Thesis as of This Moment

Working Title: Awakening Sense Experience: Embodied Art and the Museum Screen 

Abstract: The hierarchy of the senses dictates that vision is a crucial element of our experiences with the world.  According to thinkers such as Marshal McLuhan, Walter Ong, and Harold Innis, this is the result of the onset of a literate society with cognitive abilities based on our adoption of the printed word. The screen interface is an extension of this visually-oriented culture and has developed into a fixture in museums through interactive exhibition interfaces, projections, and virtual displays online. Artworks that incorporate screen interfaces, however, rarely focus on the sense of sight alone and this multi-sensory activity suggests that screens can act as tools for awakening our weakened senses of hearing, touch, taste, and smell.  Theories of perception often champion an engagement with the world through all the senses and as Maurice Merleau-Ponty suggests, "Sense experience is that vital communication with the world which makes it present as a familiar setting of our lives." This article addresses the work of Canadian and international artists such as David Rokeby, Daniel Rozin, Nam June Paik and others who have considered the emotive qualities of screen art, and explores the possibilities of heightened multi-sensory experiences through interaction with museum screens. In a quest to understand these relationships, the following questions are posed: Is the screen a limiting factor that hinders our encounters with multi-sensory art, or does it work in tandem with our sensual faculties to positive effect? How do screens affect relationships with art objects and what forms of art are particularly suited to screen representation? And finally, what role does the museum screen play in an embodied experience with art?