Digital Embodiment and the Arts

With over 20 years of experience in arts and new technologies Dr Denise Doyle continues to research the impact of emerging technologies on practices across a diverse range of creative fields. As a practitioner and and a theorist her research interests focus on virtual worlds, embodied experience, virtual reality, phenomenology, digital narratives, and gravity, outer space and artistic practice. She is Principal Editor of the Journal of Virtual Creativity published by Intellect and Visiting Professor at Ontario College of Art and Design University, Canada.

• List of Figures AcknowledgementsForeword Introduction SECTION I: EMBODIMENT AND SPACE1. Digital Embodiment and the ArtsIntroduction Digital embodiment Privileging the body over the eyeThe art and science of embodiment Consciousness, cognition, and embodiment Hybridity as concept: Towards post-hybrid approach A post-hybrid approach to embodied cognition Embodiment systems and The Machine to be Another (TMTBA)Conclusion2. Imagination, Space, and Immersive Technologies Introduction On the virtual and time On the imaginary and space Conclusion SECTION II: BODY3. Gravity Body Introduction Outer space and virtual space Art practices at the frontiers of space Zero-gravity flight Embodiment and zero gravity: Tipping points, liminal states Consciousness, gravity, and embodiment Susan Kozel and Gravity and its Sisters Louise K. Wilson and Aerial Stories Conclusion4. Virtual Body Introduction Immersion, telepresence, and the body of the avatar Being in (an) other body: Joseph DeLappe and MGandhi The virtual body experience of Wanderingfictions Story Performativity and the virtual bodyThe Meta-Dreamer project Living between worlds Ontologies of virtual bodies and spaces Conclusion5. Hybrid BodyIntroductionHybridity: The cyborg body Stelarc and the cyborg/hybrid body Inhabiting the robot body Identity and the hybrid body The bio-cultural bodyThe post-gendered bodyMicha Cardenas’s Becoming DragonCatarina de Sousa’s Delicatessen projectLynne Heller’s The Adventures of Nar Duell Conclusion SECTION III: TECHNOLOGY6. Two Waves of Virtual Reality Introduction A brief history of the development of VR First wave of artists engaged in VR Extending the senses: Touch and smell and the sense of ‘being there'Second wave of artistic practices in VR Early adopters of the second wave The Lumen Prize for VR Empathy and affect in VR Conclusion7. Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds Introduction Art and virtual space The early history of arts practice in virtual worlds Pioneering work in the early days of Second LifeThe Kritical Works in SL I and II virtual exhibitions Kritical Works in SL II Translating art in virtual worlds Virtual worlds artworks since 2010 Conclusion8. Augmented, Mixed, and Extended Realities Introduction‘Different’ realities: Augmented, mixed, virtual, extended Augmented reality (AR) MR: Mixed reality Mixed reality and performance XR: Extended reality (Un)Balance (2020) Aerobanquets RMX (2017) We Live in an Ocean of Air (2018–21) The Cosmos Within Us (2020)Carne y Arena (virtually present, physically invisible) (2017) Robotic encounters in extended reality ConclusionConclusion Index