S3 Ep5: David Cronenberg's 'Crimes of the Future', Surgery, and Performance Art

Emma and Christy watch David Cronenberg’s 2022 film Crimes of the Future, exploring the themes of this work while also connecting to some of the director’s earlier movies. In this episode, we discuss the fears and the pleasures of the human body and cutting into it; surgery as sex; Cronenbergian body horror; the monstrous as art; being and becoming cyborgs; evolution and pain; technology as prosthesis; the posthuman; contemporary performance art (good and bad); the cosmetic gaze; the body as text; and meaning making.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE IMAGES WE DISCUSS, as well as complete show notes, references, and suggestions for further reading.

MEDIA DISCUSSED
David Cronenberg, dir., Crimes of the Future(2022)
First scene with boy playing on beach, cruise ship overturned in water
Saul Tenser in the Orchid Bed
TVs showing ‘BODY IS REALITY’ during Saul and Caprice’s performance
Scuttling, insect-like bureaucrats of the National Organ Registry
Bureaucrat of the National Organ Registry telling Saul that ‘surgery is new sex’
David Cronenberg, dir., Crash(1996)
Saul Tenser in the BreakFaster Chair
Saul Tenser’s facial expression at the end of the film
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa(1652)
David Cronenberg, dir., Videodrome(1983)
The hand-gun in Videodrome
David Cronenberg, dir., The Fly(1986)
Odile (decorative surgery) performance art
Klinek (ear man) performance art
ORLAN, The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan (1990-1993)
Stelarc, Ear on Arm (2007 - )
The Swanreality show (2004)
The autopsy scene 

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‘Drawing Blood’ cover art © Emma Merkling, image courtesy of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgeons
All audio content © Emma Merkling and Christy Slobogin
Intro music: ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Kim Petras, © BunHead Records 2019. We’re still trying to get hold of permissions for this song – Kim Petras text us back!!