(Used for several talks 1999-2000.) Issues (sites, sore spots, problematics) There is no Net (instead, fantasms, membranes, "historic" sites and strategies, accumulations of communicative domains) INTERNET TEXT: around 6 megs, from beginning 1994 (some earlier) sent to Cybermind, Fop-l, Future Culture, Netdynam, Poetics, Nettime, Eyebeam Early on, avatars, laying the ground - Later on - long waves as well (Middle-Eastern languages, Net Sex, MOOs and MUDs, Jennifer, Julu, Nikuko, Multiculturalisms, Net Archeo- logy) Other modes: Graphics, javascripting, experimental webpages The Jefferson site - and Spoons interactions - gopher and absolute URLs The Canberra site - http:// and relative URLs The indexing and the naming / numbering of files The site "aura" - Cybermind, Fop-l, Being on Line, the Jennifer book, various articles,etc. Obsessiveness of the text - one or more texts daily Defuge setting in Writing/reading/research daily Ransacking of history Use of metaphor Deconstruction "degree zero," effacing the construct Semiotics: Off-Net beginning with perception On-Net beginning with the signifier (which may perform towards a world) Net relationships tending towards perception (in-signia) Virtual embodiment, virtual subjectivity: An issue of ontology: Qualitative difference in being An issue of epistemology: Different phonemenological horizons Virtual: Completely constituted Wryting oneself in and out of existence The performed body, body as instantiation The (textual) lurker The (visible) lurker: slight change of body planes Historic: From synchronic/asynchronic To declarative/performative To the seamless virtual Safe words Rough spots: Are there rough spots? Interpenetrations: Subjectivity as dispersion, dis/play, splay Interpenetrations (does it make sense to ask the location of the mind) Segmentation, liminal states Rites of passage (logging on and off) Smooth or clear passage (Usenet, Worldschat) Rite (email list, ThePalace) Addictions, defuge Continuous governance, continuous presence Guaranteed presence in the 'real world' Eternal presence in the 'online world' Digital reproducibilty and eternity Net sexuality: ASCII unconscious, projections and introjections Operation of lag (intended and non-intended) Lag as breathing, rhythm, hypnotic Lag as structuring transfererence Control With or without lag Time on the Net parallel to space in the real Operation of seduction Articulations: First person (ytalk, Iphone, CuSeeMe) Second person (MOO, talker, MUD) Third person (IRC, chat) Place and time of the body: The ytalk place The MOO @dig home Scrolling on MOO, MUD, IRC Representations of the interior of the body Representations of the states of the body (MUD) Jennifer-Julu, pushing the boundaries: _PERFORMATIVE SUBJECTIVITIES_ Breakdown of divisions between author and subject operator and operations (psychosis, the familiar) Semantic part-objects interpenetrating applications, protocols Broken conceptualisms The structure of applications, protocols Arbitrary Jennifer-Julu structures Confluence of both beneath the a/sign of desire Jennifer-Julu as system resonances, repetitions, loops, agencies Jennifer-Julu as splayed structures across apps, protocols Emergences, submergences Nikuko, the name (in the midst of the indecipherable) Nikuko, the parable (power, sexuality, ostensible narrative) These characters as _active_ in the midst of an _activated audience_ (The _reply_ - potential of one-to-one) Offline characters (novel) are foreclosed audience _blocks_ The _tracing_ of the Net in terms of articulated fluxes: CB radio (eyeballing) Language dispersion theories (Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite) Cuneiform, kanji, intensifications Constructions of consumption Desiring machines Hysteria and the Net: Reading and writing _on_ the virtual-real body Continuous enfolding, engendering Continuous repetition Membrane and Net, implicate ordering From disorders of the real to dis-ordering the real Wild Theory There is no theory But wild theory ______________________________________________________________________ (Online History) Early IBM XT Monochrome Bulletin Board Email lists - Future Culture Newsgroups - exchange, spamless, sexed, sexual narratives IRC similar Ethos of freeware, shareware, exchange ASCII art, animation Writing about gender switching on MOOs, MUDs Writing to email lists about cybersex, community (do such exist) [Space of filtrations, media, proliferations, coalescences] Identities and persons (first, second, third) Early characters (Honey, Tiffany, Travis) - presences across applications, body and mind part-objects, struggled Middle: Net sexuality, exploration