Olga Goryunova From text to media (Discursive peculiarities of the Internet)

Quintessence of technology, media have always been one of objects of attention of philosophy, psychology and culturology. The influence on a human personality, as a traditional subject of the examined world, affected by technological achievements, changes in construction and functional modes of the world, has been obviously telling on his psycho... value system as well as on products of his activity, from work of art to cultural objects in the wide sense. Having proved to be in the center of large number of humanitarian sciences, media encroached on the former chair, though rather ricketed and occupied by the text, belonging to the subject. Thus in the sphere of theorizing the following dilemma appeared: on the one hand, the desire to 'insert' this more or less new phenomenon into the general historic and cultural context by means of traditional methods; and from the other hand, obvious necessity of working out a new notion and terminological apparatus for comprehension of radically new reality. Geert Lovink named these two practices 'media theory' and 'Net criticism' pointing the former as speculative.
This work is more an attempt of speculative study and classification of radical influence of the Internet in traditional philosophic and culturological terms than an attempt to form new ones - in order to attract the public and to build up a terminal for further personal refreshments.

The sense of a thing can indicate only a name, the sense of a name can indicate only another name, and that is the law of the word, and traditional text practice of culture and art.
Naming an object the word revokes its existence by the mere fact. Objects die to be described, to become stories about themselves. By pronouncing 'the hill' the subject of speech turns sensual, non-verbal, or even prehistoric reality level of the word into the level of idea, 'essence'. The word is eager to represent the non-object, the concept. Getting an operable idea of 'the hill', the story of the hill, the human being gets an opportunity to say farewell to the real hill. While the real world dies during the process of sense indication, the 'concept' of the world is rather not true; the notion extracted from darkness of the existence, at an attempt to enlighten it is being immediately concealed, distorted, clouded'¹
The thing mortified in the word and regenerated on the idea level as a non-thing occurs inserted into a particular reality capable and bent for active functioning according to its personal laws. Getting into communication with other words it shifts, as if betraying the represented concept (depending of surplus of the nominating and lack of the nominated²). The text word principally must not remember of the thing names, and of the essence the subject of speech had intention to point. The sense of the thing in the text is emasculated turning in a sort of thing lacking an idea - unreal, spectral, deprived of existence and doomed to it in the same time. Therefore, destroying the world of things in order to generate the world of essences, level of words and text actually produces personal 'non-real' reality, builds it up on ephemeral, repeated in new changes and changed by repetition of essences-things, and does not conceal its deceptions.
And it is the thing that the literary word in the thing and in itself is interested in. Personal, pre-verbal existence of an object is the summit of pretension of literary speech, Utopia of artistic word. Original, live thing in existence seen by its own eyes. To catch, to engrave real, pre-artistic life of the thing - in the word, infinitely catching emptiness and its movement; to run forward, into naming, simultaneously striving backwards, into existence, being caught by personal word whirlpool and abysses; to try to insert the unity of inaccessible 'current' reality - and to rush ahead, being caught up by a storm in a desert lusting for peace and negating itself, - that's the picture of the artistic speech functioning.
Literary speech is a vain dream about reality, peace without peace, consciousness in the absence of the author (if a write 'I write', the subject named by these and further words is no more I, at the table, with the pen, live). Reality of physical death doesn't abolish boundlessness of the word sense. That's why the text is also 'the death as impossibility to die'³.
Thus the text is an ambiguity, multi-meaning, senselessness, a voice telling a lie from nowhere, a trap. A headache.
The main part of human existence is connected with the world of being, with the life of nature. Human ability for indication diverts him from nature and inserts into spectral and not existing world which tries to imprint the disappearing being. The language being a system which allows to enter the world and to exist in it, and gives devices for it, the system occurs to be the unique, original, impossible possibility of the world for the human being. The language is an access to the world, and simultaneously its substitution, lateness, mirage, shadow. The human world appears only in the process of the symbol game, and doesn't exist before its start. So the world lacks a transcendental subject. And the language takes its place. In this unique, linguistic variant of the world the human being is 'not on the top⁴.
Works of contemporary art being less and less oriented to the text, the latter is being ejected by substance and attempts of non-discursive communication that have been incredible out of text references. As part of contemporary culture, as a literate literary text, they demand interpretation - an endless pronunciation, repetition, self-commenting. In narration, installation, even in performance (where the text turns into the subject aliened from the self-person and the 'authority') something always stays beyond the frames. This breach of alienation of non-personal subject from the text, element of pretermission (its appearance is determined not by the author's intention, but by textual peculiarities), emptiness demand return, reference, break of its silence, its death - cessation of the circular sense, chains of sense generating which is, according to the text laws is impossible.
The way out from this exclusive circle is typical for scientific discourse and rather an Utopian eagerness to use not a metaphoric language, but to avoid the language, to revoke the breach between the indicated and the indicating. Such kind of words though exists, in linguistics they are named performative.
A performative verb is a verb indicating execution of an action by its mere pronouncing: I announce, I order, I forbid. Information of performative character is also an object of genetic research - the chromosome code indicates the same as it inter-writes. Such 'another' mode of indicating, of a sense generating allows to escape the code headache.
One of initial theses of the Net theory was an idea of the Internet as a system demanding quite a different statement construction, and consequently a different system of thinking, presentation, representation, communication, language patterns and even 'new languages and phonations⁵. This sort of demand is has its reasons - science and culture happened to be in possession of the text by the end of the 20th century, in the first place, because the concepts of science and culture were determined by the language in textual forms. Its 'concepts' appeared in the period of language existence and established systems of connection between oral and written speech. Besides, the text simultaneously performs as their basis, the main device of expression, and often - the object of analysis and general operation material.
While the Net existence is indebted to principally different type of system. The programming operates performative code types. Their indicating mode is as follows: the indicating is equivalent to the indicated. That what is written in the command line indicates nothing but what is written. (Artistic practices and games are not taken into account here; this is the general type of the Internet structure and technological basis of Net-art sites practicing net deconstruction.)
