The following is just the beginning into my visualization of what the posthuman is.
What is Post Human?
The
following is an account of the perception of the posthuman body influenced by
articles such as Posthuman Bodies: Introduction by Judith Halberstam
and Ira Livingston, Posthuman Performance:
A Feminist Intervention by Lucian Gomoll.
The Posthuman body brings many questions
along with it - What is the Posthuman body? What is this body capable of? What is
it not capable of? Are Posthuman bodies inherently Queer? It this body always
technological? What is Posthuman sex?
These
questions often hinder the ability for some to recognize the posthuman body as
a possible escape from herteronormative perceptions of the body and entering
into a queer one. The illusion of the body as a concrete foundation for one’s
identity is challenged with the posthuman body, as they “are not slaves to
masterdiscourses” (Halberstam & Livingston, 2). These masterdiscourses
create a sense of normalcy within human society. When the body is no longer
devoted to these masterdicourses the illusion of binaries, as well as
hierarchies, is lifted.
The
posthuman body is in a constant state of flux. The ability of this type of
fluidity allows for the posthuman
to “represent(s) attempts to keep up with the present and to process the
identities that rub up against the body” (Halberstam & Livingston, 4). The
identity of these bodies thus is an effect of experiences with others. The
posthuman identity is neither concrete nor foundational to their existence.
Embodiment though, is a “Significant prosthesis” (Halberstam & Livingston,
2). Embodiment for the posthuman allows for information to take shape in order
to adapt to and reconstruct their environments. Thus embodiment allows for the
posthuman to “recreate that real world in their own image, to repeople it and
to challenge in an intensively artistic way the conventions of domination”
(Halberstam & Livingston, 6). It is in the best interest of the posthuman
to not create the notion of the ‘real’, as this will allow for the creation of
hierarchies based around the body. This would then collapse the foundation in
which posthuman embodiment relies upon. The superiority of the ‘real’ within
society is thus diminished, as the ‘real’ becomes an insignificant portrayal of
embodiment.
The
notion of ‘some’ is described as, “not an indefinite number waiting a more
accurate measurement, but a rigorous theoretical mandate whose specification,
necessary as it is (since the multiple must
be made), is neither numerable nor, in the common sense, innumerable
(Halberstam & Livingston, 9). Within
the posthuman body, this notion of ‘some’ alludes to the notion that the posthuman
is neither singular nor immeasurable. The posthuman body is capable of various
different representations, but “there is no “best” representation of the
posthuman” (Halberstam & Livingston, 10). There is no limit to the potential
identities to which the posthuman can readapt. Instead of recreating normative
identities, the posthuman become relational to the notion of the other as, the
posthuman “participates in re-distributions of difference and identity”
(Halberstam & Livingston, 10). The constant exchange of identities allows
for the posthuman to evolve and take form based on new experiences with others
and environment.
The
posthuman also implies a body that is PostFamilial. The posthuman does not have
a family, as it does not have a genesis. As a being independent from others,
“Posthuman bodies were never in the womb” (Halberstam & Livingston, 17).
This notion of the posthuman brings about questions of posthuman sex. The
possibilities of posthuman sex do not emerge necessarily from the desire to
reproduce. Reproduction through sex is not typically the goal, “discursive
bodies allow no such neat distinctions; they are both warm-blooded
(self-regulating) and coldblooded (sensitively dependent on their enviroments);
both sexually and asexually reproduced” (Halberstam & Livingston, 11). What the posthuman offers instead is a
variety of questions as to “what is fucking?” (Halberstam & Livingston,
12). This act of ‘fucking’ amongst
the posthuman is an act of pleasure. It is not driven by the desire to
reproduce and maintain a familial link. ‘Fucking’ is dirty and clean, orgasmic
and non-orgasmic, there is ejaculation, and there isn’t ejaculation. The
unlimited potential of posthuman ‘fucking’ integrates bodies based on
experience, and not based on gender.
It
is through the means of the posthuman that one is able to visualize the potential
of queer bodies. There is a certain amount of fear generated by queer bodies,
it is the fear of difference, the fear of a body that is disruptive. These
disruptive bodies display how “reverse discourse ceases to be simply “the
reverse” when it begins to challenge and disrupt the terms offered to it for
self-definition” (Halberstam & Livingston, 15). The act of challenging
societal terms of the body allows for the queer body to enter into
posthumanism. Instead of simply wanting to ‘reverse’ these terms, by
challenging them, queer bodies are actively altering these terms and bodies.
The
posthuman is thus a key form when discussing queer bodies, these bodies both
“depend on a network of signifying relationships” (Halberstam & Livingston,
16). These relationships allow for experience and influence outside of the
heteronormative matrix. This allows for the creation of affinity between bodies
based on their status as ‘other’ as well as their desire for transformation.
“Posthumanity is not about making an authentic culture or an organic community
but about multiple viabilities” (Halberstam & Livingston, 18).
Posthuman Performance:
Posthuman
performance as described by Lucian Gomoll is “a type of interventionism that
explores relationships and social transformation outside the parameters of
liberal humanism, but without ignoring or abjecting the live body” (Gomoll, 4).
Thus, the posthuman is not capable of explore the limits of the body without
the heteronormative, live body. This is because the posthuman relies on the
‘human’ to generate its transformation. Without the ‘human’ there would be no
posthuman. Taking into account the performatives, identities, ect, of the
‘human’ is a critical component to the construction of the posthuman. Understanding
and awareness of these ideologies allows the posthuman to transform them,
through the act of ‘playing’ with them.
The
artist Orlan transforms her body through surgery as a critique of Western
beauty standards. These surgeries are “not used to “improve” her body, but to
transform it so as to experience its difference, to desacralize Western
medicine, and critique out standards of beauty rather than perpetuate them”
(Gomoll, 5). Transforming the body based on experience in order to have new
experiences allow the posthuman body to maintain its fluidity. The desire for
experience engenders the posthuman body as form willing to cause friction. This
friction is produced through the posthuman’s disregard for Western ideology of
identity, specifically gender.
The
use of prosthetics allows for the posthuman to formulate new identities.
Posthuman bodies also show that “through the use of prosthetics the posthuman
body need not be exclusively cybernetic” (Gomoll, 9). Prosthetics not only
create new identities and experiences for the posthuman, but they also separate
the body for this idea of ‘cybernetics’. It is when one is able to disassociate
the posthuman with cybernetics that the realization of the actuality of the
posthuman is known. The posthuman therefore is amongst us. These bodies do not
rely of transforming their body in a cybernetic environment; instead they are
able to do it in reality. The “ posthuman performances will reject the category
of the human outright, insisting that we do not need it in order to act
responsibly or to treat any being with dignity” (Gomoll, 15). The posthuman
body allows for the fluidity of identities through its acceptance of the ‘human’
and the desire to transform these categories created by the ‘human’.
Halberstam,
Judith, and Ira Livingston. Posthuman Bodies: edited
by Judith Halberstam and Ira Livingston. 1st ed. 1. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1995. 1-19. Print.
Gomoll,
Lucian. "Posthuman Performance: A Feminist Intervention." Total
Art Journal. 1.1 (2001): 1-15. Print.
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