technology studies, he painted a very vivid picture how anthropology and ethnography could contri... more technology studies, he painted a very vivid picture how anthropology and ethnography could contribute to the understanding of new bio and communication technologies as society's transforming driving forces. Pushed by powerful digital media technologies, such as internet applications and services, a "digital anthropology" recently developed, particularly under the influence of material culture theory. What is the legacy of the anthropology of cyberculture when dealing with new digital practices? And is it actually necessary to construct branches of anthropology that deal with contemporary sociocultural developments? Or should we just open the discipline to an "anthropology of the contemporary", as Rabinow and Marcus (2008) propose.
Two ways of self-interpretation merged in Western thought: the Hebrew and the Greek. What is uniq... more Two ways of self-interpretation merged in Western thought: the Hebrew and the Greek. What is unique, if anything, about the human species? The reinterpretation of this problem has been a constant process; here I am referring to Philip Hefner and the term created co-creator, and particularly to Donna Haraway and the term cyborg. Simultaneously, humans have been fascinated by the thought of transgressing the boundaries that seem to separate them from the rest of nature. Any culture reflects the ways it relates to nature. Our nature is technonature, and our culture is technoculture. Our reality can be best approached by the metaphor and symbol cyborg. Donna Haraway's cyborg is not just an interesting figure of speech, it is also a description-of ourselves and our culture. Also, contemporary fiction reflects the return of ontological questions: What is a world? What is the self? The cyborg acknowledges our mode of existence and destabilizes the traditional procedures of identity construction.
The two-fold purpose of this research is to introduce a posthumanist epistemology of technology c... more The two-fold purpose of this research is to introduce a posthumanist epistemology of technology consumption and to illustrate the usefulness of this epistemology in the study of consumption as a whole. Combining recent Anglo-American theories of consumer behavior and European systems theory, we first introduce the tetralemma of the system, an analytical framework for the systemic structuration of consumer behavior, which is then used to explore and develop three posthumanist systems on the rise and of interest in the marketplace matrix: (1) cyborg consumers (2) brand systems and (3) protest systems. The cyborg is the prototypical posthumanist consumer, a cybernetic organism that signifies the symbiosis between animal and machine, but also reflects the transformative union between economic priority and insatiable desire, living being and observing system. A brand system embeds consumers' and marketers' brand related social communication to establish control over consumption. A protest system is concerned with the ongoing social process of ensuring outsider status from the market dominated social environment through consumption.. Finally, we conclude that our posthumanist epistemology of consumption and the notion of systems provide important new insights into the posthumanist understanding of the consumer as well as the cultural structuring of posthuman consumer culture.
The relation between humans and machines has come to assume a central place within the social sci... more The relation between humans and machines has come to assume a central place within the social sciences, particularly in debates about the role of science and about information technologies. Cyberculture plays a key role in these debates, drawing its inspiration in large part from virtual reality systems. This article examines the affinities between two aspects of cyberculture: cyborg post-modernism, which revolves around the notion that the boundaries between humans and machines are becoming irretrievably blurred, and the cyberpunk movement within youth culture with its futuristic ideas about information and communication machines.
This article looks at the use of embodied music controllers for gestural interaction with sound. ... more This article looks at the use of embodied music controllers for gestural interaction with sound. The technology for embodied interaction involves microchip “enhancement” of the human body, enabling the body as the music controller or musical actuator and connecting the performer with a networked (wireless) sonic performance environment. To examine the ways that the audience and performer respond to this new performance paradigm, this article first looks at some interpretations and understandings of posthumanisim and cyborgism and its effects for the music performer and audience. The influential body modifying and skin boundary cultures that colour audience perception and motivate cyborg processes, the body as expressive canvas and politicising cyborgism are considered in relation to alterity, community, marking and anthropology. The further social implications of radiofrequency identification tag technology and computing technologies that transfigure our body-limits and sense of self, privacy and human–machine integration are considered, particularly as contemporary posthuman tele-tactile technologies challenge conventional notions of touch and control. The Virtual Gamelan performance environment is presented as a test-bed for precision gestural interaction with sound, and to gauge audience feedback about these contentious contemporary issues that bleed into other pervasive technologies of the imminent future. This research was developed from the perspective of the music composer/performer and the motivation to explore posthuman cyborg notions through the embodiment of sensors in the disciplines of music, human–computer interaction, and design in a technological cyborg discussion that positions it differently to “mythological” cyborg discourse. The embodiment and permeation of the body are integral to the research goal of altering music performance paradigms. While utilising gesture, proprioception and spatial interaction, the embodiment of part of the system differentiates this approach from the Theremin or virtual interfaces with a physical controller (such as Guitar Hero or six-degrees-of-freedom devices with buttons and touch as well as motion, e.g. a Nintendo Wii controller) or the Xbox 360 Kinect, which uses low-latency life-like motion control of the on-screen avatar remote from the body of the performer.
technology studies, he painted a very vivid picture how anthropology and ethnography could contri... more technology studies, he painted a very vivid picture how anthropology and ethnography could contribute to the understanding of new bio and communication technologies as society's transforming driving forces. Pushed by powerful digital media technologies, such as internet applications and services, a "digital anthropology" recently developed, particularly under the influence of material culture theory. What is the legacy of the anthropology of cyberculture when dealing with new digital practices? And is it actually necessary to construct branches of anthropology that deal with contemporary sociocultural developments? Or should we just open the discipline to an "anthropology of the contemporary", as Rabinow and Marcus (2008) propose.
