Faculty of Arts & Science

Visual and Critical Studies

Kara Marcinkoski

Recalculating the Potentiality in Digital Intimacy

Contemporary engagement with the Internet is largely boring and alienating, in stark contrast toour imagined expectation that it would foster community and interconnectedness. In this paper, Idirect attention to the current causes of discontent with the Internet, but posit that there areindeed fulfilling, personal and intimate experiences to be had online. I use the theories andpractice of musician and academic Holly Herndon as an example of the enduring potentialities ofthe Internet for both creativity and intimacy in opposition to the current causes of discontent onthe Internet. Lastly, I discuss and explore a diverse milieu of artists and theorists who, likeHerndon, also identify opportunities for intimacy on the Internet.Keywords: Holly Herndon, digital intimacy, technological literacy, data, surveillance