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Transformation of Social Relations

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The nature of the dynamic and complex relationship between the virtual and the real can be further explained by considering the “technical machine,” termed by French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The technical machine encompasses the material or real space that has the potential to become part of the larger social machine in which the transformation of social relations occurs. Specifically, social input into the Guattarian “technical machine” creates tension between the virtual and the real, ultimately giving rise to the larger social machine, which is the functionally connected Guattarian assemblage of human subjects and technical machines. Within the social machine, social relations are transformed, thereby producing tangible effects in the real.

There are several ways in which the social can be introduced to the virtual space, such as through spatial creation or “immaterial labor.” According to anthropologist Nick Dyer-Witheford, immaterial labor is a new kind of work that “creates ‘immaterial products’ such as ‘knowledge, information, communication, a relationship, or an emotional response’” (2009, 4). In virtual settings focused on play, such as in online virtual worlds, immaterial labor can take the form of modding, where video game modification developers, or “modders,” contribute to the meanings and possibilities of the virtual through co-creation and collaboration. In these instances, modding is used to enhance and improve the virtual space by reinventing it and opening it up to new social relations.

When the simulated space is produced within real, physical spaces, such as when simulations are created to aid the military, the technical machine becomes part of the social machine through the social input of the people involved, thereby giving rise to dynamic virtual spaces. Interestingly, within the social machine, powerful social relations can be both facilitated and undermined in a socially immersive environment, which can produce palpable effects in the real world.  Specifically, there may be something in the virtual space that overpowers the real within the simulation of the real, which is able to produce meaningful consequences in the real world.

In addition, the technical machine can be contained and implanted within the human machine to produce the larger social, fleshy machine that allows social relations to be produced and facilitated. When this occurs, the technical machine and human machine do together what they would otherwise be unable to do on their own. Through the emergence of these social possibilities, social relations can be created through participation in other virtual or real spaces. Indeed, the collision of the technical machine and the human machine creates a greater, unified social machine through which social possibilities are realized.

Interestingly, the human machine is also able to control and manipulate certain human interactions, thereby perpetuating racism and racial difference as Stephanie describes here. In an attempt to accrue power, the human machine controls social interactions to create and utilize new, greater social machines.


Citations:
Guattari, Félix. "Machinic heterogenesis." In Chaosmosis: an aethico-aesthetic paradigm (1995): 33-57.

Dyer-Witheford, Nick. Games of Empires (2009).



 

This page has paths:

  1. The Tension Between the Virtual and the Real Esther Liu

Contents of this path:

  1. Transformation of Social Relations Through Virtual Play
  2. Transformation of Social Relations Through Military Incentives
  3. Transformation of Social Relations Through the Fleshy Machine

This page has tags:

  1. Transformation of Social Relations Through Virtual Play Esther Liu
  2. Transformation of Social Relations Through Military Incentives Esther Liu
  3. The Virtual and The Real Chloe Lewis
  4. The Tension Between the Virtual and the Real Esther Liu
  5. Guattari's Theory on Machines zachary hersh
  6. Race and the Social Machine Stephanie Wiehe
  7. Guattari's theory on Simulation Spaces zachary hersh
  8. Simulation Machine Zheqing Zhu
  9. Virtuality Chloe Lewis
  10. Fragmentation Kevin Mellin
  11. Nick Dyer-Witheford Esther Liu
  12. Félix Guattari zachary hersh
  13. Immaterial Labor Kayla McCoy
  14. Simulation Zheqing Zhu
  15. Esther Liu, Author Esther Liu
  16. Real World Kayla McCoy
  17. Gilles Deleuze Esther Liu

Contents of this tag:

  1. Transformation of Social Relations Through the Fleshy Machine
  2. Transformation of Social Relations Through Virtual Play
  3. Transformation of Social Relations Through Military Incentives
  4. Social Media Activism
  5. The Tension Between the Virtual and the Real
  6. Black Twitter
  7. Definition of Self
  8. Bleaching the Ethiopian: the threat of blackness becoming white
  9. Second Life
  10. Trayvon Martin and Social Media
  11. Depiction of Muslims as Terrorists
  12. The Transcendent Self & Second Life