By its structure the WWW introduces quite a different, not linguistic variant of the world. Its non-linguistic is pointed by a special role of iconic, directing signs in formation of the Net structure - connection of a sign (picture) with the natural thing which engendered it is of non-linguistic character⁶. Hence, the mode of functioning of this new reality principally differs from traditional cultural system of representation.
As you push the 'Stop' button in the Internet Explorer window, as you pronounce 'Stop' using the system of speech discern, a pure intention acts to hold up connection, breaking off the loading by the mere fact of pronouncing (pushing). Watching the Mars on the NASA site in real time with 30 seconds refresh guarantee 'live' picture of the Mars with a little delay. Such a model of sense construction is being projected to other levels of the Net functioning. A note on the site of a prestigious electronic company saying that a more effective technology would be generated by the season end means that it will be more effective and will appear not earlier than the season end. Information on the news page about a new tax means a new tax in work.
Deceit and manipulation here are not only possible but natural. Giving vast possibilities to the power and politics (the degree of effectiveness is one of differences of the Internet from the mass media) such a system gives way to urge the individualities' need in what the system needs to be effective.
Contemporary art practices use working principles digested in communication with the WWW. With a conventional idea of art as a communicative process the essence of power mechanism functioning and control remain the same. Abandoning representation and strive to pure communication⁷ in fact are a new method of sense generating - the sense is not represented, it is born in communication. Creating communicative environment and its media, an artist creates and intrudes the message as well, i.e. communicative content.
n general only structure formations of the Internet can be placed into the performative scheme. The main part of the Net content continues appealing to various textual systems of sense generating ignoring the performative basis of the Net. For instance, it is very well known that attempts of legitimization of a chat reply by means of its demonstration (I've written that I'm 22, so I was born 22 years ago) are of a very provisional character.
Thus, summation of data, knowledge having ruined the conception of meta-story is no more narrative. Similarly to forming principle and functioning of virtuality based on knowledge and data. But orientation on maximal effectiveness becomes the basis of science and techs. Any structure legitimates validating itself with the help of characteristics of productivity and effectiveness. And in order to save its leading position the knowledge has to follow these terms. By the way, according to 
J.-F. Liotare, language games and imagination (that give way to abstraction, make it possible to combine the incomparable - terms of discovery) form the basis of scientific progress⁸. Besides, and again according to authoritative opinion of J.-F. Liotare in contemporary microphysics and mathematics "precise dimension and prognosis of behavior of objects in human gage is doubted⁹. Therefore it is impossible to totally expel language games out of social and scientific practice.
Progress in knowledge demands imagination. Effectiveness counts out imagination. Knowledge needs effectiveness. The way out of the situation seems to be in inventing of a new strategy of the language game.
With the performative principle necessarily leading to manipulation and conception of meta-story having failed, the ideal decision turns out to be small stories, local temporary consensus. These mini-narrations or mini-stories can be observed in the Internet. System of dependent dimensional and temporary texts generates a virtual space available for inhabitation.
Structural and basic level of the Internet system, its initial content and basis are structured according to the performative principle: the indicating is equal to the indicated, process of engendering of the sense is equal to the mere process of functioning. Such a model of the world, at first sight, places back a transcendental Subject - a person, an user turning him into a sense producer and sense operator.
Lateral content (provisionally referring informational and scientific, governmental, social resources) is longing to maximally approach (or at least not to distance) the 'original' basis of the Net. It is trying to operate with the same sense generating practice: presence of the indicated here-and-now in the concrete indicating which forms favorable ground for various manipulations (we can refer most actual Net-art projects directed to research and artistic comprehension of the medium nature, its operating specifics and its influence on a human being). Here, on the place of the Subject, as it might be seen, we have separate individuals indued with maximal power, special abilities and data. Other users in this variant of the world are 'not on the top' again.
If we try to maximally theorize the situation, generalizing the Net content, we would possibly segregate the third and the most general content level - a provisional general typical Internet mass. In this variant there's clear opposition: any user - media with distanced components.
Pressed by media, a person loses the power which initially has taken the shine. In the new virtual world consciousness beholds principally new qualities transferring into disperse condition: it overflows the Net not supported by strict limits, neither intellectual sense boarders, nor physical boarder of the body. Virtual personality (which is the topic of special research works¹⁰) denies rules, laws, responsibilities, sex, acquires ability to maximum changes, endless mutations. The typical reaction on a long Internet serfing is the situation of archaic fusion of personal image with other consciousness and refuse of stable self-identification, as well as loss of habit of self-reflexing which makes for personal relaxation and segmentation of thinking¹¹. With the time change of principles of existence (the future has come) and the change in space (which has become virtual) and in the situation of technological hyperspeed, the subject can direct all his efforts only to preserve his ability of an adequate reaction - to make a choice. Communication with such a subject is an exchange of maximally exposed existence which becomes the only content of communication¹².
Media. Hypertextual structure was invented and, for an extent, worked out long before the Internet appearance. It may seem that with a global extension of the Internet this dream theory of generations must have been not only implemented but perfectly completed. The Internet structure actually provides for total 'linking', though with an unexpected opposite result. Firstly, necessity of visualization of the concept generates the situation of visual imperialism when the cliched iconic system affects as an intrusive ad aesthetics doubting creative productiveness of the system as a whole. Secondly, during navigation on hyperlinks the sense is not being acquired, it is book and candle lost. The chaos of hypertext starts working on itself autonomously producing more and more new senses. And it is not the site authors who link, but the Internet.
The medium starts playing the hypertext game. It produces and absorbs senses, reproduces, modificates, broadens and kills. The Net becomes the subject of virtual space, self-producer, sense operator the very sense. The medium becomes the subject of the world.
What's concerning a human being he seems to become, together with the text (generously hustled by other methods of sense indication provided by media), a toy in this new game. And media that turned up to 'be on the top' is the player.

