[Air-l] Re: first post (An Internet without Space)

[Michele White]

Dear Colleagues,

I am resistant to the continued use of the term "space" and spatial
metaphors when writing about the Internet and related technologies. In
fact, part of my ongoing research practice is to address this issue. I
believe that the employment of such terms as "space" and "cyberspace" in
popular and academic writings about the computer and Internet technologies
makes it seem like representations are a kind of material environment.
This writing repeats and even enhances design strategies that describe
synchronous settings as "rooms," Internet maps that produce unnecessary
and fictive geographies, and programming that makes users' progression
through sites seem like bodily movement. Such visceral renderings
discourage critical interventions into Internet representations because
sites seem tangible. The conflation of space-producing discourses with
user investment in particular sites and identities threatens to make
stereotypes "real." The represented bodies of Internet settings are
"fleshed out" because there seems to be an environment that can support
varied bodily processes. Computer representations can also justify the
perpetuation of physical but certainly not necessary or natural conditions
by mirroring material circumstances. I believe that such spatial
vernaculars are having a significant effect on our cultural situations. I
also continue to ponder other ways that we can write about and experience
technologies. I would be interested in continuing such a dialog.

All my best,
Michele