Keeping it Real: Encountering Mixed Reality in igloo’s SwanQuake: House

This paper employs the writings of early twentieth-century phenomenologists to examine physical/virtual dualism a century later. It considers the nature of embodied experience in mixed reality environments through an analysis of the author’s encounter with an art installation. The paper reflects on post-Cartesian approaches to the body and new media, noting the resistance of the language of philosophy to the articulation of mixed reality as a concept. If the language of the field constructs dualism, and the cyborgian unitization of human/technology invokes responses of horror or pity, are we prepared socially or culturally to inhabit mixed reality environments as embodied beings

A phenomenological analysis of bodily self-awareness in the experience of pain and pleasure: on dys-appearance and eu-appearance

The aim of this article is to explore nuances within the field of bodily self-awareness. My starting-point is phenomenological. I focus on how the subject experiences her or his body, i.e. how the body stands forth to the subject. I build on the phenomenologist Drew Leders distinction between bodily dis-appearance and dys-appearance. In bodily dis-appearance, I am only prereflectively aware of my body. My body is not a thematic object of my experience. Bodily dys-appearance takes place when the body appears to me as "ill" or "bad." This is often the case when I experience pain or illness. Here, I will examine three versions of bodily dys-appearance. Whereas many phenomenological studies have explored cases of bodily dys-appearance, few studies have focused on the opposite of bodily dys-appearance, i.e. on bodily modes of being where the body appears to the subject as something good, easy or well. This is done in this article. When the body stands forth as good, easy or well to the subject, I suggest that the body eu-appears to this person. The analysis of eu-appearance shows that the subject can attend to her or his body as something positive and that this attention need not result in discomfort or alienation. Eu-appearance can take place in physical exercise, in sexual pleasure and in some cases of wanted pregnancies. I also discuss, briefly, the case of masochism.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com:Kristin Zeiler, A phenomenological analysis of bodily self-awareness in the experience of pain and pleasure: on dys-appearance and eu-appearance, 2010, MEDICINE HEALTH CARE AND PHILOSOPHY, (13), 4, 333-342.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-010-9237-4Copyright: Springer Science Business Mediahttp://www.springerlink.com

Life-Changing Life Journeys through Artistic and Educational Inclusive Contemporary Dance Contexts

This chapter presents a case study of two of the authors, Elen, a dancer, and Philip, a choreographer-teacher. It focuses on their experiences of change through long-term engagement in inclusive contemporary dance contexts, and how this participation has contributed to their quality of life. In this study, “inclusive contemporary dance context” refers to a dance community where differently bodied dancers, with and without disabilities, and little or much previous experience of dance, participate in and contribute to artistic and educational dance processes, often culminating in performances on stage. Individual meanings and shared themes are identified through holistic life story analysis of the two artists’ written stories completed for the study. Participants’ experiences are interpreted with the help of theory about aesthetic transformation and learning within a wider framework of dance art, dance education and quality of life