It takes a village

I am sitting in a café in France. Around me, lively chatter. This morning I was ‘on the internet.’ How different these experiences are. Now, pears are difficult to compare with apples, and yet we often do this. Working in an office and working from home, for example, are similar; seeking community on social networks or in a café, for example; reading in the library or researching on the internet. These are apples and pears, similar and yet categorically different. On the internet, however, we are ultimately alone. We can interact virtually; our image, our movement and our voice can be shared, but physically we are separate. The Metaverse will not fundamentally change that either, and here the Matrix also reached its limits.

This morning, however, I was thinking about adrenaline. How different being ‘alone’ in front of the screen or in a café feels. In a room with other people, this feeling of stress and fear transforms into excitement. I wonder whether something can be derived from this observation. What does it mean to be alone or together in virtual or real space?

‘A soul at work’ is the title of a book by Agamben. We are merely attached to the network, feed it, and commercial value creation takes place at the big tech companies and political demagogues. Are we not still in the Stone Age emotionally and hormonally? Can we really change our biochemistry cognitively? How can Foucault’s concept of biopolitics be understood anew from here?

Although we can also guide, transform and understand our feelings through meditation, this solitude of meditation is held within a larger consciousness; it is something different from being at the mercy of a screen. These fundamental experiences are really what media art is about, surely. The aesthetic experience in the temples of art gives us the social space within which we can engage with the potentials and irritations of the digital, virtual, telematic, collective and isolated.

It takes a village: Community, interaction with children, sharing a social space—these are correctives for our hormonal balance.