More than simply an organism, humans are indeed weighed down by the evident task of self-discovery, revelation and understanding. Thus, the conception of humans as media has the benefit that it does not make a distinction between material functions of the human organism and the communicative functions of, for lack of a better term, the human mind. In an art historical sense, perhaps this concept should be articulated as human as multimedia. However, in seeking to transcend post-humanist discourse, Project Humedia feels that the term multimedia is redundant in that media is already plural. Thus the addition of the prefix multi- suggests that media inherently requires choice – towards one medium. Project Humedia proposes that humans are immediately and always have been present as media and are not reducible to any single medium. Following the thought of Tim Ingold, humans are one of the tangles of flows and webs of interrelated media, and thus we are a location for development and change and growth and discovery. This philosophical-political call is not new nor is the evidence of mediation. The practical (not conceptual) enmeshment of humans within media is visible in all modes of temporal paradigms – and through a recognition of this, project humedia will achieve:

Enablement

Within the humanities and social sciences there is a blind assumption of ideal human form – that is a human functioning fully with all five senses, four appendages and other constituent physical aspects. This is despite the long history of the use of prostheses to enable humans to walk, to see, to hear and to think. There is a great limitation and indeed unethical politic within the limitations of underlying assumption of an idealistic human physical rhetoric. To assert a human ideal is to reduce a person who uses a prosthetic limb to walk to a disabled human – an unideal form – a form which is rarely considered within our philosophical questioning. However, within humedia, no distinction is necessary as the form of what we may poetically term ‘humanity’ is continuously fluid. Humedia does not dwell in the essentialist and reductive thought patterns which seek to alienate the sentiment and desire of enablement. Rather, we seek to illuminate the irony of academic sessions which blindly assume an ideal human form as the basis of their propositions while simultaneously clinging to their ocular prostheses in order to view the powerpoint presentation.

With the steadily increasing number of war casualities who are surviving through the successes of medical practice and the subsequent increase in the use of physical prostheses to accomplish everyday activities, humedia asserts the critical need for collaborations between the arts, humanities and sciences in the normalisation of the enmeshed mediated human in the world. Indeed, the adoption of prostheses as modes of enablement and augmentation of the human form can be said to be found in all temporalities. Thus through Project Humedia, an opportunity to create archaeologies of media and humedia as non-exclusive narratives will become possible.

 

Ecological responsibility

With this is a step beyond human ego-centric discourse to an understanding of humans not as prime movers but as a constituent media, the barriers between our hailstorms, cornfields, humans and digital media dissolves as we accept our place in the dynamic ebbs and flows our shared uncertain world. The radical impact of this for considerations of global ecological risks is that it forces an awareness of the constituent role that humans play in ecological development and change without presupposing an ethical or moral position. It does not egoistically argue that we should take care of the world so that the world takes care of us. Rather, it asserts an acceptance of position within the larger ecological phenomena of existence and urges participation rather than control as a means to engage these risks.

 

Equality through mediation

As previously stated, humedia transcends gender, sex and species specific conceptions of mediation in the world. It seeks to place all entities in a shared, equitable flow which – although chaotic – allows for equal opportunity for potential intermediation. It also embraces all manner of human interaction with prostheses and augmentations and enhancements, thereby transcending prejudice and discrimination against modes of human expression and action which do not fit the philosophical ideal human form.

 

Normalisation through mediation

To achieve this proposed equality of form through mediation, humedia addresses directly the post-modernist fear of the loss of significance and meaning through mediation. Summarised succinctly in the lyrics of Bright Eyes:

And all the way home held your camera like a bible -
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth
- Old soul song (for the new world order)

Humedia stresses a move away from quests for authoritative truth and derision against technologies of simulation, emulation and representation. At the core of humedia is an appreciation of the critical role of sentiment in the normalisation of modes of mediation. Following the spirit of the recently departed Jean Baudrillard, Project Humedia engages the world as media through participations and shared fluid exchanges between mutually enmeshed entities. Rather than focusing on the radical changes that new mediations pose to ‘traditional’ lifeworlds, humedia asserts the integral similarity between all modes of mediation in all temporalities.

 

Acceptance of new media and new mediated lifeworlds

The practical (not conceptual) enmeshment of human beings with digital media is now common knowledge. We are far beyond the science fictions and fantasies represented by mangas such as Ghost in the Shell (1991) or Neon Genesis Evangelion (1994). Science today is already succeeding in the enmeshment of neuro-synaptic functions with digital code. The most notable success was in 2005, when a tetrapalegic named Matt Nagle had the BrainGate chip-implant manufactured by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology inserted into his brain, successfully controlling a right precentral gyrus (an area of the brain responsible for arm movement). Just by thinking he was able to control a robotic arm.

With the advent of active digital prostheses as modes of enablement, the divisions between ‘real’ and ‘digital’ lifeworlds are eroding. Project Humedia places itself at the brink of these divisions and endeavours to normalise the acceptance of new media and digital lifeworlds through affective intermediated events. Within Project Humedia, digital prostheses are the normalised, constituent and growing enmeshment, expression and social, physical and intellectual enablement of humedia through digital media and within digital spaces and architectures. Reconceptualising humans as capricious and adaptable media, humedia embraces the sentiments which normalise and enable communication through the nascent digital lifeworlds of the internet and other digital portals. This will allow for a resonance and reconceptualisation of all social science, humanities and arts research – creating space for narratives of humanity as media transcending all temporalities and paradigms.

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