white, michelle - networked bodies and extended corporealities- theorizing the relationship between...

7/29/2019 White, Michelle - Networked Bodies and Extended Corporealities- Theorizing the Relationship Between the Body, Embodiment, And Contemporary New Media

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theories about the hody and embodiment have a great deal to contributeto Internet and new m edia research.In this essay, I analyze feminist studies of new media that incorporatethe body and embodiment into considerations of Internet and computertechnologies. I consider how the arguments of Susan Kozel, Anna Mun-ster, Bernadette Wegenstein, and Kim Toffoletti interrelate and the waystheir methods refute current conventions. These authors use the term"new media" because it references an array of digital technologies andrelated practices. However, the term also supports wide-sweeping claimsabout objects and processes and distinguishes these sites from earlier

BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE

Closer: Performance, Technoloies, Phenomenology. By Susan Koze l . Cambr idge : MITPress, 2007.Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics. B y A n n a M u n s t e r .Hanover, N.H.: Dartmouth College Press, 2006.Getting under the Skin: Body and Media Theory. B y B e r n a d e t t e W e g e n s t e in . C a m -bridg e: M IT Press, 2006.C yborgs and Barbie D olls: F eminism, Popu lar C ulture, and the Posthuman Body. B y KimToffoletti. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007.

tendencies. Kozel, Munster, Wegenstein, and Toffoletti try to avoid thesepropensities by relating new media and their sites of investigation tohistorical and theoretical practices. These authors also employ a numberof oth er similar strategies: they provide critical me tho ds for theorizin g th ebody and its cultural formations in Internet and computer-facilitated set-tings. They also interrogate cyberpunk science fiction authors' and futur-ists' propositions about technological agency and leaving the body behind.Artworks, dance performances, and media representations are employedas ways of theorizing the body and embodiment. Phenomenology andoth er theories are strategically referenced. Th ro ug h these strategies, these


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ment are connected to , changed hy, and e l ided through Internet andcomputer technologies.The authors of early writ ings about Internet sett ings and more recentconceptions of Web 2.0 tend to suggest that all individuals are empoweredhy technologies and that embodiment and gender posit ions are no longerdetermining factors in the ways people engage in and are understood inInternet set t ings. This l i terature is related to the Western intel lectualtradition in that it supports the erasure and dismissal of the body. PeterS te ine r ' s we l l -known New Yorker ca r toon r epresen t s t hese i deas . Hesuggests that the displacement of ident i t ies in Internet and computer-facilitated settings enables all people to equitably engage. In his drawing, adog is in front of a computer, addressed hy another dog, and informed,"On the In tern et , no bod y know s you ' re a dog." '' In a s imi lar m an ne r ,Virginia Shea's often-quoted netiquette guidelines argue that individualsare no t judged accord ing to th eir age, body size, class, and race because ofInternet anonymity. ' ' The Jargon Fi le at t r ibutes hackers ' "gender- andcolor-blindness" and tolerance to their engagements in text-based com-munication.^ These assumptions about equity have not changed with theshift toward social networking profiles and expectations that individualswill disclose their identities in Internet settings.

Som e feminist In tern et and new med ia studies scholars provide simi-lar accounts. Sadie Plant, a writer and academic theorist , envisions theInternet as a feminist and impartial setting in which "access to resources"that "were once restricted to those with the right face, accent, race, sex"are no w accessible to everyone.* In M arg rit Shildrick a nd Janet Price'sfeminist anthology on the body, they describe the cyberfeminist belief thatthe no rm ative body is diffused, and distinctions between h um an and com -pu ter, female and m ale, and actual and virtual no longer apply in In tern etand computer-faci l i tated set t ings. Shi ldr ick and Price also argue thatwomen are rightly suspicious of investments in the "neutrali ty" of cyber-space. They propose that academics' and activists' interests in "corporealt ransgre ssion," a feature of cyberfeminist research and po stm od ern istfeminism, m ight he better addressed "th rou gh a set of tangible, albeit fluid


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inclination is critically useful. However, proposals that fluid and frag-mented corporealities inherently facilitate political outcomes should beavoided. Such assessments have too much in common with claims thatthe fluid features of Internet and computer-facilitated settings are inher-ently liberating.

The people writing about and using Internet and computer technolo-gies continue to make Utopian claims about social networking sites, e-commerce venues, and digital production software. Yochai Benkler, alegal studies academic, looks to open source and " no nm ark et pro du ctio n"as "radically decentralized, collaborative, and non-proprietary; based onsharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely con-nected individuals who cooperate with each other without relying on

. either market signals or managerial commands."* Sites such as YouTubepromise the ability to "Broadcast You rself and portray th e people wh oupload videos as the subject of the site and in control. Jeff SkoU, a formereBay executive, argues that people who buy and sell on eBay are "able toimprove their lives substantially" because they now have "access to a levelplaying field."' These acco unts of unbiased and em pow ering technologicaltools and practices are distinctly different from feminist research on hometechnologies and science and technology studies of how users are config-ured by such gendered pro du cts as razors.'" Feminist and science and tech-nology studies scholars analyze how technologies and social practicesarticulate the position and skill level of designers and users. Individualswho do not meet the expectations prescribed by the technologies andsociety are likely to experience personal anxiety and cultural pressure tofulfill expected norms. For instance, women are directed to maintcdn veryc lean homes because of the purpor tedly t ime-saving and advancedfeatures of household technologies.

