Thesis update – Abstract draft
Of course, my thesis project is always in flux, and I regret not posting more about it more regularly as I think writing more would help me sort things out. So on that note, here’s a draft for my thesis abstract:
The vast majority of work in the field of human-computer interaction has involved programming computers to better sense and understand our inputs, yet little work has been done in terms of how we humans can better sense and understand computers. Computers, and electronics in general, reach out to us by creating fields of low and very low frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. These ubiquitous frequencies penetrate and permeate our bodies at a molecular level, so spatially intimate experiences with electronics can be understood as a merging of physical bodies with the computer’s electromagnetic embrace. As we humans have no natural means of sensing these frequencies, the “EM brace” provides a means of physically engaging with these frequencies by combining two of our natural senses, touch and hearing. The EM brace accentuates the microscopic merging of body/computer and the boundlessness of the quantum. As well, it points towards the ineluctable direction of human evolution towards the cybernetic post-human, an evolution that can be understood in terms of a Deleuzoguattarian becoming, specifically a becoming-electronic.