information on individuals on Lavalife also reminded me of the info found on Myspace pages - questions such as smoke?,drink?,education?,children?,Body type etc. This reinforces our construction of identites through these various different categories people are placed in - signifying what is held as important when building an identity.

Workshop response to Menu Driven Identities

2008-09-08T16:15:00.002+08:00

Lavalife's website contains many diverse identities constructed by users who want to put themselves (or another version of themselves) on the internet to be reviewed by other lavalife users who are seeking to meet, chat with, or flirt with online. The profiles you choose to look at are focused down according to what you are looking for ie. gender, sexual preference, and what type of relationship you would like with these users. Initially, the site asks you to describe yourself according to gender, age and occupation. It is obvious that the makers of the site believe that people observing the profiles are nieve, that is to believe that this identity is a pure one and the person who created it is genuinely interested in whoever is observing it. This preying on people's lonliness is a horrible way to go about making money. Problems with the identities on the site include, but aren't limited to: non 3 dimensional images for the observer to witness, not enough profile information, or webcam chat capabilities. This would further enrich the expirience of using this site by making it more "real". this would be achieved because if the people could chat via webcam perhaps it would make the expirience more "human".

sorry

2008-09-08T15:39:00.002+08:00

Just the full reference for the Nakamura's article seeing as I used quotes from it!
Nakamura, Lisa. "Menu Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online." Cybertypes: Race , Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, 102 - 135

Tutorial Presentation - "Menu - Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online." written by Lisa Nakamura - presentation by Katherine Joensson

2008-09-08T14:48:00.004+08:00

Lisa Nakamura's article Menu - Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online opens with the question "what happens to race on the World Wide Web?" Like gender, age and other markers of identity, is race and racism experienced by users of the internet or is the internet, like we have discussed in this course, a medium for people to be free form what can be viewed as the constraints of their everyday lives? Nakamura is critical of those who suggest that "user's identities can be freed from race when on the web." She argues that unlike popular belief, the web is a structured medium where by users experience some degree of prompting and direction which ultimatley pigeon-holes the user to fit into what she describes as a "clickable box." The article discusses and problematises the need for internet users to have to choose from predetermined options when it comes to their ethnicity.

Nakamura's article contains various examples of just how race is infact experienced online. The first is the use of portals and their ability to "impose order upon the web's enormous collection of data by presenting the user with a series of choices." Often these choices relate to identity and include questions in relation to age, sex, marital status and racial identity. Nakamara states that she was directed to a series of choices when searching the term race. These were:
1. African diaspora
2. Asian-American
3. Gay and Lesbian
4. Community Services
5. Latino Culture
6. Men's Issues
7. Nativ American Culture
8. Religion
9. Virtual Worlds
10. Women's Issues
Keeping in mind these categories are specific to America, they are still incredibly restricting and for an environment that many claim to be free from everyday experiences of identity, these groups do not offer the space for hybrid or alternative choices. I found myself thinking as a half German - half Australian woman, where would I fit into these categories? Nakamura is very critical of forced categorisation that menu's like this encourage and the inability to choose more than one option. She also points out the invisibility of 'whiteness' in such menus. That choosing 'white' is not an option and therefore all alternatives are considered 'other,' and that when other ethnicities are mentioned, they are based on traditional stereotypes. Nakamura attributes a lot of this categorisation to money making opportunities, "these sites want to know what you are so they can best figure out what they can sell you."

The article goes on to discuss how the inernet and access to it is implicitly determined by race. She describes the internet as being a "domain of the white upper middle class user." She includes in her argument that white Americans are more likely than black Americans to have access to the internet at home. So race is experienced by its users both online and by their ability to access an online environment.

Nakamura closes her article by including an example of her own experience as a Japanese - American woman and er exposure to a circulating email entitled "101 ways to tell you're a Japanese American." This list inlcudes various stereotypical examples of behaviours of half Japanese - half American people. Interestingly, this shows that not only is race categorised by websites and web portals but unconciously perhaps by its users.

Some questions to think about?

1. What have been your own experiences of race online? Where would you fit into such a restricting category list? Or is your internet use infact influenced by your race - think about the websites you visit etc.

2. Do you think sigifiers of identity are lost online? Think about race, gender, sexuality, age etc.

3. Is race something that is commodified online? Does our ethnicity make us more of a target for particular sites?

2008-09-08T11:53:00.000+08:00

Webliography
The issues concerning bioethical standards and the use of technology to enhance human bodies has been discussed for many years. From Frankenstein to The Visible Human Project and beyond, people have been arguing over the ethical issues around the use of technology to enhance human bodies. I will analyze 5 scholarly works that I have found on the internet. These articles explore many facets that have led to the complex bioethical debates we are now confronted with. Politics and religion are closely interwoven aspects of our cultural fiber. Bioethical debate has become one of the battlegrounds of our human political experience and no matter if one doesn’t hold an opinion, these issues will affect them in some fashion. The question of what it is to be human and to what extent technology should play in aiding our human experience will be explored and pondered for years to come.
The technological extensions that have aided humanity from the first stone tools to nanotechnologies have assisted us in our endeavors to survive. Whether it is to acquire food, stay warm or know how to make fire. These early technological advancements have been beneficial to us. In Technology as Extension of Human Functional Architecture, Alexander Chislenko argues that human production of technology is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has been going on since the dawn of humanity. His argument is based on an evolutional theory that supports the ideals of technological means for adaptation. Chislenko states, “I would define technology as anything intentionally designed, even if no external physical objects have been used. As for the human identity, we can draw borders in different physical and functional places. I personally identify more with my writings than with bacteria in my stomach. The extensions can also be inside and outside the body or programmed within natural bodily functions such as language or other artificial skills” (Chislenko p.3). The problem with Chislenko’s argument is that he defines technology as something natural, when so many have defined it as artificial. His thesis is bold by arguing that all technological advancements throughout history can be attributed to the ‘natural’ evolution of the human species.
Many debates concerning the novel Frankenstein have been swirling since the novel was written. People could hardly fathom that victor Frankenstein could create an entity derived of mechanical and human parts. The use of technology to create Frankenstein was challenged by the people in the village who were threatened by the unnaturalness of his being. Furthermore, the monster doesn’t realize he is unnatural after an incident that exposes his unnaturalness. Robert Anderson argues in Body Parts that Matter: Frankenstein or the Modern Cyborg? “The creature Frankenstein was born in a laboratory, not a garden, and while it may be considered to be innocent by the reader, it is never considered to be so by Victor—its existence itself is monstrous, not innocent. The creature also shows moments where it takes irony for granted, but only after it comes to a certain self awareness of its own monstrosity—after the incident with William and the family in the hut” (Anderson p.3)”. Anderson’s arguments are solid in this article, but it lacks original thought and direction. That is, he compares quotes others so much that it is hard to decipher his thesis.
The Visible Human Project has given many web users the opportunity for anatomical exploration in a virtual world. This privilege has come under some scrutiny regarding the ethical boundaries that have been crossed when this project was undertaken. In Lacerations: The Visible Human Project, Impossible Anatomies, and the Loss of Corporeal Comprehension, Eugene Thacker argues that there can be consequences for using the software in a medical context. His two pronged attack against the use of the Visible Human Project in medicine criticizes the authenticity of the virtual world as a medium for anatomical research. Thacker argues, “This is not discovery science, where anatomists will claim to have uncovered new structures in the human body; rather, this is an analytical science, in which first the cadaver and then the data-body are urged to become the most technically- sophisticated bodies possible…The Visible Human Project, in taking its impossible anatomies as new models for the body-in itself, is producing a set of norms that is in excess” (Thacker p.6). Thacker’s analysis and criticisms of the use of this software questions whether or not it is safe to use when examining real patients. By using computer simulation to work on an actual cadaver, something is lost in the translation between the virtual and real world. This could have serious consequences and raises more questions concerning bioethical standards.
Bioethical standards have been largely ignored when it comes to making money, succeeding at sport or creating healthier, happier children. These alterations of humanity could result in serious consequences. In The enhancement of human capacities by medical and biological technologies Dr. Ruud Ter Muelen argues that these consequences would be the result of gene manipulation and the bi products of human greed. Ruud Ter Muelen claims, “An important issue might be that of social coercion and control. The risk that technologies for example like behavioral genetics may be used to eliminate behavior that is considered less desirable or acceptable on a large scale is not a totally realistic scenario. As a result, the behavior of individuals may become conformist or shallow, with a homogenization of society as a possible consequence” (Ter Muelen p.4). This consequence could tighten government control over our bodies and minds. Our personal spheres could be further penetrated by government regulations.
Political debate regarding bioethics in the US is backed by special interest groups who harbour bipartisan beliefs. Transhumanist supporters align themselves with ideas of technological advancements to aid in our human experience, whilst, bioconservatives push for more government regulation in issues such as cloning and nanotechnology. In Human Enhancement on the Agenda Dr. John Hughes argues that this bipartisanship has shifted to the right due to increased spending by conservative Christian groups opposed to technological body modification. Hughes states, “ Stacked with conservative intellectuals, and even replacing two of the few liberals with conservatives in 2003, the PBC recommended a moratorium on embryonic cell research and a permanent ban on human reproductive cloning” (Hughes, p. 1). If we are to regain control over our bodies and promote research on life saving stem cell research, it is imperative that political control is regained.
Bioethics is at the forefront of debate in many countries and what it means to be human is constantly being argued. These five articles offer insight to this debate and critically analyze both sides of the argument.

Work cited
1. Anderson, Robert. ‘Body Parts That Matter: Frankenstein, or The Modern Cyborg?’
Original Articles (1999) http://www.womenswriters.net/editorials/anderson1.htm
[accessed 25 August 2008].
2. Chilenko, Alexander. ‘Technology as Extension of Human Functional Architecture’
Extropy Online (1997) http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/technology_as_extension.html [accessed 25 August2008].
3. Hughes, James. ‘Human Enhancement on the Agenda’ Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technologies http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET [accessed 25 August 2008].
4. Muelen, Ruud. ‘The Enhancement of Human Capacities by medical and biological
Technologies’ Centre for Ethics in Medicine University of Bristol
http://www.bris.ac.uk/ethicsinmedicine/currentevents/inaugural.html [accessed
26 August 2008].
5. Thacker, Eugene. ‘Lacerations: The Visible Human Project, Impossible Anatomies,
and the Loss of Corporeal Comprehension’ Culture Machine, Vol.3 (2001)
http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/viewArticle/293/278
[accessed 26 August 2008].

Jessica's Tutorial Discussion - Week 7

2008-09-08T10:58:00.006+08:00

Ruminations on Cyber-Race by Jerry Kang

Jerry Kang a Korean-American law professor enquires into the functionings of the virtual world and how 'race' works in online communities. Ruminations on Cyber-Race asks if cyberspace has the potential to change racial mechanics and consequently alter the ground rules of social interaction.

Describing cyberspace as operating similarily to a sidewalk cafe, the article proposes that the Web helps people to form and maintain social relationships, the main difference being that in the virtual world most interaction occurs through text,lacking the face-to-face communication that occurs in the real world thus allowing for a sense of anonymity, (there are of course exceptions including the likes of Webcams-whereby no one is any more racially anonymous than they would be in any face-to-face encounter).Kang points out that just because race is to an elaborated sense 'anonymous' in cyberspace, this does not mean it ceases to matter. He goes on to retell a situation he personally experienced when participating in a graphical world as a "young, muscular, bald black man". This graphic representation of self caused conflict with another character appearing as a "white female" who sprayed Kang with racist bile because he was African-American. This episode influenced Kang's thoughts on how communicating at a distance through blogs, email ,instant messaging and so on could possibly rearrange race relations. He considers how cyberspace offers a way to increase interracial social interaction without the conflicts inherent in the real world and the example above. Kang expands on this idea by proposing the abolition of race in cyberspace (being race blind), intergration of race (promoting social interactivity) and transmutation online (broadcasting a different racial identity). Kang notes that although there are many inplications with these approaches (cyberspace cannot and SHOULD NOT be colourblind etc),cyberspace is a powerful social force, and if we look at cyberspace as an opportunity to explore social issues perhaps we will be able to positively progress in regards to race in the real world.

In my opinion I think race will continue to influence the content of a person's cyber interactions even if the audience is not aware of the colour of the participant's skin. Race has alot to do which cultural and social upbringing and thus implictly a person may give away clues about their racial identity,for instance poor English. Hopefully we can embrace race online and not see it as a barrier to entering and participating in virtual space.If built right cyberspace could provide the conditions to fight prejudice. Realistically,this may prove more difficult.The text is short and brief and therefore I will keep my blog entry the same.Nonetheless the artcile presents rather interesting notions and is a good starting point for considering the following:

Think about how much our lives have changed since the invention of the Web eg.paying bills online,purchasing plane tickets,booking accomodation,finding lost relations,learning new languages etc.Do you think that cyberspace has
the potential to change race relations in real life?

Is race less fixed in cyberspace? Is it voluntary or experimental?(as demonstrated by transmutation)

Kang states that virtual communities are centred around common interests and experiences and that race does not influence these commonalities,and so virtual communities are not exclusive or race-specific.
Do you agree with his perspective?

Week 7: Tutorial Presentation

2008-09-07T23:38:00.002+08:00

Hi, I am here presenting Tak-yee Amy Lai’s "Hong Kong Cyberculture: A Case Study". As the awareness of the internet use is increasing, the side-effects of the activities in cyberculture are also concerned. Lai’s study in Hong Kong cyberculture is in order to inform the degree of freedom of speech, and discuss how netizens’ identities and representation of their selfhood in cyberspace affect their social life.

Tak-yee had argued that whether the degree of freedom in cyber context is truly existed in ICERED, on the Internet and the entire Hong Kong society. ICERED was an English-based online forum in Hong Kong, which established in 2000, particularly targeted on the bourgeois who works in professional positions. The posts of ICERED were mainly formed by unreasoned musing, gossips on celebrities, insults to other posters, which ultimately accused by a company in the Hong Kong stock market, for the charge of libel and a demand for issuing list of the forum’s membership, resulted in a closure of the forum in 2003. On the other hand, ICERED’s closure had started a series of questions about “cyberdemocracy”, whether democratic in virtual space is achievable. She examined in the categories of racism, sexism and homophobia and also discussed the benefit of being online and how it affects the offline society, in four most popular threads in ICERED.

"Your English sucks!"

She explained that the widely use of Internet had somewhat stratified the users in terms of income level and education level. ICERED’s positioning was originally problematic, which was "an interactive platform of exchange of high-income professionals and university alumni of top universities around the world", had set a boundary between "well-known, excellent, and expensive colleges" and "less well-known colleges". In this thread, participants were examined in terms of their education and social background by many anonymous posters and how they responded to them, to determine their English proficiency. Speaking English fluently is symbolized as a privilege in Hong Kong thus ICERED was the site for promoting and mirroring on the real social stratification of “local/expat/study overseas” in both online and offline society.

The Unbearable "White-ness" of ICERED

Although racist is unlikely exists in Hong Kong, many people have the sense of Internet as a "racialized" space, that is, people were assumed as a Caucasian. The racists’ ideas on Internet are often associated with Eugenics. In anthropological context, the thread holder and the racist, both made misjudging responses, i.e. Ethnocentrism, "means evaluating other people from one’s own vantage-point and describing them in one’s own terms…within this frame of thought, other peoples would necessarily appear as interior imitations of oneself." (Eriksen, 2001, pp.6-7) In her observation, an online racist would express his/her perspective on racial issues, rather than judging on receivers’ physical bodies since the latter’s appearances are invisible, or vice versa. The absence of ethnicity as a social category is problematic, since “whiteness” seems a universal assumption unless you have labelled your names differently. However, if the ethnic categories do exist in WebPages, yet is still problematic as there’s no clear definition between certain ethnic groups, and thus violated the ideas of “the Internet should be no restraint” (Barlow 1996, in text p.1), although Tak-yee takes opposition to that.

