Cyborgs

A cyborg manifesto Donna Haraway

What is a cyborg?

‘A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction’ – Donna Haraway A Cyborg Manifesto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urVXWUD8Q3Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQiwRrR-LeE&feature=PlayList&p=C925E7278B12CA06&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7

DominationHaraway labels the postmodern technological configuration the ‘informatics of

domination’ • Representation Simulation• Bourgeois novel, realism Science fiction,postmodernism• Organism Biotic Component • Depth, integrity Surface, boundary• Heat Noise• Biology as clinical practice Biology as inscription • Physiology Communications Engineering• Small group Subsystem• Perfection Optimization• Eugenics Population Control• Sex Genetic engineering • Labour Robotics• Mind Artificial intelligence• Second World War Star Wars• White Capitalis Patriarchy Informatics of Domination

Breaking down binaries

• Human/nonhuman

• Culture/nature

• Male/female

• Technology/biology

• Divine /man made

• Reality/ representation

• Subject/ object

Vs.

Cyborgs, sex and gender• Cyborgs challenge gender binaries and support the idea that gender is

socially acquired.• "There is nothing about being female that naturally binds women. There is

not even such a state as 'being' female, itself a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices"-Haraway, "Cyborg Manifesto" (155).

• Haraway feels that the cyborg myth has the ‘potential for radical political action as it frees feminists from a desperate search for similarity with one another, since physical/epistemological boundary breaks can be extrapolated to political boundary crossings’ (Scott)

• Gender as language, codes and signs. • Halberstam states ‘ gender is also not innate or essential, but learned

imitative behaviour that can be programmed’ and ‘femininity and masculinity are always mechanical and artificial’

• The cyborg transgresses gender stereotypes and is a liminal being that creates its own subjectivity.

Cyborgs and Feminism

• Donna Haraway- Influential in feminist discourse. Attempts to summarize the correlation between cyborg imagery and women

• Ecofeminists versus technofeminists• Ecofeminists critique technology• Technofeminists argue technology is empowering• ‘The cyborg is a kind of disassembled and reassembled,

postodern collective and personal self. This is a self feminists must code.’ ( Haraway 163)

• Emergence of Cyberfeminism

Cyberfeminism

• Cyberfeminists resist rigid labelling of what cyberfeminism is but it is generally concerned with expressing and developing feminism in the context of online interactions and online art.

• Draw on vairious feminist schools of though to promote “cyberfeminist artists theorists and speakers; publishing of cyberfeminist theory and criticism; cyberfeminist education projects; creating coalitions with female technical professionals; and creating new self-representations and avatars that “disrupt and recode the gender biases usual in current commercially available ones”.(Wilding 12)

Cyberfeminism cont….

• Cyberfeminism ‘explains the patriarchal social hierarchies by its phallogocentrism; it attacks western centering of privileged knowledge, its conception of objective reason, its binary rational dichotomies, and its abstractions which permitted, justified, and developed an oppressive intersubjectictivity in which women were subordinated in all dimensions and levels of life’ (Turkle 115)

• According to Sherry Turkle, cyberspace opens an alternative to traditional western symbolic and material, individual and collective oppression  which is phallogocentrist in its essence

The Old Boys- 100 anti-thesescyberfeminism is not ...

1. cyberfeminism is not a fragrance2. cyberfeminism is not a fashion statement3. sajbrfeminizm nije usamljen4. cyberfeminism is not ideology5. cyberfeminism nije aseksualan6. cyberfeminism is not boring7. cyberfeminism ist kein gruenes haekeldeckchen 8. cyberfeminism ist kein leerer kuehlschrank9. cyberfeminism ist keine theorie10. cyberfeminism ist keine praxis11. cyberfeminism ist keine traditio12. cyberfeminism is not an institution13. cyberfeminism is notusing words without any knowledge of numbers14. cyberfeminism is not complete15. cyberfeminism is not error 10116. cyberfeminism ist kein fehler17. cyberfeminism ist keine kunst18. cyberfeminism is not an ism19. cyberfeminism is not anti-male20. sajbrfeminizm nige nesto sto znam da je21. cyberfeminism is not a structure22. cyberfeminismo no es uns frontera23. cyberfeminism nije poslusan24. cyberfeminism nije apolitican25. cyberfeminisme is niet concreet26. cyberfeminism is not separatism27. cyberfeminism is not a tradition28. cyberfeminism is not maternalistic 29. cyberfeminisme id niet iets buitenlands30. cyberfeminism is not without connectivity31. cyberfeminismus ist nicht mehr wegzudenken32. cyberfeminismus ist kein oxymoron33. cyberfeminism is not on sale34. cyberfeminism is nor for sale35. cyberfeminismus ist nicht gut36. cyberfeminismus ist nicht schlecht37. cyberfeminismus ist nicht modern38. cyberfeminismus ist nicht post-modern39. cyberfeminism is not natural40. cyberfeminism is not essentialist41. cyberfeminism is not abject42. cyberfeminism is not an avatar43. cyberfeminism is not an alter ego

