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1994, Diller + Scofidio
ENVIRON.
DSIGN
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diller, Elizabeth.
Flesh: architectural probes / by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo
Scofidio. The Mutant Body of Architecture: essay / by Georges
Teyssot.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-878271-37-7
I. Diller + Scofidio-Themes, motives. 2. Diller, Elizabeth
Themes, motives. 3. Scofidio, Ricardo-Themes, motives.
4. Architecture-Philosophy. 5. Architecture and SOciety-United
States-History-20th century. 6. Installations (Art)-United
States. 7. Conceptual art-United States. I. Scofidio, Ricardo.
II. Teyssot, Georges, 1946- Mutant Body of Architecture.
III. Diller + Scofdio; IV. Title.
NA737.D56A4 1994
700' .92'2-dc20 94-36648
CIP Flesh
: I
I.:
I
I,
'I
Georges Teyssot
The Mutant Body of Architecture
Architects El izabeth Di l ler and Ricardo Scofi di o (D + S), among others, have provoked
a sti r lately in some quarers by thei r predi sposi ti on towards the probl emati cs of
art, soci ety, sexual i denti ti es, body-pol i ti cs, everyday practi ces, control and
s urvei l l ance tacti cs; and the i mpl i ci t codes i mposed by i nsti tuti ons (museums,
touri sm, the medi a) and by representati onal modes (fashi on, cl othi ng, the "desi gn"
of consumer-goods) .
Offi ci al arc h i tect u ral c ri ti c i s m i n s i sts o n i nterp ret i ng t hes e c on cerns as
i ncursi ons-deemed dangerous and i l l i cit-cutti ng across the sanctifed real ms of ar
and architecture.
'
However, the aim of the (architectural) projects at i ssue i s, i n
fact, to exami ne current architectural practi ce i n order to questi on accepted val ues.
To begi n with, it i s entirel y possi bl e to envi si on activity i n either art or architecture
as a parti cul ar mode of refl ecti on on our contemporary si tuati on, i . e. , our "bei ng
there, " thrown, projected i nto the contemporary worl d by fate. I t is preci sel y
because architecture has the very concrete and useful vocati on of bui l di ng shelters
for dwel l i ng that it al so has the duty and the right to reexami ne itself i ncessantly.
Historical l y speaking, it woul d not be di fi cult to demonstrate, wi thout even evoki ng
the arti st i n the age of humani sm, that the approaches and paths of art and
architecture have constantly i ntersected. I ndeed, any anxi ety rai sed by such over
l appi ng and i ntersecti on is produced by the defensive posture of wel l -establ i shed
i nstituti ons and thei r acolytes, whose ai m i s to safe-guard themsel ves and the
p..:- turf of the art market.
2
It is odd, to say the least, that D + S have been reproached for not worki ng as
prfessionals, for "not bui l di ng," when the whole body oftheir work-i ncl udi ng "prjects,"
a term whi ch itself requi res a cl oser l ook-is admi rabl y "bui lt," down to the smal l est
"detai l s", de-tai l s (i n the etymol ogical sense, i . e. de + taier = to cut, i n French) , cutti ng
and cari ng i nto the ver fl esh of architecture, reveal i ng the many incamati ons and
i ncorporati ons that have constituted its matter and spi rit over the centuries.
These architects-these "bui l ders, " even-among the most i nteresti ng withi n the
orbi t of New York's C.op-s.+.'-, have arrived at a uni que and superi or l evel of
producti on because, frst of al l , they refuse to i ntegrate thei r activities i nto a "purely"
1. Roberta Smith, "Architectural Gadgetry in
Installation at the Modern," The New York Tmes, 21
July 1989, p. C30; Ellen Posner, "Architecture Without
Blilding, at MoMA," The Wall Street Joural, 8 August
1989; a slightly different opinion is offered by Herbert
Muschamp, "A Highbrow Peep Show on 42nd Street,"
The New York Tmes, 1 August 1993, p. H 34.
2. "Responding bluntly to the question of whether
their work resides rore comfortably within the world
of art or architecture, Diller says; 'We're interested in
a lot of things, from performance to corstruction, and
it doesn't rake a hell of a lot of difference what's it's
called.' By their very indifference, they suggest a need
for reconsidering the formulation by which architec
ture is seen as a crucible of public effectiveness, and
art as a refuge for abstract ideas. In an information
dominated culture that no longer considers the tangi
ble to be a touchstone for the true, art and architec
ture, many practitioners of both believe, must renego
tiate their relationship." Quoted from: Nancy
Princenthal, "Diller and Scofidio: Architecture's
Iconoclasts," Sculpture, vol. 8, no. 6 (Nov./Oec. 19891.
p. 23. I t will suffice to add that 0 + S are in no way
seeking a 'comfortable' theoretical position.
professi onal practi ce whi ch coul d not provi de them the proper space nor ti me for
refl ecti on; and secondl y, when they obtai n an i mportant commi ssi on where the
i nevi tabl e cl i ent/architect conditi oni ng does not undermi ne experi mentati on i n
thei r producti on, they do not refuse it . pro-as proven i n the very successful
exampl es of the Pl ywood (Ki nney) House and the Sl ow House. 3 Above and
beyond any speci fi c "program, " D + S's proj ects-be they
stage-sets or i nstal l ati ons in gal l eri es or museums-i mmediately
rai se guesti ons i nherent in the site and situation of each spe
ci fc i nterenti on. I n the |.c.:- i nstal l ati on l'J', at New
York's Museum of Modem Ar, the architects asked thi s ques
ti on (of themsel ves): "I s it possi bl e to take architecture out of
i ts normal reci procal relati on wi th culture, and pl ace it withi n
the museum context without exi l i ng i t to the realm of art?"
4
D + S' s works often deal with the situati on of our "body" i n
soci ety. Thei r projects retrace the vari ous "fol ds" our bodi es
weave with the worl d (body, in Greek thought, fesh, in the
Chri sti a- n tradi ti on) . These creases ,
s
these grooves, are
acqui red by the human body through vari ous physi cal and
emoti onal , vital and affective, psychi c and soci al experi ences.

It is not a matter of si mpl y appl yi ng physi ol ogi cal , bi ol ogi cal ,

psychol ogi cal , or even anthropol ogi cal theori es of the body
to the real m of architecture, i n order to determi ne an envi
ronment that conforms to new standards of comfort and
security, a task undertaken by some . sci enti fc and empi ri cal fg. I
methodol ogi es in the last thi rty years. I nstead, the operati ons theori zed by these
practiti oners are appl i ed not to di scourses and l ogi cs, but to regi ons where no
di scourses remai n: to those vast terrai ns l i tered wi th texts and images cri ss-crossi ng
soci ety-"to thi s non-di scursi ve activity, thi s i mmense ' remai nder' constituted by
what, i n human experi ence, has not yet been tamed and sym
bol i zed in l anguage [i . e. , in sci enti fc di scoursesJ. "6 "Archi tecture
typi cal l y enters i nto a rol e of compl i city, to sustai n cultural con
venti ons, " write D + S. " However, architecture can be put i nto
the rol e of i nterrogator. Gi ven the technol ogi cal and pol iti cal fg. 2
re-confgurati ons of the contemporar body, spatial conveni ons may be cal l ed i nto
questi ons by architecture. Architecture can be used as a ki nd of surgi cal i nstrument
to operate on i tsel f (i n smal l i ncrements) . "
7
3. Work on this residence was interrupted due to lack
of funds on the part of the client who-sublime
irony-suffered financial losses during the recent crisis
in the art market.
4. Nick Backlund, "Living architecture: Diller and
Scofidio," !, vol. 36, no. 6 (Nov./Oec.19891. p. 18.
5. 0 + S, Hard Pressed/Presse, exhibition catalogue,
Centre d'Art Conterporain, Castres, France, 21
April-23 June 1993; Bad Press: Housewrrk Series,
Richard Anderson Gallery, NewYork, 18 November-18
December 1993.
fig. 1. Quatremere de Quincy, Jupiter Olympien: rart de
la sculpture antique consideree sous un nouveau point
de vue (Paris, 1814).
6. Michel de Certeau, Tinvention du quotidien," Arts
de taire, vol. 1 (Paris: U.G.E., 1980) 10/18, p. 125.
English translation by Steven Rendall, The Practice ot
Everyday Lite, University of California Press, (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 19841.
p. 61.
fig. 2 Interior detail, Gustave Eiffel, Statue of Liberty,
NewYork.
7. D + S, Keynote Address, National Technology
Conference, Phoenix, Ariz., 29 January, 1993.
09
D + S are not the onl y contemporar architects and artists addressi ng the ques
tion of the decorporeal i zed existence typi cal i n Western soci eti es. Wi th the
i ncreasi ng use of machi nes and of transportati on and communi cati on technol ogies,
and the spread of ever-more mediatized operations, we are arri vi ng at, some say,
a disembodied styl e of l i fe. In recent years, vari ous sci ence-fcti on novel s (Wi l l i am
Gi bson' s `-..~..- l'J+, and fi l ms (Steven Lisberger's J` l'JI or Dougl as
Trumbul l ' s E..:.~ 'JJ, have uncovered a contemporary spati al verti go,
where subjectivity dis-connects and re-connects through various networks. Whi l e
di ssol vi ng, the body' s l i mi ts l iteral l y del aminate i nto the multi pl e surfaces and
i nterfaces of cyberspace. At the confuence of organic and fig. 3 . Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsu: Iron Man, 1990.
mechan i cal states, the body can al so undergo a mutati on,
becomi ng a l i vi ng (and th u s dyi ng) mac hi ne, as i n Shinya
Ts ukamoto' s stop-frame ani mation fi l m, -:... '. /.
l''J, or transform i tsel f i nto a fundamental l y forei gn; even
"al i en, " organism, as in the fi l ms of Davi d Cronenberg :..-s 'Jl or '+- |,
l'J,
t
Thi s new subj ectivity is also taken up by artist Gary Hi l l who, in his vi deo
i nstallati on, ^. ': '. ^..,. ^-.1, . |..- l''J, exposes the partial i mages
of a si ngl e body on sixteen monitors. In what coul d be thought of as a curi ous
inversi on of the "mi rror stage, " the body i s frst decomposed, then recomposed
techn
o
l ogi cal ly.9 Because these
auth ors and arti sts are a l l
moved by the urgent necessity
of reveal i ng the extraordi nary
n egoti at i on s taki ng p l ace
b etween t h e s u bj ect a n d
obj ect, the body-i ndeed, corporeal ity i tsel f-becomes the best vehi cl e for the
i nterrogation of the status of subj ectivity.
More uncanny, more poi gnant are the early wors of Rebecca Hom, which attempt a
cartography of subjective and physiological funci ons of the human body. Her body
scul ptures are made from fragments of bi omedi cal equi pment (pi pes, l i gatures,
membranes, pumps)-for exampl e, J.-]..o..1~..+- l'/J, i n which eight
transparent tubes, verti cal l y pl aced and l i nked by belts around the nude body of a
model , reveal the fux and rhyhmic pul sati ons of bl ood-ci rculation,
,
Projected thrugh
the ski n, I n .~.... l'/J, a device resembl i ng l ungs establ i shes a di rect, sensorial
exteri or connection between the mouth and breass of a half-nude femal e model. The
"multifuncti onal " appartus al l ows for a variety of uses, not excl udi ng auto-eroti ci sm.
' o
10
8. Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity: The Virtual
Subject in Post Modem Science Fiction, (Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press!, 1993, pp.243-247; and Friedrich
A. Kittler, Discourse Networks: 7800/7900, trans.
Michael Metteer and Chris Cullens (Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford University Press, 1990).
9. Gary Hill, exhibition catalog, Christine van Assche,
ed., Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d'Art
Moderne, Galleries Contemporaines, Paris, 1992.
fig. 4. Gar Hill, As It Is Always Already Taking Place,
1990.
10. See Horn's own description -the device is a way of
concentrating "on one's own breasts-feeling intimate
with them ... touching them in silent consciousness;"
cited in Mina Roustayi, "Getting Under The Skin.
Rebecca Horn's Sensibility Machines," Arts Magazine,
May 1989, p. 59.
Rebecca Horn' s vi sual anal ysi s of the "i nsi de-out body" is later
pursued through devi ces extendi ng sensory and sensori motor
organs l i ke the eye and the hand. In |-..-. l'/I, wal ki ng
sti ck- l i ke prostheses extend the sense of touch. I n |-. /..
l'/J, twenty-seven penci l s, at

ached to a face-mask wi th
fg 5
vaguel y sado-masochi sti c characteri sti cs, proj ect a confi gurati on of the arti st' s
profl e on a fat surface-creati ng a sort of "fatteni ng-out" of somati c features and
el udi ng tradi ti onal procedures of graphic figurati on and fi gural representati on.
Si mi l arly-to return to D + S-i n E-1 |. :+- C.1-~-1 /. or ^.:.~..-::-
sandbags suspended from levers and attached to the body of a, mal e model pro
ject muscul ar tensi ons acting on the skel eton onto the body' s exteri or. The body
i s thus seen as a pre-tensi oned structure whose stresses are rendered vi si bl e. A
si mi l ar demonstrati on of structural tensi on was conducted by engi neer Robert Le
Ri col ais in experi ments on the mechani cs of bri dges-tensi l e structures such as
tensi on-net beams, for exampl e-at the Un i versi ty of Pennsyl vania Graduate
School of Architecture from l'I to l'J
Among the body' s perceptive and sensori motor capabi l iti es, physiology di sti ngui shes
between the fol l owi ng three categori es: exteroception, whi ch i nvol ves our five
senses, si tuated on the surface of the body and exposed to the exteri or worl d;
proprioception, re;lated to our sense of bal ance and proper posi ti oni ng i n space,
and to muscu l ar tens i ons ; and fi nal l y, interoception, whi ch refers to al l the
sensati ons of the vi sceral organs si tuated i n the body' s i nteri or.
