Week 12 - Technological Perversion and OS-tans

The Anime Machine by Thomas Lamarre, pg 242-321

In the chapter titled, "Perversion", Lamarre describes the psychoanalysis of human relationships with technology.To Zizek, the way technology is sometimes portrayed in animes can be considered a form of perversion: a fetish. The example used in this chapter is persocoms from Chobits, where technological robot assistants are portrayed as humans and, subsequently, viewed as objects of sex. Lamarre explains this through Lacanian psychoanalysis, pointing out that it is human nature to project the image of themselves to unconnected objects as a method of self-fulfillment; "a person will latch onto various little objects,,. that promise to make him or her feel whole."

One form of closely relation techological perversion not mentioned in "The Anime Machine" is that of the personification of computer software, a phenomena/meme referred to as "OS-tans" (see http://ostan-collections.net/wiki/Introduction for more info). OS-tans are the personifications of computer operating systems as female girls with body attributes, clothing colour schemes, and ornamental accessories related to the OS that they are representing. For example, XP-tan is the personification of the Windows XP operating system and features a blue-white colour scheme (the Windows XP window bar colours), a hair clip with the letters "XP" spelt out, and overly large chest (a reference to the OS's high memory consumption). The creation of these OS-tans is a strong example of a fetish born from the reliance of their associated software in their creator's sense of whole. Frequently used software, such as web browsers Firefox and Chrome, and email client Thunderbird, all have OS-tan style personifications, as do popular game consoles such as PS3, XBOX, and Wii. This directly parallel's Lamarre's explanation of technological fetish. Lamarre describes the humanized image of persocoms in Chobits as a "prime example of how technological devices reflect a desire to remain in the realm of cuddly domestic intimacy rather than go out into the world." Likewise, for OS-tans, the personification of computer software (or gaming hardware) reflect the user's desire to remain in the comfort of the environment offered by the respective technology (the WWW for computers and video game worlds for gaming consoles).