I argue it is through the medium of the body the most impactful and satisfactory meaning of an experience can be made. I focus on phenomenological thinking of Phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Pragmatist John Dewey to reinforce how the body produces the most meaningful experience.

Dewey’s line of thinking provides much of the backbone to my argument with his philosophy on the physical experience and how it is essential in the process of making and viewing art. Two multidisciplinary artists –Wolfgang Laib and Fritz Haeg— both who use the body and its relationship to the space surrounding it are examined to support the idea in the power of the physical experience over digitally mediated, ephemeral interactions. I relate the power of the physical in my studio work through traditionally-made illustrations, translated into book format available only in physically printed matter that visually instructs on the bodily tasks of gardening and cooking. These works implore the use of the body and seek to share my own enthusiasm for the physical experience.