Françoise Vergès, 'Economics, Postcolonialism and new Technologies'
In: Annotations 3: Frequencies: Investigations into culture, history and technology. Edited by Melanie Keen. London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1998, pp. 14-17.
The desire to communicate does not produce communication. Understanding a vocabulary does not produce communication. Even if I understand you, or you understand me, there will always be something which would remain misunderstood - though an impossibility of dialogue is not necessarily produced by misunderstanding. There is a fantasy of a universal language that will make everyone understand each other; a fantasy of transparency. Adopting a language which makes communication possible is fine. In everything, there is a dimension of bondage and a dimension of emancipation. We are moving in a field that, while remaining stable, is simultaneously changing and liberating us.