Currently reading and researching the topic of digital culture and its influence on behaviour/our psyche as part of my FOCI dissertation. 

 For my work in the studio, I see parallels in terms of what is seen as a positive reworking and re-imaging of identity, particularly in postfeminist discourse that can be counter-balanced by the distortion of an authentic self and essentially, escapism into an inhuman age. Lanier is fascinating in that he really pinpoints the problems with using technology to think, in that, we no longer have to. He focusses on trying to rebalance the way we interact with technology, but barely touches on the implications of this interaction - are we using online spaces and the Web 2.0 in order to perform ideal selves and overcome the fear and isolation of our bodily existence?

This is not a new theory, I doubt.  In 1911, Russian scientist Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky-Kaluga predicted,  

"Mankind will not remain bound to the earth forever."

I worry about this a lot. in a recent crit, a student commented (in response to a video piece I made in which a girl pulls leaves and plant life from her mouth repeatedly) "It could be anything coming from her mouth but it would still be disturbing" but I fully disagreed. We are not plant matter. The symbolic ties that plants have (life force, nurture etc.), we do not co-exist with.

 I think that is one of the main reasons I am so preoccupied with natural, pastoral imagery, maybe I'm nostalgic or desiring a different era but this type of imagery is vital for my practise.