Automata: Seeing Cyborg through the Eyes of Popular Culture, Computer-Generated

Imagery, and Contemporary Theory

Author(s): Adam I. Bostic
Source: Leonardo , 1998, Vol. 31, No. 5, Sixth Annual New York Digital Salon (1998), pp.
357-361
Published by: The MIT Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1576595

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 Automata
Seeing Cyborg Through the Eyes
of Popular Culture, Computer-Generated
Imagery, and Contemporary Theory

Adam I. Bostic

Abstract
to explore concerning the relevance of emerging cyborg theory
What is cyborg? In attempting to define the idea and the many millennial manifestations of cyborgs in popular
and the reality of the cyborg, the author focuses culture. For the purposes of this essay I will limit myself, first,
upon contemporary cultural expressions of cyborg to some general thoughts on contemporary cultural expressions
consciousness and their "applications" in of cyborg consciousness; and second, to a look to contemporary
contemporary television and cinema. He examines television and cinema for an "application" of cyborg theory.
the work of theorists-Donna Haraway, Joseba To aid in my never-ending quest to expand, define, and elab-
Gabilondo, and others-that draws on rich cross- orate on the notions of the cyborg, I use two vehicles of explo-
currents between the arts and science as much as
ration: the creation of a set of digital prints and contemporary
it responds to trends in popular culture. Throughout theory. My approach to the cyborg digital images that I have
the expanding literature on postmodernity, "cyborg created (Figs. 1-4) has been to examine the cyborg as a potential
culture" mirrors discourse in advanced disciplines commercial product for the consumer, to be consumed, as in
and technologies, as well as activity in the most advertising. These images are meant to be read as twisted, futur-
pedestrian aspects of popular culture. With the istic advertisements aimed at producing desire. Aside from creat-
advent of computer animation, and its drive to ing images, I turn towards contemporary theorists Donna
achieve absolute realism, cyborg imagery has Haraway and Joseba Gabilondo, both of whom hail, as evident
helped define the new computer-generated visual in their writings, from a Marxist school of thought.
landscapes that have forever changed the face of Cyborg, according to Donna Haraway, "is a cybernetic organ-
film and television.
ism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reali-
ty as well as a creature of fiction.... It is the bastard offspring of
patriarchal culture-a kind of dissembled and reassembled, post-
cyborg \n\ [y,bemetic + o0ganism] (1960): a bionic human being [1]
Modern collective and personal self' [4].
In relation to Haraway's subjective cyborg "science fiction,"
No one can escape from the machine. Only the machine can enable you Joseba Gabilondo describes cyborg from a more straightforward
to escape from destiny. - Tristan Tzara [2] Marxist perspective, focusing on what she terms "global ideolog-
ical apparatuses." Two such apparatuses are mass culture and
I want to be a machine. - Andy Warhol [3] cyberspace. She suggests that to trace our fetishistic obsession
with cyborgs is to trace geopolitical and ideological limits with
respect to cyberspace. She points out that cyborg is not simply
representative of "the general post-modern form of subjectivity
A ccording to contemporary cultural theory, I am a cyborg. created by multinational capitalism, but rather the hegemonic
So are you if you belong to mass culture and navigate its cyber-
subject position that its ideology privileges." In the economically
netic structures and, as it happens, are now reading this text.
One may well ask, What does it mean to be a cyborg? How
does it compute? Obviously, cyborg cannot be cast into the all-
Adam I. Bostic, 203 Grand St. #3, New York, NY 10013,
too-brief definition stated above, for it seems far too incomplete
U.S.A. Email: adambo@sva.edu.
to fully capture the idea and reality of the cyborg. There is much

? 1998 Adam I. Bostic, received 1 May 1998 LEONARDO, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 357-361, 1998 357

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privileged First World, she writes, "the on what we've always called the real, and
production of 'Man' has given way to the how the real impinges on the virtual [6].
production and simulation of cyborgs.... But in no way should this interpreted as
Cyborg subjectivity stretches as far as the old high art / low art boundary. The
capitalist individuals' access to the cyborg consciousness is not interested in
cyberspatial interface of the apparatus such matters; rather, the cyborg breaks
continuum constituted by phones, down these distinctions in order to incor-

