A Preliminary Taxonomy and Evaluation Methodology for Recursive Bioadaptive Media

Abstract

This paper examines recursive bioadaptive media as a class of perception-modulating systems that use psychophysiological and affective signals (e.g., EEG, HRV, EDA, eye tracking) to alter media parameters in real time. Unlike augmenting human sensation through prosthetic extension, these systems operate through recursive bioadaptive loops that modulate cognition, affect, and embodied experience. Drawing on interdisciplinary work across HCI, immersive media, affective computing, and critical theory, we argue that bioadaptive media constitute a form of techno-biological infrastructure that raises epistemic, aesthetic, and ethical questions. We present a preliminary work-in-progress sociotechnical taxonomy of such systems and offer a framework for assessing their implications for user experience, agency, and normative assumptions about cognition, affect, and perception.