"
For heal th
reasons, it i s essenti al that the vi tal organs (the vi scera) be hidden and protected,
whi l e the sensori motor organs must be l ocated on the surface of the body and
i ncl uded among vis i bl e obj ects. Thus , i t i s rare for a body' s vi scera to be
exposed to vi ew.
' 2
Rebecca Horn' s work reveals-in the same manner as surgi cal
operati ons or technol ogi cal " i ncorporati ons" (endoscopy, stethoscopy, X-rays,
MRl s, etc. )-the worki ngs of the vi scera and i sol ated parts of the vegetati ve
system (circul ati on, respi rati on) to a "gaze" hi therto
forbidden, dangerous, or even fatal .
A seri es of i mages from D + S' s i conography al l ows us
to zoom i n rapi dl y on the theme of the body' s surface.
and i ts sur-faci ngs. For exampl e: the late si xteenth-century fg. 6
Saxon armor i n the Dresden col l ecti on; or the Bugatti "Atl anti c" 5/ SC l'J)
or, agai n, the view of the i nteri or of New York's Statue of Li berty, exposi ng the
fig. 5. Rebecca Horn, Pencil Mask, 1973.
11. Drew Leder, The Absent Body (Chicago: University
of Chicago Pss, 1990!, p. 39.
12. Ibid., p. 44.
fig. 6. NASA prototype AX-3, 1962.
1 1
fg 7
fg. 8
fol ds of metal l i c s ki n scu l pted by Barhol di , coveri ng
t h e i ntri cate stru ctu re d evi s e d by t h e E i ffe I
works hops.
'
3 Next, our attenti on gl i des to a NASA
s pace- s ui t (1962), 1
4
whi ch sets next to the EJ-
\+:- cc, desi gned by Cri stobal Bal enci aga in 1967.
The i ni ti al thrust i s not just fa
,
shi on, but the si mul tane
ous l y essenti al and superfci al " nature" of coveri ngs,
the l atent eroti ci sm of cl othi ng, the secret l anguage of
mask and ski n-natural or artifci al . I s ski n not, paradoxi
cal l y, the most profou n d th i ng about us? A border
defi ni ng wi thi n and wi thout, a protecti ve fronti er, the
envel ope of the fl esh, the body' s armor-ski n separates and i sol ates. An i nter
face of pai ns and pl easures ("erogenous" zones)-ski n is both armament and
armor. Bl us hi ng, bl anchi ng, sweati ng-l i ke the eyes and the mouth, ski n i s al so a
medi um, a means of communi cati on.
IS
The i mportance attached to physi cal appearance-to the means of control l i ng or
recreati ng a beauti ful appearance-i s confrmed by the emergence of numerous
tool s for thi s acti vi ty. I t i s always a case ofcorrecti ng an excess or maki ng up for
a defcit: some tool s are used to extract (as in pl ucki ng. hai r or waxi ng l egs) , others
to suppl ement (as in appl yi ng mascara to l ashes) . Al l of thi s activity refers to a
code and conforms to a norm. I t i nvol ves havi ng "the body utter
the code. "
,
6 I t is deemed i mperative to "mechani ze" bodi es, to
make them spel l out an order. The same goes for cl othi ng as
for ski n: we encounter the same doubl e category of i nstruments
cl oth i ng is both tool and body.
I 7
A garment protects l i ke a
tool ; from the perspective of the corporal bei ng, it modifies the
body' s appearance, even i ts structure (as di d corsets i n the
ni neteenth century) .
IS
Fi nal l yas Rol and Barthes has demon
strated, every custom tends to devol ve i nto a si gn of that
same custom. Beyond the impJements, and beyond t he
corporal , there i s another functi on, whi ch i s preci sel y that of
si gnifyi ng. Both cl othi ng and ski n refer to codi fcati ot)s of soci al order such as
fashi on or soci al status. Cl othes and ski nthe epithel i al vei l-can be mani pul ated
to confer a recogn i zed mean i n g on the body. By becomi ng a ,.- sg,
recogni zabl e on the "soci al " l evel , the body in turn receives a named di scourse, a
proper name, an i dentity.
'
9
12
13. See Georges T eyssot, "Erasure and
Disembodiment: Dialogues with Diller + Scofidio."
in: "Protesi/Prosthesis", Ottagono, no. 96, Milan
(September 1990), pp. 56-88, the essays by Jacques
Guillerme, Anthony Vidler and Mark Wigley, and the
"portfolio" by Diller + Scofidio in the same issue; see
also Georges Teyssot, "Erasure and Disembodiment,"
in Joke Brouwer, ed., Book for the Unstable Media,
('s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: V2-0rganization,
1992). pp. 129-163 (in English and in Dutch).
fig. 7.Cristobal Balenciaga, Bride in White Gazar, 1967.
14. See, Michael Sorkin, "Minimums," The Village
Voice, 13 October , 1987, p. 100: "And yet it should be
possible to discuss the minimum in architectural terms,
in terms that don't presume either some form of physi
cal deprivation or cruddy philosophic primitivism .... Two
sites ... seem available. The first is at the locus of con
struction, the idea of a purely technical minimum, the
phonemics of building. . . . The second possibility origi
nates with the body. Familiarly, here's architecture as
the measure of persons, an insight that devolves mainly
into mere proportioning.... To be sure, its minima can
be as scary as any others: a Walkman's one thing, but a
spacesuit? And yet, these are surely primitive huts for
the times. Perhaps I overstate the case against the
spacesuit Over the summer I visited NASA's Ames
Labs in California and saw the latest in rigid, extrave
hicular outfits, the AX5, designed by Vic Vykukal, one of
the America's great hidden-design geniuses. Not only is
the AX5 one of the most beautiful designed objects I've
ever seen, at once sublimely functionalist and wackily
Schlemmeresque, it is also an apparatus of liberation,
of extension, of genuine prosthesis, the body simultane
ously augmented and housed. Exciting. I've a couple of
architect friends called Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio. At a
recent show at the Storefront for Art and Architecture,
they presented a series of their projects under the
rubric 'Body-buildings: It's a primary rodernist tenet
they observe, the irrevocable transformation of archi
tecture by the machine, a practice that races its primary
lineage to Leonardo, the first great genius of the pros
thetic."
15. Jean Querzola, "Le silicium a fleur de peau,"
Traverses, no. 14/15 (April 1979), pp. 163-173.
16. de Certeau, L'invention du quotidien, p. 254; The
Practice of Everyday Ufe, p. 148.
17. Olivier Burgelin, "Les outils de la toilette ou Ie con
trale des apparences," Traverses, no. 14/15 (April
1979), pp. 25-42.
18. Philippe Perrot, Le travail des apparences. Le corps
tminin. XVllleXIXe siecle, "the body, submerged in
excessive cloth, finally disappears leaving only its
hyperbolic textile double." (Paris: Seuil, 1984). p.175.
fig. 8. Jana Sterback, Meat Dress, 1988.
19. Burgelin, "Les outils de la toilette ... ," p. 27.
I n addi ti on to the emi nentl y phi l os ophi cal theme of the rel ati on between
body and mec han i s m, the as s oci at i on of woman and mac h i n e mu st be
cons i dered-and not s i mpl y
i n terms of a sex-mach i ne,
as i n t h e fi l m Ecoc- c
(1968) , by Roger Vadi m and
the cartooni st J ean- Cl aude
Forest, i n whi ch Jane Fonda i s
mani pul ated by a mechano
erotic devi ce. Al ready i n the
fg 9
"1900s styl e" and " Modern styl e" eras, the more-or- I ess dressed femal e body
appeared wi th great frequency on automobi l e publ i ci ty posters. Thi s i mage
economy played on several registers, such as cl assi cal personificati on-i nevi tabl y
pri vi legi ng the .11-ss .| '1.s:y or the el i mi nati on of the techni cal object so
as to further a smug pl ot exal ti ng the hygi eni c l i nes of the new nakedness of
the goddess' body, su bsti tuti ng i t for the machi ne, The tu rn-of-the-century
machi ne is onl y vi si bl e (that i s, can onl y be depi cted)
through a medi a-transfer. The automobi l e cannot be
descri bed, is not even vi s i bl e, wi thout i nterposi ng a
woman-and not j ust any woman, but onl y one of a
"type" correspon.di ng to the canon of "Eros Modern

.
Styl e" : t he femme fatal e, the myst i cal vi rgi n, the
thoughtful soci al ite, the dreamy sultana . . . .
20
I ndeed, as
fg. IO
Al i ce J ard i n e argu es , "tech n ol ogy has al ways been about t he maternal
body . . . and does seem to be about s ome ki nd of mal e phantasm"; furthermore,
she argues that "the machi ne i s a woman i n that phantasm.
, ,
2
I
In the l ong stri ng of unconsummated marri ages between women, men, and
mach i nes, most notabl e are !'.- |.:.- lJJ,-.~...s c.-by Auguste
Vi l l i ers de 1 ' l sl e-Adam22
; Al fred Jarry' s +- :.,-~c-
(19 02) 2 3; a n d t h e " ma c h i n e-bas e d " works by
Raymond Roussel ; Marcel Duchamp, and Franz Kafka
di splayed i n the 1975 exhi biti on organi zed by Harol d
Szeemann and J ean Ciai r,
24
who were themsel ves
i nspi red by Mi chel Carrouges' !-s ~c.+-s .'-
occ-s (1954) .
25 The latter catal ogs what Mi chel de
. fg. II
Certeau defnes as "myths of an i ncarcerati on wi thi n the operati ons of a wri ti ng
fig. 9. Roger Vadim, Barbarella, 1968.
fig. 10. Jean-Claude Forest, Barbarella, cartoon, 1967.
20. Claude Quiger, Femmes et machines de 1900: lec
tur d'une obsession Modem Style (Paris: Klincksieck,
1979), pp. 266-269.
21. Alice Jardine, "Of Bodies and Technologies:' in Hal
Foster, ed, Discussions in Contemporary Culture, no. 1
(Seattle: Bay Press, 1987), p. 156.
22. Auguste Villiers de l'lsle-Adam (comte de), L 'Eve
future [1886]; rev. ed., Alan Raitt (Paris: Editions
Gallimard, 1993); trans., Tomorrw's Eve (Urbana, III.,
University of Illinois Press, 1982).
23. Alfred Jarry, Le surmale, roman modeme, Paris,
1902; trans. Ralph Gladstone and Barbara Wright. The
Supermale (New York: New Directions, 1977).
24. Jean Clair and Harold Szeemann, eds., The
Bachelor Machines/Le machine celibi (in English and
Italian) Venice, 1975; rpt ed., Milan: Electa, 1989; see
also German and French edition: Junggesel/en
Maschinen/Les Machines Celibataires (Electa). See A
Montesse, catalog essay: "The incomplete nature of the
celibate machine having been noted, the dullest techno
cratic solution is applied: implanting them with prosthe
ses. Thus, the standardized structure of the personality
is achieved in all its splendor: a body without organs,
disactivated celibate machine, equipped with various
functional extensions." (p.113) We will return to the
notion of "body without organs:'
25. Michel Carrouges, Les machines celibataires
(Paris: Arcanes, 1954); revised and expanded edition,
1975.
fig. 11. DOrkopp, German adverisement, circa 1900.
13
fg. 12
that constantl y makes a machi ne of i tsel f and never encounters anythi ng but
itsel f."
26 Al l of these turn-of-the-century l i terary games-no-exit fi cti ons, non
tran s parent wi ndows , two-way mi rrors , mute
encounters between automatons, asexual coupl i ngs
of androi ds and h umans , these i ncest uous and
pai nfu l mati ngs between organs and machi nes
descri be how the l aw is al ternatel y i nscri bed on the
body by means of s oci al mac hi nery, d i s ci pl i n ary
appratus, and devi ces' from orthopedi cs and orho
p raxy. De Cereau desi gnated the precedi ng as
" i ntextuati on of the body" respondi ng to " i ncar
nati on of t he l aw. " Th us , i n de Vi l l i ers ' s story,
.~.... Eve-built by the "el ectri ci an" Edi son
Eve is an androi d (a femal e "Andrei de" in the text) ,
a s i mu l ated femal e body, wh i c h begi n s to l i ve
t hro ugh rec ord i ng devi ces.
2 7
He r " Greek- stat
uesque" body i s first of al l vi tal i zed by fragmenta.:
ti on and by anal ys i s, wh i ch cuts her body i nto a
th ousand pieces-a di sti nctl y feti s hi st i c p roces s ,
accordi ng to psychoanal yti cal theory. The body i s
then reconstructed through the medi um of texts
recorded by the engi neer.
28 Heral di ng the post
Turi ng di sti ncti on between "hardware" and "soft
ware," de Vi l l i ers's Eve foreshadows the emergence
of t oday ' s s o- cal l ed " meatware, " peo p l e a n d
empl oyees who can b e reprogrammed. "The machi ne produci ng l an

uage, " de
Certeau wri tes,
29 "i s wi ped cl ean of hi story, i sol ated from the obsceni ti es of
real i ty, absol ute and wi thout rel ati on to other 'cel i bates.'"
A component of +- .:.j `.:.j .1 '. '.:,'.:- l'J/, , a performance written
and di rected by Susan Mosakowski at the Phi l adel phi a Museum of Art duri ng the
Marcel Duchamp centenary, D + S' s +- E1-. ^~. consi sts of metal l i c shi el ds
mol ded on organs, protecti ng and armi ng the most fragi l e and "desi rabl e" parts of
the femal e body. These cut-out and rei nforced body parts are thus "feti shi zed"
and rendered i naccessi bl e, As parodi es of orhopedi c i nstruments, bel ongi ng to
the aesthetics of hygi ene, thi s cruel armor conditi ons the "gaze" whi l e forbi ddi ng
any approach, What is pl ayed out on sta

e is the tragi comedy of the di srobi ng of

14
26. de Certeau, L 'invention du quotidien, p. 257; The
Practice of Everday Ufe, p. 150.