modems, PC's, cable TV, cell phones, porate all forms of information.
faxes, etc., of late capitalism" [5]. If we consider that one of the primary
The work of theorists such as Haraway, functions we ascribe to visual form-
Gabilondo, and others draws on rich whether film, television, ad media, or fine
cross-currents between the arts and sci- art-is to represent the culture that gave
ence as much as it responds to trends in
meaning to it, then it is altogether fitting
popular culture. Indeed, throughoutthat
the we survey the vast array of visual
expressions that our culture produces
expanding literature on postmodernity,
"cyborg culture" mirrors discourseregardless
in of any boundaries between high
advanced disciplines and technologies,
andas low culture. With respect to tracing
well as activity in the most pedestrian
the history of cyborg consciousness, we
aspects of popular culture, which I might
will turn back the clock to the 18th
century, which saw, as K. G. Pontus
discuss further below. Increasingly, popu-
Hulten observes, "both a great advance in Fig. 2. QuestionsForaNewYou#3: how could
lar culture is the proving ground for theo-
the construction of 'automatons' and a
retical writing. And by the same token, you enhance yourself, Adobe Photoshop
one need not turn to academic texts on 3.0,dis-
heightened interest in philosophical digital print, 8.5 x 11 in., 1998.
the question of cyborgs but can cussions
go regarding the mechanistic nature
of man."
straight to sources in popular culture. For In the introduction to the cata- imagery (CGI), it can be argued that the
logue for the 1968 Museum of Modern
example, a recent television advertisement already tenuous line between fantasy and
Art exhibition he curated, "The
for Microsoft featured the following voice- reality has suffered another seismic shock.
over: "Imagine-no age, no race, noMachine-As
gen- Seen at the End of the As theoretical texts reiterate, the cyborg is
Mechanical
der, no handicaps. Is it utopia? No, it's the both real and fictional- through it we
Age," he writes, "Historically,
machines
Internet." Cyborg culture has much to do have often been regarded asthe implications of emergent
anticipate
toys, or as agents of magic, marvel,
with what Sherry Turkle, another theorist and
technology in which we foresee the final
fantasy.... Since the beginning
on cyberspace and subjectivity, describes of the
blurring of distinctions between reality and
as the way in which the virtual impinges
mechanical age and the time of the Indus-
virtuality. The cyborg is no mere hypothe-
trial Revolution, some have looked to sis: it has already become a cultural icon
machines to bring about progress towardand is synonymous with our millennial
utopia; others have feared them as thethreshold. The cyborg is the image of a
human floating in space, of humans on
enemies of humanistic values, leading only
to destruction. Most of these contradicto- the moon, on Mars, on a voyage to
exploding new galaxies. It is all the aliens
ry ideas persist, in one form or another,
in the twentieth century and find their
we imagine and through which we explore
reflection in art" [7]. ourselves from the perspective of being
A close look at the last decades of the outside of ourselves. The cyborg is noth-
zoth century reveals an exponentially
ing if not a mass of contradictions both
accelerated engagement (some wouldreal
sayand imagined.
The history of Western civilization is
obsession) with cyborgian creatures. Yet,
charted
whether we look to historical precedent or in a linear fashion and anchored

examples that proliferate at present,to a series of pivotal moments, such as

the
developments in technology. Generally
bond between cyborg and technological
invention is firmly and continuously in
speaking, the story of technological inven-
place. Visualizations of hybrids of man
tion unfolds as a progressive evolution
Fig. 1. QuestionsForaNewYou#2: where
and machine have, of course, become and advancement to an as-yet-unachieved
do you need improvement (Adobe increasingly sophisticated in recent years in but immanently attainable future. Tech-
Photoshop 3.0, digital print, 8.5 x 11 in.),
direct proportion to the increasingly rapid nology, progress, advancement-this is
from the author's 1998 series of digitaladvances in imaging technologies. Particu- the telos of Western civilization, and it
prints exploring the nature of cyborgs. larly with respect to computer-generated was thought to have been distilled in

