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The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture documents
the image of the cyborg in all its imaginative guises. The title is from a 1919
essay by Sigmund Freud, which describes "the uncanny" as that which
is familiar and strange at the same time. The idea of
the cyborg -- a person whose physical abilities are augmented and extended by
machine technology -- has been in existence for decades, and is one of the most
persistent and intriguing cultural images of the last century. The cyborg is a
cypher -- an enigmatic figure that is human but not human; a machine but not a
machine. It exists at the intersection of science, technology, and culture. For
some, the cyborg is evident in the massive presence of technology in our lives;
we are constantly aided by machines, whether they are computers, vehicles, or
military weapons that extend and amplify our presence in the natural world, or
medical prosthetics, such as pacemakers, artificial limbs, and eyeglasses, which
maintain and reinforce our existing physical bodies. How is one to understand
the persistence of the cyborg in the visual arts and popular culture, in science
and literature, or in medicine and cultural theory? This book, in its various
essays and images, presents the cyborg as an "uncanny" image that reflects
our shared fascination and dread of the machine and its presence in our daily
lives. Includes essays and excerpts by Allan Antliff,
Bruno Bettelheim, Randy Lee Cutler, Sigmund Freud, William Gibson, Bruce Grenville,
Makiko Hara, Donna Haraway, Masanori Oda, Jeanne Randolph, and Toshiya Ueno.
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