TechnoMorphica
Edited by Joke Brouwer and Carla Hoekendijk
(Rotterdam: V2_Organisation, 1997)
ISBN: 9066171863

New from the Dutch V2_Organisation (www.v2.nl) is TechnoMorphica, a book
of art and essays. If this intriguing anthology must have a theme, it
would be the "new cyborg," the rearrangement of the organic world around
the model of the intelligent machine. Unlike early work on bio/techno
hybrids, TechnoMorphica benefits from contemporary developments in areas
such as augmented reality, nanotechnology and prosthetics to arrive at a
more shockingly immediate description of the future of art and the
future of theory. As V2 announces, "in this book fourteen authors give
their views on [the] blurring of borders and the fusion of the
biological with the technological."

Although TechnoMorphica includes interesting theoretical material from
critics such as Paul Virilio, Manuel de Landa and Mark Dery, RHIZOME
readers will be most interested in the chapters from new media artists
Stelarc and Knowbotic Research. As if that weren't already a diverse
cast of authors, TechnoMorphica is taken over the interdisciplinary edge
by additional material from architects and scientists. But
cyberfeminists beware, the editors of TechnoMorphica seem to think that
being posthuman means not putting any women authors on the roster (ok,
there's a few on the list).

Amazingly, the book includes a 180 page, full color, frame-by-frame
photo documentation of Australian artist Stelarc's "Stomach Sculpture,"
a swallowed video probe exploration of the inside of the artist's
digestive track. I'd say that's worth the price of admission right
there.

Says Stelarc, "the body has been augemented, invaded and now becomes a
host–not only for technology, but also for remote agents" (15). He
elaborates on the "Stomach Sculpture" in a recent CTHEORY interview:
"with the stomach sculpture, I position an artwork inside the body. The
hollow body becomes a host, not for a self or a soul, but simply for a
sculpture" (www.ctheory.com or _Digital Delirium_, p.198).

In interview with V2's Andreas Broeckmann, Knowbotic Research speaks on
their recent exploration of the urban and the digital. Their project
"IO_DENCIES" (http://www.khm.de/people/krcf/IO/) is a primary reference
point. IO_DENCIES deals with the complex relationship between, and the
collapsing together of, lived urban space and the structure of digital
space. Knowbotic Research writes: "It is our aim not to have the
investigations of the urban take place in an independent, virtual space.
Rather than the submersion in a distinct and detached environment, we
are trying consciously to enhance the oscillation between the fields of
action of the real urban space, and those of the data space" (63).

Another highlight is the fringe pseudo-science (or is it *real*
science?!) found in the chapter from Louis Bec, enigmatically entitled
"Squids, Elements of Technozoosemiotics," an inspired if confused rant.
Don't miss it!

TechnoMorphica is a bilingual Dutch-English edition. More information is
available at www.v2.nl/publicaties.