Redesigning the Body The Body Skinned

1. Redesigning the Body The Body Skinned Franziska SchroederCenter for the Creative and Performing Arts (NI)An Interdisciplinary Arts ProgrammeQueen’s University BelfastTHE ANATOMICAL THEATRE REVISITED | University of Amsterdam | 5-8 April, 2006 www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/michel/pics/valuerda1647_ecorche_lo.jpg

2. Overview I examine performances of “the body skinned”The Body Skinned- a body incised into- a body opened up by technology - a body re-designed and re-made - a body where the process of its re-design constitutes the performance (French artist Orlan)

3. Overview Consider the changes that affected the skinTo highlight the changes in the treatment of the performative body in technologically mediated environments

4. Argument By re-designing the body, these performances explore the paradoxical and the ambiguous within the bodyThese performances expose threshold conditions that the body highlights and incite one to question the body’s role and place in technologically informed performance environments

5. The Skin Steven Connor (2004)The skin allows one to keep in touch with oneself Psychoanalytical interpretation of DidierAnzieuSense of SelfImportance of skin contact in early childhood Skin contact of the infant with the carer “peau-moi”: the skin-selfThe skin as a border between self and not-self

6. The Skin First, a symbiotic relationship with the carerThe skins of both infant and carer mergeThe infant soon distances itself from others

7. The Skin Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage” The primordial experience of identification takes place

8. The Skin Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage” The primordial experience of identification takes placeThe infant identifies with an external image of the body

9. The Skin Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage” The primordial experience of identification takes placeThe infant identifies with an external image of the body This image of another gives rise to the mental representation of an "I”

10. The Skin Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage” The primordial experience of identification takes placeThe infant identifies with an external image of the body This image of another gives rise to the mental representation of an "I” It gives rise to the infant’s perception of “self” (Zuern, 1998)

11. The Skin Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage” The primordial experience of identification takes placeThe infant identifies with an external image of the body This image of another gives rise to the mental representation of an "I” It gives rise to the infant’s perception of “self” (Zuern, 1998)The skin takes on “a function of individuation for the self, which transmits the feeling to the self that it is a single being” (Anzieu 1996)

12. The skin as a covering that kept the body togetherMaintained the integrity of the body Inattention to the Skin

13. The skin as a covering that kept the body togetherMaintained the integrity of the bodyThe Greek physician (anatomist) Galen“De anatomiciis administrationibus”His instruction on the dissection of a body highlights an inattention to the skin (Connor, 2004, p.13). Inattention to the Skin

14. The Medieval PeriodThe skin as organ of interchangeA permeable membraneThe skin was understood to be “traversable in two directions” (Connor 2004, p.21)The skin’s function is taking into consideration (crucial for maintaining the body’s well-being, as in sweating for example) Inattention to the Skin

15. European Renaissance The taboo of cutting the skin was releasedJonathan Sawday“The culture of dissection”(1995) Inattention to the Skin

16. AndreasVesalius(Belgian physician, 1514-1564) in “De humanis corporis fabrica” (1543) The skin is neglectedIt is seen primarily to gain access Vesalius’ Anatomy Theatre http://images.umdl.umich.edu/w/wantz/images/vesdt01.jpg

17. AndreasVesalius(Belgian physician, 1514-1564) in “De humanis corporis fabrica” (1543) The skin is neglectedIt is seen primarily to gain accessHeightened interest in the body itself Sawday (1995): “new science of the body” Vesalius’ theatricum anatomicorum = a purpose-built space for the “anatomy theatre” Vesalius’ Anatomy Theatre http://images.umdl.umich.edu/w/wantz/images/vesdt01.jpg

18. Joseph Plenck(Viennese military surgeon) “Doctrina de Morbis Cutaneis qua hi morbid in suas classes, genera & species rediguntur” (Vienna, 1776)The skin is an organ in itself,with its own structure and functions In/Attention to the Skin

