HONOR 3225 - Technologies of the Body

The body is continually being negotiated in a landscape of ever-changing signifiers, including enhancements, exchanges, modifications and inscriptions: all instances of how we engage in 'body-work'. Bodywork includes various forms of alterations and transformations, for example, reductions, piercings, tattoos, injections, and transplantations. These practices alter and construct how the body is read, and consequently, what the body signifies. The body as a cultural signifier also includes capacities of the virtual body with the arrival of computerized, robotized, digitized, and postmodern bodies. The aim of this course is to consider and examine the argument that participation in these contemporary technologies has significantly transformed the experience of what it means to have a body. The consequences of the intersections-between technology and the body-will be explored and critically analyzed.