27. "From the earliest daguerreotypes and Edison's
first recordings, up till the present holograms, the repro
duction of phenomena that designate life has been so
highly perfected that one may well wonder whether
there will not be a time when the recording machine
will have become so faithful to what it projects that it
will end up by totally substituting what is submitted to
it. while destroying it." From: Jean Clair, "The Last
Machine," in Clair and Szeeman, The Bachelor
Machines, p. 182.
.
28. Annette Michelson, "On the Eve of the Future: The
Reasonable Facsimile and the Philosophical Toy," in
October: The First Decade, 1976-1986 (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1987), p. 432.
fig. 12. Fritz Lang, Metrpolis, 1926.
29. de Certeau, L'invention du quotidien. p. 258; The
Practice of Everday Ufe, p. 150.

f

I

I




the bri de, whom bachel ors can attai n onl y by undergoi ng sel f-i mposed torture-al l
of wh i ch s i mul ates the i nterrupti on of e roti c communi cati on, fraudu l entl y
promi sed by the transparency of the gl ass. I nstead of di spl ayi ng somethi ng through
the "wi ndow" of perspective, Duchamp' s !.- '... shattered common references
and suspended si gn ifi cati on, As de Cereau wrote: "Among desi ri ng subj ects,
there remai ns onl y the possi bi l ity
'
of l ovi ng the l anguage that substitutes i tsel f for
thei r communi cati on, And it is i ndeed a l anguage-model that is furni shed by the
machi ne, composed of di ferent, combi ned parts (l i ke any statement) , and devel opi ng
the l ogi c of cel i bate narci ssi sm through the i nterpl ay of mechani sms,
, ,
3o It is from
these l anguages mi mi ng thei r death, from these orthopedi c machi nes gui di ng
torture, from these prophylactic devices suppressi ng contact, that a new engi neering,
a new "architecture" is created, constructed around these prosthetic suppl ements,
Th i s engi n eeri n g a l l ows for conti n u ou s tran sfe rs and ever more "trans -
t'
, ,
3 1 h' h l orma I ons, w IC are no l onger arti cul ated, l i ke speech i n a l anguage, but
i nstead, l ead to di sarti cul ati on.
It i s recogni zed that l earni ng the use of a tool or i nstrument i s accompl i shed
through a process of incorporation. As Drew Lder remi nds us i n hi s pursuit of
Mauri ce Merl eau-Ponty' s anal ysi s of percepti on, the etymol ogy of thi s word! from
the Lati n corpus, means "to bri ng withi n a body,"32
I ncorporati on is what enabl es
us to acqui re ne

abi l iti es; these abi l iti es can settl e i nto fxed habi ts. As ti me passes,
these repeated habits are defi niti vel y "i ncorporated" and di sappear from our view.
They become envel oped wi thi n the i nteri or of a body-structure from whi ch I
n+.o|: the worl d, 33
30. Ibid., p. 260; p. 152 ..
31. Jean-Franois Lyotard, Les transformateurs
Duchamp (Paris: Galilee, 1977); trans. Ian McLeod,
Duchamp's TRANS/Formers (Venice, Calif.: Lapis Press,
19901. pp. 29-37. .
32. Leder, The Absent Bddy, p. 31.
33. Ibid., p. 32.
34. Martin Heidegger, Sein und Zeit, (TObingen, 1927);
trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson, Being
and Tme (New York: Harper and Row, 1962); on
"readyness-to-hand" (Zuhandenhein see pp. 97-98,
139-140.
Al ongsi de thi s temporal process, a spatial process of i ncorporati on occurs, whi ch is
bor out of the use of tool s, i nstrutlents and equi pment For Marti n Hei degger, the
l ater are "ready-to-hand" (zuhanden), ready for use, pl aced around us, availabl e for
"mani pulation,"34 Tool s and i nstruments constitute components of an equi pment
structure formi ng our envi ronment, and they tend to di sappear tom our attention
when used on a daily basi s (as l ong as they don't mi sfuncti on), In the same manner,
the organs and appendages of our body (if they are in good, health) tend-to el ude
our expl i cit attenti on when a preci se action i s envi saged and undertaken. There i s
thus a di rect connecti on, a paral l el between the di sappearance or absence of the
sensori motor organs and that of the tool s we hol d when acti ng on the worl d
around us: two forms of absence, 35 Leder' s observati on suppl ements Merl eau
Ponty's remarks on vi si on: "The bl i nd man' s stick has ceased to be an object for hi m,
35. Leder, The Absent Body, p. 33.
15
! :
and is no l onger perceived for i tsel f; its poi nt has become an area of sensitivity,
exendi ng the scope and active radi us of touch, and provi di ng a paral l el to sight.
, ,
36
Thi s focal disappearance, whi ch is due to the ecstati c nature of our bodi es (from
the Greek ek-stasis, "that which sands out") , also occurs with complex i nsruments
like the tel ephone. I n Greek, the term organa ori ginal l y denoted the vari ous parts
of a war-machi ne. Ari stotl e consi dered the arti cul ated movements of vertebrate
ani mal s as bei ng assi mi l ated i nto mechani cal movements, such as those of the
components of a catapult. I n fact, the Greeks had onl y one word, organon, to
desi gnate both a corporal organ and a tool . Furher, the term i s very cl osel y
related to the word ergon, meani ng " l abor.
, ,
37
Thi s rel ati on between organ and
tool , attested to by etymol ogy, hi story, and theory, defi nes our acti on on space,
on the environment, on the worl d we i nhabi t. Such a rel ati on can "unfol d i n the
space created by our technol ogical l y suppl emented bodi es, not merel y that of
our natural fesh. "38
The fi rst task archi tecture ought to assume, therefore, is that of defi ni ng and
i magi ni ng an envi ronment not j ust for "natural " bodi es but for bodi es proj ected
outside themsel ves, absent and ecstati c, by means of thei r technol ogi cal l y
extended senses. Far from assimi l ating the tool wi th the body accordi ng to the
mechani sti c tradi ti on of Cartesi an dual i sm, we must conceive tool and i nstrument
" l i ke a second s ort of body, i ncorporated i n' to and extendi ng our corporal
powers.
, ,
39 I t then becomes possi bl e and even necessary to l ogi cal l y i nvert the
terms of our proposi ti on on the rol e of archi tecture. The i ncorporati on of
technol ogy i s not effected by "i magi ni ng" a new envi ronment, but by reconfig
u ri ng the body i tsel f, pu s h i n g outward to where i ts arti fi ci al extremi ti es
encounter "the worl d. "
For 0 + S, it i s not so much a case of i magi ni ng new houses for cyborgs, but
rather of redesi gn i ng and l i teral l y recrafi ng our i nstrument- en hanced and
equi pped body, so that i t can "i nhabit" the worl d. Thi s si tuates thei r work i n a
tradi ti on of whi ch Muravi ev' s l'IJ projects constitute an i mportant stage: he
predi cted the remodel i ng of man's body beyond si mpl e "psychi c transformati on. "
I n order to "alter humanity's physi cal type," Muraviev ofered to open the new fiel d
of "anthropo-technics, " even of "anthropo-urgy.
, ,
4o I n an era l i ke ours, when a
return to twenti es' Constructi vi sm is i nvoked too l i ghtl y, 0 + S' s architecture goes
beyond styl i sti cs, beyond pasti che, and returns to sources.
16
36. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of
Perception (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962),
p. 143; cited by Drew Leder in The Absent Body, p. 33.
37. Georges Canguilhem, "Machine et organisme," in
La connaissance de la vie [1952], Paris 1965; trans.
Mark Cohen and Randall Cherry, "Machine and
Organism," in Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter,
eds" Incorporations, Zone 6 (New York: Urzone, 1992),
pp.45-69,
38, Leder, The Absent Body, p. 34.
39, Ibid., p. 179.
40. Muraviev, "Vseobshchaia proizvoditeelnaia matem
atika," Vslfenskoe dela, vol. 2 (1923). pp. 131-132. The
idea is taken up by K. Melnikov, in his project "the City
in Rationalized Repose" (1930), exhibited in Stroitel'
stvo Moskyy, where an 'Institute for Changing the
Aspect of Man' was supposed to be established; ct,
commentary by S. Vlassenko, in Amphion, vol. 2 (Paris:
Picard 1988, pp. 79ft) and of Jacques Guillerme, "These
sur la prothese. Le pretexte des besoins latents," trans
lated into English and Italian, Ottagono 96. (Sept. 1990).
Li ke it o r n ot , today-e i ghteen years afte r t h e +- E.ch- . /..+ -
exhi biti on-technol ogi es have extended thei r fi el d of acti on. I n thi s account, we
are attesti ng to the tri umph of the "bi ol ogi cal " over the "natura!." Al ready i n the
ni neteenth centur, pl asti c and reconstructive surgery devel oped by the mi l itary
was pavi ng the way for the correcti on of faci al features: autologous surgery (usi ng
ski n from the same body) perfected grafi ng techni ques. Whi l e prostheses were
i ncreasi ngl y bei ng used in Europe and, after the Ci vi l War, in the Uni ed States,
, l ocal i njecti ons of vasel i ne and paraffi n were al so bei ng gi ven to patients-to make
up for mammary deformiti es, for exampl e, 4-
In our own ti me, the "conquest" of
body-terrai ns is best embl ematized i n
the photograph of a .mammary pros
thesi s made of trans l ucent s i l i cone
envel oped i n a thi n si l icone fl m, The
ver serious danger of possibl e rupture
fg, I3
of the i mpl ant, di screetly l i sted under the headi ng "col l ateral damage, " has been
confrmed by numerous i nci dents. Consi der, for
.
a moment, so-cal l ed aestheti c
surgery, whi ch adds to and subtracts from the body: what stri kes the i magi nati on
i s the heroi c wil l to vol untari l y subj ect one' s body to an endl ess cycl e of repeated
operations, in ord

r to repai r it, perfect i t, and make it i nto an i deal obj ect, i nstead
of accepti ng it as a pl ace of di fference and otherness. 42
Afer Mi ni malism, the human body was re-intrGduced into art through performance
a pracice dependent on real time, whi ch coul d only l eave photogrphi c remai ns. Early
works by Ci ndy Sherman, in the year fol l owing, di ssected produc
tion procedures used in the flm i ndustry to fabricate images of
the femal e body. More recently, the transformati ons this artist
efects on her own body, her own "fi gure, ' " are hi ghl i ghted and
recorded in gigantic, perturbing cibachromes that i nduce a feel i ng
of di scomfort in the vi ewer. In her J' :| -1 l'J''J series, her fg, I4
body is garbed in a bul bous breast and various protuberances and tumescences
recal l i ng the /.1.. !..:-. archetype, among other. "Art, " Ci ndy Sherman seems
to i ndi cate, "can and does make the real more so."43 It can achi eve a hyper-real i sm
that unneres us i n relation to the real i sm of our body. Cutting, del eti ng, crossing-out;
addi ng and subtracti ng, eradicating, scraping, obl iterati ng: writing and ersi ng opera
tions, these are al l the vari ous si gni fcati ons of the word "erase"; in French efacer,
41, Perrot. Le travail des apparences, p. 185.
fig. 13, Silicone breast implant
42. Lawrence M. Fisher, "Three Companies Speeding
Artificial Skin," The New York Times, September 12,
1990: "The preparation of NeoDerm, Marrow-Tech's
artificial equivalent of human skin, begins with the
inoculation of fibroplasts onto a biodegradable mesh,
contained within a sterile plastic bag." And: Elizabeth
Rosenthal. "Cosmetic Surgeons Seek New Frontiers. In
California, doctors lift almost everything from calves to
faces," The New York Times, September 24, 1991; here
are some of the subtitles: "A Classical Physique Could
Be Yours;" "Severe Pain at First;" "It's a big change to
see good-looking guys in their 40's asking for facelifts;"
"Buttocks Data Lacking;" "How will implants wear for
50 years under the skin of a 20-year-old?" On this sub
ject, see: Jean Baudrillard, "La chirurgie esthetique de
l'Alterite," in: La chair de Psyche. European Summer
University, organized by Giulia Sissa, with the participa
tion of the Association Descartes, the Italian Cultural
Institute, the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Socia Ie, John
Hopkins University, Paris, 7 - 13 July, 1993,
fig. 14. Cindy Sherman, Untitled #216, 1990.
43. Thomas W. Sokolowski, "Iconophobics
Anonymous," Artforum, Summer 1990, p. 118.
17
.., .

fg 15
fg. 16
deri ves from esfacier (i n Ol d French) , meani ng "to rub out the face." 0 + S ofen
cite the fact that so-cal l ed aestheti c or cosmeti c surgery al so ai ms at erasing char
acteri st i c sexual trai ts, or at camoufl agi ng somatoeth n i c features ("eth n i c
e(race)sures") , i n a n effor to attai n a n i deal , obj ecti fed body.