Descriptions of equitable and gender-blind Internet and computertechnologies and social practices persist. However, technologies are associ-ated with particular kinds of bodies, embodiment, and subject positions.Cyberpunk science fiction literature tends to equate computer program-mers' skills with pure mind. For instance. Case and other male hackers in


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body and its cultural formations in Internet and computer-facilitatedset t ings. In Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology, Susan Kozel prea critical model for understanding the connections between embodimentand digital technologies through her practices as a dancer and choreogra-pher. Her work is distinctive because individuals are still discouraged inmany academic venues from considering their personal artistic practices.Kozel has developed a methodology to conceptualize her subjective expe-riences, reveal broader cultural beliefs and practices, and highhght theways "bodies exist with and through other bodies in social and politicalcontexts" (xvi). This approach is supported by her choice of ph en om en ol-ogy as a critical model, including a detailed engagement with MauriceMerleau-Ponty's work." For Kozel, phenomenology incorporates l ivedexperience and the senses. It also provides ways of resisting binary distinc-t ions between the mind and body because phenomenological engage-ments start before or move beyond the divide between subject and object.Phenomenology acknowledges bodies, "thought, imagination, memories,material conditions of life, aiid affect" (5). For instance, Kozel's experiencesof tactility, pain, and positionality are rendered and enhanced throughdigital media. Through such features of embodiment and lived experience,Kozel interrogates claims that new media allows individuals to leave theirbodies behind. She envisions bodies as more than meat because they are"sources of intelligence, compassion, and extraord inary creativity" (xvi).

Anna Munster analyzes digital production practices, with an empha-s is on new media ar t , in Materializing New Media: Embodiment in InformationAesthetics. She proposes a conceptual and aesthetic genealogy for Internetand com puter-facilitated projects tha t interrelates new media and m ateri-aUty. She also resists such binaries as the distinction between mind andbody and the idea that information technologies provide a way of leavingthe body behind. For her, claims that new media facilitate a transcenden-tal engagement with the machine are cause for concern. Such proposalsallow specific experiences of bodies and identity positions to be displaced.Munster deploys the baroque, including its visual emphasis on the fold.


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connections between the organic and artificial, senses and thought, andarts and sciences rather than linearity, hierarchical arrangements, andbinaries. Munster situates her engagement in the baroque witb BarbaraMaria Stafford's trajectory from early medicine and natural history topostmodern practices of assemblage and bricolage." Cabinets of curiosityare also a form of assemblage. Th ey are identified as pr ec urs or s to th emuseum; but the producers of these collections combine art objects,natural specimens, and fantastical creations without distinguishing thespecificity of artifacts or organizing them according to scientific or cultur-ally agreed-upon categorization methods. Munster relates the baroque,including its emphasis on the fold, and cabinets of curiosity to new mediabecause these earlier forms provide a paradigm for com preh end ing theambivalent forms of connectivity and discontinuity that are conveyed byinformation aesthetics. They point to methods for analyzing digitallyprod uced texts, identity positions, and bodies.

New media art is also deployed as a way of integrating embodimentand Internet and computer technologies in Bernadet te Wegenstein 'sGetting under the Skin: Body and Media Theory. She describes instal lat ion and videoart in order to conceptualize contemporary new media. She connectsearlier practices and Internet and computer-facilitated production ratherthan supporting the idea that contemporary technologies and engage-ments are new and unrelated to previous cultural processes and concep-tions. Wegenstein looks to visual and medical practices, from the fifteenthcentury through the Human Genome Project, in order to correlate con-ceptions of the body and embodiment with earlier understandings. Hertheore t ica l approach, inc luding the deployment of phenomenology,provides a means of interrogating and theorizing the changing notions ofthe body and em bo dim ent tha t have been supp orted by successions of newmedia. She provides a detailed analysis of the virtualization of the bodywithout making claims that individuals are liberated and empowered bythese experiences. Media is corporealized in Internet and computer-facili-tated settings. According to her, the position of the body as constitutivemed iation has com bined w ith media proliferation so tha t experiences with


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Kim Toffoletti analyzes posthuman existence in order to generatenew cr i t ical models in Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture, aPosthuman Body. For her, the pos thu m an is a process that can reform ulanormative categories of heing and transform identity polit ics throughdialectical arrangements. Like the other authors discussed here Toffolettiinterrogates the cultural belief that new media is liberating and arguesthat the posthuman does not succeed the human subject or provide waysof leaving the body behind. She proposes that posthuman existence canenable women because it replaces the identity categories that essentializeand exclude them with a more complicated series of suhject positions.Toffoletti theorizes the relationship hetween self and technologies byfocusing on objects, advertisements, and art works that comment upontechnologies, rather than on Internet and computer systems. These sitesinclude Mattel's Barbie doll, a CD cover by singer Marilyn Manson, and aTDK corporation ad featuring the image of a prosthetic baby (reproducedon the book's cover). In examining these representations of the posthu-man, she describes how the body is extended into systems and networks.Toffoletti uses Jean Baudrillard's c oncep tion of simu lation as a m eth od ofconnecting seemingly disparate states and resisting binary distinctionsbetween the real and virtual. For her, posthumanism is a product of theinform ation age and a series of positions tha t un ravel the hou ndariesbetween reality and illusion.

T H E C R I T I C A L M E T H O D S O F F O L D I N G ,T R A N S F O R M A T I O N , A N D C O N N E C T I V E T I S S U EMunster and Kozel provide theories that incorporatein the terms ofthese theorists, "fold"sensation, movement, and temporality into theiracco unts of In te rne t and com puter- fac i l i ta ted e ng age m ents . Theseauthors deploy Gilles Deleuze's theoretical work on the fold because theinterc onn ected and in-between states of the fold p oin t to t he critical possi-bilities of beco ming, are resistant to binaries, and ren de r a different subjectposition than conceptions of uniform being.'* As Joan Key indicates, fold-ing breaks down categorizations and the suhject positions that rely on


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persistent folding of the inside and outside to the invagination of tissue inembryology and the doubling of fabric in sewing. The representations offabric and other materials in such baroque works as Giovanni LorenzoBernini's the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (1647-1652) have intensely activated andsinuous folded surfaces, dissolve the body and materiality, create linkagesas folds weave things together, and highlight gaps at the deep parts of thefold and places materials do n ot meld. Folding resists distinctions betweensubjects and objects and cohesive positions. Theories of the fold are th ere -fore related to the sorts of shifting subject positions and fragmentationthat occur in Intern et and new m edia settings and th at have been a part ofpostmodernist feminist reconceptualizations of the body.

