Technology, Phenomenology and the Everyday World: A Phenomenological Analysis on How Technologies Mould Our World

2018

AI & Soc

Self Cite

The aim of this work is to analyze the constitution of a new collective subject thanks to wearable computers. Wearable computers are emerging technologies which are supposed to become pervasively used in the near future. They are devices designed to be on us every single moment of our life and to capture every experience we have. Therefore, we need to be prepared to such intrusive devices and to analyze potential effect they will have on us and our society. Thanks to a phenomenological and postphenomenological analysis, we will show how these technologies are able to generate a new collective subject with its different collective needs and appetites by merging the living body of many subjects into one. The world becomes dwelled by these new collective subjects, and we will feed their own peculiar needs.

Section: Wearables and Living Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Borg–eye and the We–I. The production of a collective living body through wearable computers

2018

AI & Soc

Self Cite

“…This idea of looking through the technology to perceive the world is tightly related to the idea of postphenomenology where the perception of the subjects is mediated by technological devices (Ihde 1990 ; Verbeek 2005 ). Technology shapes the perceptual ability of the users in the real world instead of producing a second world where the subjects are immersed (Liberati 2016 ).…”

Section: Ar Games and The Intertwinement Between Digital And Everydaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenomenology, Pokémon Go, and Other Augmented Reality Games

2017

Hum Stud

Self Cite

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects on the everyday world of actual Augmented Reality games which introduce digital objects in our surroundings from a phenomenological point of view. Augmented Reality is a new technology aiming to merge digital and real objects, and it is becoming pervasively used thanks to the application for mobile devices Pokémon Go by Niantic. We will study this game and other similar applications to shed light on their possible effects on our lives and on our everyday world from a phenomenological perspective. In the first part, we will show how these digital objects are visualised as merged in the surroundings. We will point out that even if they are visualised as part of the everyday world, they are not part of it because they are still related to the fictional world generated by the game. In the second part, we will show how the existence of these objects in their fictional world has effects on the everyday world where everybody lives. The goal of Augmented Reality is not reached yet because these objects are not part of the everyday world, but it already makes our lives embedded with digital elements. We will show if these new objects have effects on our world and on how we live our lives.

“…Digital technologies allow users to extend their visual capabilities by turning some part of the invisible spectrum of light into visible such as the infra-red or ultraviolet radiations. Moreover, they generate new objects in our world by making visible something which was hidden and unreachable like in the case of the brain activities with fMRI [18,19], unborn children with Ultrasound technologies [20], and distant galaxies with radiotelescopes [21,22]. These entities are the production of the use of certain kind of digital technologies which produce visual images of objects which were invisible to the naked eye.…”

Section: Postphenomenology and Digital Objectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emperor’s New Augmented Clothes. Digital Objects as Part of the Every Day

2017

MTI

Self Cite

Abstract:The main aim of this work is to solve a problem that Augmented Reality is facing by using phenomenological and phenomenological analyses and projectors. Augmented reality seeks to merge the digital and real world by producing a mixed reality where the digital objects are usually visualised thanks to the head mounted or mobile devices. However, this technology is facing problems because the objects generated by the digital devices are existing merely inside the small group of people while using specific devices. Therefore, these objects look fictitious for the other members of the society who are not using them. In order to analyse the elements which make these objects fictitious for the other member of the society, we will take into account the story of The Emperor's new clothes because, even in this story, there are fictional entities not perceivable by other members of the community. Thanks to this story, it will be possible to highlight some elements which make the objects part of the everyday world. Moreover, it will show how the intersubjectivity of these objects is directly related to their way of being perceived by the subjects and, in the case of augmented reality, to the devices used to make them perceivable. For this reason, it is possible to solve the problem Augmented Reality is facing by changing the devices used to produce these digital objects. At the end of the work, we will propose a project which can solve the problem by following the elements previously highlighted. We will show how, thanks to wearable projectors, it is possible to produce digital clothes as part of the everyday world of every subject. Thanks to these digital clothes people will be able to wear the digital objects as if they were common, usual objects without being naked.