"Men are after sex, women, after money"

In ICERED, the threads held by female are likely to be abused and attacked by male posters. It reminded us about the study conducted by Alison Adam of cyberstalking and online sexual harassment in pervious week’s reading, which is concerned about computer ethics versus feminist ethics. There are several examples which IceReders labelled Hong Kong women are as "devalued, ignorant, and materialistic". She also suggested that the accusations made by Asian often greater than the West. A female user was threatened by the handle to expose her ID address and hijack on her computer, in order to restrict girls’ responses. It indicated that the degree of "cyberdemocracy" is in decline as well. Furthermore, she suggested that ICERED promoted a certain level of materialism, which happened as the same time as in Hong Kong as well. In this case, to blame on HK women’s "money worship" was blamed on society and the accusers themselves. Therefore, male IceReders were infected, one by one in the real life, and reproduced their idea of materialism to their discussions.

Tak-yee also examined two of female IceReders, "HKGirlie" and "Bettina". "A dis-embodied environment, apparently without constraints descriptions and even greater homogeneity rather than new forms of identity (p.11)" Both two were represented a model of "peculiar female identity", who transgressed on the notion of traditional feminist ethics.

On the other hand, men were stereotyped as "sex-hunters" and "desire for women" in one of the threads in ICERED, and certainly it provoked male members who participated in the discussions. However, it seldom existed as we assume the power of both actual and virtual space is masculine.

Homophobia and Queerness

Gay and lesbian online population is growing, accompanied with the popularization of the Internet. However, the fear of homosexuality is also pervaded. In a thread of, homosexual was misunderstood as unnatural and immoral practice, or the aid of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Also the origin of homosexuality was misinformed "from the West". Therefore, the general presumption that the Internet "is" a white, male, heterosexual, and elitist discourse, is confirmed and across different community sites.

"Who wanna be superstars?"

There was a case that a citizen in Central becoming a “notorious” celebrity. ICERED (and thousands of online communities) enable to use their impact on the real world, even enable to change the real world. Contest participants were able to achieve a form of celebrity status, with their online-formed charisma. ICERED is an online community that able to organize real-life events, that is, a simulation that the representation or imitation of a physical or social system or its activity by computers for the purpose of predicting the behaviour of that system (the reality) under certain conditions.

Finally, Tak-yee’s assumption that "cyberdemocracy" is indeed vanished as those marginalized responses such as racist, sexist and homophobia in ICERED has disrupted the process of the ideal democratic public sphere that people discuss about an issue before across their subjectivity. The democratic trajectory is deviating indeed. Anonymity is one way of protecting privacy but one doesn’t response to his/her consequence made on Internet, yet we still accepted somewhat border crossing. They could be observed as "the bad boys (and girls) of cyberspace" (p.17), who stirred bad atmosphere into discussions and produced a chaotic result. On the other hand, her fascinating suggestion of the simulation between real life and the virtual life in ICERED was a kind of addict for the participants, that is, the virtual reality, to intervene the situations that online communication replicates value and fears offline.

My responses

Hong Kong people are always considered as "over-response" or radical on several social and economical issues. There is the case in the online community as well such as in ICERED: the fear of homosexual content spread in the media, devaluing women, speculating whether you are wealthy etc. On the other hand, the "whiteness" responses made by Hong Kong IceReders reminded me the Chinese responses on the relay of Olympic torch, to rebelling on Western media. However, sometimes HK people have fewer responses, or being silent on political or democratic topics. They are apolitical; they simply rely on the Internet heavily, as Lupton suggested. I don’t think the dominance on the English language online is a form of cultural imperialism (but certainly does at the beginning of the Internet development), but now there’s emergence of other languages and their cultures as well, e.g. Japanese with the popularity of its Manga. Multiple languages are needed in online discussions. Tak-yee’s emphasis on Hong Kong cyberculture enables us to clarify the relationship between the freedom of speech and itself, in terms of racism, sexism, homophobic hostility and online celebrity.

It's Time for questions!

Is it necessary to identify ourselves in terms of ethnic identity in online communication?
Do you think the English language has the dominance in online communication still?
Does the politics determine our tone, or our manner in online discussions?
How do you define the relation between Internet use and sociability? Do they interweave with each other?

Workshop Response to Menu-Driven Identities

2008-09-06T10:43:00.000+08:00

The gender dichotomy continues into cyberspace, even the Second Life gameworld requires users select ‘male’ or ‘female’. Every single one of the four sites required users define their gender.

No site offered categories to define race or ethic heritage. The absence of these categories suggests the sites assume the user is Caucasian. Despite the categorical information being used to tailor ads and surveys to the user ethic origin does not feature. It makes me wonder if users of hotmail or Yahoo! on a global scale also automatically receive ads which feature the ethically dominate population for that country.

The ‘identity’ offered on Lavalife did accommodate ethnicity. It was surprising Lavalife offered this option considering that users can post photos of themselves which clearly indicate ethic origin. Can registered users of the site search for potential soul mates via ethnicity? Identity on Lavalife is defined by age, location, height, body type, and ethnicity if listed. For the majority of searches I did, ethnicity was listed as ‘white’ or ‘asian’ although most ‘white’ (according to the corresponding profile picture) users did not list their ethnicity. The one ‘asian’ user I came across took the trouble to list ‘asian’ under ethnicity.

It suggests that the majority of users are ‘white’ and therefore do not bother listing their ethnic background. Furthermore the broad ‘white’ category glosses over several potential ethic origins, the site implies that ‘white’ equates to Australian. In reality ‘white’ could mean anything from Scottish to South African heritage.

"Workshop Response to Menu-Driven Identities" by KaHung Chan

2008-09-04T22:24:00.016+08:00

I have examined the security questions for Hotmail, Yahoo! and online RPG Second Life and dicovered that there is persumption existed in the sets of security questions, although their procedure for signing up an account is quite similar. My interpretation is, the security question is like a kind of "questionnaire" provided by web service provider, which has targeted on their potential market, is also a hint behind of positioning of the company. Yahoo! and Second Life have the same approach of to ask the users about the information of their childhood, such as "Who was your childhood hero?" or "What city were you born in?", based on the assumption that the most memorised events were occured in one's childhood. However, Hotmail users are "assumed" to be more likely socially engaged, as one of the questions is mention your "two best friends" etc. These two kinds of security questions indicating the psychological emphasis is taken place, and I guess it also indicated that two different marketing approaches were attempted. I guess Second Life is targeting at teenagers and Yahoo! is exploring the large potential market of young adults, or "kidults"(who have great memories for their childhood, and those memento is also their favourite), to have more uses on their services. Hotmail has slightly twisted its strategy and points towards everyone who is highly engaged with social activities, as its bundle of Windows Live Messenger. The security questions and answers provide not only the protection for the users, from the hackers and viruses; but also indicating now what the trend is (what products teenagers love)and the service-providers' targets.

In the "I live in..." section of Second Life, the online RPG dominated countries are up on the top of the choices besides UK and US - Germany, South Korea and Japan. This issue is not associated with racism, but I think it differentiates the countries, according their proportion of online game players in population. Or slightly stratifies the "developed countries" and "developing counytries" in terms of economic development.

The "default" research of Lavalife has assumed that the searcher is heterosexual, in their 20s or 30s above, and their only purpose is for casual dating, since the original categoriesare set up as finding someone with an opposite gender. I think the presumption that the only purpose for Love-matching website such as Lavalife is to provide an alternative place for people, to develop ideal matches in online community.

Finally, the creation of account gives us an different identity in virtual world, and often computer is always associated with maths. Verification is crucial before you have actual access of an account. (There are something I want to share...)

Verify if you are not a robot...

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2008/09/0077.jpg
Please choose the 3 most "hottest" person, despite you are not in Lavalife. http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2008/09/0076.jpg
Do we have anyone who study geometry?
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2008/09/0079.jpg
An IQ test...
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2008/09/0082.jpg
Can anyone pass a magnifier to me?
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/chinese.engadget.com/media/2008/09/0087.jpg
I remember that one I had done in MATH1050...

(From: http://%22http//chinese.engadget.com/2008/09/02/15-bt-captcha/%22)

Conclusion: the word verification is indeed crucial!

Comments are welcome!

Workshop Response to Menu-Driven Identities

2008-09-04T14:45:00.002+08:00

The categories you have to choose from when signing up for a Hotmail or Yahoo! mail account or Secret Life account are generally quite similar: name, email address, password, gender (male/female), country, state, security question and answer, preferred language etc. What was different was Secret Life's "Choose a Look" category where you had to pick an avaitor to use in the game-world.

I guess the main problem with these categories is the gender category. Having only male or female to pick from in the drop down box would be problem for those who believe their gender identity is more fluid, and I guess this is therefore discriminating against those who don't consider themselves either of those categories.

The sort of identities visible in the profiles of Lavalife are placed into categories of age, location, height, body type, ethnic background, smoking and drinking habits, Zodiac sign etc.

I guess this presumes that these are the things that the majority of viewers who want to browse through numbers of profiles will use to decide whether or not to pursue with that person any further and also what the users making the profile believe the viewers want to see. The problem with this being that it is putting labels on people we might not have ordinarily done in real-life.

Tute Presentation: Cyberstalking

2008-09-01T18:27:00.003+08:00

Week 6 Tutorial Presentation on Alison Adam’s “Cyberstalking: Gender and Computer Ethics.”

Hello all!!! I’m doing the online tute presentation this week for Alison Adam’s article “Cyberstalking: Gender and Computer Ethics.”

I’m going to follow James’ lead here and just give a brief outline of the main points I found relevant/interesting in the article, and a couple of questions for everyone to comment on afterwards.

The main points of the article:
Firstly, Adam makes the point that “computer ethics” is a newly emerging discipline, which as yet lacks a sufficient body of research. As such a new technological medium, a number of new related social and ethical dilemmas face us: hacking, viruses, copying software, and, most importantly in the case of this article: electronic invasions of privacy.

One of the problems facing the discipline is a split over how to approach these issues: are computer ethics problems new, or are they a new variation of older social problems? The author herself leans towards the latter approach, suggesting that “reading computer ethics problems in the light of existing and older ethical dilemmas has the advantage of connecting information technology to their history.” Adam takes this approach because she doesn’t read the rise of computers and the internet as determinist or inevitable, but instead as “historically rooted”.
As such, Adam suggests that it is beneficial to apply feminist theories to the discipline of computer ethics, and so expose the power relations that are inherently at play within the internet. Whilst the rise of the internet was hailed in the 1990’s as a socially-levelling medium in which gender, age, religion, and race were transcended, Adam instead suggests that the internet has great potential for inequality; and that men and women experience the internet very differently.

Therefore, feminist ethics may be applied as a “fruitful alternative to current directions in computer ethics” in 3 major ways: firstly, feminist ethics counters the predominant theory of internet determinism and secondly offers an alternate to views of the internet as a zone of individualism; and thirdly, reveals the gender and power inequalities that exist online.
How does the internet display power inequalities we ask? According to Adam, there is a huge difference between men’s and women’s access to computers, and their respective usage of the internet. For instance, there have been substantiative statistical studies done on the topic of ethical decision-making online, however Adam suggests that there needs to be more interest regarding the reasons for differences between the way men and women interact online (if any). As such, the author believes that theorists really need to examine the reasons behind why cyber stalking exists, and research possible measures to prevent it, rather than statistically analyse online behaviours.

Adam devotes time also to online sexual harassment as differing to cyber stalking. Using Catherine McKinnon’s definition that sexual harassment is “the unwanted imposition of sexual requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power,” Adam notes that online harassment and stalking can go either way: both men and women may be victims or perpetrators of online violence.

Whilst Adam does quote some women who find online environments empowering, the author is of the opinion that this position is only accorded to women from privileged contexts. Rather, she is more convinced that the internet amplifies many stereotyped gender roles. Although I agree with the studies Adam notes which show that the internet does not neutralise gender, (Adam writes that men prefer individual freedom online whilst women tend to interact with common-minded internet users online.) I find Adam’s view of gender online to be rather bleak. The author is very suspicious of online identities, and builds a case for awareness of personal safety, and also calls for attention to be directed towards internet service providers. At the time of the article’s publication, in the US, internet service providers were subject to the same laws as telecommunications providers (therefore, they are NOT held responsible for the content published). This was different to in the UK (where law treats internet providers similar to publishing houses, and who must take responsibility to an extent, for content published online).
Typically, the media only highlights extreme cases of cyber stalking, such as the three examples referenced by Adam, which in all three cases the stalker assumed the identity of the victim, to post perverted comments and thoughts on sex sites and make obscene comments randomly under this assumed identity. In a couple of these cases, the victim’s personal details (address, telephone number) were even posted, which the cyber stalker made public on the internet for other kooks show unwanted attention to the victim. In the cases outlined, I actually thought it was more identity theft than Cyberstalking; before reading this article, I had in mind that Cyberstalking typically involves the stalker seeking information about the victim and then bombarding them with unwanted (threatening) attention.

Those thoughts aside, Adam sets these examples up against the laws outlined above. Whilst the internet is built upon the concept freedom of speech, there is a distinct lack of understanding, research and knowledge about privacy online. Adam ties in the point that traditional separations of the private and public sphere are diminished by the internet, and suggests that (in accordance with feminist ethics, rather than liberalism), there needs to be an “ethic of care” in online communities: “rather than ‘self-protection’, we need to understand the interconnectedness of the effects of the problem.” Therefore, we not only need to stop anti-social behaviours such as Cyberstalking, but we also need to confront the problem at its roots to stop the behaviour from recurring. Using Adam’s feminist reading of Cyberstalking, we become involved in looking at the “nature of relationships between men and women by examining the fundamental structures of the way we organise ourselves in society.” In other words, the communities we create online reflect real society and the ways we interact as people. So I think that just like in everyday life, where we have a duty of care to those around us, on the internet we also need to take an interest in those around us in the online communities that we become invested in.

I think that this article is a bit of a ripper really, because it allows us to talk about that ultimate cyber-stalker’s paradise, Facebook (!!!) and other online networking utilities, like MySpace and Bebo. Adam’s article was written in 2001, before the phenomenal rise of Facebook in the collective consciousness of our own generation, so she doesn’t mention anything of the likes of FB. However I really think it is a legitimate cause for concern: we need to question to what extent such networks really are safe, in spite of the “privacy settings” in place!

SO: some questions to get the ball rolling!

Does the internet need regulation? What sort of laws (if any) are appropriate for a medium whose very foundation is in its capacity to diminish space and create a global online community for sharing and interacting?
How do you feel YOU interact online: are you comfortable in an online environment, do you think the fact that you have a relative degree of anonymity online changes your interaction (if any) with other users online?
FACEBOOK: friend or foe? Is Facebook a total invasion of privacy? And again harking back to the “online identities” concept, what facets of your persona do you choose to convey online on your profile?
Do we have an “ethic of care” for ourselves, our friends, and other internet users? Or is this an impossible concept in an online community of millions? How do the internet communities and relationships we form online reflect those we make in real life?

Happy blogging! (I apologise in advance that this is so long, but I couldn't bear to cut anything out!!) :) Katherine M

webliography

2008-09-01T08:52:00.000+08:00

Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding question:

Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway’s figure of the cyborg has taken on ‘a life of its own’ in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminist?

In answering this question, I decided that I must firstly look at Judy Waczman in order to gain a full understanding to her opinions regarding Donna Haraway’s figure of the cyborg. I also looked at Donna Haraway’s essay, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, to ensure that I completely understood her agreements regarding the cyborg. After doing my backup reading, I began looking at different feminist’s and their opinions regarding Donna Haraway’s article. I gathered my sources through the search engines, Super-search and Google scholar, where I searched such keywords as, ‘cyborg’, ‘Donna Haraway’ and ‘feminism’.

Source 1: You Are Cyborg, written by Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru explored the idea of Donna Haraway’s notion of the cyborg. Right from the outset of the article she proclaims that feminists worldwide have taken up the idea of the cyborg in terms of the ability for women and men to think of themselves no merely as an individual but rather as a collection of networks. Kunzru makes constant reference to Haraway’s arguments regarding the idea of the cyborg and how essentially we all belong to a society where it has become somewhat difficult to tell where ‘we’ as an individual end and the machine begins. Humans are constantly surrounded by technology be it a VCR, car or even cell phone, and according to Haraway, the cyborg age is here whether people embrace the idea or not. This idea was further discussed with Kunzru defining what she believed to be Cyberfeminism – the ability to construct your identity, sexuality and even gender in conjunction with technology. While questioning the need to take the whole cyborg idea seriously, Kunzru does give the reader the impression that she agrees with Haraway’s notion of the cyborg.