M uns ter argues that t he concep t of the fold persists in the baroq ue an dnew media . She correla tes the baroque and new media through theconc eption of microscopy and an "enveloped and unfolding set of relationsorganizing the world" (38). Munster is interested in the ways the baroquerelates to contemporary renderings of self, embodiment , and artworkswhere there is an "interface, or fold, between corporeality and informaticcode" (41). For M unster, the fold provides a way of reading even ts as possi-bihties rather than as historical inevitabilities. Munster uses the fold toengage with the "gaps, discontinuities or differentials between bodies andnew media" and theorize an "emerging digital embodiment." (16) Thisembodiment is capable of "becoming both sensate and virtual" (17).

These deployments of critical conceptions of folding, which demon-strate the ways seemingly solid objects change and disparate materials,bodies, and ideas share connections, are related to transformation andplastic. Toffoletti associates "transfo rm ers" w ith things tha t ch allengeestablished categories, including reality television shows about surgery,Mari lyn Manson, Barbie dol ls , and Transformers toys. Transformersdemonstrate the difficulty in constructing a politics of subjectivity that isbased on identity. For instance, Manson regularly remakes his physiog-nomy and gender identity. In place of identity, Toffoletti proposes a formof subjectivity that is not associated with identification or resistance. Sheacknowledges feminist resistance to Barbie, which is based on the ways


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Barbie and demonstrates how the dol l encourages al ternat ive under-standings of the body and a conception of the self as transformative,rather tha n fixed.

Toffoletti identifies Barbie as a precursor to the posthuman, a plastictransformer that points to the possibilities of mutabihty and fluidity. Kozeland Munster describe the ways information and embodiment fold intoeach other. Toffoletti does the same thing for plastic. She highlights howplastic has been incorporated into the body through prosthetics and artifi-cial joints. The replacement of organic components in and outside of thebody evokes cyborgs and challenges cultural investments in certain ver-sions of the real and human. Toffoletti proposes that the material andsymbolic ambiguities of plastic emphasize connections between tbe body,technology, and representations. Eor her. Barbie's critical possibilities arefacilitated by her plasticity. Barbie is hard in some places and rubbery inoth ers ; her syn thetic sheen evokes muta bili ty and flux. Like a flexedrubber band. Barbie's limbs seem filled with energy and ready to snap.Barbie is thereby ready to m etam orp bo se. By reading Barbie's transfo rm a-tive plasticity, Toffoletti cballenges cultural understandings of Barbie aspassive and static. Her conceptions of transformers and plastic can beproductively used along witb theories of the fold. After all, plastic foldsbecause it represents ambiguity and the in-between. Many of plastic'sma terial states are fluid and changeable.

Conceptions of tbe fold are also related to resonance and connectivetissue. Kozel discusses how her writing resonates with viewers who havenever seen th e dance perform ances she describes. W itb reso nance, sensoryexperiences, descriptions, and imaginary accounts affect individuals pbysi-cally and em otionally. Kozel uses the m ode l of connective tissue to tran s-form the idea of resonan ce in to a m ore tangible me tap ho r , conveyMerleau-Ponty's ideas about flesh, and explain the ways experiences can becommunicated between people. Connective tissue and varied tissue struc-tures keep our bodies and organs articulated and held together. Tbeyshape our identity, weave diverse parts of the body and society together,


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and delineations. For instance, connective t issue supports separat ionswithin our body and creates spaces for nerves and blood vessels and fluidsto pass. For Kozel, language and engagements between people are materialand a form of conn ective tissue. Reson ance and conn ective tissue provide aMerleau-Pontian means of understanding thought and methods for theo-rizing the kinds of communications that occur within one body, commu-nications among individuals, the hnks between physicahty and ideas, andconn ections involving self and the wo rld.

Kozel uses connective tissue as a metaphor for "physical, social, anddigital netw ork s" (278). T hr ou gh this m eta ph or and M erleau-Po nty 'sphe no m eno logica l theories, she conceptualizes her body as always alreadyconnected to the fabric of the world. This theory of connective tissuethereby indicates that the other is already in her, and connective tissuedoes not end at the skin. Through connective tissue her choreographiesare hnked to animate things, technological devices, and ideas. For Kozel,choreography is about variat ions and relat ionships between bodies inspace and time. Although the body that is conveyed by digital technolo-gies may n ot be presen t, its co nst itutio n as a form of con nectiv e tissuemeans that it has an even greater potential for development and change.This extend ed and expand ed co rporeali ty is perm eated by inters t i t ia lspaces and an array of other things.

These theories of folded, connected, and expanded corporeality, inwhich the body and embodiment connect with and through networks,prov ide a different m od el of new med ia eng age m ent tha n ideas abo utleaving the body behind. These methods, including Toffoletti 's call forexaminations that are not based on resistance or identification, can befurther developed. In their present forms, these methods do not distin-guish how particular bodies fold, transform, resonate, and incorporateconnective tissue. It may be worth examining Deleuze's identification ofthe fold as feminine, including his association of it with invagination andsewing. It also makes sense to encourage more detailed considerations ofthe values, cultural coding, and social resistances that accompany thesemod els and Interne t and new media engagem ents.


