This article is about the Virtual Reality-Head Mounted Display (VR-HMD) as a model for contemporary ways of disciplining. The VR-HMD makes the observer discipline herself through the triggering of performance. Through specific strategies the VR-HMD addresses the body of the observer to perform in the mixed reality that is constructed in the interaction between the body and the VR-HMD. These strategies consist of approaches by the hardware developers and content creators to manage the subjectivity and visuality of the observer. Today’s body is not disciplined through formatted technics of the VR-HMD, but through self-disciplining of the observer’s active performance. This article will unravel the strategies within the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR on the Playstation VR that are used to control the visuality and subjectivity. Through her interaction in the game the observer also becomes aware of her body and the ways that it is disciplined in. In the end, this article will argue that the VR-HMD should not only be understood as a strategic device that can discipline a neoliberal subject, but that the VR-HMD is a supercomplex intervention that could help us to become more corporeal literate of our bodies in the age of digital media.
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Today professionals have to deal with more uncertainties in their field than before. We live in complex and rapidly changing environments. The British philosopher Ronald Barnett adds the term ‘supercomplexity’ to highlight the fact that ‘we can no longer be sure how even to describe the world that faces us’ (Barnett, 2004). Uncertainty is, nevertheless, not a highly appreciated notion. An obvious response to uncertainty is to reduce it– or even better, to wipe it away. The assumption of this approach is that uncertainty has no advantages. This assumption is, however, not correct as several contemporary authors have argued. Rather than problematising uncertainty, I will investigate the pros and cons of embedding uncertainty in educational practice of professional higher education. In order to thoroughly explore the probabilities and challenges that uncertainty poses in education, I will dwell on the radical ideas on uncertainty of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) he recognizes two forces: the Apollinian, that is the pursuit of order and coherence, and the Dionysian, that is the human tendency to nullify all systematization and idealisation. Uncertainty is part of the Dionysian. I will argue that when educators take Nietzsche’s plea to make room for the Dionysian to heart, they can better prepare students for an uncertain world. If and only if students are encouraged to deploy both tendencies – the Apollinian and the Dionysian – they can become professionals who are able to stand their ground in an uncertain and changing (professional) world. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12038
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Insulin sensitivity and metabolic flexibility decrease in response to bed rest, but the temporal and causal adaptations in human skeletal muscle metabolism are not fully defined. Here, we use an integrative approach to assess human skeletal muscle metabolism during bed rest and provide a multi-system analysis of how skeletal muscle and the circulatory system adapt to short- and long-term bed rest (German Clinical Trials: DRKS00015677). We uncover that intracellular glycogen accumulation after short-term bed rest accompanies a rapid reduction in systemic insulin sensitivity and less GLUT4 localization at the muscle cell membrane, preventing further intracellular glycogen deposition after long-term bed rest. We provide evidence of a temporal link between the accumulation of intracellular triglycerides, lipotoxic ceramides, and sphingomyelins and an altered skeletal muscle mitochondrial structure and function after long-term bed rest. An intracellular nutrient overload therefore represents a crucial determinant for rapid skeletal muscle insulin insensitivity and mitochondrial alterations after prolonged bed rest.
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