Source 2: What happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?, by Maria Fernandez and Suhail Malik

In this joint article, both Fernandez and Malik express their own personal reasons as to why they believe the Cyborg Manifesto has not left its mark on history, and furthermore questioning its overall relevance in today’s society. Fernandez argues that Haraway’s manifesto reflected its era, being a time when there were several significant changes in digital technology. She further makes the point that the era when the manifesto was written, saw a time when women were questioning whether they belonged purely to nature, therefore Haraway’s arguments offered an alternative. Fernandez also notes that the Cyborg Manifesto reinforced the popular view that gender could be ‘freed by technology’, in terms of women being given the ability ‘re-generate themselves’. While on the surface this appears like a positive aspect of the Manifesto, Fernandez is quick to discredit this by making it clear the belief that the cyborg has created a creature that is far more fiction than a social reality. Like Fernandez, Malik also doesn’t agree with Haraway’s view of the cyborg. She believes the cyborg to be a creation that encourages the collapse of the ‘traditional bounded stability of the human and its anthropocentric beliefs’. Malik makes it clear that the idea of the transgression of boundaries as discussed by Haraway is unrealistic and believes that clearly the statement was made with giving adequate consideration to the difficulties that are involved in the whole process.

Source 3: The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist and her Critic, by Krista Scott

In this article Scott looks at the rise of the cyborg. She uses several examples to show how the cyborg has developed, be it through the glory of television or the fact that computers can now recognise when one makes a spelling mistake. Essentially Scott discusses how the constant development of technology has led to an improvement in the quality of life for many people. However she does note that she is weary of the fact that there has been a breakdown of certain boundaries for example, between the organism and the machine, with the rise of the cyborg. Scott also discusses the idea that Haraway does not believe in the idea of a goddess rather choosing to follow the idea of the cyborg. Scott herself doesn’t exactly negate from Haraway’s opinions she does however raise some interesting points in terms of Haraway’s argument.

Source 4: Cyber Gender, by Jennifer Breen

Breen’s prominent argument throughout her article is that she believes gender can be altered when on the internet. She evens admits to doing it herself, believing that the internet allows one to disconnect themselves from traditional gender ideals allowing people to move beyond gender with the ability to either select to be male, female or non-gendered. Breen does make reference to Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ in stating that within the manifesto, Haraway’s believed that gender can ultimately be ignored by the cyborg in the future. Haraway’s stance is not followed by Breen, as she believes that while gender online can sometimes be ignored, in most cases people still have to chose their gender, whether it be in a game or when chatting online, gender always comes up. While gender is something we are naturally born with, according to Breen the internet offers a chance for people to change their gender for various reasons.

Source 5: Cyborgs or Goddesses? Becoming divine in a cyberfeminist age, by Elaine Graham

Graham makes the comparison between a goddess and a cyborg. She highlights the significant differences between the two making reference to both Haraway’s arguments regarding the cyborg and also Irigaray’s model of being divine and in a sense a goddess. Graham herself believes that there is much to learn and discover in terms of the cyborg and the goddess, and that our engagement with such ‘semi-mythical creatures’ helps us to rethink our traditional ideals regarding nature, culture and technology. She believes that both the cyborg and goddesses are inter-linked in the sense that they both involve a post-human era and discuss factors that causes one to question traditional categories for example, race, gender, nature and humanity.

Bibliography

1. Breen, Jennifer. ‘Cyber Gender’, (2007)
http://cyborg.org/breen.htm [accessed 26 August 2008].

2. Fernandez, Maria and Malik, Suhail. ‘Whatever Happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?’, Mute Magazine, (2001) http://www.metamute.org/en/Whatever-Happened-to-the-Cyborg-Manifesto [accessed 26 August 2008].

3. Graham, Elaine. ‘Cyborgs or Goddesses? Becoming divine in a cyberfeminist age’ (1999) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713768411~db=all~order=page [accessed 26 August 2008].

4. Kunzru, Hari. ‘You Are Cyborg’, Wired Magazine, Issue 5.02, (1997) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway.html [accessed 26 August 2008].

5. Scott, Krista. 'The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist and her Critic', The Feminist eZine, (1997) http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/philosophy/Cyborg-Scientist-Feminist.html [accessed 26 August 2008].

Annotated Webliography

2008-08-31T22:38:00.002+08:00

Question: From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.

With the increasing capabilities of medicine which have accompanied the technological advances over time the human body is continually undergoing modification. These modifications mean that the body is physically becoming less organic and the way in which we view the human body is progressively more digitalized. Following on from these two themes is the question of what effects this process could have on both a micro and a macro level. These are effects both to the individual in terms of identity and the effects on society as a whole if this process continues. The following five sources explore these key issues concerning the way in which the digital age has impacted the extent to which we can consider ourselves human.

The article by Chuck Meyer is a useful starting point in considering the focus question.[1] Meyer draws largely on the arguments of Donna Haraway as a way to frame his article. Meyer argues along the same lines as Haraway in that he sees that we are more or less all cyborgs in that separating ourselves from computers is almost impossible in today’s culture. We are progressively thinking of ourselves less as humans and more as technologically created beings. In terms of the original question this source is helpful in considering the physical limits of being human. The fact that it draws on the work of Haraway gives the article a great deal of credibility which, when considering internet sources, is an important aspect to consider. However, even though this is a sign of credibility it tends to amount in less original ideas and more a retelling of Haraway’s own work.

The Ray Kurzweil article is an extremely beneficial source especially when read in conjunction with Meyer’s article.[2] Unlike Meyer who agrees with Haraway that we are all cyborgs Kurzweil does not believe that we are there yet. Kurzweil does however give a detailed analysis on the ways in which humans rely more and more on mechanical intervention for their existence. This is a good source as it relates directly to the topic in terms of the physical limitations on being human in an increasingly technological age. Not only does the article provide information on how humans are currently using machines for physical enhancement it also looks to the future to show how mechanical intervention in humans will progress. The fact that Kurzweil does not call on any scholars to support his argument means that it is a good companion to the Meyer article as it provides a more personal point of view. This source is therefore a good expansion of Meyer’s ideas.

Brenda E. Brasher has written an article which centers on two concepts which prove themselves important to this topic.[3] The first is how the idea of the cyborg and how we came to regard ourselves as cyborgs crossed over from being a fictional notion to being a reality. The history of the cyborg is an important aspect to consider as it shows how the idea of the cyborg has changed and developed over time. The second is the rise in how popular culture is acting as a source of religious inspiration for the increasing breed of cyborgs. Both of these concepts play a key role in analyzing how humanity is becoming more and more dependent on technology on both a physical and an emotional level. The article outlines that technology is an increasing necessity for us on a daily basis, invading almost every sphere of our existence. This is a good source to use, especially, like the previous source, in conjunction with Meyer’s.

The next article written by Victoria Vesna is a valuable source in that it deals how the human body has become a digitalized entity.[4] More so it deals with the idea of the body, in light of the visible human project, becoming more technologically objectified than ever before. Specifically the article discusses how the interior of the body has evolved from being a personal space to being one that is able to be accessed by anyone at will. Computerization is all the time more defining what it means to be human. Similar to the work of Meyer, Vesna uses Haraway, among other scholars, within her article. Vesna’s work is extremely detailed, raising many new issues instead of merely repeating those of other scholars which Meyer has a tendency to do. In addition to this the source is useful to the focus question as one of the questions it asks is how much of our bodies we can call our own in this digitalized age.

The article by Steve Mizrach differs from the previous sources in that it focuses on the ethics of technological and human assimilation.[5] This is useful because it offers not just the ways in which being human is increasingly limited but it also describes the consequences of these rising limitations. While Mizrach acknowledges that there are positive consequences to human integration with technology it is mainly the negative consequences on which Mizrach focuses. This article provides a different view to that of Haraway essentially arguing that the disintegration of society as we know it could be the result of continued decreasing levels of humanity with the rise of technological integration. This source is useful in opening up and giving a deeper outlook on the given question. It is also valuable because it covers a unique area in comparison to the other sources.

The above sources give a detailed and valuable overview of the way in which being human has indeed become limited with the increase in technology and knowledge. The sources provide insight into both the physical and the emotional limitations of human beings. However in addition to this the sources also assess the consequences which these limitations of humanity will have in both the present and the future. Furthermore aside from being valuable sources they are also credible which it extremely important when considering sources available on the internet. Most sources call on well known and respected scholars and those which do not can be used in conjunction with those that do.

[1] Meyer, Chuck (1997), Human Identity in the Age of Computers, http://fragment.nl/mirror/Meyer/CyborgIdentity.htm, (accessed 23 August 2008).
[2] Kurzweil, Ray (2002), ‘We Are Becoming Cyborgs’, http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0449.html?printable=1, (accessed 23 August 2008).
[3] Brasher, Brenda. E , ‘The Cyborg: Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture’, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=404, (accessed 16 August 2008).
[4] Vesna, Victoria, Tracing Bodies of Information Overflow, http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/00-01/BodyCaught/data_bodiesF.htm, (accessed 16 August 2008).
[5] Mizrach, Steve, ‘Should there be a limit placed on the integration of humans and computers and electronic technology?’, http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/cyborg-ethics.html, (accessed 23 August 2008).

Webliography Question 3

2008-08-31T22:25:00.002+08:00

QUESTION: Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway's figure of a cyborg has taken on `a life of its own' in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?

Feminists have taken up Donna Haraway's figure of a cyborg primarily as a vehicle by which they can connect women to technology, a stereotypically male dominated area of growth. The following blogs, articles and reviews are examples of how the cyborg has become an important metaphor within feminst circles and how Haraway's manifesto inspired the change from feminsm to cyberfeminism.

Blauwkamp, J Krassas, N (2006), Should Feminists be Cyborgs? allacademic research. Available from: <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/3/8/8/5/p138854_index.html> [27 August 2008]
In Should Feminists be Cyborgs? Joan Blauwkamp and Nicole Krassas illustrate the level to which the cyborg principle is used by feminists. Particularly interesting is the illustration of the character Scully from the television show X-Files as a cyborg character in her position as both female and a scientist (Blauwkamp, Krassas 2006 p.5). This suggests the use of the cyborg figure in order to make a feminist reading of material, in this case a popular television show. They also uses the various movies and television shows of the Star Trek franchise to illustrate their points on the role of cyborgs in popular culture in comparison to Haraway's figure of the Cyborg (Blauwkamp, Krassas 2006). This analysis of the way cyborgs are analysed is useful in that it illustrates the degree to which the idea of the cyborg as introduced by Haraway has been taken up by feminists, and particularly how it affects their readings of other works.

Mondloch, K 2002 Reloading Cyberfeminsm.- Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture - Book Review. BNET. Available from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_1_30/ai_89985963 [27 August 2008]
Katie Mondloch provides an overview of the history if cyberfeminsm, including Haraway, VNS Matrix and Sadie Plant as key figures in the development of cyberfeminsm. The book she is reviewing is a collection of women's cyberfiction and criticism. This illustrates a whole area of feminism heavily influenced by Haraway's cyborg, as feminism and the genre of science fiction are mixed, creating what the authors of Reload, Flanagan and Booth, refer to as women's cyberfiction. This article is useful as an illustration of one of the many ways Haraway's cyborg has become a part of feminist writing.

Pop Feminist 2008, Blogger. 8 June 2008. Pop Feminist: Blog. Available from: http://popfeminist.blogspot.com/2008/06/cyborg-feminism.html [27 August 2008]
This blog, and the movie clips contained with in it, illustrate the way in which the image of the cyborg is not only contained within the sphere of cyberfeminism but can also be found in other forms of feminism, in this instance `pop feminism'. The music clip of the Bjork song is used as an example of how the cyborg is represented in pop culture, and thus in pop feminism. Though the video clip actually contains androids created by other robots, rather than part machine/part human cyborgs, they break the barriors between human and machine through the emotion and love experienced by the two machines, who build the female androids as a way in which their `human' emotions can be expressed. This video clip is used as a celebration of female sexuality in the context of the pop feminist website, and therefore the female as a cyborg.

Volkart, Y 2002, The Cyberfeminist Fantasy and the Pleasure of the Cyborg. Available from: <http://www.obn.org/reading_room/writings/html/cyberfem_fantasy.html> [27 August 2008]
In Yvonne Volkart's article, Volkart explores the relationship between cyberfeminism, Donna Haraway and the cyborg. This article is especially interesting because it labels Haraway's `A Cyborg Manifesto' (Volkart 2002) as the turning point where feminism opened up into cyberfeminism. It describes that the `utopian ideology of women's liberation' (Volkart 2002) is to the Cyberfeminists the point where liberation is based in body and gender, but this body has been changed so that while it is not a `new' body, it is not the same body as it once was (Volkart 2002). Volkart continues by illustrating several examples of places where the cyborg has been used by feminists in different mediums, other than academic writing, such as Kristen Lucas' net-based project `Involuntary Reception', a fictional video blog, and the novel by Kathy Acker `Empire of the Senseless' (1988) (Volkart 2002). This article illustrates some of the impacts Haraway's `Cyborg Manifesto' has had on the feminist community, and in particular in working to shift focus to cyberfeminism.

Volkart, Y Unruly Bodies. The Effect Body As a Place of Resistance. Media Art Net. Available from: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/cyborg_bodies/unruly_bodies/ [27 August 2008]
This article explores the relationship between the feminine concept of `unruly' and the cyborg in relation to art. It also makes clear that the idea of the body as a `battlefield' is not a new one unique to the concept of the cyborg, but is instead one that was a basis for feminist writing in 1970s. Feminism adapted the new concept of the cyborg as introduced by Haraway to ideas that were around previously. Volkart also makes a strong connection between the `unruly', the feminine and the cyborg. She discusses how the idea of `unruly' is tied intrinsically to feminity, and thus the idea of an `unruly' cyborg that breaks down traditional dichotomies is suggested to be female. This strengthens the bond between feminism and the cyborg and supports Haraway's figure of a cyborg as a symbol for feminism, and in particular cyberfeminism.

Feminism, and cyberfeminism in particular, owes many of its current ideas and positions on how women and technology are related to Donna Haraway's figure of a cyborg. Volkart describes Haraway's `Manifesto' as the turning point between feminism and cyberfeminism (2002) and numerous other writers, photographers, directors, etc. have used the idea of the cyborg to illustrate the complex nature between women, technology and the world as a whole. The various manners in which Haraway's figure of a cyborg is taken up by feminists is clearly shown in these online sources.

Jessica's Annotated Webliography

2008-08-31T22:07:00.003+08:00

Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding Question: "From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human".

Looking at various online sources I choose to research the guiding question from the viewpoint that if we continually integrate machines with our bodies when do we stop being human? By filtering through many articles and taking into account those of scholarly standard, I discovered that through reconceptualising the body as a new ‘techno-body’, including the likes of Frankenstein and the Visual Human Project (VHP), the status of human ontology appears to become increasingly complicated.

It is hard to analyse the idea of the body and its analysis of what it means to be human without first attempting to define 'humanness'. On Being Human, by Dr Sam Vaknin argues that the concept of human rests on many assumptions including the belief that men and women are identically human despite obvious differences genetically and environmentally. The online resource focuses on behaviour as an indication of humans as a distinct species acknowledging Frankenstein and other similar 'monsters' as behaving more 'humane' then the humans around them. Vaknin mentions human identity without body and the existence of the soul as separate from and a part of the physical being. Although the review thinks critically concerning what satisfies the definition of personhood, it fails to provide a detailed analysis to support its proposals. However, it makes a good starting point suggesting, "Man was born without a form and can mould and transform - actually, create himself".

It seems pointless in discussing the interplay between human identity and the implications technology has on the boundaries that map our bodily reality without making reference to Donna Haraway. Haraway states that we are all cyborgs, hybrids of machine and organism transgressing the dimensions between human, animal and machine. A Cyborg Manifesto explains that neither biology nor nature is an appropriate measure of what it is to be purely human. Instead, the text assumes we have progressed as a combination of the technical and the organic, distorting the limitations of human classification. From this perception the body is not fixed but open to manipulation, a product of its context. The article would prove most useful in acting as background knowledge for how the human cadaver is constantly redefined by technology, established in the notion of morphing and transforming the physical and cultural self. Although a predominant figure in this research and thus an authoritative voice, Haraway's work is rather overwhelming and difficult to follow. Most notably the text provides a foundation for what the future may hold for our conceptions on what it means to be human.

