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  • The Problematic of Embodime...
    Băcăran, Mihai

    In medias res (Zagreb, Online), 05/2023, Volume: 12, Issue: 22
    Journal Article

    Digital media, and especially the widespread use of the internet, challenge our experience of embodied presence and consequently force us to rethink the definition of the ‘human’ body that informs our social practices. Starting from the online documentations of Guy Ben-Ary’s bio-artwork cellF (2015), Alvin Lucier’s seminal experimental music piece Music for Solo Performer (1965), and Stelarc’s performance RE-WIRED / RE-MIXED (2015) the present article participates in this debate by asking: what type of embodied identity is contoured in online specta(c)torship? From a methodological point of view, the article resonates with Mieke Bal’s insistence on the importance of the case study in art theory and in the philosophy of art. It aims at performing a philosophical intervention with respect to the contemporary understanding of embodiment starting from the experience proposed by the encounter with specific artworks.Drawing on the case studies mentioned above and on theories of embodiment formulated in a diversity of contexts — such as affect theory (Seigworth and Greg, Clough), feminist critique (Grosz, Butler), performance studies (Salazar Sutil) and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze —, the article contends that the problematic of the embodied subject, such as it appears in online specta(c)torship, is that of an ongoing misrecognition: an ongoing decentring of the thinking subject (of the cartesian cogito) in a continuous renegotiation of the bio-techno-logical ‘self’ that grounds the ‘I’ and is in turn grounded by it. Digitalni mediji, a posebno raširena uporaba interneta, izazivaju naše iskustvo utjelovljene prisutnosti i posljedično nas tjeraju da preispitamo definiciju ‘ljudskog’ tijela koje informira naše društvene prakse. Polazeći od internetske dokumentacije o bio-umjetničkom djelu Guya Ben-Aryja cellF (2015.), temeljnom eksperimentalnom glazbenom djelu Alvina Luciera Music for Solo Performer (1965.) i Stelarcovoj izvedbi RE-WIRED / RE-MIXED (2015.), ovaj članak sudjeluje u ovu raspravu postavljajući pitanje: koja je vrsta utjelovljenog identiteta oblikovana u online gledateljstvu? S metodološkog stajališta, članak je u skladu s inzistiranjem Mieke Bal na važnosti studije slučaja u teoriji umjetnosti iu filozofiji umjetnosti. Cilj mu je izvršiti filozofsku intervenciju u odnosu na suvremeno razumijevanje utjelovljenja polazeći od iskustva koje sugerira susret s određenim umjetničkim djelima. Oslanjajući se na gore spomenute studije slučaja i na teorije utjelovljenja formulirane u različitim kontekstima — poput teorije afekta (Seigworth i Greg, Clough), feminističke kritike (Grosz, Butler), studija izvedbe (Salazar Sutil) i filozofije Gillesa Deleuze —, članak tvrdi da je problematika utjelovljenog subjekta, kakva se pojavljuje na internetu specta(c)torship, jest stalno pogrešno prepoznavanje: trajno decentriranje subjekta koji razmišlja (kartezijanskog cogita) u neprekidnom ponovnom pregovaranju biotehnološkog ‘ja’ koje utemeljuje ‘ja’ i zauzvrat je njome utemeljena.