Exploring the notion of synthetic/ artificial prosthetics further I watched the documentary Bodyhack: Metal Gear Man, this goes through the story of James Young who answered a call put out by Konami (makes of Metal Gear Solid) to take part in an experiment to create a bionic arm as a marketing campaign for the game. The documentary itself focuses more on James’ story than on the actual journey and any underlining views of experimental prosthetics. The more interesting parts come when we actually do see the machinic arm, in all its non-working glory. From this the notion of body hacking and the merging of the body with technology stood out for me, some (well most) of this still feels extremely gimmicky but there are parts of the documentary that make useful comments on the phenomena. Particularly when prostheses don’t work and the initial arm that is produced is cumbersome and heavy, easily breakable and having the sense of an afterthought add on to the human body. Rather than being something that is merged with and working in collaboration, when the prosthetic malfunctions it appears alien and evokes a feeling of otherness in his own body.

This idea of body hacking in relation to the idea of prosthetics and the extension of the human through that which is artificial has some interesting application in art practice. One of the most notable of these is Stelarc who has experimented in various ways of extending the human body beyond its limits. The implanting of an ear into his arm is one of the most interesting through the use of re-contextualising the biological make-up of the human, he has since experimented with implanting a microphone and the possibility of making it wi-fi enabled. Again while the pushing of the body beyond it’s biological limits, this is still very much grounded in its biological make-up. Although as a device that utilises the processes of the body merged with the machinic results in something that forms a fused connection. You being to lose where the organic ends and the machine begins, which transports you into the realm of the cyborg.

Along a different line of thought but still utilising bodily processes in order to extend it, Naomi Kithner’s project Energy Addicts explored the production of devices that harvests the human bodies’ energy and converting this into power. The objects themselves while beautiful and jewellery like, have a harsh reality to them in the invasive nature they are implanted into the skin. The need to be inserted by the user directly into he skin in various places depending on the area of the body you want to harness plays on the idea of medical needles and the horror of body modification. The use of a device that puts the body on intimate terms with the synthetic whilst simultaneously extending it to be of use is very interesting to consider in connection with my project. Would it be possible to create devices that can allow the human voice to communicate without the use of sound? Could the mouth be extended to utilise the process of the voice and transform this into a commodifiable thing?