Game On: A Creative Enquiry into Agency and the Nature of Cognition in Distributed Systems
Michaela Davies
Abstract: Game On is a participatory installation where people use joysticks to control the movement of two (human) boxers via a MIDI-controlled electric muscle stimulation device. This device sends electrical impulses to specific muscle points on the boxers via electrodes connected to their arms, causing each boxer to punch their opponent involuntarily. The work is a creative enquiry into the nature of agency within a system where cognition is distributed across people, objects and environment through technologies of connection. Game On explores what happens in a system where embodied experience and sense of agency is disrupted or extended, and the implications for locating a responsible agent within this system.