44. cyberfeminismus ist nicht truegerisch45. cyberfeminismus ist nicht billig46. cyberfeminismus ist nicht willig 47. cyberfeminisme n'est pas jaloux48. cyberfeminism is not exclusive49. cyberfeminism is not solid50. cyberfeminism is not genetic

51. cyberfeminismus ist keine entschuldigung 52. cyberfeminism is not prosthetic 53. cyberfeminismo no tiene cojones 54. cyberfeminisme n'est pas triste 55. cyberfeminisme n'est pas une pipe56. cyberfeminism is not a motherboard 57. cyberfeminism is not a fake58. cyberfeminism nije ogranicen59. cyberfeminism nije nekonfliktan60. cyberfeminism nije make up 61. cyberfeminism nije zatvoren prozor62. cyberfeminism is not a lack63. cyberfeminism is not a wound64. cyberfeminism is not a trauma 65. cyberfeminismo no es una banana66. cyberfeminism is not a sure shot67. cyberfeminism is not an easy mark68. cyberfeminism is not a single woman69. cyberfeminism is not romantic 70. cyberfeminism is not post-modern 71. cyberfeminism is not a media-hoax72. cyberfeminism is not neutral 73. cyberfeminism is not lacanian 74. cyberfeminism is not nettime 75. cyberfeminism is not a picnic 76. cyberfeminism is not a coldfish77. cyberfeminism is not a cyberepilation78. cyberfeminism is not a horror movie79. cyberfeminism is not science fiction 80. cyberfeminism is not artificial intelligence81. cyberfeminism is not an empty space82. cyberfeminism is not immobile 83. cyberfeminism is not about boring toys for boring boys84. cyberfeminismus ist keine verlegenheitsloesung85. cyberfeminism is not a one-way street86. cyberfeminism is not supporting quantum mechanics

87. cyberfeminism is not caffeine-free 88. cyberfeminism is not a non-smoking area 89. cyberfeminism is not daltonistic90. cyberfeminism is not nice91. cyberfeminismo no es callado92. cyberfeminism is not lady.like 93. cyberfeminismus ist nicht arrogant 94. cyberfeminismus ist keine nudelsauce95. cyberfeminism is not mythical96. cyberfeminism is not from outer space97. cyberfeminismo no es rock 'n roll98. cyberfeminism is not dogmatic 99. cyberfeminism is not stable100. cyberfeminism has not only one language

Cyberfeminist Art

Cyborg- Online identities and gender

• Heightened connection to machine• Online identities - Multi identity, partiality• The internet allows for the deconstruction of

binary genders• “The new identity is formed from the relationship

between the original identity and the internet. It is a cyborg identity, part machine, part human

-Ted Kaiser• The user as a cyborg

Bibliography• Sofoulis, Zoe (2002) ‘Cyberquake: Haraway’s manifesto’ in Tofts, Darren, Annemarie Jonson and Allesio Cavallaro (2002)

Prefiguring cyberculture: an intellectual history, Sydney: Power Publications, pp 84-103.

• Haraway, Donna (1991) ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ in Haraway, Donna J (1991) Simians, cyborgs and women. Reinvention of nature, New York: Routledge, pp 149-181.

• Haraway, Donna . Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge, 1991 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cyborg_Manifesto• http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/advant.html• http://www.egs.edu/faculty/haraway.html• http://construct.haifa.ac.il/~ilangz/Cyberfeminism.html• http://www.unb.ca/PAR-L/win/cyberfem.htm• http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/kayfetz7.html