Technology and Touch: The Biopolitics of Emerging Technologies

229 Pages·2013·1.179 MB·English

by  Anne Cranny-Francis

Technology and Touch
AlsobyAnneCranny-Francis
ENGENDERED FICTION: Analysing Gender in the Production and Reception
ofTexts
FEMININE/MASCULINEANDREPRESENTATION(co-editedwithTerryThreadgold)
FEMINISTFICTION:FeministUsesofGenericFiction
GENDERSTUDIES:TermsandDebates(withWendyWaring,PamStavropoulosand
JoanKirkby)
MULTIMEDIA:TextsandContexts
POPULARCULTURE
THEBODYINTHETEXT
Technology and Touch
The Biopolitics of Emerging Technologies
Anne Cranny-Francis
UniversityofTechnology,Sydney,Australia
©AnneCranny-Francis2013
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Contents
ListofIllustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Touch:AnEmbodied,SocialandCulturalPractice 9
2 Technology:TheorizingHuman–TechnologyInteraction 37
Part I TechnologiesofTouch
3 EyeFeel:VisualityandTouch 65
4 GoodVibrations:Touch,SoundandMovement 87
Part II TechnologiesThatWeTouch
5 Mouse,ScreenandConsole:TheCapabilitiesandEthicsof
Touch-EnabledTechnologies 109
6 FromPHANToMtoHapticCow:Technologies
ThatTouchBack 131
Part III TechnologiesThatTouchUs
7 SmartTextiles:GivingaNewSensetotheNotionThat
ClothingMakesthe(Hu)man 151
8 ProstheticsandRobots:MarkingtheBordersof
Human/TechnologyInteraction 172
Conclusion 195
Notes 199
References 200
Index 217
v
Illustrations
1.1 Mueck,R.(2005)WildMan.Mixedmedia,
161.9×649.9×395cm.CollectionoftheQueensland
ArtGallery.ImagecourtesyAnthonyd’Offay,London 31
1.2 Mueck,R.(1996–1997)DeadDad.Mixedmedia,
20×38×102cm.CollectionofSaatchiGallery.Image
courtesySaatchiGallery 32
3.1 Barrass,S.,L.DavyandJ.Davy(2008–2009)Fauxythe
FakeFurwithFeelings.Mixedmedia,70×50×30cm.
Collectionoftheartists.ImagecourtesyEffyAlexakis 69
7.1 CuteCircuit(2013b)‘HugShirt’.Availableonline:http://
www.cutecircuit.com/hug-shirt/,dateaccessed:
19/02/2013.ImagecourtesyCuteCircuit 158
7.2 ‘“Brain-drawing”bubbles’inBaurley(2011,p.185) 166
vi
Acknowledgements
The research for this book was financed by an Australian Research
Council(ARC)DiscoveryProjectgrantnamed,forthemovieBladeRun-
ner (but a little unwisely in this digital era), ‘Skin Jobs: Biopolitics,
Embodiment and Haptic Technologies’. The research focus expanded
from haptics to include a range of touch technologies including smart
phones,smarttextiles,prostheticsandrobotics,whichthegrantenabled
metoexplorewithfieldworkvisitstoengineeringanddesignlabsinthe
UK, Canada and the USA and by consultations with researchers in a
range of disciplines. Without this support, the project could not have
beencompleted.
I also wish to thank the senior research assistant on this project,
Dr Cathy Hawkins, who offered sensible advice and moral support, as
well as research and editing skills. Thanks also to designers and artists
SarahKettleyandCuteCircuit(FrancescaRosellaandRyanGenz),sound
artists Adrian Palka, David Chapman and Louise Wilson, and sculptor
RonMueck,whoallmadetimetodiscusstheirwork.
IwishtothankMacquarieUniversity,whereIworkedwhilecomplet-
ingmuchofthisresearch,andparticularlyacknowledgethesupportof
my colleague Joseph Pugliese, whose own research is impeccable and
who is inevitably encouraging and supportive. And I thank the Uni-
versity of Technology, Sydney, for support in the final stages of the
projectandduringthewritingofthismanuscript.Bothuniversitiesalso
hostedresearchexhibitionsbasedonthisresearch,whichenabledmeto
exploreascuratortherelationshipbetweentouchandart.
I want to thank my friends who offered hospitality and support as
Iworkedontheproject,particularlyJillBrewsterintheUKandPatricia
GillardandBobbieGledhillinAustralia.AndIespeciallythankmychil-
dren, Hamish and Conal, who dealt graciously with my absences and
were unerringly loving and supportive. Finally, I dedicate the book to
myparents,whodiedduringthecourseofthisproject.Theyaregreatly
missed.
vii
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Introduction
The digital image, Death of a Cyborg (2010) by Canadian artist Shorra
(Deborah Mason), that appears on the cover articulates many of the
ideas about touch and technology explored in this book. Unlike many
popular fiction images, this is not an image of a rogue cyborg crushed
in an industrial press or submerged in molten steel. Instead it shows a
grieving human male/female couple with the partly destroyed cyborg
(endofonearmmissing,coveringofneck,abdomenandkneeremoved
sothatitscircuitryisshowing)lyingacrosstheman’sknees.Thestyleof
theworkisHighRomanticanditis,infact,adigitalupdateofWilliam
Adolphe Bouguereau’s painting, First Mourning (1888), which depicts
AdamandEvemourningthedeathoftheirsonAbel,whowaskilledby
his jealous brother, Cain; so the painting also depicts the first murder.
The pose of the figures attests that their relationship was intimate, the
womanpressingherselfagainsttheseatedman’schestunderhisprotec-
tiveoutstretchedarmwhilethecyborgliesacrosshisthighs,theman’s
other hand stretched across his heart as if to indicate overwhelming
grief.
TheHigh Romanticgenre of thepainting,typicalof thenineteenth-
century,situatesthisdebateashavingalongculturalhistory.Whilemy
concerninthisstudyiswithtechnologiesthathavebeendevelopedover
the past 50 years and become popularly accessible or visible over the
lastthreedecades,thedebateabouthuman–technologyrelationshipsis
mucholder.Itcouldbetraced,asdoesKubrickin2001:ASpaceOdyssey
(1968), back to the first hominid ape that picked up a bone and used
it as a tool. And it can certainly be appreciated by analogy with the
first Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century that transformed
Westernsocietiesandthelivesofindividualcitizens(forgoodorill).The
aestheticbeautyofShorra’simagealsoconfirmsthathuman–technology
relationshipsarenotonlyintellectualorconceptual,butalsoemotional
1