The full title of the article:
"The Extended Body: Telematics and Pedagogy" (Kozel 2.5)
I have expressed my objection to the term pedagogy. Here's a link to a discussion of
andragogy. "Telematics," the word, leads me to another objection, one that pertains in general to the writing in the article. Words can be stumbling blocks to meaning, and opaque sentences full of abstruse terms do not serve the cause of learning. See "
On Bullshit."
Nevertheless, the article serves as a useful springboard for many obvious features of the technologically extended creative workspace. Considering 'mediated presence' in light of the several ambiguities swirling around the concept ('mediated' as 'generated by or aided by media' as well as in the sense of 'modified by an intermediary' and presence as defined by its opposite, absence), the article starts with a suggestion that technological breakdowns mimic human breakdown when it comes to communication.
The article predates Facebook by a almost a decade. The social networks make a point of being absent as well as present. Being 'friends' with someone one barely knows, and doesn't feel particularly comfortable with in 'real time' is a form of mediated absence. One can 'know' this person, and be known, in a way outside normal boundaries of social behavior. (Another example is the person that becomes a demon behind the wheel of an automobile. This person has just greeted you fondly on the way to the garage. A moment later, you are nearly run over by this same person, now a driver, enclosed in a mediating metal box, clearly in an impatient mode, aware only of being in a hurry, leaving you shaking your head to the sound of squealing tires and the pall of blue smoke.)
Communication breaks down. The networks have latency, and we are lost between the spaces on a virtual desktop. I find this embrace of 'space' particularly poignant and potentially useful. The interactive workspace and art form searches for meaning as much as it searches for the next breakthrough. Here is a metaphor that offers a meaningful clue. The spaces between windows are the spaces between us.
