Sunday, February 28, 2010

could you repeat that?

But it is also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality, where it exerts a sort of counteraction on the position that I occupy. From the standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since I see myself over there. Starting from this gaze that is, as it were, directed toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of the glass, I come back toward myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward myself and to reconstitute myself there where I am.

*A mirror is merely a tool, a reflector. We cannot contest the existence of a mirror. We can touch it, see it, and feel it. However, our reflection, although is visible, does reside in an “other” place. However, by looking into this otherness, we see ourselves in reality, in real space. In this passage, Foucault shifts his perception to the other side of the mirror, reenacting Alice’s adventure in "Through the Looking-glass". Alice journeys to the mirror’s other side and looks back at her living room and acknowledges its presence. Although I can’t travel to the other side of the mirror, I can look at myself through my reflection because my reflections eyes will be looking at where I am looking at. Therefore, in this infinite tunnel vision of a gaze, I can confirm my existence. This reconstitution of reality out of unreality is repeated yet again and is very fitting with the metaphor of the mirror. Reflectrepeat. Reflectrepeat. Reflectrepeat!? Reflectrepeat?

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