Techno-Prosthetic Romantic Futurism

Induction

The future can only be anticipated in the form of an absolute danger. It is that which breaks absolutely with constituted normality and can only be proclaimed, presented, as a sort of monstrosity.
--Derrida, Of Grammatology

Zoom zip, you better wake up. Zoom zip.
--Soul Coughing, Ruby Vroom

Romanticism and technology. Romanticism as technology. Romanticism becoming technology. The becoming technology of Romanticism? Are we, in the words of William Gibson, "on the cusp of a change that is technologically driven"? [1]   If so, how will we--and what we do--change? Ten years ago we went digital, some of us anyway. Virtual archives are as close as a keyboard, simulated manuscripts just a click away. This vertiginous new space of scholarship, this consentual hallucination of truth and knowledge requires canny eyes, ears, and even fingertips. A monstrous future is upon us. Even here. Especially (where?) here!

Notes

1. No Maps for these Territories, Chris Paine/907 Productions, 2000.

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