Weaving #1 by Eppie Archuleta, from the San Luis Valley, Colorado
The Extensions of Ourselves: WE ARE CYBORG;
Embracing Our Past, Celebrating Our Future
ONE SMALL STEP FOR (A TINY HISPANIC WO)MAN
On embarking on the journey of this scrutiny of cybernetics, our flesh, our machines, our "cyborgness," I reluctantly surrendered my first choice of topics, Native American female artists, their history, culture, and choices for the future. Before too much time had passed, an amazing thing happened, as I've mentioned previously. In the vast world of the Internet, links kept meandering back around, in the usual graceful arcs of the online environment. In my searches for works by Donna Haraway, for cyborg, for the impact of our "new mechanical right-hand," for new media for women artists -- I often found myself back in the pages concerning Native American women artists/artisans.
I made a comment to one of my peers that, in the incomprehensible zigzaggings of my academic road, I would probably find a way of melding these two subjects, for this paper. No sooner had this been said, than that is exactly what happened. Ironically, the Internet inserted its own form of magic, by bringing me full-circle into a well-known "village" -- which was the physical location in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and an Internet-related company who had recently offered me a position with tremendous creative potential.
This certainly exceeded even my greatest anticipations for this research! In fact, it provided me with the certainty that this paper would serve as the capstone for my Bachelor's degree efforts, and the launch pad for my career. Because of the intimacy of how this cyborg tool carefully knitted together all the details of this research, I've had no choice, if remaining honest to myself, but to approach this paper in a very personal manner. This next section will introduce the ways that technology can enrich a life: I am cyborg, and my world is warm, not cold nor impersonal:
"'The Internet has been the biggest change-agent to hit the San Luis Valley since the pick-up truck,' claims Dave Hughes. Hughes ought to know: he and local activists wired up a BBS in the community of 45,000 people in thirty agricultural towns, connected the BBS to the Internet, and showed people how to use it. Then they wired the schools. The Valley is isolated by the 14,000 foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range. The majority of the inhabitants are Hispanic. It isn't easy to keep many highly trained teachers, or find those willing to make a 100 mile drive. Now, according to Hughes, twenty local teachers are taking a physics course from an M.I.T. professor, via the Internet. 'The students and a continuous flow of other people started reaching out of the valley online and started getting the idea that they could (1) get educated and (2) start enterprises in the valley with a technological connection,' says Hughes, citing the example of 'A guy who had just a little computer and a fair amount of telephone/radio experience, put up his savings and borrowings and in effect 'franchised' the first true commercial Internet service provider service in the Valley -- which quickly outgrew its 8 lines, and attracted the attention of local education, local business, local government (Rheingold 1995, http://www.well.com/user/ hlr/tomorrow/sanluis.html).'"
Weaving #1 by Eppie Archuleta, from the San Luis Valley, Colorado
In reading about the San Luis Valley and the new technology that is providing connections to the whole outside world, my research did a "great Mandella," full 360-degree turn. I had the opportunity to meet (in an online sort of way!) Eppie Archuleta, who -- although not Native American -- certainly can lay claim to being a descendent of the earliest groups to have "ownership" of the Valley . . . for Mexico extended far to the north in America's pre-history.
Eppie's Wool Mill, Capulin, Colorado
"The Web might be a boon for a world-class artist who lives far from the world's markets. Eppie Archuleta, a seventy-four year old weaver in the tiny San Luis Valley town of Capulin, now displays, describes, and sells her weavings via Eppie's Wool Page (Rheingold 1995, http://www.well.com/user/hlr/tomorrow/sanluis.html).'"
"Eppie Archuleta, born in 1922 in Santa Cruz, New Mexico, was destined to become a weaver. Her mother, Agueda Martinez of Medanales, New Mexico, received the Governor's Award for Excellence in 1975 for her weaving talents. Today, Eppie is recognized nationwide as a 'superlative craftsperson' and teacher. Many of the weavers in the San Luis Valley were taught by Eppie, and her daughters and several grandchildren are now weavers. She was honored in 1985 as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1986 she was recognized as a Master of Spanish Colonial Weaving by the Colorado Council on the Arts. Her weavings are on display in the Smithsonian as well as many of the most honored to be one of two craftspeople to represent the state of Colorado at 'America's Reunion of the Mall' celebration during the 1993 Presidential Inauguration. Although her accomplishments are many, at the age of 73, this energetic grandmother of 28 is far from retirement. For more than five years Eppie and her family have been struggling to establish a regional wool mill in Capulin, Colorado, a tiny town in Conejos County, one of the poorest counties in the nation. She is well on her way to her goal of building a facility that will benefit the economy of the community and help preserve the tradition of Hispanic weaving (Rheingold 1995, http://shell.rmi.net/~ccs/bio.htm)."
Weaving #2 by Eppie Archuleta, from the San Luis Valley, Colorado
What an honor to get to know this woman! In my new career, I most likely will not only get to meet her in person, but with the ramifications of my new position, will help her in the maintenance of her website, her "online village." This convoluted, yet simple, trek through the ether was an eye-opener, even for one who has been called one of the original "Geek Girls." Ten years on the computer did not prepare me for the PERTINENT, almost spiritual, experience I was to have in this research. Donna Haraway's words seem terrific and appropriate:
"Not only are we changing radically -- body and mind -- but we are becoming actively involved in our own transformation. And it's not just a matter of the prosthetics of implant organs, add-on limbs or surgical face-fixing, however necessary and beneficial such technology of the body may be. It's a matter of consciousness. We are acquiring new faculties and new understanding of human presence. To inhabit both the real and virtual worlds at one and the same time, and to be both here and potentially everywhere else at the same time, is giving us a new sense of self, new ways of thinking and perceiving -- which extend what we have believed to be our natural, genetic capabilities. . . We are computer-mediated and computer-enhanced. These new ways of conceptualizing and perceiving reality involve more than simply some sort of quantitative change in how we see, think and act in the world. They constitute a qualitative change in our being, a whole new faculty, the post-biological faculty of 'cyberception.' The cybernet, the sum of all the interactive computer-mediated systems and telematic networks in the world, is part of our sensory apparatus. It redefines our individual body just as it connects all our bodies into a planetary whole. Perception is physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience. Experience is now telematically shared: computerized telecommunications technology enables us to shift in and out of each others' consciousness and telepresence within the global media flow. (Ascott 1994, http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/Cyborg_anthropology/cyberception.paper)."
This research and paper are testimonies to the infinite challenges
for the new cyborg population, and a verification that each of
us lives in an extended world. It has changed us forever -- truly,
none of us can deny the cyborg that "lives within."
In this new consciousness, we are no longer inhibited by our genetic
capabilities. Haraway states, "The cybernet, the sum of all
the interactive computer-mediated systems and telematic networks
in the world, is part of our sensory apparatus." If ever
I had room to doubt the ferocious truth of this statement, my
studies have forever laid that doubt to rest! I claim loudly to
whomever will listen that I have experienced a connection with
technology that involved every sensory and intellectual factor.
With new knowledge and new connections, I feel as a part of the
veil has been lifted. With enhanced perception and intense anticipation for the future,
I am no longer other.