Andy Miah a lecturer in media, bioethics and cyberculture looks favourably upon technology and its ability to blur our post human future and our post human present. Miah provides examples of transhuman technology advocating that alteration of the human subject, or artificial enhancement must necessarily take place in order to allow man to reach his maximum capacity. Be Very Afraid disregards the thought that humans should be repaired but not enhanced, proposing that the integration of new technologies will shift what is normal and challenge ‘humanness’. The paper embraces 'superhuman' practices such as cosmetic surgery and sport whereby patients and athletes are ambassadors of transhumanism. Miah makes evident that the body is a highly complex issue, addressing ethnical concerns and challenging transhumanism sceptics. Although a rather one-sided text, the article is informative and very effective at highlighting the conflict surrounding the indefinite organism and machine divide.

Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny by Catherine Waldby explains in a simple yet insightful manner the construction of the VHP, or the transformation of the fleshy body in genuine space into a digital body in cyberspace - the supernatural. Waldby discusses how digital technology or machines are currently a subject of fascination as well as anxiety, altering our thoughts on our bodily limits and merging the distinction between the living and the dead. The article tells how moving bodies across the computer screen exercises a power of eternal preservation, noting the benefits as well as the drawbacks of medical technology and the possible outcomes of witnessing the technical reorganisation of the human form. Interestingly, the VHP is associated with the biblical story of the Garden of Eden referring to the Visible Man and Visible Woman as virtual models of Adam and Eve. Considering Waldby is a tertiary teacher specialising in the areas of technology and feminist theory her work presents itself to be reliable and unsurprisingly useful in answering the guiding question. The text expands on the body and its reconstruction by demonstrating the capacity of the internet to dissect and animate the everyday world, including man into a series of data.

Jonathan Marshall is a research fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney. His paper has grown out of his fieldwork, a project in the construction and use of gender online and is thus a relevant and credible resource. The Online Body Breaks Out? confers ways people create and use bodies from within Western cultures both offline and online. Marshall explores the lack of boundaries online that lead to the cyber body being categorised as immaterial in comparison to the offline active body, "We do not see the body while computing, so we don't see its removal". Online communication can thus be considered as body less, therefore redefining human identity as it exists in real life. This perception of online disembodiment presents the potential possibility for human unity with machines and is supported by the representation of minds as software warping the distinction between the computer and the spirit, thought to reflect the essence of the human being. Importantly, the journal article comments on gender and tendency of cyber bodies to elaborate masculinity or femininity to an exaggerated extent in order to render the online body as authentic. Fortunately Marshall provides a simplified conclusion summarising his main ideas which are otherwise expressed in a complex manner.

From the research conducted it appears the body is increasingly perceived and redefined as a limit to human potential and identity with new technologies offering to make the living body more productive, more manipulable and more ambiguous. From Frankenstein to the VHP, all the resources consulted seem to be in agreement with the idea that humans in the present era are a product of the merging of the biological and technological. It appears that the definition of the human - machine boundary is an issue that is broadly discussed and debated online.

Bibliography
Haraway, Donna. 'A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century', in Simians Cyborgs and Woman: The Reinvention of Nature (1991), p.149-181.
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 20 August 2008).

Marshall, Jonathan. 'The Online Body Breaks Out? Ascence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics', in Fibreculture Journal, 1.3, (2004), p.15.
http://www.journal.fibreculture.org/issue3/issue3_marshall.html (accessed 23 August 2008).

Miah, Andy. 'Be Very Afraid: Athletes, Transhuman Ideals and Posthumanity', in Journal of Evolution and Technology, 13.2, (October 2003).
http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/miah.html (accessed 20 August 2008).

Vaknin, Sam. 'On Being Human', p.2.
http://samvak.tripod.com/human.html (accessed 18 August 2008).

Waldby, Catherine. 'Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny'
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html (accessed 22 August 2008).

Annotated Webliography

2008-08-31T19:57:00.004+08:00

Question 1: "Visuality is a domain that Haraway critiques of science in general through what she calls 'the god-trick': the belief that it is possible to see everything from nowhere. Discuss some of the issues of visuality raised by the Visual Human Project."

In the age of the Enlightenment in the Eighteenth century, the greatest philosophers, theorists, scientists and thinkers of the age were consumed by an incessant drive for knowledge, because it was believed that above all things, to see is to know. In contemporary Western society however, we still today continue to be driven strongly by this Enlightenment-esque thirst for knowledge, as ultimately exemplified by the Visual Human Project of the 1990’s: literally the decimation of the physical human form into a digital realm, in the name of medical knowledge. The following Webliography represents a number of differing voices on this matter, each taking issue with the implicit power hierarchies at play within the drive to visualise.

Melissa Conroy's “Seeing with Buddha’s Eyes: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring.”
Although it may appear unusual to be referencing an article referring to a Buddhist film, the author actually takes issue with several concepts highly relevant to the notion of visuality, and draws from Donna Haraway’s body of work to construct a unique and well developed critique of visuality in film and camera. The author states that “all theory is a place of seeing” (Conroy, 2007, para.2), and combines her own understandings on the visuality theory with Haraway’s “god-trick” vision to construct a perceptive reading on the place of gender in the particular film she is analysing. As such, the author deconstructs the film Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring using a significant discussion and analysis of Haraway’s “god trick” in association with cinematic vision inherently being a highly mediated and subjective vision. This relates strongly to issues regarding the perceived scientific objectivity of the Visual Human Project, and voices alternate ideas regarding location and situation as feminine ways of seeing.

R.J. Johnston's “Situated Knowledge”
Ironically, the article “Situated Knowledge”, which describes Donna Haraway’s so-named theory, is here found within a large dictionary-style compendium of human knowledges, covering topics ranging broadly across the spectrum of human self-knowledge, from the scientific and medical to the philosophical and political. The author gives a particularly insightful description (in relatively simple terms) into the concept of “situated knowledge”, and gives an examination of Haraway’s dialogue regarding visuality which scratches just below the surface. Being an encyclopaedia-style article, the extent to which the author critiques Haraway’s theories is limited, and it lacks a dynamic interaction between the article’s author and subject Haraway. That said however, the article does make a strong base point of reference for the reader attempting to understand complexity of the theoretical issues Haraway weaves together.

Patricia MacCormack's “Visual Pleasure/Visual Truth?"
This article gives a highly sophisticated examination of the structures of power implicit in the varying contemporary fields of human self-knowledge, and confronts face-first the (deemed incorrect) assumptions often made about the interconnection of knowledge and visuality. Although the article relies heavily on sophisticated jargon, MacCormack makes several highly relevant points with regards to Haraway’s notion of visuality and makes some strong thought provoking connections to gender, displaying a very confident and developed view of gender with regards to visuality. Building on the old adage that “to see is to believe”, the author intimately dissects Haraway’s concept of visuality in terms of gender difference and biology. MacCormack argues that the very Western concept of “visual truth” is fundamentally linked to social phallocentricity: in terms of visual reproductive biology: the male is seen, but the woman is not (MacCormack, para.4). MacCormack references Haraway’s “all-seeing satellite eye” theory(MacCormack, para.3), and builds upon her “situated knowledge” theories to construct a sophisticated case against the implicit power relations in medical knowledge, paralleling several of the issues regarding visuality raised in the Visible Human Project.

Olson, Gary and Elizabeth Hirsch: "Starting from Marginalized Lives: A Conversation with Sandra Harding"
Olson and Hirsch’s essay critically reviews the work of feminist writer Sandra Harding in comparison to that of contemporary feminist theorist, Donna Haraway. According to the authors, Harding draws heavily on Haraway’s preoccupation with the “god trick”, and in her own work analyses how this consequently shapes the meaning and methods of Western scientific principle. The pair effectively engage with Harding’s main arguments and highlight several key points regarding visuality and the myth of scientific objectivity that resonate strongly with the principle issues raised by the Visible Human Project.

Catherine Waldby's “The Visible Human Project as a Technology of Anatomical Inscription.”
From a scientific perspective the author conducts a thorough and detailed examination of the practical processes involved in the realisation of the Visible Human Project. Waldby first details the procedure of digitalising the human body into a problem of coding (Waldby, 2007, para.1) and then delves into the array of medical capabilities that the digitalised human form as a visual object gives rise to. Whilst the author does not focus a critique on the philosophical implications of the Visual Human Project, the text does appear to consciously provoke some intriguing theoretical questions particularly relevant to Donna Haraway’s feminist discourse of “situated knowledge” and the “god trick.”

The range of sources detailed thus offer a number of alternate perspectives on the notion of visuality, and related theories concerning objectivity and subjectivity. A number of the webliographic sources are informed strongly by Haraway’s pervasive “god-trick” theory, and explore her theories further in order to construct a broader understanding of the issues of control and subjectivity at stake. Ultimately, the sources thus demonstrate that the Visible Human Project is a project located within a very socially and culturally specific time and place. While the project’s purpose to make a “visible” form of knowledge, it (mis)assumes itself to be objective, while it is in fact a contextually-situated and partial knowledge (Conroy, 2007, para.2-6).

Bibliography:
Conroy, Melissa (2007) “Seeing with Buddha’s Eyes: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring.” Journal of Religion and Film. 11(2) <http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol11no2/ConroyBuddha.htm> (22/08/08)

Johnston, R.J. (2000) “Situated Knowledge” in R.J Johnston, Derek Gregory, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts eds. The Dictionary of Human Knowledge. Blackwell, 742-3. <http://books.google.com/books?id=0GxowMfwlkC&pg=PA742&dq=visuality+haraway%27s+%22god+trick%22&sig=ACfU3U2DYY09Nx4TiEnnG9BRK3jaZrhuMA> (27/08/08)

MacCormack, Patricia. “Visual Pleasure/Visual Truth?” in Pleasure, Perversion and Death: Three Lines of Flight for the Viewing Body. <http://www.cinestatic.com/trans-mat/MacCormack/PPD1-3.htm> (28/08/08)

Olson, Gary and Elizabeth Hirsch. (1995) "Starting from Marginalized Lives: A Conversation with Sandra Harding" Women’s Writing Culture. (New York) SUNY Press <http://www.stumptuous.com/comps/olsonhirsch.html> (21/08/08)

Waldby, Catherine (2001) “The Visible Human Project as a Technology of Anatomical Inscription.” <http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/classes/dms/berna/dms434/readings/Waldby1.PDF> (27/08/08)

Webliography

2008-08-31T19:12:00.007+08:00

Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway’s figure of the cyborg has taken on ‘a life of its own’ in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?

The concept of ‘cyborg’ inhabits a broad area of analysis and I was interested to see how it was altered or reinforced from its original context under a feminist reading. Considering the guiding question, I thought it was important to look at what Haraway’s idea of the cyborg initially entailed, and then how these boundaries have been redefined or reclaimed in the twenty-three years since she first wrote about the topic.

Kunzru’s article[1] serves as a useful introduction to the ideas and concepts presented by Haraway. Taking the form of an interview, it presents the reader with a brief overview of the academic’s contribution to, if not conception of, the movement now labeled ‘cyberfeminism’. I think it is important to get a grasp of the essential theories in order to understand the possibilities it presents, i.e. that the primary definitions imposed upon us by gender are open to reconstruction; and that such reconstructions provide a network in which to operate, thus redefine our interactions. This article is useful in that it not only offers an introduction to cyberfeminism, but also reveals how it and Haraway have shaped each other over the years. By highlighting the rapid pace of technological change, Kunzru examines the longevity of the theory.

Having gained a broad overview of the topic via this magazine article[2], I thought it would be useful to incorporate a more scholarly approach to cyborg theory, exploring how Walton[3] links feminism with the concept. She looks at cyborgs in a variety of contexts, from popular culture and postmodern ideology through to queer theory. This provides a much broader perspective as to how the concept of ‘cyborg’ fits in to various ideological disciplines and therefore opens up the scope of analysis for essay material. Although drawing heavily on Haraway[4], I found it valuable that the author focuses on another theorist as the primary focus for the article, as this helps to provide a more balanced overview of the cyborg as a concept, avoiding a unilateral interpretation.

Walton’s focus on the sexual politics of cyborg representations in modern mainstream culture was a particular point of interest for me that guided my area of research towards ‘fembots’. I opted for the first example that came to mind (in the hope it would reflect one lodged prominently in popular consciousness), leading me to Paasonen’s analysis of The Stepford Wives[5] and the concept of cybernetics in media. The author explores an important link between Levin’s sinisterly satirical creation of ‘perfect’ wives and the social conditioning imposed in 1960s America, as analysed by Friedan[6] I believe this reflects how the ‘cyborg’ in popular culture by the 1970s was already heavily informed by feminist theory and gender politics. I would also find it interesting to further explore how the original film version was a horror, whilst the remake took the form of a comedy, and what this represents to the social perception of feminism and gender roles in contemporary culture.

Taking the concept of the cyborg further into the present, I was drawn towards the broader concepts surrounding Haraway’s original definitions of what it meant to be a ‘hybrid’ creature. This led me to Kuni’s article[7] which looks at the reinventions and reconstructions evident in gender politics today, via women such as Orlan, and representations such as Lara Croft. I felt that this article was very comprehensive in its coverage of the diversity of ways that women (and men) are now offered up as cybernetically-informed constructions. Haraway might not have been able to predict the extremes women such as Orlan go to in order to control their corporeal form, but similar techniques are a prominent aspect of modern Western society. Any celebrity magazine will reveal the extent to which surgical enhancements and modifications have become normalised and the implications of this are well-covered terrain for feminist theory. This article also looks into the technological possibilities of the cyborg, via the internet and digital evolution: this is a field that Haraway could only speculate at the future of but one that, of course, is a hugely significant element of the modern day cyborg. This article covers a broad spectrum of complex issues, almost all of them relevant to the guiding question, and would therefore be of significant value to this area of research.

The final choice of article moves away from the themes laid out in my previous choices but I felt it would be fruitful to look at an area that is not immediately obviously linked to the topic, as with the previous choices, but one that nonetheless provides a response to the concept of cyberfeminism.[8] Suicidegirls.com is a site that heralds a redefinition of female beauty aesthetics, claiming to empower the models and invert traditional power constructs associated with pornography. The selection of models is defined by their penchant for body modification, which, I feel, makes them cyborgs: they have adapted, adorned and modified their bodies. I think the site is an interesting contemporary interpretation of the topic and Magnet analyses the feminist credibility of a forum that purports to allow the models the chance to take back the traditionally male ‘gaze’. Importantly, this article explores a theme barely touched upon in the majority of articles I found in my research: that of race and its under-representation in feminist theory as a whole, and particularly that of cyberfeminism.9] The Suicide Girls website is notably lacking women of racial (or physical) diversity and I think this is an important area for analysis. There is a restrictive ideal running through popular interpretations of the modern cyborg, despite its initial promise of almost infinite possibility. This physical conformity to traditional notions of Westernised beauty is evident in the cosmetic perfection of the Stepford Wives; the search for unattainable perfect by Orlan; the grossly exaggerated dimensions of Lara Croft. This is perhaps one of the most disappointing outcomes of the cyborg and one that warrants further analysis by cyberfeminists.

I feel that this selection of online sources would be an appropriate starting point for the proposed essay question. I used a combination of academic and ‘general’ search engines (Google) and, in sifting through the results to make my choices, found a fascinating range of voices, contexts and approaches. It is interesting to see how the shared themes running through the articles were approached respectively and I found it significant to note that Haraway was referenced almost ritualistically, highlighting her unequalled influence in this field.

[1] Kunzru, Hari, “You Are Cyborg” Wired (02/1997) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html, accessed 26/08/2008

[2]Although not a scholarly, peer-reviewed document, I believe the magazine article represents a valid perspective on this topic. There is an accessibility and difference in intent associated with such a medium.

