Aesthetics as incentive: Privacy in a presence culture

Abstract

With information technology penetrating every aspect of human life privacy is “literally” present in industrialized societies. Nonetheless, even in academic circles privacy remains a contested concept and its meaning is far from consensual among consumers, customers, citizens, patients, and institutions. This essay departs from a fusion of presence and linguistic expression and argues that the many failed attempts to draw a clear boundary around the concept of privacy (secrecy, information control, access restrictions, etc.) are missing out on language being a medium that overcomes the separation between humans and things (physical and informational). In a presence culture where language is a mediator, quantum concepts like indeterminacy, context, and inseparability are not simply metaphorical. Rather, they reconcile humans with the world of things in which privacy turns from an abstract concept to a tangible presence.