Keep your virtual hands off me! Paranoia, affect and influencing machines

We have become so accustomed to the human-computer interface that its strangeness has become numbed by habit. Media artists often provide the most forceful articulation of this habitude. Their work reminds us of the strange relations between embodiment and disembodiment, presence and telepresence. This essay examines Zoe Beloff's 2001 interactive video installation The Influencing Machine of Miss Natalija A in the context of these relations. The idea of media as a means of affect, of virtually reaching out and touching someone, is critiqued in this work. Beloff defamilarises our intimacy with our machines, offering a timely allegory of the impact of technology on our lives.