Interface Fantasy A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology

by Nusselder, Andre

• ISBN13: 9780262513005
• ISBN10: 0262513005
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-11
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Cyberspace is first and foremost a mental space. Therefore we need to take a psychological approach to understand our experiences in it. In Interface Fantasy,Andre Nusselder uses the core psychoanalytic notion of fantasy to examine our relationship to computers and digital technology. Lacanian psychoanalysis considers fantasy to be an indispensable "screen" for our interaction with the outside world; Nusselder argues that, at the mental level, computer screens and other human-computer interfaces incorporate this function of fantasy: they mediate the real and the virtual. Interface Fantasyilluminates our attachment to new media: why we love our devices; why we are fascinated by the images on their screens; and how it is possible that virtual images can provide physical pleasure. Nusselder puts such phenomena as avatars, role playing, cybersex, computer psychotherapy, and Internet addiction in the context of established psychoanalytic theory. The virtual identities we assume in virtual worlds, exemplified best by avatars consisting of both realistic and symbolic self-representations, illustrate the three orders that Lacan uses to analyze human reality: the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real. Nusselder analyzes our most intimate involvement with information technology-the almost invisible, affective aspects of technology that have the greatest impact on our lives. Interface Fantasylays the foundation for a new way of thinking that acknowledges the pivotal role of the screen in the current world of information. And it gives an intelligible overview of basic Lacanian principles (including fantasy, language, the virtual, the real, embodiment, and enjoyment) that shows their enormous relevance for understanding the current state of media technology. Short Circuits series

Author Biography

André Nusselder is a Dutch philosophical writer and lecturer.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introducing a Psychoanalytic Theory of Cyberspace	p. 1
The Question Concerning Technology and Desire	p. 9
Fantasy at the Interface	p. 11
Technological Eros	p. 21
The Technologization of Human Virtuality	p. 31
Introducing Virtuality	p. 33
Virtualization (I): Language and Law	p. 38
Virtualization (II): Technology	p. 46
Fantasy and the Virtual Mind	p. 55
öInformation Wants to Be Freeö?	p. 57
Mind and Body: Descartes, Wiener, and Lacan	p. 64
Information Wants Imagination	p. 70
Cyborg Space	p. 81
The Body in Space	p. 83
Surfing the Hall of Mirrors	p. 89
Displays of the Real: Reality as an Effect	p. 99
Techne and Tuche	p. 101
Screen and Window	p. 110
Mediated Enjoyment, Enjoyed Media	p. 119
The Media Perversion	p. 121
Bits of Enjoyment	p. 130
Subjectivity at the Interface of Meatspace and Cyberspace	p. 139
Notes	p. 143
References	p. 149
Index	p. 163
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