The Human Machine Project

This week, the IS 310 class will examine the question posed in Chapter 8 of your Practices of Looking text. We have reflected much of the quarter on the idea of identity. Identity through advertisements, as audience members, as spectators, etc... The final area of identity we will be exploring is culture in a postmodern world. The Human Race Machine is a postmodern project by Nancy Burson. She believes race is not genetic but social. She also thinks her project"Human Race Machine allows us to move beyond difference and arrive at sameness." What does she mean by that? Do you agree that race is social not genetic?

The Human Race Machine is a really interesting project that really hits home to me. Humans get so caught up in the physical appearance of others, that they shadow themselves from the true characters within people of various ethnic backgrounds. Race has turned into a term that is used interchangeably with ethnicity, where ethnicity is used to refer to one's cultural background and social group they belong in.

I totally agree with Nancy Burson that race is social. As humans, we observe all that is around us, and often enjoy interacting with other humans. We weed out similarities and differences, and our use of race has been a social means of trying to categorize ourselves. Chapter 8 of Practices of Looking comments on how postmodernism has included the concept that the body is easily transformable. Sturken writes, "One can change one's gender through cross-dressing or surgery, one can change one's race through changing skin tone and using colored lenses, and one can change one's appearance and shape through gym workouts, liposuction, plastic surgery, prosthetics, or changing one's hormonal makeup" (326). The ability for us as humans to change our identity in so many different ways causes us to question why we would even think about doing so. Society has had a hold on these transformations, causing us to pay attention to our skin tones and whatever ethnic relation they may socially have.

We are all homo sapians and in a biological sense, the fact that people try and define race genetically is actually inaccurate. Yes, you do pass down certain traits from your parents which often relate to the shape of your nose, or color of your skin and eyes. There is no doubt about it. That is not what Nancy Burson is trying to get at though. She is trying to make people aware of the fact that we judge and identify others based on their physicality. We get so caught up on race, that it often is what determines how we view particular ethnic groups.

Nancy Burson's Human Race Machine "allows us tomove beyond difference and arrive at sameness" by revealing the absurdity of classifying humans by their physical appearance. By altering the appearance of a subject and changing their appearance to reflect various different races, Burson causes the audience to understand that minor physical differences do not genetically separate human beings from one another. Genetically, we are all homo sapiens, and we must not let each other down by categorizing one another.