The MEATBOOK

CONCEPT

Theorists claim centuries of literacy have diminished much of our sensory abilities (McLuhan, 1962, 1969; Ong, 1999; Havelock 1995, 1998). The mind/body split is as virulent as ever. While hundreds of new books on the body conceive of it as text, metaphor and a mere trope, a resurgence in interest has extended past textual production into embodied forms. 

Books are the ne plus ultra of writing, the archival aspect that remains after its authors are gone. Unlike the presence demanded of our cave-dwelling ancestors in order to communicate, it is no longer necessary when or after an author writes. Thus, we no longer rely on facial expressions or gesticulations of authors; we no longer hear the timbre of their voices, see their spittle fly, smell them or sense their pheromones, mirror their kinesthetic movements, or touch them.

Following McLuhan, it is commonplace to regard new technologies as “changing the ratio of our senses.” Telepresence, presence and immersion are ideas we take for granted or are exploring in greater depth. When an artist (Stelarc) can grow an ear on his arm, we assume technology can transform our bodies. The MeatBook challenges the last, remaining vestiges of a human, cultural sensorium that was lulled into a kind of sensory sleep, according to Karl Marx (Johnson, 1993, p.79), or shocked into temporary haptic awareness (Benjamin, 1979, p.179). Rather than return to a Romantic or feral era, we seek to create awareness, to reawaken and extend our visceral sense.

Consciousness lags tacit experience by a fraction of a second. The Visceral, however, is our only bodily system that we sense in real-time, arguably unmediated. Our visceral system is the only one that, cut off from our brain, still manages to function; it is thus called “the Second Brain” (Gershon, 1999, p.16). According to Brian Massumi, viscerality is “a rupture of the stimulus-response paths, a leap in place into a space outside action-reaction circuits until one is jolted back into action-reaction by recognition” (Massumi 2002, pp.112-113).

The MeatBook was created to elicit a visceral sense. In doing so, it does not merely provoke what Julia Kristeva termed the abject, but holds open a door of perception for a longer duration. Over time, the MeatBook’s barely detectable smell of blood gently becomes more insistent as the meat rots; movements grow insistent as the meat disintegrates. Interactions among the decaying meat and its embedded electronics offer unexpected movements.

Through our capabilities as primates, the visceral sense arises during interaction with the MeatBook in numerous ways, and is described in diverse disciplines as moments of resonance (Sherrington), the mimetic faculty (Benjamin, Gebauer, Wulf), kinesthetic empathy (Martin), internal resonance (Varela, Simondon, Elkins) or attunement (Merleau-Ponty). Mirror neurons are another aspect that may be taken into consideration, though the way they work is under debate.

Future iterations of the MeatBook are scheduled to appear in several conferences and galleries.

ⓒ Diane Gromala, 2007