Assistive Device Art: Ability, Perception, Plasticity of the Mind, and Human-Computer Co-evolution
Lecture for Paul Cheng's Course at the China Academy of Art
Assistive Device Art:
Transformation of Ability and Perception, the Plasticity of the Mind, and Human-Computer Co-evolution
Assistive Device Art (ADA) is the integration of Assistive Technology (AT) and art, involving the mediation of sensorimotor functions and perception from both, psychophysical methods and conceptual mechanics of sensory embodiment. ADA tools serve the participant as introspective portals to reflect on the process of agency and tool incorporation. These cognitive prosthetic devices become ever more incorporated with practice, more transparent, enhancing our ability to rewire our perception. This art form interfaces electro-mechanically and biologically with a participant. Assistive Device Artworks are performances that reveal the plasticity of the mind, while it is actively incorporating, replacing, and enhancing sensorimotor functions.
Human capabilities are limited by the obstacles of our physical condition, whereas the mind roams free in the realm of endless possibilities in our imagination. The ambition to extend our senses, bodies, reach, and even lifespan is embedded in the very DNA that tells our evolutionary history. We are adaptable beings, capable of surviving and thriving, and all because of our relentless ingenuity. Our extension begins from understanding the very axons that propel our sensorimotor control, dividing and conquering information through crowdsourcing and sharing digital workspaces, to the abstract ideas of Device Art. Our devices have made us transformable beings, a large connected organism of individuals, each a node capable of transferring any thought in a single tap or click to the rest of connected humanity. Devices distinguish us from other animals, they make us human.