The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction… Intentionality

O’Neill, S. (2008) Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction. London: Springer-Verlag.

“The problem of inter-subjectivity is that, while we can each experience the world in an ontological sense, how can we know that each of us is experiencing the same things, given that we do not have direct access to each other’s thoughts and experiences. (…) Dourish posits that intentionality sets up the relationship between embodied action and meaning (Dourish, 2001, p138).” (p38)

Annotation:

Harman (2007) posits that phenomenology can re-establish itself “by expanding the concept of intentionality to the point where it covers the entirety of the things themselves, thereby freeing us from the growing staleness of the philosophy of human access” (p123). Dourish (2001) sees in the Husserlian distinction between act and matter that the manifested intentionality of acting over the matter, of interacting, holds a relationship between the meaning of the interaction and the embodied action of the interaction. O’Neill (2008) concisely reminds that phenomenology offers a philosophy and methodology to reveal what others see as much as possible considering problem of a metaphysical state of being only being existentially experienced.  

Guerilla Metaphysics… Intentionality

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“The way to revive phenomenology is not through external rituals of compliance with Husserl’s vocabulary, but by expanding the concept of intentionality to the point where it covers the entirety of the things themselves, thereby freeing us from the growing staleness of the philosophy of human access. (…) Instead of maintaining the usual focus on categorical intuition, so favoured by disciples of Heidegger, I propose that we examine the simple Husserlian distinction between act and matter.” (p23)

Annotation:
Harman (2007) posits that phenomenology can re-establish itself “by expanding the concept of intentionality to the point where it covers the entirety of the things themselves, thereby freeing us from the growing staleness of the philosophy of human access” (p123). Dourish (2001) sees in the Husserlian distinction between act and matter that the manifested intentionality of acting over the matter, of interacting, holds a relationship between the meaning of the interaction and the embodied action of the interaction. O’Neill (2008) concisely reminds that phenomenology offers a philosophy and methodology to reveal what others see as much as possible considering problem of a metaphysical state of being only being existentially experienced. 

Guerilla Metaphysics… Criticism of Hermeneutics

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“hermeneutics still ascribes to humans (and perhaps even to animals) an apparently miraculous power: the ability to convert the sheer impact of the world into pictures of simulacra of such impact. Humans still transcend the world and contemplate it, even if only partially, and this makes humans different in kind from mere paper, sand, or gold. It is still humans alone can perceive the world, and the philosophical gap between sentient and inanimate or object and appearance is still taken as a given.” (p#)

Annotation:
The criticism of hermeneutics here is that as it reveals the structure and personal interpretation of a human’s experience, it is only revealing a state of being that has always existed in humans. This is a pointless criticism as hermeneutic phenomenology seeks to reveal the meaning behind that said experience, and until the phenomenologists began this inquiry that state had never been addressed. Despite this Harman does ascribe to hermeneutics that its power is “the ability to convert the sheer impact of the world into pictures of simulacra” (p#) of the studied experience. This demonstrates the contribution that this methodology makes to understanding human experience within the world – to reveal the unrevealed.

Guerilla Metaphysics… Heidegger

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“What must be rejected from the start is the prevailing model of humans as transcending or negating the world, as critics who break loose from animal bondage and stand in a windy, starry space of freedom. We should be equally suspicious of those hermeneutic versions of critique that merely add the caveat that perfect transcendence is impossible.” (p#)

Annotation:
The Heideggerian phenomenological revealing of an experience is situated within a context and the world. It is not some permanent state of transcendence outside of that context or the world*. This is a reason why Husserlian transcendental phenomenology is not being followed in the thesis.

* may return and expand this point. 

Guerilla Metaphysics… Understanding of Experience

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“A full object-oriented philosophy could not be expected to deal with every possible object, just as phenomenology was never expected to describe all appearances in the world (though in quantitative terms it certainly could have done more).” (p#)

Annotation:
Harman’s reading of phenomenology is biased towards an object-orientated metaphysics, and as a qualitative method it is not beneficial to bring quantitative requirements into the debate. The understanding of experience cannot be measured, only described. 
 

Guerilla Metaphysics… Critical of Phenomenology

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“When we speak of the relation within the heart of things as perceived, let’s refer to sensual relations, in keeping with the discoveries of the carnal phenomenologists. (…) Phenomenologists know that the intentional object can never become present in the flesh, but they also know that there is no purely given sense data free from the spectre of intentional objects. (…) The phenomenology of perception plays out only on this sensual level, making no claim to drive into physical reality itself – indeed, in its abhorrence of all naturalism it even tends to deny the very existence of a physical realm, and certainly holds it at arm’s length from philosophy.” (p#)

Annotation:
Harman is critical of phenomenology as the associated perception is never located in the physical external tangible world, but in a cognitively sensual internal personal world of interpretation and experiences. 

Guerilla Metaphysics… Sensual Qualities

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“For phenomenology, to name an object is to point to some kind of unifying form that binds together many distinct properties; a name is never just a shorthand alias for the total list of these properties. Sensual qualities are always qualities of an object, even when we fail to distinguish these objects correctly amidst all the confusions of the senses.” (p24)

Annotation:
The sensual qualities of an object are in the perception of it and the connotational potentialities of the object beyond the utilitarian denotational qualities of the physical thing itself. The connotational potentialities exist in the semiotics of its design. Phenomenology can be used to illuminate the interpretation of these sensual qualities and reduce the confusion leading to an understanding of the meanings to the user. 

Guerilla Metaphysics… Perception

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“Perception can only assist our acts of meaning without being directly responsible for them, since these acts by definition go beyond the materials with which they work.” (p24)

Annotation:
Harman, when discussing perception, believes it is not directly responsible for intentional acts. The attribution of meaning to that act is contextual to the object associated with the intentional act, as the material the object is composed of affords information to the call to action that is communicated. Perception of this affordance, through the semiotic signs, is enabled but it is in interpreting and understanding the semiotic signs that leads to the interaction.  

Guerilla Metaphysics… Experience of Being

HARMAN, G. (2007) Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. Open Court Publishing Company.

“The endless rejuvenating force of phenomenology lies in the philosophical dignity that it grants to such experiences. Never are they treated as some sort of frivolous anteroom to an ominous rumble of being. For phenomenology, the drama of the world plays itself out within specific appearances, not behind or beneath them.” (p21)

Annotation:
Phenomenology as a research method focuses on the experience of being, whereas ethnography and other methodologies look at the contexts of being – the states behind or beneath the experience.