About the 'i' Cyborg Experiments

"Cyborgs are not reverent - they do not re-member the cosmos. They are wary of holism… " (A Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway)

In 'i' Cyborg 1.1 Experiments in Random Control, fragmented and repetitive narrative forms are used to explore the legitimacy of language within cybernetic systems, in this case, the Internet.

The narratives, presented as textual performances of a cyborg self, are constructed using text fragments generated from entering various three word search terms beginning with 'I' into blog search engines. At first, the viewer is compelled to read the narrative as a cohesive work yet the performative acts of textual repetition of the search phrase exposes the nonsense of the narrative, subsequently challenging the legitimacy of the text as meaningful.

'Random Control' refers to the tension between the random results of the search query process and the attempt to control the randomness of the search results by choosing specific text fragments and constructing them together in order to compel the viewer to experience the text as a whole narrative. Through repetition of the search term, there is a compulsion to construct meaning out of the text fragments; however, in the end, the reading of the work as narrative is denied by these same acts of repetition which expose the play and subsequently the meaninglessness of the text. The experience of reading the text fragments as a whole work produces a narrative of anxiety - an anxiety produced when we try to make meaning out of nothingness.

In this experiment, the search term "I don't remember" which also refers to the title of the work, is chosen to investigate the absence of memory in the cyborg subject. It takes Haraway's point about memory and the cosmos to investigate the irony of memory produced through the repetitive play of the fragmented text. The paradox is that the inability to remember produces a narrative of lost memories. The repetitiveness of the common search query throughout the narrative also exposes the algorithmic operations of technology-mediated language.