Body and artifact: the use of prostheses in japanese animation, the case of Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost in the Shell

Abstract

At the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties, the production of works that deal with the hybridization between the human and the prosthetic intensifid in Japanese science fition animation. Anime, in this sense, becomes the space from which the nature of the artifact in biological corporeality is pointed out. The common thread of this essay is about the existence of prosthetic elements that attach and transform the human body to grant it capabilities and reach that do not belong to its biological form. We will take as an object of study the works of Ghost in the Shell and Serial Experiments Lain to analyze the idea that the identity of the human being fids its limits in corporeality. As a fial reflction, we will approach the concept of a subject anchored (inevitably) to transformation based on technique.