The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh
Since the early 1990s, the architect and artist Marcos Novak has been developing an experimental and transdisciplinary practice at a point of convergence between architecture, art, science, technology and philosophy, questioning the becoming of the digitally-enhanced body. With AlloBrain@AlloSphere,...
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| Udgivet i: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Anglais |
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Angles
2020
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| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1872 |
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| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
uncanny virtual reality mind-body subjective experience phenomenal consciousness réalité virtuelle corps-esprit inquiétante étrangeté expérience subjective conscience phénoménale |
| spellingShingle |
uncanny virtual reality mind-body subjective experience phenomenal consciousness réalité virtuelle corps-esprit inquiétante étrangeté expérience subjective conscience phénoménale Roussel, Marion The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| description |
Since the early 1990s, the architect and artist Marcos Novak has been developing an experimental and transdisciplinary practice at a point of convergence between architecture, art, science, technology and philosophy, questioning the becoming of the digitally-enhanced body. With AlloBrain@AlloSphere, a virtual reality environment developed between 2005 and 2009 with the support of the Brain Mapping Center (University of California, Los Angeles), Novak proposes an immersive exploration of our brain spaces. AlloBrain is modelled from brain MRIs, extruded in the form of a three-dimensional volume. The experience offered is that of an immersion inside our heads. However, in this way of looking beyond the face, we find it hard to recognise ourselves. Projections or exteriorisations of a hidden interiority, the showing of these unknown territories of the body, of this anonymous and subterranean singularity, arouse an uncanny feeling in us. The explored interior is not that of the mind or of consciousness but, very strictly, that of the brain, more precisely that of a brain without a body, without flesh, a bare and digitally reconstructed enclosed space that yet appears empty of interiority. Are we dealing with a project that tries to explain the mind by mere brain matter, similar to the cognitive sciences or neurosciences? Still, the effect of uncanniness produced by the immersion in AlloBrain seems to result from the confrontation between this “naked brain” and our subjective experience, which seems unable to dispose of the physical body we inhabit and that inhabits us, too. Thus, what AlloBrain causes is a real return to the flesh, a lived-in and living flesh, highlighting a particularity that is nonetheless alien to us, because in reality something always resists. It not the thing that cannot be captured by digitisation the phenomenal “I” itself, the “I” by which we experience our body and the world? Such a hypothesis would give us ground to doubt that by avoiding the materiality of the body, by uploading our minds in the machine, we could remain the same. |
| author |
Roussel, Marion |
| author_facet |
Roussel, Marion |
| author_sort |
Roussel, Marion |
| title |
The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| title_short |
The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| title_full |
The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| title_fullStr |
The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh |
| title_sort |
brain without the body? virtual reality, neuroscience and the living flesh |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1872 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1872 |
| _version_ |
1877293947096662016 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1872 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1872 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.1872 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1872 2020-07-16T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n0i https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Brain Without the Body? Virtual Reality, Neuroscience and the Living Flesh Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Roussel, Marion uncanny virtual reality mind-body subjective experience phenomenal consciousness réalité virtuelle corps-esprit inquiétante étrangeté expérience subjective conscience phénoménale Since the early 1990s, the architect and artist Marcos Novak has been developing an experimental and transdisciplinary practice at a point of convergence between architecture, art, science, technology and philosophy, questioning the becoming of the digitally-enhanced body. With AlloBrain@AlloSphere, a virtual reality environment developed between 2005 and 2009 with the support of the Brain Mapping Center (University of California, Los Angeles), Novak proposes an immersive exploration of our brain spaces. AlloBrain is modelled from brain MRIs, extruded in the form of a three-dimensional volume. The experience offered is that of an immersion inside our heads. However, in this way of looking beyond the face, we find it hard to recognise ourselves. Projections or exteriorisations of a hidden interiority, the showing of these unknown territories of the body, of this anonymous and subterranean singularity, arouse an uncanny feeling in us. The explored interior is not that of the mind or of consciousness but, very strictly, that of the brain, more precisely that of a brain without a body, without flesh, a bare and digitally reconstructed enclosed space that yet appears empty of interiority. Are we dealing with a project that tries to explain the mind by mere brain matter, similar to the cognitive sciences or neurosciences? Still, the effect of uncanniness produced by the immersion in AlloBrain seems to result from the confrontation between this “naked brain” and our subjective experience, which seems unable to dispose of the physical body we inhabit and that inhabits us, too. Thus, what AlloBrain causes is a real return to the flesh, a lived-in and living flesh, highlighting a particularity that is nonetheless alien to us, because in reality something always resists. It not the thing that cannot be captured by digitisation the phenomenal “I” itself, the “I” by which we experience our body and the world? Such a hypothesis would give us ground to doubt that by avoiding the materiality of the body, by uploading our minds in the machine, we could remain the same. Marcos Novak, architecte et artiste, développe depuis trente ans une pratique expérimentale et transdisciplinaire au point de rencontre entre architecture, art, sciences, nouvelles technologies et philosophie, interrogeant les devenirs du corps augmenté par le numérique. Dans l’environnement de réalité virtuelle AlloBrain@AlloSphere (2005-2009), élaboré avec l’aide du Brain Mapping Center de l’Université de Los Angeles en Californie, Novak propose une exploration immersive de nos espaces cérébraux. Environnement immersif modélisé à partir d’IRMs cérébraux extrudés sous la forme d’un volume tridimensionnel, l’expérience d’AlloBrain est bien celle d’une plongée à l’intérieur même de notre crâne. Dans cette percée au-delà du visage, nous peinons cependant à nous reconnaître. Projections ou extériorisations d’une intériorité dissimulée, la monstration de ces territoires inconnus du corps, de cette singularité anonyme et souterraine, éveillent en nous le sentiment d’une inquiétante étrangeté. L’intérieur qui nous est ici donné à explorer n’est pas celui de l’esprit ou de la conscience mais celui, très proprement, du cerveau, plus encore d’un cerveau sans corps, sans chair, un dedans dénudé et numériquement reconstruit, un espace qui, s’il est bien intérieur, semble vide d’intériorité. N’avons-nous pas là affaire à un projet d’explicitation du mental par la seule matière cérébrale, similaire à celui des sciences cognitives ou des neurosciences ? Quoi qu’il en soit, l’effet d’étrangeté que produit l’immersion dans AlloBrain nous semble résulter de la confrontation entre ce cerveau nu et l’expérience subjective, laquelle paraît ne pouvoir se départir d’un corps physique, corps que nous habitons autant qu’il nous habite. Ainsi, c’est un véritable retour à la chair, cette chair vivante et vécue, que provoque AlloBrain, soulignant un propre qui nous est pourtant étranger. Car toujours, quelque chose résiste. Cette chose-là, cette chose qui ne peut être saisie par la numérisation, n’est-ce pas le « Je » phénoménal lui-même, ce « Je » par lequel nous faisons l’épreuve de notre corps comme du monde ? N’y a-t-il pas là de quoi mettre en doute qu’en nous téléchargeant dans la machine, qu’en faisant l’économie de la matérialité du corps, nous puissions rester les mêmes ? |