Cyborg Bodies as Archives of Human Perception: From Hannah Höch to Manga

A 1995 essay republished in art press 2's 'Cyborg' issue (May-July 2012) examines the cyborg as a receptacle of societal anxieties during radical change. The author argues that cyborg imagery emerges when traditional bodily models fail, serving as historical archives of perceptual shifts. Hannah Höch's 1920 photomontage 'Das schöne Mädchen' is analyzed as an allegory of modernism, depicting a fragmented space with automobile parts and body fragments, reflecting Weimar-era disorientation. Höch's 'New Woman' collages critique mass media stereotypes, showing a cyborg body suspended in chaotic scale. The essay connects this to Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel 'Orlando', where high-speed driving produces a shredded-paper metaphor for identity dissolution. The author's initial motivation was to explore 'race' and 'racial mixing' in cyborg representations, noting terms like 'hybrid' and 'miscegenation' carry historical violence. A 1991 Japanese manga 'Silent Möbius' by Kia Asamiya features Kiddy, a dark-skinned female cyborg who melts her skin to reveal a gray, almost white mechanical body. This 'passing' narrative raises questions about racial identity, technological privilege, and the quantification of identity (70% lost, 30% remaining). The essay concludes that cyborg bodies will not resolve racial contradictions but may evolve to reconcile antagonistic experiences.