Empathy and the Prosthetic Eye

• In Event: Researching Aesthetics, Empathy, and Education

Abstract

Objectives
Art forms that involve mechanical and digital intervention would seem the least likely exemplars for illustrating Bond’s (2008) claim that, “a precondition for the existence of art is an empathetic link between the artist and the viewer, which is necessary for their collaboration to complete the artwork.” And yet, photography requires a series of permeable situations (subject present with photographer, photographer present with image, image present with viewer) that imply relationship in ways that are uniquely connected with a world that extends beyond the artifact of the photograph. Acknowledging early notions of ‘the gaze’ (Mulvey, 1975) and ‘the glance’ (Flitterman-Lewis, 1987) as they inform critical readings of ‘the lens media’ (Emme, 1989) and informed by more recent theoretical disruptions (Miles, 2005) and appreciations (Sutton, 2009) of technics, desire and the photographic, this paper explores the participants and situations of photography with focus on how engagement with/through the technics of the frame inflects empathetic response (Vischer et.al. 1993; Manney, 2008) among the participants in the sliding categories of subject, photographer and viewer.

Perspectives
Braidotti (2006), citing Donna Haraway, argues an expanded understanding of intersubjectivity, unfolding the notion of ‘posthumanism,’ suggesting a relationship with the technology or animal:
…[is] a hybrid, or body-machine, [where] the cyborg, or the companion species, is a connection-making entity; a figure of interrelationality, receptivity and global communication that deliberately blurs categorical distinctions (human/machine; nature/culture; male/female; oedipal/non-oedipal). It allows Haraway to think specificity without falling into relativism in the quest for adequate representation of a generic post-naturalistic humanity. (p. 200)
Rather than understanding these relations as having inside (human) and outside (not human) elements, Braidotti argues that those relationships should be understood as part of ‘being individual’ as a process where the simultaneous presence of a mixture of influences results in identity and understanding. From the perspective of this paper, rather than looking at photo technology as a barrier between individuals seeking an empathetic connection, it is worth understanding empathy as being built of human and technological parts. Rather than stepping over the technological to find the human, recognizing that human relations with technology quickly become intermingled, each becoming necessary elements in the process of relationship as it is experienced and understood.

Methodology
The ‘live view’ screen in newer digital cameras supports mobility and simultaneity in experiencing the roles of subject, photographer and viewer. The example of self-photography, where an individual can frame a shot of oneself while viewing a digital screen and where both the lens’ perspective and the final image file can be experienced immediately, creates a simultaneity that supports both phenomenal spontaneous experience and heightened self-consciousness. This convergence of light, lens and shutter with subject, photographer and viewer supports what Ponton would describe as a “technophenomenological”(2005) embodied experience of a self-subject as a fully empathetic representation.

Significance
As an educational researcher I will discuss how, photographic “live-view” as a prosthetically enhanced experience of multiple simultaneous subjectivities, reflects a challenge and an opportunity regarding the structure of knowledge and authority in the school system.

Author

• Michael Emme, University of Victoria