Überarb. zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2006

這是一篇關於「cyborg」這個概念的Harawayan研究；同時，透過論文中五篇文章矛盾複雜的關係，間接地對論文思維、寫作與閱讀歷程進行cyborgian解構。 本文藉由D. J. Haraway論述理路詮釋關於「cyborg」這個概念。透過拼貼混合Haraway諸多論述概念，我們建構一個「有名無實的」cyborg具相；在闡述cyborg這個概念的同時，我們也重構了Haraway的論述理路。 除此之外，本文並非將cyborg體現為一種純粹的後設精神，我們必須把cyborg視為一種反身性人造主義式地顯相╱繞射╱模控式構成組合的過程╱結果，一種體現差異的污損實踐╱工具。因此，寄予所呈現出的「論文形式」作為一種體現差異的cyborgian對反政治體幹，透過如此表現方式進而打破統治性╱既有社會科學式論文形式的想像，同時也在此等書寫╱閱讀╱嬉戲過程中體現cyborg這個概念對論文形成過程儀式性物質化實踐的污損逾越。

Cyborgen, en samansättning av orden cybernetik och organism, en gestalt vars innebörd bör ses som mer än en fiktiv gestaltning. Cyborgen är idag enligt forskare och filosofer en samhällelig verklighet och dess inverkan på individen är mycket större än vi tror. Det här kandidatarbetet undersöker vad som definierar en cyborg, med stöd ifrån forskning och filosofin summeras tankar och synsätt för att få en mer definitiv bild av begreppet. Arbetet studerar även hur den sociala kontexten kan komma att förvrängas när tekniken letar sig in i den köttsliga kroppen. De resultat och insikter arbetet resulterat i sammanfattas och står som grund för en gestaltning vars mål har varit att kategorisera öppen data från individer med inbyggda Rfid-chip, en diskussion av begreppet och dess innebörd sammanfattas i en resultatdel för att få en bred bild av cyborgen som helhet. Metoder såsom workshop och litteraturstudier har bidragit till att arbetet fått en bredare bild av människans sätt att leva tillsammans med tekniken. / Cyborg, a shared setting of the words cybernetics and organism, a figure whose meaning should be seen as more than a fictional creation. The cyborg is today, according to scientists and philosophers a social reality and its impact on the individual is much greater than we can imagine. This bachelor thesis investigates what defines a cyborg, with support from research and philosophy thoughts and approach are summed up to get a more definitive picture of the concept. The work also studies how the social context may be distorted when the technology finds its way into the physical body. The results and insights this work resulted in is summarized and stands as the basis for a design whose goal has been to categorize open data from individuals with built-in RFID chip, a discussion of the concept and its meaning is summarized in the results section to get a broad picture of the whole cyborg. Methods such as workshops and literature studies have helped to get a broader picture of the human way of living together with technology.

Syftet med studiet är att undersöka hur romanens protagonist kan läsas som en posthumanistisk karaktär, där det granskas hur hon relaterar till Haraways cyborg, men också till delar av Barads teori om agentiell materialism. En alternativ läsning utförs genom att granska karaktären utifrån ett esoteriskt perspektiv, där tonvikten ligger på andliga inslag. De två perspektiven möjliggör en läsning utifrån två till synes mycket olika synvinklar, vilka dock tycks bestå av vissagemensamma tendenser. Målet med studien blir således även att granska hur posthumanism och esoterism kan knytas samman, och hur April häxans huvudperson Desirée kan betraktas som ett center för denna sammanföring. Frågeställningarna lyder enligt följande: Hur kan huvudpersonen Desirée läsas utifrån en posthumanistisk teoribildning? Vilka esoteriska inslag manifesteras i karaktären? Vilka esoteriska inslag manifesteras i karaktären?Hur relaterar posthumanism och esoterism till varandra?

We are currently living in an artificial, increasingly complex created system of discourse heavily base on socially constructed systems of language and digital technologies. How we use these technologies to advance the human condition in terms of our very existence makes us inherently cyborg in nature. With the increase in digital technologies in every aspect of day –to-day existence from your morning coffee to higher education, we have become increasingly dependent on our cyborg identities. This thesis, then, serves as a project that looks to understand how we have come to this point and to what extent our newly found cyborg identities can serve as the catalyst for progress particularly in education and the further production and transmission of human knowledge.

