Unpatentable Multi-touch Aerobics

“Every era has its interface, and every interface determines how we relate to the world,” wrote Alexander Provan. We are zooming, swiping, and flicking ourselves into a new era of embodied digitality. But many of these gestures have an owner—a majority may have been designed and patented by Apple.

How are we to re/act in the face of the commodification and privatization of our own bodily movements? This performative lecture and aerobics workshop tackles the anxiety of body ownership in the face of technology. Liat Berdugo and Phoebe Osborne have created an aerobics routine for whole bodies to reinterpret common gestures used with handheld devices. The choreography begins with the simple scrolling and swiping familiar to all smart phone users, and advances to more complex and freshly patented movements.

No specialized experience is needed.