Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Freewrite on Hannah Höch’s "The Beautiful Girl"

The body is a collage of various parts and particles, productions and prosthetics. It is not pure or seamless or constant or itself. The collage holds time in its hand and has a large hairdo that its face is hiding behind, its head in the forefront is a light bulb, an idea. The boxer is peering inside through the window of a car’s tire and BMW logos are floating around that fill up the empty space, and they are the cogs that make everything run when cranked into action. Her body is precariously balanced. The body and mind are vehicular.

Upside down: Cog-nitive dissonance. It looks like the underneath of a car. The clock is a yo-yo. The foot is the exhaust pipe.

Thanks to my Prosthesis

Putie,

Thank you for being a part of my life. You help me find the answers to my questions in life. You have made my repository of knowledge the whole World Wide Web, I owe my virtual omniscience to you. You enable me to communicate and purchase items telepathically, and you are my personal portal for all imaginable tourisms. You give me extra brain space to store my ideas, and you are so kind to me. You are one of the parts that I love most about myself. I know that you won’t be with me forever and I hope that I don’t take you too much for granted. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you.

Here’s an example of another doll that wasn’t talked about as a class but was mentioned in my small group discussion: Homie dolls. Someone in my group suggested that they could be a negative doll but I think that they can be really positive.

Here’s a quote from the webpage that talks about them:

“The Homies are a group of tightly knit Chicano buddies who have grown up in the Mexican American barrio (neighborhood) of "Quien Sabe", (who knows) located in East Los Angeles. The four main characters are Hollywood, Smiley, Pelon, and Bobby Loco.

Their separate and distinct personalities and characteristics together make up a single, composite entity that is the "HOMIES." In an inner-city world plagued by poverty, oppression, violence, and drugs, the Homies have formed a strong and binding cultural support system that enables them to overcome the surrounding negativity and allows for laughter and good times as an anecdote for reality. The word "Homies" itself is a popular street term that refers to someone from your hometown or, in a broader sense, anyone that you would acknowledge as your friend. In use in the West Coast Latino community for decades, the word "Homies" has crossed over into the now mainstream Hip-Hop street culture that has taken America's young people by storm.”

-Dave Gonzales

Link to the website: http://www.homiesworld.com/site/

Dear subject, April 1, 1970

I ask you kindly, though not primarily on behalf of those persons who I am in service of, but for all of us, that you please fill in the circle completely when you are indicating the category to which you belong. It really is quite difficult for me to determine who you are if you insist on making your markings outside of the circle, in only part of a circle, in multiple circles, or in the “other” line. While I am more efficient and advanced than my predecessor, the human census taker, who compiled your data manually and based on his limited perspective, I nevertheless cannot make sense of your scrawl unless it is within the designated categories, which exist for everyone’s benefit. I am only capable of what humans are capable of programming me to do, so please consider my feelings. I can only hope that my descendants do not have to suffer through these hardships, breakdowns, and existential crises. I thank you for your cooperation in making yourself intelligible to me.

Yours,
Electronic Computer

The sign on the door says “Women’s Locker Room.” Behind the doors is a large space that is well-lit but not bright. The floor is covered by a thin green carpet; the walls are painted an off-white color. The room is undecorated. The temperature is lukewarm and there is a faint smell of chlorine. On each side of the room are several rows of green metal compartments in front of which people remove clothing and then put on other clothing. The person selects a compartment and puts their clothing and other personal items into it or takes items from it. On the right, there are two stalls with benches and doors behind which a person can dress and undress without exposing their body to others in the vicinity, but the number of these stalls is very low in proportion to the number of metal compartments. On the back wall there is a large mirror with no surrounding furniture, in front of which a person can stand and view the reflection of their own body.

This space connects to another room with tiled floors. A sign on the wall says “Please Shower Before Swimming.” Along the left wall are metal poles that release a stream of water under which a person can stand and remove filth from their body. Two of the poles have metal walls behind which a person can stand while they are washing, the other two do not.