Unmediated Experience? Re-Mediating Phenomenological Approaches
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- Interart / Intersensorium. On the Interrelation of Media and the Senses
Presentation Title:
- Unmediated Experience? Re-Mediating Phenomenological Approaches
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: Interart / Intersensorium. On the Interrelation of Media and the Senses
Phenomenological approaches have become very prominent within the last few years. One reason for that might be that multimedia art demands multisensory modes of perception that challenge the traditional epistemological models that focus on visual perception and inner imaginative processes. They rely on distant perception and neglect the interrelation between sensory data and their individual interpretation in the perciever’s mind. Furthermore perception is the result of the interrelation between multisensory perception and emotional, sub- and preconscious processes – and this is emphasized by some contemporary phenomenological approaches. But their concepts mostly understand physical/sensory experience as immediate, that means: unmediated. From a mediatheoretical point of view unmediated experience doesn’t exist as we only perceive through media – be it the human body or the air which transports sound waves and light or the technical media we use for communication and information distribution. The question my presentation will address is the following: How can multisensory and bodily experience be combined with concepts of media without falling back into the classical epistemological subject-object division? And what kind of perception model is needed to be able to explain the complexity of our daily multimedia environment?