Identity-Transcendence
'Transcendence, transcendency, transcendent, transcending: superior or supreme in excellence: surpassing others: as applicable to being, relating to the absolute, transcending all limitation-as applicable to knowledge, pertaining to what transcends experience, being given a priori:beyond human knowledge: abstrusely speculative, fantastic;'
(Chambers English Dictionary)
An online experience is characterised by intimate interaction with the computer. A consequence of this ongoing contact is an individual's heightened sense of connection to the technology. The CMC is unique in that it is a combination of 'hot' and 'cool' media (McLuhan 1967) Marshall McLuhan. Due to the interactive structure that exists within the domain a continual process of redefinition of the narrative occurs. This is made unusual by the fact that a narrative is created by the author's own hand. This specific textual embodiment makes the experience unique. The internet has the depth and intensity of the filmic experience. It is however devoid of touch. Haraway uses the word ‘transcendence’ to refer to the state of being online where a person is free of the preconceptions that come with the physical world.
Transcendence occurs when a trance state is experienced. The heightened, hypertextual hyper media environment can induce this intense state of being with a communication device. Transcendence is brought about as a result of the transformation of the position of the individual who engages in computer- mediated-communication. The machine in this instance becomes a part of the self and part of the imagination (Haraway 1991), a disembodiment of the physical state through a computerised exchange Virtual Embodiment
Identity becomes externalised as a result of the relationship between technology and the human being. 'It is not clear who makes and who is made in the relation between human and machine. It is not clear what is mind and what is body in machines that resolve into coding practices.' (Haraway 1991) Freud suggested that human beings have an inherent 'desire for a machine to improve and intensify our representation of sensory function.' (Eagleton 1996)'Intense pleasure in skill, machine skill, ceases to be a sin, but an aspect of embodiment. The machine is not an it to be animated, worshipped, and dominated. The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment." (Haraway 1991) Transcendence.
Laura Keneally 22:57, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
Bibliography
Chambers English Dictionary. (1998) (7th ed) New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1852960000
Haraway, D. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.
Eagleton, T. (1996) Literary Theory: an Introduction. Oxford UK: Blackwell.
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: the extension of man. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415104831.
Turkle, S. (1984) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671468480.
