Phenomenology as Practice: Variations, voices and practical implications for “doing” phenomenology Abstract Phenomenology is centered on the validity of first-person lived experience as the basis for the construction of knowledge. It has gained attention in recent years because it can be a way to explore the increasing complexity of bodily relations. It has taken on even more significance in a time of pandemic, when bodies are so much in focus as sites of control and vulnerability. As psychoanalyst and cultural critic Susie Orbach asks: “What are we to make of bodies at this time?”
With this seminar I propose to address not just the What? of phenomenology but the How? This means shifting from considering phenomenology as a mode of analysis to approaching it as a methodology with relevance to research in design, art and culture. In saying phenomenology is iterative I refer to the close use of phenomenology in a variety of ways and for various stages of a design process, but I also consider to the development of phenomenological method itself over time. I’ll use examples from a particular artistic collaboration with a choreographer who uses deep meditative techniques in her practice. Working with a media artist (Keith Lim) and a visual artist (Jeannette Ginslov) we have created a Mixed Reality archive of Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir’s work that is a public installation called “Conspiracy Archives”. Phenomenology as Practice: Variations, voices and practical implications for “doing” phenomenology Bio: Susan Kozel is a Professor of New Media with the School of Arts and Culture of Malmö University. With an international profile as a contemporary phenomenologist, she applies philosophical thought to a range of embodied practices in digital cultures. Her research takes the form of both scholarly writing and collaborative performance practices. Her particular focus at present is on phenomenologies of affect applied to somatic presence in AR/MR and VR.
