Hyperembodiment

Abstract

The article introduces hyperembodiment as a general feature of artefacts for perception and representation and as a research agenda for cognitive semiotics and cognitive science at large. At the heart of the article, I offer analyses of two different selected examples: Hyperembodiment in a Facetime conversation and in a Snapchat message. These digital productions of appearances of social interactants are analysed with particular attention to their intercorporeal qualities and it is argued that social perception is facilitated which takes the users of visual, interpersonal communication devices beyond the corporeal limits of ordinary ways of being present for each other. Broadening the scope, I then discuss how a general focus on hyperembodiment opens new, productive avenues of inquiry. First, I relate hyperembodiment to the heterogenous field of social presence research and suggest how it may contribute to it. Thereafter I discuss hyperembodiment as a topic of cognitive semiotics.