Document generated on 10/01/2021 1:37 p.m. Inter Art actuel Change It or Kill Me Stephen Sarrazin Arts et électroniques Number 63, Fall 1995 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/46532ac See table of contents Publisher(s) Les Éditions Intervention ISSN 0825-8708 (print) 1923-2764 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Sarrazin, S. (1995). Change It or Kill Me. Inter, (63), 53–55. Tous droits réservés © Les Éditions Intervention, 1995 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Technologies Evolve The analogy of « virus entering host » may be 5 Marshall McLUHAN. Understanding Media-The As HOBERMAN explains, newer machines are applied to STELARC's 1994 performance of Stom­ Extensions of Man, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964, p. 70- created to respond to stricter performance de­ ach Sculpture. For this performance, he created 71. 8 STELARC and James P. PAFFRATH, - The Split­ mands. DARWIN stated that when environmen­ and attempted to swallow a minute technologi­ ting of the Human Species » .The Obsolete Body. Davis. tal conditions change within an ecological sys­ cal sculpture that included an illuminating light California. J.P. Publications. 1984, p. 74. tem, natural selection weeds out less adapted bulb and expendable mechanical arms. Manoeu­ ' STELARC and PAFFRATH, p. 74. individuals and allows more genetically advan­ vred down his oesophagus, this sculpture can be " Contemporary vocabulary usage reveals that hu­ taged individuals to reproduce". Yet, biological read as mimicking the role of the virus-like tech­ mans already treat some technologies as though they evolution is often slow — incomparable to the nologies within the human host. were alive ; in the same way that living organisms do, alarmingly high turn-over rate that is visible with It can be argued that the quality that has ren­ computers become • infected by viruses - that endan­ the development of technologies'2. Nevertheless, dered humans evolutionarily advantaged over ger their « health ». 9 it can be speculated that the recurring manufac­ other species is their ability to make tools. It is Norman WHITE, - Description of Sixteen Selected Works », distributed to the author April, 1994. turing cycles of technologies indicate an evolu­ this « tool-making drive » that has allowed the 10 Ginette MAJOR and Hervé FISCHER, Images du tionary similarity to that of living species. human species to survive despite its physical Futur 93. 14 Mai — 19 Sept. Montréal: : Cité des Arts To manage this phenomenon conceptually, it mediocrities. This instinct may be interpreted as et des Nouvelles Technologies, p. 19. is believed that there is an urgency for the human an internalvirus whose DNA program dictates tool " Charles DARWIN. The Origin of Species, New body to evolve or - catch-up ». This has been ex­ production. Norman WHITE'S artistic philosophy York, The New American Library, 1958. pressed in works like STELARC's performance confirms this assessment : 12 Although the body's immune system can be ar­ Handswriting (May 22, 1982, Maki Gallery, To­ There has evolved into man's mental nature gued to deal with foreign particles in a relatively fast, kyo). With his third arm prosthesis operating, an insidious quirk which has caused him to be­ pseudo-evolutionary manner, at a macro level the hu­ STELARC composed the word • evolution » with come constantly restless, bored with accepted man morphology has not changed its physical shape for hundreds of years. his three upper - limbs » simultaneously on a values, images, definitions and such... One shares 13 STELARC and PAFFRATH, Strategies and Trajec­ blackboard. STELARC's concern with the theme the growing belief that man's inventiveness has tories, p. 45. of evolution is revealed as he often asserts that been the primary means by which he has achieved 14 Ronald M. ATLAS, Microbiology — Fundamentals the human body is obsolete. His usage of The his own downfall. Our inventions have widely and Applications , New York, MacMillan Publishing Third Arm to suggest the necessary direction of despoiled ourworld, and have led us into the most Company. 1984. pp. 288. 290. 9 the human species is relayed directly when he unhealthy, unfulfilling sorts of activity' . 15 Norman WHITE, Norman White, Vancouver, The states, « When we attach or implant prosthetic This conviction has motivated WHITE to cre­ Vancouver Art Gallery, 1975, p. 5. 