“The mirror is, after all, a utopia, since it is a placeless place. In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, vir- tual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent: such is the utopia of the mirror. But it is also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality, where it exerts a sort of counteraction on the position that I occupy. From the standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since I see myself over there. Startingfrom this gaze that is, as it were, directed toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of the glass, I come back toward myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward myself and to reconstitute myself there where I am.”
Foucault, “Of Other Spaces”
I’ve read this passage so many times in the last few days that I’ve basically committed it to memory. This is as close as I’ll ever get to saying that reading Foucault feels like a giant philosophical hug. But there is hope in this essay.
Notes
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moriddim said:
There is hope. And also not.
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Modern & Im/material Things
I'm Christina Dennaoui. Sometimes I wax philosophical on culture in the digital age. I have an interest in social media, cultural studies, electronic music, critical theory, middle eastern politics, ethnographic research and digital anthropology. I make beats. I drink bourbon. I'm a nice lady, so you should talk to me.
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