Session 11: Form and Subject

This week, we looked at minding the gap between three different platforms. The three platforms we looked at were:

1. ORLAN
2. SIMMEL
3. MORI

I have had the "pleasure" of learning about ORLAN in my Producing Culture course. Her form of artistic expression is kind of crazy and makes me quite nervous to look at. It is very interesting for she uses plastic surgery as her chosen medium. Not only does she have the surgery as part of her creation, but she also documents the surgery on film (images and motion picture) while staying awake for the whole thing! Her take on the process of beauty and plastic surgery is "the objective is unattainable and the process horrifying". She definitely opens up a different side of the study of beauty. I agree with her take on the process, although her art does make me nervous.

This is the first time I have heard of SIMMEL. His theory plays on the form of existence and looks at the "aesthetic dimension of social life". Tim writes about the dimensions of Simmel's characterization of the aesthetic realm of society. These two dimensions consist of:

1. "The playful appreciation of apparent social/cultural forms 'for their own sake' not their meaning"; and
2. "The construction of a totality (a form) from fragmentary information"

The platform of MORI is also new to me. It refers to weird stuff, such as "uncanniness". To me, an example of this platform is a doppelganger. I know we have studied this in previous weeks, but these last couple of weeks seem to always incorporate much of the semester. Tim suggests that in our digital world, a doppelganger can be created through digital art. Tim gave us an example of this with the digitally enhanced version of Homer Simpson.