Table Of ContentMichele White is Assistant Professor in the Department of
Communication at Tulane University.
the body and the screen
new media/cultural studies
w THEORIES OF INTERNET SPECTATORSHIP
“The literature on new media is abundant, but few humanities scholars have directly interrogated the
h
specific kinds of practices and aesthetics that the Internet makes possible. The Body and the michele white
i
Screendoes precisely this. White’s sustained focus on technological mediation, informed by femi- t
e
nist and queer-theory approaches, makes a significant and needed contribution to the literature.”
Internet and computer users are often represented onscreen
—Ken Hillis,Associate Professor of Media Studies, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
t as active and empowered—as in AOL’s striding yellow figure
h
and the interface hand that appears to manipulate software and
“The Body and the Screenis a highly nuanced critical examination of the junction of the virtual and
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hypertext links. In The Body and the Screen Michele White
the real. By engaging cyberspace and the body together (and by not participating in the game of
b suggests that users can more properly be understood as spec-
their free disassociation, as many media theorists do), White offers important arguments for the
tators rendered and regulated by technologies and representa-
o
materiality of the experience of new media. This much-needed book marks an important step for-
tions, for whom looking and the mediation of the screen are
d
ward in critical studies of new media and the Internet.”
significant aspects of engagement. Drawing on apparatus and
—Steve Jones,Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago y
feminist psychoanalytic film theories, art history, gender studies,
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queer theory, critical race and postcolonial studies, and other
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theories of cultural production, White conceptualizes Internet
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and computer spectatorship and provides theoretical models
t that can be employed in other analyses. She offers case studies
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and close visual and textual analysis of the construction of spec-
e
tatorship in different settings.
s White shows that despite the onscreen promise of
c the body and the screen empowerment and coherence (through depictions of materiality
r that structure the experience), fragmentation and confusion
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are constant aspects of Internet spectatorship. She analyzes
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spectatorship in multi-user object-oriented settings (MOOs)
THEORIES OF INTERNET SPECTATORSHIP
The MIT Press n
by examining the textual process of looking and gazing, con-
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
trasts the experiences of women’s webcam spectator and oper-
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
ator, describes intentional technological failures in net art, and
http://mitpress.mit.edu
considers ways in which traditional conceptions of artistry,
authorship, and production techniques persist in Internet and
0-262-23249-9
computer settings (as seen in the creation of virtual environment
978-0-262-23249-4
avatars and in digital imaging art). Finally, she analyzes the phys-
ical and psychic pain described by male programmers in
Internet forums as another counternarrative to the common tale
The cover art includes two digital photographic details from Ken
of the empowered user. Spectatorship, White argues, not only
Gonzales-Day, Untitled #94,1999. michele white
affects the way specific interfaces are understood but also
helps shape larger conceptions of self and society.
The Body and the Screen
The Body and the Screen
Theories of Internet Spectatorship
Michele White
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
©2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or
mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)
without permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotion-
al use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales
Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142.
This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by The MIT Press.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
White, Michele.
The body and the screen : theories of Internet spectatorship / Michele White.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-23249-9 (alk. paper)
1. Internet—Philosophy. 2. Cyberfeminism. 3. Art and technology. 4. Human-computer inter-
action. I. Title.
