My paper is going to be an extended and more focused (and subsequently better) version of my last paper. The central theme involves treating Foucault’s scenario of confessor and listener as a circuit of power and transference similar to Virillio’s ‘Medusa circuit.’ A comparison of the two circuits with regard to the fluxuation and shift of agency will comprise the first part of the paper.
The question of why humans not only participate in these circuits, but search out these circuits is a question that I am also interested in addressing. The bi-product of ecstasy is the answer. I believe that if Virillio would consider the human soul as present in the equation of the ‘Medusa circuit.’ In its strippedest downest form, I believe that humans ‘watch’ to experience the ecstasy that accompanies being physically frozen by the Medusa – being reduced to an immobilized couch potato by the television. What is so particular about the satisfaction of having our passivity engaged?
Once I have defined my version of the circuit (through the comparison of Foucault and Virillio) I will attempt to seamlessly integrate Keenan’s ‘Window of Vulnerability’ as the place between the two sides of the circuit. The yearn for connection between these two worlds, for the ecstasy of transportation, results in a conversation between reader and text. Keenan’s concern with the impetus to interact through the visual window will be another way to understand “Detournment” as well as the contemporary interaction which is the subject of the web-based art of Susan Collins’ (head of Eloctronic Media at Slade School of Fine Art) – specifically her piece at www.inconversation.com - and the new hip bar in NYC’s bowery named Remote Lounge whose webpage is www.remotelounge.com. Both of these projects involve an active participatory take on surveillance and the watcher’s interaction with the watched. I am interested in how this frees the viewer from the Medusa-like circuit in both desirable and un-desirable ways.
Sorry about not having this posted yesterday or at least much earlier today. I didn’t really understand what the program was, but now I am re-tuned in.
posted by Anonymous at 5:11 PM 