“Somaesthetic design” as a tool to develop the consumer's somatic consciousness

Filonenko Nadezhda Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0003-1459-9272 PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Department of Graphic Design, Ural State University of Architecture and Art named for N. S. Alferov Karl Liebknecht str., 23, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, 620075, Russia philonenkonadezhda@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Kazakova Natal'ya Yur'evna ORCID: 0000-0003-0006-1412 Doctor of Art History Professor, Department of System Design, A. N. Kosygin Russian State University 119071, Russia, Moscow, Malaya Kaluzhskaya str., 1 kazakova-nu@rguk.ru

Over the past ten years, the connection between aesthetic experience and the body has been actively discussed in English-language literature. One of the most significant trends in the framework of the "bodily approach" in aesthetics is associated with the name of the famous American philosopher P. Shusterman.

Last year, P. Shusterman edited a special issue of research on the development of "somaesthetics" (P. Shusterman's term) in design. It should be noted that although individual articles on "somaesthetic" design and architecture are periodically published in the Danish journal The Journal of Somaesthetics, dedicated specifically to the culture of physicality, this was the first collection of essays by scientists from universities around the world, which reinterpreted P. Shusterman's ideas in the context of project culture in general.

Since, within the framework of this collection, R. Shusterman for the first time connects "somaesthetics" with "studies of project culture", primarily with design research (in his earlier essay "Somaesthetics and Architecture: A Critical Opinion" in 2009, R. Shusterman already addressed the topic of project culture, but exclusively in the context of architecture), we We consider it important to summarize his ideas and try to assess their potential from the perspective of the development of "body-oriented" design.

To do this, we will turn to the research of R. Shusterman himself (unfortunately, his works were practically not translated into Russian), as well as philosophers, art historians, theorists and practitioners of design who develop his ideas.

Since R. Shusterman often refers to Far Eastern philosophical texts in his essays to argue his position, we will compare "somaesthetics" as a design approach (although the concept of "somaesthetics" is much broader) with a more "oriental" design approach formulated by the largest Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa and the famous British designer J. K. Rowling. By Morrison. This will allow us to show that "somaesthetics" is a product exclusively of "Western" thought.

Before starting the study, we note that R. Shusterman's position is that of a body–oriented therapist (he is a certified specialist in the motor practice of M. Feldenkrais). In his own words, he is interested in various bodily practices that "can help transform the Self emotionally, cognitively, and ethically, creating greater psychological harmony, sensory receptivity, and open, patient tolerance" ^{[1, p. 377]}. According to R. Shusterman, this bodily experience, through the prism of a person's aesthetic attitude, brings wholeness and expressiveness to his life, it allows a person to construct himself and build his own way of life in accordance with his desires. In other words, physicality acts as a "form of privacy" for R. Shusterman, and the body is the most important tool of internal transformation, allowing a person to open up to a new aesthetic experience in everyday life ^{[2, p. 136]}.

We emphasize that, according to the philosopher, a person's personality is constantly being completed, so a person should not "get stuck" in any one particular experience. R. Shusterman writes: "We need worries and disorder, because "the moment of transition from anxiety to harmony is the moment of a serene life" and the acquisition of the most amazing experience. But none of us would like to be stuck in this state of harmony." Similarly, the aesthetic perception of design objects is only a "moment of rest" necessary for "feeling the variability of life" ^{[1, p. 66]}.

Note that we are not talking exclusively about subjective aesthetic perception – "something universal emerges through the subjective." This is due to the fact that aesthetic experience is universally valid: for example, we all tend to perceive sunrise "as the awakening of life, as the triumph of nature, as consonance with our joyful sense of being" ^{[3, p. 197]}. We can say that we understand the world and each other through our bodily experience, therefore, design objects cannot be fully appreciated without it.

