Hi Patrick, thanks for sharing your ISEA paper and revisiting this topic of embodiment in virtual performance. I remember reading it at the time in 2011, and had hoped I might bump into you there to discuss but we never crossed paths.
I completely concur with your synthesis of neurological research into an understanding of virtual perception / cognition, particularly Ramachandran’s proposition that “neurons fire in sympathy with the observation of another person’s action.” I would argue that this also extends to sound, which is an integral, if not greater part of that same mirror through which we perceive and interpret meaning. On this view, sonic characteristics such as timbre, rhythm, melody, articulation in speech, music and other sound metaphorically enable the meaning making process because we know what it is to make those sounds with our voice or bodies. It is this idea of experiential metaphor that is also elaborated in the work by Mark Johnson and George Lakoff on image schematic experience, which I have previously proposed is useful to understanding perception in networked or virtual environments. It is interesting to note that Jonson and Lakoff also reference motor / mirror neuron research to elaborate their embodied cognition thesis. With this in mind, I have often wondered why sound seems to play such a minor role in these deliberations, particularly in staple literature such as Massumi, Ascott et al (please point out if you or anyone feels i have missed something here). This follows what I also find to be a somewhat anachronistic, yet still pervasive notion of virtual space being perceived objectively as a separate, somehow fluffy academic cosy space (cyberspace) between dislocated bodies. In my mind cyberspace, or networked space as I prefer to think of it, is an extension of physical spaces and the embodiment of those spaces by the social actions that occur in them. This emerged quite strongly in my own case study research of networked music performance (NMP), but perhaps it also has something to do with a music or sound focussed medium as opposed to the predominantly visual medium of virtual environments such as SL. Some of these questions might be discussed in the upcoming Art of Networked Practice symposium, although I was hoping, (Randall aside) that there might have been a panelist who could speak from a specific NMP practice and research perspective. There are many such as Pauline Oliveros, Mara Helmuth, Ken Fields for example that I think could contribute poignant ideas that relate to many of these issues but IMHO are often overlooked by audiovisual focussed telematics perspectives. In any event I enjoyed revisiting your paper and its contribution toward the much needed 'epistemic arc' as you describe it ! Best wishes Roger — Roger Mills http://www.eartrumpet.org <http://www.eartrumpet.org/> http://roger.netpraxis.net <http://roger.netpraxis.net/> http://telesound.net <http://telesound.net/> "Knowledge is only rumour until it is in the muscle" - Asaro Mudmen, Papua New Guinea.
_______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