19. Joseph Plenck(Viennese military surgeon) “Doctrina de Morbis Cutaneis qua hi morbid in suas classes, genera & species rediguntur” (Vienna, 1776)The skin is an organ in itself,with its own structure and functions Contemporary PeriodMichel SerresThe multiplying functions of the skinThe most various of organsIt is as an entire environmentIt is a meeting place for the other sensesIt is a milieu of the other senses The “milieu of the milieux” (Serres 1998, p.97) In/Attention to the Skin

20. The Skin mingles Michel Serres’ ‘philosophy of mingling’“in the skin, through the skin, the world and body touch, defining their common border. Contingency means mutual touching: world and body meet and caress in the skin. I do not like to speak of the place where my body exists as a milieu, preferring rather to say that things mingle among themselves and that I am no exception to this, that I mingle with the world which mingles itself in me. The skin intervenes in the things of the world and brings about their mingling” (Serres 1998, p.97)

21. The Skin mingles Michel Serres’ ‘philosophy of mingling’“in the skin, through the skin, the world and body touch, defining their common border. Contingency means mutual touching: world and body meet and caress in the skin. I do not like to speak of the place where my body exists as a milieu, preferring rather to say that things mingle among themselves and that I am no exception to this, that I mingle with the world which mingles itself in me. The skin intervenes in the things of the world and brings about their mingling” (Serres 1998, p.97)The other sense organs exist as “convolutions or complications in the skin”, such as the scooping out of the mouth for example (Connor 2004, p.34)

22. Changes for the performative body Skin’s changing role highlights the changes in the treatment of the performative body in technologically mediated environmentsThe body ceases to be considered solely from the outside in, as something covered by the skinAlso from the inside out, more akin to a milieu, like the skin itself

23. Changes for the performative body Changes in performance technologyNot only for attaching onto the body from the outsideAlso for the opening up of the body

24. Transgression of the body’s border Preoccupation with the “border”New ways of conceiving of the bodily interior and exteriorDerrick de Kerckhove: “borderless tactility and of physical borders dissolving in global cyberspace” (Becker 2003) The individual is no longer tied to a certain place Touch ceases to depend on the actual contact with another person(Becker 2003)

25. Threshold Threshold The Body Skinned, by being opened up and incised into, highlights the bodily border (or its absence)

26. Threshold Threshold Changes in the conception of the body Performance technology that is designed not only to suit or mimic the body The body is being made and re-made in order to suit the performance technology

27. Performances exposing the Threshold Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)The skin not only delineates a certain bodily borderThe skin is the pre-requisite for the performanceThe suspension of one’s body by one’s own skin reinstates the skin as interface, as the surface that forms the common boundary between inside and outside • www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2

28. Performances exposing the Threshold Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)Testing ground for the body’s re-makingFor the body’s potential for expansion and re-location • www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2

29. Performances exposing the Threshold Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)Testing ground for the body’s re-makingFor the body’s potential for expansion and re-location The performances highlight a primordial desire of modifying and redesigning one’s body • www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2

30. Urge for Redesign Lewis Mumford “The Myth of the Machine” (Mumford 1967)The body is seen as biologically ill-equipped, inefficient and fragileBelievers dedicated to the improvement of the human condition often refer to themselves as “Post-humans” or “Extropians” (coined in 1988 by T.O.Morrow) www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg

31. Urge for Redesign Ray Kurzweil: Human Body Version 2.0 (physical and mental systems are upgraded)Natasha Vita-More conceptualised and devised such a redesigned body and titled it “Primo Posthuman 3M+” www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • Natasha Vita More, «Primo Posthuman 3M+, 2000 • www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/primo-posthuman/images/2

32. Urge for Redesign Ray Kurzweil: Human Body Version 2.0 (physical and mental systems are upgraded)Natasha Vita-More conceptualised and devised such a redesigned body and titled it “Primo Posthuman 3M+” www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • Natasha Vita More, «Primo Posthuman 3M+, 2000 • www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/primo-posthuman/images/2