The novel +- \+. \.. |.-1 ' (1973), by J ames Ti ptree, J r. , .. Al i ce
Shel don, focuses on an i ncarnati on-di sembodi ment epi sode: afer a fai l ed sui ci de
atempt, P. Burke, a poor, ugl y gi rl , offers her brain vi a a remote-control devi ce to
the arti fci al body of Del phi , a "wal do" of i deal beauty. The brief story i s sad, . and
ends tragi cal l y. Wi l l iam Gi bson' s `-.um..- (1984) is more opti mi sti c, with al l
the sexual connotati ons of total i ncarnati on in desi ri ng machi nes, and coupl i ngs i n
conti nuous flux ("j acki ng i nto cyberspace") . Th i s work deal s wi th grafti ng a
machi ne- organ onto an energy-machi ne, a theme al ready i nvoked by Gi l l es
Del euze and Fel i x Guattari i n ^:1.. (1972) .44
The devel opment of bi oapparatus duri ng the twentieth century has been marked
by two pri nci pal stages worthy of the status of "theoreti cal ficti on. " Fi rst, the
i ncepti on of the term "robot, " ari si ng from an i ndustri al envi ronment and coi ned
by the wri ter Karel Capek (1890- 19 3 8) i n hi s pl ay R.UR. -an acronym for
Rossum' s Uni versal Robots (1921 ) .45 Robot deri ves from the Czech word robota
meani ng "boredom, " "drudgery, " and refers to repetitive factory-work. Second,
the creati on of the term cyborg, short for "cybereti c organi sm, "
characteri zi ng a hybrid bei ng, "an embodi ment of a monstrous
i dea, a par-human, par-al i en type of automaton-a seri al ki l l er
who has roamed around sci ence-fi cti on worl ds for decades,
and i s now about to be reactivated on the l aborator foor. "46
Such i s the termi nol ogy proposed by two physi ci ans of the
b i ocybern et i c s research l aboratori es at Rockl and State
Hospital i n Orangeburg, New York: Manfred Cl ynes (engi neer
and neuropsychol ogi st, who studi ed musi c, physi cs and mathe
mati cs) , and Nathan S. Kl i ne (psychi atri st) , i n a study related
to astronauti cs for NASA duri ng the 19605.47
I t may wel l be that robots and
cyborgs are not j u st two stages i n tech nol ogi cal evol uti on but rather, two
al ternati ves, two "paradi gms" for devel opment. After al 1, i t i s si gni fcant that one
18
fig. 15. Split V-W medical epicanthoplasty.
44. Gilles Oeleuze and Felix Guattari, Capitalisme et
Shizophrenie, L 'anti-cdipe (Paris: Minuit, 1972)
'
Chpt.
1, part I. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seen, Helen R.
Lane, Anti-cdipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1983).
45. Karel Capek, RUR (London: 1923); see: Peter
Wollen, "Le cinema, I'americanisme, et Ie robot"
Communications, special issue on video, no. 48 (Paris:
Seuil, 1988) pp.7-37.
46. Kathleen Rogers, in Virtual Seminar on the
Bioapparatus, transcript to seminar held on 28-29
October 1991 at Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff,
Alberta, Canada, 1991, p. 82.
fig. 16. Robby the Robot, Forbidden Planet 1956.
47. Timothy K. Smith, "Measured Response: Do
Emotions Have Shapes You Can See And Then
Reproduce? Manfred Clynes's 'Sentograf' Finds Distinct
Patterns in Music as Well as Ufe," The Wall Street
Joumal, 23 September 1991. See also Antonio Caronia,
/ cyborg: Saggio sul/'uomo artificiale (Rome and
Naples: Theoria, 1991 [1985]).
was born in an i ndustri al factor, and the other in a
hospital , l i ke you and me, in an envi ronment managed
by j`-1-.-.- el ectroni cs.
Cons i der t he fol l owi ng decl arati o n by Warren
Rob i nett, software auth or for NASA' s \:..
'..~-: \..:.:. (1987) 48: " us i ng a head
mounted di spl ay, we wi l l be abl e to get i nsi de interactive three-di mensional si mul ated
worlds through whi ch we can move and in whi ch our acti ons have efects. We wi l l
be abl e to get i nsi de and move through three-dimensi onal scenes or acti ons recorded
at earl i er times. We wi l l be able to project our eyes, ears and hands in robot bodi es
at di stant and dangerous pl aces. We wi l l be abl e to create synthetic senses that let
us see thi ngs that are i nvi si bl e to our ordi nary senses.
, ,
49 Vi rtual Reality technol ogy
tends to ampl i fy the phenomenon of "focal di sappearance" in organs of percepti on
and propri ocepti on.5o I n order to exerci se thei r perceptive rol e i n rel ati on to the
envi ronment, sensori motor organs are al ready pl aced on 'the body's surface,
Equi pped with a hel met,and gloves constituting a new sensitive armor, eyes, ears and
hands are extended i nto a th ree-d i mens i onal
J
di gi tal l y-si mul ated, i l l us i onary
world-one more step towards the incorporation of i nstruments i nto the body, and at
the same time, the disembodiment of the body itself The latter is subjected to the
experi ence of a d
p
ubl e di sappearance: that of the body ecstasi zed i n acti on (as i n
the expressi on "out-of- body") , and that of the automated machi ne and devi ce,
movi ng ever cl oser to forms of conceal ment. I n fact, Vi rtual Reality i s no more
"de-humani zi ng" than a word-processor or a fi ght-si mul ator; however, it does push
the doubl e movement of i ncorporati on and di sembodi ment towards new l i mits.
Oddly enough, Warren Robi nett' s rather "cowboy, " "technoi d" defense of Vi rual
Real ity si mpl i sti cal l y opposes the two paradigms of robot and cyborg in a rhetori cal ,
video game-l i ke manner, setti ng up an opposi ti on of "good guys" and "bad guys"
along the same l i nes as the struggl e between Darh Vader and Obi Wan Kanobi i n
George Lucas' S:. \.s |//,: "One vi si on ofthe future i s the human bei ng whose
senses and muscl es are greatly ampl i fi ed, a human deci si on-maker, aware and
powerful . A competi ng vi si on from the fel d of ari fci al i ntel l i gence i s the super
intel l igent robot, autonomous, i nscrutabl e, and beyond human control . These are
two pl ausi bl e di recti ons that the devel opment of computer technol ogy can take.
Personal l y, I fnd it preferabl e to be the cyborg runni ng the show, rather than the
pet of a robot.
, ,
51 I nvented by vi deo game-programmers i n NASA l aboratories, the
fig. 17. Ed Emsh, illustration from Galaxy, Sept. 1954.
48. Warren Robinett is a designer of interactive com
puter graphics. He has designed video games (Atari
2600 Adventure, 1978), educational software (Rocky's
Boots, 1982) and software for virtual reality systems
(NASA, 1987). Since 1989, he has directed the Head
Mounted Display Project at the University of North
Carolina.
49. Warren Robinett, "Technological Augmentation of
Memory, Perception, and Imagination," in Virtual
Seminar on the Bioapparatus, p. 17.
50. Leder, The Absent Body, p. 26.
51. Robinett, 'Technological Augmentation of Memory,
Perception, and Imagination," p. 17.
19
fg. I8
Vi rtual Reality devi ce corresponds preci sel y to the "war-machi ne" as defi ned by
Del euze and Guattari in ^ +....1 |'.:-... "a war-machi ne in no way has war for
its obj ect; its real obj ect i s a ver speci al space, a smooth space that it composes,
occupi es, and propagates. Nomadism i s preci sel y the res ul ti ng combi nati on
between war-machi ne/smooth space. We are attempti ng to show how and i n
what case a war-machi ne does have war as its obj ect
'
(when State-apparatuses
appropri ate war-machi nes that do not bel ong to tbem). A war-machi ne can be
revol uti onar, or arti sti c, much more than war-l i ke. "
s2
Vi rual Reality wi l l probabl y have to depar from a space where al l si tuati ons are
dependent sol el y on a body' s sensori motor apparatus, whi ch is governed by the
technol ogy i tsel f. Thi s ki nd of space i s organi zed by successi ve
motor-connecti ons-an acti on l eadi ng to a percepti on, l eadi ng in tur
to a new acti on, etc. The resulti ng chai n of hori zontal acti ons/per
cepti ons i s consonant with narrati on, and conforms cl osel y to the
narrative space of acti on fl ms, vi deogames, or computer si mul ati on:
techno-di stracti ons that constitute the smoothest "future" of Vi rtual
Reality.
s
3 Thi s i s hardl y cause for i ndi gnation-afer al l , wasn't ci nema
ori gi nal l y a boul evard attracti on? But wi l l it be possi bl e to interrupt
the chai n, to witness the col l apse of acti on and narrati on, to break the sensori motor
l i nks and achi eve pure optical and sonorous efects or situati ons, to i nstitute cerebral
ci rcuits and short-ci rcuits, so that space, "havi ng lost its motor-connecti ons, becomes
di s-connected, empti ed, " and the actual image i nterrelates with the virtual image?
s
4
It appear that today, di chotomies other than that of organism/machi ne can be cal l ed
i nto question-for exampl e, mi nd/body, ani mal /human, enery/fati gue, publ i c/pri vate,
nature/cul ture, mal e/femal e, pri mitive/ci vi l ized. "Hi gh-tech cul ture," writes bi ol ogist
Donna Haraway in the C/o. /.|-.:. "chal l enges these dual i sms i n i ntri gui ng
ways. I t i s not clear who makes and who i s made i n the relation between human and
machi ne. It i s not cl ear what i s mi nd and what i s body i n machi nes that resol ve i nto
codi ng prctices. In so far as we know ourselves in both foral di scoure (e.g., bi ol ogy)
and in dai l y practi ce (e.g., the homework economy i n the i ntegrated ci rcuit) , we fi nd
oursel ves to be cyborgs, hybri ds, mosai cs, chi meras. Bi ol ogi cal organi sms have
become bi oti c systems, communi cati on devices l i ke other. There i s no fundamental,
ontological separati on in our formal knowledge of machi ne and organi sm, of techni cal
and organi c. The repl i cant Rachel i n the Ri dl ey Scott fl m E'.1- .- l'JI, stands
as the image of a cyborg culture' s fear, l ove, and confusi on. "
ss
20
52. Gilles Deleuze, "Entretien sur Mille Plateaux"
(1980), in Pourparlers. 7972-7990 (Paris: Minuit. 1990),
pp. 50-51.
53. Trish Hall, '''Virtual Reality' Takes place in the Real
World," The New York Times, 8 July 1990; Woody
Hochswender, "Battles So Real They Almost Hurt," The
New York Tmes, 29 August 1990; John Markoff, "A
Invents A Jarring New World From Technology," The
New York Times, 25 November 1990; E. Shapiro, "Punk
Rock and Military Jobs Lead to Mattei Video Games,"
The New York Times, 26 November 1990.
fig. 18. Virtual Reality, VPL Research, 1993.
54. I have freely borrowed from Gilles Deleuze in "Sur
I'image-Mouvemen!" (1983) in Pourparlers, pp. 67-81,
and p. 86; quote: pp. 72-75. In the summer of 1993,
D + S were invited to the Banff Centre for the Arts to
develop a Virtual Reality project to be exhibited in the
Centre Georges Pompidou.
55. Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science,
Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century," rpt. in: Simians, Cyborgs and
Women-The Reinvention of Nature (New York:
Routledge, 1991), pp. 177-178. see also: "Cyborgs at
Large: Interview with Donna Haraway," in Constance
Penley and Andrew Ross, eds., Technoculture
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991).
pp. 1-20; and Donna Haraway, "The Actors Are
Cyborg, Nature is Coyote, and the Geography Is
Elsewhere: Postscript to 'Cyborgs at Large',"
Technoculture, pp. 21-26.
I n the enthusi astic adherence to the cyborg model and metaphor, reference is
constantly made to a bei ng "hal f-human, hal f-machi ne," whi ch seems to i mpl y a
fify percent divi si on between natural and artifci al . From a strictly ontol ogi cal
perspective, it woul d be i nteresti ng to know if, by modi fi ng 'hi s proporti on to
fify-one percent, or to si xty-si x percent, a threshol d of
humanity coul d be determi ned. We wel l know that our
bei ng i s i n no way reduci bl e to each of our organs-we can
change them without modi fi ng it in any way. However, as
Stephane Ferrt writes, "reasoni ng on a part is not the same
as reasoni ng on the whol e, and it is preci sel y at thi s subtl e
di sj uncti on between the body and each of its organs where
word-play arises between ' having' and 'bei ng' a body. "
s
6
fg I9
It seems, in our present state of knowl edge, that the l i mi t of humanity or
ani mal ity of the cyborg consi sts i n the existence of a brai n whi ch, of al l our
organs, undeni abl y occupi es a pl ace apart, and constitutes i n itself the threshol d
we were wonderi ng about.57
Thi s concl usi on.l eads us to the fol l owi ng declartion
by J ean-Franoi s Lyotard, on the subject of the human brai n: "the community
form of i ndi vi dual brai ns whi ch has proven the most effci ent-i . e. , pol i ti cal
democracy"
?
nd soci o-economi c l i beral i sm . . . -seems to be the most appropri ate
for devel opi ng brai n-performance. But the system remai ns dependent on the
body' s provi di ng it wi th nouri shment i n the form of energy . . . and ensuri ng its
reproducti on. What is at stake i n al l contemporar research, whatever the
di sci pl i ne, i s the fol l owi ng: how to free the human brai n frm the constraints
shared by sysems l ivi ng on earth," i n order to surive the rl atively immanent
destructi on of the sol ar system-i n four to five bi l l i on years,
S8
As for atempts to "redesi gn" the body, we need onl y recaH cases of el ectroni c
tran smi tter i mpl ants wh i c h mon i tor bod i es on supervi s ed di s charge.
