About
Version 1.0
Putting It Into Focus And Context
The work was inspired by an interview with David Cronenberg
on BBC2's Forbidden season, which was followed by his film
Videodrome. During the interview he was asked why he uses sex and
'pornography' in his films and his reply was that he believes that there
is no life after death, that this life is all you have, that your body is
who you are, not your spirit. This is, simplified, the reasons behind why
so many of his films deal with the relationship of the body with something.
When asked about his feelings towards pornography on the internet his response
suggested that this was a body/machine story waiting to happen. Inspired
by the interview and the film I began working on
<<<STATIC>>>. Although originally intended
to be a film the piece works much better now on the internet.
The piece is about the relationship between the body and the machine. It is not a new concept and is one that has been around since the moment technology was first perceived as the rapidly growing way of the future and science fiction grabbed hold of it. The first attempts at portraying this relationship was in the very obvious concept of the cyborg - half man, half machine. The physical link and relationship, however, the two physical bodies were still separately identifiable (even if it might be difficult to do so in some cases).
The concept of the cyborg was the definitive man/machine relationship until around the '80ies when cyberspace became popular. Popularized by William Gibson in his book Neuromancer it was a dramatic turning point in science fiction. The popular, modern science fiction took a dramatic turn-around and went from being externalized to being internalized. From extraterrestrial intelligence and outer-space, to artificial intelligence and inner-space. In a way science fiction was returning to its roots: much of the work produced in the previous decade was science fantasy as opposed to the scientific exploration of possibilities commonly associated with authors such as Isaac Asimov. Here, with computers and cyberspace, scientific possibilities were being explored again as the cutting edge of computer technology was being experimented with, not in the labs, but on the pages of the writer. The writerly experimentations into artificial intelligence had been around since the first ideas about robots, but the idea of an artificial intelligence that did not inhabit a physical body, an intelligence that was altogether something quite unique was new. Androids were often used in writing to make a comment on some aspect of the human attitudes towards relationships, attitudes towards other races, what it means to be a human, etc., while AIs opened up the possibilities to explore other aspects, like the human psyche for instance, the internal processors of the individual personality. As opposed to asking the question "what does it mean to be human?" the question became "what does it mean to be sentient?".
It is at this point in the science fiction genre, however, that the link between body/machine changes. The machine is no longer occupying a humanoid form, thus the sense of identification is discarded to be replaced by newer relationships. The human body represents the link with the physical world while the AI represents the link to the metaphysical world.
The modern man/machine stories have changed and there is
less identification with the body/machine as is now the mind/machine.
David Cronenberg's use of sex to identify with the body is a very effective, albeit controversial, way of working. Sex and pornography is all about the body, the body and its relationship with man/woman/animals/inanimate objects/et al. No matter what the particular perversion on the relationship the core is always its relationship with the body (or parts of the body). The link is very strong.
Pornography has been travelling through the internet since
it first became available to the public. In writing a piece about the
body/machine relationship, set around the internet it is only natural that
pornography becomes the link back to the body from the mind/machine genre.
The human body having been taken from the canvas, to photographs, to film
and now into the digital formats available on computers. Pornography on the
internet can be seen as a link between the body and the machine as the body
is put onto the machine.
The story centres on a group of individuals who have discovered a way to convert the physical matter of the human body into electrical energy and thus, with body as electricity and mind intact, they inhabit the machine (body/machine transfer - from putting the body onto the machine to putting the body into the machine). Their philosophy is based on the alchemists and focuses mainly on the philosophy pertaining to hermaphrodism. The alchemists believed that the hermaphrodite was the perfect being, a perfect balance between man and woman. Therefore, it was believed that every man (as, in the sixteenth century, women were not educated) should explore their feminine aspects. This aspect of the philosophy was not about science, but about theology. Alchemy was as much a religion as it was a science. Considered closely the theology was about sexuality, both physical and metaphysical. Placed into a modern day environment and updated accordingly it can become the philosophy of cybersexuality for the electro-alchemists in the story.
However, in order for the reader to be adequately 'primed' for this philosophy the subject matter must be presented to be understood. This manifests itself as the most 'controversial' but necessary part of the story. Presented without holding back or without constraint is the only way to present the subject matter without it seeming tame, self-censoring and unrealistic; unfortunately, the flip-side to this is that it is most likely to offend people and stop them reading the complete story.
It is not the aim of this work, however, to present the subject of pornography for debate, nor for political correctness. In fact, the sex is, in the bigger picture, quite a small matter in the work. It is presented for necessity and serves a purpose, and is not presented for thrills or, as with many Hollywood movies, for the sheer hell of it. On the contrary, the sex angle is presented in such a way that it will most likely disgust a reader. While it was not the intention to deliberately shock the audience, it was the intention to make them feel a little uncomfortable about what is out there (the reader can be assured that there are far worse things out there than is presented in the work).
The process was quite necessary for the electro-alchemists' philosophies to be fully appreciated and understood. By giving the audience a 'taste' of the extreme they have been prepared for a discussion which justifies this extreme. The justification, however, is not intended to be an excuse for what has come before, if anything the intention was to present something more horrifying. If the sexual perversions that were presented just moments before the discovery of the entocyberensus have made the reader uncomfortable because of the reality, the electro-alchemists' philosophy may horrify them at the possibility.
<<<STATIC>>> is by all means
a horror story, albeit an unorthodox one. It may not be jump-out-of-your-seat
scary, but the concepts are disturbing (while, hopefully, thought provoking).