and on to the final project!!

Perhaps the most interesting and applicable part of Dyen’s article was his assertion that the meaning of the transformation is within the transformed being. In the context of Dollhouse, this means that the meaning of the show lays within the Actives, not within their past selves or the motivations of the Rossum Corporation. Where Dye uses ideas of pierced teenaged bodies or the Man-Cockroach from Kafta’s Metamorphosis , contemporary study can insert the mind-wiped, child-like Dolls of the Whedonverse. All of these representations are no longer wholly their former selves. The Dolls, in their innocent state, provide the clearest definition of a plastic body that I can find.

They are the “framework of a new evolution” (Dyens 62), as seen especially in the dytopian ~forgotten 13th episode of Season 1. These mind-wiped individuals, a product more so of culture than biology, have become a widespread weapon, evolving humanity past biology and into a new era of fluid identities. One identity can be downloaded and implanted onto another biological being, without consent or knowledge by either party. The body has become an entity, a vessel that transports the identity. But with this, Dollhouse brings even more questions. Can a body ever become devoid of its identity? As the series progresses, the answer is leaning towards ‘no’. Once again we are drawn back to the idea of identity. While The Dollhouse attempts to erase its Actives of all trace of their individuality, the overarching narratives involving Sierra and Echo especially appear to question the totality of the mind wipe. The Dollhouse seems to believe in Dyens concept of the aterritorial body, (57) whereas the overall direction of the show Dollhouse appears to take another, more humanistic route.

“The relationship between machine and body cannot sustain life endlessly. One must eventually overtake the other in order for life to continue.”

Her analysis of her daughter’s fight/dependence on life-sustaining technology acknowledges previously held conceptions of the relationship between the body and the machine. The cyborg is such a flawed creature because it is constantly at war with itself: two distinct opposites trying to coexist. But throughout this course, we’ve learned how linked we already are with technology: banking, networking, academia and most importantly, medically. Smith-Windsor’s case is extreme, but I can truely say that many times during my life, technological or medical machines have kept me alive. Does that make me a cyborg?

“The cyborg does not die because it is unplugged. The cyborg continues to exist beyond all locations of space and time, the consciousness irreversibly fused with technology.”

Smith-Windsor thinks so. To think that we’ve already crossed that boundary into post-human is missing a step. Though her daughter acheived the psychological/unconscious transition from human to ‘cyborg’, the more gradual inclusion of technology into my daily life has led to a lack of the mental transition neccessary to fully become a cyborg. For her cyborg integration theory to come to fruition, a more total and all-encompassing acceptance and understanding of the role of technology must first be attained.

In film, the concept of the “other” is well documented in the monster, the villian, the female. The technological cyborg so often takes this role on completely, allowing the viewer to dissociate it with societal others, such as women and people of colour. The male gaze is a mainstay in the majority of Hollywood cinema, a convention that not only encourages othering but Haraway’s article challenges at the very foundation the threat of the cyborg. Her sociological conception of the cyborg is interesting to say the least, and has obviously has a profound effect on film and sociological theory in the past 25 years.

I just wanted to touch briefly on crazy man Kevin Warwick seen here . His attempts to become a cyborg have in my opinion failed at the most basic levels. He is simply using the access he has as a successful white male academic to put on the appearance of cybernetic connections. His only successes of othering himself have made him appear to be a paranoid man with dellusions of being able to open his garage without pressing a button. Plus it’s dangerous and a waste of resources that could be going to legitimate medical technological research. This is my blog, so I’m allowed to call people crazy.

The almost blind faith that many academics have put into the field of digital technology can be likened to the acceptance of online identities. Relating back to Surrogates, your essence is taken at face value, and not questioned: until the two identites come into direct contact does the problem become revealed. The promises made by new media and digital technologies has fostered theory upon theory without any real ‘exemplar’ example of its uses and successes. The effects of theory before product reminds me of the dotcom crash of the early 2000′s. Hopefully academia quickly finds product to theorize about before the tulip theory becomes a reality.

“VR…[is] a way out for those who confront the severe limitiations reality imposes in the form of corporate ideology, determining social structures, and the physical body itself” (Balsamo 122).  It is with this logic and reasoning that the character of Canter in the film Surrogates creates the artificial bodies: to allow people with disabilites to experience reality in a different and fuller way. However, the commercial interests of the developers supercede any altruistic beginnings the Surrogates design started with. In the new surrogate-filled world, limitations still exist. Corporate ideology and social structure remain. Financial restraints determine the amount of modifications you make to your surrogate. The physical body is now resting safely at home, while an impervious model goes about living daily life.  The surrogate identites range from being the exact same as the real identity, to changing completely. This ressonates with our current experiences with the internet. The anonymous threats of ‘stranger danger’ and predators that are presented on the internet are even more magnified in the Surrogates world, however in that constructed reality identites are taken at face value with no thought of the physical body that is operating the Surrogate.  This implies that a user’s own identity can be forgotten in lieu of their surrogate. They have been freed from all physical markings, creating their own new selves that are accepted socially as real.

This complete loss of a physical body, while freeing, also appears to distance the user from reality. Consider this in regards to current cyber culture. The physical body is left behind when entering cyberspace, and identity must be constructed through other means: pictures, words, sounds and videos. We are already learning how to create ourselves in a technological world without physical representation. We can go into a chatroom and assumed any a/s/l that we desire. We can keep a livejournal blog about a battle with cancer that we don’t have. While the world of Surrogates seems lightyears away from our current reality, many aspects of our culture are present in that world: for better or for worse.

Looking at film and television that attempt to show this opposition, Matrix notes that technology can be used to reaffirm the status quo or to stage an attempt at hybridity. Looking at last week’s screening of Caprica, we can see both of these uses. The status quo of our contemporary society is that technology = good. Developments are helping the medical world and the networking world. Caprica shows us a more fully developed society that utilizes technology in almost every aspect: cleaning, interacting, entertainment and transportation. Looking at it simply in those terms makes the world of Caprica seem much like contemporary Canada. However, Caprica delves deep into the possibility of hybridity. Firstly, the creation of and the potential for complete emergence of the holoband blows our concept of virtual reality out of the water. While the creators of the holoband hoped for it to be used for useful and productive purposes, the show first reveals it to us in a den of sin, death and sex. Secondly, the creation of cylons, mechanical robots with the consciousness of a person, begin with similarly noble goals: to reunite a family. By the end of the pilot, it can already be seen that this idea has become corrupted by a desire for power and technological advancement.

These uses of technology demonstrate the power and the fear that our society places upon technological advancement. By showing possible realities through film, I agree with the position that such products serve to stimulate the human mind, rather than pacify it. The remix culture that has developed seems now to be an inevitable step in the evolution of technology: the true mark of hybridity.