Tracing Bodies of Information Overflow
This website is an article by Victoria Vesna that explores the practice in the medical community of reducing bodies to abstract datasets that further investigates her research on the relationship between bodies and cyberspace. Through other researches done on this relationship, this paper further explores and presents a broad overview of the development of our bodies as cyborgs. This paper touches the issue as a broad concept, including various different researches to support her thesis. Thus, she only touches on each research briefly.
In this article, Vesna approaches the Visible Human Project from a feminist point of view. She first introduces the Project concisely and simply before critically analysing its consequences. Vesna also uses Waldby’s arguments to further support her research field. Ultimately, Vesna argues that the VHP does not represent a ‘fantasy object’ and a ‘form of pornography’; but the Human Genome Project is a greater reflection of it.
Published in The Body Caught In The Intestines Of The Computer And Beyond: Women's Strategies and/or Strategies, this essay is a scholarly article that targets to inform readers in similar fields of study. This paper, thus, shows high credentials through its publication and author; Vesna is renowned writer in this field. Thus website is at an appropriate level for the research task.
Vesna, Victoria (2000) ‘Tracing Bodies of Information Overflow’ in The Body Caught In The Intestines Of The Computer And Beyond: Women's Strategies and/or Strategies by Women in Media, Art and Theory. http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/00-01/BodyCaught/data_bodiesF.htm (accessed 3 September 2010).
The Visible Human Project: Data into Flesh, Flesh into Data
This website provides a link to a draft article written by Catherine Waldby, The Visible Human Project: Data into Flesh, Flesh into Data. This article discusses the issues regarding the relationship between technology and the body, which has arisen in contemporary intellectual and ethical practices specifically in the sciences and humanties arena. Drawing from other research, she explores profoundly in the political and ethical issue of the Visible Human Project.
Waldby, in this paper, first examines the technology aspects of the Project and its importance to the medical field. This paper then goes on to explore the Project as a sexualized commodity, which is relevant to the research tasks. Focusing on how the VHP dissects the body to its smallest atom, Waldby argues that the Project indeed is a form of pornography, or as Braidotti puts it, medical pornography. Thus, the arguments in this article will provide a basis for the research task.
This article is found on the Murdoch University’s Virtual/ Information/ Digital website. It is however, only a draft version of the article. The article itself is inaccessible through the Internet without making payment or the authority to enter the journals. The Virtual/ Information/ Digital sit is an electronic edited collection of works that have either been through peer review or examined as theses. Thus, its credentials are supported and this article is at an appropriate level for the research task.
Waldby, Catherine (1996) “The Visible Human Project: Data into Flesh, Flesh into Data” in Virtual/ Informational/ Digital electronic edited collection of works. http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/wildbiol1.html (accessed 3 September 2010).
The article, The Great LadyBug Animation taken from the NYU’s Biotech Hobbyist online magazine, explores the idea of visual/ photographic databases of the insides of a ladybug and humans. It focuses primarily on the Great LadyBug Animation and the Visible Human Project. It also draws its research heavily on Victoria’s Vesna’s study of ‘aesthetic of navigation,’ which is “both a structural and temporal aspect of photographic database”. (Jeremijenko & Bunting, 2004)
In an entire section, this article argues that although the Visible Human Project is a prime example of a medical technology, it is “making the invisible visible and the internal external.” (Jeremijenko & Bunting, 2004) Thus, supporting Waldby’s argument, this article argues that the VHP is indeed a form of pornography as it surges into the human body and dissects it to its extreme core.
This article is published in the March 2004 issue of Biotech Hobbyist, a magazine that is tailored specifically for the biotech enthusiast. Although these projects are housed by NYU, it does not state that it has been academically peer reviewed. Thus, the material is not at an appropriate level for the research task. However, it is crucial that a wide range of readings is done before attempting to do the task. This will ensure that the research task is understood clearly.
Jeremijenko, Natalie & Bunting, Heath (2004) “The Great LadyBug Animation” in Biotech Hobbyist Magazine II. http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/biotechhobbyist/ladybug_animation.html (accessed 7 September 2010).
Building Myself a “Body without Organs”
This website is an article written by Gregory Little on a project that he was working on previously. Extracting information from The Visible Human Project, Little aims to create a 3D computer model of a human’s internal organs within himself. He draws from three different databases to create a virtual body, an immersive artistic context for an interaction work of art.
As Little talks about his attempt to create a virtual body, he also discusses the implications that come along with his project. For his research, Little focuses on three main databases and explores the research in detail technologically and politically. He concludes that biology is a discourse, instead of just a canon for understanding life forms. Little, thus argues against Waldby’s thesis and does not agree that the VHP is a form of pornography, Little argues otherwise. Thus, this article provides a source that disagrees with Waldby’s argument and will add depth to the research task when writing the essay.
Presented at Computers in Art and Design Education 1999, this article does not offer any scholarly authority. However, as Gregory Little focuses on this field of research, his writings on his research provide great insights to the concept of the VHP and politics that arise through intruding into the insides of a human.
Little, Gregory (1999) Building Myself a “Body without Organs”. http://www.gregorylittle.org/avatars/bwo_texts.html (accessed on 7 September 2010).
Wild Science: Reading Feminism, Medicine and the Media.
This article is a book review by Barbara Crow on Wild Science in the Canadian Journal of Communication. The article provides a summary of the entire book and reviews the book briefly as a whole towards the end of the article. It touches on various feminist issues that arise due to the advances of medicine and media. In the article it does not specifically mention the problems and issues that arise from The Visible Human Project but instead gives a brief overview of the feminist approach towards such medical research.
Published in 2002, the article is relatively up to date. As the VHP was completed in 1995, the book clearly contains relevant information about the project and the political aspects that arose prior to 2002. Although the article does not provide any concrete argument, the book is definitely a good source of research for the task. Thus, it is also important to read through reviews as it may lead to another source that will be extremely relevant to the research topic.
Crow, Barbara (2002) “Wild Science: Reading Feminism, Medicine and the Media” Canadian Journal of Communication 27(4), http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1334/1391 (accessed on 8 September 2010).
After researching online thoroughly for this research task, it is clear that materials online are often not at an appropriate level for the task. It is difficult to find links online that is going to lead to the quality of information and analysis that is needed for research at university level. The articles are often non-scholarly and should not be included in a University essay. However, researching online is a good start because it often provides a brief overview of the research topic. Thus, research time and effort should not be spent solely on information and materials online, but equally spent between online and consulting conventional print sources to ensure a full understanding on the topic.
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