"Wie ich zum Cyborg wurde" : Das Cochlea Implantat und die Übersetzungen des transhumanen Körpers

This article deals with recent developments in the discourse on Cochlear Implants (CI) and the appropriation of the implant as an enhancing cyborg device. The article will first consider developments in medicinal, technological and cultural histories of the CI: While medical experts originally designed the CI to “cure” deafness, some members of Deaf communities do not agree. In their perspective, deafness is not a "disability", but a certain cultural lifestyle. Hence, forcing people to “hear” with a CI needed to be considered a threat to the culture of signlanguage. Apart from these discussions, self-appointed “cyborgs” such as German Enno Park consider the CI not only a way of becoming “normal,” but instead claim that the CI bears the potential of raising the human body and its sensory capacities to a posthuman level.