of the virtual body. Address, protocol, recognition, "hysteric embodiment," ascii unconscious. Use of Iphone, CuSeeMe, pressure of the body up against the screen. Jennifer-Julu explorations of applications and protocols. Late: Exploration of Javascript, other programmings. Jennifer-Julu webpages and Jennifer book; the .julu program Tendency towards performativity. Defuge, psychosis, splitting. Interpenetrations, Nikuko "bratting" on the surface. ______________________________________________________________________ Some stuff I'm going to talk about on Wednesday My Internet Text began around the end of 1993, and is now about 6 megs long. Texts are sent, most often once a day, to various lists - always to Fop-l and Cybermind, earlier to Future Culture, and later, on occasion, to Poetics. Rarely, texts are sent to other lists as well, including nettime and eyebeam. Early on, I began with issues of recognition, address, protocol, desire, and the self as a continuous rewrite; there were avatars such as Tiffany, Honey, and Travis, laying the ground - speaking as if they were on MOOs, MUDs, or IRC. Later on, long-wave formats developed - considerations of early mid-east languages in relation to the Net, self-reflexive avatars such as Jennifer and Julu, transgressive avatars such as Nikuko, Net archeologies, issues of epistemology and ontology - almost everything with virtual subjectivity as an underlying theme. The normative mode has been writing, using intersections or interpenetra- tions as well - for example, altering sendmail.cfg files, simple hackings of IRC or newsgroups, multiple entries into talkers or MOOs, use of the doctor (Eliza) program on emacs, and creative use of perl, sed, and awk for active or passive text alterations/substitutions. Other modes have included graphics and the results of javascripting, as well as experimental webpages available only when my desktop is online. The first site for the text was at jefferson.village.virginia.edu as part of the Spoons philosophy lists; this used absolute URLs and the gopher protocol and was set up by one of the Spoons members. There are currently space limitations here. The mirror site, through Jerry Everard, is at the Australian National Un- iversity in Canberra, and employs relative URLs and the http:// protocol. Both sites share texts; the latter also has graphics and javascript. In working through the texts, I have also used CuSeeMe, Iphone, a private MOO, and other forms which create "experience" and alternative viewpoints for the writing. To whatever extent is possible, I put myself on the line. Both sites share resumes and indexing. The index file is passive (not hypertext) and lists the broad subjects of the text. Files are named in various orders, the most prominent being a,b,c, etc. - then aa, ab, etc. - but these orders are broken and skipped for various reasons. In other words, the ordering is somewhat irregular, although the order is clear on the opening page. The Internet Text, like the Fop-l or Cybermind lists, possesses its own aura, which includes the lists, the Jennifer book printed by Chris Alex- ander, the various e-zine and off-line reprints, Being on Line, various talks, and so forth. The text is obsessive; I write/read every day. If I can't for one or ano- ther reason, I develop insomnia, shuddering, excessive self-doubt. In other words, an addiction. The text pushes boundaries, towards an intermingling of forms, self and avatar, performative and declarative modes, and so forth. When the text "works" for me, I feel uncomfortable. When defuge, decathected exhaustion, sets in, I may rely on quotations of other authors to provide impetus, or my own older texts. But there are themes that run their course, long-waves and shorter (such as the current parable series), that carry me along. I ransack sources and cultures, searching for communicative and epistem- ological resonances - such as Australian CB behavior, or the distribution of cuneiform systems in the early mid-east. While I tend to use metaphors, and the avatars themselves may be consid- ered as such, I refuse to reify metaphor, to treat it as a determinative articulation. In this fashion, I have little to say, except that self and other and text, etc., are dissolutions, splays, sprays, emissions; there are no end to them, nor to theoretical articulations. I think of the Text as the massification of theory and a deconstruction degree-zero which devours itself; theoretical part-objects are thrown off as so much centrifugal debris. There is a pointillism to all of this, just as there would be in the investigation of any world. Finally, I