Virtual to 'Virtual' Autor: Garrett Lynch IRL

Virtual to 'Virtual' is a web browser extension available for Firefox and Google Chrome. On each webpage visited it places all instances of the word virtual within single inverted commas.

The title of Virtual to 'Virtual' makes reference to philosophical theory, in particular that of Giles Deleuze, which defines the virtual as immaterial and as such does not occupy a time or space yet is not abstract. Consequently, what is virtual can be understood to exist and is experientially a part of what is real. In language, however, the term virtual is frequently employed as antipodal to real. According to this interpretation virtual is immaterial or abstract while real is material or existing. Virtual to 'Virtual' is intended to stress how problematic the term virtual is in language according to philosophical theory. It does so through the use of single inverted commas, transforming virtual to 'virtual', and thereby proposes a correction to all instances on the web as a 'virtual' networked space.