Cyborg Encounters: The Abilizing Capabilities of Embodying Disabling Avatars
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Machinic Sense & Sensibility: Code, AI & Performance
Presentation Title:
- Cyborg Encounters: The Abilizing Capabilities of Embodying Disabling Avatars
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
In her text, “The Virtual Body in Cyberspace,” media arts scholar Anna Balsamo coins the term “cultural autism” to refer to the new intersubjective experiences which arise from inhabiting the information environments of VR. Balsamo uses this term to characterize the virtual body as being a “disabled foil to the presumed able-bodied ‘real’ communicator.”
In recognizing that this term is drawn from a reductive understanding that people with autism are removed from “authentic” bodily experiences, “Cyborg Encounters” draws from Art Historian, Anne Pasek’s text, “Errant Bodies: Relational Aesthetics, Digital Communications, and the Autistic Analogy,” by considering how the term cultural autism can be used to positively reflect alternate lived experiences through digital media. Combining Pasek’s notion with Judith Halberstam’s low theory and haptics, this paper explores the opportunities granted through limited game mechanics as well as different gaming communities in order to investigate how players corporeal act of embodying an avatar creates a celebratory experience for differently abled bodies.
