[-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 2
sophia lycouris
sophia at kunstwerk-blend.co.uk
Thu Jul 10 13:06:45 EST 2014
Dear all
I'm sorry for my late appearance. I was in St Petersburg to visit Manifesta
10 and had very erratic access to the internet combined with a busy
schedule, so it was difficult to keep up with the postings. But what a
fascinating discussion so far, flowing in so many directions and speeds.
I need to start from the beginning again though. Maybe this has something to
do with dance practice, grounding the body and focusing the mind. And to
start from the beginning in this context means to connect through my
personal and emotional relationship to this debate, its affective impact on
me as a thinker and maker.
I have therefore to admit publicly now that I almost always approached this
debate with suspicion, because I could not find sufficiently convincing the
ways in which the relationship between the physical and the virtual were
presented, and the expectations set for what could be achieved through
digital technologies and the computational. However, the important point for
me here is that these relationships were conceptualised, presented and
debated through language, most frequently in written form: proposals for
funding applications, press releases, reviews, reports for funding
applications and most importantly academic texts. Even the term virtual
embodiment seems to have emerged from within the same problematic process,
and has the same problematic effect with many other terms, as well as full
frameworks introduced through written texts. The term virtual embodiment
creates an impression, a feeling that there is this other domain which is
the virtual, which is different because it is not physical, however for some
reason there is a need to address it from within a lens that has been
defined by the physical. It creates a disjunction between the physical and
the virtual, it insists to remind us of categories instead of flow and
potential, and when I was reading Alan's earlier post about his approach
being more about the latter, I made a note for myself about the difference
between the static and the dynamic. For me this very term carries a
contradiction, an intentional one which has been almost used to attract
attention, one could say that there might be something sexy in this term.
And this is the way this term affects me as I am trying to grasp it,
bringing with it myriad unsaid assumptions which in my opinion determine how
we respond to it and act. Of course I might be experiencing this as a
fantasy generated by various random parameters which have shaped what I get
from this term, as a result of the fact that English is not my mother
tongue, and in my effort to fully grasp its meaning in its fine detail, I am
sometimes forced to use my personal experience of how it affects me. So for
me, who relates to English language as a foreigner, this term points to a
tension (the tension between the physical and the virtual) but in a static
way, and this might block or distract the possibility for productive action.
Yet, I have nothing to suggest about how to rescue this term. But I would
encourages us to push the boundaries of language, remember its inherent
failings (whether this is in a Derridean sense or not) and attempt to rescue
the types of actions, processes and encounters that might be associated with
this imperfect term, allow them to grow in the direction they can afford,
instead of holding them back, so that we can confirm that the expectations
set in advance (through language) have been met successfully.
The above point has taken me much more words than I was expecting, however
it is one that tries to promote the importance of bodily practice, in the
sense of questioning whether it is possible (or even advisable) to progress
from one word to the next, steadily and confidently, as we explore this
dynamic between the physical and the virtual both conceptually and
materially. I am suggesting to refrain from doing this and instead take a
hesitant approach, one in which we need to keep checking and re-orientating
ourselves according to how the situation develops. The body of the dancer
needs to adjust constantly and re-gather itself around its centre of
gravity. There are no steady steps, not even when dancers look
super-steady! Ballet for example requires very detailed internal
re-adjustment, so detailed that it can give the impression of steadiness. So
we need to explore the issue of what it is that technology achieves and how,
through creating some space in our heads in order to examine how we feel
about this situation, and allow our thoughts and judgements to constantly
re-orientate themselves according to the gravitational conditions of the
situation. This also means that we will be looking at technology as
material, and will be following the pathways this knowledge suggests.
As I have been thinking about the above points, I started to wonder whether
for me virtual embodiment has something to do with how I experience my life
emotionally in relation to everyday life events intrinsically connected to
or heavily relying on the workings of digital technology. Why do I sometimes
feel more excited if I have to speak to one of my students on Skype, instead
of meeting them in the flesh? The Skype call (when it works!) adds a certain
magic (still!) which makes the meeting more focused. I almost become more
bodily present. There is almost a different bond between myself and my
student, and a sense that we are sharing a special moment of communication.
On the other hand, why is virtual bullying so devastating, as Alan already
mentioned in an earlier post? The cyberspace in which bullying might occur
is a leisure space which is virtual. However, bullying in the physical world
happens mainly in work environments, and the tragedy of the victim is that,
unless they are able to find a new job, they have to suffer the bullying.
But in a leisure space one can normally ignore the bullies and simply avoid
visiting again. However people get attached to certain online community
spaces and the communities who operate within these spaces. They experience
them in the same intensely emotional manner in which they might experience
their participation in a group of people who meet physically. Is this not a
form of embodiment?
I find very useful Carrie Noland's definition of embodiment as the "process
whereby collective behaviours and beliefs, acquired through acculturation,
are rendered individual and lived at the level of the body." (p.9), from her
book Agency & Embodiment: Performing Gestures / Producing Culture, which I
find works well with the above examples. But I am also interested in
Noland's approach, because she talks about agency and resistance, which can
ultimately change these behaviours and beliefs. And there is something in
this that might relate to Susan's very first point about tracking and
surveillance, although there is no space here to start a new discussion.
Both temporally and spatially.
Sophia
PS. Many thanks to Simon and Sue for inviting to this amazing discussion.
-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Simon Biggs
Sent: 10 July 2014 00:31
To: jhopkins at neoscenes.net; soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 2
----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
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