Lucinda Boermans
HINGESPACE
“To work toward a full understanding of how mutuality is achieved by bodily means, we need to integrate a microscopic perspective on the actual, single instance and its unfolding in time.”
Boermans’ practice examines and questions the sociological shift in primary communication from the physical (face-to-face) to the virtual (text-messaging), with the aim of reaching a clearer understanding of this shift, and in turn, its impact upon relational being. Boermans asks whether, running counter to our exponentially expanding digital body, there lies an equally significant inner body or affective dimension. How do these dimensions relate to one another? If we consider their relationship as 'intercorporeal' (Merleau Ponty) then perhaps we are looking towards a 'readjustment' or ‘re-balancing' of bodily relations.
Exploring Bergson’s concept of perception (including insight from his philosophical vision of mind/body dualism) Boermans reimagines Merleau Ponty’s concept of 'intercorporeality' via, what may be termed, 'extended positioning'. Conclusions drawn, via the mapping of the 'affective dimension', point to relational being utilising both 'internal and external processual matter'. Existing ‘in equilibrium’ this process may be described as cyclical cohesion. Logic dictates if one element is affected, so too the other.
Following this line of thought, Boermans goes on to consider external bodily relational as primarily environmental, concluding that a shift in landscape, either physical or digital - or both, will in turn impact human sociality (social corporeality). They are inextricably linked. Thus, Boermans notes a correlation between, what may be termed, 'advanced digital extension' (relational being) and physical relational being. The consequence of this, Boermans proposes, is being observed or more accurately, experienced, as a reduction in physical sensory perception. This may be referred to as 'affective fall out'. Ultimately, Boermans sees 'matter-energy' as relational.
