DMCT Assignment 3

While adventuring in cyberspace in Neuromancer, Case find himself talking to a young Brazillian boy on a beach who turns out to be the title character of the book. Neuromancer has created a virtual world for Case to convince him to stop his quest to merge Neuromancer and Wintermute, and live the rest of his (potentially immortal life) with his lady love on this beach. Case refuses, and returns to the real world to complete his quest. Neuromancer creates (in Baudrillard's terms) a simulacrum of the real world for Case. However, Case refuses Neuromancer's offer and returns to the real world to finish his mission.

Nevertheless, the image of a virtual world that is a simulacrum of our world has continued through other creative works (The Matrix, Tron, ExistenZ) and the role of virtuality in culture is a hotly debated topic. Grau (1999) argues that virtual reality has existed for thousands of years through artistic representations of reality. Berger (1990) argues that mythological oil paintings were expensive and desired by aristocrats, but were empty of true meaning. Instead the were references to idealized behavior—a mere simulacrum of the morals, emotions and heroics depicted. Although the drive of painting to represent reality changed with the development of the camera, virtual reality in our current sense began to take place.

However, Baudrillard's vision of the simulacrum is not the only conception of contemporary virtual reality. Baudrillard sees the virtual as a fake—a simulacrum of reality. There is no referent for cultural productions leaving the consumer as a passive agent. On the other hand, Pierre Lèvy argues that virtuality provides an argument for the benefits of virtuality. He does not see the competition of reality and virtuality that Baudrillard sees, and instead sees humanity as learning "to live, work, and play with the fluid, the open, the potential. In contrast to Buadrillard, Lèvy does not seem alarmed by this exponentiation of the virtual because he sees it as a productive acceleration of the feedback loop between the virtual and the actual rather than as a loss of territory for the real" (Ryan, 37). The virtual and the real are not a binary. When one gains ground, the other down not necessarily lose ground.

DMCT Week 2

            The rise of the cyberpunk aesthetic in the 1980’s often is seen as foreshadowing the development of digital media in the age of the Internet. Specifically, William Gibson’s Neuromancer describes in vivid detail a world in which people can jack into cyberspace and access mountains of information at the click of a button. Cavallaro argues “in cyberculture, we encounter an eminently postmodern culturescape wherein tecnoscience challenges the western tendency to conceive of the real as fixed and of scene as the means of quantifying and representing it” (Cavallaro, p. 36). The cyberpunk aesthetic focuses on the hyper-reality and constant reproductions of simulacra that is often described as part of the postmodern world-view. Furthermore, Cavallaro relates the movement to both Lacan’s psychoanalytic parable of the mirror stage. He also brings in Althusser’s concept of interpellation through which ideologies hail subjects into existence and requires us to adopt mythological and archetypal identities. The cyberpunk aesthetic and virtuality interpellate their subjects through fiction and fantasies. Thus, we see Neuromancer as a point where the postmodern ideology engaging with modern society through fictive and fantastic storytelling to provide a larger view of the rise of the digital age.

Digital Media and Critical Theory

This class is of upmost importance for my studies. Currently, I am working on a graduate certificate in Critical Theory and my dissertation will focus on new media and the role of information distribution in the digital age. I was a little worried that the readings in the class would not be strenuous because it is a hybrid with an undergraduate element, but as Dr. Winokur stressed, the readings will be difficult. Looking through the syllabus I already see some authors I am familiar with (Adorno, Barthes, Bakhtin) and some who I have been meaning to get better acquainted with (Foucault, Lacan, Zizek). I am also planning on taking the Linguistics class, Language and New Media with Dr. Kira Hall (assuming I get off the waitlist). I think that these two classes will mesh quite well and create a beneficial pairing. Overall, having seen the syllabus, I am very excited for this class and how it will inform my dissertation work.