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The
web site, the television channel, the video game cartridge,
the digital video disc, and the movie theater megaplex
are entry ways into the current manifestation of Benjamin's
Parisian arcade which now resides on the Net and in
the open ended
but ever present realm of worldwide electronic media
(Hillis). The primary
differences between the Parisian arcade and the twenty-first
century worldwide electronic arcade is that, with a
few exceptions (the movie theater, for one), the physical
"spaces" that provide us entry into the electronic
arcade are rarely shared, rarely public and focused
mostly on the senses of sight and sound (the computer
screen, the living room television screen for example),
but the experiences that are publicly shared once we
enter the electronic arcade are much more diverse and
potentially more chaotic and powerful than those encountered
on a trip through a real Paris location in the early
1900s (Thorburn, Jenkins & Seawell).
Our modern electronic arcade
is continually open, continually expanding, and continually
revising itself. We
can travel though this arcade simply as viewers, remaining
somewhat invisible, leaving very little trace of ourselves
as we pass. Or we can linger, interact and become
part of the arcade's edifice (Browne
& Fishwick).
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