“Shattered Bodies” aims to explore various speculative futures as a tool of resistance through a tangible representation of the glitch. Its purpose is to push back against techno-orientalist tropes through the refusal of the binary body, embracing the “error” as a symbol of revolution. The piece employs a visual convergence of human and machine, utilizing the constructed garment and its interactions with Asian diasporic bodies to become a tool for re-imagination. This depiction aims to abstract the gender binary and human body–paving paths for autonomy through transhumanism.
They are birthed from ash.
They bow to the shadows of a two-headed creature, who with
epoxy fingers splits their bodies
They are bound to dust.
They are imprisoned.
They bleed of a hurt that haunts punctured souls.
Watching plastic shrapnel pierce their flesh;
they melt, mold, return to ash.
They are muzzled.
Bleached by the song of barren hearts,
their cries turn to currency.
They are broken beyond salvation,
as hands find empty necks.
They beg, betray, burn each other to dust.
The motherboard shatters.
But from shatter we rise.
Embracing a uselessness who births a revolution,
we weave our soldered veins
paving paths from fused vessels.
We build,
We amplify fractures.
becoming a beautiful laceration
we reimagine futures beyond.
Mutating our bodies to refuse erasure
we become the error.
Reimagining through disruption
rewiring to worlds beyond.
To become nothing. Everything, all at once.
We burn life into brick.
We blur our bodies.
We burst, we break, and we become the glitch.
Models: Anna Vi, Katelyn Ma, Lia Tran, Vik Rupasinghe, Bhavana Iyengar, Alyssa Sun, Zoe Hu
MiC Director of Photography Akash Dewan can be reached at abdewan@umich.edu
MiC Contributor Sonia Xiang can be reached at skx@umich.edu