hybrid creatures. Reframing the Cyborg (BA Thesis)

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hybrid creatures. Reframing the Cyborg is a BA Design thesis project exploring the concept of the contemporary cyborg and its visual imagery. This thesis project was undertaken with the supervision of professors Andrea Facchetti and Eva Leitolf at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

The word ‘cyborg’ is short for ‘cybernetic organism’: a being with both organic and technological components, these artificial parts extending its abilities beyond usual human limitations. Cyborgs are often considered to be pure science fiction—but we are already cyborgs. Every technology is an extension of the self and of the body. Our current interaction, integration and interdependence with technology connects the body and machine in an invisible (yet increasingly intimate) way, raising questions about the boundaries implicit in this relationship.

This thesis explores the contemporary cyborg and its visual imagery. In an online installation comprised of video, image and text, our current understanding of the term is challenged and our body-technology relationships are made visible. Through each video’s individual narrative structure and collaboration of the webpage’s layers, the project seeks to question and redefine our understanding of the word ‘cyborg’—no longer limited to science fiction or a distant future, but instead an actuality of our individual, contemporary, everyday realities.

You can explore the website at reframingthecyb.org