[-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 3

Tue Jul 15 15:18:04 EST 2014

HI everyone

Thanks to Sue and Simon for the invite - I have been traveling and not able to read all the posts over the last few weeks, but I note from the unread number on my Empyre list mailbox that the discussion has been vigorous - I look forward to going through them in due course.

I have never the less been able to keep up with some of the discussion and have been wondering in the discussion over the last week about cognition - for our experience is always mediated through conditioning and learned patterns.  Like Andy Clark (2009), Cowley talks of ‘‘biosocial organs permeated by history’’ (2002).  It is the History part here that I reflect on - I wonder how we situate our thinking when it is sooo complex to become aware of the point of reference we establish.  I wonder this because I want to find where the virtual begins?

recently a friend shared with me a small experiment probably known to all of you:  Please silently read the following several times - "I can hear the voice in my head reading this sentence"

Which made me think about how virtuality is inbuilt - there appears to be several of me: me reading, me listening, me observing the listener and critiquing the experiment, me in physical form seemingly hosting all of these facets of the self etc - and they all seem distinct and material in some way - so there appears to be at least 4 of me and therefore I am confused perhaps about which is what - ie. where the no-virtual and the virtual transition and which me is embodied and how?

Malafouris via John Sutton comments: "if cognition is distributed as well as embodied, then explanation in cognitive science must often highlight more or less transient extended systems spanning embodied brains, social networks or resources and key parts of the natural and the cultural world. These key parts of material culture are not simply cues which trigger the truly cognitive apparatus inside the head but instead form ‘‘a continuous part of the machinery itself’’, as ‘‘systemic components the interaction of which brings forth the cognitive process in question’’ (Malafouris, 2004:58). 
see Sutton, John. Material Agency, Skills and History: Distributed Cognition and the Archaeology of Memory for more discussion on 

It seems we come back to Machinic Assemblages alla Deleuze and Guattari - as both social and self

so where exactly is the virtual? or the embodied?

Cheers,

Garth Paine
gpaine62 at me.com

On Jul 14, 2014, at 5:34 PM, Simon Biggs <simon at littlepig.org.uk> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> 
> 
> Welcome to the third week of the July discussion on  –empyre–  soft-skinned space:
> 
> Moderated by Sue Hawksley (UK/AUS) and Simon Biggs (AUS/UK) with invited discussants Susan Kozel (SE), Johannes Birringer (UK), Samantha Gorman (USA), Sophia Lycouris (UK), Tamara Ashley (UK), Garth Paine (USA), Hellen Sky (AUS), Daniel Tercio (PT), Sally Jane Norman (NZ/FR) and Sarah Whatley (UK).
> 
> The month's discussion engages issues concerning 'virtual embodiment'. This theme is open to interpretation - suggesting concepts and practices that are situated in the physical, the computational, the imaginative, the metaphysical or all of these spaces, depending on context. Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, developers of the Rift virtual reality headset, promises to make a new virtual experiential space popularly available. This raises questions about the impact of the virtual when it converges with popular social media. As shared VR experiences becomes pervasive how might social conventions shift and notions of selfhood and collective evolve? What might a collective virtual experience contribute to notions of extended or distributed mind, agency or identity? Does virtual embodiment depend on, augment or replace bodily practices? What will the quotidian affects be?
> 
> Thanks to the second week of our discussion's invited discussants Samantha Gorman and Sophia Lycouris, as well as those who contributed to the discussion. During the second week of discussion the focus has been upon the body in space and whether the virtual constitutes a new kind of space or represents as different mode of engagement with the spaces we already inhabit. The terms 'virtual' and 'immersion' were questioned within this context and the principle of energy flows identified as a way to appreciate how we interact in representational spaces. Theatrical space and language were explored and the pressure to adopt a photo-realistic approach to visualisation questioned. We hope these themes will continue to be unpacked as the discussion develops further.
> 
> For the third week of discussion around 'virtual embodiment' we welcome Garth Paine, Hellen Sky and Tamara Ashley:
> 
> Garth Paine is the Associate Director of the School of Arts Media and Engineering and Digital Culture program at Arizona State University where he is also Professor of Digital Sound and Interactive Media. He is particularly fascinated with sound as an exhibitable object. This passion has led to several interactive responsive environments where the inhabitant generates the sonic landscape through their presence and behaviour. It has also led to several music scores for dance works, generated through realtime video tracking and/or bio-sensing of the dancers. His work has been shown throughout Australia, Europe, Japan, USA, South America, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dr Paine is internationally regarded as an innovator in the field of interactivity in experimental music and media arts. His URL is http://www.activatedspace.com
> 
> Hellen Sky is an Australian digital choreographer/performer/director/writer. Her projects bridge dance, performance and installation at times extended through new technologies and data generated by the moving body as a fluid interface between micro-movements, media, virtual-electronic and physical architectures, words and objects. As co-founder of new media performance company Company in Space (1992-2004) and as Hellen Sky and Collaborators she has presented work across Australia and internationally.
> 
> Tamara Ashley is the Artistic Director of dancedigital.  To this role she brings a strong background in conceptual thinking and experimental performance practice in dance improvisation, somatics, live arts and new media.  Through the organisation, she supports and nurtures artists working with dance and new technologies, seeks to develop conversations with practitioners across disciplines and engages in research to develop thinking, tools and products for the dance sector.  As a researcher, Tamara has focused upon the application of qualitative research paradigms to creative and practical research. Tamara has undertaken studies that explore dance improvisation and somatics in environmental and digital performance, with publications in the Choreographic Practices Journal; Theatre, Dance and Performance and Training; Contact Quarterly and has published book chapters on choreography, site-sensitive performance and improvisation.  A committed educator, she lectures on practice as research in the PhD programme at the University of Limerick and is a Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Bedfordshire. 
> 
> 
> Simon Biggs
> simon at littlepig.org.uk  |  @_simonbiggs_ 
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk  |  http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
> 
> simon.biggs at unisa.edu.au  |  Professor of Art, University of South Australia
> http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?name=simon.biggs
> 
> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk  |  Honorary Professor, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
> 
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