TK5105.875.I57W5275 2006
004.67'8—dc22
2006042005
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
The Body, the Screen, and Representations: An Introduction to Theories of
Internet Spectatorship 1
1 Making Internet and Computer Spectators 17
Introduction
Rendering Liveness, Materiality, and Space
Notions of the Empowered User
Addressing the Spectator
Stabilizing Identity
Erasing the Interface
Conclusion: Active Users by Design
2 Visual Pleasure through Textual Passages: Gazing in Multi-user Object-oriented
Settings (MOOs) 35
Introduction
MOOs
The Look and the Gaze
Character Creation and Attributes in MOOs
The Look and the Gaze in MOOs
Gendered Gazing in MOOs
Graphical MOOs
Conclusion: Between Multiple and Coherent Identity
3 Too Close to See, Too Intimate a Screen: Men, Women, and Webcams 57
Introduction
Feminism and Spectatorship
Critical and Journalistic Considerations of Webcams
Webcams
vi Contents
Women and Webcams
Regulating the Spectator
Women Webcam Operators and Authority
Visibility and Webcams
Making Texts Real
Some Problems with Webcam Viewing
Just a Guy
Conclusion: The Politics of Being Seen
4 The Aesthetic of Failure: Confusing Spectators with Net Art Gone Wrong 85
Introduction
Aesthetics and Net Art
Net Art
An Aesthetic of Failure
Jodi
Peter Luining
Michaël Samyn
Conclusion: The Limits of Failure and Repetition
5 Can You Read Me? Setting-specific Meaning in Virtual Places (VP) 115
Introduction
Virtual Places
Avatars
Painters and Avatar Galleries
Owning Texts
Criteria for Originality
Theories of Internet Authorship
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Avatar
Making Differences in Virtual Places
Conclusion: Authorship in Other Internet Settings
6 This Is Not Photography, This Is Not a Cohesive View: Computer-facilitated
Imaging and Fragmented Spectatorship 147
Introduction
Making the Digital Imaging Spectator
Photography
Digital or Post-photography
The Scanner as Camera
Carol Selter’s Animalia and Punctum
Susan Silton’s Self Portraits and Images of the Partial Self
Ken Gonzales-Day’s Skin Series and the Cut
The New Media Grid
Conclusion: The Morphed Spectator
Contents vii
Afterword The Flat and the Fold: A Consideration of Embodied Spectatorship 177
Introduction
Carol Selter, Susan Silton, Ken Gonzales-Day, and the Fold
The Body Folded and Evacuated
Hierarchy and Control
The Spectator in Pain
The Fat and the Fold
Men and the Weight Loss “Challenge”
Erotic Folding
Conclusion: A Technology of Waste
Acknowledgments 199
Notes 205
Selected Bibliography 273
Index 297
Illustrations
Figures
I.1 American Association for the Advancement of Science, “Ethical and Legal
Aspects of Human Subjects in Cyberspace,” 1999, 15 Sept. 2004, <http://www
.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/projects/intres/main.htm>. 2
I.2 Logitech, “Logitech—Leading Web Camera, Wireless Keyboard,” 15 Aug. 2004,
<http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?countryid=19&languageid=1>. 3
I.3 Microsoft, “Microsoft Corporation,” 14 Aug. 2004, <http://www.microsoft
.com/>. 5
1.1 Garnet Hertz, “Desktop_10jpg. 832x264 Pixels,” 21 Nov. 2003, <http://www.con
ceptlab.com/desktop/img/desktop_10.jpg>. 18
1.2 Jack Desrocher, “Salon|21st: Be There Now,” Salon, 7 Aug. 1997, 27 Sept. 2004,
<http://www.salon.com/aug97/21st/cam970807.html>. 31
1.3 Apple, “Apple,” 23 Mar. 2002, <http://www.apple.com>. 33
1.4 Computer Bargains, “Flat Screen,” 16 Jan. 2003, <http://www.computer
bargains.net/h530.htm>. 34
3.1 Jennifer Ringley, “JenniCam: Life, Online,” 21 Nov. 2003, <http://www.jenni
cam.com/>. 66
3.2 Aimee, “A Cam Girl Dot Com, a Free Live Web Cam Site,” 21 Nov. 2003,
<http://www.acamgirl.com/>. 75
3.3 Hippyflip, “Looky Here,” 20 Dec. 2000, <http://www.hippyflip.com/hippyflip/
campage.html>. 76
3.4 CamGirls Ring, 21 Nov. 2003, <http://www.camgirlsring.com>. 79
4.1 Jodi, %20Wrong, 27 Sept. 2004, <http://404.jodi.org/>. 98
4.2 Jodi, %20Wrong, Rhizome, 1 Jan. 1996, 27 Sept. 2004, <http://rhizome.org/
artbase/1678/wrong.html>. 100
