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236 Socially Intelligent Agents(Canada) based artist Catherine Richards appeals to the kinesthetic sense in herinstallation Virtual Body (1993), by having the viewer insert a hand into whatappears to be an old-fashioned "magic lantern" type of box. Peering in througha lens on the top of the box, the viewer sees behind their own hand a rapidlymoving video pattern on a horizontal screen, which translates into a sense ofone’s feet moving out from underneath as one’s hand seems virtually to flyforward. These kinds of works make a very direct appeal to a fuller humansensorium than traditional works of art.Complicating this portrait of recent shifts in creativity, virtuality or simulationin art objects is often seen as inspiring disembodiment or even outrightobsolescence of the body. The Australian performance artist Stelarc describeshis work with body prostheses, penetration of the body with robotic objects,and digitally-controlled muscle stimulation as an obsolescence of the body,although he qualifies this as the Cartesian body that has been thought of asdistinct from and controlled by the mind. Some artists and cultural critics arguethe opposite, that there is always a sensory experience even in virtual space.Jennifer Fisher describes Montreal artist Char Davies’ virtual reality installationEphémère (1998) as notable for "its implications for a haptic aesthetics– the sensational and relational aspects of touch, weight, balance, gesture andmovement" [2, pp. 53-54]. This work that requires a headset for the viewer alsouses pressure sensors in a vest that respond to the expansion and contraction ofrespiration (as you inhale, you ascend in the simulated world; as you exhale,you sink), and another set of sensors that move the world in response to thetilt of the spinal axis. It is described as a fully immersive experience, meaningwhole-body involvement. However, other writers such as robotics artist SimonPenny propose that the computer itself, with its central role in generatingvirtuality, reinstates Cartesian duality by disengaging and de-emphasizing thephysical body from its simulated brain processes [6, pp. 30-38]. There is nosingular way of approaching embodiment in art discourse, but one operativeprinciple is that multi-sensory tends to equal greater embodiment and that thisoffers a fuller, richer aesthetic experience.Traditionally, experiencing an art work means that the viewer should ideallyunderstand its impact as a gain in self-awareness. Art is about human nature, itsinnate features and how it unfolds in the world. In the European tradition art hasalways been directed toward a profound identification between humanism andselfhood in its impact on a viewer, reinforcing these qualities at the centre ofa very large opus of philosophical speculation about the meaning of creativity.This idealized picture of aesthetic response is of course a simplification, sincecritical understanding of the exchange between viewer and art object in practicehas many variations. Much discourse of the past three decades especiallyhas shifted art into the arena of social and political meaning. But it remainsindividual subjectivity that is most often solicited in both the creation and dis-