consider that I write / wryte myself into existence, and that I just as easily write / wryte myself out of existence. I am a fabrication of language. The fabrication tends towards transgression as write - writ- ing in the usual sense - tends towards normative activity, and wryte - the almost hysteric pushing of the body and desire through language - tends towards a discomfort which brings the material of the self to the fore- ground (hence the occasional emphasis on Net sex). __________________________________________________________________________ Avatars propose a paper with examples dealing with my work with avatars on the Internet. This work uses interactive modes between myself and one or another character, all of which interact with Net protocols or applica- tions. You may see some of this in operation at the second URL below; please look at the Index file under "Jennifer," "Julu," and "Nikuko." [Besides these three, there is "Alan." It's possible to employ a degree of slippage; it becomes unclear who is speaking in any text, "she said." Just as quotations slip laterally in the sentence, there is also a slippage in depth, for example, Nikuko replying in this paper.] I realize the strangeness of this proposal, but I have been dealing with formally performative language for the past few years, in order to look at issues of virtual subjectivity, interaction, projection and introjection on the Net. ["Performative" can be considered in any number of ways. For example, there is a _trace_ function in the Julu program Jennifer has written, a function which produces a text representing parent/child processes in unix, choices made by the user, manipulations by the program itself. The function produces a file, .trace, which, when reversed, is legibile. The .trace file accumulates, carrying the history of repeated usage; here is an example: hairpiece:sure thing:Julu:leg: Come home with me, hairpiece, julu-of-the-fast-crowd! Your dirty arm is in my black neck HaPPINESS:Yes:Alan:: Your psychotic head is in my sexy head Your your penis seeps into my head - turning me Julu-Jennifer Hole:YES!!:Julu:nail: Your poor urine is in my depressed nail Devour poor urine julu-of-the partying Hole! Nikuko ...:never!:Nikuko:hair:hair Your linen leg is in my wanton hair Your passion seeps into my hair - turning me Julu-Jennifer dirty:yeah:Nikuko:ear: Your psychotic eye is in my velvet ear Devour psychotic eye julu-of-the partying dirty! Note the stick-like or _anime_ figures at work, distributed authorships and anatomies. So that "performative" language has three constituents: 1. Its usual work as a speech act or performative in traditional linguis- tics (and all the accompanying critiques); 2. Referencing programming language, which is always performative; thus "echo `date`" calls up date which echo then sends to the standard output; 3. _Any_ statement, say, in a chat (IRC, talker, MOO, MUD, chat, etc.) environment, which both _constitutes_ and _constructs_ the subject/user; without the statement, the subject/user disappears for others. There is thus the constructed/constituted subject - who is, by virtue of protocols, always already _well-defined,_ and the subject on the other/ near side of the screen - who need not detain us: one might in this fashion call the "real" or "physical-real" subject the _virtual subject_ by virtue of his or her dis/appearance in relation to others on the Net. Avatars are always disturbances, always irruptions of language, a lang- uage portending _the raveling of existence and essence,_ for these terms meld within each other, tangled in avatar-sites/sights/citations.] I wish to discuss the psychology and philosophy of virtual subjectivity, vis-a-vis performative language. [As seen above, in the previous bracketed enclosure, which also implies an/other writing, perhaps that of Julu. But here are two disturbances by Nikuko, using warez programs, into IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - in one instance, violating the users, and in the other, producing an "obdurate" text, not responding to anyone, simply _reproducing_ (n.b. details have been changed): NIKUKO RAGES IRC log started Wed Feb 18 13:17 *** Value of LOG set to ON #***# Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #freedom *** ChanServ has changed the topic on channel #freedom to FUCK ME BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (KID420) *** Mode change "+ntr" on channel #freedom by ChanServ *** #freedom 887825853 *** On RAW_IRC from "% 352 *" do ^assign DOIT $DOIT;^timer $TIME crash $7;^assign TIME ${TIME+7} [SILENT] <0> *** On RAW_IRC from "% 315 *" do on raw_irc -"% 352 *"; on raw_irc -"% 315 *";eval $DOIT [SILENT] <0> <^V^> Crashing Netcruizer Lamer: StarLite <^V^> > will crash 48 users < <^V^> > time required to avoid excess flood: 337 seconds < *** StarLite: No such nick/channel <^V^> Crashing Netcruizer Lamer: UniBoy21 <^V^> Crashing Netcruizer Lamer: SirVictor *** CTCP FINGER reply from SirVictor: : :idle 7 second(s) <^V^> Crashing Netcruizer Lamer: Ghostoff159 <^V^> Crashing Netcruizer Lamer: Hueybot *** Signoff: Nikuko (/ hey all i usually call her at work..and give her an ear full (Middnite/#CyberSex) lol Oxx #<#Nikuko#># you burn the texts Hello i'm Looking for some loving from some chicks ............ sorry guys!!!i am bi #***# tomx has joined channel #cybersex [#E/X#] #You have new email!# (Mail Waiting: 7) (Middnite/#CyberSex) WooHoo [#E/X#] #Mail:# From L-Soft list server at Purdue University Your removal from the FOP-L list #<#Nikuko#># this is what the masters have finally told me (Frawg/#cybersex) lol mi <<# this is what the greatest of their greatness nope (Oxxman/#cybersex) flowers are a rip off #***# Sharon20 (Pssy.Lckr)has joined channel #cybersex #<#Nikuko#># has whispered what the failing light #***# Kostya has joined channel #cybersex #<#Nikuko#># hesitatingly points out #<#Nikuko#># leap (Oxxman/#cybersex) give the gift that dies #<#Nikuko#># we are the fire behind you #***# GuyStud has joined channel #cybersex any horny women in here wanna chat #<#Nikuko#># self immolation (Middnite/#CyberSex) send her fake flowers...she can keep em when they is in season..ill go pick em and hand deliver hello, Sharon20 #<#Nikuko#># the burning bodies of the dmaned #<#Nikuko#># KULCHUR #***# Haylo has joined channel #cybersex *** FMulder has left channel #cybersex #<#Nikuko#># the torch *** Sharon20 has left channel #cybersex but i dont buy em (Frawg/#cybersex) here comes haylo #<#Nikuko#># the twilight of those gods #***# makwa has joined channel #cybersex (Frawg/#cybersex) oh shit here she is stop talkin bout her *** Mode change "+o Haylo" on channel #cybersex by SynFul (Oxxman/#cybersex) nikuko...what are you babbling about? (Middnite/#CyberSex) awww...how romantic:) *** Nikuko has left channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Nikuko (bad, Bad, REAL BAD link?) IRC Log ended *** Tue Feb 24 10:39 I will look at ruptures or disturbances created by characters resonating or interfering with configuration files, MOOs, MUDs, talkers, and IRC. [These disturbances develop the limits or margins of the program, reveal the substructures/protocols at work, and violate dialogs in relation to "meta"- components. But Nikuko, Alan, Jennifer, and Julu are disturbances in another way as well; they tend towards _psychosis,_ an interweaving of realities, respon- sibilities, and claims; so not only, as above, is it not always clear who is speaking, or who is speaking for whom - but it is not always clear that the speaker herself can separate from her creations. Voices, voices! Which will be the future of the Net, if and when it attains a state of _seamless virtual reality,_ a state of melding with the real, so that the only dis- tinction between the pratico-inert and the virtual might be, the presence of a safeword/keyword, allowing immediate movement from one to the other.] I will show how such disturbances define both the openings and foreclo- sures of subjectivity on the Net, and how such subjectivity is dependent on the specific performativities of various applications. [In other words, through margins, slippages, constitutions, constructs, emergences from the "depths" of software or hardware, blockages and flows and programming languages (and their phenomenologies) - only through tak- ing these into account, as well as surface manifestations, is it possible to comprehend virtual subjectivity, etc. And further, as I've pointed out elsewhere, it is necessary to consider the _projection of the self_ - its written or constituted appearance - in various applications. As examples: in IRC (above), the self appears as third-person, #<#Nikuko#># leap. In a MOO, if the user types "says hello, the reply on-screen to you would be You say "hello." and the receiver will see Jennifer says, "hello." Call this more intimate, second-person. On ytalk or Powwow or ICQ, as you type your words appear to the other, and erasures are also visible, the letters disappearing in reverse. Each participant occupies a _space_ on the screen which represents - or is - the space of the (virtual) body, constituted as written. Call this first-person, reading through one's eye into the I of the other. There is often a lure and seduction among the avatars at work here - and this