The next body and beyond: Meta‐organisms, psycho‐pros‐theses and aesthetics of hybridity

Abstract

A current trend in contemporary art is to explore the effects of technology upon the body. Exercising a sometimes perverse and sometimes anxious fascination, technological possibilities for the extension, replacement, or enhancement of the perceptual, functional, sexual, and/or psychological aspects of human subjectivity have found expression in a variety of modes of contemporary art making. These explorations touch on the representation of the body as machine, as well as technological metaphors and modes, to produce works which emphasise hybridity, meta‐organisms, and prosthetic devices which simulate psychic functions as well as taking on organic, conceptual, and cognitive features of human existence.

Keywords:

• body
• hybridity
• genetics
• technology
• art