Nca pres saturday

Biohacking at the thresholds of the sensorial and
the political

FERNANDA DUARTE - NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Today I'm discussing the affects between the sensorial and the political in biotechnologies used to monitor the physiological performance of individuals. It is observed by scholarship in media,
culture and critical studies that the mesh of location aware technologies with pervasive information networks has enhanced the mobility of some people, places and things while stressing the immobile
condition and unequal accessibility of others. Issues about forms of surveillance, their pervasiveness, and the institutions to whom they are available arise as the possibilities to identify individual’s
current location, monitor traveling routes and create databases about individuals and places. Once the depth of pervasiveness reaches the biological body, it is required that specific discussions about
surveillance, safety and privacy are developed to deal with ethical issues of biological disclosure. Bio-nanotechnologies are being developed in ways that we, as individuals not only populate a location
in space, but that our physiological data, as it is fed out to the network, becomes another variable to shape how individuals perform in it. We know the dangers of sharing our credit card information on
the internet and we all worry about the odds of having this and other personal information disclosed. Which concerns arise when the data that is shared regards health information and discloses how our
physiology performs?
The inclusion of the body as a site of networked computation brings the scale of pervasive computing to a micro scale of molecular biology, and extends whatever power networks and politics of
mobility to reach into the body.

ubiquitous computing,
pervasive computing,
physical computing,
tangible media,
everyware,
wetware.

(Weiser, 1991, dourish&bell, 2011, greenﬁeld, 2006)

Recent developments in pervasive computing, such as embedded microchips and nanobiotechnologies, endows practices of mapping that do not only collect information about the physical
space, but also about the physical body that inhabits that space. Biotechnology applications, currently under development, are able to monitor physiological functions, such as heart rate and stress levels,
promote more seamless augmented reality interfaces through contact lenses and even assist visually impaired to exercise their mobility through the implant of sonar sensors. Other biometric applications
are also devoted to find more precise ways to identify individuals. Such practices tell us about forms of knowledge and mapping practices that challenge the notions of space, as a mere geographic
coordinate, and the body, as a node in a network. The body becomes a space to e mapped and governed. In order to discuss possible implications, I present a few examples of prototypes currently under
development to look at the power dynamics that animate the relationships of the biotechnological arrangement and the sensorial experience also at a molecular level. These groups are of medical
applications that allow the individual to care for herself; and of institutional, governmental applications that allow the care of a population.

Alexandra Institute in collaboration with the Aarhus School of Engineering School in
Denmark

MIKAT, for example is a bio-sensor based application designed for the Iphone that enables patients to monitor levels of anxiety before they evolve into panic attacks. Based on body sensors, the app
reports regularly on the patient’s body stress levels and heart rate and feeds the user with exercises and therapeutic techniques based on cognitive behavioral therapy. On the verge of a panic attack the
data is shared with the physician who is able to take the necessary measures to care for the patient.

implantable
silicon-silk
electronics and
tattoos with blood
sugar readings

University of Pennsylvania

A more pervasive interface for emotional regulation is under development at the University of Pensylvania where silk-silicon electronics function as arrays of conformable electrodes that interface with
the nervous system and administer "corrections" to attend situations of distress. The same silk silicon technology can be also added with LEDs that might act as photonic tattoos that show blood-sugar
readings.

The motivations to intermesh the biological body with computing capacities are many. First, it leverages the body as a more efficient platform for mobile services. In fact, the development of wearable
computers is strongly invested by the need of allowing us to multitask face to face and remotely, guided by the western social push for a more productive and dynamic work force. Also, more pervasive
computing features enable the body of the individual to be precisely pinpointed in space and time. The use of biometrics in border control checkpoints demonstrate how discourses of safety and risk are
articulated through more precise forms to trace how targeted populations move and occupy space. Even though the technology has been developing to give us more control over what surrounds us, what
happens inside our bodies is still opaque to us. The miniaturization of pervasive technologies is allowing that we not only hack space but that we also hack the biological body.

InVivo
NanoPlatform
DARPA, USA

In Vivo NanoPlatform is a nanotechnology platform for medical health under development by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, USA). DARPA is an agency of the United States
Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a
major effect on the world, including the hypertext system, the internet, and graphical user interface.
The platform is under development since March 2012 and aims to be an efficient diagnosis and treatment alternative to soldiers in the battlefield. It consists of implantable therapeutic nanotechnologies
made of biocompatible, nontoxic materials. Besides re-establishing injured or sick soldiers, the In Vivo Nanoplatform aims to be a constant monitoring system that is aware of the physiology of the body
and is also environment sensitive to avoid the spread of infectious diseases among soldiers.

Unique Identification Authority,
India

Finally, I would like to mention the use of a sophisticated biometrics database by the Unique Identification Authority (UIAI) in India. Even though the implementation of fingerprint databases dates back
to 1858 in London, the Indian Government is implementing a state of the art biometrics system (fingerprints, iris, facial recognition) and demographic information to assign a 12-digit lifetime
identification number to each individual. The Indian initiative is the biggest national registry in the world in terms of scale and accuracy and is planned taking in consideration technologies that are
appropriate to the contrasts of India's social and economic reality. The database is shared between public and private agencies to promote access to public and private services, generate statistics
regarding the population, monitor the transit across Indian territory and also the mobility of one of the world's greatest population.

