Cybersublime: The Aesthetization of Digital Politics
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Artistic Identity on the Net
Presentation Title:
- Cybersublime: The Aesthetization of Digital Politics
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
In this presentation, I will re-apply Benjamin’s critique of a ‘Mythic’ technological/historical progress, developed in his Passagen-Werk of the 1930’s, to the celebratory rhetoric which currently surrounds the Net. I will also examine the adequacy of Lyotard’s notion of the ‘Sublime’ — as the experience we have when faced by the necessity to represent for ourselves an experience which lies beyond our possible means of comprehension — when applied to representations of Cyberspace. Is such a postmodern rejection of master narratives simply a re-invention of the ‘Mythic’ denial of individual agency in the face of technological progress?
