Future Bodies -
by Jill Scott

This talk centers around the desire to transform the body by technology
and the need to transform our types of desire. It will be illustrated with
excerpts from my new work at the ZKM, Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe
called Digital Body-Automata. This consists of three installations called:
A Figurative History (past mechanical transformation); Interskin (present
digital transformation) and Immortal Duality (future molecular transfor-
mation).These installations are designed to encourage intimate and con-
templative and interactive participation on the part of the viewer and cent-
er around a similar theme; the exploration of the desire to transform the
human body by technology, and, the effect technology may have on the
design of the human body in the future.

»A Figurative History« consists of five interactive terminals with smart
objects and corresponding screens. By touching the objects, viewers
can see animated characters on the screens, which represent five dif-
ferent types of fantasies about the mechanical transformation of the bo-
dy by technology, Frankenstein's monster (1890), Lady Miso (1750); Pan-
dora (BC), The Cyborg (1250) and The Data Body (1950) The desires to
transform these bodies is further extended by the touch of the other
viewers in the space, as well as mechanically through the sculptural
interfaces.

More internal and ephemeral desires for transformations of the body are
effected by the digitization of medical imaging and computer mapping of
the interior of the human body. Such is the experience of the Virtual Re-
ality Game called »Interskin«. The players can »go inside« separate body
parts, guided by selected »avatars« or »agents«. Together these body
parts form a spiral around the »T'an Tien« or center of the human body.
In the game one can explore the gender and identity of a second self or
other body which may resides deep inside the viewer's personality.

»Immortal Duality« discusses the implications of molecular transforma-
tion. As the viewers move in the space, an Interactive Automata com-
ments on the paradox of Science in molecular transformation; from the
early discovers of phenomena like radium to the latest developments in
DNA manipulation and Human Genome Mapping. Around the walls of this
environment, a depiction of ethical issues about anti-aging, cloning and
reproduction are displayed, and, the viewer can interact with these to
compose associations of their own.

These works suggest that a shift in our notions of »matter« and of »na-
ture« may change the way artists represent the human body. As micro-
biologists have cloned a sheep and predict human cloning in the near fu-
ture, I wonder, both from the perspective of a woman and an artist what
will happen to "reproduction". Without a conscious transformation of our
desires we will still need to question the applications and implications of
technological progress.