New Media as a Cyborgian Encounter

Stiegler states, "The concept of 'human' is unthinkable without technology but we act as if it is." (Shaw, 2008, P.81) What Stiegler is saying here is that we have become like cyborgs, machines and technology are a part of what makes us up as humans. 'A cyborg is a person whose physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by a machine ... that modifies the bodies functions.' (Santone, 2003, [Online])

The invention of technology can be dated right back to the early humans and their use of stone tools to help them hunt for food, build fires and houses, etc. Technology in this sense is different to digital technology today. The early humans used their technology to shape their lives and to survive. Is this the same case today? I believe so. Technology and new media are all around us we are constantly in contact with the media which helps us study, work, find information which form us as humans. 

Today people cannot go about their daily lives without coming into contact with new media technology and in many cases people feel completely lost without a piece of technology strapped to them. Think of your mobile phone, you have it with you nearly all the time either in your pocket, handbag, strapped in a hands free kit in the car, everywhere. For many people their mobile phones are a part of them. 'The cyborg represents the relationship between organic bodies and media technologies ...' (Santone, 2003, [Online])

Shaw talks about new media as a cyborgian encounter, new media has brought us closer to technology. New media provides access to content at anytime, anywhere because it is digitized. 'Stelarc's work deorganizes the body by drawing attention to the way that technology extends, amplifies, invades and shapes contempory bodies.' (Shaw, 2008, P.81)

Shaw provides us with a case study called 'Dead Bodies and Lively Machines.' In Almodovar's film 'Talk to Her' a man is in love with a woman who is in a coma, only being kept alive by machines. Benigro talks to her and fantasises about what she wold respond with, this is an important note. The fact that the woman is being kept alive by machines, enables fantasies, 'so the film makes the link between technological undeath and the fantasy of human perfectibility - the ultimate happy ending.'  (Shaw, 2008, P.96)

Books:
Shaw, D. 2008, 'Technoculture: the key concepts,' Oxford Berg Press
Websites:
Santone, J. 2003, 'Cyborgs,' The Chicago School of Media Theory, [Online] Accessed on 29/10/10, Available at:
http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/cyborg/