[3]Walton, Heather, “The Gender of the Cyborg” Theology and Sexuality (2004) http://www.mediafire.com/?o897cam14gc, accessed 26/08/2008

[4] Haraway, Donna, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, in D. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women, London: Free Association Books, 1991

[5] Paasonen, Susanna, “Best Wives Are Artefacts? Popular Cybernetics and Robot Women in the 1970s” http://media.utu.fi/affective/paasonen.pdf, 2001, accessed 26/08/2008

[6]Friedan, Betty, The Feminine Mystique, 2^nd ed. New York: Laurel, 1983

[7]Kuni, Verena, “Mythical Bodies II. Cyborg configurations as formation of (self-) creation in the imagination space of technological (re) production (II): The promises of monsters and posthuman anthropomorphisms” http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/cyborg_bodies/mythical_bodies_II/scroll/, accessed 26/08/2008

[8]Magnet, Shoshana, “Feminist sexualities, race and the internet: an investigation of suicidegirls.com” New Media & Society (2007) http://www.mediafire.com/?ieah1fscgbi, accessed 26/08/2008

[9]I emphasise the use of the term “under-representation” rather than omission. I’m scared to offend bell hooks.

Tutorial Presentation by James

2008-08-31T17:57:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone! I looked at Deborah Lupton’s article ‘The Embodied Computer/User’ this week. As this is the first post of this nature, I wasn’t too sure which way to attack it. Basically I’m just going to highlight a few of the major ideas, then present my interpretations, and finally bring up a few points for discussion. Hopefully this format will reduce all the usual anxieties of the typical awkward tutorial environment that I’m sure we’re all familiar with. So enjoy, and remember- all feedback is welcome (criticisms/disagreements included).

Major points/topics

Lupton is interested in the way humans interact with computers in the modern era, focusing on the relationship that she believes is symbiotic; “users invest certain aspects of themselves and their cultures when ‘making sense’ of their computers, and their use of computers may be viewed as contributing to individuals’ images and experiences of their selves and their bodies”. The article explores increasing concerns of hacking, cybercrime and general internet security on this relationship.

The disembodied computer user: Refers to the utopian ideal that humans may escape the body through computers/technology. This is exemplified using Haraway’s cyborg theory (which I’m sure we are all familiar with by now). Unlike Haraway though, Lupton sees the notion of the cyborg as “a predominantly masculine body, as contrasted with the seeping, moist bodies of women”.

The hackers body: Here Lupton outlines the typical vision on the computer obsessed human, or what she calls ‘hackers’; “invariably male, usually in their late adolescence or early adulthood, and are typically portrayed as social misfits and spectacularly physically unattractive: wearing thick, unflattering spectacles, overweight, pale, pimply skin, poor fashion sense”. She also suggests that a ‘hackers’ body is constructed through the computers they use rather than their physical attributes (mentioned above). Lupton calls these people addicts’, which places them in stark contrast to the “rationalized, contained body of the masculine cyborg”.

The humanized computer: Lupton notes that in a peculiar paradox, while the computer culture often denies the human body, computers are normally portrayed as being like a human. She uses a number of marketing campaigns by computer countries to illustrate this point. Another point of interest is how computers, like humans, suffer from isolation when they are not linked to a network of other computers or the internet.

The frightening computer: This part suggests that the reason computers are portrayed as having human qualities is to reduce peoples (particularly adults) angst about technology. While technology is ever-present in modern society, people do exhibit fears about an over-reliance on technology and its “capacity to consume us”.

Risky computing: The utopian vision, when it comes to human/computer discourse is that we all be connected to the internet and thus be able to access places/people on levels that were previously unattainable. However, the emergence of ‘hackers’ and ‘cybercrime’ has interrupted this dream with more and more people becoming wary of the internet.

Lupton proposes that “the relationship between users and PCs is similar to that between lovers or close friends” and “the ways in which we depict computers as humanoid, having emotions and embodiment, is evidence of this intimacy”.

My Thoughts

Overall I found this article quite an interesting read as I felt it was of more relevance to me than the other articles we have read. I identified with the way the author described her relationship with her computer, which “usually makes itself overtly known when something goes wrong”. I have encountered numerous problems with various computers over the years and found myself cursing them like I would an enemy. I suppose at times like this you really realize how much you rely on the old PC.

Another point I had not really thought about, that she brought up, was the obsolescence of handwriting in my life. I rarely put pen to paper these days, and when I do it seems like a foreign action to me. This is not because I do no work, it’s because 90% of my academic musings are typed on a computer.

I did find Lupton’s discussion of the cyborg body as being more of a masculine being as problematic. Maybe the author has been watching too much Terminator but personally, I believe the cyborg should not be constricted to being more pertinent to one sex.

Also, I found her description of a ‘hacker’ as a mass overgeneralization. Though fiction seems to show a similar portrayal of a ‘computer nerd’ as Lupton describes, I think in real life it is a different story. I’m sure there are many ‘hackers’ out there that have never felt the need to use Clearasil, pump iron in the gym and scrub up quite nicely on a Saturday night (without out their tick-framed glasses).

Your Thoughts?

I don’t want to waffle on too much. I’ve found that in using this environment to do a presentation you have a lot more time to articulate your thoughts, which is dangerous because you could end up writing thousands of words and boring everyone out in blogger land. So I’ll open it up to you guys now, here are some starters:

- Do you agree that Lupton’s ideas about ‘cyborgs’ conflict with those of Haraway?

- Do you agree that we as humans do share an intimate relationship with our computers? Or is Lupton over-analyzing this?

- Have you felt anxious about technologies ability to consume us?

- Are we over reliant on computers?

Thanks for your time, James.

Webliography Q.2

2008-08-31T15:59:00.000+08:00

2. Webliography

“ From Frankestein to Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit what it means to be human”

From Mary Shelley’s science fiction novel Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project is evident that the society has already for a long time been fascinated by the limits of humaness. However, I feel that it is a discussion which has been reserved mainly for the people of special interest such as medicine or other advanced technologies. Therefore it is interesting to note that themes like post humanism and cyborgs have become relevant to us all, as the culture is slowly adapting more and more digitalised ways of life. The five articles I’m going to be reviewing, essentially argue that limits humaness are questioned and reinterpret in many different ways. For example one of my readings state that the traditional boundaries between the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ seem to be obscuring.(Ozay, 2007) I would like to develop the distinction between artificial and natural in my essay, and examine it through some interesting examples found through my research.

Sam Ozay’s blog[1] works as a great introductory text, when starting the discussion on post humanism and cyborgs. He reviews many acclaimed works on this field, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. He also mentions an Australian performance artist Stellarc, who “makes use of new technologies to enhance the capabilities and durability of the human body.”(Ozay 2007) Ozay argues that artists such as him do not seem to concern themselves with the question what it is to be a human in opposition to those who believe that humans are a composition of mind, body and soul. I think this argument could lead my discussion through my essay, as it is evident that the cybernetics, biotechnology and nanotechnoloy hold countless possibilities for human race, but at the same time cause serious concern of the ethics and boundaries of humanism.

Andy Miah’s article critically assesses Prof. Gunter Von Hagen’s exhibition ‘Body Worlds’ and the public autopsy made in the UK in 2002. [2] Miah criticises the public autopsy and the whole concept of ‘Body Worlds’ claiming that it had missed its educational purpose by making the event commercial and grotesque. Even if the autopsy was supposed to bring people closer with modern medical procedures, it was “presented as 19th century’s freak show, and broadcasted as a prime time reality television.” (Miah 2003) The article interested me especially through my personal experience of the ‘Body World’ Exhibition, and I think that it would offer an interesting point of view regarding the discussion of humanness and the value of human body after death. Does being human stop when we die, and what is the relationship between humans and their bodies? Miah describes this relationship intriguingly; “the transformation of the body…inside out by von Hagens provided a means for re-engaging with our subdued curiosity about identifying what is grotesque about being human…”(Miah 2003) In addition, it would be interesting to compare von Hagen’s ‘performance’ with the Visible Human Project.

A chapter in ‘Cyborg Citizen’ tells a fascinating story about two university students, who live their lives as cyborgs.[3] They literally have computers attached to them, and through these ‘wearable computers’ they are in constant connection to the internet. In Gray’s words; “their senses are simultaneously accessed in both worlds.”(Gray 2001, p.9) Gray talks about an era in which machines are becoming real extensions of our ‘organic’ human bodies. It would be interesting to examine the idea of machines and humans intertwining, based on Gray’s arguments such as “soon it will be impossible to tell where human ends and machine starts.”(Gray 2001, p.9) Gray’s essay concentrates on the social contradictions that post human possibilities cause in different organizations, such as cyborgologists and the Church. I feel that this chapter from Gray’s book would work as relevant for my discussion concerning the interpretation and prejudices of human and machine in the modern society.

Continuing the theme introduced above, I would use the next article I am reviewing as a source for deepening my research on post humanism. Nick Bostrom’s essay gives an overwhelming scenario of what it would be like to be a post human.[4] Defining post humanism as “ being as one who has capacities ( in health, emotion or cognition) in a degree unattainable by any current human being unaided by new technology,”(Bostrom 2005, p.6) he argues that being post human would be a very good thing. He claims that many post human qualities, such as better health and higher intelligence, are already desirable in the society. It would be useful to look at Bostrom’s description of post humanist qualities and think how they match those desires and values we already have regarding our bodies. Bostrom’s essay examines the concept of post humanism excessively, and he seems to be passionate about his subject. I think his essay and possibly also other material on his website would provide a good basis for developing an argument of for example the already existing desires to become a post human.

When talking about the limits of humanness, it would also be relevant to consider online communities and the graphical ‘avatar’ embodiments in virtual worlds. Paul McIlvenny’s essay focuses on the relations between identity and embodiment in intercultural cyberspace.[5] It is important to think that while virtual world are a form of human communication, it does not happen in the visual form of one self. This raises several important questions, which are demonstrated in McIlvenny’s essay. For example, do race, gender and nationality become insignificant when one represent him/herself as a virtual avatar? Furthermore, one might ask how the embodiment shapes one’s identity and social interactions with other similarly embodied. McIlvenny examines these questions by including some extracts from online communication between the participants and suggests that it is common that the online players want to resemble something different compared to their offline identities. I feel that McIlvenny’s essay would be useful in thinking the possible changes that the cyberspace and online communities have created in relation to humanness and how virtual reality is pushing the limits of humanness.

After reviewing my five articles, I find that there is a certain genre of literature, which has not yet reached to level of popular culture. However, all of the themes and arguments raised from the readings relate or are starting to relate to the everyday life of humans. From the Body Worlds to Avatars I feel that there are so many aspects on this discussion but in the end, it is nevertheless evident that wether we want to or not, we may find ourselves in “a submissive position in the virtual world, in which we have no choice but to allow technology to determine the fate of human behaviour and its ultimate existence.” (Ozay 2007)

References

Ozay, Sam (2007) ‘Cyborgs: Post human futures.’ Log A Blog (21st September 2007)
http://samoz.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/cyborgs-posthuman-futures/
(accessed 26th August 2008)

Miah, Andy (2003) ‘Dead bodies for the Masses: The British Autopsy& The Aftermath.’ http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=363
(accessed 22nd August 2008)

Gray, Chris H. (2001) ‘The possibilities of Post humanism’ in Cyborg citizen: Politics in the Post human Age, Routledge, London pp. 9-12
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2Mw5srL_bAUC&printsec=toc&dq=posthuman&lr=&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
(accessed 22nd August 2008)

Bostrom, Nick (2006) ‘Why I want to be a post human when I grow up’ pp.1-25
http://www.nickbostrom.com/posthuman.pdf
(accessed 26th August 2008)

McIlvenny, Paul (1999) ‘Avatars R Us? Discourses of Community and Embodiment in Intercultural Cyberspace’ Journal of Intercultural Communication Vol. 1
http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr1/mcilvenny.htm
(accessed 27th August 2008)

[1] http://samoz.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/cyborgs-posthuman-futures/

[2] http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=363

[3]http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2Mw5srL_bAUC&printsec=toc&dq=posthuman&lr=&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

[4] http://www.nickbostrom.com/posthuman.pdf

[5] http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr1/mcilvenny.htm

Webliography "From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what ot means to be human."

2008-08-31T13:25:00.003+08:00

Technological advances have changed and influenced many aspects of our lives. Medicine and science have advanced considerably, producing the possibilities of prosthetic limbs, cochlear implants and IVF treatments just to name a few. Such changes to the human body have given rise to the use of the term ‘cyborg,’ a mixture of both human and non-human properties. The internet has also influenced a wide range of debate regarding online identities and virtualisation, raising the question of physical bodies and the possibility of our identities being disassociated from our physical selves when we go online. The following references are relevant to such topics, and to the idea that “the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.”

Frank Biocca’s article is concerned with the effects of changing technology (specifically online) on the human mind and identity. Biocca discusses “how virtual reality interfaces are evolving to embody the user progressively.”[1] He refers to the body as a “communication device”(Biocca, 1997) and discusses how with changing technology the body is able to work in conjunction with the computer system to transmit information, defining ‘Progressive Embodiment’ as “steadily advancing immersion of sensorimotor channels to computer interfaces through a tighter and more pervasive coupling of the body to interface sensors and displays.” (Biocca 2007) He goes on to list the human body’s sensors and the number of sensors that computer systems are able to connect with, suggesting that new advances in technology are directed at interacting with these sensors. This can be seen for instance, in the Nintendo Wii, where the system is responsive to the user’s movement, which Biocca refers to as “motor engagement development.” (Biocca, 2007) He then goes on to discuss the use of an online persona and “the effect of embodiment in the virtual environment on mental modes of the self.” (Biocca, 2007) Biocca addresses issues concerning the integration of body and computer and the resulting effects on our identities.

Gillet’s article is concerned with ethical issues that arise in terms of medical procedures resulting in a ‘cyborg’ being. The question of when a person stops being human after such operations is asked, “what change in an object results in a metaphysical difference so that we have a different object?”[2] This article is particularly useful as the author has used case studies as examples to explain their point, from vision restoration to personality changes. After stating each situation, Gillet has come to the conclusion that “we are less concerned when the cybernetic components of the person seem peripheral or somewhat incidental to their psychological identity or character.” (Gillet, 2006) The author suggests that if the modifications to the ‘cyborg’ have not affected it’s ability to behave in human-like ways, we are less likely to have moral concerns, “our conception (metaphysical if you like) of what a human being is derived from the beings with whom we share these formative and sustaining interactions.”(Gillet, 2006) Here, we can see the changes that are made to the body and how this affects our categorisation as human.

Mette Bryld’s article is particularly interesting as it shows the integration of technological practises into everyday life. Bryld reviews two children’s books or “New Origin Stories,”[3] as they are referred to here. These books have been especially designed for children conceived through IVF. The author states that 1 out of every 38 children born in Denmark is an IVF child,(Bryld, 2000) therefore such books are needed to show these “cyborg children”(Bryld (2000) the science behind their conception and to help them understand their procedure with the realisation that they are not the only ones. The two books that are studied in this article take two very different perspectives. The first, is focussed on the procedure itself, while the second is more focussed around a couple who are trying to have a child. The need for the existence of such books shows the expansion of the definition of what it means to be ‘normal’ as the popularity of procedures such as IVF continue to grow. Such procedures raise questions and ethical issues around being human and what is ‘natural.’

Andy Miah discusses the existence of what he refers to as “transhumans”[4] in sport and the pressure that is placed on athletes to transcend what is known to be human in order to achieve sporting credibility. He argues against the idea that “transhumanism is not a desirable philosophy for society to embrace”(Miah, 2003) but it a concept completely relevant to today’s society. The article goes on to discuss medical transhuman procedures and the indistinctive boundary between repair and enhancement,(Miah, 2003) yet another ethical issue in regards to cyborg beings and their ability to be defined as human. Miah is concerned with the athlete’s body in particular and refers to them as “ambassadors of transhumanism,”(Miah, 2003) concluding that in many sporting situations technology is being used to better the athlete’s performance and “human and posthuman is blurring.(Miah, 2003)”

John Suler’s article is concerned with who we are in cyberspace and the suggestion that we as users can choose who we want to be online. This suggests to me that our identity can be disassociated from our bodies giving us a virtual identity. Suler believes that “the multiple aspects of one's identity may be dissociated, enhanced, or integrated online,”[5] meaning that we can choose to completely hide our ‘real’ identity, add to it or choose to become someone else entirely. He points out the ambiguity of an online environment as you can never know if someone’s online identity is the same as the one connected to their physical body. Suler questions which one of these is the ‘true’ identity and that despite popular belief this may not be the one that you “present to others and consciously experience in your day-to-day living.”(Suler, 2002) He argues that these “fantasy”(Suler, 2002) identities can in fact reveal a lot about the user’s beliefs and desires.

