media
argument - located bodies are always mediated and mediating bodies
mediation - a process of negotiating, communicating, translating, representing

media?
conventional understanding -
writing, printing, painting, photography, TV, video, film
the systems of production that accompany these

media - a question of representation?
what is being represented in our five works?
the Sims Œsimulation¹?
Richard¹s dismay about his sovereignty ~ power, speech, physical presence, his standing for England (an issue of political representation)
Lévi-Strauss¹s self-conscious reflection back upon himself, the Œintertextuality¹ of TT
Crito - a conversation in a prison cell?
the acute observation in the Pillow Book, the lists, the artifice, and their relation to genres of diary and poetry - hardly representational in a naturalistic sense

some related themes
interesting feature of these works is their recursivity
the mirrors of reflection, representation, of Œreality¹ and its representation
the language of Richard
the simulated worlds of Sims
the philosophy of forms of Plato
the ethnographic other in Lévi-Strauss
the urbane commentary of Sei Shonagon

bodies in place - materiality and immateriality
self and context - questions of identity
the search for some inner core of essential identity always  becomes a matter of relationship and location/context
dispersed
distributed
dislocated
bodies
this is the natural
state of
being

working out (mediating) some familiar dualities
mind and body
character and props
self and other
individual and society
individual powers and social rules
reality and representation
mediation - not so much overcoming these as realizing them as processes

there is only ever re-presentation
telling stories about selves
simulating and modeling
living up to ideals
sifting out the Œessential¹ (in others, in oneself, in events, in scenarios)
what, after all, is the original behind and before the representation?
Socrates answer - a Platonic form?

re-presentation is always material
medium as mode of engagement
breaking down these common notions of medium (movie, TV, book, theater)
it is not so much whether something is movie, drama, manuscript, video, lithograph Š
but how it engages
intimately one person as they walk the streets
a large group as they sit in a darkened room
a crowd in a public square
a family in a home
a child in a bedroom

located bodies are always (re)mediated and (re)mediating bodies
think of
chains of translation
dynamic states
rather than internally consistent and static forms
as mind becomes body and body mind
self becomes other
character becomes its material props, and vice versa
agent becomes social role, and vice versa

Slide 13
Slide 14
Slide 15