doi: 10.2989/ipjp.2010.10.2.7.1088

 

Cycling as reading a cityscape: A phenomenological approach to interface-shaped perception

 

 

Janez Strehovec

 

 

---

ABSTRACT

This essay attempts to assess whether the perceptual issues posed by the contemporary interface culture, and the constant attitude shift demanded by the new media between the "natural" and the "as if" modes, might be considered a significant challenge for phenomenological aesthetics as understood in terms of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception. To demonstrate how the use of a particular interface profoundly shapes the form and structure of an activity as well as enabling perception of a particular kind, the author does not focus directly on the state-of-the-art smart interfaces, but describes the experience of cycling in a large city, with the interface in the form of the bicycle upgraded with an imagined ride simulator. While the former enables a very particular entrance into the world of perception, shaped by its moderate speed and detachment from the ground, the latter enables techno-shaped perception in the "as if" screenic mode. The experience described raises questions concerning the kinaesthetic, proprioceptive and motor features contributing to the cyclist's mobile perception, as well as pointing to issues related to the reading of the city's network as a particular spatial configuration generated by the cyclist's real-time activity. This is the space-time-event-ridescape maintained and modified by the corporeal act of cycling. The spatiality of such a ride does not presume the notion of a space that contains the cyclist, but builds on notions of being-in-the-ridescape (as a kind of cityscape), in terms not only of full corporeal and mental engagement, but also of bodily literacy. The reading of the cityscape enabled by the combination of two interfaces, the bicycle and the ride simulator, is discussed in relation to de Certeau's account of pedestrian (walking) experience in a big city, his distinction between strategies and tactics, and the notion that each cyclist contributes a novel story to ridetext, which is viewed not as an aesthetic object but as the production of puzzles for the rider to solve. The paper concludes by questioning the capacity of phenomenology to accommodate the contemporary phenomenon of a "mixed" or "augmented reality" either in concept or in relation to the demands of the phenomenological reduction and the ends of the epoché.

---

 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

References

Barbrooke, R. (2005). The high-tech gift economy. Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/631/552        [ Links ]

Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S. Glaser, Trans.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 1981)        [ Links ]

Benjamin, W. (1968). The storyteller: Reflections on Nikolai Leskóv. In: Hannah Arendt (Ed.) & Harry Zohn (Trans.), Illuminations: Essays and reflections (pp. 83-109). New York, NY: Schocken Books. (Original work published 1936)        [ Links ]

Conrad, W. (1908). Der ästhetische Gegenstand: Eine phänomenologische Studie [The aesthetic object: A phenomenological study]. Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, 3, 71-118.

Cooley, H. R. (2004). It's all about the fit: The hand, the mobile screenic device and tactile vision. Journal of Visual Culture, 3(2), 133-155.         [ Links ]

De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (Original work published 1974)        [ Links ]

Deleuze, G. (1983). Cinéma 1, l'Image-mouvement [Cinema 1: The movement-image].         [ Links ] Paris, France: Minuit.

Fink, E. (1966). Studien zur Phänomenologie: 1930-1939 [Studies in phenomenology: 1930-1939].         [ Links ] The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhof.

Flusser, V. (1998). Vom Subjekt zum Projekt: Menschwerdung [From subject to project: Humanization].         [ Links ] Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Fischer Taschebuch Verlag.

Flusser, V. (1998). Technik entwerfen [Conceiving technology]. In V. Flusser, Vom Subjekt zum Projekt: Menschwerdung [From subject to project: Humanization] (pp. 133-146). Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Fischer Taschebuch Verlag.

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. London, UK: HarperCollins.         [ Links ]

Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology. In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Martin Heidegger: Basic writings (pp. 283-317). San Francisco, CA: Harper. (Original work published 1954)        [ Links ]

Husserl, E. (1973). Ding und Raum: Vorlesungen 1907 [Thing and space: Lectures 1907] (U.         [ Links ] Claesges, Ed.). Husserliana, Vol. 16. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.

Husserl, E. (1980). Phantasie, Bildbewusstsein, Erinnerung: Zur Phänomenologie der anschaulichen Vergegenwärtigungen. Texte aus dem Nachlass (1898-1925) [Imagination,         [ Links ] image consciousness, memory: On the phenomenology of simulatory visualisations. Texts from the estate (1898-1925)] (E. Marbach, Ed.). Husserliana, Vol. 23. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Husserl, E. (1982). Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy, First Book: General introduction to a pure phenomenology (F. Kersten, Trans.). The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. (Original work published 1913)        [ Links ]

Ingarden, R. (1969). Erlebnis, Kunstwerk und Wert: Vorträge zur Ästhetik 1937-1967 [Experience,         [ Links ] artwork and value: Lectures on aesthetics]. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

Ingarden, R. (1973). The cognition of the literary work of art (R. A. Crowley & K. R. Olson, Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published in Polish in 1937)        [ Links ]

Iser, W. (1976). Der Akt des Lesens: Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung [The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response].         [ Links ] Munich, Germany: W. Fink.

Johnson, S. (1997). Interface culture: How new technology transforms the way we create and communicate. San Francisco, CA: HarperEdge.         [ Links ]

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1998). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1945)        [ Links ]

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2004). The world of perception (Oliver Davis, Trans.). London, UK & New York, NY: Routledge. (Original lectures delivered on French radio 1948)        [ Links ]

Sartre, J-P. (1943). L'etre et le néant: Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique [Being and nothingness: Essay on phenomenological ontology].         [ Links ] Paris, France: Gallimard.

Spiegelberg. H. (1960). The phenomenological movement: A historical introduction. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.         [ Links ]

Thrift, N. J. (2004). Movement-space: The changing domain of thinking resulting from the development of new kinds of spatial awareness. Economy & Society, 33(4), 582-604.         [ Links ]