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N E W M E D I A B O D I E S A N D E M B O D I M E N TThe authors considered in this art ic le incorporate embodiment intocontemporary conceptions of new media without reverting to notions ofthe coherent, bounded, and stable body. These cultural formations areused to disempower a variety of subjects and have been critiqued by femi-nists and postmodern theorists. Munster and Toffoletti use N. KatherineHayles's work to consider how the body and embodiment are connectedand distinct.^" According to Hayles, the body is a normalization and ideal-ization of corporeal experiences. Information technologies tend to separatethe body as a representation from embodiment even though embodimentinteracts with and is affected by renderings of the body. The body is corre-lated with the characteristics of information. Embodiment is associatedwith materiality. The body/information is understood as abstract and canbe organized, controlled, and programmed. Embodiment is conceptual-ized as lived and m or e fluid.

Kozel identifies embodiment as a process rather than a stable state.Societal conceptions affect how people move, the technologies that aredeveloped, and the ways interfaces formulate bodies and technologies.Everyday techniques of embodiment fine-tune our level of presence. De-cisions to eat or move part of the body, as Kozel argues, maintain con-scious bodily presence. Other embodiment techniques, such as meditatingor juggling, result in more specific states of bodily awareness and presence.Kozel does not directly address this issue, bu t her descriptions of consciousbodily presence suggest that the fine and slight movements that peoplemake when engaging with contemporary technologies activate ratherthan erase embodied experiences. Kozel identifies bodies as energy ratherthan matter. This figuration further troubles the idea of leaving the bodybehind. It also provides methods for connecting Internet and computer-facilitated renderings of the body to corporeality. Eor instance, Kozel'stheories might offer methods for analyzing the ways the Wii, Guitar Hero,and other computer games that include embodied movement activatebodily awareness and presence.


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m as t e ry and d i s in t eg ra t i on . On a r e l at ed t he m e . M uns t e r a rgues t h a tInternet and computer-rendered spaces do not ful ly correla te with bodi lymovements and posit ional changes. When individuals are navigating fullyimmersive sett ings with the aid of head-mounted virtual reali ty displays,their physical bodies may twitch and move incoherent ly . The animatedcharacters in the Dance, Dance, Revolution arcade game get people to mimicand clumsily follow dance moves.

Inte rne t and co m pu ter technologies are of ten m arkete d as fast, func-t ioning, and product ive. However , Munster proposes that lag is a charac-te r i s t i c o f new media bodies and embodiment . Cursors sh i f t be tweengliding, stuttering, and stopping. Lag is also suggested by the ways Kozeland her digital representations sluggishly respond when overtaxed by theex t r eme demands o f new med ia dance pe r fo rmances . Lagg ing bod ie s ,according to Munster, occur because of the t ime that i t takes virtual real-i ty scenar ios o r ava ta r images to load and change . In s imula ted gamespaces , individuals exper ience swooping gazes that break into pixi la tedconfusion w hen m achines lag behind the instruct ional m ov em en ts of thep layers . These engagements p roduce a body and embodiment in p ieces .Lag disrupts cul tura l investm ents in s tandardizat ion and hom ogen izat ion.I t leads to m o m en ts w he n physical bodies are dis t inct ly dif ferent f romvirtual bodies. Suc h m ultiplication s of viewp oints, posit ions, and bodies, asM un ster argues , do no t provide a seamless ma tch b etween body and cod e.The bodily extensions that are facil i tated by new media are not corporeal.However , they engage ind iv idua ls in the speeds , rhy thms , f lows , andbreakdowns of digital information. These features of new media make itmore d i f f i cu l t t o a s soc i a t e embod imen t w i th bounded and con ta inedb o d ie s . I n s te a d , M u n s t e r p r o p o s e s t h a t w e c o n c e p t u a l i z e m u l t i p l e ,lagging, fragm ented, folded, divergen t, and exten ded selves.

Wegenstein distinguishes between the disappearance of the body anddisembodiment. She suggests that we locate this disappearance and "deathdeclarat ion" in the development of Ren Descar tes 's b inary dis t inct ionsbetween mind and body and contemporary references to this model (11).^ 'Munster a lso considers Descar tes 's theor ies and cul tural investments in


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entitled "Grids, Guys, and Gals: Are You Oppressed by the CartesianCoordinate System?" During this session, panelists discussed how digitalsettings regulate the messiness of bodies and the material world. A groupof at tendees responded by wearing T-shir ts declaring their love ofDescartes and by heckling speakers. Th e panelists felt confined by In tern etand computer- fac i l i ta ted se t t ings whi le the T-shi r t -wear ing cohor tperceived an "assault on the epistemological foundation of present-daycomputing technologies" and their personal investments in these prac-tices (2). Munster is more ambivalent than the panelists in connectingDescartes's theories to the kinds of mind /body distinction th at are mad e inInternet and new media settings. She indicates how Descartes also pro-poses nonb inary mo dels of identity.

Th e au tho rs also relate Inte rne t and com puter-facilitated interaction sto earl ier kinds of mediat ion and cul tural product ion. For instance.Munster connects new media to the baroque, fold, and cabinet of curiosi-ties. Wegenstein argues that architecture should be identified as either afore run ner of new m edia or related to it. This is because architects re nd erslippery transitory surfaces, deploy walls and other structures as mediascreens, and facili tate multiple and shifting viewpoints. For instance,conceptual artist Dan Graham deploys reflective and transparent walls todeconstruct the single viewpoint in his pavilions. Viewers and the envi-ronment are refracted and screened on these structures. In a relatedmanner, new media art installations trigger multiple viewpoints and itera-tions of the body.

