Human bodies and bodily experience as the counter-balance to digital algorithm

Hey Body, how would you guide me? Hey Body: In Time of Counter Enquiry is a speculative design project speaking human bodies become a new algorithm concept called "Human Body Enquiry", operating by the bodily experience stored in our physical flesh in the near future of speculative 2030s.The project consists of: (1)The speculative technology, (2)The fictional documentary, and displays in the retrospective form of exhibition (3)Hey Body: In Time of Counter Enquiry.

Bringing back the overlook human body The rapid development of algorithmic technology in the current 2020s brings convenience to human society, yet at the same time, unprecedented well-being health issues rise. In the pursuit of digitalisation, physical human flesh is often considered obsolete redundancy.

However, the overlooked engagement of our human body and physiological reaction in the interaction with the algorithms through digital device, is the counterbalance to the digital algorithms that reveal our most primitive and innermost feeling simultaneously. Unlike the direct one-way reduction, our bodies and the recorded bodily experience is a 'counter' enquiry approach that retrieves our every thought and move to reason differently.

By proposing human flesh as a counterbalance to digital computation, Hey Body hopes to bring back the importance and presence of our physical bodies in every thought and action we often overlook in the interaction with digital technology.

(1) The Technology
Adjusting the distance with digital algorithm

Human Body Enquiry Technology (HBE) Human Body Enquiry, or HBE for short, is a speculative concept that views the human body as a new form of algorithm. In the concept, humans have 'Nodes', a repository component of bodily experience stored and separated inside the human body. The distribution of nodes and the stored data, vary person by person depending on one's lived experience.

When the corresponding bodily experience passes through, the nodes will grow a kind of nerve called 'Node-filament' that carries the data of bodily experience. The polymer of node-filament called 'Threads' enable humans to evaluate their 'distance' with the digital algorithm through contemplation.

Node-filament Spindle Device (Spindle) 'Node-filament Spindle Device' (Spindle, SPD) is a Human Body Enquiry Technology device that assists users to practice Human Body Enquiry. The form of spindle represent the idea of 'exo-neurosystem' to visualise the intangible flow of perception and cognition.

The name 'Spindle' is a metaphor for the mechanism of the human body growing the node filament out from the node. Through Spindle, humans can access the bodily experience on threads to adjust one's distance with the digital algorithm.

Spindle 1.0 Launched in 2029, SPD 1.0 is the first Human Body Enquiry Technology device that enables humans to access the bodily experience in the form of thread non-intrusively. Users contemplate on the bodily experience and apply the spindle to body part of the correspondent nodes to pull out the thread.

However, the requirement of direct body part contact caused inconvenience in case of node located at inconvenient part.

Spindle 2.0 SPD 2.0 introduced the concept of 'body channelling'. Users can access nodes distributed in different body parts by tuning the combination of channelling dials on the bottom left segment without direct skin contact.

Launched in 2035, SPD 2.0 improved the problem of bulky size and access of nodes in inconvenient body parts. The stretchable and light thickness makes SPD 2.0 closely fixate on different sizes of users to optimise the mobility and user experience.

(2) The Documentary
Rising awareness on the mediation of digital algorithm

Counter-Enquiry Movement "Counter-Enquiry Movement" refers to the series of experimental actions in the late 2020s in response to the rising human well-being issue led by the over-dependence on algorithmic technology. The iconic group, Bring Back Body (bbb) advocates bringing back the importance and presence of our physical bodies in every thought and action.

"Human body is the foundation of technology". By seeing human flesh as the counter-balance to digital computation, the spirit of 'counter' led to the development of Human Body Enquiry to re-examine the human-technology relationship with the digital algorithm and the meditation it shapes.

Enquiry Record The fictional documentary, Enquiry Record, reveals the social context, "Counter Enquiry Movement", that led to the development of "Human Body Enquiry Technology". The book consists of elastic and flesh-color materials to represent the motif of human flesh. The documentary itself is as if a collective extension of human body, recording human's counter-exploration on the possibilities of our physical bodies.

While reading the Enquiry Record of the counter enquiry movement, readers are also as if feeling their flesh and contemplating on their bodily experience to join the dialogue of the critical 2020s and 30s.

(3) The Exhibition

Hey Body: In Time of Counter Enquiry The speculative worldview and design are demonstrated in the form of exhibition in a retrospective narrative. The exhibition, Hey Body: In Time of Counter Enquiry, is set to be held in 2042 by the National Museum of Science, Arts and Technology (NMAST).

By setting this exhibition as a 'record' of a technology movement in the ongoing (speculative) future, Hey Body hopes the audience will reflect on their relationship in the interaction with the algorithm and the engaged body and, in the time of digitalisation, explore the better balance point between humans and algorithmic technology together.

Contemplation & Multidirection The exhibition's key visual posters show the 'organic' and 'multistable' characteristics of human flesh and bodily experience to represent the 'plurality' of Human Body Enquiry in contrast to the one-direction digital computation.