Though motor actions have long been studied by neuroscientists and physiologists, only recently have researchers considered the role of actions in the development of the self. Our concept of self is influenced by our own actions, and those we observe performed by others.
I am an artist who explores these psychological principles in my practice. My work has developed from an interest in psychological research and practice exploring how self-consciousness includes awareness of action, how a sense of agency is created through our actions, and how the actions of others influence our understanding of ourselves as differentiated from them. My work creates distributed systems where one agent can elicit muscle contraction and execute motor actions in another via electric muscle stimulation (EMS). In my most recent work, Game On, people use joysticks to control the movement of two boxers (real humans) via a midi controlled electric muscle stimulation device. This sends electrical impulses to specific muscle points on the boxers via electrodes connected to their arms, causing them to punch their opponent involuntarily. This poses interesting theoretical questions. What kind of agency is created in these distributed systems? Who is actually boxing? What happens to the self when cognition is distributed across people, objects and environment through technologies of connection? What are the ethical considerations raised by this practice?