A Verhoeven Robot: ED-209 (Enforcement Droid-209)

Here's this bit of robot nightmare from the 1984 film, Robocop.

The Swan, Season 2 Beauty Pageant

Exoskeleton--from performance art to commerce

In 1999 Australian performance artist Stelarc demonstrated modified bodily agency through his invention of the Exoskeleton, a mechanical hydraulic and electronic extension of his body, which changed the nature of his mobility and in various experiments, expanded the ability of his individual digits on his hands to grasp finer and smaller things through mini digits on the tips of each.

I'm not sure how long this video will be available, but CNN has a video report on a Utah company, Sarcos, which is manufacturing exoskeletons for military use, and the report is chock full of unqualified fascination and celebration for the developments. In the absence of Stelarc's uncanny emphases on the distortion of the human element in such hybrids, this report on Sarcos seems like a commercial for ED-209, the fictional robotic law enforcement robot that went awry with murderous malfunction in the film Robocop. Anyway, check out this link to the hyped-up next generation military technology for robotic hybrids for military use. No mention of cost, or the effect on the human operator over time, but something tells me a day spent in the exoskeleton leaves the operator somehow changed.

Here's Stelarc demonstrating his Exoskeleton in 1999. Keep in mind that he typically drives the legs and other attachments with voluntary muscles from unrelated places in his body. For example, his third hand, which he performs with often, is driven by abdominal and leg muscles, not by his arm or hand muscles.

Sideshow freaks and repressive state apparatuses

Here is Erik Sprague, a former doctoral candidate and philosophy degree holder, known around the world for his amazing transformation from man to lizard as well as his modern sideshow performance art. A proud freak. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the nose flossing, or other sideshow undertakings Sprague does in his act, but he is clearly a thoughtful agent of change and his discussion of the medical procedures behind his body modification project is rich with observations about the social importance of regulating the human body. In particular, his filed teeth and bifurcated tongue have caused a movement to form around writing laws to make such body modifications illegal, thus invoking and Althusserian repressive state apparatus to protect us from turning ourselves into lizard people.

While Erik Sprague occupies the low culture sideshow stages, his high culture colleagues, Strelarc and Orlan, among others, explore related boundaries in their surgical interventions, which are displayed and exhibited in gallery spaces and universities.

Here's Lizard Man speaking about his origins and some of the procedures.

collage and montage

In May of next year, I have arranged a roundtable of artists and scholars to discuss technology and collage/montage. In this NY Times slideshow, the work of 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo will amuse many, and it has a corresponding relevance to the Dada photomontage from the early twentieth century in which the human form again appeared in collage assmblies, grotesque, and newly politicized. In the excellent notes and the accompanying review, the New York Times writer Michael Kimmerman does a good job of tying Arcimboldo's paintings to the state of the art in technology and politics of the day.

Here's the link to the pics.

MacArthur "Genius" grants given to post-evolutionary scholars

Perhaps it's just my perspective these days, but the MacArthur foundation, which gives out $500k grants to selected individuals it deems as geniuses, seems to be endorsing post-human developments. University of Washington in Seattle reports here that three of their own received grants this year. Of the three, one has improved drinking water, but the other two are have accomplished things directly related to post-evolutionary reconfiguring humans. One is researching roboticized prosthetics for people, and the other is developing technology to keep people in a state of suspended animation.

Suspended animation makes me think of the hive-boudn humans in The Matrix, or the 1978 suspended organ transplant donor farm in Coma.

Brain Music Treatment--The Mood Organ is Here!!!

In his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick invented a device that citizens hook into to administer moods for the day. Last autumn at the College Music Journal (CMJ) Music Marathon and conference in New York City (2006), a company called Brain Music Therapy was displaying their service in a booth, the production of a "brain music" audio track for people to use to treat commonplace diseases, including such blockbuster ailments as depression, insomnia, attention deficit disorder, anxiety, migranes and tension headaches. It sounds like new age piano music, but the idea is that it is recorded based on rhythms and data from your personal EEG, an electroencephalogram which measures electrical nerve activity from the skin of your scalp and ears.

Here's the link.

First observation: the girl in the "before brain music" photo is way hotter than the organized and efficient "after brain music" woman. Sure, before listening to brain music the woman couldn't even get her jacket on and off, but man, that brain music makes her look rather Stepfordian afterwards. Or perhaps it's just the lighting.

Second observation: language is deployed throughout this site in a way that promotes thinking about the body as a collection of replaceable parts, a system to be tuned. The body and mind can be kept in optimal functionality, all very jargon-laden and scientific sounding. But this is no mere gimmick, this is crucial to the reorganization of the human body as a site for commerce and exchange. Read through the website for awhile and the language of optimized performance starts to sound like you're buying a Lexus.

Third observation: if the therapy actually works, it is regulating performance through adminstration of a feedback loop. This is basic cybernetics, Norman Weiner's theory about the human-machine interface. Data is collected from the EEG rhythms and intensities, manipulated into audio information--brain music--and played back based on a deliberate and systematic schedule. The company even advises revising as necessary (recording a new audio loop, $$) once the new patterns have taken effect. It could be a scam or it could be a brilliant new discovery--related companies are selling equipment, and training in neurofeedback therapy, and such therapies are being administered by licensed psychiatrists and psychologists. Clearly, the American Medical Association is going to resist any alternative medicine--there's too much money in treating the big pharm diseases that brain music claims to heal. But even if this therapy helps me sleep better at night, I am uneasy about spending more time being disciplined by information, or any media at all.

Still curious? Check out www.cnih.net, the website for The Center for Neurofeedback and Integrative Health, Inc. The new technology, and systems analysis approach to emotional and mental health are explained in detail here. The average treatment period is about six months, with twice weekly sessions.