The body-in-pieces, which undermines the unified body, viewpoint,and identity, appears in varied periods and practices. Wegenstein indicatesthat anatomical fragmentation of the body began in the fifteenth centuryand poses some shifts in the ways bodies have been represe nted and m edi-ated over time. She traces a progression from the w ou nd ed bodies pro -duced by 1960s and 1970s performance artists to the extended bodies thatare faci l i ta ted by contemporary new media art ists and Internet andcomputer-mediated settings. Artists produce wounded bodies by cuttinginto, stitching, and otherwise opening up their bodies to self-inflicted pain


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r i f l e . P h o t o g r a p h s o f t h e e v e n t d e p i c t B u r d e n b l e e d i n g f r o m a n a r mw o u n d .C o n t e m p o r a r y f e m i n is t a r t is t s s o m e t i m e s u s e t h e i r b o d i e s as am e d i u m a n d m a k e t h e b o d y p r o m i n e n t . F o r e x a m p l e , t h e F r e n c h p e r -f o r m a n c e a r t is t O r la n u s e s p l a s t i c s u r g e r y t o r e m a k e h e r s e l f i n t o acompos i t e o f f em in i n e b eau ty i d ea l s . I n Touch Ginema (1968), Valie Exportt u r n s h e r bod y i n t o a k ind o f t h e a t e r . View e r s cou l d g ro pe Expo r t 's b r e a s tst h r o u g h a c u r t a i n e d b o x in t h is s tr e e t p e r f o r m a n c e . T h e s e w o r ks , a c c o r d -i ng t o Weg en s t e i n , f un c t i on a s c r i ti que s o f t h e m ed i a p ro du ce d and f ac ili-t a t ed f ema l e bo dy . In t b em , co rp o r ea l it y and "me d i a l it y" a re d ep l oyed andim po s s i b l e t o d i f fe r en t ia t e (64). Fo r i n s t an ce . Expo r t d e p l oy s h e r bo dy ,o ffe rs a c ce ss to h e r f le s h , p r o v i d e s a m ed i a t e d e n g ag e m en t w i th h e r i m ag e ,a n d r e fe r e n c e s a b r o a d e r s e rie s o f c u l t u r a l r e p r e s e n t a t i o n s . P e r f o rm an c ea n d n e w m e d i a d e m o n s t r a t e t h a t t h e m e d i a is c o r p o r e a l . W e g e n s te ind e s c r i b e s t h e b o d y a s t h e " n e w c a n v a s o f t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y a r t " ( 6 4 ) .T h e s e p e r f o r m e r s e m b o d y th e id e a o f t h e w o r k a n d t h e r e b y p r e v e n td i s ti n c ti o n s b e t we en r e a li ty a n d r e p r e s e n t a t i o n .

Wegen s te i n id en t if ie s a cu l t u r a l m ov e f r om co rpo r eaUty t o m ed i a l i ty .Ar ti s ts s h if t f rom u s i ng t h e bo dy as raw m a t e r i a l i n 1960s w o un d -o r i en t edp e r f o r m a n c e s t o t b e m e d i a a n d t e c h n o l o g y d i s c o u r s e s t h a t a c c o m p a n y1990s ex t en s i on w o rk s . Eo r i n s t a n c e , Aus t r aha -ba s e d p e r f o rm an ce a r t i s tS te l a rc ex t e n d s h i s b o d y w i th m ech a n i c a l lim b s a n d a llo w s d i s t a n t v iewe r st o tr ig g e r h i s b o d ily m o v em en t s . Web c am s a n d a v a t a rs offe r e n g ag e m en t st b a t in t e r l i n k t h e b o d y a n d s c r e e n . H u m an f le s b is c o m b i n ed w i tb I n t e r -n e t a n d c o m p u t e r - f a c i h t a t e d s e t t i n g s i n o r d e r t o e r a d i c a t e t h e b o d y a n df la t te n i t o u t o n t o t h e s c r e e n . New m ed i a w o rks d em a t e r ia l iz e t h e b o d y 'sc o r p o r e a l a s p e c ts a n d m a k e t h e m i n t o fr a g m e n t s o f i n f o r m a t i o n . I n -s ta n c e s o f t h e b o d y as i n f o rm a t i o n i n c l u d e t h e d a t a im ag e s p e o p l e g e n e r -a t e w h e n t ra v e l i n g , s h o p p i n g , c o m m u n i c a t i n g w i th b u s in e s se s a n d s e rv ic ep rov i d e r s , an d s e ek ing m ed i ca l a s s is tan ce .

D ig i ta l m ed i a l i ty cou l d b e f u r t h e r co r r e l a t ed w i t h t h e t a c t il e expe r i -e n c e s t h a t a r e r e n d e r e d b y i n te r fa c e s a n d t h e s p e cific b o d i ly e v e n t s t h a to c c u r w h e n u s in g t h e I n t e r n e t a n d c o m p u t e r . Ko ze l d e sc rib e s h o w s e n sa -


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analyzes, part ic ipants wore small wireless computers and pulse-and-resp iration sens ors. People accessed this data w ith a series of simp legestures, sent it ou t as visualizations, and shared it with oth er participantsin the physical space. They became information and engaged with bodies.Through such installations, people connect with new bodily configura-tions, listen to their bodies, discover the self anew, arid dance with theirown bodies. They physically touch and are touched by people and things.This extends their bodies, enables a form of connective tissue, and inter-meshes them with the fabric of the world. Kozel's theories and danceperformances point to the ways bodies appear and are felt in computer-facili tated and material settings. These engagements could be furthertheorized in Internet settings where there are no shared material spacesand th e conne ctions between bodies are som ew hat different.ViRTUALITY AND POSTHUMANISMMunster and Toffoletti deploy virtuality as a method of theorizing thebody and embodiment rather than associating these experiences, socialconceptions, and technologies with an escape from the body. For Mun-ster, "computational spacetime" is distinct from but repeats corporealexperiences (93). Abstract aspects of computer-facilitated settings engagethe virtual aspects of people's experiences. Individuals' sensory experiencesare also multiplied and changed by com putatio nal mo dels. Yet, co m pu ta-tional settings and embodied experiences do not, according to Munster,just assertively superimpose their reality over the other occurrence orequitably coexist. Munster and Toffoletti describe virtuality as a processtha t com bines and mu ltiplies possibilities rathe r tha n conceiving of it as anexperience th at replaces materiality, bodies, or p eople. Wegenstein id enti-fies technolog ies as actualizations of a po tentiality of life. Inte rn et andcomputer-facihtated settings and technologies have the aspects of thevirtual, which inc lude "becom ing" and a variety of possible futures, rath ertha n a linear and fixed state;