relates to the Lacanian Object A, a continuous deferral. I would also place the early Derridean notion of _differance_ for your consider, "said Jennifer," responding to Julu. In order to see this at work, consider the following discussion between Jennifer and Nikuko on ytalk; Jennifer "was" in Fukuoka, Japan, and Nikuko "was" in New York - or perhaps the other way around... In reality, the discussion was held on my linux box in Brooklyn, telnetting simultaneously to Japan and my ISP in Manhattan; I then connec- ted the two through ytalk, and recorded the discussion - writing and read- ing it as a dialog among "selves" - in a linux editor. Talk Between Jennifer and Nikuko on Ytalk Ending in Anger (recorded verbatim between Fukuoka and New York City Tue Jun 2 02:36:21 EDT 1998 - errors as is/are/was) -----------= YTalk version 3.0 (2) =------------ oh nikuko you are so beautiful, shall we meet among the dashed spaces of our bodies' miseries the matrix saves us, there is no beginning and ending, nothing but liquid pureness of language slDalvaging these spaces... they lend themselves across these times and spaces, they're lost, rudderless, as masts crash to the deck in dark and rdreary storms ouf our making -----------= nikuko@oita.kata.com.jp =------------ oh jennifer, the world will never know what beauty entangled us among our very selves, machines, wholesale worlds to sail, soiled and sold they are frought with desire, they lend themselves to arms and legs akimbo we are made, made, women, we have sounded, resonated, with each and every protocol, each and every space or site open to winds and skies coagulating like limpets seas and jellies ------------ -----------= YTalk version 3.0 (2) =------------ the matrix saves us, there is no beginning and ending, nothing but liquid pureness of language slDalvaging these spaces... they lend themselves across these times and spaces, they're lost, rudderless, as masts crash to the deck in dark and rdreary storms ouf our making jellies and dark dreams, there is space enough for your soft limbs, for mine... which bring about the semblance of a face, lineaments of eyes and mouths, speaking elsewhere, from the sides of things, from their moments of origin you've said that before, over and over again, as if repetition had no goal but the delibery of the interval... -----------= nikuko@oita.kata.com.jp =------------ we are made, made, women, we have sounded, resonated, with each and every protocol, each and every space or site open to winds and skies coagulating like limpets seas and jellies times which smooth us, bits and bytes, protocls lost and smoothing functions traced across peripheries, margins, divisions among all routers carried across time and space, moved, just as Jennifer has all the space there is, Jennifer has all the time in the world which announces itself as the edge or frame of this dialog, these moments carried forth... ------------ -----------= YTalk version 3.0 (1) =------------ everything is a moment moment for you, everything this mmmm... of matrix, mother, maternal, carrying forth, something about Timaeus plays a role here if not the whole tradition...I pre no, no, i prefer the small, seeping, the peripeheral, marginal, the scattered words, drops say from a drizzle, that is, forage, no, foresaken, no, i'm not sure here, what is it, what it is, what is it carry forth!! ---------= jennifer@jenn.com =---------- you've said that before, over and over again, as if repetition had no goal but the delibery of the interval... I'd be hard tput to know what tradition you are speaking from, Nikuko, if that is your name, carried across this? or which might be, say, that of the Kojiki <*note replying with capitals, as the discussion hardens its wares*> what would break down here, a language that you use against me? so that I will absjure, abjure these ... moments ... ? ------------ carry forth!! [QUITS THE DISCUSSION IN ANGER] ---------= jennifer@jenn.com =---------- what would break down here, a language that you use against me? so that I will absjure, abjure these ... moments ... ? {k:4} [A final and important point: the use of the word "avatar." This implies too great a distance between creator and created, as well as an ontology of the thing-created, as in the command @create $thing called "Alan" on the MOO. I prefer to think of all of these, Jennifer, Alan, Julu, Nikuko, as sites, domains, emanations, emissions, which are necessarily interwoven and which share coagulated ego/s, matrices. A different language is nece- ssary for constitutions, including that of the _presentation of the self in everyday life,_ so close and so constructed.]