Participants' production diary conclusions / Sami Haikonen /

The Embodied Experience and Physicality in Virtual Space

My aims for the spring work were set in my essay "Body and Identity in Virtual Space". In the essay I concluded that body should not be forgotten or separated from the subject in the new media design, because body is an essential part of our existence. Physicality, or corporeality is something that connects us to the world and other people. Thus my research question in this project was: How to bring the body to new media? During the process I noted that the question could be refined with other question: How to create an experience, where the user is emotionally attached?

During the process I found out that using cinematic language could be one way of enchancing the embodied experience. By cinematic language I refer for example to the use of cinematic cut and close-ups in Candira's diary. The use of cinematic methods should be further studied. For example the use of montage could be a good research area.

My secondary focus in this project was physicality which also is connected to the embodied experience. Physicality is seen as one main theme in current design culture by the authors of book, "Design Culture Now" (Albrecht, Lupton, Holt, 2000). The authors have observed today's design culture from typography to stage design under eight themes including fluid, physicality, minimal, reclaimed, local, branded, narrative and unbelievable. They argue that physical experience is widely represented in today's design. Digitality also allows to extend and break the physical laws like the designers of company Post Tool have done (1). Physicality can make the digital world more human.

In this project I tried to represent physicality with "old film effect", adjusting the luminance of the image. The idea of physicality is also supported by the use of bad quality images. All in all, physicality could have been better used through the project. For example physical typography could have been implemented in Candira's diary.

In summary, the ideas of embodied experience and physicality were carried through the process, but much more could have been done with them. However the emotional attachment was at least in some cases achieved. Some of the users reported in the feedback session that they were emotionally attached to Candira. The foundings of embodied experience and physicality during this project can hopefully be better implemented in future projects.

Notes
1. "As an architects of a virtual environment, we reference and break the physical laws of nature." Gigi Biederman and David Karam partners of Post Tool design: (Albrecht, Lupton, Holt, 2000: Design Culture Now)

References

Books:
Albrech, Donald; Lupton, Ellen; Holt, Steven. 2000: Design Culture Now : National Design Triennial, Princeton Architectural Pr;

Deleuze, Gilles. 1981: Francis Bacon in The Artist's Body (Themes and Movements)
by Tracey Warr (Ed.), Survey Amelia Jones, (Ed.), Phaidon Press Inc. 2000

Paintings:
Francis Bacon's portraits
Sylvester, David: Human Body

Bibliography
von Bonsdorff, Pauline. 1999. Ruumis, identiteetti ja yksilöllisyys [Body, Identity and Individuality] in Synteesi magazine (3/1999)

Becker, Barbara. 2000: Cyborgs, Agents, and Transhumanists, Crossing Traditional Borders of Body and Identity in the Context of New Technology, in Leonardo magazine Vol. 33, No. 5 / 2000

Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. 1995: The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of Mechanical Age, MIT Press

Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. 1991. Will the Real BodyPlease Stand Up?: Boundary Stories about Virtual Cultures. Published in Cyberspace: First Steps. ed. Michael Benedikt. MIT Press.

Turkle, Sherry. 1995. Life in the Screen. Identity at the Age of Internet. Simon & Schuster.