Masterclass 1: Channelling Merleau-Ponty
Toni Robertson
Faculty of IT, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Abstract
By ‘channelling’ Merleau-Ponty I want to evoke a situation where we can wonder about what he might have to say about some of the issues that we find ourselves grappling with as we design, develop, use and evaluate CSCW technologies. Participantsin this masterclass will be asked to bring short case studies / examples of situations where they are using / hoping to use phenomenology ‘as a manner or style of thinking’ – especially a phenomenology accented by Merleau-Ponty’s prioritising of embodied human subjectivity, the social in the constitution of the individual, and the privileging of social agency and human freedom in the shaping of the worlds we can inhabit.

Why Phenomenology?
“What is phenomenology?” is Merleau-Ponty’s opening question in the Phenomenology of Perception and one still frequently asked by those working in technology design environments. The usual answer is something like “a descriptive philosophy of experience” – an answer that is not especially helpful to technology designers! The phenomenological approach is differentiated by its fundamental intentions, and hence its methods, from those philosophical moves that detach the subject, consciousness, cognition, context, movement, technology use or indeed any other aspect or essence of human behaviour from these aspects or essences as we live them. Importantly for the interests of technology design, Merleau-Ponty acknowledged that “phenomenology can be practised and identified as a manner or style of thinking, ... it existed as a movement before arriving at a complete awareness of itself as a philosophy” (p. viii, original emphasis). This is why phenomenologically-motivated design methodologies have been most visible in technology design environments when researchers and designers, using
phenomenology ‘as a manner or style of thinking’, have sought experiential understandings of human practices from the perspective of those who are, or will be, using the technology itself. It is also why such methodologies have become more visible as efforts to understand, and then design, the ‘user experience’ have gained prominence in the various areas of interaction design. Phenomenologically-motivated approaches have played a major role in the shaping and progress of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Computer Human Interaction (HCI) research. Within these literatures phenomenological approaches have provided an alternative to the dominant positivist approaches that remain assumed within technology design environments.

Why ‘Channel’ Merleau-Ponty in CSCW Design?
This masterclass starts from the recognition that there are different ‘accents’ that mark phenomenology. Different phenomenologist philosophers have pursued different projects from different starting points for different motives and at different times. This means that they offer different resources for those using their work for design purposes. There are two main reasons for the particular relevance of Merleau-Ponty in the CSCW context. The first is that he is recognised as the foremost philosopher of the body within ‘classic’ phenomenology. His work is distinguished within this tradition by his focus on the lived experience of the embodied subject as the basis for understanding both our experience in the world and our agency for our actions within it. Importantly for CSCW, Merleau-Ponty’s understandings of embodied human agency are, in their very essences, socially defined. That is to say that any sense of ourselves as individual embodied subjects can only be produced from our recognition of others who we are like.
The second reason for this focus on Merleau-Ponty is that his approach privileges the social agency of those acting in the world to shape that world rather than accept that their behaviour is bound by the procedures and institutions that they find always already in it (Williams and Bendelow, 1998, p. 5). Merleau-Ponty ended Phenomenology of Perception with a chapter entitled Freedom in which he explored the constraints on, and opportunities for, human freedom that derive from our embodied lives and our embeddedness within space and time. He maintained that “... we must recognise a sort of sedimentation of our life: an attitude towards the world, when it has received frequent confirmation, acquires a favoured status for us” (p. 441). Yet for him, human freedom essentially depends on the fact that every ‘present’ is a new one and therefore an opportunity to reflect, change and act in different ways. In his work he sought always to identify, open and describe those opportunities for agency and freedom to shape the future, that our situatedness in space and time always provide to us.

Who should attend?
It is envisaged that 6-8 people will participate in the half-day masterclass. It is aimed at those working within technology design environments who are unsure not just about what phenomenology is, but also what they need to know to feel comfortable about claiming and strengthening the relations of their own work to phenomenological traditions. Obviously those who are interested in the particular 'Merleau-Pontian accents' that mark his phenomenology, are encouraged to attend.
This masterclass would especially appeal to those who want to prioritise the centrality and agency of the active human body within technology design and use.

What will happen?
Participants are asked to bring short case studies / examples of situations where they are using / hoping to use phenomenology ‘as a manner or style of thinking’. After enjoying an introduction to relevant aspects of Merleau-Ponty's work, participants will use these to think through their own examples and selected situations of interest. Particular attention will be focused on developing participants' awareness of positivist residues in their developing analysis. A range of suggestion about ways to use phenomenology methodologically will be provided within the context of the developing analyses of actual examples.

What to do next . . .
Interested participants can send a two page summary of your case study / area of interest to Toni Robertson (toni [AT] it.uts.edu.au). Include some indication of your familiarity with phenomenological approaches, the reasons that Merleau-Ponty's work might be significant for you, and indicate those areas where you particularly want to develop your phenomenological skills, insights and understandings.
Toni Robertson has spent many years reading and rereading Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and then filtering and transforming his insights to make them relevant and useful to technology designers (rumours that she was witnessed channelling Merleau-Ponty during a visit to his grave during ECSCW2005, in Paris, may in fact be based in actual lived experience).

References
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962) Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge UK, [France, 1945].
Williams, S. and Bendelow, G.(1998) The Lived Body. Routledge, London, UK.