The Limits of Discourse: A lecture on the Relationship between “Theory”, “Art” and “Body” in the XX CenturyThe Body as Password: Biometrics and Corporeal Dispossession

Abstract

The current “war on terrorism” has bolstered the production of established biometric technologies, accelerated related research, and advanced the widespread use of such devices. It has also considerably legitimated the further development of similarly intrusive technologies that extend their reach into the once private realms of bodily authority and corporeal identity. In the intricate loop between man and machine, is encoding (and its resultant process of disembodiment) only the first link in a longer chain, a prelude to further events, or is it a new stage in societal evolution that will free us from the limitations of time, space, and even our own bodies? This paper investigates the displacement of the human body through information technology-mediated authentication and surveillance techniques, and presents artistic interpretations of the man/machine interface.