The articles I have chosen give a wide range of information on the topic of the body as being “continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” The information I have chosen is diverse, covering aspects such as the integration and relationship between humans and computers, ‘cyborg’ ethics, IVF treatments, ‘cyborgs’ in sport and embodiment and identity online. The sources discuss how technology is impacting society’s views on what is natural and what is human identity.

[1] Biocca, F, “The Cyborg’s Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments.” In Journal of Computer Mediated Communication Vol. 3, No. 2 (September 1997) http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue2/biocca2.html (Accessed 2 October 2008)

[2] Gillet, G. “Cyborgs and Moral Identity.” In Journal of Medical Ethics 2006, 32. Pg 79 (2006) http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/32/2/79.pdf Accessed 2 October 2008

[3] Mette Bryld, “Cyborg Babies and Cybergods: The Baby Makers' New Origin Stories” for the 4th European Feminist Research Conference, Bologna, (28 September-1 October 2000) http://www.women.it/cyberarchive/files/bryld.htm Accessed 2 October 2008

[4] Andy Miah, “Be Very Afraid: Cyborg Athletes, Transhuman Ideals and Posthumanity,” in The Journal of Evolution and Technology 13 (2) – (October, 2003) http://playthegame.org/Knowledge%20Bank/Articles/Be%20Very%20Afraid_Cyborg%20Athletes.aspx (Accessed 2 October 2008)

[5] John Suler, “Identity Management in Cyberspace,” Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4, 455-460 (2002) http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html (Accessed October 2 2008)

Feminism, Feminists and Cyborg intersect (Question 3)

2008-08-31T12:20:00.002+08:00

The only constant in life is change. Donna Haraway’s figure of the cyborg is no exception to constant change in a world where technological changes and developments are occurring everyday. Feminists have taken up the cyborg figure ambiguously. The cyborg, in this sense, has not taken on an ‘independent’ life of its own rather the cyborg has become a sphere of cyberfeminism. Overall, the linking of the cyborg to cyberfeminism suggests that within feminism the cyborg has not taken up ‘a life of its own’.
In order to investigate the ways in which feminists have taken up the cyborg figure, a definition of feminism was required. Norwegian Thomas Gramstad, in his article ‘What is Feminism?’ provided a succinct definition of feminism, defining it as both a ‘social movement’ and a ‘set of intellectual positions’ (Gramstad, 2000). Gramstad’s definition indicated the breadth and diversity of feminist ideology. The brief, concise article was first published during 2000 in the New Zealand paper Free Radical, which publishes articles on-line and in print. The credibility of Free Radical was endorsed by the editor’s public achievements and scholarly training pertaining to the field of journalism.
In light of Gramstad’s definition of feminism, sources indicated that the cyborg figure had been taken up by feminists in a number of ways (Gramstad, 2000). American feminist and university lecturer, Faith Wilding, exemplified this in ‘Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?’ analysing how feminism and cyberfeminism intersect (Wilding). Thus offering samples of various feminist perspectives on cyberfeminism and access to differing views, allowed insight into how feminists have taken up the figure of the cyborg. Consequently the cyborg figure has been turned into another division of feminism, namely cyberfeminism. The key point of Wilding’s analysis was how the cyborg and subsequent cyberfeminism suggested the potential to create ‘new images of women’ (Wilding). Wilding’s article was published online by a feminist website which did not list the publication date. However, the sources referred to in the article date no later than 1997 suggesting the article was published within the last ten years.
Wilding’s argument also highlighted a lack of collaboration between popular culture, science fiction and academic writing which implied that the cyborg figure has taken on multiple meanings. Consequently indicating how the cyborg has not taken up ‘a life of its own’ because it has been interpreted in several ways even within feminist writing.
According to Yousuf Dhamee, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore, the cyborg figure has become a feminist approach for strengthening female control over nature (Dhamee, 2005). Although Dhamee focused on the intersection of feminism and science fiction the article made a significant point, the cyborg acts ‘as a form of identity for women’ (Dhamee, 2005). Hence the cyborg figure has not taken on ‘a life of its own’ within feminism but for feminists. As within feminism, the cyborg figure has been categorised under cyberfeminism. In order to explore this possibility further more feminist sources needed consideration.
‘Cyborg body geocoded. world’ focused on the cyborg figure within the feminist geography of the digital age, specifically how the cyborg figure interacts with the digital landscape (Wilson). Matthew Wilson, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington published the article on-line post 2005 (no publication date was cited) with an extensive bibliography. The article was instrumental in highlighting how ambiguously the cyborg figure has been taken up by feminists.
Furthermore the article was published by a male, albeit another American, feminist making it an unusual contribution in a field typically dominated by women. There was an element of concern, however, since the article was published on Wilson’s personal website. Yet since Wilson has academic qualifications and wrote the article whilst undertaking a PhD it suggests that the article is at least written at an appropriate standard for research use at a university level.
In light of the feminist geographical discourse, a brief anthropological understanding of feminists and the cyborg needed to be considered in order to show just how diverse the cyborg figure has been taken up by feminists. ‘Cyborg Anthropolgy’ revealed that for feminists, the cyborg figure represented the potential to create new categories, which could overcome the bind of the ‘Western, middle classes’ where feminism has been rife and potentially applied to third world feminism (Dumit & Davis-Floyd, 2001, p.2-3). The article was co-authored by established academics, for instance, Joseph Dumit is an associate professor and Robbie Davis-Floyd a research fellow with the University of Texas Austin. The credibility of the authors reinforced the scholarly authority with which the article analyses the variety of ways feminism has taken up the cyborg figure. ‘Cyborg Anthropology’ was also fundamental in suggesting areas for further research.
The annotated sources indicated the breadth in which the cyborg figure has been taken up by feminists. Hence the cyborg figure has not taken up an independent ‘…life of its own’. The dominating theme of the sources, the diverse ways in which the cyborg figure has been taken up by feminists, highlighted how the cyborg has not taken up ‘a life of its own’. For the cyborg figure to have taken up ‘a life of its own’ a singular approach would be required. Instead the diversity of the sources reflected the ambiguity with which the cyborg figure has been taken up. On-line sources did however, offer access to materials which might not have otherwise been discovered.

References:

Dhamee, Yousuf (2005) ‘Cyborgs and Feminists.’ http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/ydcyborg.html
(Accessed 19 August 2008)

Dumit, Joseph & Davis-Floyd, Robbie (2001) ‘Cyborg Anthropology.’ http://www.davis-floyd.com/Articles/CyborgAnthropology.pdf
(Accessed 21 August 2008)

Gramstad, Thomas (2000) ‘What is Feminism?’ Free Radical 40, http://folk.uio.no/thomas/po/whatisfeminism.html (Accessed 18 August 2008)

Wilding, Faith (date not cited) ‘Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?’ http://www.obn.org/reading_room/writings/html/where.html
(Accessed 21 August 2008)

Wilson, Matthew W. (no date cited) ‘Cyborg body geocoded. world.’ http://students.washington.edu/mwarrenw/research_cyborg.html
(Accessed 25 August 2008)

Webliography Question 2

2008-08-31T11:10:00.007+08:00

“From Frankenstein to the Visible Human project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss critically.

Although viewings of such movies as Blade Runner and I, Robot have made me aware of such anxieties about an over reliance on technology, upon conducting research for this project I realised there is a lot more to it than one may think. I did my research based on the idea that I would approach this question by looking at what it is to be human, then look at the various arguments of transhumanists vs. bioconservatives. I typically favour using the libraries search engine to scan through scholarly journals, which is the method I used predominantly here. However, I found ‘Google’ and ‘Google Scholar’ helpful also.

In addressing this question, I first wanted to determine exactly what it is to be human.Russel Blackford's article[1] was very insightful and used similar terminology to a lot of the readings for this unit. Whilst the beginning of the article was not so helpful, concentrating more on the distinction between humans and other animals, Blackford then turns his attention to how ‘cyborgisation’, ‘mutation’ and ‘AI’ (artificial intelligence) will affect our position as a morally superior human race. Echoing Haraway’s sentiments, Blackford feels we are all becoming cyborgs and mutants in one way or another. He outlines the two schools of thought on the matter (transhumanists vs. bioconservatives), using a debate he attended to illustrate various points made by each side. Blackford himself seems to be a conservative transhumanist, claiming that as our reliance on technology increases our status as fully moral beings will not be compromised; we will become cyborgs or mutants that will still be capable of reason, emotion, logic etc. Whilst he may seem somewhat relaxed he does alert the reader to the notion of social injustice regarding the distribution of ability enhancing technology and warns that there is a possibility of the development of conscious, non-human intelligences. This article provides a good first point of contact for the guiding question as it provides one interpretation of being human, and then explains why we are not endangering ourselves by relying more on technology. The article was also strengthened by the fact that it provided two views on the subject and was written by a reputable intellectual.

I was very fortunate to come across this article by Megan Stern[2] as it is more or less a 25-page answer to the guiding question. As such, I could write a very detailed summary of the article however I will endeavour to outline the points that would best answer the guiding question. Using Gunter Von Hagen’s Body Worlds exhibition (which we discussed in the first tutorial), Stern points out the general disdain the general public has had towards such public viewings of ‘medicalized bodies’. She explains this in terms of utopian and dystopian medicine. Basically, the utopian discourse believes good health is a result of improved technology and manipulation of the human body. Later in the article, the Visible Human Project is used as an example of a result of the utopian scientific vision. Alternatively, a dystopian view sees medicinal technology as highly invasive, and something that poses a threat to human integrity and identity; in other words it reminds us of our limits as human beings. Stern cites Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a work that reflects such anxieties about scientific and technological progress of the time it was written and ultimately, deems it a dystopian text. There is much more to the article than what is written above, but certainly if I was to write a lengthy essay on this topic, I would consult this piece first due to its comprehensive nature and the fact that it includes texts I am familiar with.

This article by Andy Miah[3] was a departure from the previous two as the author wrote in an argumentative manner, heavily favouring technology and promoting the way it aids human beings. Miah believes that modern society is overly sceptical of technology and too pessimistic when it comes to the future of human/technology relations. Instead he adopts a more utopian approach to medicine, citing plastic surgery and the treatment of some sporting injuries as ways in which human beings have benefited greatly from modern medicine. What I found most interesting about this article was how Miah was able to use the example of how many sporting injuries are treated with rather invasive technologies which leave a lot of sportsmen and women with non-organic body parts (aka cyborgs). Subsequently, he suggests that transhumanism is experiencing a process of normalisation. This article is relevant to the question because it provides yet another example of how we, as humans, are being reminded of our limitations. Furthermore, it provides a strong argument for the refusal of anxieties geared towards technology and it’s place in modern medicine. The fact that this article also appears in a credible journal also implies the argument is backed by a trustworthy author.

I was searching through some forums and I noticed a lot of debate over an article written by Paul Lauritzen[4]. Wanting to see what all the fuss was about, I eventually found the article and read through it. Though it uses more scientific/medical jargon, Lauritzen is actually a renowned ethicist. Up to this point I had looked at the guiding question from a theoretical approach mainly focussing on those for and against the increased use of technology in medicine. Lauritzen calls for a broader perspective when it comes to stem cell research. Traditionally, debate has revolved around issues of autonomy, informed consent and commodification, but the author thinks given modern developments people should now consider concerns about embodiment, species boundaries and human nature. What follows is an intricate and, at times, confusing presentation of these issues. Lauritzen does include a discussion of such works as Francis Fukuyama’s Our Posthuman Future which I had experienced elsewhere in my research. Though at times confusing, and a little too technical for my knowledge, I still feel this article could prompt discussion as to how and why biotechnologies are seen as threatening to bioconservatives.

Nick Bostrom is a Philosophy Professor at Oxford University. In this article[5] he states that by making people aware of what he calls ‘posthuman dignity’, many peoples’ moral disagreements with human enhancements will be eradicated. The articles great strength is that it presents the authors argument in a clear and understandable way. Of particular note was the concise explanation of transhumanists and bioconservatives, and the major authorities on these schools of thought. His discussion of why posthumanism scares people is of direct pertinence to the guiding question as it addresses the notion of humans being reminded of their limits. A new idea, which has not been encountered elsewhere, was that humans generally feel degraded by posthuman technology because it may frame them as incapable or inferior. Bostrom’s ideas seem to be valued by other intellectuals in this field as this paper was chosen for a journal on the best bioethics papers of the last two decades.

REFERENCES

1. Blackford, Russel (2003) ‘Mutants, Cyborgs, AI & Andriods’ in Meanjin. 63 (1) http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/blackford20030301/ [22 August 2008].

2. Stern, Megan (2006) ‘Dystopian Anxieties Versus Utopian Ideals: Medicine from Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project and Body Worlds’ in Science as Culture. 15 (1)

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&bquery=(AU+(+%22stern%22+))+and+(TI+(+%22dystopian%22+%22anxieties%22+))&type=1&site=ehost-live [22 August 2008].

3. Miah, Andy (2003) ‘Be Afraid: Cyborg Athletes, Trnashuman Ideals & Posthumanity’ in Journal of Evolution and Technology. 13 http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/miah.html [23 August 2008].

4. Lauritzen, Paul (2005) ‘Stem Cells, Biotechnology, and Human Rights: Implications for a Posthuman Future’ in The Hastingsd Centre Report. 35 (2) http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/stable/3527760?cookieSet=1

[23 August 2008].

5. Bostrom, Nick (2005) ‘In Defense of Posthuman Dignity’ in Bioethics. 19 (3) http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/dignity.html [24 August 2008].

Critically Annotated Webliography QU: 2

2008-08-29T12:12:00.004+08:00

“From ‘Frankenstein’ to ‘The Visible Human Project’, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss critically.

In order to deliver an accurate response to this task it is necessary to establish a universal understanding of the concepts of ‘body’ and ‘human’. The Cambridge online dictionary (CoD) defines ‘body’ as the ‘whole physical structure that forms a person or animal’ (CoD accessed 26.08.08, 11.32). In addition, the concise definition of ‘human’ is ‘a man, woman or child...typical of people’ (CoD accessed 26.08.08, 11.35). Detailing the body as the ‘physical structure’ of an individual eliminates a vast array of alternative elements that equally contribute to the creation of a human. Neglecting such aspects as the soul and internal being ensures that the notion of body limits the conception of a human. Furthermore the physical element of a body should no longer be identified as the sole descriptive of a human as exemplified by ‘The Visible Human Project’. One does not need to be in possession of a physical being in order to be labelled a human as Joseph Paul Jernigan’s digitalised statistics confirm.

In concurrence with the notion of the physical being as unnecessary are Nettleton and Watson with their text ‘The Body in Everyday Life’ (1998). The two academics suggest that the body is becoming ‘reconceptualised’ (1998:5) and is retracting from its state of fixity within nature. It is apparently emerging as a boundary concept, bridging the dichotomy of physical and technological. Thus the text suggests that the only viable entity to satisfy the role of such a combiner is Donna Haraway’s cyborg, defined as a ‘hybrid of machine and organism’ (1998:5). Giddens (as cited in Nettleton and Watson 1998) supports the theory of a changing bodily form. He argues that the body was once ‘a given (1998:6) in that there was a standardised limited conception. However individuals’ bodies are now items readily available for transformation thus not limiting to the notion of human, as both bodies and humans can be reconstituted into diverse formations.

