[-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 2

Sat Jul 12 11:09:08 EST 2014

I'm not sure Sue how this would be translated in Greek, as I am not in
direct contact with Greek networks where such topics are discussed. So I put
it in the google translate box! It came up with something that if I'd seen
it in Greek, I wouldn't guess that it refers to virtual embodiment. The
translation of the word 'virtual' is closer to the word 'visual' or 'that
which offers an image'. The word 'embodiment' is closer to the word
'version' or 'rendering'... I sent an urgent email to some people in Greece
who should know, so I will hopefully tell you more about this soon. In an
old dictionary of mine, I found 'virtual' translated as 'essential', and
embodiment, as 'in-fleshment' (if this made up word makes sense in
English!), or personification!

And yes the word 'virtual' is definitely of Latin origin and it has
obviously a link with 'virtue', which in my mind has connotations of
something ethical, precious, superior, distinguished. So this is interesting
too.  

About flow, I really borrowed from Alan Sondheim's posting:  "I tend towards
the messiness of Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge, thinking in terms, not
of separations and analysis (which also tend towards genre and canon), but
of flows, spews, abjections, tolerances, potential wells and tunnelling, and
so forth". And what I wanted to say is that we tend to rely too much on text
when we are trying to understand what happens with technology in the arts
and where the new element is. So what was happening with me was that I
wasn't feeling convinced about the ways in which we have almost worshipped
certain technologies and exaggerated about what they do. For example, the
use of GPS has been often worshipped in my opinion, yet to me there is an
element of 'so what?'  because it doesn't really change the way in which I
experience my everyday life. And if this doesn't happen, for me nothing
changes, although some of these things have been presented (in text) as
radical changes. But that's because we articulated in text what a project
would do, before it was created, and then we had to prove that it did what
we promised. It is not easy to accept that the project will be an
exploration the outcomes of which we cannot determine in advance. Therefore
I am interested in Alan's emphasis on flow, because I think we should
approach technology (and what it does) within a flow and not from a
predetermined position of something that we wrote about this technology,
before it was used and developed.

And finally, magic! Well, I don't know, I am working on this... what's this
notion of magic that haunts me from project to project. It might be just a
place holder for something that has no name yet. But it is definitely not
about illusion and hallucinations. The more I think about it, the more it
seems to me that it is about a state of heightened physical awareness that
happens very easily and instantly in the middle of an everyday setting. And
the reason why this happens is I think the fact that something manages to
catch our attention 100% and draw us in. This is an amazing focus that
happens easily and organically, and gives us a sense of physical expansion,
as if the breath can reach places in the body it couldn't before. It is a
sense of well-being.

There is no doubt that a different kind of flow is introduced during these
moments of total absorption.  But I never thought of it as interruption. I
think that's probably because I have wrongly assumed that whatever is
already happening is a non-event, which is equal to "nothing happens".
Therefore there is a need to identify or create a new flow of things, and
the older generation is stepping back gradually, or should do so! The
approach is almost futuristic. But I will pay attention to this, as it
doesn't make sense to assume that there was no flow at all, before the
moment of magic happens.

I'm not sure how to integrate this well with my reference to the magic
happening through Skype... I guess the best way to approach this is the
effort required to make the Skype call work. This effort focuses body and
mind, and I feel more alive.

sophia

Many thanks for raising these points. I'd like to ask you about discussing
notions such as 'virtual embodiment' in a foreign language. 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