The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age by Allucqu?reRosanne Stone

by Allucquère Rosanne Stone

An engrossing and complex exploration of the effects of telecommunications technologies on gender relations and identity. Goes far beyond the usual obvious assertions and cliches.

Genres: Theory, Nonfiction, Research, Transgender

Hardcover

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Allucquére Rosanne "Sandy" Stone is an American academic theorist, media theorist, author, and performance artist. She is currently Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLab) and the New Media Initiative in the department of Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Concurrently she is Wolfgang Kohler Professor of Media and Performance at the European Graduate School EGS, senior artist at the Banff Centre, and Humanities Research Institute Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. Stone has worked in and written about film, music, experimental neurology, writing, engineering, and computer programming. Stone is transgender and is considered a founder of the academic discipline of transgender studies. She has been profiled in ArtForum, Wired, Mondo 2000, and other publications, and been interviewed for documentaries like Traceroute.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretentious drivel most assuredly promoted by the smelly grad student girl who taught English 101 at The University of Georgia Spring Quarter 1994 at 2:25PM Mon-Wed.

[Rachel Kamphaus]

Found this fascinating but also thought that it worked better in its theoretical mode. While this reads as more or less academic, there are also sections that are more journalistic, and according to the endnotes, fictional. I think that some of this felt like filler (did we need two “end of innocence” chapters?). That said; I think Stone has compelling thoughts about what happens to the body/self online, theorizing computers both as a prosthesis but also as gateways into the multiplicity of the self