“What do you imagine when you hear the word “cyborg”?” This was the question posed by a teenager named Kauan to introduce a presentation on Donna Haraway’s The Cyborg Manifesto (2009) for the research group of the High School Scientific Initiation Program at Unicamp. An online presentation, with slides, given by an undergraduate researcher, Kauan, to four classmates and a counselor. Immediately, the imagination of a robot comes to mind for some of us. Others are open to new references. We can travel through films, dystopias, machines, high-tech and even fashion can be a cyborg reference for teenagers. Apparently, cyborgs and adolescence have historically coexisted and have a love-hate relationship. Daily connected, their bodies inhabiting poorly demarcated boundaries between online and the offline. Humor and irony can simulate both the image of adolescence and the cyborg. We don’t have a problem with conflicting feelings, and we’re internalizing the contradiction of being cyborgs in the 21st century. We, who wrote this text, are five teenagers and one young adult, who still has the capacity to imagine “what they want to be when they grow up.”
While one of us is an anthropologist pursuing a master’s degree in scientific and cultural communication, the others are in high school and considering various careers: fashion, journalism, psychology, computing, and the arts — all among our possibilities. This text is part of two studies entitled “Internet access and use by adolescents: producing a podcast on Digital Education.”
Yes, research projects in the plural, because we have the master’s research project, conducted by Irene do Planalto Chemin at the Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor) at Unicamp, under the guidance of Prof. Daniela Manica. And we have the Institutional Program for Scientific Initiation Scholarships for High School Students (PIBIC-EM), conducted by Geovana Luna dos Santos, Kauan Alves da Silveira Aristides, Raylane Souza de Moura, Samara Lopes de Oliveira, and Veronica Martins Da Silva, in which Irene do Planalto Chemin is a monitor along with Fernanda Mariath, under the guidance of Prof. Daniela Manica and co-supervision of Dr. Clarissa Reche.
The process of formulating PIBIC-EM Producing a podcast on digital education began with the adaptation of the research project developed for the Master’s Degree in Scientific and Cultural Dissemination in order to involve the adolescents in conducting the research and producing the podcast. At their schools, the adolescents received support from teachers to enroll in PIBIC-EM and applied for the Arts and Humanities area, being allocated to this research. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the State University of Campinas (CEP-CHS/Unicamp) and was consented to by the adolescents and their families/legal guardians.
From left to right: Geovana, Raylane, Samara, Kauan, Veronica, Fernanda and Irene. 2024.
The objective of our research is to understand adolescents’ perceptions of digital technologies and produce a podcast on digital education. The objective is broad, addressing the questions raised by the adolescents themselves. Thus, it proposes to investigate technologies from the imaginary (Felinto, 2003), visible or invisible infrastructures (Miller; Horst, 2015), socio-technical realities (Latour, 2001), and embodied, incorporated, and everyday devices in the experiences of Brazilian youth (Hine et al, 2020). When we met in September 2024, we made 3D paper dolls, which we painted, cut out, and glued together using materials such as colored pencils, scissors, different types of paper, glitter, glue… This way, we introduced ourselves while working with our hands and expressing our personalities on paper. Over the course of 12 months, we mapped the technologies in our daily lives, going from theoretical discussions to the production of a series of podcasts.
During our research journey, the image of the cyborg has been a representation of our relationship with technologies, a reference brought up by Irene Chemin based on her studies of Haraway’s work. The cyborg is a hybrid organism of human and machine that, by breaking the boundary between nature and culture, also breaks the structural separations of the modern notion of science, such as human and animal, mind and body, natural and artificial, physical and non-physical. Among us, each one in their own way, has already been breaking these boundaries, hacking binaries, even by inhabiting this non-place of “being a teenager” in a society that, increasingly, defines its generations by contact with technologies – in fact, from a very limited perspective of technology.
Kauan Alves da Silveira Aristides’ presentation on the Cyborg Manifesto was part of a series of seminars where four other high school students also presented on topics such as content analysis in memes, the notion of “digital natives,” ethics with artificial intelligence, and the impact of social media on mental health. He approached the cyborg through a futuristic and dystopian vision of reality, citing examples of a world “full of flying cars”, “where robots will enslave human beings”. However, he then brought the group to a reflection: “But are machines really that distant from people, something completely different and impossible to associate with them?” For Kauan, we are getting closer to cyborgs every day, because “there’s no way to separate these two worlds”, the artificial and the natural, the technological and the human. Introducing the author, Donna Haraway, and summarizing her work, Kauan pointed out that the manifesto critiques the culture, society, gender identity, and politics of our time.
