The text was written first as an assignment for Anne La Berge’s “Proactive Diversity” class. At the time, we were discussing topics of digital embodiment, online Queer culture, and safe spaces, both offline and online. The text, spoken from the perspective of a fictitious and futuristic alien entity, begins by drawing parallels between the biological architecture of the human body and machine architectures, inspired by Glitch Feminism, To be a machine and, most importantly, an article by Georges Canguillem entitled Machine and Organism. In this article, Canguilhem exposes historical notions of the body compared to machine, focusing especially on the philosophical ideas of Descartes. This entity then describes a utopian society where bodies and their associated identity, which in an organic body-based context lead to social struggles, are long gone and replaced by technologically augmented substrates. This in turn opens up the opportunity for complete collaboration between the members of that society.

Background

For Tim, “all bodies are the wrong body”.¹¹⁵ As Mark O’Connell explains in To be a machine, Tim Cannon is a person whose alcohol problems led to nullifying his physical existence by becoming a biohacker and founding Grindhouse Wetware, a startup dedicated to creating and implanting DIY body modifications. O’Connell recounts that after doing military service, Tim started drinking heavily and had no control over himself. After being able to recover from his alcoholism he became interested in the biohacker movement, being inspired by a woman online with the pseudonym Lepht Anonym who had put implants on herself at home, with no medical assistance. O’Connell notes that “not being an addict anymore was the start of a journey that would end (...) in [Tim] not being a human anymore”.¹¹⁶

Flesh is a dead format (2022) was a piece made during KOnStruCt.22, a collaborative project between Composition students and the percussion department from the Royal Conservatoire, guided by Slagwerk Den Haag.¹¹⁷ In this piece, I collaborated directly with Dimitris Pliatsikas and we worked together on a piece inspired by the story of Tim Cannon and his quest for control over his body. In a larger sense, the piece was inspired by Trans-humanist ideas and even though I wouldn't have the courage to create and install body implants by myself (for now), the thought of reaching “morphological freedom”, or “the liberty to take any bodily form technology permits” was resonating with my whole biological body.¹¹⁸ These ideas are connected to my own desire to feel empowered through technology and gain agency over my own existence. While working on this piece, I was certain that only by forgoing my physical body, could I exist in plenitude. The piece is scored (though a score was actually never made) for Bass Drum, Timpani, Tam-tam, and a performer with sensors. 

The setup and text

It was clear from the beginning of the project that I wished to use Myo Sensors with an acoustic feedback system. I was enchanted by the image of a performer whose body was amplified by technology and whose arms could, as if by magic, send waves of energy that controlled sound and instruments. These, in turn, would reply back with a distorted but recognizably humanoid voice. To realise this, each instrument had on its surface a transducer and a contact microphone. Dimitris controlled the “openness” of the microphone with the Myo sensors placed on his forearms, thus also controlling the level of feedback. During the piece, his movements also activated and distorted a voice recording of a text written by me.

Concluding thoughts

In one of my meetings with my supervisor, Alison Isadora, we were questioning my affinities towards Trans-humanist, Post-Digital and Post-Internet ideas and how they related to my Queer identity. We were discussing the impact these thoughts had on how I perceive my existence in the world and how I want to be perceived by others. Did I want to do away with my biological body as a form of protection against oppressive forces that target non-normative existences, thus rendering me “invisible” to these systems of oppression? Or did I want to amplify my body with technology in order to gain agency over my identity and how I’m perceived by others?¹²² These could be seen as two mutually-exclusive perspectives. The first one, as addressed in Flesh is a dead format, nullifies the biological body as a sustainable medium for my non-normative identity. By doing away with my biological body and its associated identity, I can transcend the hardships that come with them. The second one, as addressed in The other day, tries to have a more positive and constructive outlook on my biological body, by making tangible the fact that, even when bound by organic structures, it can exist beyond its normal capacities with the use of technology. Therefore, I gain agency and feel empowered by tapping into a potential that is hidden within me, but already there nonetheless. Realistically speaking, the second perspective is more fruitful and engaging, and that is clear when thinking about which piece I feel most attached to. Lastly, I would like to add that I see this section of the chapter as an extension of McLuhan’s ideas presented in Chapter 2, especially “Media as extensions of humans”. The difference here is that I wish to develop and transpose these ideas to the Queer community.