16 devices to prolong a person's life, we also create ate electronic art that often expresses the futility McLUHAN stated : • Man appears as the repro­ the potential to modify the future evolution of the of technologies, opposing its highly esteemed ductive organ of the technological world. - McLUHAN, 3 p. 112. human species' * norm. One of the earliest electronic works exhib­ 17 « Computer Virus a Life Form ? » Globe A" Mail. ited in Canada, WHITE'S State of the Art U 974), August 3, 1994, p. 1. gets it name from this preoccupation. In this piece, A Parasitic Relationship ? " STELARC. • Triggering an Evolutionary Dialectic -, There exist many types of relationships be­ WHITE wired electronic circuitry to flash one row Obsolete Body Suspensions: :Stelarc, p. 65. tween species in the study of biology, for exam­ of lights at a time, creating an undulating effect '• WHITE, p. 5. ple, parasitic and symbiotic. Initially, technologies that coincides with the sounds emitted by nearby 20 WHITE, p. 5. may be determined to exist symbiotically with speakers. The work contradicts frequent promises 21 McLUHAN, p. 71. humans, indicating a mutually beneficial relation­ of technology to provide a superior environment ; ship. However, once the environmental and physi­ instead, it basks in its own uselessness and of­ ological damages of various technologies is con­ fers little aesthetic reward20. The use of techno­ sidered, the relationship between humans and logical materials in WHITE'S work may imply a technologies may be interpreted as quasi-para­ disappointment in the promises of technologies, sitic more than symbiotic. The process of the bio­ challenging popular opinion that technologies are logical infection of humans by viruses provides created to meet the supposed needs of society. an enlightening analogy for the speculation that Viewed collectively, the work of some elec­ technologies parasite the human species. The tronic artists indicates that not only can technolo­ analogy that technologies mimic the behaviours gies be viewed as McLuhan-esque extensions of of viruses challenges the role and ultimate fate of the body2', but they also possess distinct species­ the human race. like behaviours. In some ways, the similarities of On an aesthetic level only, an examination of the reproductive patterns of viruses to that of tech­ « T-even phages », a specific group of viruses, nologies may indicate a threat to high-tech hu­ reveals that their twenty-sided heads, coiled tube man populations. On the other hand, the virus­ shafts and extendable mechanical arms are simi­ like nature of technologies may not be external lar to advanced pieces of technology, a lunar but integral to the human body, having its origins module or a syringe, for example'4. When writing deep within the human instinct of « tool-making ». about his electronic art, artist Norman WHITE re­ Being a characteristic of humans, this internal lays, • Turning to the biological level of compli­ program may indicate the eventual replacement CHANGE IT OR KILL ME cation, we would be told that the « lower » organ­ of the human species by a more resilient, Stephen SARRAZIN isms exhibit a mechanistic sort of behaviour'5. » - techno-adapted » species. Are some electronic This « on/off » mechanistic behaviour is indicated artists visionaries by their ability to collectively, Of the nearly five hundred channels that promise by the inert state of viruses during non-reproduc­ even unconsciously, warn us of this emerging Cable TV in America, more than half of them will tive phases. Although viruses do not ingest food, techno-species ? If so, the future holds the an­ be showing • real » TV : archives, history, por­ move, breathe, excrete, they replicate when they swer as to whether or not humans will live in traits, tourism and travelogues, as well as home come in contact with a host. In the same way, we peaceful co-existence with techno-beings or face shopping, weather and direct theme channels, consider technologies inert, made of lifeless, in­ their ultimate failure. • etc. Moreover, « channel surfing » already permits organic materials. Like viruses, technologies rep­ access to the image banks if one possesses the licate at an alarming rate and humans can be necessary hardware : in addition to PBS, we find viewed as the energetic force behind their prolif­ The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, eration'". A British physicist, Dr. Stephen HAWK­ The Life and Health Network, Arts & Entertain­ ING, illustrates this point with the example of man- ' Mary Anne FARAH, • Machines in the Garden: In­ ment, QVC C-Span, which diffuse American Con­ made computer viruses where « a computer vi­ teractive Video Art — Bringing Video to Life », gressional hearings and assist in court trials. CNN rus fits the definition of a living system even Parallélogramme, vol. 18 (4). 1993, p. 48-54, and, Mary and MTV still figure among the top channels on though it has no metabolism of its own. Instead... Anne FARAH, - Telematic Performance Loops Toronto the global scale by inventing within the scope of it uses the metabolism of a host computer and is and Quebec », Fuse, vol. 17(1), Fall 1993,41-42.