New Media Culture

The thought of cloning in most peoples minds results in the answers - Impossible/wrong!
However it is a concept that is very quickly advancing into reality. For example everyone has heard of Dolly the Sheep, the first animal to be cloned. This just shows that cloning is not only possible but is also being broadcasted by the press for the public to see. Its not some hush hush scientific experiment.
Dolly the Sheep not only advanced animal cloning but paved the way for HUMAN CLONING. However the idea of human cloning causes such uproar in our society and is seen as something very controversial. So has not been practised yet - that we know of!! (HSBC television advert)
Human cloning has a stigmata attached to it- its is seen as very unethical as a human beings life and body is unique and should not be tampered with (although plastic surgery has put a stop to that mentality!) Another problem with human cloning is that our society doesn't know enough about it to guarantee its safe, and the fact that Dolly the Sheep died maybe from the effects of cloning shows the risk and ineffectness of animal cloning.

There are many arguments against human cloning the main being-
How are we allowed to create life in such a manner? And who is going to be the first to try. The major problem behind the concept of human cloning is that know one knows what the outcome would be.
Cloning humans may happen one day but watching films like The 6th Day certainly paints a negative view on the issue. This film introduces the issue of cloning not only humans but animals to, however the view on cloning animals is very different to cloning humans. The main character in The 6th Day is of course played by the invincible Arnold Schwarzenegger, who becomes cloned by a company trying to take over the human society with clones. Animal cloning is used and accepted but the image of human cloning is very evil. Arnies mission is to not only save his family...but also the rest of the world from the evil cloning organisation!!!

The 6th Day is your standard sci-fi 'arnie' film but also raises the issue of human and animal cloning. The animal cloning may seem to be accepted in the film but the thought of bringing a dead pet back to life is really rather creepy so could you imagine it happening with people?!
I sound very negative about human cloning in this blog as i do think the concept of it is immoral and wrong however i do agree that there may be some advantages to it, like being able to use cloning to generate tissues and organs for transplants. Cloning should be used to prolong life, not re-create it.
But you never know we could be living in the same world as our identical twin in years to come, i just hope i am not around when it happens.

We know that technology is everywhere, all over and around us. We also know that is starting to expand quicker than us -
-Its like a new universe within us
-Matter within us
-And we cant live without it.

The body is a huge area for advance and can be stripped, played with and improved by technology.
Technologists want to engage the body with the new opportunities arising. By doing this they can advance the human body further than many people think is possible.
Examples of subculture groups engaging with the technologies of the body could be; Stelarc, who uses technology to advance the body Or Orlan who uses plastic surgery as a method of art. Other practises of alternative subculture groups include bloodletting, piercing or branding.

These 'artists' take a post planetary position - like stepping out of the world, to exhibit their work.
All technologies are about enablement, a system of adapting the body efficiently and improving it.

Australian artist Stelarc wanted to explore the inner landscape of the body and surrenders it to technology - he says we are all remote controlled in a way, this he shows using physical actions.
Stelarc makes the interior of the body available to us but also destroys the intimate body by opening it up to us.
Some people say Stelarc degrades the human body to be nothing more then an entity - to him we are purely mechanisms that he can restore to a level where bodies are just bodies.

"Notion of technology invading the body"

Stelarc refers to the body as being brutilised or re-engineering the human body.

A few examples of Stelarcs 'work';

- Stelarc designed a third ear with all sorts of technologies embedded in it eg. radio, internet, MP3 player. It becomes part of a body so technological that there is no need for the body to even be there.
- The 'Ping Body' was an internet activated performance, other people across the world could control Stelarcs body by a touch screen computer. This then sends electrodes to his body. Its one body surrendered to the other.

Stelarc is trying to radically re-think what the body is and what it needs to be to keep up with the ever changing technology in our society.

"The body is profoundly obsolete." - Stelarc.

The French feminist artist Orlan wanted to challenge the conventional idea of how the body is percieved. To do this she used plastic surgery as her tool and broadcasts her operations live using local anaesthetic so she is concious throughout.
Orlan wanted to create a new version of beauty so had horns implanted into her forehead. While her operations are being carried out Orlan uses her own blood to draw pictures and express her feelings.
She uses the whole procedure and recovery period as her 'art' to show how beauty and the body can be easily changed.
One of her surgical ideas was to get the biggest nose possible but she couldn't find a surgeon who would step outside the cosmetic surgical boundaries.
Her experiments or surgery's are ways of discovering excellence in a physical form - As Orlan says, no one wants to end up with an average beauty.

These artists show that we are losing touch with the real and with human beings because technology is taking over with new ways to improve upon the 'normal'. Everything we ever do is now being measured, surveyed and tested, we are wiping out the distinctiveness that makes us human and replacing it with technology.

The point Stelarc is making is technology can long outlive the human body and soon enough there won't be any use for it.