Survei l l ance, hygi eni cs, heal th-any number of mi crorobots are wai ti ng to
i nvade our bodi es. As Paul Vi ri l i o expl ai ns, "The law of mechanica( proxi mity
whi ch governed the devel opment of our surroundi ngs, i . e. , the 'exogenous'
envi ronment of the human speci es, has gi ven way to a l aw of electro-magnetic
proximity, which remai ns to be di scovered, and apprehended, before we submi t
more or l ess passi vel y to the comi ng i nvasi on of our bodi es, to the control
of the ' endogenous' envi ronment, i .e. , our bowel s, our vi scera, by interactive
feats achi eved through bi otechnol ogi cal mi ni aturi zati on-besi de and beyond
56. Stephane Ferret. "Extra its de corps," i n La chair de
Psyche. European Summer University, see note 42. See
also Ferret's La Philosophie et son scalpel: Le probleme
de I'identite personnelle (Paris: Editions de Minuit,
1993), p. 12 and following. See also Mark Poster,
"Robocop." in Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter,
eds., Incorporations, Zone 6 (New York: Urzone, 1992),
pp. 436-440.
fig. 19. Paul Verhoeven, Robocop, 1987.
57. Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind:
. Concering Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics
(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989),
see pp. 3-29 and pp. 374-449.
58. Jean-Francois Lyotard, in Virtual Seminar on
Bioapparatus,p. 28
fg. 20
the cul mi nati on of maj or mass-communi cation tech
nol ogi es already runni ng our soci ety."
s
9
Cause for concern, or even anger? One subject not
menti oned in an ostensi bl y neutral sci enti fc arti cl e i n
the `-. `.k ~-.
ee
i s the use of such devi ces by pschi atri c hospital s. What
about mental compl i ance achi eved through "psYC,hotropes" and drugs? New
technol ogi es are certai nl y provi di ng the means of exerci si ng total control over
body and soul , 6 1 through immense popul ati on-surei l l ance networks exerci si ng bio
medi cal powers, ulti matel y more despoti c than the most fearsome di ctatorshi ps.
Thi s terrifyi ng prospect has been dubbed by J ean Querol a the biopolitical panoptic
scenario.
62
Such a pessi mi sti c, even paranoi d outl ook can be countered by adopti ng
the i roni c tone taken up by Querol a: "I n a l i berl soci ety with democrati c pretensi ons,
why shoul d onl y the handi capped have the right to prostheses? I sn't the real market
of the future among normal peopl e i nstead?
, ,
63 Al ong si mi l ar l i nes, Donna Haraway
maintains that "the cyborg is not subject to Foucault's bi opol itics; the cyborg si mul ates
pol iti cs, a much more potent fel d of operati ons."64
Today, accordi ng to J acques Gui l l erme, the very noti on of prosthesi s is i ncreasi ngl y
tendi ng towards appl i cati ons di vi ded mai nl y between posi ti ve or substi tuti ve
restorati on of percepti on-rel ated i nfrmi ti es and experi ments on ti ssue cultures
and organ transpl ants whi ch, wi th varyi ng results, are becomi ng more numerous
and di verse. I ndeed, transpl ants are the most s ubtl e of prostheses, entai l i ng
separati on of matter and functi onal repai r in an exchange of otherness. I sol ated
from the "donor" organi sm, the transpl ant (graf) i s a "free" organ, without body,
orhan and cel i bate, between l i fe and death. It comes from "the interal produced
between rel ati onal and functi onal death. "65 The graf becomes other and i s substi
tuted for a defci ent par i n the "receiver" organi sm; it corrects a pathol ogi cal l ack,
but al so, at the same ti me, it creates a new level of regul ati on and determi nes
another state of normal cy.66
Charles Levin aptly comments: "Unforunately, the domi nant image of Freud' s legacy
remai ns an over-si mpl ifcati on: there i s consci ousness (an afterimage whi ch onl y
appears to exist in the ' here and now') , and then, there is the andere Schauplatz-the
'other scene. ' . . . I n short, it tends to be assumed, even i n psychoanal yti cal l y i nformed
cultural theor, that the body is a ki nd of bi ol ogi cal given whi ch can be cancel ed out
of the equati on or si mpl y hel d constant; whereas, the matter to be studi ed and
22
59. Paul Virilio. ''La loi de proximite" (30 April 1991),
Ottagono 100 (September 1991).
fig. 20. Jana Sterbak, Generic Man. 1987-89.
60. In The New York Tmes. 20 June 1990: "A
Massachusetts company is developing a tiny electronic
component that can be implanted in the body to release
small amounts of drugs or other biologically active
materials in response to a pulse of electrical current.. ..
The device is based on the discovery of conductive poly
mers-chemicals that intrinsically conduct electric cur
rent that can be chemically bound with drugs..."
61. Jean Baudrillard, "Clone Story, ou L'enfant pro
these," Traverses, no. 14/15 (April 1979). pp. 143-148.
62. Jean Querzola, "Le silicium a fleur de peau,"
Traverses, no. 14/15 (April 1979). p. 169.
63. Ibid., p.170; see the work of some Italian designers,
like Denis Santachiara in Ottagono 96 (September
1990).
64. Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science," in
Simians, Cyborgs and Women, p.163.
65. Michel Guillou, "Le corps et I'appareil," Traverses,
no.14/15 (April 1979), p. 136.
66. This paragraph is inspired by Jacques Guillerme's
admirable article, "Theses sur la protheses: Ie pretexte
des besoins latents," trans.in "Protesi/Prosthesis,"
Ottagono 96 (September 1990). My thanks to the author
for providing a copy of his original French manuscript.
understood is rather what soci ety pumps i nto the
body (or 'writes' onto it). "67
In l'l, in an act of "appropri ati on through desi g
nati on, " Pi ero Manzoni , a mani pul ator of text and
context, made a propheti c gesture by exhi biti ng a
nude model on hi s scul pture base and si gni ng her as
hi s work. Thi s act was j ust one step away from
decl aring the arist's own body as the i rreduci bl e site
of i nterventi on , fi nal l y c ol l aps i ng t h e d i stan ce fg 2I
between the agent and the activity of art. At the ' ! center" of body art, l iterature,
cinema, and chronobi ol ogy i s a de-centered body, from Kafka' s |-. C.., to
Vito Acconci ' s first photoworks, "pagi ng body in space and space in body, "68 to
Chri s Burden' s performance :+..: l'/l ) , 69 to Bruce Nauman' s "acti ons" l.k
|..-. hol ograms projected on gl ass, l'7J, , to Charl es . Ray' s :+-| l'J+, so
many mi se-en-scenes of expl orati ons operated on the body i tsel f, consi dered to
be the ulti mate en.d of art. I nscri bed on the fesh of the body is the tex of the
law, the ... of a soci ety that has "become fesh. " Eventual l y and eventful ly, the
process of incaration must be probed to the l i mit of i ts di si ncarati on. That l i mi t i s
the vul nerabi l ity of the body i tsel f I n |...:e
D + S appl i ed quqtes by Jeremy Bentham and Mi chel
Serres, i n reverse raised letter, to the seats of two
cei l i ng-hung chai rs. The statements were desi gned
so as to i mpri nt themsel ves on the fesh of an
i magi nary occupant.
fg. 22
Thi s odd return of Carnal ism in art, whi ch also i nspi res phenomenol ogy' s last
avatars, thrusts us i nto the myster of i ncarnati on: "a noti oh at once pi ous and
sensual , a bl end of sensual ity and rel i gi on. "
7o Traditi onal l y, si nce the Mi ddl e Ages
and the Renai ssance, soci al groups, ci ti es, bui l di ngs, etc., have been represented i n
the image of the human body, i n a system of anthropomorphi c analogy for whi ch
the text of Vitruvi us provi des the architectural 'ource. For Renai ssance-theori sts
l i ke Al berti , Francesco di Gi orgi o, and Fi l arete, bui l di ngs are genui ne bodi es, the
most perfect among them bei ng templ es and churches. The same i dea appl i es to
cities-the seat of the social and pol iti cal body.
7
I The noti on of the social body,
juri di cal in origi n, ari cul ates soci ety's limbs in heads, arms and legs-a sor of corporal
proj ection underl yi ng the cl assi cal noti on of i ncorporati on. Thi s image wi l l tend to
67. Charles Levin, "Carnal Knowledge of Aesthetic
States" in Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, eds., Body
Invaders: Panic Sex in America (NewYork: St. Martin's
Press [Culturetextj, 1987), p. 113.
fig. 21. Chris Burden, Shoot 19 November 1971.
68. Vito Acconci: Photographic Works, 1969- 1970, exhi
bition catalog, Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York, 1988,
with a text by Kate Linker. See also Amnon Barzel, ed.,
Vito Acconci, exhibition catalog, Museo d'Arte
Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato (Firenze: Giunti,
1992), with texts by Jeffrey Kipnis and Jeffrey Ryan.
69. Marc Selwyn, "Chris Burden: I Think Museums
Function The Way Churches Function For Religion-It's
The Place Where You Go To Do It," Flash Art, Jan/Feb
1989, pp. 90-94.
fig. 22. 0 + S, Para-site (chair embossing detail). 1989.
70. Gilles Deleuze et Felix Guattari, Qu'est-ce que la
Philosophie? (Paris: Minuit, 1991), p. 169.
71. Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts: Papers
in and on Art History (New York, 1957). See chapter
two, The Theory of Proportions of the Human Body
[1921]; more recently, see Paul von Naredi-Rai[ler, "Like
the Parts of a Well-Formed Human Being," Daidalos 45,
pp. 64-71; Joseph Rykwert, "Body and Building,"
Daidalos 45, pp. 100-109. From an art-historical point of
view, see Barbara Maria Stafford, Body Criticism:
Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine
(Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,1991). For a historical
approach, see Michel Feher et aI ., eds., Fragments for a
History of the Human Body, Zone 3, 4 and 5 (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press,1989). For some recent architectural
connections, see Alberto Perez-Gomez, "The Renovation
of the Body. John Hejduk & The Cultural Relevance of
the Theoretical Projects," AAFiles 13, pp. 26-29;
Anthony Vidler, "The Building in Pain: The Body and
Architecture in Post-Modern Culture," A Files 19
(Spring 1990). pp.3-10.
23
fg 24
metamorphose i nto medi cal metaphors: frst, from the sixeenth to the eighteenth
centuries, i nto a body-physi cs orchestrati ng the "body-opera" with its gears, fui ds,
and organs; then, in the ni neteenth centur, i nto thermodynami cs and chemi stry.
An extracti on-based therapy, whi ch considers the "i l l " as an excess whi ch must be
rooted out, i s fol l owed by an additi on-therapy, where the "i l l " is attributed to a lack
whi ch must be compensated for. Medi cal i nstruments thus undergo successi ve
mutations: extracti ng activi ti es consi st of taki ng somethi ng out of the body, i . e. ,
cutti ng, pul l i ng, exci si ng, removi ng; addi ng operati ons suppl ement the body, i . e. ,
inserti ng, l ayi ng over, gl ui ng, covering, assembl i ng, sewi ng, l i nki ng. Fi nal l y, operations
i n the twentieth century wi l l consi st i n substituting missi ng or deteriorated organs,
with artifcial l ungs, valves, cardi o-regul ators, prosthetic joints.
72
fg 23
The last two centuries have also seen the appearance of orhopedi c i nstruments that
purportedly "correct" the body by artifci al l y proppi ng up the anatomy. Resulti ng from
the mechanical concepti on that consi der the body as a machi ne, a whol e current of
thought has devel oped among engi neers and architects who can be desi gnated as
partisans of the building-machine. From Dr: Tenon' s "heal i ng-machi ne" (l ate ei ghteenth
centur) through archi tect Adol phe Lance' s "house-machi ne" (1853) ; to Henr
Provensal ' s 1908 bui l di ng conceived as a "human thoraci c cage" reproduci ng the
respi rati on ofthe l ungs; to the "dwel l i ng-machine" I
.
aunched by Le Corbusi er in !c.:
`...-.. in 1921
73: there is no need here to el aborte further on the obvi ous paral l el s
between ni neteenth- and twentieth-centur hygi eni cs and modemist architecture.
24
As for orthopedi c harnesses, it is wel l known that
thrugh the i mposition of hi s father's posture-correcting
apparatuses, the young President Schreber endured
patemal aggressi on under the guise of hygi eni c austerity;
Orthopedi c therpies, however, underwent a signifcant
72. Michel de Certeau. "Des outils pour ecrire sur Ie
corps," Traverses, no. 14/15 (April 1979)
'
pp. 3-14. Also
published as Chapter Ten of L 'invention du quotidien,
pp. 231-261; trans., "The Scriptural Economy," Chapter
Ten, The Practice of Ever Day Life, pp. 131-153.
fig. 23. David Cronen berg, Dead Ringers, 1988.
73. Georges Teyssot, "The Disease of the Domicile,"
Assemblage 6 (1988), pp. 72-97.
fig. 24. " Geradehalter," a device to correct poor sitting
posture, from Doctor Schreber's Kallipaedie.
transformati on duri ng the ni neteenth century-descri bed by Georges Vigarel l o as
"suppor-tool i nversi on." The appl i cati on vector of such tool s no l onger operates
from the exteri or on the human body, but conversel y.
Body-bui l di ng i s thus achieved by repetitive exerci ses on
the new devi ces whi ch constitute gymnastic machi nery.
The body no l onger submits to mechani zed pressure,
but i nstead exerts its strength on those apparatuses
apparatuses whi ch become si ngularly speci al i zed.
74 Thi s
athl eti c machi nery wi l l be a source of i nspi rati on for fg 25
modemist architecture: fumiture wi l l be conceived in an "anthropotechni cal" frame
work l i ke a machi ne upon whi ch the body exerts its strength; the room, conceived
l i ke a gymnasi um where one works out. "Gymnastics apparatus," Jacques Gui l lerme
.
poi nts out, "tend to subject corporl movements compl etely; givi ng them a sort of
molding-pattem-thei r forms codi f the expendi ture of physi cal energy, and objectif
physical eforts by assigni ng them pre-determi ned exerci se programmes. "
75
Today, high-tech sweat extends and modifies former body-building practices-an
American passi on si nce the I 870s. The program, of the general i zed domesti cati on
of muscle-bui l di ng has l ed to i ncreasingly sophi sticated el ectroni c equi pment, formi ng
"a range of prostheses, whi ch al so real ize the pl uggi ng
of the machi ne i hO corporal functi ons, . . . i nduci ng an
exterior, mechan i cal , percepti on of one' s own
body. "
76 Le Corbus i er wi l l d raw an i n habi tant
boxing on a patio of the I mmeubl e-Vi l l as (1922).
