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242 Socially Intelligent Agents

autonomous agents. In a territory in-between the two, Talk Nice is designed to
touch emotional chords as an implicit factor in language exchange. But I don’t
think that the emotional tone in the work is a direct effect of the characters or
the narrative scenarization in the work. Rather, it is an emergent effect. The
spontaneous letting go of one’s ego-self as an excess of self that submits to
the rationalized authority of technology allows for a subsequent re-admitting of
emotional response. Ultimately, this signals a re-integration of mind and body.
Artworks, IAs and IA-like artifacts can invoke if not a return to oneness with
the universe then at least a sense of selfhood and agency shared among humans
and our technological objects.

(Editor’s note: I think one main difference between embodied art and IA
is that the people doing IA have very limited ideas of the experience of users.
They are usually overwhelmed with the technical problems of getting anything
to work at all. Also, people interacting with IA systems are having very limited
experience of an experimental rig, which is a lot different from a daily use of a
software product which they have got used to.)

References

[1] Claus Emmeche. The Garden in the Machine: The Emerging Science of Artificial Life.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1994. trans. Steven Sampson.
[2] Jennifer Fisher. Char Davies. Parachute, 94:53–54, 1999.
[3] Georges Bataille. Erotism: Death and Sensuality. City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1999.
trans. Mary Dalwood, first published as L’Erotisme in 1957.
[4] Jeanne Randolph. Psychoanalysis and Synchronized Swimming. YYZ Books, Toronto,
1991. This is psychiatrist and cultural critic Randolph’s set of theoretical essays that delve
into the possible subject-object relations between audience and artwork, in the context of
Object Relations theory.
[5] Jessica Benjamin. The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of
Domination. Pantheon Books, New York, 1988. Benjamin proposes an "intersubjective
view" of self, noting that the concept of intersubjectivity has its origins in the social theory
of J¨ urgen Habermas, encompassing both the individual and social domains, cf. note p. 19.
[6] Simon Penny. The Virtualization of Art Practice: Body Knowledge and the Engineering
Worldview. Art Journal, 56(3), 1997.