BUURMAN, Karolien; GRŪZĪTE, Monika; MECKLENBURG, Florian (eds.)
NXS Issue #5 (Winter 2020): Virtual Vertigo

This issue of NXS examines the challenges posed to the self by the digital extension of reality and its murky underbelly. Distractedly chatting over FaceTime while its Attention Correction function redirects your eyes’ focus to the camera, to talking on the phone with eerily human-sounding virtual assistants, or watching deep fake videos with convincingly-crafted celebrity simulations presenting us invented statements, are digitally-mediated interactions that undermine our trust in our senses to access reality. The manifold network of contributors investigates questions such as: What emotional responses might a computer-communicated reality precipitate? How is user behavior influenced upon returning to the physical world from those layers of lifelike experience? Which ethical pillars should be kept high? And are we able to restore our understanding of the structure of reality or adopt a new form that can resist manipulation? [editors’ note]

With contributions by Manuel Arturo Abreu, Giusy Amoroso, Galit Ariel, Ash Baccus-Clark, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, BEA1991, Karolien Buurman, Amber Case, Harriet Davey, Daphne Dragona, Mat Dryhurst, Friederike Hantel, Holly Herndon, Bailey Keogh, Baptiste Kucharski, Kim Laughton, Sean Mahoney, Shawn Maximo, Florian Mecklenburg, Katja Novitskova, Omega.C, Fr. Bertie Pearson, Douglas Rushkoff, Tamar Shafrir, Dan Stout, Miro Tiebe, Belinda Zhawi.

Published by NXS, 2020
Periodicals / Media Studies