#techno-pagans

“Because iPhones are also totemic devices of mimesis, of representation and interaction with the image; because they are activated through touch, sensing, storage and transmission of the energy of human contact; because they are inter-faced in multiple converging spaces of emergence; and because the digital images that unfold onscreen are materially linked to their origins, they can be considered potentially magical devices. It may be a stretch to say that the iPhone is hardwired for hitching likeness to substance; yet it is noteworthy that at the time of writing, there are at least a dozen "voodoo apps" available for the device. But my intention herein has not been to suggest that iPhones are devices designed for ritual magic; it is rather to postulate that if ritual magic is indeed possible, it is no less possible through the iPhone than via any analogue medium: quantum indexicality enfolded within code, and unfolded upon a conductive, tactile screen, preserves structural links between images and their physical referents in space and time. What is more, the secular brand community cultivated by Apple's marketing rhetoric imbues its products with magico-religious gravitas, and signals to their users the potential for transcendent, and most importantly, networked, nonlocal and possibly noncausal experiences.”