I’m not sure how well the Team’s link will work, but people are invited to this UEL session on metaverse and embodiment at UEL on 23rd March at 4pm GMT.
Media Research Seminar on 23rd March 4pm. On campus (EB1.45) and Teams link below
How to Study the Metaverse: Cognition, Embodiment and Experience in Immersive Worlds
Following Facebook’s move to Meta and recent ACI/UEL interest in emerging immersive technologies and practices, this research seminar aims to critically locate the metaverse in media theory and human computer interaction debates
This introductory talk will locate the metaverse in debates from human computer interaction (HCI) focused on three paradigms of research. Using this frame, the talk will briefly map the trajectory of HCI from body-machine couplings, mind-computer metaphors and situated, embodied interaction, to visions of the metaverse.
Diana Lengua
Beginning with the notion of embodied interaction, we will attempt to reconstruct the prerequisites for what META’s founder now defines as the new era of the embodied internet. The notion of situated knowledge within the HCI will be addressed, and we will tackle the discursive-hype related to the great promises of a “not-so-new” immersive environment.
Alex Thomas
This talk will introduce the transhumanist ideas of silicon immortality, radical abundance and morphological freedom tracking transhumanist fantasies from real life to VR and back again. The eschatological underpinnings of escaping embodiment in transhumanist discourse will be considered.
VIRALITY 