The concluding thought I would like to end this chapter with is that through my artistic work, I was able to pinpoint what kind of perspective I would like to have toward my Queer empowerment. At the beginning of my artistic and personal research process, I was sure that my physical body was unable to contain my identity. Now, I realise that this is yet another way that oppressive systems take a toll on me: they make me feel like I do not “belong in this world”, and, therefore, I’m the one that needs to do the work of finding a suitable substrate to live in, even if it means that I have to “destroy” the current one. This is pure blame-shifting. I am not at fault for existing outside of the patriarchal and heteronormative “lattice”. I seek to break the system from within and empower my existing body by claiming space for myself and making it clear that my “glitched” existence is as valid as any other. I, like us all, am a complex being, full of possibilities and beauty. With the aid of technology, I was able to recognise this fact. I can only hope that other “glitched” bodies will recognise this as well and feel inspired to claim their rightfully deserved space.

Background

The other day is a work-in-progress piece written for the Kali ensemble and live-electronics with its prémiere happening at the Spring Festival 2023. The ensemble’s normal line-up is Niranthar Yakthumba (piano), Beste Yıldız (cello), İdil Yunkuş (violin), and Giuseppe Sapienza (clarinet) but for this concert, they also invited the singer Kristia Michael to be a part of the project. I am also a part of the piece as the narrator.

This piece was inspired by a Youtube video I saw about the Landauer limit, a physical principle that attempts to establish the limits of computation by calculating the minimum amount of energy a logical operation on a computer will spend, no matter how advanced it might be. An AND logic gate can be seen as an example: if the inputs are both 0 then the output is 0; If the inputs are both 1 then the output is 1. Besides the logic output, the physical gate also releases energy in the form of heat. This heat can be (and has been) reduced to minimal amounts, but according to the Landauer Principle it will never be lower than the Landauer limit’s value.¹¹⁹

What inspired this piece was not reflecting on the limits of computation, but the fact that the Landauer limit is sometimes referred to as the energy of information itself.¹²⁰ This sparked my imagination by reflecting on the fact that our bodies are energy in the form of complexly organised atoms, which themselves are organized in gigantic biological structures such as the cell. I started questioning: if matter is energy, and a certain amount of energy could be seen as information, could I use technology to break down my body into pure energy and translate it to any other medium I wanted? Earlier in this chapter, I spoke about my desire to become a “shapeless” entity with boundless possibilities and untethered to physical forms. In my mind, this would make it a possibility. I should note that I am not attempting to be scientific or create flawless reasoning, I am merely inspired by the associations made. The idea of universal (body) translatability with the aid of technology was extremely inspiring, thus I set off on creating a system that would try to mirror it.

The setup, score, and text

For The other day, I once again did not want to work with a fixed score as it didn’t make sense for a piece about the possibility of translating my body into any medium. Instead, I devised an algorithm, in Max/MSP, that would use my voice as an input and make a very basic separation of the phonetic content. As it is now, the algorithm separates plosives, like /p/, from sibilants, like /s/, and liquids (also called laterals), like /l/.

The musicians of Kali have in front of them a screen that displays the score. The score is in turn dependent on the phonetic content of the text spoken by the narrator. The detected plosives are used as triggers to change the notes on the screen and the pitch of resonators. The detected sibilants are used to drive said resonators and change the transparency of a circle that sits on top of the notes, making the notes more or less clear depending on the amount of sibilance of a phoneme. The circle is designed to be ambiguous. Its main function is to tell the musicians to create changes in the production of their tone, i. e. more transparency means no vibrato, and less transparency (thus making the notes less clear) means more vibrato.¹²¹ Below the staff, the musicians will find instructions on what parameters they should change. The role of the singer is to create “phonetic resonances”, that is, to choose one or more phonetic elements of the text being spoken and use them as text while singing. This was inspired by the piece She was a visitor by Robert Ashley. Ashley’s Tap dancing in the sand, was also an inspiration with its use of the speed and intonation of speech as guides for the general flow of the music.

The text that will be used in this piece, which is still being written, explains the previously talked about relationship between the Landauer limit and how it led me to think about the possibilities of translating my body into any medium I wanted. I tentatively use the emotional transference I feel towards the objects in my room as an already existing example of the “universal translation” I’m trying to point to. Earlier in this chapter, some examples of objects were already given like my broken umbrella, Nintendo Switch, and oscilloscope. To me, the fact that I feel emotionally attached to such objects and therefore also to the people associated with these objects, even if I met them for a brief time, is proof that there was a sort of entanglement between us that can only be expressed by looking at energy as a universal conduit and baseline for human connection and information-sharing. I am not a materialistic person so, while it might sound a bit mystical, it’s important for me to analyse why I have such an emotional attachment to these objects.