It is no coincidence that the American art critic S. Letold develops the idea of R. Shusterman's "style" of the body, linking style in art and design with the "psychological effectiveness" of a form designed to evoke an emotional, and therefore a bodily response of a person ^{[4, p. 109]}. He comes to the conclusion that today it is necessary to reconsider the concepts of style in art in connection with the discoveries made in neurobiology and genetics over the past few decades ^{[4, p. 122]}: the fact, for example, that "desire and fear share the same brain circuits", allow S. Letold to explain the connection of "desire" and "fear" in the fashion of the twentieth century ^{[4, p. 116]}. In other words, S. Letold develops the idea of R. Shusterman to rethink the history and theory of design from the point of view of body sciences, which can give a new impetus to the development of these disciplines.

It is also important that R. Shusterman offers not just a new theoretical concept, but an interdisciplinary project, essentially acting as a designer (if we adhere to the position of K. Dorst, who wrote that designers today must "understand ways of thinking in various discourses" and build broader "meta-discourses" based on them ^{[5, p. 17]}).

1) "Somaesthetics" as a project

According to R. Shusterman, design "aims to promote a life enriched by experience, or what is often called the "good life"" ^{[6, p. 5]}. Since, according to him, the body acts as the medium for experience, he believes that the body plays an important role in shaping aesthetic experience: It can be said that for R. Shusterman, the body is both a "condition of aesthetic experience and its result" (a person improves himself by becoming more receptive to aesthetic experience) ^{[7, p. 10]}. Accordingly, design is impossible without an emphasis on bodily experience.

We emphasize that R. Shusterman advocates the continuous development of bodily experience. Accordingly, referring, for example, to architectural design, he points out that it "must be critically attentive to the diversity of senses" of the body – not only at the level of the five senses, but also at the level of sensory perception through the body as such ^{[8, p. 290]}, that is, at the level of "proprioceptive sensitivity" (sensations the position of the body in space) ^{[8, p. 299]}.

Since R. Shusterman is primarily interested in bodily practices that enhance a person's bodily self-awareness, he develops the concept of applied "philosophy" as an interdisciplinary "platform" fundamentally different from the academic discipline, which, according to him, could be called "aesthetics of embodiment" ^{[9, p. 138]}.

According to the philosopher, for this "platform" he needed a design-appealing term, which became "somaesthetics", formed by combining the Greek "soma" ("[feeling] body") with "aesthetics" ("aesthetics") and then removing it for aesthetic reasons. for reasons of necessity, one letter “a” in the middle of the formed word ^{[6, p. 3]}.

The desire to find an attractive name for a new field of interdisciplinary research was connected, as far as we can tell, with the need to make it socially significant and open to authors with "different experiences." It is no coincidence that in one of his essays R. Shusterman notes that "one of the most significant successes of modern Marxism and feminism is to demonstrate that art and aesthetics are saturated with politics and, therefore, need to be criticized from a socio-ethical point of view" ^{[1, p. 215]}. The point is that art, for example, by pushing the viewer to negative experiences of "increased fragmentation [of the world], dissonance and destructive differences" is able to "demand something better" ^{[10, p. 21]}.

R. Shusterman's desire to engage in somaesthetics in order to solve a "problematic situation" (to achieve harmonious satisfaction of human desires), generally corresponds to the task of J. Dewey's "instrumental aesthetics", which R. Shusterman consistently develops in his works.

It is noteworthy that, as well as J. Dewey and R. Shusterman turn to Far Eastern philosophy with its roots in bodily experience. According to the philosopher himself, the concept of "somaesthetics" "was largely inspired by the ideas of Chinese and other ancient Asian philosophies," as Oriental meditations and martial arts "improve our ability to move and mental concentration, while simultaneously giving greater grace to our movements and greater pleasure and sharpness to our consciousness" ^{[10, p. 22]}.

The same as with J. Dewey, R. Shusterman's interest in Eastern philosophy is of a narrowly applied nature. For example, the philosopher does not address the very specifics of the Eastern worldview, which, according to the famous French sinologist F. Julien, consists in the openness of consciousness to a variety of scenarios at the same time, as if in being in the "space between". The sinologist even proclaims this "ambiguity" as "the modern mission of [Western] thought" ^[11].

