Mechanomorphism—From Mechanical Dolls to Cyborgs: How Animation Characters Transform Under the Dominating Technogenic Paradigm

Abstract

The article studies the evolution of animated characters, which is influenced by the technocratic ideas and is based on the integration of human and artificial. There are such types of characters as doll, puppet, mechatron, robot, cyborg or artificial person (posthuman). The duality inherent in them is manifested, on the one hand, in the desire of an artificial creature to imitate a human being, and, on the other hand, in the desire of a human being to partly become a machine in order to overcome the biological imperfection. The ambivalent nature of created beings gives rise to conflicting feelings: from amusement and admiration to detachment, confusion and fear. While humans remain the point of reference in the development of such characters, the position of people in relation to artificial creations is changing. Until the 1960s–1970s, the dominant characteristic in the animation of artificial creatures was the desire to make them look more like biological beings. By the end of the twentieth century, the tendency changed to shifting away from human identity or to offering other variations of it. The reason for this is the pedaling of the idea of human imperfection, against which artificial creatures seem to be closer to the ideal. Not only has the position of the artificial towards the human altered: the distance between the two is also reducing, and they even come towards the point of convergence. Artificial beings appear as more perfect creatures, the main function of which is to save and preserve humans as a species.