[-empyre-] Week 4 - Bio/Nano/Materialisms

[Elle Mehrmand]

Hello out there,

I am honored to have this opportunity to neuro-jaculate on this list. The
notions of materialisms/ immaterialisms/ bio-materialisms/ -erialisms,
within the context of the bio-political, bring to mind the pixellated flesh
of my holographic/ fauxlographic clones who live in my most recent
performative installation entitled fauxlographic. For the past year I have
been working within the speculative space of an ethno-dysphoric cloning
laboratory, where diasporic anxiety is analyzed through the process of
fauxlographic cloning. The clones enact sonic rituals, singing in Farsi,
English and Perz-ish [a faux-ish language], based on multiple sources of
information including embodied memories, wikileaks cables, and textual/
visual/ aural references concerning Iran and Persia. The ethno-dysphoric
scientist analyzes her dislocated subjectivity by performing a daily
neurotic ritual within a glass computing chamber while wearing an EEG
neuro-headset. As she neuro-jaculates with the clones in order to (pars)e
their data streams, the diasporic computing sounds of the EEG oscillate in
pitch based on her neural activity. When high levels of CO2 are detected by
the lab's sensors, the clones become aware of those gazing upon them,
resulting in an anxious act of erasure and multiplication of their
pixellated flesh on the fauxlographic screen, reciprocating the affective
presence and implications of other bodies within the laboratory. The use of
organic sensors transforms the lab into a cyborgian spatial interface,
allowing for unconscious collaboration between multiple bodies in space,
confusing the somatic architecture of the performance.

// bodies

[fragmented.dislocated.flesh]

the metaphor of the split subject in a multitude of representations calls
for the split subjectivity of the diasporic body. the hologram. the clone.
the screenal flesh of the projection. the reflection on the glass. the live
specimen with a neural prosthetic.

//donna haraway's cyborg reconfigured

the live specimen lays in a burst of stillness within the glass chamber for
30 minutes. the liveness of her naked body creates an affect that the
clones cannot produce, but ultimately she will become a reproduction of
herself. she performs analysis on the clones by means of neural computing.
her experiments are open to the public, allowing for multiple bodies to
inhabit the laboratory. the intersectionality of all of the bodies produce
the organic energy that is necessary for the installation to function.

the fauxlographic clones are fragmented and displaced as they interact with
their ironic head scarfs from american apparel through gestural research.
the black scarf cuts into their screenal skin, erasing their flesh due to
the translucent nature of the fauxlographic screen. they are never fully in
or out of the fabric, creating a fluidic relationship to the object, one
that is not part of a binary construct, but one that arises from a unique
space within the perception of being persian, and is expressed through the
gestures of their diasporic anxiety. fractured elements of their being are
echoed in the displacement of their body parts. they are vulnerable in
their nudity with their pixellated flesh and informatic contents exposed,
but that is the nature of the clone.

- elle mehrmand

-- 
elleelleelle.org
assemblyofmazes.com
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