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FleshFactor: RE: Re: re: what is a machine?
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A E C F O R U M - "F L E S H F A C T O R"
(http://www.aec.at/fleshfactor/arch/)
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Reproductive technologies might inform this discussion -- as they raise
questions about intersections of technology and culture, particularly the
desire/need/wish for the uncertainty of human social identity.
Reproductive technologies, including foetal imaging, sperm banks,
abortion, etc., challenge the historical unpredicability of a subject born
into the world. We can now parent biologically without engaging in even
residual social parenting (rent-a-womb, rent-an-egg, rent-some-sperm).
Technology is usually understood as either the savior of women, aiding in
the realization of maternal dispositions, or as conquering one of the last
areas of mystery.
This either/or isn't particularly useful -- it is pretty dramatic -- either
we are the victims, or in the thralls of human agency... but it does
suggest how we look at these intersections, and, naturally, wish for
simplicity.
I would also take exception to Sean Cubitt's notion that the body, as a
biological category, doesn't have to do with identity... Biology, and
parenthood for example, raise some of our largest questions about
subjectivity -- how we identify as machine, mother, father, child,
product...
rachel
Rachel Greene
Editor
RHIZOME INTERNET
THE RHIZOME, ADA WEB AND MOMA COLLABORATION: http://www.tech90s.net
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