ABSTRACT
Disavowing a dualism of men (episteme) and machines (techne), which implies a relation of domination, the chapter through a reading of The Matrix (1999, dir. L. and L. Wachowski) exposes such a binary framework as incapable of thinking and living the creative potential of the virtual. Focusing on the question of images, I explore the process of virtualization of male subjectivity as a way to escape the patriarchal regime of specular representation and its cultural ramifications. The overcoming of the dualistic divide between reality and virtuality enables radical rethinking of machines and their role in creating the social imaginary. The immanent techno-logic accounts for machinic reality of the artifice and its potency to reconfigure our subjective existence.