The sculpture exhibition examines the notion of the cyborg as an autonomous female existing in a non-utopian future still bound by historical, social, and economic conditions of patriarchy.

Binge is a multi-media installation consisting of dangling IV bags looming over a large table of food. Monitors on the table show live online chats about thinness, depression and eating disorders. On the rear wall, interview footage describing the gruesome experiences of the eating disorder sufferer intercut with the newest development of the disease, the online presence. The installation confronts the viewer with the horrible dualities of the disease: discipline and madness, reason and passion, and suffering and indulgence. The work references the philosophic mind/body struggle as well as the grim reality of these afflicted young women.

The sculpture exhibition examines the notion of the cyborg as an autonomous female existing in a non-utopian future still bound by historical, social, and economic conditions of patriarchy.

Hybrid beings have been a part of the artistic imagination since art was first made on cave walls and rock faces. Yet their visual makeup and symbolic meanings have changed over time from deities, demons, and oddities of nature to unconscious states of being and the socially and culturally marginalized. This dissertation will examine a history of hybrid beings and the work of Australian artist Patricia Piccinini. Her silicone sculptures, photographs, installations, and videos are hyperrealistic representations of composite beings that appear to have blended rather than fragmented characteristics of human and animal, which sets them apart from their historic precedents. Piccinini suggests that her hybrids are products of genetic engineering, ostensibly created to serve human beings as comforters, nurturers, protectors, and surrogates for humans and endangered species alike. I argue that Piccinini's hybrids shed light on the hubris and commercialism inherent in bioscientific advances, yet they also reveal a kind of societal ambivalence regarding the posthuman era. Her works suggest utopian aspirations for the future while mourning the loss of humanity as it has been known. Examining Piccinini's art through the lens of liminality and the body, I will contextualize her hybrids within cultural and art historical models from ancient Egypt and Greece through the Victorian eras. In particular, I will establish common ground with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), which served as an early inspiration for Piccinini's images and conceptual aims. I will also highlight hybrid imagery in Dada and Surrealism and feminist art to reveal the similarities and differences in their approaches and intent. Piccinini's works operate within Donna J. Haraway's notion of the cyborg; therefore, I will also analyze her art within that theoretical model. In addition, I will compare and contrast Piccinini's art to early hyprerrealist sculptors and contemporary artists working in this manner. Piccinini's hybrids establish that both humans and animals are social constructs, and that society has a responsibility for the life forms it creates. Ultimately, this project demonstrates that Piccinini's hybrids are not cautionary tales of a dystopian future but representations of the biotechnological sublime.

La série performative La Réincarnation de Sainte-ORLAN, réalisée de 1990-1993, trace le devenir-cyborg de l'artiste française ORLAN. À cheval entre le body art et le bioart, l'artiste explore le corps-machine à travers une pratique qu'elle désigne d'art charnel. Ces performances opérations se développent autour de deux axes, soit la mise en scène de la chirurgie esthétique et la création d'autoportraits. Le présent mémoire réfléchit toutefois à la métamorphose de l'artiste en soi. ORLAN emprunte le chemin houleux de l'expérimentation et explore les diverses déclinaisons du techno-corps. En puisant dans le riche imaginaire de la posthumanité, peuplé de potentialités, de futurs et d'utopies, l'artiste s'hybride à l'autre technologique et révèle un devenir-minoritaire. Pour ce faire, le nomadisme identitaire de la philosophe Rosi Braidotti sert d'outil d'analyse afin de déterminer la valeur politique et la portée symbolique de la métamorphose. Chaperonnée par les écrits de Luce Irigaray et de Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari, elle situe le « sensible » au cœur d'une stratégie d'affirmation féministe et de désengagement de l'ordre phallique. Sa figure de prédilection, le nomade, succède ainsi au féminin de sa prédécesseure belge et reconduit la logique déterritorialisante du devenir du duo Deleuze-Guattari. Par conséquent, ORLAN met en scène la figure du cyborg élaborée par Donna Haraway. Dans la mouvance de l'art posthumain, l'artiste fait valoir des expériences aux limites de la condition humaine. D'une performance opération s'articulant sur la chair de l'artiste surgit paradoxalement une expérience de dépouillement. Émergent ainsi le vertige et l'abject, affects initiant potentiellement une mutation identitaire chez l'artiste et le sujet regardant. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : ORLAN, posthumanisme, féminisme, cyborg, devenir