The aesthetics of the post-human

Images made of numbers. A virtual presence, auto-instantiated in direct connection from the source. Real-time portraits of complex sets of movements. Non anthropomorphological reflections of bodily actions. Non gendered, neutral images of functions. Non-conscious perceptions actualized in material, virtual forms. Bodies in motion converted into symbols. Bodies in control. Sense-making machines. Fleeing mirrors.

Lead and technology will follow

I've read an interesting article in the New York Times called "Are We Living in Sensory Overload or Sensory Poverty?" by Diane Ackerman. She gives some great insights which help bringing to the surface the notions of embodiment, presence and the senses in the discussion of human-technology relationships. I'd like to comment on some of her ideas.   

"... we’re living in sensory poverty, learning about the world without experiencing it up close, right here, right now, in all its messy, majestic, riotous detail. The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature’s precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature."

I believe that the search for balance is key in the face of any technological innovation and so-called "progress". Encouraged by scientific intelligence and high doses of imagination, technology tends to expand itself to the level of science-fictional proportions, but when it faces human interaction, this comes as a reality check that puts it back on its tracks. Any technology that do not align to and serve the human condition and its purposes will fail, because technology is only in relation to the biological realm. In this sense, how useful is to long for a previous historical period of life under certain bio-technological conditions in which humanity used to be more in contact with nature?

The senses are at work also in our relationship with technology, but they are contested by its apparent complexity, although more so is technology, which undergoes the test of human perception. What doesn't pass the sensory and corporeal scrutiny, it will fade as a useless technology. Presence is also in our interaction with any kind of technology, like when driving a nail with a hammer or browsing the Internet.

But of course, I understand what Ackerman is referring to: how can I know what a tree is if I haven't seen it, touched it, felt it... how can I ever truly know India if all I have seen are photos in a computer... it's true that digital media seem to be getting between us and the concrete world we live in. But there are signs of balance, which is evident as media technology is increasingly going mobile. Our bodies, our senses, our drive to interact with nature have taken the development of technology to more intuitive, safer, grounds. In this world, everything is in constant change, and "transitioning" is the normal state of things. If we want for things to fall into the right place, we just have to exercise that human quality that it is all about being present: patience.

Your digital image doesn't look like you

The digital image shows us a different image.
Bodies are not anymore those that are reflected by the mirror, but those revealed by the statistics of their actions. The digital image of the body is not a virtual reconstruction of its physical structure but a numerical report of how it is performing. It doesn't matter how it looks as long as the body is sending vital signals of what it is doing, how it is doing and where it is. A virtual body is always "checking-in", updating other bodies or machines with its functional data. The new image is one that shows the relational body, one in constant movement. The quantified, bio-mediated body is an informational interface; it is not an autonomous entity with a defined visual image but rather a shapeless body that exists entirely in co-creation with everything it is connected to.

Image source: new-aesthetic.tumblr.com