Instead, based on the texts of various Eastern philosophers, R. Shusterman focuses on the importance of bodily experience. In one of the essays, he cites the example of an actor in the Japanese Noh theater, who must understand how he looks to the audience – "only then can we say that the actor really understood the nature of his appearance." Using this example, R. Shusterman shows the need for "somatic focusing", which allows a person to increase bodily self-awareness and achieve more "effective and beautiful" movements ^[12].

Since R. Shusterman considers important any practices aimed at changing a person's behavior through his bodily experience – "from yoga and Taijiquan to cosmetic surgery and tanning" ^[13] (in his words, "working on the outside can be a means of working on inner virtues", and working on the "inner part" "can to improve our appearance" ^{[14, p. 158]}), the question arises about the assessment of a person's transformative somaesthetic experience. The criterion of authenticity of "somaesthetic transformation" for R. Shusterman is solely the presence of a memorable significant experience in a person, accompanied by "intellectual judgment" ^[13].

2) The development of "somaesthetics" in digital design

In connection with the development of R. Shusterman's principles of somaesthetics in design in the West, the book “Designing with the Body: Somaesthetic Interaction Design” (2018) by Swedish researcher K. Heck became famous. According to K. Heck, the "bodily approach" is "appropriate in all types of design," however, in her monograph she focuses on digital design aimed at developing the "somaesthetic sensitivity" of the user, for whom bodily experience becomes a value (eng. "somaesthetic appreciation design"). We are talking, first of all, about kinesthetic experience, since emotions (for which the amygdala in the brain and the hippocampus are responsible) are closely related to movements (reinforced, in turn, by the release of harmonics, for which the amygdala and the hippocampus are responsible), that is, "a limited repertoire of movements becomes a limited set of experiences" ^{[15, p. 58]}.

K. Heck sees the relevance of this approach in digital design in the fact that "interactions based on body, movement and soma are also beginning to play a role in the new wave of digitalization moving from the "screen" to the world" ^{[15, p. 21]}. The main task of a digital designer, from the point of view of K. Heck, is to create conditions for pleasant interaction between humans and technology. This is not just about creating, for example, another heart rate meter for runners, but about "designing experiences", because, according to K. Heck, today "it is not enough to make [digital] systems convenient and efficient", they should "create the basis for an experience that would be interesting to users" ^{[15, p. xxiv]}.

As an example of a design project aimed at developing the user's "somaesthetic sensitivity", K. Heck cites his team's conceptual development for IKEA: the Soma Mat relaxation mat and the Breathing Light lamp (Figure 1). The meaning of the interaction lies in the fact that a person puts on headphones and chooses one of the exercises within the framework of body-oriented therapy on his phone (in a special application). During the lesson, a person needs to direct their attention to one or another part of the body – synchronously with the therapist's voice, one of the six cushions of the mat begins to heat up in order to focus the attention of the person lying on a certain part of his body. In accordance with a person's slowing breathing, the lamp above him gradually fades (the sensor next to the bulb reacts to the movements of his chest).

K. Heck describes his own impressions after the "session" as follows: "Finally, I was asked to open my eyes and slowly sit down. At that moment, I was very pleased with my changed state of consciousness. I felt a full presence in my body" ^{[15, p. 85]}.

Theoretically, K. Heck develops the idea of P. Shusterman, who understands by the "body schema" of a person his "ingrained habits" or "movement tendencies" in the body, which, on the one hand, allow a person to "act skillfully and intelligently without thinking about what he is doing with his body parts", and on the other The other is "they make up [his] personality", its "special spirit" ^{[14, p. 156]}. More specifically, K. Heck is interested in "dynamic gestalts", which form the basis of a new and pleasant "somaesthetic experience" for the user ^{[15, p. 128]}.

