Rethinking The Academy:

Not To Be Confused With "Transparent"

The concept of invisibility should not be conflated with the concept of transparency, though the two are related. Invisible technology is that which has become customary to its users, and sometimes even its providers. Transparency is the belief that technology is "a distortionless window, through which we can see essential acts of thinking. In this view, 'writing is writing is writing' (or 'reading is reading is reading'), unchanged and unaffected by the mode of production and presentation" (Hass and Neuwirth 321).

With invisible technology, there is the possibility of theorizing and conceptualizing any given technological innovation, though in fact such a move is not made by the great majority of the people who use such technologies as compact disc players, answering machines and automobiles.

With transparent technology, even the possibilities of such theorizing are closed off by definition.

How to Navigate This Essay Without Getting Lost

Back to the Table of Contents

Last Modified: August 2, 1996

Copyright © 1996 by Keith Dorwick