Auto­nomousAutonomousAutonomousAutonomous

SystemsSystemsSystemsSystemsSystems

AutonomousAutonomousAutonomousAutonomous

SystemsSystemsSystemsSystemsSystems

Thinking along with the digital self. Notes taken during an online meeting where I could hear the others but not speak (and sometimes neither of both). November 2020.

Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka

when we write about self, does writing change the object written about? does overwriting change my sense of self? my self-ish-ness?

self written as a word is an object like many other objects. a combination of strokes on paper, bits in a storage, pixels on screen that create meaning by leaving imprints in my mind. is the self that i write the same that makes my hand move, the one i imagine when i move thoughts in my head? is the I that thinks this thought the same self that is written down, printed, glowing pixels?

maybe there are more selfish pixels than others because becoming self changes their meaning and identity on screen maybe in silence at night when computers sleep, pixels take selfies on screen, making screenshots of digital selves trying to capture themselves, their selves as physical, optical manifestation because actually, pixels don't have selves, they are just placeholders for other appearances or is the self of a pixel a manifold of the word self, a glowing presence of fractal presences

and imagine those selves could obtain different states - dreaming, dancing, floating, flying lying down to rest or going to the gym writing a letter to an unknown other waiting on the bus to get a ride

from the screen the self looks back at you, always, for any screen may be come or is potentially a mirror

of you, of itself, of selves projecting back endlessly