Volume 1, Number 1
<1> Stone's approach is dialectical, allowing movement between various identities and understandings of self at different time periods as well as within the same moment. Stone also attacks the singularity and stability of the concept of self in performative contexts. The implications of Stone's perspective should be examined for dramatic theory. She remarks that one "could have the self as audience" as well as others, and that when a "performance is happening, it is unclear what the audience is" (Interview 6/24/94). Herbert Blau similarly interrogates and deconstructs the notion of audience (see Blau, The Audience 1-49). From the standpoint of dramatic theory, their work has significant parallels. Blau notes that while "the audience is not altogether an absence, it is by no means a reliable presence" (Blau 1). Stone might describe the self similarly, before proceeding to question the ontological basis and semantic coherence of the term "self," as Blau questions the ultimate ontological and semantic status of the "audience." Moreover, Stone defines interface in a similar manner as not being fixed in a particular place. She says interfaces have no what or where--they have no location; rather, interfaces are "metaphors" that "stand in for absent structures" (Stone, Unedited Mondo 2000 Interview).
<2> Stone also says that "cyberspace opens up the possibility of a non-positional subjectivity" (Interview 6/24/94). In contrast to this new type of subjectivity, she says that in Western culture historically, the sense of being a person comes from interaction based on difference from other people or things and that the sense of self is rooted in this. Yet now, Stone contends that cyberspace offers the possibility of "finding a new language for subjectivity that isn't based on difference" (Interview 6/24/94). She describes cyberspace or virtual reality as a medium in which specific positionality becomes an option rather than a necessity. Stone adds that a "theory of non-locality" would ask: what is it that defines your subjectivity if you have no location? (Interview 6/24/94).