1. J.Derrida. Force et signification / l'ecriture et la difference, Paris, p.45.

2. Commenting works of Fuceau and in his research 'Difference and repetition' (St.Petersbourg, 1998) J.Delez speaks of interpretation as a practice engendered by excess of the indicating in the state of lack of the indicated.

3. Statements and conclusions from philosophical and philological researches of the last 50 years are generalized and cited here, in particular: M.Blancheau. From Kafka to Kafka. M., 1998, p.39.

4. J.Derrida. De la grammatologie, Paris. 1967.

5. M.Epstein. From Totalitarian Age Into Virtual // Supplement to 'Pushkin' magazine, M., 15.05.98, p.5.

6. See the detailed plan of this statement of Levi-Strauss in: U.Echo. Absent Structure, M., 1998, p.146.

7. 'Only art based on communication... Reality of pure and original communication... becomes actually possible today. Net-art - communication - the present', A.Shulguin. Manifest (http://www.sccamoscow.ru/gif/lab/myth/sh0/shulgin3.htm), p.1-3.

8. J.-F.Liotare. Condition of Post-modernism. M- St.Petersbourg, 1998, p.102-129.

9. Ibid., p.158.

10. See, for example, Russian magazine 'Virtual Anatomy' (http://www.dux.ru/festival/cover.htm).

11. We are talking here on changes 'during the stay' in virtuality, which though doesn't excess possibility of further spread of this type of behaviour principles of the Internet users to off-line activity.

12. As a sample see: A. Shulgin's project 'Homework' (http://www.easylife.org/this morning), where from the start endless windows open with content like 'I want to piss', 'I want to eat', etc.