tentacular thınkıng

Considering the discussion of the cyborg from Deleuze, Stelarc's art can be a prominent example of the body, technology, their limits, and interactions.

I chose these works of Stelarc specifically because I'll take the discussion to another point from his extended and augmented body parts. Before that, I want to clarify the position and function of the cyborg in my research. Instead of being the ending point or the whole narrative, the cyborg will be a part of my research in understanding and explaining the relationship between human and non-human bodies with technology. I do not aim to research the detailed evolution of cyborgs or their so-called extreme examples in our lives. It would also be challenging to do that because of my lack of knowledge in science and technology studies and limited cyborg-related studies in anthropology and social sciences. Charles Laughlin argues that there is a problem with many cyborg studies within social sciences: they use the term "cyborg" metaphorically and fuzzily without appreciating the history of cybernetics. His article attempts to draw a brief history of cyborg evolution. Even though there is enough literature on this topic, limiting the research within this boundary would make my aims unfruitful. The initial purpose of my research was to search for concepts, studies, and ways of making art for the possibilities of a world free from binaries; for the ways of thinking and surviving on a damaged planet physically, culturally, and biologically; in other words, to search for queering the way of thinking, living and making art. Within this context, placing the cyborg outside of the study would be unfortunate, yet putting it in the center also would not be enough. 

Going back to Stelarc's tentaculars, they made me think about the implementations of cyborgs in science fiction, cinema, and art. There is this tendency to make extended arms, legs, or other parts for humans or creatures. This tendency might be thinkable within Donna Haraway's suggestion of tentacular thinking. It is not something technological; she goes more into non-human species. The word tentacle comes from the Latin tentare and means to try and irritate. In zoology, tentacles refer to the tentacles of cnidarians (jellyfish) or cephalopods (octopuses). Donna Haraway uses the term tentacular thinking as a counter-term and critique of a visually dominated, anthropomorphic form of thinking. Juan Guevera explains Haraway's concept as: "Tentacular thinking suggests the breaking of the binary through bodily practices and networks composed by trajectories, patternings and lines. The tentacular tangles the string(s) to collectively think and make kin with unknowns in storytellings that have been told and yet to come." Laughlin also says that some stages of cyborg evolution, which include developments by direct alteration of neural structures, may eventually change human mental processes, forcing us to recognize new species of life and consciousness. It is the cyborg consciousness in his context. Instead of discussing cyborg consciousness, I plan to go after these non-human species more.