I understand how the internet creates a world in which it is easier to "watch and be watched", but to me, the internet is a fictional universe. We are watching constructs of people and creating constructs of ourselves. I acknowledge that this is not different from the "real world". We choose our clothes and our hairstyles, decorate our apartments, etc. As a person who values the physical, however, I perceive our technological world as further away from reality and the physical world as closer to reality. I value the exercise of creating an online persona via facebook or myspace for the therapy it may offer. A bit of self reflection is always good. However, despite the undeniable conveniences, most often I perceive the internet, cell phones, etc. as life-sucks.
To me, this piece is not about the internet. I am interested in making stories and threads of stories against the backdrop of a fictional universe where people are unbodied, and to try to create it using bodies as primary tools. What a challenge! I am interested in exploring this desire to be "seen" that we keep talking about, particularly because I am of the opinion that the virtual world is the worst place to attempt to accomplish this. To me, the internet, virtual world, whatever, is a place you go and get lost.
It keeps coming up, but I'm interested in exploring how the theme of more time invested in the virtual world = more real world isolation fits within this piece. I identify completely with Allie's post. I've all but abandoned MySpace; and when I stop by facebook (out of a strange sense of obligation), I feel the guilt of time waste when all of a sudden I've lost an hour.
ReplyDeleteMy not-so-brief response to Allie's brief response...
ReplyDeleteHow I feel about the internet, is not the opposite of Allie, but definitely different.
For me, the internet--and the transference and sharing of and access to information, images, music, writing, etc. "online"--is revolutionary. It has enabled the individual to circumvent and/or subvert larger, more corporate institutions and traditional means of distribution to get her ideas, music, short films, political opinions, family photographs, vintage clothing, the list is endless, to the people. In some ways, it's the opposite of television: while the television audience is passive, the online audience is active--though certainly the culture of "lurking" is a fascinating aspect of it. And it is largely unregulated and largely free, and I think it's nature as a truly democratic medium is fucking awesome. For the people, by the people.
How this feeling relates to the piece for me: I'm interested in capturing the joy and delight that can come from endless access to infinite information. That comes from having the world at one's fingertips. That is derived from the accidental journey--the visit to a webpage that links to a webpage that leads to an experience or a learning not initially sought. An "Eat Me," "Drink Me" kind of trip.
I also think--as Allie mentioned--that there is great value in the self-analysis that a profile provides. And I think the self unlinked to the corporeal is, for many people, a relief of a release.
I quote the late, great, David Foster Wallace:
"There’s a great deal that’s bad about having a body. If this is not so obviously true that no one needs examples, we can just quickly mention pain, sores, odors, nausea, aging, gravity, sepsis, clumsiness, illness, limits — every last schism between our physical wills and our actual capacities. Can anyone doubt we need help being reconciled? Crave it? It’s your body that dies, after all."
Like Allie, I love all those same things that a body can do, authentically. Drink wine, hold a hand, smell a baby's neck, hike a mountain, pet a dog, snuggle in clean sheets, sit by a campfire, sing a song with a vibrating voice. But there are so many things that a body cannot do--see the face of a loved one who is far away, find a long-lost friend of loved one easily, have a library of information available at a moment's notice, find a hotel in a country in a different time zone run by a people who speak a different language...we can transcend physical boundaries online, and I think that is sometimes a really wonderful thing.
And yet--boundaries are obviously also a good thing, often.
This post is getting long...and I need to go to sleep...but I will post tomorrow about the flip side of the lack of physical boundaries.
Also I'm having computer issues (IRONY) and I'll die if my browser shuts down before I post this monolith.
The internet holds very little magic for me. When I do think about it, I think of it as nothing more than a very powerful tool. I am not regularly engaged in publishing my "ideas, music, short films, political opinions, family photographs, vintage clothing", etc., to the world.
ReplyDeleteBut what I actually do use it for is to engage in short-cut after short-cut. It is becoming more and more possible to operate an entire life, ostensibly engaged with other people, without actually perceiving these other people directly. Who among us Lions has so much time that they can intentionally choose the inefficient face-to-face and legwork on a regular basis, and when they have a choice? Since so much of communication is non-verbal, I think we're letting parts of our brains die when we work as digital hermits.
Ya ever work too long on the computer and then all you can see is light when you close your eyes to go to bed?
In conclusion, I think the lists of visceral activities, perceived through the senses, in Allie and Amanda's posts might provide some source material for the show.