Published 2023-07-22
Keywords
- phantom limb,
- quasi-presence,
- lived body,
- virtuality,
- intercorporeality
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2023 Ariela Battán Horenstein, María Clara Garavito, Veronica Cohen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
We use phenomenology to reflect on the experience of being with others as mediated by screens through videoconferencing platforms, a phenomenon accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation measures. We explore two directions to explain the intersubjective experience of a videoconference. One direction introduces a conceptual background based on previous contributions in phenomenology, while the other one is more speculative: we introduce the novel idea of a phantom other. First, we understand this phenomenon either as a correlate of image consciousness or as a paradoxical perception. Then, we introduce the phantom other using ideas offered in phenomenological descriptions in which the phantom limb appears as a quasi-presence. The phantom other is the same flesh and blood body with whom I co-constitute senses of the world. In a videoconference, the other appears as a whole body with which I coordinate, although she appears as a phantom other.