Flexible Bodies
Emily Martin (1994)
“The contrast between a rigid structure, its parts held in place in an inflexible way, and a loose structure, its parts able to move and change flexibly, is often taken to go along with a contrast between hostility and combativeness, on the one hand, and harmony and peace, on the other” (p. 147)
III. Outside Example
Sony Commercial “HDNA”
IV. Analysis
-Introduction-
In our last class session of Anthropology: Comparative Systems of Healing at the University of Washington we had just finished discussing our final reading assignment, Part 4 of Emily Martin’s Flexible Bodies and Professor Ta suggested that for our final project session we might consider how notions of flexibility are represented in our surrounding environments, whether work or other external contexts.
Martin gives many examples including her main topic immunology, but also how flexibility notions are then reiterated in language used in computer software, economics, new age philosophy, mass audience, government organizations, psychology and feminism. I have been particular fascinated with how “mass audience” or media circumvents, replicates, advertises and reconstructs ideologies surrounding our bodies and healing practices. This is especially noteworthy in the United States, where media seems to be at the forefront of all layers of society, whether using the Internet for research, relying on television for news reports, or the many variations of media tools for communication purposes. With this in mind, over the weekend I watched commercials closely. One that was repeated on several channels is Sony’s advertisement for new “High Definition” screens. Utilizing another media source, YouTube, I was able to find this advertisement as included in the link above. This particular commercial become a stepping-stone in how I will relate media technology to Martin’s examination of flexibility in relation to the bodily functions of the immune system. The next step I took was in how video game media not only advances flexible technology interfaces, but also replicates immune system language within the character components of the game.
-Machines-
In my chosen excerpt from Flexible Bodies, in which Martin states “The contrast between a rigid structure, its parts held in place in an inflexible way, and a loose structure, its parts able to move and change flexibly, is often taken to go along with a contrast between hostility and combativeness, on the one hand, and harmony and peace, on the other” (p. 147). The Sony advertisement is a direct reflection of this, in which the machine moves and flexes into a new formation by adapting to the function of the venus fly trap (in focus in the first frame), in which an external part of the machine is swallowed and recreated into something new. Of course this is just an appealing metaphor used in order to carry across a message to the viewer that Sony technology is innovative in an organic, flexible way. The narrator in the commercial states “born out of Sony HD technology” and “high definition, its in our DNA” (Sony’s current slogan). Here the verbal cue along with the message is appealing in that the machine is likened to being natural, or in other words in harmony. I find this interesting, where society at one point seemed apprehensive to machines taking over, not only in people loosing jobs as they are outsourced to machinery and computers, but also an imaginative fear of the machine becoming rational and strategic. In contrast, in the 21st century advertising machines are likened to living beings in order to sell adaptability and flexibility.
It appears that notions of flexibility coincide with the notion of the immunity as a complex system. Martin suggests: “[I]n complex systems, slight differences in initial conditions can have magnified effects, and such systems contain randomness and disorder within order. Because of this, they carry the ready responsibility of catastrophic collapse. What order there is, is local, transient, emergent, like ‘a whirlpool appearing in the flow of a river, retaining its shape only for a relatively brief period and only at the expense of incessant metabolism and constant renewal of content’ ” (Martin, p. 130).
No longer was the immune system conceptualized as a simple fighting machine nor a mechanical body, instead the immune system response was much more complex, one where the body’s livelihood is in constant flux. I denote a switch here, where the immune system during the 1940’s-1950’s was likened to mechanical abilities or factory analogies, and now as can be seen in the Sony commercial among many other technology companies, the machines take on human qualities within a construct of a complex system.
-Gaming-
After finding the above referenced Sony commercial, I started to think of other technological examples where flexibility notions are communicated. While I am not a big video game person myself, my partner and friends will spend many a weekend “plugged” into fantasy games. David Mathers (2006) suggests, “As humans think, we depend on innumerable external systems and on diverse social and technological networks. Intelligence involves rich interfaces between humans and their environment via cognitive technologies” (p. 237). This is within his introduction to his article Extended Memory: Early Calculating Engines and Historical Computer Simulations, in which he compares early technology that moves from accuracy to more modern technology that advances flexibility in specific video games. Whereas, in the past technological advances might have been more for the purpose of accuracy and productivity, today with the addition of the entertainment value in technology, flexibility becomes a key factor in engagement. Mathers states “Computer simulations, as interfaces of mind and machine, reflect the two properties under discussion—accuracy and flexibility. In some contexts […] the accuracy of data can and will be eclipsed by its adaptation to a fantasy environment” (p. 241). For example, programmers of video games are forever seeking to create the ultimate game, in which randomness becomes the ideal possibility for entertainment.
One particular game that I will focus on is Final Fantasy XII, a role playing game in which there are multiple outcomes to a "mission" depending on what choices a player makes for their character(s). I have included an image below of a still frame view of the game in action:
The character lives within a complex system of game infrastructure, where flexibility on the gamers part becomes key. At the same time, the flexibility of the game itself describes an exemplary game. As Martin suggests “The intense desirability- even the seductiveness- of the ability to be flexible and adaptive while in constant change is registered by the simultaneous appearance of this cluster of attributes in an exceedingly wide variety of domains” (p. 150). In addition, the language used within the game replicates ideas of the immune system in which ailments have treatments.
Another example I want to give is where imagery from games become a tool for understanding bodily functions. Just as Martin examines how the body as a system is embedded within wider systems, I found that external systems become embedded within understandings of the body. I came across a YouTube video created by a user for a science project. They basically took clips from video games in order to explain how the immune system works. See video below:
This video included clips from Final Fantasy among many other popular games. I am not sure the age of this student and whether this video was created for a middle school, high school or college class. Regardless of this lacking information the student clearly uses external fantasy imagery in order to process the understanding of the immune system. As most video games are typically about fighting enemies to win, the already instilled war language fits readily with these images. So not only does the game itself use immunity language, the game is then used as a visual way to explain the human immune system.
-Conclusion-
Martin suggests "in the late twentieth century, complex systems models provide a pervasive way of thinking about the world, about our bodies, about our societies, and to think in these terms may have certain significant consequence” (p. 126). These particular consequences include, empowered powerlessness, a sense of inexorability, and conflict seems unthinkable. Interestingly, when technology takes on these qualities of not only immunity language, but the ideal of flexibility it seems to be in a direct response to what people are seeking in a machine or a game. It would be interesting to hear Martin's perspective on the 21st century being that she wrote Flexible Bodies in 1994 before advances in gaming, computer and Internet technology. Such technology has opened up whole expanses of communication and entertainment values. Through this technology people seem to function in more and more in abstract ways. When Martin was relating people's view of AIDS versus the actual experience of having AIDS she states "we, unlike those who are infected, can watch safely from the outside, even as we may grieve for those who are 'dying from within'"(p. 141). I see the person conceptualizing the immune system and disease without having direct experience, is seeing something abstract and intangible. So when technology broadens the horizons of virtual experience, where one can imagine what an experience might be like through visual simulation (or even fantasy landscapes of the game world) ideals of flexibility might create consequences of isolation and further entrap immune system language into divisions.
V. Outside Sources (in order of appearance)
- Sony Commercial “HDNA”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGnFn4ybzjE&feature=related
- Mather, D. (2006, June). Extended Memory: Early Calculating Engines and Historical Computer Simulations. Leonardo, 39(3), 237-243. Retrieved August 24, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database. Link to UW
- Immune System video by user Garnetvengence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kskFjm1pKEs
- Final Fantasy XII image: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/reviews/ps2/final-fantasy-xii/final-fantasy-xii-a.jpg
