The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses

by James Geary.
Rutgers University Press,
Piscataway, NJ, 2002
214pp. illus. paper $27.00
ISBN: 0-8135-3194-2

Reviewed by Stephen Wilson,
Art Dept, SFSU, 1600 Holloway,
SF,CA 94132
USA
swilson@sfsu.edu

The Body Electric explores a topic dear to many in the technological arts community - the place where technology and the body interesect. The book grew out of a series James Geary edited for Time Magazine in 1997 in their "New Age of Discovery" series. It investigates projects where technological innovation is enhancing or supplementing damaged senses and kinestetic capabilities. For example, there are reports on the current state of the art of artificial sight for the blind and nerve/muscle interfaces that allow the parlyzed to regain some function.

The book has chapters on: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind. Mind explores developments in artificial intelligence. For each it provides a small biology refresher on the sense and then surveys an array of research working in that particular realm. The book's heritage with Time magazine is a mixed blessing. On one hand, the author seemed to have easy access to many researchers and the funding to pursue these leads. On the other hand, the treatment seems a bit shallow and sensationalistic.

Still, the book is a good resource for those in the arts. It does a good job of introducing topics of cultural interest and of identification of interesting research projects. For example, taste and smell are receiving woefully little attention in the arts. Those in art practice and art theory will find food for thought in the whirlwind tour of these topics.

Eventhough the book claims to deal with the philosophical, ethical, and cultural implications of this research, its treatment of these issues falls short. For example, if does not offer many examples of artists exploring similar research areas. For the few times it does discuss relevant artists - for example, Steve Mann or Stelarc, it misses much of the most interesting aspects of the work. With Mann, it makes no mention of his reflectionism effort to counter surveillance and with Stelarc, it misses his radical questioning of ownership and boundaries of the body. Also the book focuses mostly on filling in for missing capabilities of the disabled rather than exploring the more speculative areas of enhancement beyond the normal - for example visual capabilities beyond 20/20 or in spectra outside of the normal visual range.

Still, the book is an engaging read and may stimulate interesting questions for those in the arts and provide leads worth pursuing. I recommend it for those readers interested in the meeting place of technology and the body.