Following on and leading into our ongoing discussion of affect, embodiment and communications, I wanted to share a few examples of how embodiment, as discussed by Blackburn, has been integrated into various media forms.

First, here’s a project called Sensory Fiction (developed by students at MIT). It’s an interesting example of how embodied forms of communication are being integrated with older media forms (here, the written narratives.)

Image from Sensory Fiction project, developed as part of course at MIT.

There is also this short video that shows the project being used.

This is an interview with the producer and DJ Kode 9 who talks about the importance of embodied experiences of music. He talks about the relationship between the music be produces and plays and the affect it produces for those listening to it, specifically how it contributes to what he calls a “collective way of feeling” (a phrase that echoes the idea at the core of Ahmed’s article. If you’re interested, you can find videos of his music online.

There are, of course, many other sites that we might look at including video games, haptic interfaces in cell phones, amusement park rides, installations, that attempt to implement a similar combination of bodily experiences in order to communicate a message.