Page - 10 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

10 | Alexander D. Ornella and Anna-Katharina Höpflinger www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 9–14 al interactions, corporal language, or sensations. These material bodily interactions often give rise, however, to phenomena that are ephemeral and are thus perceived as immaterial or even as transcending the body. Yet, these ephemeral or immaterial practices and phenomena must be seen as rooted in the body and bodily practices, or, in other words, they always return to the body. Our voice is a prime example for such an immaterial yet deeply embodied phe- nomenon. As bodies, we often communicate with our voice – or the lack thereof. Although ephemeral and “immaterial”, voice relies on the body and the materiality and weight of air. Voice extends the body; it represents a human being outside his/ her body, for example by being recorded on a storage device. As embodied beings, we can use technology to extend the reach of our voice beyond time and space. The technological extension of the voice can therefore be seen as an extension of the body and, following Marshall McLuhan, as a bodily medium.3 Technology does more, however: it separates voice from bodily organs and bodily practices of production, and in doing so it replaces the body; it takes the body’s place; it becomes – in a way – disembodied. This separation raises anthropological questions: Which anthropologi- cal ideas are informed by such a separation of body and voice? Is a voice without a human body still part of a person? How does it influence anthropological concepts if the original producer of the voice is technology rather than a human body? We can illustrate these complex questions with the recent French science fiction film Lucy (Luc Besson, FR 2014). Lucy, a young woman played by Scarlett Johansson, gains supernatural cognitive and physical abilities through strong bodily contact with a nootropic drug, which was implanted into her abdomen. At the end of the film she transforms herself into a supercomputer (fig. 1, 2) and saves all her vast knowledge on a memory stick. Lucy becomes disembodied and disappears into a spacetime con- tinuum. Besides her clothes and the memory stick, only her voice remains. The last 3 McLuhan 1964. Fig. 1: At the end of the film, Lucy transforms herself into a black supercomputer. LUCY (Luc Besson, Fr 2014), 1:26:00.