Monday, February 2, 2009

Eyeborg, transhumanism and Eye, Tanya

Would you replace one of your eyes with a laser? A camera? What if you were already down one eye? Would you upgrade your prosthesis? What if you envisioned using your new enhanced eye to create art? Then, you might join the World Transhumanist Association and its 5,300 members who just want technology to make us better. Why not?

These hypotheticals are the stuff of science fiction or the topic of your blog, if you're Tanya Vlach or Rob "Eyeborg" Spence. Vlach (who has been stylin in an eyepatch like Angelina Jolie in
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or Darryl Hannah in Kill Bill) and Spence (who resembles George Orwell) both put out the call to engineers to help them turn the loss of an eye into an asset they can use to enhance their art.

San Francisco artist Vlach, who lost an eye in a car accident in 2005 on her way to Burning Man, is chronicling her quest for a camera eye at Eye, Tanya. Toronta filmmaker Spence lost his eye as a result of a childhood gun accident in Ireland. At Eyeborg Blog, Spence posts about his work with Steve Mann, a University of Toronto professor and wearable computing and cyborg specialist, to insert a wireless video camera into his prosthetic eye.

You may have read about them in the news:
The eye of a dream beheld: A crash victim's hope and a techie response
—The Washington Post
Humans hope high tech can improve their bodies — The San Francisco Chronicle
Eye spy: Filmmaker plans to Install camera in his eye socket — Wired

Join the transhumanists. If not a camera, what would you replace an eye with? If not an eye, what body part would you replace?

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