What is "interpassivity"

n. A state of passivity, particularly cognitive or emotional passivity, enabled or facilitated by the appearance or potential of interactivity

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

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".