RE/ME: An immersive installation for reimagining and resculpting bodily self-perception

Abstract

RE/ME (re-me.cognovo.org) is a full-body, immersive installation that employs auditory and vibrotactile stimuli to create unusual, pleasurable, and perception-altering experiences. The installation uses both a carefully composed and richly textured soundscape, as well as vibrotactile patterns provided by over 200 tiny actuators contacting the skin. These stimuli aim to influence the user’s affective state and alter the representation of their body in their somatosensory cortex. The installation is inspired by somatic studies (which explores the firstperson experience of one’s body) and technology design; it further draws from research in neuroscience and experimental psychology which suggests how vibrotactile stimulation can facilitate a range of different effects on neurophysiology. RE/ME can be simultaneously regarded as a low-cost medical device with a range of potential therapeutic applications; an immersive installation where users experience unusual, novel, and pleasurable external stimuli; and a creative tool for reimagining and resculpting the perception of the shape and size of one’s own body. Unlike many digital technologies for the body – which aspire to extend or supplant some part of the human sensory system – RE/ME exemplifies a technology design sensibility that takes a specific and more widely applicable approach to the transhuman. Our aim is to create a cognitive aid that provides a learning scaffold for developing (not replacing) the self-sensing capabilities of individuals. In this presentation, we present initial findings from experiments involving 43 members of the public who experienced the RE/ME installation during a month-long artistic residency with DART (www.dartlabs.io), a San Francisco-based testing lab for design, art, research and technology. We share some of the highlights of the qualitative aspects of the experiments, including participant-drawn images that demonstrate how RE/ME altered their bodily self-perception. We conclude with describing ongoing work in developing and applying RE/ME in the Philippines for medical and therapeutic purposes. RE/ME represents an example not only of the potentially intimate and mutually beneficial exchange between scientific and artistic research, but also its relevance to non-Western contexts.