Furthering the theme of bodies being constructed into varying, non-natural forms is the contemporary exemplar of Thomas Beatie the ‘pregnant man’ (The Times March 26 2008). The Times online covered the story of transgendered man Beatie whose body was previously that of a woman. Through scientific intervention Beatie was able to emancipate himself from the constrictions of his female body and obtain a sense of self assurance as a male. Further scientific phenomena enabled Beatie to artificially inseminate himself due to his retention of female reproductive organs. Thus emerges a pregnant man. Such a story raises copious debate surrounding the ethics of artificial insemination; humans can now be partly created external to the body. Thus is the body edging towards gradual extinction? In direct relation to the focal issue of this essay the body does appear to provide limitations in being human. From an alternative perspective one can assess the relation of body to feeling human which in turns constitutes being human. One could argue that for Beatie, feeling human was synonymous with actively participating in society in the body that felt natural; his female body didn’t feel natural. Thus for Beatie to feel human, therefore be human it was necessary to transcend the limitations of his physical being.

An alternative source is that written by Gane (2006), entitled ‘When we have never been human, what is to be done?: Interview with Donna Haraway’. The interview includes details on the three boundary breakdowns discussed in ‘The Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’ (Haraway 1984). In relation to the afore mentioned idea of transcending the boundaries of one’s body, Haraway identifies how it is possible to collapse the boundaries between humans and separate entities such as animals and machines thus defying the notion of bodily limitations. Haraway argues that with the concept of the cyborg she attempted to ‘rethink species’ (2006:144) thus the mergence of humans with animals, machines and with the binary of physical versus non-physical. Thus it could be argued that there are not limitations with the body in terms of it restricting the nature of being human, yet perhaps there are errors within the definition of human.

Finally, continuing with Haraway’s theme of eliminating the boundary between human and machine is Leaver’s article ‘“Your appeal to my humanity is pointless”: the Borg and Radical Performativity in Star Trek’ (2002). Leaver argues how the Borg Queen’s torso and head detached from her lower body is a challenge to the ‘coherence and borders of the human body’ (2002). Traditional human bodies are that of a complete organic being, however if we are all cyborgs as Haraway claims then perhaps alternative notions of what it is to be human need to be considered? Is the boundary between organic and technological realms increasingly blurred?

Thus in conclusion, it can be identified that the body does prove to be limiting in terms of attaining complete humanity however such limitations can be transcended within the modern technological era, exemplified by the transgendered pregnant man. With such ability for transcendence it could be suggested that the definition of human needs to be reconsidered in order to correlate with the ever developing social and scientific world.

Reference List
Bone, J. (March 26 2008) ‘Thomas Beatie, a married man who used to be a woman, is pregnant with a baby girl’. The Times online.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3628860.ece (Accessed 27.08.08, 9.48.)

Gane, N. (2006) ‘When we have never been human, what is to be done?: Interview with Donna Haraway’. Theory, Culture, Society 23, 7-8, 135-158.
http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/23/7-8/135 (Accessed 26.08.08, 13.56.)

Leaver, T. (2002) ‘“Your appeal to my humanity is pointless”: the Borg and Radical Performativity in Star Trek’. Outskirts: feminisms along the edge 9. http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/outskirts/archive/volume9/leaver (Accessed 25.08.08, 15.45.)

Nettleson, S. and Watson, T. (1998) The Body in Everyday Life. New York: Routledge.
http://books.google.com/books?id=m8_u-v4knKQC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA1&ots=23CHeFxWRw&dq=Forms+of+Technological+Embodiment:+Reading+the+Body+in+Contemporary+Culture&lr=&sig=ACfU3U0l8qtg77qy_BgiV3z5LWNBsOCSMg#PPA5,M1 (Accessed 26.08.08, 12.31.)

The Cambridge online Dictionary. UK: Cambridge University Press 2008.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=38379&dict=CALD : Definition of ‘human’.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=8532&dict=CALD : Definition of ‘body’. (Accessed 26.08.08, 11.32.)

Question 1 - Critical Annotated Webliography

2008-08-28T21:24:00.014+08:00

1. Visuality is a domain that Haraway critiques of science in general through what she calls ‘the god-trick’: the belief that it is possible to see everything from nowhere. Discuss some of the issues of visuality raised by the Visible Human Project.

Figure 1: Littoral Zone Animation, by Tiffany Holmes[1], a computer artist.

Visuality is an “ocularcentric culture”, the culture that based on what we see. It is undesigned coincidence with ‘god-trick’ in Donna Haraway’s “The Cyborg Manifesto”, the possibility to see everywhere from nowhere. The Visible Human Project (VHP) was developed by National Medical Library in USA, in the way of transferring the corporeal human body into digitalized and visualized database for scientific researches on human anatomy. Given these two Visible Human, a digitalized human-anatomy database was started to develop in 1994. Two Visible Humans were dissected in around 1mm and 0.33mm, and photographed after each dissection. It was unusual to anatomize by slices instead of organs, which thousands of pixels were shaped. The transformation of corporeal body into digital form is a type of embodiment, and death does no longer exist. In this case, human are able to read our identities of afterlife, by distributing online materials, which are consisted of our identities and fleshes. A new type of selfhood is also generated through the VHP development.

An anthropology approach of merging technology and the idea of “normal body” is made, to identify ourselves in artificial way. “Enhancement Technologies and the Body” [2] suggested that technological enhancement to human body is going ‘beyond’ to the normal. The first Visible Human, Joseph Paul Jernigan, from Texas, volunteered to provide his body for scientific research after he received the dose in his age 39, therefore his body was considered as in “good health”. VHP provides us an appropriate model of healthy body, to distinguish between artifice and natural. Furthermore, in this text and Haraway(2004) had suggested that one can choose own embodiment. The Visible Man, Jernigan has transformed himself from a criminal to a man that benefit to the society, in a peculiar way to other people, which reincarnated into series of data. Therefore shifting identities in digital world can be able to achieve in the future.

It was suggested that capital punishment is as a kind of torture for the Visible Man by visualized his identity on screen. The digitalization of Jernigan’s identity as the continuity of his punishment, written by Catherine Waldby in “The Visible Human Project: Life and Death in Cyberspace” [3], who specialized in VHP. These two Visible Human’s images were stored in massive computer dataset and can be downloadable via the internet. Bodies are preserved and stored into database, and taken from internet or CD out of screen as users’ wishes. The Visible Man, Jernigan’s identity as a criminal was also reviewed as medical is always associated with punishment in historical context, displayed their dissected corpse after executed. The digitalization of Visible Human manifested that to understand our tangible human bodies by understanding the intangible identities of ourselves through the Worldwide Webs.

There is also an association between the roles of gender and human anatomy which performed by the VHP. Lisa’s article in Visible Woman [4] found from Google Book Search is particularly discussing the relation between gender and anatomy. Generally, human bodies presented in male, makes female-specific anatomy difficult. The Visible Woman, a ‘Maryland housewife’ who died in her age 59, during a sudden heart-attack in her house, is opened to widely discuss in feminists’ area. The presence of Visible Woman has increased the awareness about women’s health, indicated that female-anatomy is becoming the subject of medical studies. Moreover, Visible Woman presented the meaning of what is gender assigned to us, both physically and mentally. She was dissected into 0.33 mm, which indicated that there is closer, more intensive scrutiny for the female body, as the subject of anatomy. However, as she is a postmenopausal woman, has an incomplete model of reproductive system, the VHP is unable to re-simulate female’s menstruation on screen. The lack of healthy woman representation does highlight the insufficient training of female-anatomy. Nevertheless, her corpse provided the bodily mode of mothers, in existed of non- functioned reproductive system.

Replication of life is made by reproduction. However no sexual reproduction had taken place in VHP, which embedded in human nature. Instead, it duplicated in the ways of “copy and paste”. According to Waldby’s another essay [5], she suggested that the association between VHP and reproduction of life. Under the form of VHP, the digital icons are alive whereas human bodies are already dead, since VHP is the simulation of living human. Also the animation of human movement has reduced the differences between living person and a corpse. Virtual screen interface has transformed as a space for other bodies also. The data storage, the screen, the cyberspace, provided by VHP as a ‘new Eden’, information about Visible Human was ‘in-form’, which inherits ‘god-like’ power to authorise them. VHP is a re-animation of vitality, a resurrection of dead bodies on screen.

In VHP, the Visible Humans are consisted by thousands of images which photographed on their flesh; and word-by-word description around the images. “Human body is hybrid of word, image and mark, and it is examined by various tools of media such as magnetic resonance images (MRI) and computer tomography (CT).” These imaging tools are used during the dissection of Visible Human. Many artists also used some of the MRI scans to present themselves, such as Tiffany Holmes’s Littoral Zone (figure 1). VHP has explored the intersections of digital art and science technology, and derived from Holmes’s paper [6], which is about the connections of alphabetic, artworks and personal perspective.

In conclusion, the ‘god-trick’ defined by Donna Haraway, is to see the concrete, corporeal bodies, from the abstract, virtual computer screen. The VHP itself is a “translation of the world into a problem of coding” (Haraway 2004), from transformation of Visible Humans’ identity and their bodies into massive computerized storage, a digitalized “coffin”. Therefore Jernigan was no longer blamed because of his crimes; instead he benefited the society by contributing his cadaver to scientific research. He has shifted his identity successfully. On the other hand, the identity of Visible Woman was still veiled, but as time rolls on; her significance is widely discussed for Australian feminists’ studies [7]. The VHP’s digitalization and visualization over human bodies provide a higher level of visuality, based on what we have seen on the VHP materials from Internet, and Holmes’s medical-related artworks; to represent our bodies and realise ourselves, to the sets of 0s and 1s.

Notes:
1. Tiffany Holmes (1999) ‘The Corporeal Stenographer: Language, Gesture, and Cyberspace’ Leonardo 32, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576821 (accessed 22 August 2008).
2. Linda F. Hogle (2005) ‘Enhancement Technologies and the Body’ Annual Reviews of Anthropology 34, http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.144020 (accessed 18 August 2008).
3. Catherine Waldby (1997) ‘Life and Death in Cyberspace’ Artlink 17, http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;res=APAFT;dn=971111255 (accessed 15 August 2008).
4. Paula Treichler, Lisa Cartwright, Constance Penley (1998) Visible Woman, http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=N3FGXKV0TtwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA21&dq=Visible+Human+Project&ots=5rs-kE2GqV&sig=7HX1RWvRFDKWMkma1phMFzXSjLU (accessed 18 August 2008).
5. Catherine Waldby (1999) ‘IatroGenesis: The Visible Human Project and the Reproduction of Life’ Australian Feminist Studies 14, http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/routledg/08164649/v14n29/s7.pdf?expires=1219036260&id=45549506&titleid=338&accname=The+University+of+Western+Australia-Library&checksum=A14CC5155613B710A0EFBC391BA0B8F3 (accessed 18 August 2008).
6. Holmes (1999), p. 387.
7. Susan Magarey & Susan Sheridan (2002) ‘Local, Global, Regional: Women’s Studies in Australia’ Feminist Studies 28, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178497 (accessed 22 August 2008).

Reference List
Haraway, Donna Jeanne (2004) ‘A Manifesto of Cyborg: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in 1980s’ The Haraway Reader, http://hive.library.uwa.edu.au/cgi-bin/hive/hive.cgi/02652.pdf?HIVE_REF=hii%3A14261&HIVE_RET=ORG&HIVE_REQ=2114&HIVE_PROD=0/02652.pdf (accessed 15 August 2008).

Critical Annotated Webliography

2008-08-28T20:34:00.004+08:00

Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway's figure of the cybord has taken on 'a life of its own' in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?

Second-wave feminism connects female liberation to a woman’s ‘natural’ duty to uphold the integrity of human and natural life on earth through biological reproduction. Donna Haraway employs the idea of the cyborg, which rejects gender binaries, challenging feminists to engage in the issues of feminism beyond naturalism. In seeking out resources for this webliography, it became apparent that Haraway’s idea of the cyborg has been advocated by most feminists, fluctuating into a new brand of third-wave feminism called Cyberfeminism. However, I found that the idea of the cyborg disagrees with the beliefs of second-wave socialist feminists which illustrates a huge jump in broad feminist ideas. In the essay I would aim to demonstrate different points of view in regards to feminism and the cyborg. Using search engines such as Google and Google Scholar and keywords such as cyber-feminism, socialist feminism, gender binaries, post-gender etc and key names such as Sadie Plant, I was able to retrieve useful sources of information which would aide in answering this question. However, a majority of the sources found in this manner were either too vague or unscholarly, but usefully including reference lists and/or citations which led me to more credible sources of information.

Hari Kunzru’s article ‘You are Cyborg’ recounts a conversation with Donna Haraway about the ‘Cyborg Manifesto. In a conversationalist manner, Kunzru’s article then leads on to explain in Haraway’s voice, the key ideas surrounding the technological transformation that diminishes the rigid boundaries between “human” and “machine” and places them as co-inhabitants in the world. The manner in which this article is written, which paints Haraway in a portrait of humble normalcy given Haraway’s postmodern techno-crazy theories, allows for Haraway’s ideas to be more accessible and understandable in comparison to the manner in which the ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ is written. “The cyborg idea may in the end be Donna Haraway's way of showing us how to let folks be folks, rather than carving them up into cruel, arbitrary divisions” Kunzru puts simply. In answering the guiding question, I would use this source to first gain a solid and simple understanding of the cyborg idea, and use it to outline Haraway’s idea of the cyborg at the beginning of the essay providing a sufficient foundation on which to base how feminists have taken up the idea of the cyborg.

Barbara Ehrenreich's article, ‘What is Socialist Feminism’ outlines the principles of socialist feminism and explains their main concern with the social inequalities in gender. Although this article does not include any sort of critique of the cyborg in terms of socialist feminist ideas, I believe its outline of what socialist feminists advocate in terms of feminism to be of importance to illustrate the contrast between second-wave feminism and third-wave feminism. Furthermore, a comparison between then and now in terms of how feminists thought about gender, highlights the progression towards a pos-gender society where gender binaries become obsolete due to the idea of cyborgs, just as Haraway suggests.

In ‘Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism’, Faith Wilding aims to define and explain the foundations of Cyberfeminism. Wilding demonstrates how Cyberfeminists have taken up Haraway’s idea of the cyborg, and the principles surrounding it and applied it to the internet, an aspect of technology that Haraway herself does not delve into. I found the most relevant sections of the article were the sections on ‘cyber-grrlism' which explains a technological ‘girl-power’ and liberation through a new net utopianism where everything is declared equal, free of any binaries, including gender. “This net utopianism declares cyberspace to be a free space where gender does not matter... In other words, cyberspace is regarded as an arena inherently free of the same old gender relations and struggles.” In my essay, I would use this source to demonstrate how feminists have taken the idea of the cyborg and developed their own ideas, applied it to and analysed it in today’s new technology thus creating a new online utopia that complies with Haraway’s ideas, away from the offline reality where away from technology and the idea of the cyborg gender binaries exist and post-gender does not.

In stark contrast to Wilding’s article on online Cyberfeminism, Susanna Paasonen article, ‘Surfing the Waves of Feminism: Cyberfeminism and its others’ aims to decipher Cyberfeminism’s ambiguous definition and in doing so, questions the principles of Cyberfeminism and critiques its ironic stance on binary thinking. This article offers a contrasting opinion on Cyberfeminism and its principles based on Haraway’s idea of the cyborg. Where Haraway aims to dismantle binary thought, especially in regard to gender, through the idea of the cyborg, Cyberfeminism ironically seems to create more binaries such as old and new feminism, second and third wave, offline and online while offering no alternative forms of thought and location. This article would be particularly useful in questioning the way in which the idea of the cyborg has been taken up by feminists to create Cyberfeminism and “ a new way of thinking”, when instead Cyberfeminism and its adoption of Haraway’s cyborg, is creating new oppositions in replace of the old.

In terms of new binary oppositions being created in place of old ones, one could say that the idea of the cyborg which has inhabited science fiction opposes literature of the non science fiction variety, highlighting where the cyborg and consequently post-gender, does and does not exist. Rosi Braidotti looks at the cyborg in science fiction in her article ‘Feminist Visions on Science Fiction’ and comments on how feminists have looked at science fiction as a way to “assess the impact of the new technological world upon the representation of sexual difference.” Braidotti offers an interesting argument on how science fiction “play[s] with fundamental male anxieties and displace [them] by inventing alternative views of reproduction, thereby manipulating the figure of the female body.” This notion completely removes Cyberfeminists from second-wave feminism which ties itself to naturalism. This article demonstrates through examples taken from popular science fiction, the idea of the cyborg forever changing the generative “purpose” of women which would be particularly useful in demonstrating how the cyborg has changed the ideas of gender and feminism, painting a colorful example of cyberfeminism, cyborgs and new techno science in science fiction itself.

