Master of Fine Arts

thesisThe cyborg has been traditionally defined as a being that incorporates both biological and artificial parts. I am interested in expanding this definition, describing the cyborg as a person who is human+, a human being who has been added to, melding their reality with technological innovation for reasons that are aesthetic, functional and social. Integral to this new understanding is the concept of addenda, that which is added to the basic elements denoting ‘human.' Cyborgs have been a source of cultural anxiety, presenting our greatest aspirations within the same physical body as our darkest fears. The materialization of the cyborg in performance art and popular culture has often been read as a potential doomsday for free will, consciousness, and humanity itself. This reading of the cyborg body favors duality, carving battle lines between the ‘natural' human and the ‘artificial' cyborg. I propose an alternate view of the cyborg as a living metaphor for choices of existence; a being that offers alternate discourses and experiences beyond the limit of our duality-laden world. The cyborg body can serve as a seductive invitation to experience the world in a new way opening digital eyes to freshly awakened wonder. As humans we are infinitely complex creatures, slipping between categories while simultaneously occupying multiple classifications. Reclaiming our complexity, uniqueness, and abilities is one way that cyborg discourses allow us to delve more deeply into our humanity. A vast array of beautiful and enticing opportunities arises when we consider that the cyborg has the potential to inhabit a broad realm of identities, a kaleidiscopic personality and body, which reflect his/her unique experience of being in the world