The virtual, as Munster argues, is the quality of digital technologies


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a c r a f te d w o o d e n b o x w i t h a g la ss v i e w f i n d e r t o p r o v i d e a m i n i a t u r i z e dv i e w o f t h e r o o m i n w h i c h t h e w o r k i s s i t u a t e d . V i e w e r s p l a c e t h e i r h a n d si n s i d e t h e b o x . T h e y e x p e r i e n c e s i t u a t e d h a n d s b e c a u s e o f t h e i r e m b o d i e de x p e r i e n c e s a n d a p p e n d a g e s r e c e d i n g a w a y f r o m t h e m d u e t o t h e w o r k ' so p t i c a l d e v i c e . A s M u n s t e r d e s c r i b e s i t, th i s le a d s t o a f o l d i n g o f d i v e r g e n te x p e r i e n c e s a n d s p a c e s. T h i s i n t e n s if i c a ti o n o f c o r p o r e a l e x p e r i e n c e , w h i c his t r i g g e r e d b y t h e d i f fu s io n o f b o d i l y l o c a t i o n s , is a k e y f e a t u r e o f i n f o r m a -t i o n a e s t h e t i c s .

M u n s t e r , W e g e n s t e i n , a n d T o f f o le t ti a l so o ffe r c ri ti c a l c o m m e n t a r i e so n b o d i l y f e a t u r e s . W e g e n s t e i n i d e n t if ie s a s h if t f r o m t h e f r a g m e n t e d b o d yt o p o s t h u m a n i s m , w h e r e e ve ry p a r t is a u t o n o m o u s a n d s e p a ra t e . W i tht h i s p o s t h u m a n b o d y , t h e r e is n o l o n g e r a n e m p h a s i s o n f ac ia li ty , a n d t h ef a c e d o e s n o t s t a n d i n f o r t h e w h o l e b o d y . I n y e a r b o o k p h o t o s , t h e r e h a sb e e n a f o r m a l a n d c o n c e p t u a l c h a n g e i n t h e c h o i c e of i m a g e s . T h e fa cea n d r o w s of c r o p p e d p o r t r a i t s , w h i c h f u n c t i o n e d as w i n d o w s i n t o i n d i v id -u a l s ' s o u l s , h a v e b e e n r e p l a c e d w i t h h e a l t h y b o d i e s . B e a u t y p r o d u c t a d v e r -t i s e m e n t s h a v e sh i ft e d t h e f ac e o n t o p l a n t l e av e s a n d o t h e r t h i n g s . I n ar e l a te d in q u i r y , M u n s t e r c o n s i d e r s h o w t h e h u m a n f ac e h a s b e e n t r a n s -f e rr e d o n t o t e c h n o l o g i e s . C o m p u t e r d e s ig n e r s p r o v i d e fa ce s f or c o m p u t -e r s a n d fig ure t e c h n o l o g i e s as a n i m a t e d . E o r i n s t a n c e , A p p l e h a s u s e di m a g e s o f c o m p u t e r s w i t h s m i l i n g a n d f r o w n i n g f a ce s t o r e p r e s e n t t h et e c h n o l o g y ' s f u n c t i o n i n g . M o r e r e c e n t A p p l e ic o n s r e p r e s e n t a f u si ng o ft h e h u m a n f ac e a n d c o m p u t e r s c r e e n . T o f fo le tt i a n a ly z e s a T D K r e p r e s e n -t a t i o n o f a t e c h n o l o g i z e d f ac e . T h e c h i l d h a s g i g a n t i c e a r s t h a t a r e d e s i g n e df o r b e t t e r h e a r i n g , ey e s l ik e s c r e e n s , a n d a m o u t h t h a t l o o k s li ke a m e d i as l o t. S u c h a d v e r t i s e m e n t s p o s e t h e b o d y as a v e r s i o n o f t h e m e d i a i n t e r fa c ea n d a m e d i a t o r of i n f o r m a t i o n .

W e g e n s t e i n d e sc r ib e s h o w t h e b o d y f u n c t i o n s a s a f o r m o f m e d i a t i o na n d i m a g e s a r e c o r p o r e a l i z e d . I n d i v i d u a l s e n g a g e w i t h t h e e m b o d i m e n ta n d c o r p o r e a l i z a t i o n o f d a t a , r a t h e r t h a n a d i s e m b o d i m e n t o f i n f o r m a t i o na n d i m a g e s . K o z e l a s s e r t s t h a t b o d i e s , o t h e r p e o p l e , a n d t e c h n o l o g i e s a r em e d i a t e d a n d m e d i a t o r s . P h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l a c c o u n t s , i n c l u d i n g t h ec o n c e p t o f f le sh o f t h e w o r l d a n d c o n n e c t i v e t i s s u e , d o n o t d i s t i n g u i s h


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the "raw material" of the body (32). By considering how the "body consti-tutes mediation," the ways mediation forms the body, and the body asconst i tut ive mediat ion, Wegenstein demonstrates the means throughwhich social conceptions of the body shift hetween coherence and frag-m en tation (33). She argues that the body is no t a secure poin t of de partu refor understanding the world or an intermediary hetween self and theworld. The body incorporates holistic subjectivity and fragmented objec-tivity in ways tha t u nd er m ine the viability of stable categories.

