Final Map

Introduction

Who is my body; what does it say about me? What kind of feelings and thoughts go with taking a closer look to it? Trying to map our bodies goes hand in hand with being confronted with other bodies, other perspectives and gazes. How do I reclaim back what is mine, deconstructing the lines and borders of flesh and thoughts.

In ‘Decolonisation as care by Uzma Z. Rizvi’ is mentioned “That conceptual shift allows one to consider praxis as particular to one’s embodied standpoint - there is no way for me/ you/ us to step outside of my/your/ our body/ bodies to create anything. We may develop tools for all of us to use, methods, codes, programs to help us practice- but what gets coded or institutionalized, what gets marked as knowledge, for what type of normative body, all that should be questioned.“

So how do I read me, without being read by the other? This map is our attempt of ‘a tool’ such a tool as mentioned by Uzma. That we tried to achieve in our map ‘Who is me (?) : Body stretches’. The body is being stretched into a digital body. It is 'created' in a space of virtuality that straddles the conventional boundary between an organic body and a digital text. The guidelines determine the perspective of looking at the scans, these guidelines are finding a voice/ our voice. The chosen format of the legend is an audio essay, the effect on the voice gives the idea as if it is spoken in the created space by the virtual creator.

The written out: Audio Essay

The opacity of myself,
delayered or relayered
creating a more-than-human.

How can I finally see? Who is me?

I, both subject and object will try to claim my space although this space has never really been mine. How do I extend the movements and expressions of my body without being objectified, without losing my transcendence? Tell me, or should I tell myself for I am the only one who can reclaim it. I would like to unlearn myself partially; undo what was written and said about me and undo how others have acted upon my body and intellect. I have no essence so therefore I haven’t got anything to lose; all can reflect me, my freedom and my transcendence.

I can try to control the scans. The scans are becoming the she.
She is able to move along my body's movement, but she can also restrict mine
The only way to be freed of dichotomies would be if I interact with my cyborg kin’, if I am only to be virtually perceptible, only if I am freed of my flesh and enter into my digital body. As my posthumanist state might erase my inhibited autonomy and immanence but it might not erase the memories I have of my past feelings and interactions. I have memories of being pragmatic to your gaze, afraid of losing my integrity and autonomy while performing my own sexuality.

How can I finally see? Who is me?