From virtual presence to resistance: the evolution of digital bodies in art
摘要
This article investigates digital bodies as socio-political constructs embodying intricate power relations within digital landscapes. It posits that artistic representations of digital bodies critically engage with and resist dominant systems of surveillance, commodification, and algorithmic control. Utilizing an interdisciplinary lens that merges the history and theory of new media art with concepts from cyborg theory, surveillance capitalism, and posthumanism, this study examines the construction and perception of digital bodies across diverse digital art forms. The synthesis of these perspectives reveals how digital entities are shaped by data, identification processes, and power relations. Artists engage with these themes in their practices, often aligning their critiques with theoretical discourses interrogating the blurring of boundaries between the physical and digital realms and positing that the formation of digital bodies reflects contemporary power dynamics. Analyzing key artworks from early digital art to contemporary AI- driven practices, the study shows that digital bodies initially provided platforms for identity experimentation, democratization, and liberation, enabling individuals to explore fluid identities outside conventional boundaries. However, these entities gradually became digitized through intensive data collection, behavioral surplus extraction, and pervasive surveillance, transforming them into instruments of control and economic exploitation, where identities are algorithmically defined and commercially managed. Ultimately, the article argues that digital bodies in art often transcend esthetic representation, existing within and responding to broader socio-political realities. They serve not only as critiques of prevailing systems but also as catalysts encouraging deeper reflections on identity, agency, and the potential for resistance in the digital era.