Once the body is networked and the biotechnological arrangement that makes that connection possible is pervasive to the point that the appearance of the biological body does not hint on her connected
condition, which are the consequences of this fractalized flesh to the individual body? If the performance of the individual body is able to be monitored in the level of physiological data, does it imply in
the installation of an internal surveillance system? Which are the dangers - a renewed eugenics - and potentials - health accountability - of such level of monitoring?

A cyborguian construct will be one that doesnt function in the
local space it occupies, or even within n the boundaries of
its own skin but through distributed agency remotely
accessed and prompted from multiple locations.

body hacking,
gene mapping
and soon neuro-jacking.

Stelarc

Haraway
(1985)
sees
the
cyborg
as
representa7ve
to
our
condi7on
as
social
subjects,
as
'a
creature
of
both
fic7on
and
lived
social
reality’
(65).
She
uses
the
figure
of
the
cyborg
to
advocate
against

essen7alist
posi7ons,
let
them
be
biological
or
technological
determined,
depar7ng
from
the
premise
that
we
are
all
con7ngently
materialis7c
poli7cal
cons7tuted
chimeras.
To
prove
her
argument

on
our
co-‐cons7tu7ve
technogenesis,
she
reminds
us
of
the
latest
advances
in
nano
technology
and
quan7c
theory
models
that
demonstrate
the
imprecisions
between
physical
and
non
physical

boundaries.
Haraway's
cyborg
can
be
thought
as
a
model
of
subjec7fica7on
that
is
‘a
poli7cal
exercise
of
the
interrela7onship
between
science,
technology
and
power
as
a
‘matrix
of
complex

domina7ons’
(Haraway,
1985,p100)
built
upon
otherness
and
difference.

Such
matrix,
Munster
(2006)
argues,
as
much
as
it
breaks
free
from
a
Cartesian-‐ra7onalist
model
of
the
subject,
it
must
not
dispose
of
the
sensorial
capaci7es
of
bodies.
She
calls
for
an

understanding
of
a
techno-‐digital
body
that
ques7ons
the
binary
separa7on
between
the
virtual
and
the
'real',
and
more
radically,
the
physical/biological
and
the
machinical/computa7onal.
She
asks

“What
if
we
were
to
produce
instead
a
different
genealogy
for
digital
engagements
with
the
machine,
one
that
gave
us
the
room
to
take
body,
sensa7on,
movement
and
condi7ons
such
as
place
and

dura7on
into
account?”
(Munster,
2006,
p3).
With
that,
Munster
(2006)
proposes
an
understanding
of
biotechnological
bodies
as
ongoing
embodiments,
understood
as
a
process
more
than
a
stable

state.
But
also
includes
movement,
dura7on
and
place
into
the
prac7ce
of
embodiment.
Manning
(2009)
echoes
Munster's
(2006)
argument
when
she
says
that
a
body
is
an
event,
a
dura7on,
a

taking
form
in
space,
plas7c
rhythms.
By
its
ac7on
in
space,
bodies
create
rela7onscapes
that
are
built
upon
“dynamic
cross-‐genesis
of
the
body
and
its
constructed
environment,
where
the

environment
is
taken
to
include
not
only
the
architectural
surround
but
also
technological
and
cultural
extensions
of
it”
(p2).
The
ways
in
which
we
interact
with
space
construct
not
only
the
ways
we

"house"
in
the
body
or
the
milieus
we
are
embedded
in,
but
also
our
modes
of
thought.
The
occupa7on
of
physical
space
of
flesh
and
the
physical
occupa7on
of
architectural
space
render
some
sort

of
a
micropoli7cs
that
shape
our
capaci7es
of
self
reflec7on
about
our
embodied
condi7on.
For
this
reason
it
is
cri7cal
that
scholarship
regarding
contemporary
no7ons
of
space
making
take
into

considera7on
our
technogene7c
condi7on.

Ping Body, Stelarc

In the merging of molecular biology and computer science where “life is understood as data, flesh rendered programmable” technological protocols and the politics of life are co-constitutive as technical
and social regulators of social practices.
To conclude, I approach these examples of pervasive biotechnologies understanding that bodies are not fixed entities. Biotechnological embodiments are not biological bodies added with technological
gadgets. They are metastable saturations where bodies don’t move across space - as autonomous, discrete unities; but create space - as they are part of its becoming. It is with this purpose that I call for
a discussion of biotechnogenesis that is aware of the non- representational biological and sensorial capacities of the body. The networked biotechnological body can be thought as a performative body
that does not traverse space but enacts it, unfolds in/with it. Its corporeal experience is not limited to the physical location of the body nor the limits of its skin. Its actions are distributed across the
network in different locations and locally enacted according to the desires of the network. In this way, biotechnological arrangements can be thought can also be thought through its corporeal, the
discursive and the normative affects.

Metalosis Maligna
a “mock“ documentary by Floris Kaayk about a future where a
disease which affects patients with medical implants

obrigada!
Thanks!
Fernanda Duarte
CAPES and Fulbright Scholar
North Carolina State University
fduarte@ncsu.edu
TWT @freducs

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