At one point, Samara posed a fundamental question: “What is a manifesto? Does it have anything to do with Marx’s Communist Manifesto?”. This question relates to the textual genre known as a manifesto, as well as to the praxis proposed by the manifesto’s ideas. Kauan and Irene noted that generally manifestos represent a social and cultural movement that seeks to promote an innovative vision on a given topic, with a political bent and critical analysis. This issue is discussed in an interview with Donna Haraway (Gane, Haraway and De Fiori 2010). Haraway points out that the title is, in fact, a “serious joke” with the Communist Manifesto, a lineage of thought, and also this literal tradition that incites us to action. The first version of the Cyborg Manifesto circulated at an international conference of new left movements in Cavtat, in the former Yugoslavia (now Croatia), which helped the author think more transnationally about the informatics of domination, cyborg politics, and the importance of information technology worlds.
The manifesto textual genre is marked by its political nature, positioning itself as a call to action for a group or institution. Yet, the genre remains tied to a Eurocentric perspective, due to its history and its limitations of calling for action, but not necessarily causing action, thus becoming a future possibility (Blanco and Job da Silva 2021). What should we do with the reflections that the Communist and Cyborg Manifestos bring us? Well, we are in the process of making one podcast and sharing our reflections and experiences with technology so that other young people can join in this serious play. It’s also a call to action; it’s cyborg writing in audio form. It’s a conversation that reflects concerns about our surroundings, but also connects with broader social issues. It’s a very interesting movement, as Haraway (2009) points to how structures of economic, social, ethnic, racial, and gender domination impact the production of science and technology, as well as the conception of the social function of education.
By better understanding the format and textual genre, we can better understand the content. Kauan continued his presentation by explaining that Haraway addresses the ethical use of technology and science. She seeks, according to Kauan, to “awaken human beings to become more aware of the technologies around them,” because “technology and human beings are interconnected.” This interconnection, in Kauan’s presentation, sometimes simulated people’s dependence on technology, sometimes presented as a blend of the artificial and the natural, the real and the virtual, as, in his words, “hybrid networks that form the cyborg”.
When did we become cyborgs? Historically, we can trace the emergence of the cyborg to the late 19th century—the second industrial revolution and the development of the first computers and algorithms; in the 1930s—with the popularization of radio and other mass media; or during World War II—with cyberwarfare. It depends somewhat on the aspects we prioritize. One of the aspects we consider is the construction of the idea of ”youth” and “adolescent,” categories that were also transformed by the industrial revolutions, changes in work organization, and the progressive prohibition of child labor, which also brought new perspectives on the social function of education. Cultural movements of the 1950s and 1960s, such as rock ‘n’ roll and cinema, contributed to the construction of “youth,” a cultural notion. With the development of psychology and biomedical concepts about life, the notion of “adolescence” was constructed scientifically and socially.
We read a review of the Cyborg Manifesto (De Jesus; Silva, 2021) and watched the YouTube video “The Cyborg and the Dress | An Industry and a Manifesto” from the Victor Góis channel (2018). Kauan is a fashion enthusiast and enjoys sewing some of his own clothes. He’s even come to our meetings dressed in his creations, and they’re amazing. Kauan discussed how “fashion is a space for creativity, uniting various things,” which fosters debates about values and ideas, such as gender issues and the limits of binarism. In the video, the models are androgynous figures, and their clothing evokes fantastical forms, like a “fusion between the real and the virtual.” For Kauan, “the fashion industry will transgress boundaries, dream about reality, transcend this line we live in, and reach another level.” Furthermore, Kauan addressed how the cyborg image brings us closer to debates such as feminism and gender identity, reflecting on how language and fashion will shape the future. Interestingly, in the interview, Haraway emphasizes that the idea of a post-gender world is not absolute, but coexists with worlds in which the gender binary is “more ferocious than ever” (Gane, Haraway and De Fiori 2010). In the debate, we highlighted the environmental impact of the fashion industry, such as excessive water consumption and the lack of responsibility for recycling textile waste: like a multi-headed monster, its disastrous impacts need to be addressed on several fronts, from environmental policies to science and art.
