Abstract
In the theory of somaesthetics, Richard Schusterman proposes the soma (body) as the prime locus of ‘sensory-aesthetic appreciation and creative self-fashioning’. However, as the flourishing growth of image on social media, the project of somaesthetics are challenged on two aspects: on the one hand, the boundary between the sensory-aesthetic experience from the visual network and that from the real life is blurred; on the other hand, the practices of self-experience and self-care are replaced by the construction of the virtual profile. With regard to the paradoxical relation between the soma and the image, this paper investigates whether the self-experience and self-care that happen in the space of image are still authentic. Based on a re-interpretation of Schusterman’s somaesthetics and a critical reading of Guy Debord’s theory of ‘the society of the spectacle’, this paper argues that the project of somaesthetics contains three dimensions – subjective, inter-subjective, and intra-subjective – with regard to the experience of and care for the self, and that the development of image on social media is in effect undermining the project. The core reason is that the space of image on social media is constructed based on a logic of smooth liking and thus dissolves the real encounter with ‘the other’, which has been crucial for the reflective experience and cognition of the self and the practice of self-care that follows.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Somaesthetics, The Society of Image, Self-Experience, Self-Care
