Through the Screen

Book excerpt: When Alice steps through the mirror in Lewis Caroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she removes herself from the centre of vision and perspective, restoring the autonomy of everything else that lies "beyond" the mirror. Similarly, the philosopher who wishes to engage with the contemporary medial system must pass through the screen, recognising the autonomy of the non-human components of the system, but also understanding the human role within the system itself. Perched between philosophy and otherdisciplines such as psychology, sociology, neuroscience, computer science, electronics, cultural studies, French médiologie, German Medienarchäologie, and first-order cybernetics, this book challenges our contemporary screen experience and provides the reader with new tools with which to understand it, as well as novel insights into the role of philosophy in the digital condition. Its aim, ultimately, is to lay the foundations of a general theory of being and culture by examining them through their technological manifestations.