Issue 44, Fall 2024
Guest edited by María Andrea Giovine, Susana González Aktories and Roberto Cruz Arzabal
The position of the body in the aesthetic realm is not a fixed element but a process. By choosing the verb “to incorporate” for this issue of Intermédialités, the body takes centre stage in critical reflections on intermedial practices and perspectives. The verb “to incorporate” presupposes, by its etymology, the distinction of at least two material entities, as well as a movement of assimilation or integration of one by the other. This movement further implies the introduction of something external into the body’s internal space. As the body is also a source of innumerable metaphors and images of the human world, it is not surprising that the introduction of one thing into another—even in a metaphorical sense—is also considered an incorporation. “To incorporate” also refers to processes in which one artistic technique is subsumed into another or when two or more media become one. The presence of the body within another medium and the uses of media in relation to the body are incorporated forms of intermedial relations. Incorporation can go as far as homologation, subsumption, partial integration, or total absorption. In the realm of experience, it takes on the sense of appropriating or reappropriating.
This issue delineates three significant perspectives in the study of embodiment and the body within the context of intermediality studies. The first is phenomenological, and explores the sensorium and its interactions with the materialities of communication and processes of perception. The second is informed by cultural studies to address issues such as the production of self through different media, including in the work of indigenous artists. And third, the cognitive approach integrates a scientific understanding of how the brain perceives and creates artistic objects with humanistic inquiries regarding cultural significance and the fundamental human role of art. Together, the articles range from literary works to performing and fine arts as practiced in different parts of the globe while dealing with the body as a mediating instance that is at the same time creating, experiencing, decoding, and interacting with the world.