The Post Human Technological
by katiemcgreevy @ 19 Nov. 2006 - 18:00:29
Technology used to be associated with things designed to make life easier, to help us accomplish our goals more easily and efficiently. These were anything from small prosthetics to larger devices which help us understand the world beyond our own.
We looked at two artists involved with the use of technology. They no longer look at how technology can be used to understand the universe and instead go post-planetary by aiming technology towards their own bodies. Technology of this kind starts to take on a performative quality.
"Notion of technology invading the body"
Stelarc
Stelarc, an Australian artist, radically rethinks what the body is and what it needs to do. He pushes it to the limits of endurance by creating prosthetics which he attaches to his own body to enhance his lifestyle and make him more functional.
"The first phase of technology contained the body, whereas now miniaturised technology can be implemented into the body. If the technology is small,the body acts as if it were not there, it becomes a component"
Another example we looked at was French artist Orlan who challenges the conventional idea of how the body is percieved. She uses technology intervention to transform her appearance, quite literally being operated on to gain the "perfect" face. The operation was filmed and played live to audiences in a gallery.
Orlan also considerss how the theatre in relation to surgery seem to sit hand in hand, with the very idea of an operating theatre for example.
Both these artists are not in my opinion trying to create a new ideal human, but are definately pushing the human to it's limits. In a society which now depends upon technology so heavily, will the human body be forced to change and progress to fit into a technology saturated environment?