Embodiment and Agency: Towards an Aesthetics of Interactive Performativity

The aim of this paper is to take first steps in direction of a scientifically oriented aesthetics of New Media Art, taking into account the transformation of musical aesthetics taking place at present induced by new digital methods in artistic sound and music computing. Starting from the observation of relevant current issues in music composition and performances such as gesture control in algorithmic sound synthesis, live coding, musical robotics, and live algorithms for music, certain important concepts concerning a theory of human-machine interaction, which are at present under development in our research project C10 "Artistic Interactivity in Hybrid Networks" as part of the collaborative research center SFB/FK 427 "Media and Cultural Communication", are introduced and related to artistic practices. The essential concept of this theory – "interactivity" – is used as a generic term for different kinds of humanmachine interactions and is closely related to "agency", "situatedness", and "embodiment". "Agency" stresses a non-asymmetrical relationship between humans and machines. To make clear that some concepts of digital interaction are not conceived of as truly interactive, problems of disembodiment in computer and interactive music and new approaches of embodiment and situatedness in philosophy and cognitive science are discussed. This discussion shows that embodiment serves as a necessary condition for interactivity. Finally, perspectives towards an aesthetics of interactive performativity are discussed, taking into account interactivity, agency, and embodiment. "Performativity" – as developed in German media theories and aesthetics – is characterized as the capacity of a performative act to generate meaning and "reality". It is proposed as a theoretical approach to an aesthetics of New Media Art.