[-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 2

Sat Jul 12 03:32:58 EST 2014

Thanks for the excellent prompt Sophia.

I admit (seems I'm in good company) that I approach these terms with
suspicion, especially, especially immersion. However, it is a suspicion
that drives the urge to explore. For me, embodiment may be a key avenue of
access to raise questions about the (current) validity of immersion. In
terms of projects, what I'm about to say comes both from a project I'm
currently designing for Oculus at USC (the land where Oculus is an
especially sensitive topic) and six years of working in a CAVE. There's
documentation of my last CAVE project with dancer Asimina Chremos here
<http://samanthagorman.net/Canticle>.

I've witnessed the development of games or "immersive experiences" for
Oculus Rift and HMDs. Often there is a push toward photorealism with the
intent to invoke or create/manipulate particular emotions or sensations in
the user. This may or may not be motivated from an activist stance. As
ever, there is a return to the cycle of this notion of NOW is the time that
the 90s promises of the Virtual will be actualized. I question the utopian
(particularly when it imagines the photoreal). I wonder about this,
perhaps. It could be growth, but I see it as the next iteration in the
inevitable patterns/claims of the history of that medium. Leaving aside the
production and technical reasons I question Oculus, there is the question
of embodiment.

Coming from a theater background, I think of embodiment in its physical
theater terms. That is, the psychophysical were there is an impulse to
unite mind and body in the performer. Whether this impulse is right or not,
is not as important to me as* if is it possible* in virtual performance.
Perhaps this question is a good prompt toward discussion. There is
something about ideals of "immersion" that suggest or strive to bring about
this unity in the virtual elsewhere. Past experience and current work
questions the ability to create this cohesion of mind and body (especially
in HMD) because the performer/user is still tethered to the physical
kinesthetic, proprioceptive sense. Ironically, it is the interface/device
of immersive media that (in my experience) can be seen as partially
responsible failures of "immersion". The very physicality of the medium of
transport becomes the anchor. Creating a sense of total
transportation/immersion difficult. It is even harder to sustain suspension
of disbelief. My current design for an Oculus project emphasizes the
physical traces of the body. I'm working out how to explore embodiment from
the physical theater sense. Can the dualism be overcome at all or are we
tethered by the interface? This isn't always a bad thing, I think some of
the most interesting work is a collaboration between human gesture and
interface.

Sophia, I see overlap in our work. Especially in your hesitancy and your "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"
In designing projects for other users/performers, I think about performers
in the state of constant re-orientation and adjusting to how the situation
develops. I think this section of your response was particularly lovely. To
me, it is the essence of being aware of the body, but also aware of the
material/the situation.

All this thinking around the materiality of the interface is actually an
entrance point for me to question through design the creation of "flow
states" I think I know what you meant when you were referencing that as
most essential, but I'm definitely curious to hear more about that from
your personal experience. I'd also second Sue. I don't have much exposure
to "virtual embodiment" in a foreign language. It would be great to hear
about.

Thanks for your Carrie Noland suggestion. I'm just starting the process of
gathering material on this general topic for my qualifying exams. If anyone
in the community has reading recommendations, I'll gladly take them. Also,
this is an open discussion. Feel free to join in.

-Samantha

On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 8:18 AM, Sue Hawksley <sue at articulateanimal.org.uk>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Dear Sophia
>
> Many thanks for raising these points. I'd like to ask you about discussing
> notions such as 'virtual embodiment' in a foreign langauge. As we are
> seeing from the discussion so far, the term evades simple definition. I
> just checked the etymology of the word virtual to see if there is any greek
> in the roots, but its all from Latin. Would any particular nuances be drawn
> out differently if you were discussing this in Greek? I was also reminded
> that the term virtual only entered the vocabulary of computation in the
> late 50s.  I wondered if you could expand on the notions of flow, potential
> and magic that you mentioned:
>
> On 10 Jul 2014, at 12:36, sophia lycouris <sophia at kunstwerk-blend.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > 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…
>
>
> > The Skype call (when it works!) adds a certain magic (still!) which
> makes the meeting more focused. I almost become more bodily present.
>
> This makes me think about illusions, apparitions, hallucinations dreams
> etc. In theatrical or therapeutic terms, virtual effects might be brought
> about by physical sleight of hand,the trickery of  lights and mirrors,
> props and costumes; chemical changes brought about by ingestion of
> substances, physical practices, environmental factors etc. or the uncanny
> effects on the brain of physical illusions such as the 'cutaneous rabbit'
> or the 'rubber hand'. The BeAnother Lab have done some fascinating
> experiments on 'Body Swapping' in the "Be Another" project <
> http://www.themachinetobeanother.org/>
>
> Do you think that part of what creates the 'magic' of the illusion of
> altered states of bodily experience is the interruption of habitual flows,
> the creation of something new, and/or the releasing of a potential that is
> always there, or something else?
>
> all the best, Sue
>
>
>
>
> SUE HAWKSLEY
> independent dance artist
> sue at articulateanimal.org.uk
> http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>

-- 
Samantha Gorman
Annenberg Fellow and PhD Student, University of Southern California
Interdivisional Media Arts and Practices (iMAP)

http://samanthagorman.net/
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