Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Crows

They're going nuts outside my window. Wonder what's bothering them.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Foucault I: Utopias

"Utopias are emplacements having no real place. They are emplacements that maintain a general relation of direct or inverse analogy with the real space of society. They are society perfected or the reverse of society, but in any case these utopias are spaces that are fundamentally and essentially unreal."

Michel Foucault, Different Spaces, 1967

Internet as a heterotopia

Can the Internet truly be considered a heterotopia? I have my doubts. Specifically I wonder where these material qualities of the heterotopia can be found when considering the Internet. Possibly it's easier to think of certain areas in cyperspace as heterotopic? What about Facebook and MySpace? Are blogs essentially heterotopic?
Again, I'm not sure, but can it be possible that the computer screen – the iMac and other recent Apple screens with the webcam integrated, come to mind – can replace the mirror? Do we face our utopias as we construct our profiles? Is the process of building a profile on a social network site, similar to creating a narrative utopia (YouTopia)?