77
Thi nk of Al fred Jarry, writer, pataphysi ci an, cycl i st,
and of hi s bedroom-whi ch he entered by pul l i ng
hi msel f up through a trap-door with a rope; the
bedroom desi gned by Walter Gropi us and Marcel
Breuer i nto the apartment of Erwi n Pi scator i n
Berl i n (1927-28) , equi pped with a punchi ng-bag for
boxi ng practi ce; or the home-gymnasi um shown
by Gropi us at the Berl i n Archi tecture Exhi bi ti on
i n 1931. Rem Kool haas recentl y questi oned the
tangential relati onshi p between moderni st archi tec
ture, gymnasti cs, and athl eti cs.
78 And thi s i s preci sel y
what D + S i l l ustrate, pl ayi ng on words, i n thei r
B.1/B.1n. fg. 26
fig. 25. Levacher de La Feutriel, Machine for Curing
Rakitis, 1772.
74. Georges Vigarello, Le corps redresse. Histoire d'un
Pouvoir Pedagogique (Paris: Jean-Pierre Delarge, 1978);
see also Georges Vigarello, "Panoplies redresseuses.
Jalons pour une histoire," Traverses, no. 14/15 (April
1979). pp. 120-131. And William G. Niederland, The
Schreber Case: Psychoanalytic Profile of a Paranoid
Personality (New York: The New York Times Book
Company, 1974), pp.49-84.
75. Jacques Guillerme, "Sur quelques antecedents de
la machinerie athletique," Recherches, no. 43 (April
1980), pp. 95107; see also Guillerme's "Des raisons
machinales du corps," Traverses, no, 14/15(ApriI 1979),
pp. 105-112.
76. Jean-Jacques Courtine, "Les stakhanovistes du
narcissisme. Body-building et puritanisme ostentatoire
dans la culture americaine du corps," in Georges
Vigarello, ed., Le gouvemement du corps,
Communications 56 (Paris: Seuil, 1993), p. 228.
According to Courine (p. 249, n. 41), the term body
building first appeared some time between 1900 and
1905, based on the expression to build (up) one's body.
77. Cf. Yago Conde. "Boxing Le Corbusier," (with a
commentary by Josep Quetglas), AA Fles 19, pp. 50-52:
'The maxim Le Corbusier and Ozenfant published in the
very first issue of L 'Esprit nouveau, 'Everything is either
a sphere or a cylinder' (Tout est spheres et cylindres),
should be read as 'The body is everything.' The body is
a mechanism. It bends itself, tenses, jumps. It is simul
taneously the agent and the result of any action. It
builds, moulds, corrects itself. Gymnastic machinery
operates on it, making it more precise. It is molded by
chairs, pavements, collars, pens. The body also oper
ates on the space around it. incising, crossing, altering
it. It can even treat itself as space, becoming the coiled
agent of its own construction. Its theater of operations
is the gymnasium."
78. Cf. OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), ''La
casa palestra," AA Files 13, pp. 8-12; and Georges
Teyssot. ed., II Progetto Domestico. La casa dell'uomo.
Archetipi e prtotipi, exhibition catalog, XVII Triennale
di Milano (Milan: Electa, 1986); see also Georges
Teyssot, Interior Landscape/Paesaggi d'lnteri, Lotus
Document no.8 (Milan: Electa, New York: Rizzoli
International. 1988).
fig. 26. Chris Duffy; Nationals Heavyweight Champion
(United States), 1992.
25
jg. 27
t '
" I f hygi eni cs i s phi l anthropi c, " conti nues J acques Gui l l erme, "it i s al so phi l otechni cal .
For vari ous pretexts whi ch it woul d be i nteresti ng to compi l e and cl assi fy, it i s
i mpl i citl y promoted i n the ranks of producti ve body technol ogy. The acti ons of
whi ch the body i s capable can, in efec, be l i nked to the wel l -bei ng of the i ndivi dual ,
and si multaneousl y, to the strength he devel ops accompl i shi ng work."
79 I n 1 847,
Herman Von Hel mhol z proposed the pri nci pl e of energy conserati on, maintai ni ng
that matter and force cannot be conceptual l y di sentangl ed. He demonstrated that
it is i mpossi bl e to create force out of nothi ng. Thus, the theory of energy conser
vati on was formul ated, whi ch hel d that there was a si ngl e, i ndestructi bl e, and
i nfnitel y transformabl e energy basi c to al l nature. A pari cul ar usage of the concept
of "work," model ed on the machi ne, was extended by Hel mhol z to a general
pri nci pl e of nature. Universal i zed as the demi urge present i h al l nature, the con
cept of l abor power (Arbeitskraft) redef ned the pri nci pl e of moti on i n the
uni verse i n terms of i ts power to "perform work. " As a physi ci st and physi ol ogi st,
Hel mhol z contri buted to the el aborati on of the modern concept of l abor power
as the quantitative equi val ent of work produced, regardl ess of the source of the
energy transformed. so
Hel mhol z ultimately arrived at the theory of the animal body whi ch is not si mpl y
anal ogous wi th, but i denti cal to, a thermodynami c machi ne. Whereas the machi ne
was anthropomorphi zed through the automata of the ei ghteenth century, now it
was the metaphor of the motor-engi ne that was ahthropomorphi zed. ,But, as
entropy-whi'ch descri bed the i rreversi bi l ity of heat fiow-reveal ed the "l oss" of
energy in conversi on, so fatigue reveal ed the 1 0ss : oLenergy in the conversi on of
Kraft i nto producti on, Consequentl y, the focus on ' muscul ar force in physi ol ogy
di rected sci enti fc research toward the probl em of work, and led to ' a sci ence of
fati gue, to ergonomi cs, to sci entific management.SI Eti enne-J ul es Marey's i nvestigati ons
i nto the dynami c laws of the body i n moti on created a new sci ence of human
"l abor-power" based on thermodynamics.B
2
Charti ng and representing the movement
26
79. Guillerme. "Sur quelques antecedents de la
machinerie athletique," p. 98.
80. See Anson Rabinbach, The Human Motor: Energy,
Fatigue, and the Origins of Moderity (NewYork: Basic
Books,1990), p. 55.See also Anson Rabinbach, 'l'age
de la fatigue a la fin du dix-neuvieme siecle," Urbi. Arts,
Histoire, Ethnologie des Villes, vol. 2 (December 1979),
pp. 33-47; and Georges Ribeill. "De I'oisivete au surme
nage: les figures du travail au XIX siecle," Urbi, vol. 2
(December 1979), pp. 49-56.
fig. 27. Etienne-Jules Marey, Photographic Gun, 1882.
81. Anson Rabinbach, The Human Motor, pp. 45 - 68.
82. Etienne-Jules Marey, La Machine anima Ie, (Paris:
Bailliere, 1873); E.-J. Marrey, Le Mouverent (Paris:
Masson, 1874), reprinted in English as Movement,
trans. Eric Pritchard (New York, 1895); Michel Frizot La
chrnophotographie. Temps, photographie et rouve
ment autour de E-J Marey, Association des amis de
Marey, Ministere de la Culture, Beaune 1984; E-J Marey,
7830/7904, exhibition catalog. Musee National d'Art
Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1977;
Franois Dagognet, Etienne-Jules Marey (Paris: Hazan,
1987), English trans., Etienne-Jules Marey. A Passion
for the Trace, (New York: Urzone, 1992). See also Hillel
Schwartz, "Torque: The New Kinaesthetic of the
Twentieth Century," in Jonathan Crary and Sanford
Kwinter, eds., Incorporations, Zone 6 (New York:
Urzone, 1992), pp. 71-126.
of the "ani mal machi ne, " he i nvented photographi c apparatus to record images of
these movements, Thi s ci nemati c accel erator was itsel f concei ved l i ke a prosthesi s,
l i nki ng si ght organs and the motor.B3
The associati on beteen motor (automobi le) and sight i s the basis oLD + S'S Sl ow
House (1989), I n a manner si mi lar to Marey's decomposi ti on of "animal movement"
i nto frozen and abstrct images, the Slow House i s the product of the final sl owi ng
down of the drive frm New York to a (commerci al i zed) vi ew of a bay on Long I sl and.
Speed i s itself frzen and decomposed-frst slowed down, then frozen. The images
evoked by the mul ti pl e cuts in the section drawing lead towards the window (the view),
whi ch is itself decomposed and recomposed in associ ati on with two of the three
windows described by Paul Vi ri l io: the trditional window and the video screen,B4 The
Slow House captures the efects of to "medi a"-automobi l e and audi o-visual. Thi s pro-
jec opertes thrugh decomposition; it analyzes di ferent phenomena and oranizes the
coupling of dromoscopi c and vi deographi c efects without bl endi ng them, Exami ni ng
"vertiginous styles of behavior," Veroni que Nahoum-Grappe writes: "The accel erti on
of the speeds (of obj ects and of i mages), i ts effect on the real , and i ts hi stori cal
moorings, prove to be determi ni ng parmeters of questi oni ng."S5 New technol ogi cal
potenti al i ti es (machi nes, si mul ati on technol ogy) i ncrease "the possi bi l iti es of experi -
83. Paul Virilio, "Un confort subliminal." Traverses, no.
14/15 (April 1 979), p. 152.
84. Paul Virilio, "The Third Window: an Interview with
Paul Virilio," in Cynthia Schneider and Brian Wallis,
eds., Global Television (New York: Wedge Press. 1988).
85. VeroniqueNahoum-Grappe, 'les conduites de vertige,"
in Georges Vigarello, ed., Le gouverement du corps,
Communications, 56 (Paris: Seuil, 1993). p. 163.
menting with coenesthesi a ari si ng from accel erated verti go. "B6 "The verti gi nous 86. Ibid., p. 163.
sequence, defned is an i mperi l ed verticality and the hal l uci nati on of an accel erted
mobil ity, . . . [this] coenesthesia of diziness [vertigo] derives from the anti ci pati on of an
accelerted fal l , i.e., suspense, hence its pl astic efi ci ency."B
7
What the Slow H
'
ouse demon- 87. Ibid., p. 1 69.
srtes, plastically, i s that i n addition to the vertigo of accelerti on, there . is also a more
subtle vertigo of decel erati on, of slow moti on, in the ci nematogrphi c sense' of the ter.
Movement of "the human motor," as Anson Rabi nbach aptly cal l s it, was captured
by photogrphi c frami ng. In Marey's work, the body was the focal poi nt of the sci enti fc
di ssol uti on of the space-ti me conti nuum. The body i s al so the focal poi nt of a
jg. 28
fig. 28. Eadweard Muybridge, Digging With Spade,
1901.
27
fg 29
fg. 30
trnsformati on of architecture through a sl ow but potent process of domesticati on
of s pace, wh i ch Si gfri ed Gi edi on was among the fi rst to ackn owl edge i n
/-.+. .:. .-. C.~~.1 / C.:o.:. :. /.,~... '.:.y l'+J, . The
body now ti rel essl y ascends and descends the staircase, from Duchamp' s `.1-
D-..-1 . ::....- l'lI, to Bruno Taut's `-. 'co:.:.
tt
to Frank and Li l l i an
Gi l breth' s chronocyclegraphs, 89 to Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's \.. /.:.
e
to Le
Corbusi er and Ozenfant's objets-tpes, objects typified as extensi ons of the human
body: "BI OLOGY! The great new word i n architecture and pl anni ng!"91
If we turn to the questi on of the "parergonal i ty"92
of modern archi tecture,
we mi ght as k ou rs el ves : what has been framed? I n Marey' s " Geometri c
Chronophotograph, " the energy of the body, or perhaps more preci sel y, the
metaphor of the pure energy of the body has been framed. I t i s probably not by
chance that the frami ng and the squaring of the dynami c body, enacted by the model s
of Edweard Muybri dge i n +- '.~. |.- /.:. lJJ/ l'J I ) , focuses
mai nly on domestic activities l i ke, for men, " wal ki ng upstairs or downstairs," " l ifi ng l og, "
"di ggi ng with spade, " "pushi ng lawn rol l er"; and, for women, "wal ki ng up i ncl i ne
carryi ng two buckets," "pi cki ng up towel s or brooms, " "pouri ng water from j ug, "
"standi ng and i roni ng, " "spanki ng chi l dren, " or "fal l i ng onto mattress.
, ,
93 The
body' s l abor power thus becomes a wri ti ng, a notati onal system that operates as a
suppl i er of what was, . what is l acki ng in the work of architecture. The "frami ng"
d i verts th e e n e rgy of t h e ergon, t he free en ergy of p u re p rod u ct i vi ty.
28
88. Bruno Taut, Die Neue Wohnung: Die Frau als
SchOpferin ( The New Habitation. The Woman as
Creator, Berlin, 1 924.
89. Mi ke Mandel, Making Good Tme: Scientific
Management. The Gilbreths' Photography in Motion
Futurism (Riverside, Calif.: California Museum of
Photog. and University of California Press, 1989).
90. Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion (Chicago: Paul
Theobald, 1947) See also Nagy's The New Vision (New
York: Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1947 [1930]).
91. Le Corbusier, My Work (London: 1960), p. 155;
quoted by Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs:
Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts
(Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press,
1979).
