material power relations in a neo-conservative fashion (Kumar 1995). Ignoring
complex social and historical analysis, in popular culture technology appears to
acquire immanent agency. Information communication technology (ICT),
especially in its digital form, seems occult in its mystery, perfect for inspiring techno-
paganism (Davis 1998:183). The arrival of ICT seems like a divine deliverance from
outer space, changing industrialized societies accordingly from manufacturing-
industry to information-led economies. Yet the idea of the post-industrial era has
inspired artists and policy-makers alike, since it is attractive in its apparent
simplicity, making the hype a reality or, indeed, ‘hyperreality’ (Baudrillard 1987:
16). As a hegemonic myth, the post-industrial and its ‘information revolution’
identify a symbolic relationship between human and technology, especially between
man and machine, which in turn is worked out in the cultural and subjective
domain, such as in the dance rituals of rave-styled events.
Addressing spirituality in ‘the information age’, in Techgnosis, Davis proposes that
the spirit could be regarded as ‘a blast of the absolute’ (1998:6), pure information,
subjectively comparable to digital data which, magically seems to exist independent
of matter. By contrast, Davis suggests, the soul is analogue, tied to the emotions and
desires of the body as well as to mythologies. This separation of apparently non-
physical entities offers an attractive construct in the context of a historical moment
when analogue communication media are replaced by digital media. For example, in
electronic music, as digital technologies were introduced into the production
process, analogue technologies gained by contrast an aura of authenticity (Goodwin
1990), feeling ‘warmer’, fuller, more organic—in short, possessing a more soulful
texture and sound. Davis’s distinction between spirit and soul demonstrates a
particular reworking of the problematic mind/body split of the European
Enlightenment, removing the body one more step towards a post-human
subjectivity; the digitized ghost now seems to operate in an analogue machine. This
construct shows a shift of the spiritual into a domain of what Yurick calls
‘electromagic’ voodoo (1985:24). The organic human brain is capable of operating
in a complex ever-changing environment, yet the domain of the digital is invisible to
the human eye, while its speed of processing information makes it impossible for the
human mind to keep up with certain calculations. Only an interface can humanize
such alienating digital processes.
It is important to recognize that the split between body and spirit is only an idea,
one that makes little sense. Spirituality is an embodied experience, depending on the
discursive context of the body which depends on historical and material
developments. The literary theorist Eagleton stated succinctly: ‘Aesthetics is born as
a discourse of the body’ (1990:13). Digital data have a human and social source—
they are programmed. In addition, a spirit/matter duality does not quite explain
how the embodied act of dancing to a musical aesthetic could indeed produce a
spiritual experience. The aesthetic can be regarded as a type of empathy or
subjective melting between self and other (Todorov 1984:98). This could be
comparable to orgasm, as well as to the peak-experience when dancing to a
repetitive beat for a length of time at techno- and house-related dance parties, or to
48 SACRIFICIAL CYBORG AND COMMUNAL SOUL