Some Discussion... William Merrin

I first read William Merrin's essay Myspace and Legendary Psychasthenia at the beginning of last year. It is titled after Caillois's essay Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia. His discussions of Roger Caillois's theories surrounding mimicry in the insect world and the translation of these ideas into an analysis of contemporary online networking and behaviors of those who engage with such technology are particularly interesting. Merrin states in his essay that when engaging for extended periods of time in online social networks we can begin to experience what can be defined as Legendary Psychasthenia. "Legendary Psychasthenia can be described, therefore, as a disturbance in the relationships between personality and space, and, more specifically, as a 'depersonalisation by assimilation to space.'"

These ideas will form the basis of my research for my final essay. For me this was one of the most engaging and interesting aspects of theory and I am looking forward to going further with it. I have decided to incorporate some aspects of Virtual Embodiment theories here too, to gain an understanding of how art operates within and around our virtual experiences.

I want to allow this investigation for theory to flow into the research I am doing for my studio practice and eventually create some works that begin to deal with/ analyse/ discuss these aspects of the theories I am interested in.