In the context of the home, the connected room of one’s own would speak to us about protection and a greater bodily fixedness, i.e. the measurable response to the vulnerability imposed by an accelerated world. It would speak about the possibility to protect the bodycentre of operations, far from the anguish of its fragmenting and death, where “one” still feels in charge of one’s being. However, in the connected room of one’s own the visibility and implication outside is viable and this possibility is absolutely transgressive. Science fiction, in this sense, has devoted huge amounts of imagination to recreating forms of connection and protection of the body, whilst something external –yet personal and linked – comes into play, representing us. Without a doubt, films such as Matrix and Avatar are the most obvious examples of these formulas. Where isolation does not become autism (this interpretation could be seen, however, in the film Surrogates), but forms of spacialisation which allow for the autonomy and optimisation of times and energies. Of course, at present (fiction and non fiction), these forms of “unfolding” which seek to safeguard the body still coexist with post-modern hypermobility, in a play of tensions compatible with globalised life. In fact, it is revealing to observe that “being home, outside” is now one of the co-narratives of this hypermobility. We find, however, an obstacle in this trend to one’s own room. This is because, inasmuch as capitalism and its heirs, post-crisis, (material) movement and speed, operate as a vertebrating axis of its system and guarantee of expenditure and consumption, this move toward the connected home does not seem to be a trend to which capitalism will yield without a fight. At least not until mobility and physical showcases lose momentum, and online economies grow. It seems, therefore, that the scenario of the connected home would point at new demands of political, and economic, imagination, the result of a capitalist system which oscillates between repeating itself and reimagining itself, but is not willing to give in, just like that. These demands initially seem to be opportunities to devise new economies and policies in a networked society. Without a doubt, the old “home” scenario, a pivot and reverse of mobility is preparing to become “something different” and demands, in that sense, a new definition, as well as a critical observation of its handicaps and potential, from each of its nodes. An exercise which allows us to delve into the possibilities of emancipation of networked individuals, but which also actively involves us in imagination –appropriation of the future from the most critical and utopian versions (which are still to be carried out) of our own connected rooms.
# Possibilities and Limitations of the Connected Room of One’s Own / Do It Yourself A room of one’s own forms part of a home, and as such, the home has been traditionally feminised and identified with women because of the social, cultural and economic activities which subjugated them to the care the family and the raising of children. The interpretations on the domestic world, private life and the emotional, political and economic histories which took place there have not traditionally held productive or prestigious value, beyond inspiring a range of cultural myths on women and strengthening their role in reproduction, rather that in the production of knowledge. Private spaces have been so for a long enough to cause speechlessness. As a differential space in the private space, a private room in a house offers a paradoxical relationship, rebelling against the lack of value assigned to the space as a whole. This is the thesis proposed by Virginia Woolf, who claimed that the structure and distribution of any living space is a conditioning factor which assigns certain people certain occupations and, therefore, different expectation and possibilities for being in life. The chance to appropriate private and intimate space for a redistribution of its use is clearly a meaningful political act; an action which rearranges the value and meaning socially given to these spaces. In this relational scheme, the room of one’s own demanded by Woolf, as a
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