33. Body’s Redesign in Gaming “eXistenZ” (David Cronenberg, 1999)The computer game lives inside a biotechnological organism It is transferred to the body through a "bioport” or “game port”The body physically redesigned or incised into in order to perform www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • www.darkhorizons.com/1999/existenz/exist4.jpg

34. Wo(man) as performing animal The Body Skinned - Design process of the body as performance Orlan’s Surgical performancesPosthuman motto:“what I am is what I make myself into”Self-portraitureSelf-perfection Self-questioning of her identity www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

35. Wo(man) as performing animal The surgical performances give rise to the body“Theatre of the Self” (David Moos 1996)Man’s urge to investigate and alter his own physical body www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

36. Wo(man) as performing animal Not only performances conceived from the outside in, as incision into the skinAlso, technology is used for the opening up of the body and for establishing the body as a meeting place for others The Body Skinned - a body re-made, re-interpreted and intervened into www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

37. Wo(man) as performing animal Man as a self-making individualNot as homo sapiens or homo ludens, but as homo faber, as man the makerMaker and designer of his own self “[M]an is pre-eminently a mind-making, self-mastering, and self-designing animal […]. Until man had made something of himself he could make little of the world around him.” (Mumford 1967, p.9) www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

38. Wo(man) as performing animal The endeavour of man to understand his own bodyA reflexive act, an act allowing man to reflect on himself In this act of understanding himself, man has to be seen as a performing animal, as “homo performans”, since “in performing, [man] reveals himself to himself.” (Turner 1987, p.81) www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

39. Wo(man) as performing animal Orlan’s and Stelarc’s performances showthe bodily interior and exterior They expose the threshold conditions, which the body highlightsThe performances show how a performative act is able to highlight the transgression of the body www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg • http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/ • whoisorlan.htm.jpg

40. The Body Skinned - Summarised Brings to the fore the urge for redesign and relocation of the bodyIt makes one question the body’s place and meaning in a performance environmentBodily borders and future applications of technologies and their impact on the human body are questionedThe performances highlight the ambiguous nature of the bodyThey expose the body as residing on the threshold www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg

41. References Anzieu, Didier. 1996. Das Haut-Ich. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.Becker, Barbara. 2003. Marking and crossing borders: bodies, touch and contact in cyberspace http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/home.htm edn. UK: Department of Performing Arts/Brunel University.Connor, Steven. 2004. The Book of Skin. New York: Cornell University Press.Kurzweil, Ray. 2003. Human body version 2.0.Available: www.kurzweilai.net [February, 2006].Moos, David 1996. Memories of Being: Orlan’s Theatre of the Self. Art + Text 54 edn. pp. 67-72.Mumford, Lewis. 1967.The Myth of the Machine. London: M. Secker & Warburg Limited.Plenck, Joseph. Doctrina de Morbis Cutaneis qua hi morbid in suas classes, genera & species rediguntur, Vienna, 1776.Sawday, Jonathan. 1995. The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture. Routledge edn. London and New York.Serres, Michelle. 1998. Les Cinq Sens. Paris: Hachette.Turner, Victor. 1987. The Anthropology of Performance. AJ Publishing Company.Vesalius, Andreas.De humanis corporis fabrica, 1543.Zuern, John. 1998. Lacan: The Mirror Stage. CriticalLink website, University of Hawaiihttp://maven.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/index.html[June, 2005]. URL’sStelarc www.stelarc.com [February 2006] Orlanwww.orlan.net [March 2006] www.ranjiv.com

42. KONTAKT Franziska SchroederCenter for the Creative and Performing Arts (NI)An Interdisciplinary Arts ProgrammeQueen’s University Belfastfranziska@lautnet.net URL: www.lautnet.net www.ranjiv.com