Abstract
Abstract This paper discusses the concepts of performative sensibility and smartbody. The central thesis is that performative sensibility highlights the instrumental nature of sensations in which objects act on the world. We show how the prescriptions of this new sensibility associated with wearables affect the body and subjectivity that we propose to call a smartbody. There were one hundred testimonials analyzed from the oldest thread with the greatest number of comments in the Fitbit user community forum. Quantitative tools and actor-network theory were used as a guide to assemble and analyze the corpus. The preliminary findings show that Fitbit users demonstrate particular changings in body care. Extreme behaviors, physical limits defined by system goals and quantification habits without utilizing the device are some of the examples found. These findings appear to indicate that the performative sensibility of wearables mobilizes new body performatic patterns and practices oriented by data.
Highlights
This article seeks to introduce the concept of performative sensibility and its subsequent approximation to bodies
This new sensibility associated with objects is performative in Fitbit devices as it demands actions of its users and generates sensations, pleasures and addictions, molding a subjectivity that characterizes what we propose to call a smartbody, a body whose actions and behaviors are guided by the algorithmic prescriptions of a system of objects with performative sensibility
Performative sensibility is the pillar of algorithmic governmentality (FOUCAULT, 1984) and new practices associated with the development of the Internet of Things (IoT)
Summary
This article seeks to introduce the concept of performative sensibility and its subsequent approximation to bodies (smartbody). The analysis suggests that changes in care of the self (FOUCAULT, 1984) are occurring as a result of physical activities carried out with devices connected to the body that are able to detect movements, collect data, produce instructions and propose rewards. This phenomenon is known as the Internet of Things (IoT) and involves a vast range of objects that have become smart through digital and algorithmic instrumentalization. This revealed traces that pointed to a possible emergence of a smartbody
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