Bodily Intra-actions with Biometric Devices. (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gardner, Paula; Jenkins, Barbara
• Is Part Of: Body & society. Volume 22:Number 1(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 30
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Bachelard -- Bergson -- digital -- embodiment; Human body -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.4613
• DOI: 10.1177/1357034X15604030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1357-034X

Abstract

We investigated the interface between biomedia and humans by inviting participants to interact with biometric devices that measured and visualized their body data. At first, they struggled with the alienating and disembodying nature of the devices and the constrained, reductionist representation of data. Through their bodily interactions with these devices, however, participants reframed the data and inserted their bodies into the process of data collection. Drawing on the ideas of Bergson, Grosz, Merleau-Ponty and Bachelard, we argue that by working with their subjectivity in a mediated process of becoming, participants 'filled in the intervals' of the visual representations of their bodies to interpret them in ways that marked the duration and meaning of their selves. We conclude that even when presented with artificial representations, individuals convert the representation of the data into narratives inspired by their embodied experience, and the 'virtual' pasts of their own lives.