Kozel describes how pain and other embodied experiences connectthe virtual image and flesh. In Telematic Dreaming (1994), video projectoand monitors connected people in two separate rooms so that they virtu-ally shared a bed. Participants engaged in media-delivered images andexperienced intimacy, violation, and pain. However, people stayed on thebed because they did not want Kozel to be "alone" and incorporated aform of hurt into the setting when revealing a knife and "elbowing" her inthe stomach (95). Kozel theorizes the relationship between physical selfand virtual body through the neck and back pain she experienced whileperform ing this wo rk. Pain is inco rpora ted into th e image and virtualbody because Kozel's mo re constrained m ove m ents result in he r m ediatedgestures being stiff.

Confronted by these experiences, Kozel began to obsess over the"invisible" parts of her body and processes, includ ing digestion, intestines ,and brea thing (95). T he m ore she engaged w ith the virtua l setting, th emore her visceral body asserted itself and kept her anchored to material-ity. Kozel therefore experiences the body in Telematic Dreaming and othworks as an extension rather than escape. Her experience of "disintegrat-ing" because of the pain provides th e gro un dw ork for a different theory ofnew media dematerialization. Descriptions of these performances also actas a reminder of how normative forms of interactions are reasserted inthese settings. Som e of her experiences on th e bed and in o the r perform -ances are shaped by gender expectations and conv entions.

Kozel argues that computational systems can enhance performance


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and emotional engagements. For Kozel , theoret ical ly informed andperformed kinds of new media increase embodied and intercorporealawareness. Wegenstein also intermeshes corporeality and new mediawhen identifying bodies as living media. Images require our bodies to beseen. Bodies are living media that enable us to see, project, and rememberimages. Images, for Wegenstein, are "happenings or interventions performed bybodies, which have been exposed to images from outside" (119). Therefore,media transmit rather than produce images. It is the participation of thebody in th e prod uc tion of images, according to W egenstein, that is impo r-tant. The medium has adopted the characteristics of the body, and imagesare literally and figuratively directed on to the body rather than having aframe. This direction and corporealization of the image should encouragefurther considerations of the ways images control and are controlled bybodies and embodiment in Internet and computer-facilitated settings.T H E B O D Y , E M B O D I M E N T , A N D F E M I N I S M I NI N T E R N E T AN D C O M P U T E R - F A C I L I T A T E D S E T T I N G SInternet and computer interfaces and settings are often credited withproviding increased power and freedom. However, some researchers,including the authors that I consider in this article, argue that we alsoneed to focus on instances of control. Munster emphasizes how disem-powerment and regulation occur in these settings. The shift to networkedinformation, which is distributed and delivered th ro ug h mobile stream -ing, has created a situation where control is always on. People with accessto Internet and computer-facilitated information are recorded, profiled,and m on itore d. C on trol is also directed at and co nstitutes bodies.

Th e auth ors discussed h ere analyze how co ntro l and critique are facil-itated through new media. Their research might be extended to engagem or e of the com m on features of Inte rne t and comp uter-facilitated set-tings. Although the authors provide brief comments on these sites, thisresearch is still provisional. The authors also resist the association ofInternet and computer-facilitated settings with liberation and leaving thecorporeal body. Their research conceptually suggests the need for further


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literature, it is the au tho rs' hesitancy to fully em ploy the existent feministhterature on the body and embodiment. Eor instance, Deleuze's work ontbe fold and Merleau-Ponty's conceptions of tbe flesb of tbe world aredeployed in tbese texts, but Elizabetb Grosz's feminist elaborations ofthese models are largely absent.^^

Kozel, wbo provides the most detailed accounts of gendered experi-ences and an impressively nuanced study of networked embodiment ,mentions her concern in identifying Gloser as a feminist methodology. Sheacknowledges the influence of Erench feminist writing in her work, butsbe hesitates to call what she does "feminist phenomenology for fear ofnarrowing its scope or prefiguring an agenda" (62). It is at this point thatKozel indicates be r ow n desires to leave a form of tbe body beb ind . Kozel'sand the other authors' texts are connected to varied feminisms, and theirwork would be expanded rather than confined by furtber engaging thesesources. Un fortunately, man y academic and popu lar discourses about theInternet and new media discourage feminist engagements. In Mira Schor'sresearch on patrilineage, she identifies the tendency to reference maleartists and theoreticians wben creating a lineage for female artists and lessconventional sites of investigation.^^ According to her, this patrilineage isbelieved to establisb a m ore reputab le backg rou nd tba n references tofemale artists and texts. These behaviors also occur with Int ern et and newmedia research.

It is w orth considering how Intern et and new media research m et h-ods are controlled and intellectual inquiries are vetted. Tbere are risks indeploying feminist m ethodo logies and critiques in tbese settings. Eeministinquiries at Internet and new media studies conferences and in computer-mediated settings are sometimes described as inappropriate. Male pro-grammers and designers, as Munster begins to suggest, try to sustain thebeliefs and foundations associated with computing technologies. This hasaffected women, including feminist researchers, technologists, and writ-ers. Eor instance Joan Walsh, a feminist Salon writer, found it "hard toignore that the criticisms of women writers are much more brutal and


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imaginary characters did not include empowered positions for women.According to respondents, my discussion did not apply to the topic, Ishould "get a grip and quit" whining about my "gender" and "die of breastcancer" because I was "a whor e. "" These forum members, and manyother individuals who use these technologies, make it clear that they willdiscipline people with oppositional opinions and deliver textual on-slaughts until resistors become too uncomfortable or tired to respond.These instances only start to indicate how Internet and new media prac-tices constitute and regulate the body and embodiment. The forms ofinvestigat ion introduced by these authors, part icularly their feministinquiries, are therefore central to the study of Internet and new mediatechnologies and settings.

