Franziska SchroederCenter for the Creative and Performing Arts (NI)
An Interdisciplinary Arts ProgrammeQueen’s University Belfast
THE ANATOMICAL THEATRE REVISITED | University of Amsterdam | 5-8 April, 2006
Redesigning the Body
The Body Skinned
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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)
Overview
Consider the changes that affected the skin
To highlight the changes in the treatment of the performative body in technologically mediated
environments
Overview
By re-designing the body, these performances explore the paradoxical and the ambiguous
within the body
These performances expose threshold conditions that the body highlights and incite one to
question the body’s role and place in technologically informed performance
environments
Argument
Steven Connor (2004)
The skin allows one to keep in touch
with oneself
Psychoanalytical interpretation of Didier Anzieu
Sense of Self
Importance of skin contact in early childhood
Skin contact of the infant with the carer
“peau-moi”: the skin-self
The skin as a border between self and not-self
The Skin
First, a symbiotic relationship with the carer
The skins of both infant and carer merge
The infant soon distances itself from others
The Skin
Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage”
The primordial experience of identification takes place
The Skin
Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage”
The primordial experience of identification takes place
The infant identifies with an external image of the body
The Skin
Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage”
The primordial experience of identification takes place
The infant identifies with an external image of the body
This image of another gives rise to the mental representation of an "I”
The Skin
Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage”
The primordial experience of identification takes place
The 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
Jacques Lacan: “Mirror stage”
The primordial experience of identification takes place
The 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)
The Skin
The skin as a covering that kept the body together
Maintained the integrity of the body
Inattention to the Skin
The skin as a covering that kept the body together
Maintained the integrity of the body
The 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
The Medieval Period
The skin as organ of interchange
A permeable membrane
The 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
European Renaissance
The taboo of cutting the skin was released
Jonathan Sawday
“The culture of dissection” (1995)
Inattention to the Skin
Andreas Vesalius
(Belgian physician, 1514-1564)
in “De humanis corporis fabrica” (1543)
The skin is neglected
It is seen primarily to gain access
Vesalius’ Anatomy Theatre
http://images.umdl.umich.edu/w/wantz/images/vesdt01.jpg
Andreas Vesalius
(Belgian physician, 1514-1564)
in “De humanis corporis fabrica” (1543)
The skin is neglected
It is seen primarily to gain access
Heightened 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
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
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 Period
Michel Serres
The multiplying functions of the skin
The most various of organs
It is as an entire environment
It is a meeting place for the other senses
It is a milieu of the other senses
The “milieu of the milieux” (Serres 1998, p.97)
In/Attention to the Skin
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 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)
The Skin mingles
Skin’s changing role highlights the changes in the treatment of the performative
body in technologically mediated environments
The body ceases to be considered solely from the outside in,
as something covered by the skin
Also from the inside out, more akin to a milieu, like the skin itself
Changes for the performative body
Changes in performance technology
Not only for attaching onto the body from the outside
Also for the opening up of the body
Changes for the performative body
Preoccupation with the “border”
New ways of conceiving of the bodily interior and exterior
Derrick 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)
Transgression of the body’s border
The Body Skinned, by being opened up and incised into,
highlights the bodily border (or its absence)
ThresholdThreshold
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
ThresholdThreshold
Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)
The skin not only delineates a certain bodily border
The skin is the pre-requisite for the performance The 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
Performances exposing the Threshold
www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2
Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)
Testing ground for the body’s re-making
For the body’s potential for expansion and re-location
Performances exposing the Threshold
www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2
Stelarc’s Suspension (1976 – 1989)
Testing ground for the body’s re-making
For the body’s potential for expansion and re-location
The performances highlight a primordial desire of modifying and redesigning one’s body
Performances exposing the Threshold
www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/suspension/images/2
Lewis Mumford “The Myth of the Machine” (Mumford 1967)
The body is seen as biologically ill-equipped, inefficient and fragile
Believers dedicated to the improvement of the human condition often refer to themselves as “Post-humans” or “Extropians” (coined in 1988 by T.O.Morrow)
Urge for Redesign
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
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+”
Urge for Redesign
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
Natasha Vita More, «Primo Posthuman 3M+, 2000www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/primo-posthuman/images/2
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+”
Urge for Redesign
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
Natasha Vita More, «Primo Posthuman 3M+, 2000www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/primo-posthuman/images/2
“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
Body’s Redesign in Gaming
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
www.darkhorizons.com/1999/existenz/exist4.jpg
The Body Skinned - Design process of the body as performance
Orlan’s Surgical performances
Posthuman motto:“what I am is what I make myself into”
Self-portraitureSelf-perfection Self-questioning of her identity
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
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
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
Not only performances conceived from the outside in, as incision into the skin
Also, 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
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
Man as a self-making individual
Not as homo sapiens or homo ludens, but as homo faber, as man the maker
Maker 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)
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
The endeavour of man to understand his own body
A 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)
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
Orlan’s and Stelarc’s performances showthe bodily interior and exterior
They expose the threshold conditions, which the body highlights
The performances show how a performative act is able to highlight the transgression of the body
Wo(man) as performing animal
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
http://english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm.jpg
Brings to the fore the urge for redesign and relocation of the body
It makes one question the body’s place and meaning in a performance environment
Bodily borders and future applications of technologies and their impact on the human body are questioned
The performances highlight the ambiguous nature of the body
They expose the body as residing on the threshold
The Body Skinned - Summarised
www.ladygodivas.ca/wpeE2.jpg and www..stevehaworth.com/graphics/stevecbr.jpg
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].
www.ranjiv.com
References
URL’sStelarc
www.stelarc.com[February 2006]
Orlanwww.orlan.net[March 2006]
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Franziska SchroederCenter for the Creative and Performing Arts (NI)An Interdisciplinary Arts ProgrammeQueen’s University Belfast
[email protected] URL: www.lautnet.net
www.ranjiv.com
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