Rethinking Space in Telepresence Art through Merleau-Ponty’s “Eye and Mind”

Abstract

Eduardo Kac, an important contemporary telepresence artist, has maintained that telepresence art contributes to the breakdown of our sense of space. His argument rests inpart ona reading of Merleau-Ponty’s “Eye and Mind.” Contrary to Kac on this matter, I argue that an interpretation of telepresence art through Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that such art diminishes our experience of space; in fact, such a reading can reveal telepresence art to be a means of expanding that experience.

Keywords

• maurice merleau-ponty
• eduardo kac
• telepresence art
• space
• embodiment