Critical Annotated Webliography- Jessica Wong

'The machine/ organism relationships are obsolete, unnecessary' writes Haraway. In what ways have our relations to machines been theorized?

1. Grey, F. “The Impossibility of Postmodern Innocence.” Reality Sandwich.com. 6 Mar. 2009. 17 Mar 2011.
< http://www.realitysandwich.com/impossibility_postmodern_innocence>.

The article started with a Roman Catholic doctrine- Mary's ability to reproduce via parthenogenesis which arouses the myth of asexual reproduction. By raising the reproduction myth of cyborg, the author had a reflection of “what is cyborg”.
In 1920, famous poet Yeats expressed his belief which “Christian era was coming to a close and transitioning into a new age of chaos and destruction”. The situation brought us to the confusion of identity. As Donna Haraway described, “[s]he (Mary) is a matrix, one who is pregnant with the contradictions, emergencies, delusions, and hopes of colliding sociotechnical worlds”, suggesting Mary was actually a cyborg even [s]he can reproduce (give birth to Jesus). The author explained, “appropriating Mariology as reproductive cyborg mythology, we are impelled to redefine what constitutes sex, gender, reproduction and autonomy and, in turn, to rework feminist theology, theory and practice.”

Heidi Figueroa-Sarriera mentioned her belief of cyborg in 1995, “Anyone with an artificial organ, limb or supplement (like a pacemaker), anyone reprogrammed to resist disease (immunized) or drugged to think/behave/feel better (psychopharmacology) is technically a cyborg”. In this view, the author thinks most of us would be considered as cyborg, even the larger “bodies” - people, organizations (government) and business are merged with technologies. To summarize, the relationship between machine/organism cannot be distinguished clearly.

2. Ashby, M. “Ownership, authority, and the body: Does antifanfic sentiment reflect posthuman anxiety?” Transformative Works and Cultures. 2008. 16 Mar 2011. < http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/40/49>.

This essay used three Japanese anime: Ghost in the Shell (1995), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–96), and Serial Experiments: Lain (1998) to examine the “posthuman anxiety and terminal identity”. Japanese animation or anime often played out issues of cyborg reproduction, sexuality, and power. Ghost in the Shell is about a woman who inosculates with machine in the bodily level and its relationship with high technology. The author put Donna Haraway’s question further, as Haraway suggested, “cyborgs have more to do with regeneration and are suspicious of the reproductive matrix and most birthing…We require regeneration, not rebirth”. This represents the key to cyborg identity were “doubling and reproduction”.
As in Ghost in the shell, the main character Rei was a perfect representation of cyborg. At the beginning, Rei - a human-shaped cyborg, was not reproductive. Later, Rei “regains the right to copy her body by fundamentally changing the nature of that body and repurposing it”. This symbolize she is reproducing herself in another way. The boundary of human and machine therefore blurred. Rei has emotion, she can also be reproductive in the latter scene of the movie. Yet, she has blue hair and red eyes that differentiating her from other human characters. To sum up, it is hard to tell she is neither a human nor a machine. Rei can be reproduced, yet that may not be true original.




3. Sueur, C. “Man or Machine: Cyborgs in Japanese Cinema.” Film Fortress. 16 Mar 2011. < http://www.filmfortress.com/essays/cyborgs_essay/>.

This article explains the complex relationship between technology and humanity in Japan. Japan is “one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world”. They have been obsessed with technological advancement; rely on new technologies in every aspect, from communication (mobile phones) to transportation (bullet train). Technology to Japanese has became omnipresent, as the author suggested “use of technology has become second-nature, near instinct, almost as if the machines are becoming an extension of the human body.” The line between human and machine is blurring and became invisible. The Japanese started to ask questions like “what happens when the line between man and machine is erased completely and when does a man cease to be a man and become a machine?” With such concern, they addressed the confusing identity with movies like Godzilla (Dir. Honda Ishiro, 1954), Tetsuo (Dir. Tsukamoto Shinya, 1988), Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Dir. Tsukamoto Shinya, 1992), and Dead or Alive: Final (Dir. Miike Takashi, 2002). In these movies, they expressed their confusion and complex identity of being a “cyborg”. All of the films mentioned in the text shared a common characteristic: a duality of character, for instance, the duality of Godzilla/Japan; Man/the Fetishist, light and dark. The duality of character explains there is no absoluteness; no boundaries actually exist.

4. Kelsall, A. “Has our relationship with technology fundamentally altered our identities?” Andrewkelsall.com. Oct. 1999. 16 Mar 2011. < http://www.andrewkelsall.com/has-our-relationship-with-technology-fundamentally-altered-our-identities/>.

We are living in a technological determining world. Human created computers, use it for various purpose; meanwhile, computers are influencing every part of our daily life. For instance, wearable computers are popular such as headphones. People get used to technologies and technologies become part of our life. This culture submerged into the interaction of our flesh and technology. They are combining human and machine (wearable computers) to be as a whole. Thus, our identity became unclear; the term “cyborg” is a metaphor of our identity.
The author concluded with two questions, “Are cyborg merely people who are willing to embrace various forms of technology, or does this term apply to everyone who has used anything in any form as an extension of their own bodies?” Then the author divided the question into two parts to think of- it depends on the purpose. If people use machines on the purpose of having better life style and they rely to technologies- they are cyborg.” For those who use machines as an extension of their own ‘limited’ biological functions”, such as handicap are not being treated as cyborg.

5. Masters, C. “Cyborg soldiers and militarized masculinities.” Eurozine.com. 16 Mar 2011. < http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-20-masters-en.html>.

This article is using the relationship between “cyborg and soldiers” to describe Donna Haraway’s Cyborg theory. The article suggested that, the “making of human to machines” is not a “new phenomenon”. As in the eighteenth century, Michel Foucault had already argued the “machinery of power signaled a profound shift from the coercive power of old to a new form of power as a productive force was not negative but rather positive in its constitutive strength” in the Discipline and Punish. As soldiers have “drill sergeants, boot camp training exercises, and the barracks became the processes, figures, and architecture by which the mechanical could be inserted into the biological to construct the practiced and performative "killing machine".” In this case, the solider is a representation of a machine, a cyborg. Their body has “instinctually” become the perfect machine. In twenty-first century, the body of the soliders had became “more advanced”, similar to the improvement of machines. Technology “becomes the subject capable of the discursive transcendence of embodiment“. “As such, the human/machine interface represents the privileging of technology over biology and therefore locates power and knowledge in the cyborg.“ Therefore, the construction of soliders have blurred the distinction of human and machines.