Presentation

Week 12 Presentation: Post-Human Conclusions

By Jo-Anne Hodges

Hayles, Katherine. N “Flesh and Metal: Reconfiguring the MindBody in Virtual Environments.” Configurations, 10. (2002): 297-320.

In her article, Hayles makes a final point of saying; “we do not exist in order to relate; rather, we relate in order that we may exist as fully realized human beings” (Hayles 320). So, existence for Hayles is defined and experienced through how we relate in and to things in our environments or worlds and how these environments relate to us.

The article explores this Idea of Relationality and how it is expressed in virtual reality artworks such as in; “Traces,” “The Einstein Brain Project” and “nØtime.” These artworks will be described later but first I would like to explain Hayles’ notion of Relationality.

Previously, in her book “How We Became Post-human,” Hayles made a distinction between Body and Embodiment. Body, which is the human form, seen for the outside is a culturally constructed abstract concept. Embodiment is culturally constructed experiences that arise out of the interactions between the conscious mind and physiological structures. Embodiment has to do with an inner experience of feelings, emotions and sensations. So body and embodiment have been described as separate “things.”

Now however, Hayles is constructing this Body/Embodiment distinction in a new way. In doings so she has adopted the term Mindbody, this is defined as the merging of body and embodiment. Mindbody focuses on the idea of relation and Hayles proposes that both body and embodiment (Mindbody) emerge from it; from relation. What I think she means is that there are complex interactions between the body, our perceptions and our physical worlds. These do not exist as separated concepts or entities but rather that they are intimately intertwined and the relations between them, is what contributes to our experiences as fully realized human beings.

Hayles describes that our embodied experiences are changing through our interactions with our modern, information-rich environments. So, as we interact with and relate to our evolving technological worlds, the technology is changing and shaping the way we exist and experience that existence. For Hayles, the boundaries between humans and technology (aka, the skin) are becoming increasingly fluid. As much as our bodies control and shape the experiences we have with technology, technology also controls and shapes our bodies. For example, in video gaming, players project their proprioceptive sense (their body) into the gaming space (technology). Players may become so immersed in the gaming space that this space itself becomes a world and the joystick becomes an unconscious extension of the hand (Hayles 300). But also, that interaction of the Mindbody with the technology can condition and shape the central and peripheral nervous system. So, as our environments evolve there is an increasingly inseparable interaction between us and our technological, information –rich worlds.

Our technological, information-rich worlds shape us through a phenomenon known as “Neural Plasticity.” Neural plasticity is the brain/central nervous system’s ability to change its shape through experience. You know the saying “Practice makes perfect?” Well, when you do something repeatedly, your brain develops neural connections for those actions and the more you do that activity, the stronger those connections become. These neural connections are physical representations of experience. So, the more we interact with technology the more those experiences become represented in the brain (just think of how fast you can type compared to when you first started) and the more we project our “brains” (thinking, ideas, designs etc.) into our technological world, the more those worlds change. Both humans and technology are becoming smarter and smarter, one shaping the other, and this is a function of what Hayles calls Relationality.

As relationality itself evolves, creating even smarter technological worlds and even smarter humans, it is described that we will enter the Post-Human/ Trans-human Era. An age beyond the digital age where, like body and embodiment are no longer distinct concepts, humans and machine will not be separate concepts/species but a merged.

At this time, is it said that “A transcendent union of the human and technology will enable us to download our consciousness into computers and live as disembodied information patterns, thereby escaping the frailties of the human body, especially mortality (Haraway, cited in Hayles 299). So, in a sense Post-humanism will liberate us from the perceived constraints of our current human bodies. In another sense, our identities will change and evolve too as Hayles describes that living in technologically engineered and information-rich environments brings associated shifts in habits, postures, enactments and perceptions (Hayles 299).

Reactions to such ideas have been expressed through the interactive virtual artworks that Hayles explores;

“Traces”

Artists: Simon Penny, Phoebe Sengers, Andre Bernhardt & Jamieson Shulte.

- Inter-active simulation where the body is brought fully into Virtual reality

- Using sophisticated technology, the artists created what they call the CAVE. The individual is connected to a computer and movements are morphed onto the screen.

- This artwork is a reaction to the idea that post-humanism will create us as disembodied information patterns.

- The movements are represented as volumetric residues that trial behind the morphed model of the user’s body and as time passes, the residues gradually fade away.

- The idea here resists the suggestions that information technology will allow us to escape our bodies and avoid our mortality.

“The ‘Einstein Brain’ Project”

Artists: Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow

- Based on the idea that what we perceive IS reality. Reality is not something “out there” but rather something “in here,” as a result of neurological processes in the brain.

- Reality is not something that pre-exist our experience of it. Reality exists as we construct it through Mindbody and relationality.

- The artwork points to Hayles’ concluding remark that we relate in order that we may exist. (Constructed reality as opposed to pre-existing reality).

“nØtime” (linked to video)

Artist: Victoria Vesna with collaborators; Phoebe Sengers, Hideaki Kuzuoka, Gerald Jong

- Nano art

- Interactive,

- Is a reaction to the post-human condition as having so much convenience in terms of technology but les and less time to do things

- This artwork is difficult to describe BUT please watch this video, it is really, really cool! It illustrates what nØtime is.

So, my questions for discussion are;

1. In response to “traces,” resisting the idea that post-humanism will liberate us from our human mortality, what do you think? Do you think that the evolution of technology and humans into the Post-Human Era will disembody us, and allow us to escape mortality? Do you think we can become superhuman and evolve into almost immortal superior intelligences?

2. In relation to the idea that identities will, or could, change in response to the post-human movement, what is identity to you? Is it bodied, is it embodiment? Is identity Mindbody? Or is identity something else altogether? What is identity to you?