THE CULTURE OF VIRTUAL (UN)REALITY

Text topic: (Lack Of) Culture

Text author: Мирослав Вићентијевић

The Internet could be defined as a semantically floating environment whose codes mirror everyday acts of a subject or social group; such environment is a novelty per se (in the sense of the medium itself), but also concerns the way in which the communication process is being reconstituted. A medium (channel, means) of communication, as far as the Internet is concerned, connects textual audio and visual elements adding interactivity to them – the possibility of influencing the form and content of requested information. The paradox of a subject and an identity lies in the fact that the subject is simultaneously free to set coordinates of his/her presence on the Web by creating his/her personal profile, but at the same time is imprisoned within cyber space of the screen entirely occupying the visual field. So, we have to ask if the `reality` and `copy of reality` are the issue here or are we at the beginning of a new, different reality within which `real` and `virtual` are being increasingly intertwined?