critical annotated webliography

In a reading written by Jennifer Gonzalez, “Envisioning cyborg bodies: notes from current research”, it mentions about different kinds of cyborg, some of their parts are electronic or mechanical. It indicates that a notion of cyborg can be related to gender and social status which have been brought out in the past century. The writer states that the cyborg body becomes the historical record of changes in human perception, thus cyborg helps people to understand contemporary society. Besides that, photomontage would be an appropriate channel to view on cyborg, e.g. Dadaist Raoul Hausmann’s assemblags Tete Mechanique. For an advertisement published in 1993, which promotes a fax machine, using the concept of cyborg to promote the speedy of fax machine. It is found that cyborg could also be applied on political sphere, when soldiers would be mechanical; they can use their certain ability in a battle. Lastly, it gives an example of a character in Japan comic book Silent Mobius, and then brings out some questions for people to think about differences between human being and cyborg. From the reading, it indicates that cyborg is not only a topic for technology; however, it can apply on different circumstances and stages during people keep going for development and evolution.

There is a reading discussing about urban discourses entitled as “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” by Matthew Gandy, it tries to explore the haphazard presence of cyborg in current urban discourses. Considering cyborg, it is viewed as sophisticated creation in modern society, and it starts to challenge some traditional and original ideas among people. The cyborg figure becomes a sign of militarization in society, as people find that technology is a crucial factor for getting victory in present battles. Also, social welfare is also related to technology, in the coming future, we may face lot of challenges and changes from developing technology and cyborg. It mentions that a creation of cyborg may be viewed as being “post human”, and it also emancipates people between illusion and reality, as cyborg is a combination of robot and human. Some people suggest that cyborg can form a new kind of social interaction when some oppose because it causes some confusion of human thought. Besides that, the reading points out that all people have contributed to the existence of cyborg, because we living in one world, we also help to build up cultural and technical sphere. It helps people to know more about urban discourses and influences from cyborg.

Moreover, in a book, “The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age”, there is a chapter “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” from Julie Clarke. It raises a notion of post human which is always linked to cyborg, that a human identity is being “other” than itself, and that self is being changed and mediated by technology. The visual image and of the post-human is both a fact and fiction by its representation but also product of the imaginary. Donna Haraway suggests that trans-human means “across” or “beyond”, it includes transition or interaction between two objects, for example, human and machine. In addition, the images of cyborg appear in many science fiction films such as The Terminator and Westworld, are part human and part machine. When cyborg is getting hurt or die, the loss is not only of the body but also the self. Lastly, it states that the cyborg request the uncanniness associated with body mutation and fragmentation, when they are death, a decomposition of its bodies would be unusual and out of people expectation.

Besides the above reading mentioned about post human, another book, “Posthuman bodies” also focuses on it. It is going to examine the reading, “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” written by Carol Mason, it talks about cyborg would be divided into good and bad rising by Andrew Ross and cyborgism from being a myth. There is a novel “He, She, and It”, written by Mary Piercy, which represents good cyborg intensifying identities and boundaries marked by sexual differences. And, in Terminator 2, it also encourages audiences to divide cyborg into good or bad. We have to notice about the color of cyborg as it contains special meanings as well. For example, in Terminator 2, the “fact of blackness” is the most immutable and reasonable signifier of individual embodiment. Afterwards, Connor and Dyson do not only show black or white, female or male, but it represents a certain extent of masculinities and sexualities. They re-produce race, gender and class not according to their own bodies but depend on historical discourses. Moreover, one of main troubles faced by cyborg, according to Haraway, “is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism”. They would be viewed as unfaithful as they are made of the stuff. Lastly, it brings out an idea that a fetus as black when women as white according to terrorist Paul Hill for people to notice abortion as a contest between races.

An article post on The New York Times on 2 March 2003 is talking about influences of media and technology, which focuses on whether violent video games would bring children to be more aggressive or not. It mentions a science research about mobile phone help to train young people having more powerful thumbs, then, it shows some notion of technology and cyborg transforming the body in its own image in present society. The early idea of cyborgian life is about at the Enlightenment, as shown in Gaby Wood’s book, “Edison’s Eve”, he tries to make a talking doll figure. Afterwards, there is a cyberfeminist, Sadie Plant; she also does some digital research. Although many robotic engineers try to create cyborg to be more humanlike, they still face lots of difficulties in doing it. However, there are some examples we should not overlook, for example, cosmetic plastic surgery, chip attached to arm, Superthumbs and Robocop-like visual scanning could be viewed as virtual implants, and people can put it with machine intelligence into human bodies without surgery. It reveals that notion of cyborg is no longer strange to the public; it is going to develop functions and characteristics into human bodies.






Reference
Clarke, J. “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age. J. Zylinska. Continuum: London. New York. http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=iWbtdujciTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cyborg&ots=ugP9YD18bl&sig=Tm_Hf5cjkcTTAqc7C1Z7WjRiH7U#PPA39,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Mason, C. “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” Posthuman bodies. Eds. J. Halbertstam and I. Livingston. Indiana University Press: Bloomington and Indianapolis.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=MkQPztA7TTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA225&dq=cyborg&ots=3uaQvL3b9z&sig=gZzvYr1wdTFluJOvk3z7pAzPM6g#PPA240,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gandy, M. “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 29.1. Mar. 2005: 26-49. http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk:8080/print-version/about-the-department/people/academics/matthew-gandy/files/pdf1.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gonzalez, J. “Envisioning cyborg bodies: notes from current research” Maryflanagan
http://www.maryflanagan.com/private/essays/gonzalez01.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Talbot, M. “The Way we live now: 6-15-03; My Son, the Cyborg” The New York Times 15.6 (2003).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDC1339F936A25755C0A9659C8B63&scp=5&sq=cyborg&st=cse (accessed 3 Mar 2009)