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Baby Mimesis with Touch Screens: Between Materiality and the Individuation Process

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Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the mimesis of babies with a screen in a social context. The paper explores how babies interact with the screen interface in a social context as a dynamic process between materiality and individuation. The theoretical framework deals with mimesis, the technological interface, and the individualisation process. The research question is do babies interacting with a smartphone screen activate a mimetic social or material dimension at the service of their individuation? A natural micro-observation was video collected in the home setting. It involved a grandmother over 65 years old and her 14-month-old granddaughter, interacting jointly on a regular smartphone. A non-anthropocentric methodology was used, linking sense-making to the contextualised experience of the body-environment system. Two main topical episodes will be presented as an illustration. Circular redundancy and effective touching are the two dimensions analysed. The analysis of the socio-material baby niche, enacting distributed cognition with the technological interface, opens some discussion toward a postmodern perspective.

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  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJqbivkm0Ms

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  1. ADEF, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France

    Maria Antonietta Impedovo

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  1. Maria Antonietta Impedovo
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Correspondence to Maria Antonietta Impedovo.

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Impedovo, M.A. Baby Mimesis with Touch Screens: Between Materiality and the Individuation Process. Hu Arenas 7, 84–97 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-021-00261-8

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