35 8 Adam I. Bostic, Automata

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what was termed "the modern world." In sheep cloning, occasion yet another in avoice or to a machine, is inherently
series
many respects, the upward, linear trajecto- of radical historical ruptures. cyborgian. It constitutes something of a
Descriptions of cyborg don't begin andvirtual experience. The telephone and
ry of history, technology, and conscious-
ness is unabated in postmodernity.
end with technologies of medicine and sci-telecommunications are not only an inter-
ence, or even information theory. Rather,face, they are an extension of the person-
Machines have not only extended the acu-
ity of our senses; they've nearly replaced
they extend to thought and perception. al body, which in turn becomes part of a
them. Similarly, one could argue that on
According to Haraway, "A cyborg is asocial body through cybernetic communi-
the threshold of the 21st century, con-
cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machinecation. I experience myself as disembod-
sciousness is extended and enhanced as a and organism, a creature of social realityied, as mental rather than physical, as a
byproduct of technology. Through as well as a creature of fiction" [lo]. Sheprojection.
this
extension of consciousness, one creates or
implies that we must take responsibility The interior personal body gives way
for the relations of science and technolo-
imposes a human persona or, in other to, or merges with, the exterior social
words, humanizes the machine. This gy as a means of refusing an antiscience body, and vice versa, all made possible and
humanization allows one to perceive cer-metaphysics, a demonology of technology.
implemented by technology. My cyber-self
takes a quantum leap with the develop-
By taking responsibility for technology,
tain technology as a partner to or exten-
sion of "self," giving rise to machines"mankind" can embrace the skillful task ment and widespread use of the Interet.
with subscribed (by the viewer) personali-of reconstructing the boundaries of Cyberspace,
daily a global apparatus, is a net-
ty. It is the phenomenon of people speak-life, in partial connection with others.work
It isof hardware and software designed
ing to their computers, it is the phrase,not just that science and technology
forare
the purpose of communication. Today,
"may I help you" on the screen of an
possible means of great human satisfac-
it gives the old telephone company motto
ATM [8]. This is one method we use to "reach out and touch someone" new

incorporate the inorganic. Indeed, one of meaning and scope. Cyborgian conscious
the most eagerly awaited products we - SF _ \ ness is motivated by communication
consumers are promised is computers that inflection, survival, procreation, informa
have been taught "subjectivity." tion, and perception. The cyborg is techn
Returning to my earlier notion of the cal, material, enhanced, and incorporated
cyborg as a hybrid of machine and organ- But above all, the cyborg is always i
ism, I would argue that the two are not search of improvement [12].
as incompatible as one might initially Turning from theoretical speculation
think. On a biological level, machine and and my endeavors to see myself (complet
organism are more similar than not. As myself) as a cyborg, I want to conside
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biolo- briefly aspects of cyborg imagery in popu
gist at Oxford University, writes, "The lar media, predominantly as it manifests in
? ? . ;~." i i'
machine code in the gene is uncannily high-budget, special-effects-driven film
computer like.... Genes are pure informa- and television productions. Whatever el
tion-information that can be encoded, film and television might be, it is certainl
recorded, and decoded, without any a territory that makes the impossible see
degradation or change of meaning. PureFig. 3. QuestionsForaNewYou#5:
possible. With who feels
the advent of computer
information can be copied and since it isincomplete, Adobe Photoshop
animation3.0, digital
and its goal to achieve absolut
digital information, the fidelity of the print, 8.5 x 11 in., 1998.
realism, cyborg imagery is big business
copy can be immense. DNA characters Without the teeming populations of
are copied with accuracy that rivals any-tion, it is that they are a matrix
cyborgs, of landscapes
new visual com- would b
thing modern engineers can do.... We- plex dominations as well [11].
noticeably and disturbingly empty.
and that means all living things-are At this point, I want to sketch
The "new a
visual landscapes" I refer to
survival machines programmed to propa-bridge between notions of the
are without individual
exception computer-generat-
ed, and they
gate the digital database that did the pro-and the community. Earlier have forever
I stated that I changed th
gramming" [9]. In other words, our am a cyborg. I meant face
this of film and television. Never
statement tobefore
be
have we but
bodies themselves are biological comput-grounded not in theory been ablein
to realize such fantas-
practical
ers under constant computation andrealities. For example,
tic I turnblending
imagery, to the tele-
live action and com-
recomputation. phone, a simple yetputer-generated
perfect imagery
device withtoseamless
illustrate the manner in which I construct
In the field of biomedical technology, agility. Indeed, the "new entertainment"
we are familiar with such devices as artifi- for many consumers of special-effects
myself and my social relations through
cial hearts and other implants. The integra- cyberspace. The activity of picking up
media-even
a professionals in the field of
tion of man and machine, or man and special effects-is the challenge of
receiver, punching in numbers, and
animal, or the recent example of successful responding either to an actual human
attempting to sort out what is real, what