In assessing how feminists have taken up Donna Haraway’s idea of the cyborg, these fives sources aim to look at the most recent and the most present aspects of feminism and their views on the cyborg and its post-gender principles. I chose this approach because I feel that the most important aspect of this question is not of the cyborg, but rather of the ramifications the idea of the cyborg has had on feminism and ideas of gender. Therefore, I have attempted to provide a holistic view of how past waves of feminism (second-wave) has taken up the idea of the cyborg, how present feminism (third-wave) has taken up the idea of the cyborg, of cyberfeminism and the cyborg itself in practice, as well as the critcisms focused on Cyberfeminism.

Assignment 1- Critical Annotated Webliography

2008-08-28T09:52:00.007+08:00

Guiding Question: “From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss critically.

It is quite a challenging task to abstract reliable, useful sources from the masses and masses of useless, unreliable information that is on the internet. Choosing the right search engine (Google and Google Scholar were particularly useful) and picking out the key words from the guiding question to search with were the two most useful techniques I used to find the most reliable online sources. Iwan Rhys Morus’ Bodies/Machines, Andrea Gaggioli, Marco Vettorello and Giuseppe Riva’s From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: The Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine, Verana Kuni’s Mythical Bodies II, Catherine Waldby’s The Visible Human Project and Alison Caddick’s Feminism and Postmodernism: Donna Haraway’s Cyborg all contain a great deal of information that is helpful in answering the guiding question above. These sources provided a range of different viewpoints on the issue of the reinterpretation of the body, and some excellent examples of how the limit to what it is to be human has continually been adapted over time.

Iwan Rhys Morus’ online book abstract titled Bodies/Machines examines the way in which the body has been reinterpreted over time through its interactions with machines. Morus writes that the body “works both as a way of naturalizing machinery and of denaturalizing human beings. It provides a way of making technological society appear as a natural extension of the human body itself.”[1] Morus suggests in this book that the continual reinterpretation of the body as a limit to what it means to be human is ultimately a positive and natural one.

Morus’ work on the curiosity surrounding the limits of being human such as what he writes here, “we live in an age that is simultaneously fascinated by and terrified of the boundaries surrounding the human body and what happens (or might happen) there,”[2] is directly relevant to the same anxieties expressed in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and in criticism of the Visible Human Project (the two examples the guiding question uses).

Andrea Gaggioli, Marco Vettorello and Giuseppe Riva’s article, From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: the Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine investigates the way collective notions of the body have changed due to the incorporation of new technologies in modern medicine.[3] Of most interest in this article was its examination of the cyborg and the cyberbody. Through a discussion of the cyborg and cyberbody the authors conclude “that people no longer have a direct “sense of body”, but a mediated sense of body”[4].

Gaggioli, Vettorello and Riva’s article links the Visible Human Project with the work currently being done on Ambience Intelligence; they look to the future where patient’s bodies will be represented in virtual reality[5]. They also suggest through a post humanist perspective, that western industrialized societies are undergoing a new chapter of humanity “wherein no essential differences between bodily existence and computer stimulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot technology and human goals, exist […]”[6] This article comes to the conclusion that our bodies are continually being reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human and it is therefore very valuable to use when discussing the guiding question.

Verana Kuni’s article Mythical Bodies II is especially valuable because it draws on the examples of both the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Visual Human Project, just as the guiding question of this task does. Kuni defines both of these subjects well, and suggests that in both cases the bodies of executed men have been allowed to live on, in either the case of being refashioned into a new creature (Doctor Frankenstein’s monster) or existing in virtual reality (the first body of the Visual Human Project) [7]. In this way, the human body has been reinterpreted, to be able to exist even after the soul of the person is dead [8]. This article provides a strong argument as to how the body has been interpreted in both instances, and how this has changed the parameters of what it means to be human.

Catherine Waldby’s online abstract of her book The Visible Human Project provides excellent coverage on the Visible Human Project. She speaks extensively on the background of the project and the identities of the “real-life” bodies[9]. Through this text we are able to acknowledge the Visible Human Project, as one of the latest ways the human body has been reinterpreted, and this is invaluable. Waldby also provides arguments for and against the reinterpretation of the body and speaks at length about the creation of virtual bodies, which are also helpful when answering the guiding question.[10]

Alison Caddick’s article Feminism and Postmodernism: Donna Haraway’s Cyborg contrasts the views of scholars Corea, Rowland, Firestone and Haraway on the view of bodies. Caddick’s definition of the body is very useful to use when unpacking the guiding question. She writes, “bodies are discursive or textual entities generally, the conventional products of particular historical circumstances”.[11] Caddick’s suggestion that the postmodern body is more fundamentally open to reinterpretation than any body before it as well as her suggestions as to why it has progressed this way are also integral points to consider.[12]

Caddick’s rather optimistic projection onto how she hopes bodies may exist in the future is also very relevant and interesting. She quotes Haraway who writes, ‘a cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contrary standpoints”[13] this would be a great quote to include in an essay addressing the guiding question. The article, being written from a feminist perspective is also relevant, as an essay is often strongest when a wide variety of views on a topic are used.

Navigating the internet in search of reliable sources to answer the guiding question was a difficult task. Using the search engines Google and Google Scholar, and choosing the right key words from the question were helpful ways of sifting through the masses of information that is on the internet. The quality of the information which can be found on the internet such as that from Iwan Rhys Morus’ Bodies/Machines, Andrea Gaggioli, Marco Vettorello and Giuseppe Riva’s From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: The Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine, Verana Kuni’s Mythical Bodies II, Catherine Waldby’s The Visible Human Project and Alison Caddick’s Feminism and Postmodernism: Donna Haraway’s Cyborg, surprised me. These sources would be very helpful to use in answering the guiding question, they contained a number of valuable examples and viewpoints on the issue of body reinterpretation and how the limit to what it is to be human has been redefined over time.

Footnotes:

[1] Morus, p. 3.

[2] Morus, p. 1
[3] Gaggioli et al., p. 75 & 77.

[4] Gaggioli et al., p. 3
[5] Gaggioli et al, p. 80
[6] Hayles cited in Gaggioli et al, p. 76
[7] Kuni, p. 2

[8] Kuni, p.2
[9] Waldby, p. 1

[10] Waldby p. 3
[11] Caddick

[12] Caddick
[13] Caddick

Critical Annotated Webliography

2008-08-27T21:58:00.006+08:00

Question #2: “From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss critically.”

In today’s technological age, it is hard to imagine what life would be like without machines or computers helping us out with our daily tasks. Machines and technology have essentially become synchronous with almost every individual in the modernized world – at the same time becoming more naturalized and invisible. The link between the human body and technology is one which constantly changes alongside technological advancements – and with rapidly evolving concepts from Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, we are constantly forced to question just what it means to be human.

My research in regards to this question has led me to the following links, which all offer insights into human identity and the concept of the cyborg.

I first started looking at Gert Biesta’s article, as it talks about the postmodern climate alongside the idea of human identity and reality. Through this perspective, Gert suggests traditional ideas of the body are increasingly coming under pressure as a result of the changing values and attitudes of society.

While this article does not talk about cyborgs or the machine/human relationship specifically, it provides valuable reference to the contrasts between reality and physicality. This article can be strongly linked to the concept of the Visible Human Project, where the virtualization of the body has raised numerous questions and concerns especially over human identity.

Gert writes "Identity no longer is something to be discovered; identity has become an invention...In postmodernism the tie between representation and represented has been cut through...The textualization of the subject results in a loss of power, a loss that manifests itself at the level of the body. The subject becomes powerless because her body no longer exists as a referent; the body is reduced to a sign of itself. It is important to note that this does not concern loss of physical power; at stake is a loss of agency, that is, of political power.”

It seems Gert is arguing that human identity has basically become a normalized idea, based on dominant inventions and ideas from concepts such as the Visible Human Project.

This can be related to the essay found on cyberpunks.org, where the author explores the concept of the cyborg and cybernetics. A more significant aspect of this essay refers to Donna Haraway's “A Manifesto for Cyborgs” where they state: “...the reason why we are transformed by our technologies, as we attempt to transform the world around us, is that consciousness is a nonlinear phenomenon.”

Essentially, the author is asserting that humanity's attempt to create a better world has inevitably led to the changing idea of beaing human. The author of this article also states that cyborg consciousness will inevitably become part of our future – advancing synonymously with the technology. In this perspective, the body is the base on which we build upon, which is why the human body is constantly reinterpreted. Because humanity is always looking for ways to increase the body's performance, it is only inevitable our interpretation of 'being human' will be influenced by the body's limits, as well science and technology.

Steve Mizrach talks about the ethics of the concept of the cyborg – in which he describes the relationship between humans and computers as 'troubling'.

From his point of view, the negative aspects of the cyborg cannot be ignored: especially with the dangers of experimenting with science, technology and the human body. While science obviously plays a large part in redefining the human identity, the consequences of a morally questionable experiment could produce concerning results: much like Frankenstein.

Michelle Chan's article on CNN explores virtual identities/avatars through photographer Robbie Cooper's research of gaming 'alter egos'. Cooper states: "...if there was a general trend, the online identities people chose were 'less ordinary' than their real selves." This in itself is significant in reasoning why people's online identities hold so much significance today - the main points being race, class, gender and age can be hidden: allowing people more control over their virtual identity.

However, Cooper also states: "In the virtual world, we even exaggerate the superficiality of what we're used to, like stereotypical female anatomies. That's what really fascinates me about these worlds. They trap us even more." Cooper's opinion is in stark contrast to Donna Haraway's opinion on cyborgs, where she asserts the idea of the cyborg resists things such as race and gender : essentially freeing people from the constraints of nature and culture in society. This leads to the question: is the virtual body/identity liberating or just a medium to build upon certain gender stereotypes?

A story featured on New Scientist also highlighted two artists: Stelarc and Orlan, whose art completely revolved around their body, surgery and science. Both artists willingly underwent several cosmetic procedures to hybridize nature and machines, with Stelarc explaining: “[the body is]...a structure to be monitored and modified ... an object for designing."

Orlan on the other hand, is a female French artist, who feels “...she is questioning traditional views on normality, gender and what it is to be human. She even expresses an interest in using biotechnology in pursuit of her interest in blurring the boundaries between the natural and the technological.” Both of these artists clearly hold strong beliefs about the power humans could have when hybridized with the power of technology. Their views also seem to reflect Haraway's opinion, in which she states the concept of the cyborg enables freedom from nature and culture. Orlan's favourite motto: "Remember the future" particularly resonates with the essay question, as it is our ideas and concepts of the body that help reinterpret what it means to be human.

It is clear that technology today is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate, and there is no doubt that it will continue to improve as time goes on. Our dependence on technology every day only serves to remind us that the hybridization of humans and machines will inevitably lead to a constant reinterpretation of the human body, as a result of humanity's desire for a better quality of life.

Bibliography:

Biesta, Gert. THE IDENTITY OF THE BODY. 1994. (accessed 27th August 2008)
Chan, Michelle. Identity in a Virtual World. June 2007. (accessed 27th August 2008)
Mizrach, Steve. Should there be a limit placed on the integration of humans and computers and electronic technology? (accessed 27th August 2008)
N/A. CYBORG CONSCIOUSNESS. November 2001. (accessed 27th August 2008)
Neesham, Claire, Smith, Caroline. Beyond Flesh and Blood. November 1995. (accessed 27th August 2008)

Whats Up?

2008-08-26T13:24:00.002+08:00

Sorry so late...I've suffered a broken foot and am catching up with emails amongst other things. I guess my fav site is myspace. yeah I know its kinda dated, but I don't want to become a mad facebooker as well. I think people spend to much time slaving away behind computers anyway. See you thurs.
p.s. does anyone want to meet with me to help me catch up???

Hey everyone

2008-08-24T16:51:00.005+08:00

Hey peoples..kind of a late post haha. Anyways, I'm Jaclyn...and my most frequented sites would probably be last.fm and digg.com. I also love graphicpoetry.net.

I'm also stalking NIN's blog because they're touring at the moment, so thats kinda interesting. :P

Well I'll cya guys around!

I need the loo

2008-08-21T14:34:00.002+08:00

Hi,

I am ready to go home now so I will just quickly say that I am scared of this blogging malarkey but putting on a brave face. My favourite website is not going to be Facebook, ('cos I'm in denial) so I'll say icanhascheezburger.com as it never fails to amuse me.

See you in the tute...

hello

2008-08-21T14:27:00.002+08:00

hello guys, sending everyone a welcome! favourite website is probably www.bbc.co.uk because it keeps me in touch with home news xx

Hurrah!That was hard...

2008-08-21T14:25:00.002+08:00

Hey Thursday @ 5,

I'm definitely going to be able to use more than google from now on :)
Not sure if this is my favourite website but everyone loves Sportsgirl, although i could just be biased because I work there?

Until my next blog
Jess xx

Hello

2008-08-21T14:19:00.002+08:00

Hi Everybody, I've only blogged once before for another assignment so this should be good and interesting experience. One site that I go to a lot is atp tennis to get the latest tennis news.

Elise.

Greetings

2008-08-21T14:18:00.005+08:00

Hello!

I don't really have a favourite website but, www.wikipedia.org is always good fun!

Claire

salutations :)

2008-08-21T14:18:00.004+08:00

Hi! I'm Katherine (the second one). My FAVOURITE website is FACEBOOK. I am currently battling a severe addiction with it.

Hi everyone

2008-08-21T14:16:00.008+08:00

Hi, I am KaHung Chan. I think this unit is a bit hard for me as need to under the cyberculture, but I still have fun for it. I read several Chinese citizen journalists' blogs recently because I am interested in issues in Chinese society. This is my personal Windows Live Space, which didn't update for a while(sorry it's chinese interface but I wrote in English). Enjoy!

Sunday,10/8 I went to UWA Expo and climbed on the Tower!!!
The view is really great!

Hi I'm Katherine!!!

2008-08-21T14:16:00.004+08:00

Hi Everyone in Self.Net Blog land!

I have never blogged before so this should be interesting.

My favourite website is Facebook - an easy way to keep in touch with people!

Katherine

Greetings

2008-08-21T14:15:00.007+08:00

Hello I am James and the website I use most is probably the Sydney Morning Herald's site because I don't normally get time to read the newspaper at home. I also visit ESPN's site and STAB (a surfing magazine).
See you all this afternoon,
James

Intro post

2008-08-21T14:15:00.005+08:00

Hi, I guess my most used websites would be Facebook and Ctrl+Alt+Del (geeky but funny, even for a non-gamer like me). This should be interesting as I've never considered having a blog before (at least not until I'm famous and people hang on me every word :p).

hello :)

2008-08-21T14:14:00.004+08:00

hello there,

well i am rather new at this whole blogging thing but here goes nothing. my favourite website would have to be trusty old facebook. i would recommend it to those who enjoy wasting time when they have a mass of uni work to do.

be talking to you soon :)

Aloha Thursday at 5!

2008-08-21T14:11:00.002+08:00

Hey guys,

I'm Kylie (before you ask, YES, after the Minogue sister... sadly)

I am also a fan of sites such as facebook, myspace and youtube, but I am also pretty keen on deviantart.com, lastfm.com and webct. (Ha!)

=]

Hello :-)

2008-08-18T11:33:00.001+08:00

Hi, I am Emily.

I'm not really sure what is my favourite website...though I do use the internet a lot! The websites I use the most are probably Myspace and Facebook.

Speak to you all soon!

Introductory Post

2008-08-18T11:19:00.005+08:00

Hello. I am Karmela and I'm in the Thursday tutorial at 5pm. I don't really have a favorite website although I do facebook quite a bit and I suppose www.youtube.com is always good for a laugh.

Hi

2008-08-18T11:19:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone on Thursday 5pm tute.
I'm Maija and my favourite websites are facebook (of course) and Finnish newspaper's website where i read what's going on back there.

welcome

2008-08-11T12:04:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone,
this is now your tutorial weblog, so make it into whatever you want it to be.
I've just found an animated version/vision of Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto on youtube you might be interested in.
alison