Embalmed/unembalmed: Territorial aporias within the performative field of tele-presence

Abstract

Embalmed/unembalmed: Territorial aporias within the performative field of tele-presence KEYWORDS first-person quantum physical theory prosthetic compass effect performativity ABSTRACT Prevailing theories tend to fall back upon notions of a captured or transported intentionality when adjudicating on matters of agency within tele-present spaces. Even Heideggerian-inspired theories that would wish to question dualistic Cartesianism (Heim 2002) tend to judge or 'weight' an activity according to its ability to transplant a sensation of 'being-there' (Heidegger 2008 & Ladly 2007) on the part of an enacting subject. While older, so-called, 'passive' media spaces (cinema, for example) tended to disregard problems of embodiment, many emergent performative spaces (e.g. telematic or augmented reality applications) inevitably come up against issues of embodiment and the extensible transplantation of intentionality outside of originating territories. In opposition to theories that carry forward such notions of a 'transported intentionality', this article raises questions concerning what I propose to term the 'prosthetic compass effect' through carefully unteasing some of the implications of Derrida's complication of the Austinian concept of performativity. I achieve this by focusing upon a rather problematic case study. Through reflecting in some detail on a proposed application of hunting animals internationally across a tele-presencing Internet connection, this article will investigate some thorny issues of embodiment across territorial borders and the attendant undecidability of presence and undecidability of place. To answer to these difficulties I will finally propose the application of Arkady Plotnitsky's 77 Downloaded by [Northeastern University] at 18:41 03 January 2015 Tony Richards quantum-mechanically inspired apparatus of 'quantum mechanical reproduction' as a better tool for conceptualizing such 'mutable' territorial topographies.