A Crash Course on Embodiment

Taking the philosophical idea of embodiment and placing it in the context of ubiquitous media might be the single most central component of actualising the future pursued by the subject.

Although extremely heavy on theory rather than real-world media technology, Paul Dourish's article outlines a clear picture of what "embodiment" actually translates to.

The conclusion of the piece states that Dourish's preliminary understanding of embodiment was as things that occur in real time and space. He develops this to say that embodiment is the idea of our engagement with that reality that results in meaning; what might be called life. He then brings in the link to technology by explaining that embodied interaction is application and influence of this life-meaning with artefacts; or media.

This is built via a crash course in phenomenological academia regarding the notion of embodiment. Phenomenology still not being entirely clear to me- I think it's the study of things and how that reflects existence rather than typical philosophy which is usual about what is the wider nature that constitutes things regarding existence.

This crash course essentially follows this syllabus:

Edmund Husserl; how the life-world is based in everyday embodied experience

Alfred Schutz; how the ‘life-world’ could be extended to address problems in social interaction

Martin Heideggar; embodied action is essential to our mode of being and to the ways in which we encounter the world

Maurice Merleau-Ponty; the body is critical in mediating between internal and external experience

Altogether, when considered in relation to the vision for ubiquitous media, the philosophy of embodiment would apply in the sense that, presumably, technology would be as tacit as any other day-to-day action and thus would be part of ‘life’ itself, therefore being the legitimate thing with which we take part in life. I would almost argue, following this notion, would mean that the idea of internal and external experience needs to be rethought.

Dourish, P., & Dourish, P. (2004). "Being-in-the-World": Embodied Interaction. In Where the action is: The foundations of embodied interaction (1st ed., pp. 99-126). Cambridge: MIT Press.