Postphenomenological performance: bodily extensions in interactive art

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the extension of the body through the technological architecture of interactive art installations. It incorporates and builds upon Don Ihde’s postphenomenological philosophy of technology to argue how tools extend and limit the human body. This work expands upon Ihde’s hypothesis to consider how technologically mediated bodies adapt to and co-create interactive experiences. Through a methodological framework of postphenomenology, this work uses Jeffrey Shaw’s The Legible City (1988) and Dennis Del Favero’s immersive artwork Scenario (2011) as case studies. Through application of Ihde and an interview I conducted with Del Favero in 2014, this paper examines how the body is mediated, extended and reduced into his artwork through motion-sensing technology. It also considers Ihde’s concept of bodyhood as well as his specific ideas on human–technology relationships, which I argue can be broken down as a way to consider the composition of interactive art. Overall this paper considers the human body’s negotiation with technology as an interface that co-composes experientiality where users become postphenomenologically extended in interactive environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Body
• interactive art
• postphenomenology
• technology
• Don Ihde
• Dennis Del Favero
• Jeffery Shaw

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Professor Dennis Del Favero for your time, Dr Timothy Barker for your guidance and Sandy East for the illustrations. Thank you to Professors Sita Popat and Sarah Whatley for your editorial help and assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Daniel Paul O’Brien has recently graduated from the University of Glasgow. His PhD thesis was on postphenomenology in cinema, new media art and computer gaming. His work explores the composure of narrative between the body and technology across these contrasting media.

Notes on contributor

Daniel Paul O’Brien has recently graduated from the University of Glasgow. His PhD thesis was on postphenomenology in cinema, new media art and computer gaming. His work explores the composure of narrative between the body and technology across these contrasting media.

Notes

1. An earlier version of this article appeared in the International Journal of E-Politics 8.2 (2017).

2. Edmund Husserl's phenomenology, which Ihde draws from, uses the term intentionality to describe the phenomenological relationship between a human being and external object in the world. Whereas Husserl's intentionality is primarily cognitive, Ihde considers praxis through the intentionality of tools. This is what distinguishes Ihde's postphenomenology from Husserl's phenomenology.

3. Other bodily senses are also reduced within this experience, such as smell, touch and a different appreciation of time. Barker (2012b) discusses this concept of temporality in interactive art in more detail.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant number: AH/K503046/1].