We emphasize that in the field of digital design, the "body approach" can be implemented in different directions, however, in our opinion, the potential of "somaesthetic appreciation design" lies primarily in its versatility – applicability to different types of design. It is no coincidence that the Hungarian aesthetic specialist B. Veres refers to multisensory architecture, which focuses a person's attention on his bodily experience, as the most representative for revealing the design potential of "somaesthetics".

3) Multisensory architecture as a model for "somaesthetic design"

B. Veres in his work "Rethinking Aesthetics through Architecture" (2018) develops P. Shusterman's idea that architecture should be multisensory, and even suggests considering "multisensory architecture as a paradigm of aesthetic experience" ^{[16, p. 93]}. He writes that architecture creates a situation of "enhanced presence," it is able to "aesthetically transform everyday experience," and, therefore, "under certain conditions, anything can become art" against the background of a specific architectural object.

According to B. Veres, the most important advantage of architecture is that it has never ignored a person's bodily experience, and, therefore, today it can bring a person back to himself and, of course, become a reference point for art and design ^[16].

As an example of "multisensory" architecture, which gives rise to a feeling of "enhanced presence" in humans, B. Veres cites the thermal baths of the Swiss architect P. Zumptor (Figure 2) ^{[16, p. 93]}. Indeed, P. Tsumtor is known for starting from a specific material associated with the site of the future construction (in particular, the thermal baths building was built from local quartzite). In other words, through the material, the architect connects a specific architectural object with reality ^{[17, p. 29]}: being illuminated differently during the day, transformed by changing glare from the water of the thermal spring, as well as affecting the acoustics, the quartzite walls of the building seem to come to life, creating a unique atmosphere of the place.

Another example of B. Veres is a residential building in Manhattan, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (Figure 3). According to the architect himself, he sought to create "a quiet place where you can escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life" (the creation of a kind of "acoustic cocoon" became possible thanks to the use of glass designed for airport buildings) ^[18]. In addition to Tadao Ando's favorite material, concrete with a silky surface and neat traces of formwork bolts connecting the interior to the facade of the building and the surrounding area, wooden panels and parquet boards are also used in residential interiors, creating a feeling of warmth and comfort.

It can be said that in the examples given by B. Veres, spaces for relaxation have been created, allowing a person to be alone with himself, ideally to focus on the harmonizing bodily experience that arises in the interaction of a person with a certain architectural environment. It is no coincidence that R. Shusterman associates architecture itself with the human body (for example, as a metaphor for any building with front, rear and side facades), and also points out that the atmosphere created by architecture "seems to encompass a wide range of perceptual qualities" and "environmental effects that arise not only from the complexity of forms, relations and materials of the articulated space, but also from complex practices of environmental impacts and experienced qualities that permeate the living space of the building" ^{[8, p. 294]}.

4) A look at "somaesthetic design" from the point of view of the "Super Normal" design approach

Let us emphasize that the concept of "somaesthetics", which is actively being developed in the West, although it was "inspired" by Eastern philosophy, is the result of the adaptation of pragmatic aesthetics to the challenges of modern neoliberal Western society. In our opinion, a deeper interaction between the West and the East occurs, for example, in the design approach outlined by the British designer J. Morrison and Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa use the phrase “Super Normal".

Unlike "somaesthetics", which returns a person to contemplating himself as a living body in the world, this approach is aimed at a spontaneous return of a person to his bodily "consciousness" as "primordial, pre-reflective, completely autonomous" from cognitive consciousness.

According to Naoto Fukasawa, "supernormal" design objects cause "initial emotional denial" ^{[19, p. 21]}. That is, in the words of the famous sinologist V. V. Malyavin, who reveals the ideological foundations of Taijiquan, "... our senses are obviously capable of deceiving us, and dependence on them makes us terribly unfree, blinded, turns us into slaves of passions" ^[20]. This is probably why "everything that looks spectacular and pseudo-modern has long been the norm in product design" ^{[19, p. 10]}.

