Awe-Stricken and Immobile

[intima]

"i want to share you - what are you doing to me?"
Awe-Stricken and Immobile: Body of Intima

Essay by Bojana Kunst

http://www.interact.com.pt/ligacoes/share/iessay.html

0. Introduction (very emotional)
1. I want to share you: Historical context of the encounter
2. What are you doing to me?
3. Forbidden link
4. Intimate link

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Abstract

Throughout history, the main physical reaction of man encountering 
artificial creatures has been described as a sudden immobility of his 
body: the spectator becomes frozen, immobile, lifeless even. 
Despite the modern "scientific" disclosure of the artificial, the 
excess of immobility remains. More even, it could be read as one of 
the main bodily symptoms in the distopian history of modernity, 
where the excess of immobility not only pertains to physical 
movements or senses but also to the body's erotic energy and 
passion, its ability to be unpredictable and fluid. The fact that 
throughout the history of modernity, the desire for a replaced, non-
living body has been accompanied by the fear of revived machinery, 
does not result from some unpredictable character of hybrid 
mutations. It is more a sign of our own borderline nature and our 
own problematic modern history. The contemporary hybrids reveal 
the way we play the vain game of switching off and flirt with 
transparency and dislocatedness - but only to an extent. To let the 
Other have an effect on you is still not legitimate.

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This essay is a theoretical part of the net art project, entitled "i want 
to share you - what are you doing to me?", created by "intima | 
virtual base" for Porto 2001 - Capital Europeia da Cultura, "Thought, 
Science and Interdisciplinary Projects", International Conference on 
cyberculture, Ligaçoes/Links/Liaisons, Serralves Museum (October 
31st – November 4th 2001, Porto, Portugal).

- - -

bojana.kunst at guest.arnes.si 
2001

http://www.interact.com.pt/ligacoes/share/iessay.html