Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 14:37:53 +0100 (MET) From: jnech-AT-imaginet.fr (NECHVATAL Joseph) Subject: Re: How? >It's the insistent bland materiality of the virtual that's its most >irritating characteristic. This says close to nothing Ann. Like any other overly imprecise polarizing statement, the opposite is also true: the tenacious prosaic materiality of the non-virtual is its most irritating and limiting characteristic. It really kinda depends on the details - and the extent of one's experiences. Virtuality is not the contrary of reality. Even if we cannot see it out there, the virtual parts of living organisms, human beings, or complex situations are probably the most important in their identities. A seed is oriented by a virtual tree, but we cannot describe exactly the shape of the future tree. We even cannot be sure that there will actually be a tree. The (virtual) tree is the problem of the seed, and it is in the same time the essence of its identity. Far from being a recent trend only linked to digital technology, virtualisation begins with the birth of human race (languages, techniques, religions...) and accelerates nowadays in different fields : virtualisation of bodies, of economy, of society... Virtuality is the dynamic part of the human reality. Therefore, the contemporary choices are not between reality and virtuality but among various kinds of virtualisation processes. I would like to point out to you an important philosophic distinction between two dialectic couples, the possible/real one and the virtual/actual one. Following some suggestions of Gilles Deleuze, I would say that the possible is a ghost reality : already completely defined, it only lacks existence. The realisation is not a creative process, it is just a selection among determined entities. Now, what is virtualisation? It is the creative move that comes from an actual entity, here and now, to a new general problem. The virtualisation implies a shift in the centre of gravity of the entity. The main weight of the being is put on the general problem instead of bearing on some particular solution. X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X Joseph Nechvatal, Paris, France, Europa http://www.cybertheque.fr/galerie/jnech X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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