gOgOrhythm

During the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, I received a call from the publicist of a film called Synthetic Pleasures. I returned the call only to find myself speaking to Lara Lee herself, the film's director. She invited me to the film's party which to my pleasure was a rave of sorts, complete with smart drinks!

Synthetic Pleasures, conceived as an electronic road movie, is a type of sci-fi documentary that investigates cutting-edge technologies and their influence on our culture as we approach the 21st century. The film is concerned with both the look and the language of high-tech culture. Interviews with some of today's most noted figures in cyberculture emphasize the influence of technology on human experience and question the implications of having access to so much transformative power. These powers involve the ability to transform three things in our culture: our surroundings; synthetic environments; our synthetic bodies and our synthetic identities.

SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENTS

In the film we tour some of the world's more extreme examples of synthetic environments: the indoor beaches (Seagaia, also known as Ocean Dome, complete with wave machines) and ski slopes of Japan, both of which have computerized temperatures; the high-tech casinos of Las Vegas; American shopping malls and theme parks. Synthetic environments recreate nature while eradicating the distinction between seasons -- nature without the nature. We see in the film that this juxtaposition of nature and technology dates back to the Industrial Era. After our seeming migration to these self-enclosed, man-made worlds, the film then introduces and defines virtual reality. Interviews with VR innovators and experts such as Jaron Lanier, John Perry Barlow, R.U. Sirius and Howard Rheingold are intercut with virtual images, revealing both the scientific and the entertainment applications of the technology.

SYNTHETIC BODIES

"I have said that I've donated my body to art, "..." I think the avant garde is not in art but in the sciences, in biology, physics and new technology and I think artists should look for inspiration in these places."

-Orlan, Performance Artist

The use of recent technologies to transform the human body, including plastic surgery, genetic engineering, bio-technology, and the interfaces between humans and machines is also explored in the film. Here, emphasis was placed on mankind's desire for physical manipulation, the control of our genetic codes, and the power of humans to recreate themselves at will. Interviews include Robert Ettinger, President of the Cryonics Institute, who is attempting to achieve immortality through the freezing of human bodies; Max More, President of the Extropy Institute, who looks forward to a future where mankind will have transcended the limitations of nature through the advancement of Nanotechnology (molecular robotics) and the creation of cyborgs. Also featured is Performance Artist Orlan, who explores the liberating potential of plastic surgery in her work. Ravers talk about body piercing, transsexual cyberpunks discuss gender manipulation, and the editor of Future Sex Magazine imagines a future where we can have sex through computers.

SYNTHETIC IDENTITIES

"If you want to be a blonde, you get your hair dyed. If you want to be a peppy blonde, you get your hair dyed and a Prozac prescription."

- Unidentified Prozac user

The "post-human" condition is explored further through investigation of drug use and computer technology to alter our minds. "Cosmetic Psychopharmacology" involves the modification of personalities through mood-altering drugs such as Prozac. Today, people are increasingly aware of their chemical existences and are choosing to take control of themselves on this level and experiences can be changed to suit our needs and desires. Interviews with Timothy Leary, Max More and R.U. Sirius revealed strong ideas about the human need to take control of our brains and perceptions, including the possibility of digitizing human personality and downloading it into computers. The ways computers are transforming human consciousness, both by augmenting our intelligence and by creating new modes of interaction breaks into the world of the Internet and digital communication which allows for an anonymity and immediacy never before possible in human interaction, including the abstract space of Virtual Reality.

Everyone interviewed in the film tend to agree that technology is a tool which can be used in either productive or destructive ways, and that the time to start developing an ethical frame for our technological agenda is now. Barlow, a longtime advocate of freedom of information in the digital world, is extremely vocal about protecting democracy on the Internet. Of paramount concern to most is the idea that digital and bio-technology could slip out of our hands and be usurped by both government agencies and corporate powers. Synthetic Pleasures taps into both the excitement and the phobia generated by the futuristic visions it encounters.

Smart? I'll drink to that!

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