Derrick DeKerckhove

De Balie, fridaymorning. A brilliant speaker in a full auditorium. High expectations soar. The room buzzing. Then it falls quiet. DeKerckhove begins. We travel through time. The history of human medial experience in a nutshell: 300 generations ago writing was developed. 35 generations ago: printing. Photography 5. Wireless technologies not even one.
Images of the body view through history pass. The body, which has not yet adjusted again. The body, which is analyzed with the scalpel. The body, which was detached from the self by writing. “Wireless means permanent, ubiquitous access to all our extensions.” The present revolution is one of a new perspective. This is the end of neutral space, the end of the distance of viewing.
“Electricity is touch” (McLuhan). Electricity is within and without the body. Dancers captivated by their new body sense. RFID as bridge in clothing and even paintings. The point of being is electricity’s answer to the point of view. The interval has disappeared. Origin is context.
The new perspective: the point of view is reversed. See Ulrike Gabriel’s artwork ‘Terrain 01’. The vanishing point is the user. See David Rokeby’s work ‘Very Nervous System’. It is romantically expressed in the “cybourgoisie”. See Stelarc or Steve Mann.
What comes next is beyond us still: the multiple spaces of string theory perhaps. The future is multisensory kaleidoscopic.