Research Questions: [If popular culture has taken up the cyborg as a figure of progress, what happens to the way race is represented?]
ANNOTATION #1
Youtube is an online boardcast medium which allow people to share videos, therefore, it is possible that some of the videos contain counterfeit information. Hence, Youtube might not be a reliable reference for writing essay. However, the user who upload this video is a well known Japanese organization in the U.S, as a result, I found it rather dependable. This Youtube video is the movie trailer of the Japanese movie “Cyborg She”. I found this video important as it indicated how female cyborg is represented in popular culture in Japan. The ideal image of a female is symbolized in the cyborg character with attractive appearance and perfect female body shape. The cyborg girl in the movie destroys the boundary between human and machine; it also helped to create new images of a hybrid cyborg with new ideas of sexuality, gender and race. This video, thus signify the cyborg as a figure of progress and implied that all human race will be transformed into cyborg in the near future. Japan, the epicenter of cyborgs in anime and movie, is also a leader in robotics. The video therefore is relevant in my research as it provided information about how female cyborg is identified in Japanese popular culture as a figure of progress.
This article was found in a news information website, the website itself consist of mixture of news about science, physics and technology in the world and is highly related to my essay. Japan is one of the first countries started the development in cyborg technology and it is still the biggest developer in the world. This news article demonstrated the fact that cyborg in Japan is no longer consider as future commodities, rather it is an ongoing process that happening every day in Japan. Yoshiyuki Sankai, a professor at Tsukuba University has developed these high-tech suits that is currently using in several hospitals in Japan. Furthermore, Denmark had just purchased a few cyborg from Japan. For instances, Japan has launched a five-year program to put people-assisting robots (cyborgs) into widespread practical use. A government survey in Japan estimates that the global market for cyborgs will expand to 65 billion dollars within 15 years. This news article is significant to my paper as it state the development in Japan’s cyborg technology. What’s more, it inspired me about the idea of race in cyborg which is a major consideration in developing my essay.
ANNOTATION #3
This article provides the definition of cyborg and thus is significant in developing my paper. I found this website trusty because this is an educational website from the university of Chicago. The author defined cyborg as a person whose physical tolerace or capabilities are beyond human limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the body’s functions. In other way, the cyborg is a person with extensions or modifications, but it still has noticeable human qualities. The author also suggested that the representations of cyborgs deny clearly defined boundaries between human and machine, as a result, a cyborg is considered as a condensed image of both imagination and material reality. The article also emphasized the way that cyborg constructed is to reconfigure identity and to extend the possibilities of a human without a body, a body without organs. It is very important for me to develop a clear idea and definition about cyborg, therefore, this website is extremely significance in constructing my thesis statement.
ANNOTATION #4
You are Cyborg, For Donna Haraway, we are already assimilated
I found this article in a website called “wired” which is originally an American magazine and on-line periodical published since 1993, it largely reports on how technology affects culture, the economy and politics. This online source therefore is dependable. The author proposed and criticized the thought of cyborg through the interview with Donna Haraway. Haraway is a leading thinker about people’s love and hate relationship with machines. For Haraway, the realities of modern life happen to include a relationship between people and technology which is so intimate that it is impossible to divide the boundaries between human and machine beings. Using Haraway’s thinking, cyborg do not just surround us, instead they integrate us. For instances, an automated production line in a factory and an office computer networks are all considered cyborg constructions of people and machines. As a result, Donna Haraway ‘s definition of cyborg is particularly important to develop my essay thesis, also her idea that one’s identity can be construct in conjunction with technology, it is possible to build one’s gender and even race. This initiative is extremely significant in dealing with the way that race is represented.
ANNOTATION #5
Digitizing race: visual cultures of the Internet
I encountered this book on Google Book Online, although I cannot access all the pages in the book, as it is required to pay for the full version. I found this book highly related to my research topic and I also found this website reliable. This book mainly suggested the idea about how race is influenced and present in the virtual society; using Donna Haraways’ definition about cyborg as the foundation, I believe this book is essential for me in developing my major statement. The author, Lisa Nakamura, a leading scholar in the examination of race in digital age, uses different case studies based on the Internet to look at the emergence of racial issues and race- identified visual cultures. Race is a huge issue not only in the real world, the virtual world as well. For instances, the way that race is represented in cyborgs are noteworthy in developing my writing. It is crucial to understand the way that race is being symbolized in different online medium as to take a further step to recognize how it is being illustrated in cyborg technology.
By Stephanie Ao Chou I
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