N O T E S1. See, for example, Laura U. Marks , Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Min-

neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002); Ann Rudinow Saetnan, Nelly Ouds-h o o r n , a n d Marta Kire jczyk, eds . . Bodies of Technology: Women's Involvement with ReproductiveMedicine (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2000); and Marquard Smi th andJ o a n n e M o r r a , eds . . The Prosthetic Imp ulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future(Ca m bridg e: M IT Press, 2006).

2. See, for example, Maria Fernandez, Faith Wilding, and Miche l le M. Wrigh t , eds..Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices (New Y ork: Au ton om edia , 2002); Mary Flanaganand Austin Booth, eds . . Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture (Cambridge: MIT Press,2002); and Lisa Nakamura, Digitizing R a c e : Visual Cultures of the Internet (Minneapol is :Univ ersity of M inn esot a Press, 2007).

3. Peter Steiner, The N ew Yorker, 5 July 1993, 61 .4. Virginia Shea, Netiquette (San Francisco: Albion Books, 1994).5. "Gender and Ethnic i ty ," Tbe Jargon File, 4.4.7, 29 Dec . 2003, www.ca tb .o rg /~es r /

j a rgon /b tml /demograph i c s . h tml .6. Sadie Plan t, Zeros + Ones : Digital Women + The N ew Technoculture (New York: Doubleday,

1997), 46.7. Margrit Sbildrick and Janet Price, "Openings on tbe Body: A Critical Introduction,"

in Feminist Theory and the B o d y : A Reader, ed. Janet Price and M argrit Sbildrick (New York:Routiedge, 1999), U.

8. Yocba i Benkle r , The Weal th of Networks: H ow Social Production Transforms M arkets and Freedom(New Hav en: Yale Un iversity Press, 2006), 60.


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10. See, for e x a m p l e , R u t h S c h w a r t z C o w a n , More Work fo r Mother: The Ironies of HouseholdTechnology from the Open H earth to the Microwave ( N e w York : Bas i c Books , 1983) ; JudyWacjman , "Ref lec t i ons on Gende r and Techno logy S t ud i e s : In Wha t S t a t e I s t heArt?" Social Studies o f Science 30 (une 2000): 447-64; and Ellen van Oost, "MaterializeGend er : How Shavers Con figure the Users ' Feminin i ty a nd M ascu l in i ty ," in How UsersMatter: The Go -Con struction o f Users and Technology, ed . N e l l y O u d s h o o r n a n d Tr e v o r P i n(Ca m bridge: M IT Press, 2003).

11 . William Gihson, Neuromancer (New Y ork: Ace B ooks, 1984), 6.12. Tom Mad dox, "Snake-Eyes ," in Mirrorshades: The Gyberpunk Anthology, ed. Bruce Ste

(New Y ork: Ace B ooks, 1988), 16.13. For a de ta i led d i scuss ion of th i s proposa l , see N. Kather ine Hayles , H o w W e Became

Posthuman : Virtual Bodies in Gy bernetics, Literature, and Inform atics ( C h i c a g o : U n i v e r s it yC hic ago Press, 1999).14. Ray Kurzwei l , "The Evolu t ion of Mind in the Twenty-f i rs t Century ," Are We Spiritual

Mac/lines .'2002, w w w .ku rzw ei la i .ne t /a r t i c les /ar t0500 .h tm np rin t ah le=l .15. Hans Mo r av e c , "Gr and f a t he r C l au se , " in Mind C hildren: The Future o f Robot and Hum an In

telligence (Ca m bridge: Harvard Universi ty P ress, 1988), 117; and Han s Moravec, q uo tedi n Gr an t F je r me da l , The Tomorrow Makers: A Brave New World of Living-Brain Machines ( NY ork: Ma cm illan, 1986), 5.

16. For examp le , Maur i ce Mer leau -Pon ty , Phenomenology of P erception, t r an s . Co l i n Sm(Lond on: R out led ge, 1989), an d his The Visible and the Invisible, t rans . Alphonso Ling(Evanston, 111.: No rth w este rn Universi ty Press, 1968).

17. Ba rbara Ma ria Stafford, Good Looking: Essays on the Virtues o f Images (Cam bridge: MI1996).

18. Gil les Deleuze , "Fold ings , or the Ins ide of Thought ," in Foucault, t r an s . Sean Hand(Min neap olis: Universi ty of M inn esota Press, 1988).

19. Joan Key, "Unfold: Imprecat ions of Obsceni ty in the Fold," in Other Than Identity: TPolitics and Art, ed. Juliet Steyn (M an ch ester: Ma nc hes ter U niversi ty Press, 1997), 196.

20 . Hayles, How We Became Pos thuman.21 . Wegenste in c i t es Ren Descar tes , The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, t r a n s . J oC o t t i n g h a m , R o b e r t Stroothoff, and Duga ld Mu rdoc h (Cam br idge , U .K .: Cam br idge

University Press, 1985).22. El i zabe t h Grosz , Volatile Bodies: Toward a Gorporeal Feminism ( B l o o m i n g t o n : I n d

University Press, 1994).23 . Mira Schor, "Patri l ineage," Art Journal 50 (Su m m er 1991): 58-63.24. Joan Walsh , "Men Wh o Hate Wo m en on the Web, and the Wom en (Like Me) Wh o

Try to Ignore Th em . Or at Least I D id -u n t i l th e Kathy Sierra Affair," Salon, 31 Mar .2007, www.sa lon .com/opin ion/fea ture /2007/03 /31/s ierra /pr in t .h tml .

25. j a s p e r s t o n e w o r k s , " Fo rb es . c o m L is ts F o ru m # 8 4 . 1 , " Forbes , 26 Oc t . 2004 , h t t p : / /f o r u m s . p r o s p e r o . c o m / n / m b / m e s s a g e . a s p ? w e b t a g = f d c _ l i s t s & m s g = 8 4 . 1 1 ; a n d


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