Pleasure
In a world of mounting environmental and social crises, for the Biennial of Digital Imaginaries 2024, we’re like to reflect on the place of pleasure in our daily lives: how can we imagine new sources of joy despite today’s challenges?
Michael Foessel distinguishes between two forms of pleasure: those that can be called “satisfaction-pleasures”, which correspond to the fulfillment of a prior desire. These are the most numerous and the most habitual, and relate to the things that make up our daily lives, such as food, culture, sex and so on. Then there are the “event-pleasures”, which are not preceded by a desire, since nothing made them foreseeable. These pleasures introduce a new imagination into reality. That’s what makes them subversive in essence: before experiencing them, we didn’t necessarily think they were possible, and then we have the real experience of the impossible becoming possible.
It’s an extra pleasure that exceeds expectations or deviates from the starting point, a moment when we experience a different world order.
In today’s emergency, the definition of pleasure and its immediate satisfaction, far from being trivial, can and must be questioned. Our desires, like our practices, reveal our contradictions, yet rethinking the question of pleasure enables us to imagine tomorrow’s desirable worlds.
Indeed, the question of pleasure is closely linked to that of ethics, since our choices in terms of afflictions have implications for our individual and collective well-being.
In “Ce qui ne peut être volé”, Cynthia Fleury and Antoine Fenoglio present the “ Verstohlen Charter ”, the German term for stealth. The philosopher and designer call for the preservation of what makes the “good life” good, whether we call it common good, vital good, essential need, capacity, capability, universal or inappropriable. In her view, safeguarding these spaces is tantamount to taking care of ourselves and others, and restores our capacity to act.
An eminently political notion historically posited by Michel Foucault, pleasure is often used as a means of political control, where social norms dictate which forms of pleasure are acceptable and which are not. Moreover, Foucault pointed out that pleasure and desire are often instrumentalized to justify oppressive practices, such as male domination or economic exploitation. Conversely, he also demonstrates how experiences of pleasure can be used as a means of resistance and subversion against oppressive social norms.
In the digital age, the question of pleasure becomes even more pressing, as it manifests itself through recommendation and personalization algorithms. These adapt pleasure experiences to individual tastes and preferences, but they can also serve to reinforce existing biases and prejudices.
Faced with the multitude of issues this raises, we want to approach this theme in a multidisciplinary and critical way. We want to explore the different facets of pleasure in the digital world, and put them in dialogue with the social, political and ethical issues of our time.
We propose several areas of development:
Pleasure as a possible future and happy ending What if the digital ceases to be the cause and becomes the tool that helps to bring about the consequence? Technological appropriation and plural cultural interpretations of the notions of the network and the virtual lead to the invention of other forms of narrative. From these imaginary worlds, which question the commonplaces of happiness, well-being and pleasure, emerge happier and more egalitarian possibilities for the future and for new generations.
Pleasure as experience Contrary to preconceived ideas of dematerialization and the coldness of screens, technology creates experiences that increasingly solicit our senses and emotions, and even manipulate or modify them. With digital technology, our devices have literally become extensions of ourselves: humanoids are used in the healthcare system, sex robots compensate for the lack of human relationships, and intelligent devices listen in on our conversations and respond to our needs. So what impact do these inventions have on the way we experience pleasure?
Pleasure as performance The injunction to Happiness and Well-Being is becoming more and more frequent, flooding digital platforms that urge us to put ourselves on stage, expose ourselves and compare ourselves to others. If Wellness is becoming productivist, how can we explore this performative dimension of pleasure while questioning the social and aesthetic norms that underpin it?
Pleasure as a strategy The digital industries use pleasure to capture our attention. Faced with this, how can we shed light on these manipulative strategies while imagining alternatives that promote individual autonomy and emancipation?
Pleasure as a subversive force, shaking up the established order If happiness is political, should we change our desires or the world order? Like Paul B Preciado, we can ask ourselves whether happiness lies in refusing the norm…
We shall examine this from different perspectives:
- Pleasure as an experience: Technology, contrary to the preconceived notion that humans interface with soulless, electronic screens, creates experiences that increasingly engage our senses and emotions, and even manipulate or alter them. With digital tech, our devices have literally become extensions of ourselves: humanoids are used in the healthcare system; sex robots compensate for a lack of human relationships, smart devices listen to our conversations and instantly satisfy our needs. So what are the impacts of these inventions on the way we understand pleasure?
- Pleasure as a performance: Happiness and well-being is something we are increasingly told we have the absolute right to, a fact flooding digital platforms that encourage us to show our lives to the world, expose ourselves and compare ourselves to others. If well-being becomes productivist, how can we explore this performative dimension of pleasure while questioning the social and aesthetic norms that underlie it?
- Pleasure as a strategy: Meaning the strategy of digital industries that use pleasure to capture our attention. Faced with this, how can we call out these strategies of manipulation while imagining alternatives that promote personal autonomy and emancipation?
- Pleasure as a subversive force by shifting the established order: If happiness is political, should we change our desires or the world order? Like writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado says, we may ask ourselves if the key to happiness is refusing the norm.
- Pleasure as a possible future and happy ending: What if digital technology ceases to be the cause and becomes the tool that can bring about the consequence? Technological appropriation and multiple cultural interpretations of the notions of networks and the virtual can lead to the invention of other forms of narrative. From these ideas and possibilities that question the common places for happiness, well-being and pleasure emerge happier and egalitarian possibilities for the future and new generations.