‘I, Cyborg’

One of my favorite online magazines, Guernica, just published this article I, Cyborg, by Jennifer Gersten. It draws compelling connections between cyborg/posthuman theory we have been reading and the politics of design (particularly the notion of ‘everyday design’ that many of us are familiar with.

“When we fuse our bodies with technology, we are often regarded as obscene, having violated some definition of what it means to be fully human. This perception isn’t limited to Terminator: people who wear prosthetics or have disabilities they cannot hide, trans people, and others on the margins whose lives are dependent on or shaped by technology are common targets of hatred and discrimination. Harbisson and Ribas, both of whom identify as trans-species, mean to convince us that technological modification has the potential to make us not less, but more: that the process of becoming a self is additive and fully within our control. The team founded their Cyborg Foundation in part to provide resources for those hoping to follow their example. The Cyborg Foundation’s slogan, plastered across the website’s front page, is “Design Yourself.””