In the mediatrix, praxis precedes theory, which always arrives too late. ~ The electronetwork that mediaizes the real we call the mediatrix. ~ The mediatrix allows high-voltage communication-at-a-distance. ~ The universality and homogeneity of modernism constitute the mediatrix that creates the possibility of articulating the singularity and heterogeneity of postmodernism. ~ If the street has now become the mediatrix, then to remain faithful to Kierkegaard, it would be necessary for philosophy to take to the airwaves, cables and satellites. The mediatrix cannot be trusted. It's always fooling around. And yet, it's the milieu that nourishes us. ~ In the mediatrix, you throw yourself to others. You create through others. The media philosopher realizes painfully that she must sacrifice her beloved cogito, her cherished institutionalism, her age-old desire for total control to be a communal process-in-the-making. ~ Once the mediatrix touches you, subjectivity explodes into a high-energy awareness of its own objectivity. You become an image in front of millions and in front of yourself. The otherness of the image both frightens and inspires. ~ In the mediatrix, you become the image and thus, less real. But, paradoxically, through this loss of so-called reality, you become more real than ever before. In the mediatrix, no work is a masterpiece or any work is a masterpiece. ~ Must not teaching change with the arrival of the mediatrix? ~ The mediatrix is, after all, a matrix. And this matrix is the mater that nourishes us all. The pulses of the mediatrix are no less creative than the rhythms of "mother nature." ~ The circle of reproduction: knowledge produces technologies that produce knowledge. ~ The superficial philosopher is the rag-picker whose trash heap is the mediatrix. ~ In the mediatrix, critical theory becomes everyday practice. ~ We must develop a genealogy of the flat, electric digital mediatrix of the present. ~ In the mediatrix, identity is no longer critical, but becomes diacritical. ~ In the mediatrix, we are no less related for being worlds apart. ~ The mediatrix creates a simcit in which the very conditions of spatiality and temporality are transformed. ~ Infinitely permeable and completely iterable, the mediatrix spatializes and temporalizes without being place-bound or time-bound. Its place is anywhere, which is neither everywhere nor nowhere; its time is anytime, which is neither ephemeral nor eternal. ~ In the mediatrix, the mirror into which we gaze and that gazes at us without returning our glance is infinitely expanded. ~ There is no way out of the imaginary web in which we are caught. This is precisely the reason we must intervene in the mediatrix to effect transformations. ~ Within the machinations of the mediatrix, the process of transubstantiation extends from bread and body, as well as wine and blood, to paper, gold and even electricity. ~ Abstract questions concerning general principles of justification lose their significance in the face of claims of urgency, created by the bombardment of information unleashes in the mediatrix. ~ The attraction of the mediatrix is its capacity to connect. ~ To enter the mediatrix -- not half-heartedly but to really enter the mediatrix -- we must open ourselves to the obscene surplus of enjoyment. ~ The mediatrix is the boudoir where doors are never closed. ~ The mediatrix is a pacifier for adults. ~ Is the mediatrix an electronic prothesis of our organism, or are our minds and bodies psycho-physical protheses of the immaterial web in which we are entangled? ~ In the mediatrix, no event is a pseudo-event because every event is a pseudo-event. ~ I am plugged into a mediatrix whose reach extends beyond my grasp. ~ As power is laterally dispensed throughout the mediatrix, eccentricity moves center stage. ~ The mediatrix is the imaginary register in which the subject is constituted by the state of the other. ~ In the mediatrix, the circle of self-referentiality becomes an unbounded web of relations that unravels the subject of narcissism. ~ To resist the possibilities opened by the mediatrix is to leave this extraordinary technology in the hands of others; the mediatrix grabs you, consumes you, devours you. Its liberation becomes a bondage. ~ In the rhizomic logics of the mediatrix, lines of communication fold and refold but never unfold. Explication is impossible; complication is inevitable. ~ The mediatrix always disciplines and sometimes punishes. ~ In the mediatrix, we can no longer afford the luxury of not asking big questions. The fetishizing of difference is as problematic as the absolutizing of synthesis. ~ In our explorations of the contemporary mediatrix, we must remain sensitive to the implications of the gap that interrupts discourse. ~ Care is the gap in the mediatrix that makes its constitution and reconstitution possible.
from Taylor/Saarinen. See Mediagraphy.
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| I |
Was will das Weib? I noticed the man and woman had indeed noticed me; of me, apparently this question was asked. The man retreated -- his figure, in shadow, barely visible in the darkness. The woman, however, drew nearer, becoming increasingly, more clearly, visible. Well? she asked of me again. I could not answer because there was no answer known. I did not know -- I could not remember the question. Seemingly unaffected by my silence, she inquired, Do you want to know? Did I want to know what? I wasn't able to formulate a rational or logical answer; but the words were somehow uttered: Yes -- yes, I want to know. She turned and started back, gesturing for me to follow. And so I did.
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| II |
What is the purpose of the mask? Is it to somehow conceal that which is inside -- the 'real' or latent meaning which may be attained only through struggle, an arduous search? In that way, a means to an end? No, as postmoderns, we reject this scenario, as there is no one end to be reached by any means. Is the purpose of the mask, then, to be shed -- heightening the drama and climax in moments of revelation? The issue here is that the mask exists not to be shed, not to allow the revelation to occur, but instead to suspend the desire of wanting it to be shed -- to stimulate the unknown between the known.
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| III |
The mediatrix leads -- not forth -- but between; she, in fact, introduces. Her position is no less than all or nothing. Not yet manifest, her energy pulsates within her, unbridled by boundaries -- abstractions. She is the querent, seeking representation of the momentary -- yet aware that it will have passed before it is known.
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| IV |
Educators and education professionals must recognize the unique subject of online mediated learning: it is interactive. What does this mean? Simply, we must embrace this next interplay of forces of cognitive evolution. We must better understand the implications of the interactive subject -- multiplicity and individuality -- brought to the forefront of the learning environment. We must not merely design and develop our educational media to replicate that which is achieved through other/older forms -- and in fact, may be better achieved through those forms! We must maximize the potential of each new technology in reaching or exploring the medium-specific potential for innovation presented. Here, the interactive necessarily implies the unconscious -- a virtual un-reality. Online learners will engage not merely in simulation, but in fantasy; for their participation is active. We can no longer speak of the online learning environment only in terms of the media lifeworld; we will speak additionally of the syntax of the dreamworld, referencing instances rather than generalizations. Models must necessarily be experimental. Pedagogy in relation to the image must change, for it is not secure: as fusion encourages only impression, the mask inhibits recognition. What we encounter, then, through this mask of fantasy is betweenness -- in the technology, pedagogy and psycho-social dynamics of mediated learning.
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| V |
Pillars of black and white stand on
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Each side of her staircase, descending.
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Reality and nonsense meaning nothing but
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Seduction and unspoken desire: elusive, unmastered --
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Potential not yet fulfilled.
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Having partaken of the fruit of the dead, seeing the not-visible yet unfolding.
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Narcissus, eternally in shadow.
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