the virtual and the actual
1) Rajchman discusses the metaphor of the virtual landscape as a house (architecture, construction, etc.), noting, “the virtual house becomes here the house of this less grounded condition of image and body, as though it were the house for an unreal, disembodied mind linked to all other in a virtual realm” (118). I wonder, since the ‘house’ is being reimagined and appropriated to explain the virtual, if the virtual house can then be used to explain community arrangements in the physical world? Reading this made me think of ‘Houses’ from Ball culture (e.g. Paris is Burning). I keep churning these ideas of de-centered specificity, virtual house, and increased possibility as being really useful vehicles to apply to concepts in areas like identity, area, or mixed-race studies.
2) With de Souza e Silva and Sutko in mind (specifically page 34), I wonder where the psychological interacts with the physical and virtual. Specifically thinking about location based technologies like Whrrl or foursquare, when I log on I can edit my location and provide details or see my friends details. Their interaction with the virtual then has the possibility to steer my interaction with the physical. My friend saying I got this great croissant at so-and-so deli may influence my choice to go there, when I may have never entered this deli without them. They mention this with potential, but I’m interested in the implications of making choice (or they might use actualization) tangible/mappable like they are with physical and virtual.
3) While reading Tierney’s discussion of temporarily starting on page 138, I am brought back to a question that was lingering from last week, which was about the ways in which we can imagine physical topography maps on top of digital topographies. added to this, I’m interested to explore how time in both physical and digital interact and what that would look like mapped out.
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Space: Something able to be occupied; is layered based on context, and the same space can be occupied in multiple ways