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Biodigital Being(s): Praxis Body Futures

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Humanity In-Between and Beyond

Part of the book series: Integrated Science ((IS,volume 16))

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Abstract

The human body is a space through which we encounter and decipher the world, society, and ourselves. Édouard Glissant has linked the concept of knowledge opacities to the physical quality of opaqueness. In the case of the body as a subject of knowledge, technoscientific practices attempt to overcome our embodied opacity and make it transparent, that is, to have embodied and cognitive functions known and controlled. As scientific and technological paradigms weave new transparencies and opacities across bodies, core conceptions of embodied representations and senses of self fluctuate. Digital mediations and immersive technologies further blur the boundaries between physical and digital identities by offering unbound and fluid modes of self-representation. This novel state of biodigital being(s) melds together material and immaterial body politics, ethos, and cultures. The chapter examines how the emerging biodigital condition echoes and redefines nature/culture entanglements in the context of digital body mediation, and what paths could be taken to unveil new body agencies and imaginaries stemming from our (wonderfully) flawed material state.

If the to-come is not the future, there is no future without the to-come, but there is a to-come without future.

Bernard Stiegler [1, p. 176]

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Early mythologies and belief systems were based on nature-centric divinity, with humanity conceived as an integral element of the cosmic ecosystem, a mere collateral product of creation. On the flip side, some Indigenous mythologies position humanity as inferior to other creatures.

  2. 2.

    Spiritual and secular body rituals still incorporate death-repelling rites, rituals, and taboos. This includes the avoidance of polluted substances, body cleansing rituals, cognitive and behavioral constraints, and magical thinking aimed to distance the body and mind from the effect of death.

  3. 3.

    Becker also addresses the human tendency to construct model heroes who are often capable of defying or overcoming the natural order, an ability that positions them closer to supernatural or divine entities. Part of what Becker frames as our desire to gain immortality relates to collective and individual attempts to internalize these heroic qualities, so that we can “seem important, vital to the universe, immortal in some way” [8, p. 133].

  4. 4.

    The drawing was originally created as an anatomical study of body proportions.

  5. 5.

    Originally proposed by Karl Marx.

  6. 6.

    Examples include community open-space labs producing the illusion that the community can participate in or influence development (through a wall of aspirational post-it notes) and promotional brochures with picture-perfect scenarios, including kite-flying kids.

  7. 7.

    Such interface design and gamification mechanisms are also referred to as dark UX (User Experience).

  8. 8.

    The avatar was generated by the Second Life user Ailin Graef. The avatar was so influential that it became a legislative or ruling force in her Dreamland regions.

  9. 9.

    Meta’s virtual-reality social media platform.

  10. 10.

    The concept of Dasein was introduced in Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927). The term is a combination of the German words Da (here/there) and Sein (being), Heidegger frames the condition of “being-there”/“there-being” or a “conscious existence” as a distinctive human trait.

  11. 11.

    In The Body beyond the Body: Social, Material, and Spiritual Dimensions of Bodiliness (2011), Terence Turner defines the social skin, observing that “the modifications of the surface of the body by painting, adornment and coiffure considered together comprise a total system of distinctions of gender, social age, and distinctive social powers, roles and conditions” [33, p. 106].

  12. 12.

    The film specifically focuses on Adderall, but its findings also apply to other commercially available ADHD treatment drugs. Most ADHD medications are purified forms of Amphetamines or Methamphetamines (known as the street drug “Crystal Meth”/“Meth,” “Ice,” or “Speed”).

  13. 13.

    In Greek mythology (book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses), Pygmalion was a sculptor who created a perfect female figure carved in ivory. His love and admiration for his artwork caught the attention of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, who brought the sculpture to life. The Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon described by psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson where high expectations lead to improved performance in a specific area, speaking to our ability to construct self-fulfilling prophecies, which can be utilized as a self-development tool to help us to internalize positive self-projections and labels.

  14. 14.

    NuMe is a placeholder name for my own reference, with the intention of being claimed or changed by the digital being at any time.

  15. 15.

    A standard platform with sophisticated, no-code sculpting functionalities that support a hyper-realistic avatar creation.

  16. 16.

    According to Joy, Ugur, and Ayhan, virtual immersion is an act of perception transference from our physical embodied functions into parallel or modified virtual ones. This requires a constant and seamless synchronization of visuotactile and sensory-motor feedback and an onboarding process. Once the process is complete, the target avatar becomes a new source of sensation, but is still bound to the material embodied perception of immersion [55].

  17. 17.

    As Bacon states in The Brutality of Fact (1990), “Because this image is a kind of tightrope walk between what is called figurative painting and abstraction. It will go right out from abstraction but will really have nothing to do with it” [51, p. 12].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cinema and Media Arts, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Galit Ariel

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  1. Galit Ariel
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  1. Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland

    Monika Michałowska

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Ariel, G. (2023). Biodigital Being(s): Praxis Body Futures. In: Michałowska, M. (eds) Humanity In-Between and Beyond. Integrated Science, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27945-4_2

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