Extra Senses Extra Interference
Edwin van der Heide & Joost Rekveld
In 1964 Marshall McLuhan
wrote his now classic book
'Understanding Media', in which
he developed a completely new
view of what a medium is. Instead
of focussing on the content offered
by the new, technological media
that have been appearing in the
last century and a half, he called
attention to how the experience of
a new medium changes the web
of relations between our senses,
how it changes the way in which
we interpret what we perceive
and how it ultimately changes our
worldview. For him, every medium
is an 'extension of man', and every
new extension has a profound,
total inßuence on how we sense,
think and act. In developing this
view he was influenced by the
bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-
Nagy, who was fascinated by
the new perceptual possibillities
offered by the new media of his
time (photography, film, electric
sound) and who thought that
artists had a responsibility for
literally shaping mankinds
perception of the world.
In science, views on the flexibility
and adaptability of our senses
were developed by the Mexican/
American scientist Paul Bach-y-
Rita. In a series of far-reaching
experiments he showed the incredible extent to which our
perceptual system can adapt in
real-life situations. This 'Sensory
Plasticity' was most dramatically
demonstrated in a series of
people. He gave them a crude
image into a series experiments in which Bach-y-Rita restored sight to a number of blind people. He gave them a crude interface that translated a camera image into a series of tactile impulses on the skin. After a short
period of accomodation these people reported visual sensations and they could recognize objects,
move through spaces or even
catch a ball thrown at them. As
a kind of cyborgs they were truly
seeing, not through their blind
eyes, but through their interface and their skin. Key to the success
of these experiments was that
the people involved could move
around with their interfaces and
use them in real-life situations,
in which perceptions are always
related to intentions, bodily
movements and actions.
In this research group we want
to apply this perspective on
the plasticity of our senses to
interactive art. We are going to
develop and build (preferably
wearable) interfaces that will enable us to navigate through the
world on the basis of information
to which we normally have no
access. We are going to try
and build new senses. In order
to translate these normally
imperceivable aspects of the
world into sound, image or tactile sensations, we will study different
approaches to sonfication,
visualization and the tactilization
of data. Also we will have to
think about the environment for
which we build these senses
and perhaps design a special
environment for them.
Dates: 14, 16, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28
april, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19 may
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: to investigate the
potential of extensions to our
senses
Literature: to be announced in
class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A6,
A7, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, C5, C6,
C7
Location: KABK PB301
Number of Classes: 14 classes
of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments,
attendance, presentation