92. Jacques Derrida, "Le Parergon," in La verite en
peinture (Paris: Aubier-Flammarion, 1978); English
trans., "Parergon," i n Jacques Derrida, The Truth in
Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
fig. 29. Eadweard Muybridge, Spanking Child, 1 901 .
93. Eadweard Muybridge, The Human Figure i n Motion
(New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1955 [ 1 901]).
fig. 30. Eadweard Muybridge, Standing and Ironing,
1901.
Modern/moderni sti c archi tecture sufred/suffers from an i nternal i nfi rmity in its
own thesi s, whi ch demanded/demands to be suppl emented by prostheses.
Duri ng the twentieth centur, paral l el i ng the total "medi cal i zati on" of the human
body, medi cal technol ogy openly i nforms the arts, from pai nti ng to fl m and l iterture.
In a l'I+ l etter to J acques Doucet, written
when he was prepari ng R.:._ D-~ .+--
P-.|.. J:.., , Marcel Duchamp announced:
"Today, I found a base at Ruppal ey's-a medi cal
electrical apparatus deal er."
The promi nence of medi cal devi ces i n recent
fl ms confi rms that di rectors are pl ayi ng on a
growi ng anxi ety. The medi cal i zati on of l i fe
and death is frequentl y evoked by emergency
room i mages. Often, a cri si s situati on opens
with the i nstal l ati on of a make-shi f hospital .
Th i n k of the operati ng room i n D-. :--1 ( l'//,
fg JI
d i rected by Donal d
Cammel l , where Proteus I V, a computeri zed domesti c robot, wi th a huge mai n
frame si tuated i n the basement, takes over a suburban home and i nsemi nates
J ul i e Chri sti e, the housewife, by force (a fi l m produced wi th the col l aborati on of
the University of Utah and Wang Laboratori es) 94; or the emergency rooms i n
+- /1.~-1. ::. l'/l, by Robert Wi s e, and ::o~. l'J+, by J ohn
Carpenter; or even the conversi on of an Ameri can suburban house i nto a smal l
hospital in Steven Spi el berg' s ' ' +- 'x:.:--.:.' l'JI, As for so-cal l ed
sci ence-fcti on l iterature, we cannot i gnore J . G. Bal l ard' s warni ng: "Sci ence and
technol ogy are prol i ferati ng around us. They i ncreasi ngl y di ctate the l anguages
we speak and thi nk. Ei ther we use these l anguages, or we remai n si l ent.
, ,
95 Wi th
Sci -Fi , a traditi on of i magi native response to sci ence and technol ogy i s transmitted i n
a di rect l i ne through H. G. Wel l s, Al dous Huxl ey, Ray Bradbury, J orge Lui s
Borges, Adol fo Bi oy Casares, the Ameri can Sci - Fi authors, and wri ters l i ke
J. G. Bal l ard and Wi l l i am Burroughs. Afer al l , Huxl ey, author of E..e `-w \.'1
l'JI, was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxl ey, natural i st, fri end of Darwi n,
and author of '.1-.- .. :. /.. |..- `.:.- lJ+,
The bi o-physi co-anatomi cal sci ences, rei nforced by the theor of evol uti on, providd
the basi s for a true "bi ocracy," and have engendered a vi si on ,of the body whi ch
fig. 31. Donald Camrell, Demon Seed, 1 977.
94. Dennis L. Dollens, "The Storefront for Art and
Architecture. 1987-1988," in Sites 21-22, pp. 50 - 51.
95. J. G. Ballard, quote from the introduction to the
French translation of Crash (1974). See J. G. Ballard,
"Motel Architecture" and "The Intensive Care Unit " in
Myths of the Near Future (London: Grafton Books,
'
1 984) On J. G. Ballard, see Colin Greenland The
Entrpy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British
"New Wave" in Science Fiction {Boston: Routledge,
London: Kegan Paul, 1983). David Pringle, J G. Ballard:
A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (Boston: G. K.
Hall, 1984). Peter Brigg, J G. Ballard (Mercer Island,
Wash:, Strarront House, 1 985). See also Jonathan
Crary "J. G. Ballard and the Promiscuity of Forms,"
Zone, 1/2 (New York: Urzone, 1 986), pp. 158c165.
29
fg 32
operates through the di ssecti on of both organs and functi ons. Functi onal i sm and
then organi ci sm i n architecture were i nspi red by thi s devel opment, not di rectly but
through a process of osmosi s of thought that J udi th Sch l anger i denti fi es as
analogon
96
(a concept si mi l ar to Thomas Kuhn' s "pardi gm") : a type of the i ntel l i gi bl e
furni shed by the domi nant di sci pl i ne, whi ch can come to be consi dered for the
whol e of what i s knowabl e, both as an i deal and a criteria. I n fecund and i nnovative
hi stori cal peri ods, at l east one pri vi l eged anal ogon comes to the foreground. I n the
ni neteenth centur, it was chemi str and bi ol ogy; today, it i s computer sci ence and
mi cro-mol ecul ar bi ol ogy-whi ch have a ten dency to confate' i n any event.
In hi s H.:.y .| . H...- ( 1 873) , Eugene Vi ol l et-I e-Duc devel oped the fol l owi ng
organi c theory: "We wi l l make a bui l di ng, however modest, i n whi ch every si ngl e
detai l wi l l be the consequence either of a structural necessity or of the i nhabitants'
needs. It wi l l cost us no more, and once fi ni shed, we wi l l sl eep soundl y because
there wi l l be nothi ng hi dden, nothi ng fctiti ous, nothi ng usel ess, and the building
individual we have bui lt wi l l always l et us see its organs and how they functi on.
, ,
97
Thi s passage, as wel l as Vi ol l et-I e-Duc' s studi es of Gothi c archi tecture, were
i nformed by Georges Cuvi er' s !-.... .| C.~p..:.- ^.:.~, from whi ch he
borrowed the i dea of the correlati on of pars. 98 I n the I 920s, Le Corbusi er, wi th
Amedee Ozenfant, advanced the noti on of objets-types, i magi ned as extensi ons of
the human body or substituted organs. For Le Corbusi er, it was sti l l a case of
establ i shi ng possi bl e equi val ences between body
organs and pars of a bui l di ng. What happens to
thi s organi ci sm-thi s bi ol ogi cal functi onal i sm-today,
when prostheses, organ transpl ants, etc., give bi rh
to a hybri d bei ng, coupl i ng fesh wi th apparatus?
Who, in thi s i nstance, is the parasite-the body or
the apparatus?99 D + S' s proj ects and theori zi ng
acti vi ty demonstrate that we are wi tnessi ng an
erasure of what used to form the basi s ofarchi tec
tural metaphors and representati ons from the earl y
Mi ddl e Ages through moderni sm.
The real m of contemporary teratol ogy ( i . e. , the
96. Judith E. Schlanger, Les metaphores d e /'organisme
(Paris: J. Vrin, 1971), p. 27.
97. Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-Ie-Duc, Histoire d'une
maison (Paris: Hetzel, 1873; reprint ed., Brussels: 1979),
p.117.
98. See Philip Steadman, The Evolution of Designs:
Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts
(Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press,
1979).
99. Michel Guillou, "Le corps et I'appareil," p.132.
study of ani mal or vegetabl e monstrositi es) is bei ng fig. 32. David Lynch, Eraser Head, 1978.
extended-at least i n the i magi nati on of the ari st-to the anal ysi s of mutati ons of
the femal e reproductive apparatus (Davi d Cronenberg' s D-.1 |es 1 988), and
30
to the appearance of deformed
fetuses. Al l of thi s can l ead to
atroc i ou s vi s i ons .
1 00
Pai n s of
chi l dbi rh,
1 01
forei gn organ trans
pl ants, and the "i ncarnati on" of
medi a are among the themes of
Cronenberg' s fi l m \1-.1.~-
( 1 983) , i n whi ch Max (pl ayed by
. James Wood) i s rel uctantly drawn
into a secret organi zati on, Vi deo fg 33
Arena (a so-cal l ed "Cathode-Ray Mi ssi on"), whi ch "programs" hi m through a vi deo
tape i mpl anted in hi s bel l y. Hi s ever subsequent acti on is gui ded by pre-recorded
messages from the deceased Dr. Brian O' Bl i vion.
I s i t true that for us, as pari ci pants i n a computeri zed soci ety wi th cyberneti c
potenti al , hi story and theor must begi n again with "writi ng"? After al l , Western
architecture does begi n with a text (Vitruvi us) . The question coul d be reformul ated
thusly: does hi story and theory (of archi tecture) have to be properl y di rected
towards the formal and formal i zabl e status of the worl d, i ntroduci ng what coul d be
called a post-structuralist "formal i sm"? Or, do they have to be di rected towards
the body that, by
;
i tsel f, speaks and writes? As suggested by Charl es Levi n, the
"body" i s tentativel y i ntroduced here as bei ng i rreduci bl e to formal izati on. True,
deconstruction of the si gn engages us i n a di scourse of the body. However, i sn't a
body here consi dered as a si gni fer that must be punctuated by phal l i c i nscri pti ons
prduci ng meani ng (Lacan' s mi rror stage)? I n thi s view, the body coul d be thought
of as the pl ace of writing-that is, thought agai n as a formal izati on, the bl ank page
on whi ch to write the l i ngui sti cal l y structured concept of the symbol i c.
1 02
Drubtless also, it doesn't seem di fcult to questio "the pl ugs and ducts"-in Charles
.
Levin' s terms-of Del euzi an l i bi di nal machi nery. The i m-medi ated transl ati on of al l
d,esi ring-producti on i nto the soci o-pol itical fel d only l eads to abstrcti ons of other
100. The newborn has a nightmarish appearance in
constant metamorphosis-or rather, reaching total
metastasis-like the creature with a goose head in
David Lynch's Eraser Head (1978); this evil being literally
erases the head of its parents with its unbearable cry
ing. The erase-head wipes out recorded sounds exactly
like a tape-recorder's erase-head.The dis incarnation of
the little monster, covered with feathers and secreting
a thousand unnameable things, finally provokes erasure
of incorporated memory. Such fears are even more
spectacularly dramatized in scenes where a monster
erupts from the bleeding abdomen of an unwilling host
body, harboring the foreign parasite in spite of itself, as
in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).
1 01 . "The patient in the next bed is an emaciated
woman, a Filipina in the sixth month of pregnancy.
There is a frost of ashes about her mouth.Each night
she is swept clean by a fever that has burnt up every bit
that is not essential-blood, saliva, tears, tissue. Only
the mighty fetus, raving to be born, is not touched. Even
as the child buds and splits and specializes, the woman
grows daily less differentiated until she is something
rudimentary, a finger of flesh, unfulfilled, unformed,
that will surely die of its one achievement.She resem
bles a snake that has swallowed a rabbit and is
exhausted by her digestion. Through the translucent,
dark-veined belly, the legs of her meal, moving."
Richard Selzer, Letters to a Young Doctor, (New York,
1972), a book to which D + S frequently refer.
fig. 33. David Cronenberg, Videodrome, 1983.
1 02.Charles Levin, "Carnal Knowledge of Aesthetic
States," p. 108.
sorts: "the question itself i s a process of abstracti on. "
1 0
3 Neverhel ess, the-questi on 103. Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-wdipus, p.8.
addressing the "desi ri ng-machi ne" and the "body wi thout organs" seems relevant, and
remai ns to be answered, because of the cl ose connecti ons establ i shed i n theor
between architecture and body, either anal ogi cal l y or "really," from Vitruvi ani sm to
seventeenth-centur mechani ci sm, to eighteenth-centur sensual i sm, to ni neteenth-
centur organi ci sm, to twentieth-centur "cel i bate machi nes" and "dwel l i ng-machi nes. "
31
fg 34
fg 35
We are confronted by two hypothesi s whi ch are most l i kel y mutual l y excl usi ve:
on the one hand, a body without organs-i . e. , a noti on of the body that does not
hi nge on the si ngul arity of each organ; on the other hand, the organi c organizati on
of organs, cal l ed the Organism. Accordi ng to the l atter, the organi sm woul d be
concei ved as a fxed hi erarchy organi zed by an i nternal functi onal l ogi c. These
two approaches to the expl anati on of the corporeal are cl earl y opposed: the
body-without-organs consi ders the body i n i ts -x:- . :,, i n i ts rel ati on to other
bodi es, percei ved through rel ati ons , affects , des i res; the other-that of the
organi sm-concei ves the body onl y i n i ts :-.:, as an autonomous entity
bel ongi ng to a si ngul ar self.
As Del euze and Guatari poi nt out in ^: 1.. we must refer to Lacan for a
theor of passi ve desi re, whi ch Charl es Levi n has defi ned as "denatured psycho
anal ysi s. '
,
, 0
4 "For Lacan, the body exists in bi ol ogi cal fragments, it is a shattered
:.o.. o.. to whi ch one must ' guarantee an i mage"'-whence the wel l -known
i nterpretati on of the mi rror-stage i n the formati on of the , sel f "On thi s body of
absence, Lacan superi mposes a quasi -l i ngui sti c model of the adapted personal ity.
The body is a voi d (a desi re) waiti ng to be fi l l ed, a body-without-organs awaiti ng
the phal l i c punctuati ons of si gni fi cati on. " Thi s vacuity, as Levi n poi nts out, subtends
the marki ng practi ces of power, and thus the desi ri ng body offers itsel f, al most
ecstati cal l y, to the i nscri pti ons of power. "Thi s di scursi vel y positi oned subject i s
32
the perfect materi al for a neodi sci pl i nary
extremi st soci ety." Accordi ng to Levi n, "It i s
preci sel y the 'vol ume i n perpetual di si ntegra
ti on' whi ch Foucault so gi ngerly descri bes,
that ' i nscri bed surface of events . . . traced by
l anguage, ' a doci l e receptacle to be 'total l y
i mpri nted by hi story."
