DFG-Project: Somatechnically Mediated Telexistence
Identitary, Intercorporeal and Social Theoretical Implications of the Control of and Interaction with Telerobots
The project investigates the experiential dimensions of immersion in a remote-controlled robot avatar as a "technical second body" in the transition from the bodily-spatial co-presence of the controller to the experience of "telexistence" in another place. Insights into somatechnologies from current debates, methods and results of the interdisciplinary research field of human-computer interaction and telerobotics will be linked with neo- and post-phenomenologically oriented concepts of the sociology of the body. The concepts are examined with regard to their immanent organic, situational and material limits for identity-forming bodily experiences and reviewed in terms of their significance for newly emerging interaction practices of intercorporeal communication and technohybrid concepts of sociality.
In order to capture the specifics of the immersive somatic transfer of users into the technical second body, a research stay at the robotics institute "iit" (Italy) is planned, in which controllable interaction robots will be developed and the phenomenon of "telexistence" can be empirically and qualitatively investigated through own long-term studies on participants. The data material will be supported by further studies on illusions of virtual body exchange as well as interviews with engineers on production processes and actor and society designs of the future. The interdisciplinary design of the long-term study contributes to the holistic identification of the extent of the dislocation phenomenon of body substitution in technical body representations and to the identification of future application scenarios of somatechnologies. In this sense, the project aims to close existing research gaps on the role of technology in the sociology of the body as follows: 1.) by developing an interdisciplinary conceptual inventory of terms for bodily human-technology-world relations, 2. ) by evaluating empirical data on the long-term effects of dislocated presence experiences in telerobotics on body, identity, actor and interaction experiences and 3.) by discussing the results and the significance of somatechnically modified bodies as well as hybrid actor and society designs for body-related social theory.
