Cyborgs and Other Extensions
Donna Haraway has defined the meaning of “cyborg” as being more than just a cybernetic organism.
In her famous feminist manifesto, she explains that cyborgs belong to a post-gender world and are independent of original unity. Principles of polarity and hierarchical domination does not apply to the reproduction of cyborgs. Haraway calls cyborgs the “illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mention state socialism,” (10) and are “inessential” to the existence of cyborgs.
As illustrated by painter Lynn Randolph who worked with Haraway, the figure reflects the combination of animal-human and machine, and cyborg feminism. In her cyborg myth, the boundary between is animal and human has dissolved.
“The cyborg appears in myth precisely where the boundary between human and animal is transgressed. Far from signaling a walling off of people from other living beings, cyborgs signal disturbingly and pleasurably tight coupling. Bestiality has a new status in this cycle of marriage exchange” (10).
Haraway is not alone in reimagining the interpretation of cyborgs and other creatures. Some artists have imagined hybrid creatures that are a combination of a human body, animal, and technology, to reflect on future, social relations, and morals. These creatures attempt at providing a different perspective of looking at human-animal relationships. Such works make us rethink animal rights and moral responsibilities of humans towards animals. Patricia Piccinini’s work, “the Young Family,’ is inspired by “science, the use of other animals to generate human replacement organs, xenotransplantation but is animated by emotion” (Patriciapiccinini.net).
The creature, with some pig-like features, is to be bred for organ transplants and wears a thoughtful expression. Piccinini uses the creature to question breeding animals, such as pigs, for the purpose of organ transplant. It poses a dilemma of choosing one's own child over the child of the creature (QAGOMA).
One of her other works, “Bottom Feeder,” is based on the idea of duality. The two-faced creature has a shark-like actual face that represents the vital role of sharks in keeping the seabed clean. It can eat rubbish and has a metabolism that can process plastic. The backside of this creature appears like a smiling face at first. Using Batesian mimicry, a tactic aimed at misleading the predator, the smiling face is “designed to appeal to people, to endear the animal to us or at least amuse us” (Patriciapiccinini.net). Piccinini calls humans the apex predators of any ecosystem. In this case, she reminds us that sharks have much more to fear from us than we do from them.
Haraway has called cyborgs, companion species. “..Cyborgs are a kind of companion species congeries of organisms and machines located firmly in the Cold War and its offspring”(307).
As she discusses the evolution of dogs as companion species, Haraway notes that what remains at stake is bigger than dog evolution.
“The stakes are how we think about liveliness and agency in different worlds. We require a multi-species and a multi-expertise way of doing/thinking worlds and ways of life, and that requires muting the command/communication/control/intelligence idiom of cyborgs” (308).
Reference list:
Donna Haraway, The Haraway Reader (2004).
QAGOMA. “Go behind-the-scenes as Patricia Piccinini discusses her artwork.” Youtube. June 25, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0613V38a38s&feature=emb_logo
Patricia Piccinini. https://www.patriciapiccinini.net/478/45#
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