,
, 0
5
Foucaul di ans, on both si des of the Atl anti c,
accuse Lacan of concei vi ng a smooth body
without organs, a tabul a rasa composed of a
patchwork of pi eces, a ki nd of s l ate on
whi ch " Power" can write t he text of the
l aw. Now, the body-wi thout-organs /
0
6 i s
confronted by the di sturbi ng prospect of an
organ wi thout a body-that i s, transpl ants,
1 04. Charles Levin, "Carnal Knowledge of Aesthetic
States," p. 1 00.
105. Ibid.
106. See bibliographical sources listed in note 109.
Also of great interest is Patricia C. Phillips, "Hinged
Victories," Art Forum (June 19S5), pp. 106-1 OS; and
Robert McAnulty, "Diller + Scofidio," Investigations no.
23 (10 June 10-31 July, 19BB), exhibition catalog,
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of
Pennsylvania.
fig. 34. Michael Crichton, Coma, 197B.
fig. 35. Eric Red, Body Parts, 1991.
presered in "organ banks" (aptly named) , hybri d, al most monstrous speci es born
out of coupl i ng fesh and apparatus, whi ch are "free, " in other words, avai l abl e, on
the market l i ke any other commodity. 1
07
Transplant surgery i ntroduces a caesura
between organ and body. In a heart transpl ant, "the heart is no l onger i nnerated,
si nce the interention i rreversi bl y severs cardi ac neres l i nki ng the organ to subcortical
cerebral centers; consequentl y, it suppresses reflex adaptati on ci rcuits. '
,
, 0
8 The
pati ent i s depri ved of any i mmedi ate physi ol ogi cal transl ati on during emoti onal
outbursts whi ch may accompany feel i ngs l i ke j oy or fear.
Thi s "l i bery" of the forei gn organ can be i l l ustrated paradoxi cal l y by the fol l owi ng
quotati on from ^:1.. "everythi ng functi ons at once, but i n hi atuses and
i nterrupti ons, breakdowns and fai l ures, fits and starts and shor-ci rcuits, through
di stances and di saggregati ons-i n a totality whi ch never unites i ts parts i n a whol e.
We l i ve i n the age of pari al obj ects . . . . We no l onger bel i eve i n an ori gi nal totality,
nor in the totality of a fi nal desti nati on. "
, 0
9 For Del euze and Guattari, cuts are
productive and are, themsel ves, j oi ni ngs. ^: 1.. is a cel ebrati on of di vi si ons,
spl i ces, cuts, parti al obj ects, conj u ncti ons and di sj uncti ons, connecti ons and
rcordi ngs l l o: Lacan' s mi rror no l onger succeeds ,in reassembl i ng the parts of the
"body i n pi eces" through refl ecti on, representati on. The mi rror can no l onger
piece together the fragmented phantasms of the pre-narci ssi sti c body. I nstead, the
mi rror stage becomes the repressi on of fragmentati on, and al l that remai ns i s the
,
feti shizati on of the l ost object of desi re.
What emerges then, i s an outl i ne of the two hypotheses on the fragmentati on of
the body. The frst i s defi ned by the formul ati on organ-with out-body. Thi s organ can
be i nscri bed by the multi pl e texts of the law, as wel l as "grafted on" to another
body, another organi sm, be it l ivi ng or not I nsofar as the term graf derives etymo
logically from graphein-the Greek word for writi ng-every graft becomes a writing,
a7d ever writi ng, ever graph, becomes a graf. The second hypothesi s defi nes the
body-without-organs. The body becomes l i berated, l i bi di nal , desi ri ng. I t woul d be
i ncessantly traversed by ephemeral i nscri pti ons that give ri se to arti fi ci al ly i nduced
vital effects: fl ux, contacts, sensati ons, vi brati ons, momentary sati sfacti on; fleeti ng
pleasures. Afer these di gressi ons, we can, i n the l i ght of these redefniti ons of the
notion of the body, return to architecture and measure new rel ati ons establ i shed
between the proj ect and di s- i ncarnati on. I n short, the questi on i s as fol l ows:
between the noti on of graph and that of graft, where are we to " pl ace" the
phenomenon of the di sembodi ment of the body i n/of architecture?
1 07. Michel Guillou, "Le corps et l'appareil," p. 13B.
1 DB. Jocelyne Vaysse, "Coeur etranger en corps
d'accueil," in Georges Vigarello, ed., Le gouverement
du corps, Communications 56 (Paris: Le Seuil, 1993),
p. 176.
109. Deleuze and Guattari, Capitalisme et
Schizophrenie. L 'anti-cdipe, p. 51. See also Deleuze
and Guattari, Mille plateaux(Paris: Minuit, 19S0);
English language ed. A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism
and Schizophrenia, Brian Massumi, trans. (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1 9B7), pp. 30-35, esp.
p. 30: "A multiplicity of pores, or blackheads, or little
scars or stitches. Breasts, babies, and rods. A multipli
city of bees, soccer players, or Tuaregs. A multiplicity of
wolves or jackals . . . first something plays the role of the
full body-the body without organs ... it is also the skin
as envelope or ring, and the sock as reversible surface.
It can be a house or part of a house, any number of
things, anything. . . . A body without organs is not an
empty body stripped of organs, but a body upon which
that which serves as organs . . . is distributed according
to crowd phenomena, in Brownian motion, in the form
of molecular multiplicities.. . . Thus the body without
organs is not a dead body but a living body all the more
alive and teeming once it has blown apart the organism
and its organization .. . the full body without organs is a
body populated by mUltiplicities." On the BwO, see also
pp. 149-166. See Alice A. Jardine, "Becoming a Body
without Organs," Gynesis: Configurations of Women
and Moderity (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1 9S5),
pp.20S-223. For Jardine, the most radical promises
offered by the BwO theory (i.e. the attempt to invent
new kinds of subjectivities), "when enacted, when per
formed, ... are promises to be kept only between bodies
gendered male." (p. 223) The notion of the BwO as the
unattainable, unreachable limit of thH subject, becomes
the conclusion of Scott Bukatman's book, Terminal
Identity "Deleuze and Guattari are cyberpunks too, con
structing fictions of terminal identity in the nearly fami
liar language of techno-surrealism-note that the body
is described biologically (an appendix) and mechanically
(a spare part). The subject is always on the periphery:
on the verge of the BwO, but always in a state of con
tinual passage." pp. 326-32B. See also Gilles Deleuze
and Claire Pamet. Dialogues (Paris: Flammarion, 1977),
pp. 107 and 127-131; English trans. Hugh Tomlinson
and Barbara Habberjam, Dialogues-(London: The
Althone Press, 19B7).
110. Guillou, "Le corps et I'appareil," p. 139.
33
fg 37
Among the numerous l iterar sources cited by Del euze and Guatarri in ^:-u1.s
(Artaud, Prust, Joyce, Lawrence, Mi l ler, Becket, Mi chaux, etc.), the theoretical work
of Mauri ce Bl anchot must be si ngl ed out. In it, the probl em of l iterar production by
fragments is ri gorousl y exami ned. Accordi ng to Bl anchot, the fragment shoul d
not s i mpl y evoke the fragmentati on of a pre-exi sti ng real i ty. I t i s general l y
thought that knowl edge can onl y be of the whol e, j ust as a vi ew i s always an
overi ew. Accordi ng to thi s approach, when there i s a fragment, there must be
an understood desi gnati on of somethi ng whol e, whi ch was so previ ousl y or wi l l
be so subsequentl y. Bl anchot concei ves the producti on of the fragment without
referri ng either to an i magi nar total i ty-even to. one that has been l ost-or to a
resulti ng total ity-even to one whi ch is yet to come. The fragment is nei ther privative
nor posi ti ve; on the contrary, it i denti fes itself in pure multi pl i city, in an affrmation
whi ch is i rreduci bl e to One, to unity.
I I I
A fragmentar workl i ke that of D + S, marki ng a predi spositi on for "detai l , " for
the art of demontage and remontage-is not an i ncomplete work, but i nstead,
l eads to another operative mode. At once expl o
si on and i mpl osi on, i t l eads to an experi ence of
spl i tti ng up-i . e. , of separati on and di sconti nui ty.
Thi s in turn l eads to the defi niti ve rel i nqui shi ng of
noti ons of "composi ti on" and "type" in art and
arch i tecture. Such rel i nqui shi ng i s al ready fore-
shadowed in J ohn Hej duk' s architectural work. On the subject of D + S' s |,...1
K-,) '..se Hej duk writes: "Thi s house i nqui res i nto the way the ver nature
of 'wi ndow, ' not as an openi ng to the outer worl d, but as an openi ng i nto our
i nner core. The house facade acts as a mask whi ch hi des a depth ( a depth of ei ght
i nches, the depth from the surace of our eye-bal l s to the rear of our cerebel l um) . "
Furher on, he adds, "Our thoughts are the contai ned rehearsal for our i mpendi ng
i mpl osi on. "
,
1
2
Si nce the cl assi cal age, "compositi on"
i mposed a heuri sti c of the project, a course star
i ng from a vi si on of a whol e l eadi ng to the pars,
the "detai l s" (di stributive, constructive, oramental ).
Now, (archi tectural ) practi ce i s headi ng towards
an organi zati onal mode whi ch does not compose,
but rather j uxtaposes-i t authori zes the terms of a rel ati on to remai n exterior
with respect to one another. Thi s exteri ority, thi s di stance, is respected as a
pri nci pal of any si gni fcati on.
I
1 3
34
111. Maurice Blanchot, L'entretien infini (Paris:
Gallimard, 1969), pp. 451-52.
fig. 36. D + S, Plywood (Kinney) House, 1981.
112. John Hejduk, " Kinney House," Lotus Interational
44 (1985/1986), pp.58-63.
fig.37. Gordon Matta-Clark, Split House, 1973.
113. Blanchot, L'entretien infini, pp. 451-452.
These exteri ori zi ng tacti cs, operative in D + S' s work, put i nto question the aesthetic
concepti on of the human body as an archetypal fi gure. The Mi ni mal i sm of Robert
Smithson, Bruce Nauman, and Ri chard Serra has al ready questi oned the traditi onal
aristic mode, accordi ng to whi ch the surface of the artwork i s percei ved and
understood as the external refl ecti on of an i nternal pre-existi ng framework, i . e. , as
the external i zed refl ecti on of a ri gi d i nternal "structure. " Consequentl y, ar and
archi tecture no l onger refer to underl yi ng pri nci pl es l i ke harmony, bal ance,
proporti on (cl assi ci sm), or cohesi on, order, tensi on (moderni sm).
Ar activity now addresses the pure
exeriority of meani ng.
'
1 4 Such exte
ri ori zi ng tacti c s are at work i n a
whole series of experi ments by artists fg 38
such as Gordon Matta-Clark :: '..s- 1 973) , Vi to Acconci +- E.o1 ..~
also titled \+-- \- ^- `.. \+. ^- \- ^,..,), 1 976), Dan Graham /.
wc.. C.- |-.- 1 974-76) , Kate Eri cson and Mel Zi egl er .. cx:-s.
Houston, Texas, 1 980) , Davi d I rel and (h i s own house on Capp Street, San
Francisco) , and D + S (the .:+D. ..~ 1 988J,
I n this series of works, and especi al l y i n the .:+Dc. ..~ there i s a di sj uncti on
of metaphysical, trai ti onal and fal l aci ous oppositi ons such as i nteri or/exterior, publ i ci
private, organlfuncti on. The .:+D. ..~ cul mi nates
in a "project," a predi cti on, and also in a productive pre
fgurati on: to render vi si bl e the shatering of conventi onal
domestic space, through the di s-embodi ment of pl ace and
the di s-pl acement of body. The situati on of architecture
between graph and graf I I
S
-tends toward a displacement
of the i dea of constructi on, Thi s "di spl aced" si tuati on
l es to a di spl acement of the noti on of pl ace, with al l fg 39
that thi s term i mpl i es regardi ng norms that govern bui l di ng: the i dea of foundati on,
the j uri di cal establ i shment of property, the community of bodi es. Every pl ace, ever
possibi l ity of pl acement, i s rethought in rel ati on to the noti on of repl acement.
"
6
Concei vi ng the site or the pl ace as a scene of replacement obl iges one to thi nk of
architectural practi ce as an abyssal possi bi l ity of re-bui l di ng, where the open qual ity
of repl ac
,
eabi I ity takes the "pl ace" of ori gi nal unity.
trnslated byJeanluc Svoboda
114. Rosalind E. Krauss, Passages in Moder Sculpture
(Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1985 [1977]), pp. 266-
270.
fig. 38. Vito Acconci, The Board Room, 1976.
',115. The notion of graft permeates Derrida's writings:
see "Grafts, a Return to Overasting" (1969), in Jacques
Derrida, Dissemination, trans.Barbara Johnson (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 355-358: "To
write means to graft. It's the same word. The saying of
the thing is restored to its being-grafted. The graft is
not something that happens to the properness of the
thing. There is no more any thing than there is any origi
nal text." (p. 355) Also "Signature Event Context"
(1972); in his, Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982); now also
in Jacques Derrida, Limited, Inc., trans.Samuel Weber
and Jeffrey Mehlman (Evanston, III.: Northwestern
University Press, 1988 ), pp. 1-23: "One can perhaps
come to recognize other possibilities in (a written syn
tagma) by inscribing it or grafting it onto other chains.
No context can entirely enclose it. Nor any code, the
code here being both the possibility of writing, of its
essential iterability (repetition/alterity)." (p. 9)
fig. 39. David Ireland, Private Home, Capp Street, San
Francisco, 1985-1994.
116. Jacques Derrida, "Faxitexture," in Cynthia
Davidson, ed., Anyhere (NewYork: Rizzoli, 1992),
p.24.
35