This summer’s remake of TOTAL RECALL puts a great deal of effort into creating a convincing dystopian future that is reminiscent of other films in the genre like Blade Runner. When Blade Runner was made, the art team could not have predicted the proliferation of body modification, but since this film was made in the “age of mods”, they had no choice but to include it, and I think they did a good job imagining a possible future. Not including three boobed-women, the film includes two main pieces of future mods revolving around implantable technology. The first they show is telephones implanted into the hand, which the main character actually cuts out after using since it includes a tracking device. It’s very clearly an implant of the traditional sort, because he is able to cut a slit and pull it out. It lights up and is visible through the skin when used, and gains additional functionality when interfaced to “glass” (a monitor). The other modification we see is some sort of electroluminescent tattooing, where the lines light up like bright neon. These however are not implanted wiring, but some sort of ink particle that can be activated by a power source, as we see a brief scene of the tattoos being applied by what still appears to be a traditional tattoo machine.

If you liked the bio-hackers video that I posted yesterday, and the sort of stuff in those admittedly low-quality screen caps (all I could find right now, sorry), you may also want to watch this talk given by deranged visionary and scrapheap transhumanist Lepht Anonym (sapiensanonym.blogspot.ca). Lepht is an interesting character… On one hand, deeply irresponsible and a little incompetent and self-defeating in their DIY stance that is so aggressive it seems to plug its ears to common sense and medical reasoning that might speed up the process, but on the other hand, with a passion and intimate need to make dreams real that is all too rare in most people. I find Lepht both troubling and inspiring because I support what they’re doing, but feel like there are far better ways to go about it.

Aren’t people with facial tattoos supposed to be scary and threatening? I swear, JoeSnake (of Evolve Body Jewelry) has some sort of loveable goofball aura that extends fifteen feet around him and guarantees that in any picture taken of him everyone is acting as silly as possible. Gawd, he’s almost as bad as Cere.

The very first thing everyone should be doing today is wishing Fakir Musafar a happy birthday! Now, some things are remembered with a moment of silence, but I think that the best thing to do for this day is to photograph your body play — your body art, modifications, rituals… The list of Fakir’s contributions to this community is so long I couldn’t possibly do it justice in a single posting, but I think one of the most important was his drive to document this community, beginning with himself, be that in his private world, or that which he shared with the world in PFIQ and Body Play and other media. Anyway, Fakir is the greatest, he was there at the start making this world and this community a better place, and he’s still going strong, and I expect and hope he will continue to for a long time yet.