Adam L Bostic, Automata 3 5 9

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is computer-generated, what is an animat-
ed model, and so on (think: Jurassic Park:
The Lost World). This has, of course,
tremendous impact upon certain genres of
visual narrative-particularly, genres of
science fiction that feature cyborgs. With-
an element of an enhanced cyborgian
interior of the Borg ship, he raises his
body and self. voice in protest: "I will resist you with all
my strength." The Borg's mechanical-
Unlike the cyborg hero narrative, the
cyborg collective narrative lacks any
sounding multi-voice, which is impossible
notion of singularity, individuality, to
or locate spatially, echoes: "Strength is
unique self. This narrative has taken
irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to

out such 3D modeling software as Alias, shape most notably in the "Star Trek"
improve ourselves. We will add your bio-
Softimage, and Houdini, cyborg imagery character of the Borg. The Borg first
logical and technological distinctiveness to
would probably be unconvincing, if not appeared in "Star Trek: The Next Gener-
our own. Your culture will adapt to ser-
uninteresting and irrelevant. However, 3D vice ours." Picard asserts that such
ation" [19] in 1989. Since then, the Borg
software allows for a suspension of absorption is impossible because hum
have appeared in five "Next Generation"
(dis)belief never possible with the rubber- beings are fundamentally and whol
episodes, two "Star Trek: Voyager" [20]
suit syndrome seen in Godzilla films of invested in "freedom and self-determina-
episodes, and one feature-length film, Star
the past. With the aid of imaging systems Trek: First Contact [21]. tion." He declares, "We would rather
and software packages, computer technol- die." The Borg respond, "Freedom is
The 1991 season finale of "Star Trek:
ogy renders the cyborg as visually believ- irrelevant. Self-determination is irrele-
The Next Generation" was a cliffhanger
able and virtually real. vant.... Death is irrelevant."
that told the story of the abduction of the
Not only have we grown up with The conclusion of the episode looks
cyborgs, but we've witnessed their evolu- both backward and forward. Picard is
tion as well-an evolution that can be reconstructed as Locutus, liaison for the
charted by our shrinking disbelief. The Borg. Dressed in a body suit with a mas-
difference between 3D software and rub- sive prosthesis on his right arm, he looms
ber suits is visual potency, the currency of on the Enterprise's view screen to address
the "real." Before digital imaging, mon- his former crew. This image profoundly
sters or creatures of fantasy lacked a cer- challenges the notion of the embodied self.
tain level of visual sophistication and This image of a penetrated, compromised,
therefore also lacked psychic potency. genderless, and unfamiliar Picard collapses
With computer-generated imagery, today's conventional binary terms of difference:
creatures (cyborgs included) have self and other, attraction and repulsion,
obtained visual credibility and thus weigh culture and nature, man and machine, life
more heavily on both the conscious and and death. Punctured by multiple inorganic
unconscious mind. Culturally, we're evolv- implants, Picard's body is a body in cri-
ing together, though many calculate their *I
sis-contestable, without desire or agency,
rate of development to be far superior to dissembled and reassembled, and spectacu-
our own based on the rapid pace of Fig. 4. QuestionsForaNewYou#6: why settle
larly incorporated and assimilated.
development in the software industry infor what you're given, Adobe Photoshop In the latest development of the Borg
recent years. 3.0, digital print, 8.5 x 11 in., 1998. in the film Star Trek: First Contact, we
Cyborg imagery in film and television encounter the Borg in their ongoing
falls into two distinct narrative forms: the attempt to assimilate the human race on
captain of the starship Enterprise, Jean-Luc
"hero" and the "collective." The narrative Earth. In the process, they have taken
Picard, by the Borg. A neosocialist cyborg
of the cyborg hero, admittedly the lesser over half of the Enterprise and captured
community that is interconnected through
of my interests, manifests in such films bio-engineering
as Data, an artificial life form. We see an
and other advanced tech-
incaration of the Borg in what appears
nologies, the Borg appear to be androgy-
Terminator 2: Judgment Day [13], Johnny
nous humanoids. In spite of their
Mnemonic [14], and Robocop [15], to name to be a "Borg queen." She introduces
individual bodies, however, they consti- herself to Data by saying, "I am the
but a few. In television productions, the
cyborg as hero appears in series such tute
as a single consciousness. Ruthless and Borg," which is a contradiction, as Data
"The Six Million Dollar Man" [16], "The
emotionless, the Borg reproduce them- observes, because the Borg is a collective
Bionic Woman" [17], and "Mantis" [18].
selves by assimilating other bodies and entity, not a group of individuals. The
species, such as Picard, by means of liter- Borg Queen reactivates Data's emotion
A common theme in the cyborg hero nar-
rative focuses on disembodiment along
al physical penetration. chip, and reveals to him that they are
with the hero's transformation through Transported to the Borg ship, Picard grafting organic skin over his android
technology into a new, improved whole.
is surrounded by resolute figures in body. In effect, she seduces him by giving
The hero struggles with his or her new-biomechanical suits with tubes and wires him human sensations. In this scene we

found identity but in the end accepts and are presented with a cyborg and an
piercing their faces and torsos. As Picard
utilizes his or her own fragmentation faces
as android; the only human element in this
them within the vast and mystifying