Finally, Kauan presented on cyborg writing proposed by Donna Haraway. The author criticizes the idea of perfect communication, of a single way of being and expressing oneself. Kauan cited the example of a ruler, which needs to be used not only for measuring but for other things as well, as a deconstruction of its function and its writing of the world. At the conclusion of his presentation, Kauan approached the manifesto as a critique of “absolutism,” in which Donna Haraway doesn’t offer an absolute truth, but rather reflects on how it is possible to blend different elements using the figure of the cyborg. The manifesto suggests a perspective beyond human beings in relation to the environment in which we live, suggesting “detaching ourselves from these perfect definitions of cultures.”
In our discussion, after Kauan’s presentation, we reflected on cyborg writing in our texts and podcast episodes, and asked ourselves: “In what ways do we want to write? Can we put ourselves in the first person?” Podcasts can be cyborg writing, a mixture of sounds, texts, cuts and collages. In Kauan’s words, “a mixed salad”. We talked about the ethical concerns of doing science, podcasts and other technologies.
Towards the end, Veronica asked: “And ancestral technologies, can they also be cyborgs?”. Let me explain: An important aspect of mapping the technologies of our daily lives was identifying what we are calling “ancestral technologies.” We started by identifying the technologies that the adolescents had learned from their ancestors, such as cooking, forms of care, and religious practices. We also drew on references such as the Casa de Cultura Tainã, a non-profit cultural and social entity founded in 1989 by TC Silva, Dona Toninha, and other residents of Vila Castelo Branco and other regions of Campinas (São Paulo). Today it is located in Vila Padre Manoel de Nóbrega, next to Praça dos Trabalhadores. The Casa de Cultura Tainã is a reference in understanding techno-ancestrality and in the construction of technological practices to value life, such as community gardens and data centers (Fardin, 2021).
Thinking about the ancestry of machines is a way of learning about their histories, contexts, agencies, and desires. It is to understand the origin of their materials and their functioning (Simodon, 2020). It is also possible to analyze from the cultural construction of technologies (Rammler, 2021) or to reflect on the cosmo-techniques and technological genealogies proposed by Yuk Hui (2016). Well, for those who consider themselves “Generation Z” or “Alpha,” perhaps cyborg is already an ancestral technology. Finally, based on our research, we also developed our own figurations to talk about our experiences with technologies and digital education. Determined to “stay with the trouble” (Haraway, 2023) and inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s fiction bag theory, we formed a league of cyborg technology trackers. Collecting some of the powers that technologies have, their agencies in composition with us, and storing everything in our fiction and science podcast, Mundaréu’s Conexão series. Invisibility, simulation, miniaturization, and information are some of these powers. In the series, we’ll tell stories about algorithms, education, community technologies, and many other characters. But that’s a topic for another time, and the place is already set: in the Conexão series episodes, on the Mundaréu podcast website. See you then!
This post was curated by Contributing Editor Clarissa Reche.
References
Blanco, Beatriz, e Aline Conceição Job da Silva. “From The Scratchware Manifesto to Game Workers Unite: Manifestos and Labor Claims in Two Decades of Indie Video Games.” Contracampo: Brazilian Journal of Communication 40, no. 2 (2021).
De Jesus, Tuany Nathany Alves, e Gislaine Silva. “Notas sobre a ‘Antropologia do ciborgue: as vertigens do pós-humano’.” e-Com 14 (2021): 168–74.
Gane, Nicholas, Donna Haraway, e Ana Leticia de Fiori. “Se nós nunca fomos humanos, o que fazer? Interview with Donna Haraway.” Ponto Urbe, no. 6 (2010): 1–22.
Haraway, Donna. Manifesto Ciborgue. Antropologia do Ciborgue. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2009.
Hui, Yuk. “Introduction.” In The Question Concerning Technology in China. United Kingdom: Chine Institute for Visual Studies, 2016.
Rammler, Werner. “The Cultural Shaping of Technologies and the Politics of Technodiversity.” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 5, no. 3 (2001): 73–91.
Simondon, Gilbert. Do Modo de Existência dos Objetos Técnicos. Tradução de Vera Ribeiro. São Paulo: Contraponto, 2020 (orig. 1958).
Victor Góis. “O Ciborgue e o Vestido | Uma Indústria e um Manifesto.” YouTube – Canal Victor Góis. 1 de março de 2018. Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnNn7QNbL9w.
