Page - 12 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

12 | Alexander D. Ornella and Anna-Katharina Höpflinger www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 9–14 her knowledge and her voice (fig. 3). As a transcendental being Lucy is technology and voice – the biblical reference of the latter is very clear here. On the visual level of the film, this religious connection is made through the reception of religious images such as Michelangelo’s fresco The Creation of Adam. In Her, Her enjoys a strong bod- ily presence despite her bodily absence; in fact, we could argue that Her’s body is not absent at all, but is embodied because of her voice. As both films illustrate, the interrelation of body, voice, anthropological thoughts, and technology can integrate questions regarding religion. Belief is a bodily and sen- sual phenomenon: as David Morgan argues, the religious person “says he believes, but what he really does is feel, smell, hear, and see”.4 On different levels religion is therefore also intertwined with technologies and techniques of body and voice. In fact, we can argue that religion is technology and that religion is technological prac- tice. Religious practices rely on material and technological practices to induce visions and sounds of the divine, as the film Lucy illustrates. For example, in the Hebrew Bi- ble, the voice of God is often thought of as rumbling like thunder. The rumbling of thunder can be a natural phenomenon, but it can also be produced through cultural or artificial means. The bodily aspect of voice is also a key idea in Christianity. Incarna- tion or, better, becoming incarnate, the becoming body of the Word of God, Jesus, has performative qualities: not only does the Word become body, but through the Word all things (and bodies) were made. Religious imagination also expresses the intersection of humans, bodies, technol- ogy, and transcendental realms, often with the help of technology and in metaphors of sound and voice. “To sing is to pray twice” is an old saying suggesting that singing expresses bodily joy or sorrow. Religious practices and spiritual feelings often reso- nate with and emerge out of bodily sensations and experiences. Most importantly, however, technologies of voice and technology of bodily pain often mark transcend- ent spaces in religious imaginations and artwork, as Jörg Berns proposes in his book on heavenly and hellish technologies.5 We therefore argue that voice, even though ephemeral, ties us back to our mate- rial bodily existence. Yet, voice also stands for our longing for otherworldly realms, for our longing to leave behind and come back. It is questions like these, questions of the conditio humana, questions of embodiment, technology, and the transcendent, that the articles in this issue tackle. In addition to more focused papers that have taken their inspiration from the “I Sing the Body Electric” colloquium, this journal also features two “open session” contributions. With their focus on the formation of expectations about the body and social coexistence through medial communication such as newspapers or film, they, too, are related to the overarching theme of this special issue. 4 Morgan 2010, 5. 5 Berns 2007.