The Hybrid Body and Sonic-Cyborg Performance in Why Should Our Bodies End at the Skin?

Abstract

In "A Cyborg Manifesto," Donna Haraway describes how by the late twentieth century, humans have become hybridized with machines. While society has long been concerned with the ever-growing encroachment of technology into human activity, Haraway challenges this concern, proposing instead a kinship between organism and machine. The result is the cyborg, a hybrid body that fluidly transcends mechanical and organic boundaries. Why Should Our Bodies End at the Skin? for sensor-equipped dancer, robotic percussion, sound exciters, and live sound processing, explores these ideas of intersectionality and fluidity between organism and machine by connecting human action and mechanical tasks. This paper describes the creative framework and associated technologies involved in the development of the piece.