A DIARY OF THE INNER CYBORG

(Asystole- Disrupting the flow )

Multiple Media Interactive Installation Consisting of back-lit panels, computer interface built upon HTML, JavaScript, sound (wav) files, Animated and Static images,LCD projector.

Baiju Parthan- 2001- 2002

Installation view with translites and intractice video data projection

Asystole is a technical (cardiological) term that describes an unexpected pause in the otherwise regular pulsation of the human heart.
 
Two backlit 'translites'each 6ft in height, representing the socially constructed body and the virtual body flank the projection

'Cyberpunk' literature invariably deals with a future world where we humans are at the mercy of the technology we have created. This Installation attempts to probe the cyberpunk notion of selfhood expressed as a digital (cyber) construct, an 'avatar' existing and tran-scending the limitations imposed by the material, temporal, and socially defined reality space.

In the installation the inner cyborg it is presented as an unrestrained expression of agency, homological to the eastern notion of the true self standing apart from the ‘temporal physical world self’. Consequently, the existential and ethical issues related to being displaced by a surrogate virtual body-self is addressed in this work.

Main interface

The main interface is divided into three unequal areas with the larger area depicting a crouching figure ( protrait of the artist), a posture that is reflective of a state of withdrawal from everyday reality. Adjacent to this panel are two sub panels, titled ‘FLOW’ and ‘DISRUPT’. Cyborg ‘pop-up’ superimposes periodically upon the crouching figure

 

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