The Performance of Cyberspace: An Exploration Into Computer-Mediated Reality

This phenomenological enquiry into cyberspace examines the concept of space and metaphor, explaining ‘cyber’space as a figurative term and a figurative space, as something projected as a shared mental concept. Reception theory is used to theorize this figurative space as an ideational object constituted by a ‘text-reader’ relationship. The performance of ‘cyber’space is described as a self-reflexive ideation about meaning making itself, and examined as discursive, liminal, and transformative. Examination includes examples from e-mail, chat, and 3D conference systems.