360 Adam I Bostic, Automata

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entire scene, is the disembodied psycho- human language and banter, but they
of Modern Art, 1968) p. 1.

sexual desire and pleasure produced understand it implicitly. Of course, the

3. Hal Foster, The Return of the Real (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1996) p. 51.
between a Borg and an android. Refer- Borg have assimilated more than a fair
4. Donna J. Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women:
ences to being "human" are given as both share of humans, and Data is programmed
The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge,
a mythic ideal and a byproduct of with the desire to be human. The scene
1991) p. 181.
advanced technology. can be seen as a mirror of contemporary
5. Joseba Gabilondo, "Postcolonial Cyborgs: Sub-
What gives the scene real validity is cyborg theory. It describes cyborg con-
jectivity in the Age of Cybernetic Reproduction,"
sciousness-artificial life forms meet flesh in Chris Hables Gray (ed.), The Cyborg Handbook
the CGI work, without which the
(New York: Routledge, 1995) pp. 423-429.
verisimilitude of this visual narrative,
and fleshly desires and explore states of
6. Pamela McCorduck, "Sex, Lies, and Avatars,"
indeed the narrative itself, would be subjectivity. The lengthy conversationSherry Turkle interviewed in Wired, April 1996,
1o6-1 lo.
impossible. The manner in which the between Data and the Borg queen con-
hairs move on the transplanted "human" cerns, ultimately, the nature of the self-7. Hulten [2] p. 7.
8. ATM stands for automatic teller machine- the
skin on Data's arm, for example, looks the selfs desire to improve, to evolve (or
very name of which is cyborgian .
incredibly real, although in actuality the conquer as the case may be), and, ulti-
9. Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden (New York:
imagery is computer-generated. The mately, to achieve perfection. In oneBasic Books, 1995) pp. 12-13.
appearance of the Borg queen pivots on sense, this reiterates creationist thinking,lo. Haraway [4] p. 149.
visualizing the merger of inorganic with except that there appears to be no final 11. Haraway [4] p. 181.
organic- the queen is some combination apocalypse or apotheosis. Their dilem- 12. This formulation was made by researching a
ma-if we can call it that-mirrors our
of machine and human. As she comes collection of texts contained in The Cyborg Hand-
ownto
into a vaguely female body (opposed as we imagine and image ourselves in
book [5].

terms
Data's vaguely male body), she is trans- of enormous complexity and13. con-
James Cameron (director), Terminator 2: Judgment

tradiction. This sentiment is reflected in Day, Carolco, 1991.

formed from a fragment into a whole,
14. Robert Longo (director), Johnny Mnemonic,
the opening sentence of this essay-I am
and yet retains traces of her disembodi- Sony Pictures, 1995.
a cyborg. Cyborg narrativity emerges as a
ment. Gender is merely an affectation for 15. Paul Verhoeven (director), Robocop, Orion, 1987.
matrix uniting science, technology, cultural
both Borg and android. Her transparent, 16. "The Six Million Dollar Man," MCA/Univer-
theory, popular imagery and entertain-
sal Studios, 1974.
jellylike skin is suggestive of a prenatal
ment, within the expanding frontier of
17. "The Bionic Woman," MCA/Universal Stu-
body, as though she were physically
dios, 1976.
digital culture and cyberspace. As much as
evolving before our very eyes; but her
it describes exterior social realities, so too
18. "Mantis," MCA/Universal Studios, 1994.
ability to mutate suggests that any human-
19. "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Paramount
it interrogates the very nature of the self
like qualities might be entirely arbitrary Pictures, 1989-1993.
and the need to renegotiate our under-
and manufactured for the convenience of
20. "Star Trek: Voyager," Paramount Pictures,
standing of "the human condition."
some unknown purpose. 1997.

The scene can be interpreted as a dia- 21. Jonathan Frakes (director), Star Trek First Contact,
References and Notes
Paramount Pictures, 1996.
logue between two conscious beings that
1. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, loth edition,
aren't human but that mimic and perhaps
(New York: Random House, 1993) p. 287.
possess human qualities such as pleasure,
2. K. G. Pontus Hulten, The Machine-As Seen atAdam I. Bostic is an artist who currently
desire, and fear. Not only do they usethe End of the Mechanical Age (New York: Museum lives and works in New York City.

Adam I. Bostic, Automata 361

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