This week’s readings got me thinking in-depth about the politics of the digital world. As a starting point, consider Mongrel’s National Heritage, and the sort of potential for passing represented by it: one that is disturbing, grotesque (indeed the facial shapes are indicative of a certain type of masquerade character), and abhorrent. Here, the surgical and mechanical come back to haunt us. National Heritage depicts a violent surgery, one that cannot be hidden by sunglasses and gauze and healing time, but which defines itself by the very presence of the stitches that tie it together. And I am curious if I am not the only one who felt that behind Mongrel’s faces, if they could be split open, would lie machines with whirring gears, hiding in pseudo-human form.
This got me thinking about the politics of networks and infiltration. If passing in the network is, as it seems to be, still unequal, and if it is vulnerable to some of the grotesquery of National Heritage, then perhaps a co-opting of passing as a tactical strike becomes an interesting possibility. The “vast disparities” between those who control cyberspace and those who “are not wanted there” leave room for the confusion of the boundaries that hold that condition in place. Like the spy, the passing individual, though necessarily hyper-conscious of his or her own body, can be a powerful weapon.
How do I envision something like this coming about? Perhaps subversive games can be used to train the “not wanted” to infiltrate cyberspace. If you have the time or interest, look up The CarbonDefenseLeague’s Super Kid Fighter, and think about applying that concept to Piper’s CLNC.
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