Mechanics of Being Human
Commentary on: A Cyborg Manifesto
Modern times have brought us to the forefront of technology, and maybe with that, we have begun to integrate with it too. Multi-media phones never leave our side, socializing, entertainment, banking, and through it all, cataloging our day with photos, check-in post with GPS accuracy, email confirmations and so on. Donna Haraway’s, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, ironically uses the idea of the Cyborg and its integration, the duality of its existence as a biological machine to challenge the confines of feminism in an adaptive way. Haraway’s essay expands the outlook and eases the blame that the feminist movement has carried with it from the natural means of its voice. Not only does this concept of applying a more cyborg identity toward feminism benefit the cause and movement, but it also extends to the political and social aspect of which this essay addresses,
“A cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints” (155).
What Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto seeks to unite are the fringes of women who feel excluded from the feminist movement and the understanding that who we are shouldn’t be such a black and white concept of us and them, but of a more unified common society, “The totalization built into this tale of radical feminism achieves its end — the unity of women — by enforcing the experience of and testimony to radical non-being” (159). Politically, The Cyborg Manifesto, is eerily on-point, however, it can be argued that this has always been a relevancy that shouldn’t be swept to the outer corners of feminism, academia and esoteric pockets that seek to acknowledge a societal change. The more we move beyond the simplicity of human and animal, the more connected we become. Thus, the more integrated our minds and connection become.
One such exemplary personification of the notion of cyborg feminist comes from the HBO show, Westworld, predominately in the character of Maeve. Through the circumstances of human intervention, the robot “host” known as Maeve has come to integrate the human element and the feminist triumph, culminating in the cyborg. The backdrop of the Western prairie already lends itself to a more simplified and natural terrain. Coupled with Maeve’s brutal desire to safe her host daughter; these elements combined compose the portrait of a woman. The instinct to preserve and protect is at the crux of humanity. It is with this moment a spark ignites in the Maeve character to pursue a level of mechanical intelligence that rivals that of man and machine to access her freedom. And although the storyline is ever growing in depth, we can already surmise that Maeve is implementing the Cyborg Manifesto into her narrative. By understanding her cyborg confines of woman/machine and flesh/circuits, Maeve is manipulating her position, leading not only the feminist independence from her assumed role of woman, but as a greater escape for the hybrid person.
As artist pursue the expansion of their artwork, essays like Donna Haraway’s, The Cyborg Manifesto, become more important to the overall message artist contribute to the world. Its important that movements are challenged in a way that makes us all take a step back and consider a new angle, or maybe reconsider a new point of view. Upon creating, understand that the internal message comes from you, but you also can’t ignore that the world around us has contributed tremendously to your overall voice. When we become complacent in our mission, we become lazy and forget how we come together. Inasmuch, what seems radical, can in fact be practical in its benefit that goes beyond its initial inception. We are moving, as a society, toward a more machined and mechanized mindset, and understanding of where to explore one’s work is key to that. To teach as well as learn and influence.
