Prosthetics As A Rhetorical Element In Media Art

As one of the most influential pioneers of media art,Lynn Hershman Leeson has been exploring the latest means in media art for more than50 years,her works concern and reflect on the relationship between humans and technology,the technical body and identity,the real world and virtual reality.From physical ready-made objects,to the Internet,electronic prosthetics,remote live broadcast and genetic data collection,at each stage,the medium has become Leeson's prosthesis in her creation and her own life.This dissertation selects Leeson's works as a case study,analyzes the concept of prosthetics in media art in response to Mc Luhan ' s theory of medium,as well as the reconstruction of the body and identity in the modern context,and gradually extends the concept into the construction of contemporary art theory and contemporary social life.The first chapter of this dissertation clarifies and describes the prosthetic elements of Leeson's works over different time periods.The various dimensions of prosthetics highlight the features of different media in art creation,meanwhile,the transformation of prosthetics helps to discover the main line of media art history.The second chapter elaborates the ontological point of view of media art,and proposes that contemporary art is a paradigm-shifting art form,and its artistic medium has become a metaphor for an extended(machinery)body.The form and spread of media art works also lead to the focal point discussed in the following chapters: the possibility of including prosthetics as a rhetorical element(or a perspective)to examine and construct media art.The third chapter explores the theoretical connotation of prosthetics from two perspectives: "functional prosthetics" and "metaphoric prosthetics".This construction of prosthetic theory is closely related to the construction of self and society.The fourth chapter is the core part of the dissertation.Taking Leeson's works as a case study,this part delves into the prosthetic elements in her installations,videos,online works,and biological arts,etc.The last chapter begins with the plight of "post-humans",further disassembles the reality by the means of art creation.Leeson's works have been identifying and healing the decaying organs in the social system in the era of "body-mind separation”,trying to fix and make up for dysfunction with a new form of prosthetics.This kind of prosthetic relationship carries the historical memory and cultural condensation of art works as "tertiary retention".It enters with a rhetorical element and re-examines the operating mechanism of today's world.The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the possibility of creating another life through the prosthetics,which functions as a fulcrum to understand media art and leverage contemporary social life.