Rape or “rape”? Virtual violence and the somatechnical body
Pietro Conte
research: Seminar
Rape or “rape”? Virtual violence and the somatechnical body
Pietro Conte
Although incidents of online sexual assault are becoming increasingly common, the concept of virtual rape still needs critical examination. Contrary to conventional wisdom, in this presentation I first argue that virtual rape should not be seen as a metaphorical term, let alone an oxymoron. Focusing on the embodied conditions that define presence in immersive environments, I then draw a phenomenologically inspired distinction between physical and bodily to challenge the idea that virtual rape is nothing more than psychological violence. Lastly, I introduce the notion of somatechnical body to clarify the specific nature of virtual rape.
Biography
Pietro Conte
Pietro Conte is Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the Department of Philosophy of the State University of Milan. After receiving his PhD from the University of Siena, he spent two years on a postdoc scholarship at the University of Basel (2007-2009). From 2011 to 2015, he worked as a Research Fellow at the State University of Milan. He was then awarded a Starting Grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the scientific programme “Investigador FCT”, thanks to which he was appointed Junior Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon (2015-2018). In 2018 he got a tenure-track at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he became an Associate Professor in 2021. His scholarly work revolves around illusion, hyperrealism, immersion, and the multifarious practices of un-framing, a thematic cluster that he has addressed from a phenomenological perspective in the monographs Unframing Aesthetics (2020) and In carne e cera. Estetica e fenomenologia dell’iperrealismo (Flesh and Wax: Aesthetics and Phenomenology of Hyperrealism, 2015).
research: seminar
Rape or “rape”? Virtual violence and the somatechnical body
Pietro Conte
Although incidents of online sexual assault are becoming increasingly common, the concept of virtual rape still needs critical examination. Contrary to conventional wisdom, in this presentation I first argue that virtual rape should not be seen as a metaphorical term, let alone an oxymoron. Focusing on the embodied conditions that define presence in immersive environments, I then draw a phenomenologically inspired distinction between physical and bodily to challenge the idea that virtual rape is nothing more than psychological violence. Lastly, I introduce the notion of somatechnical body to clarify the specific nature of virtual rape.