Two ways of self-interpretation merged in Western thought: the Hebrew and the Greek. What is uniq... more Two ways of self-interpretation merged in Western thought: the Hebrew and the Greek. What is unique, if anything, about the human species? The reinterpretation of this problem has been a constant process; here I am referring to Philip Hefner and the term created co-creator, and particularly to Donna Haraway and the term cyborg. Simultaneously, humans have been fascinated by the thought of transgressing the boundaries that seem to separate them from the rest of nature. Any culture reflects the ways it relates to nature. Our nature is technonature, and our culture is technoculture. Our reality can be best approached by the metaphor and symbol cyborg. Donna Haraway's cyborg is not just an interesting figure of speech, it is also a description-of ourselves and our culture. Also, contemporary fiction reflects the return of ontological questions: What is a world? What is the self? The cyborg acknowledges our mode of existence and destabilizes the traditional procedures of identity construction.
The two-fold purpose of this research is to introduce a posthumanist epistemology of technology c... more The two-fold purpose of this research is to introduce a posthumanist epistemology of technology consumption and to illustrate the usefulness of this epistemology in the study of consumption as a whole. Combining recent Anglo-American theories of consumer behavior and European systems theory, we first introduce the tetralemma of the system, an analytical framework for the systemic structuration of consumer behavior, which is then used to explore and develop three posthumanist systems on the rise and of interest in the marketplace matrix: (1) cyborg consumers (2) brand systems and (3) protest systems. The cyborg is the prototypical posthumanist consumer, a cybernetic organism that signifies the symbiosis between animal and machine, but also reflects the transformative union between economic priority and insatiable desire, living being and observing system. A brand system embeds consumers' and marketers' brand related social communication to establish control over consumption. A protest system is concerned with the ongoing social process of ensuring outsider status from the market dominated social environment through consumption.. Finally, we conclude that our posthumanist epistemology of consumption and the notion of systems provide important new insights into the posthumanist understanding of the consumer as well as the cultural structuring of posthuman consumer culture.
The relation between humans and machines has come to assume a central place within the social sci... more The relation between humans and machines has come to assume a central place within the social sciences, particularly in debates about the role of science and about information technologies. Cyberculture plays a key role in these debates, drawing its inspiration in large part from virtual reality systems. This article examines the affinities between two aspects of cyberculture: cyborg post-modernism, which revolves around the notion that the boundaries between humans and machines are becoming irretrievably blurred, and the cyberpunk movement within youth culture with its futuristic ideas about information and communication machines.
This article looks at the use of embodied music controllers for gestural interaction with sound. ... more This article looks at the use of embodied music controllers for gestural interaction with sound. The technology for embodied interaction involves microchip “enhancement” of the human body, enabling the body as the music controller or musical actuator and connecting the performer with a networked (wireless) sonic performance environment. To examine the ways that the audience and performer respond to this new performance paradigm, this article first looks at some interpretations and understandings of posthumanisim and cyborgism and its effects for the music performer and audience. The influential body modifying and skin boundary cultures that colour audience perception and motivate cyborg processes, the body as expressive canvas and politicising cyborgism are considered in relation to alterity, community, marking and anthropology. The further social implications of radiofrequency identification tag technology and computing technologies that transfigure our body-limits and sense of self, privacy and human–machine integration are considered, particularly as contemporary posthuman tele-tactile technologies challenge conventional notions of touch and control. The Virtual Gamelan performance environment is presented as a test-bed for precision gestural interaction with sound, and to gauge audience feedback about these contentious contemporary issues that bleed into other pervasive technologies of the imminent future. This research was developed from the perspective of the music composer/performer and the motivation to explore posthuman cyborg notions through the embodiment of sensors in the disciplines of music, human–computer interaction, and design in a technological cyborg discussion that positions it differently to “mythological” cyborg discourse. The embodiment and permeation of the body are integral to the research goal of altering music performance paradigms. While utilising gesture, proprioception and spatial interaction, the embodiment of part of the system differentiates this approach from the Theremin or virtual interfaces with a physical controller (such as Guitar Hero or six-degrees-of-freedom devices with buttons and touch as well as motion, e.g. a Nintendo Wii controller) or the Xbox 360 Kinect, which uses low-latency life-like motion control of the on-screen avatar remote from the body of the performer.
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