Digitized Bodies -Virtual Spectacles
Nina Czegledy

The Digitized Bodies-Virtual Spectacles interactive CD-ROM was inspired by the magnitude of recent advances in the biosciences and the seductive power of digital technologies, which have permeated practically every aspect of our daily life. It addresses a number of questions that accompany these developments:What is the nature of enticement that has captivated scientists and artists alike? How is the interior of our body rendered into a landscape of fictionalized travel? How is the language of this travel described in popular culture? How can we decipher the ambiguities surrounding the documented data body? How can we obtain precise information about ourselves, particularly in the coded terms of medical science? How can we preserve our individual integrity without becoming mere electronic spectacles?

The CD evokes these questions through seven thematic spheres, and includes the contributions of over twenty artists, scientists, clinicians, cultural theorists, and art historians from three countries (Canada, Hungary, and Slovenia). The work presents options for participants to investigate conceptual, ethical, sociocultural, and pragmatic issues related to the changing perceptions of the human body as reflected by recent bioscientific advances.