Interpassivity

Interpassivity is a state of passivity in the presence of the potential of interactivity. The purpose of the concept is to "explain how works of art and media sometimes seem to provide for their own reception". The term was coined by Robert Pfaller and Slavoj Žižek, and combines the words "interactivity" and "passivity".

Pfaller, a professor of philosophy at the university of Linz elaborated the theory of interpassivity within the fields of cultural studies and psychoanalysis. Juha Suoranta and Tere Vadén, working on the basis of Pfaller's and Zizek's insights, stress interpassivity's potential of changing "into its negative when illusory interactivity produces passivity".