However, according to Naoto Fukasawa, "overcoming the initial emotional denial, our body sensors detect the attractiveness that we seem to have known about all this time" ^{[19, p. 21]}. J. Morrison cites the example of hand-blown wine glasses, which are not spectacular, but "radiate something it's good when you look at them" (Figure 4). He writes: "Special things (designer glasses) require attention /.../, disrupting the potentially good atmosphere of the table with their awkward presence" ^{[19, p. 28]}. According to J. Realizing this, Morrison began to be guided by this feeling, designing his own things, and stopped paying attention to how impressive they look. He came up with the idea of "supernormal" things, which are the result of "the evolutionary improvement of the form of everyday things, not trying to break with the history of the form, but rather trying to generalize it, knowing their place in the society of things" ^{[19, p. 29]}.

As far as we can tell, this generalization requires a special kind of sensitivity from the designer: he has to pay attention to what people around him are used to not noticing, just as we are used to not noticing our own body. According to Naoto Fukasawa, "supernormal" things are those "that tend to bring us to our senses" ^{[19, p. 21]}. It is no coincidence that the exhibition of existing objects, which, according to Naoto Fukasawa and J. Morrison's "supernormal" (the first exhibition was held in Tokyo in 2006), among the designed objects was a goose egg (Figure 5). According to the designers themselves, the goose egg perfectly illustrates the idea of "Super Normai", because "when we see a goose egg, we are not at all surprised by its shape, but its scale distorts our perception for a moment, allowing us to see something ordinary in a new way" - so "as if we are seeing it for the first time."" ^{[19, p. 46]}. In other words, "Super Normal" shows "what is good about "normal"" ^{[19, p. 99]}.

The idea of "Super Normal" can be explained by referring to the father of Japanese cultural studies, Nishida Kitaro, who considered aesthetic experience to be the most "pure", bringing it closer to the experience of "religious mysticism." He wrote that religion and art differ from each other only in the area of the depth of sensations: "the non-self of beauty is a momentary, fleeting non-self, and the non-self of religion is an eternal non-self" ^{[21, p. 123]}. In other words, aesthetic experience is designed to bring a person back to his bodily "consciousness", albeit for a short period of time; it allows a person to escape from the captivity of his own conceptual thinking, which always distorts the true perception of reality. This, in our opinion, is what Naoto Fukasawa means when he says: "When I am true to my [genuine] feelings, I become 'supernormal'" ^{[19, p. 21]}.

Conclusion

In the course of the research, the ideas of B. Veres and K. Heck seem to be the most promising from the point of view of the development of "somaesthetic" design.

According to B. Veres, since the context of perception of any design object is set by the architectural environment, architecture should be considered as a model for "somaesthetic design" (apparently, environmental design becomes a priority in relation to design). B. Veres highlights, first of all, architecture, which opens up the opportunity for a person to be alone with himself and immerse himself in his own bodily experience.

To. Heck sees the task of "somaesthetic design" in the fact that designers create conditions for users to receive new somaesthetic impressions that contribute to their "somaesthetic transformation" (in the context of designing human interaction with technology, we are talking about the formation of new "dynamic gestalts").

This brings "somaesthetic design" closer to the design approaches of Eastern designers, especially since the idea of "somaesthetics" is really based on Eastern philosophy and "somaesthetic design" and involves the development of a "flexible mind" in both the designer and the consumer (for example, through their awareness of the multiplicity of different ways in which they can move). Nevertheless, we are not talking about Eastern "ambiguity", which F. Julien proclaims "the modern mission of [Western] thought."

The fact is that Eastern "ambiguity" is based on a person's openness to the world as one with him, and not as a source of fulfillment of his desires, albeit on a par with the desires of other people. In the design plan, this leads to the fact that "oriental" design focuses on returning the consumer to his "body consciousness", while in the framework of "somaesthetic design" the designer and consumer do not form the task of "thinking" with the body, their task is to become aware of their body.

This allows us to conclude that the design potential of somaesthetics lies in the development of design projects aimed at developing the somaesthetic sensitivity of the consumer, his acceptance of himself and his body.