Embodied Algorithms: On Space and Mobility as Structural Metaphors

This short paper proposes the concept of "embodied algorithms" to describe the use of models borrowed or derived from other disciplines as structural metaphors in works of art. The models may originate in fields as diverse as phenomenology, linguistics, or computer science, and while they may not themselves be computational or procedural, their cross-disciplinary/cross-modal implementation imbues them with a symbolic dimension that suggests a hermeneutical methodology (hence, “algorithm”) for constructing interpretive narratives. The paper examines the constitutive role played by space and mobility in interpreting a series of the author’s own artworks. For the sake of brevity, it focuses primarily on a single interpretive model derived from the writing of phenomenologist Georg Gadamer, and relates it to a number of digital models, or algorithms, employed in the works.