Christiane Heibach - Immersion
Currently much discussed media technologies such as ubiquitous computing and biofeedback aim at becoming more and more invisible. By blending in with our everyday environment, they suggest an immediacy of the relationship between humans and technology that is intended to make us forget what we are actually dealing with. Haven’t media technologies always been based on the paradigm of immediacy? Hasn’t it always been their goal to appear as commonplace and ‘natural’ as possible? If that is the case, it is high time to take a critical look at the effects of immediacy and naturalness of media technologies and to examine their potential for manipulation.