Digital Sculpture
After reading the chapter I am still confused by Cremaster 3. I followed the reading closely, but am still confused by certain aspects of the film. Perhaps I am not connecting the ideas together as well as I should be, but overall I find the concepts involved in the film and how they are portrayed a tad overwhelming. Blyn talks about the post-human era and ideological entanglements that have shaped by a culture industry indebted to corporate profits, yet I fail to see the corporate aspects within the segment of the film we watched. I believe that Blyn portrays aspects of the post-human through Aimee Mullins, who is an amputee, yet is portrayed in a flowing white dress and tall glass boots that adorn her in beauty. She is a symbol of art and technology, two aspects that when combined, can become a picturesque scene. At first I viewed her in a freakish way, as her proportions seemed off, but after reading this chapter I realized that she is not only portrayed as beautiful, but also powerful. She mentions that she has had less surgery done then Pamela Anderson, yet society looks upon her as deformed, and Pamela as a nearly perfect woman. To Mullins, this is a fault within society, as she has become an architect of her own beauty.
Blyn also talks about the idea that the post-human era is marked by corporate domination, a troubling thought, but a truthful statement. Corporations are extremely powerful and have obtained the rights of humans throughout history, which allows them to sneak past the law, when in reality they have no right to. An example of this is the corporate bailout by Obama that did nothing to solve the foreclosure problem that affected millions of households within the United States. Unless government officials are taken off of corporate payroll, companies will continue to surpass their rights and control our society well in the future, a grim path for those supportive of the post-human era.
Lastly, in terms of considering the effects of augmenting the human body, I believe that humanity is facing a net loss. As society and history progress together, people have lost the meaning of true beauty, as beauty is now something that is purchased, whether it is makeup or plastic surgery. We see this negative effect through the multitude of advertisements on television and in animations, with help from programs such as Make Human, which allow one to create a “perfect” human. Overall, it is clear that the beauty of the human form is formed and not born, creating an increasing void in society.
