@home: virtual domesticity
Glenda Nalder, Centre for Media Communication & Asian Studies, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157 Lismore. 2480. Australia. Phone +61 66 20 3607 Fax: +61 66 22 1683
Email: gnalder@scu.edu.au
Home Page: Glenda Nalder
Keywords: WorldWideWeb, Media, Digital, Culture, Home, Domestic, Space, Feminist Knowledge
Abstract
This article reads the 'homey' iconography of the www interface design as the hyperexpression of nostalgic desire for a heartland in the digital vortex of cyberspace. It suggests that the house, as index, constrains the architectonics of cyberspace within the notion of an object: a single bounded entity of inscribed sexuality.
In their attempts to give the novice cyberspace traveller a sense of security on the uncertain terrain of cyberspace, the designers of web-browsing software have appropriated the iconography and familar language of house and home. This connection is not completely innocent, as we are aware that within telematics, the domestic sphere (historically constructed as the private 'other' to the public sphere of commercial, industrial and civic life) is currently undergoing re-evaluation.
A feminist deconstruction of the interface exposes the non-neutrality of spatial constructs. Home Pages such as Annie Sprinkle's Public Cervix [HREF 1] transgress the boundaries of public and private to challenge the dominant culture's universalising tendencies.
References
Grosz, E. (1988) "The In(ter)vention of Feminist Knowledges" in Caine, B. et al. "Crossing Boundaries: Feminisms and the Critique of Knowledges. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Haraway, D. (1991) "Simians, Cyborgs and Women: the Re-invention of Nature" London: Free Association.
Sofia, Z (1993) "Whose Second Self? Gender and Irrationality in Computer Culture" Geelong: Deakin.
Hypertext References
- HREF1dt>
- http://www.infi.net/~heck/sprinkleshow.html - Annie Sprinkle's Home Page
Copyright
Glenda Nalder ©, 1996. The author assigns to Southern Cross University
and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use
this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article
is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The author also
grants a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document
in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference
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Any other usage is prohibited without permission of the author.
AusWeb96 The Second Australian WorldWideWeb Conference
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