A lover of Dr. Strangelove anyone???
First off, I would just like to say that I really dig the Shaviro readings. I am happy that I spent more than an hour’s wage on the book.
There were two ideas that Sharivo discusses that I found to be particularly interesting. The first was that of the idea of technology being able to re-contextualize our sense of embodiment and emotional response. The piece about Warhol’s experience with love spoke well to the idea that with technology comes a certain amount of awareness about the world around us that man arguably did not have prior or has been missing for a while.
Just the very idea that through the interaction with TV, the concept of love meant something different to Warhol is testimate to the idea that technology is not leading to a disembodied man, but possibly a man who is able to connect to himself differently through the aid of a tool that McLuhan and others have discussed being an “extension” or “prosthesis.” Through being able to see the patterns being fed to him about how he is programmed by society to feel about love and other abstract (but highly ruling emotions in) his life, he was able to see the patterns being fed to him and break away/become numb to their influence.
Letting our experiences with all the potentials of technology bring us out of the “flow” of how we have learned to feel, listen and react ties partially into my first blog, when I talked about society being a machine, in which we are given specific scripts, in order to make sure that we can perform specific task and perpetuate the existing operations of things. It is interesting to think of using technology and over-exposure to take us out of our understanding of our selves and use technology to show us how mechanical we have begun.
In fact, the more of Shaviro I was reading, the more I began to wonder if the concerns being discussed about the effects of technology come out of some sort of misunderstood mirror, where we are seeing where we were, instead of where we are going.
Looking at some of the readings that we have gone over in the past few weeks has really shown that we have been using technology to establish and obtain individual wants, needs and desires in ways that we have not been able to before. In a growing way, it both reinforces and breaks up the sense of dependence that exist within societies and gives people not only the potential to think about pushing boundaries (whether physical or psychological) in a way that was not previously thought possible, but also increasingly putting the means to carry out these potentials in increasingly accessible ways.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Day in the life 3
Day 3
Today, I finally met other avatars…from my class.
My initial thought, after seeing everyone, was that my avatar was lacking originality in appearance. I saw tails, blue and purple skin, a crazy assortment of outrageous garments, including a low-rise thong with pubs hanging out of the front.
I take a right-click moment and start messing around with my appearance. I don’ t know how to do any of the fancy stuff with tails and crazy skin tones. In fact, I find it challenging enough to even fix my p.o.v. Or maneuver my avatar correctly.
In the end, I go for crossing the gender of my avatar’s body type. Because body build selections are based off of male female, I took my female foundation and beefed it up with a more muscular male build, while still keeping my red lipstick and pigtails.
Moving beyond my obvious issues with my SL identity and back to meeting in class on SL, I have to say that I was completely uncomfortable. There is this awkward sense of both knowing and not knowing my SL classmates. I knew that in RL, we have a class together and I had seen everyone. However, since we are keeping our true identities secret, there is this confusing feeling of conformability and cautiousness.
When I think about it, though, I guess that is how I feel about all the avatars I have come in contact with, after the class meeting. There is this mixed sense of release from the anonymity of speaking to people one does not already know, but at the same time, there is a slight discomfort in existing in a space meant for anonymous and vast social networking and feeling a responsibility to be less restricted in social behavior. If a stranger ask you to be teleported with them to their private beach house for a drink, why not? But on the same hand, there is something of me that exist in my avatar and for that reason I want to protect it.
I have been attending school in NYC for a little over a year and the first someone has ever tried to pick me up in the village, it was in second life.
A couple of days ago, I was still in the business of trying to teleport myself to a place where I thought I could fine more than just the one or two stragglers, walking the same deserted streets of New York Island and a few other places. Desperate and tired, I eventually found myself in a gay male bathhouse and eventually the back ally of some business in the East Village.
The next thing I know, some guy is circling me and asking me if I am as sexy in RL as I am in SL. Both amused and a little disturbed by his question, we start talking, only for him to suggest that we find a room. I tell him that I am queer in both RL and SL and he responds by contacting his lesbian SL friend, whose home we all eventually land at…you’ll have to ask me how the rest of that story goes, as it is too long and weird to get into, but it very much turned into a scene out of some old porn film.
I wonder what it is about second life that makes people so sexually aggressive. I understand the idea behind cyber sex, but that usually involves some sort of interaction btw. two people, whether it be through typing or photos/videos….In SL, there are actually preprogrammed functions for sex. There are buttons to get in various positions and to form various acts, taking out much of the work of the avatar operator in terms of interaction.
What puzzles me even more is that there are entire clubs dedicated to sex and sex acts. However, I rarely see people so much as chat, before anything starts off between SL characters.
I would definitely like to talk more to some people about what the appeal is.
Today, I finally met other avatars…from my class.
My initial thought, after seeing everyone, was that my avatar was lacking originality in appearance. I saw tails, blue and purple skin, a crazy assortment of outrageous garments, including a low-rise thong with pubs hanging out of the front.
I take a right-click moment and start messing around with my appearance. I don’ t know how to do any of the fancy stuff with tails and crazy skin tones. In fact, I find it challenging enough to even fix my p.o.v. Or maneuver my avatar correctly.
In the end, I go for crossing the gender of my avatar’s body type. Because body build selections are based off of male female, I took my female foundation and beefed it up with a more muscular male build, while still keeping my red lipstick and pigtails.
Moving beyond my obvious issues with my SL identity and back to meeting in class on SL, I have to say that I was completely uncomfortable. There is this awkward sense of both knowing and not knowing my SL classmates. I knew that in RL, we have a class together and I had seen everyone. However, since we are keeping our true identities secret, there is this confusing feeling of conformability and cautiousness.
When I think about it, though, I guess that is how I feel about all the avatars I have come in contact with, after the class meeting. There is this mixed sense of release from the anonymity of speaking to people one does not already know, but at the same time, there is a slight discomfort in existing in a space meant for anonymous and vast social networking and feeling a responsibility to be less restricted in social behavior. If a stranger ask you to be teleported with them to their private beach house for a drink, why not? But on the same hand, there is something of me that exist in my avatar and for that reason I want to protect it.
I have been attending school in NYC for a little over a year and the first someone has ever tried to pick me up in the village, it was in second life.
A couple of days ago, I was still in the business of trying to teleport myself to a place where I thought I could fine more than just the one or two stragglers, walking the same deserted streets of New York Island and a few other places. Desperate and tired, I eventually found myself in a gay male bathhouse and eventually the back ally of some business in the East Village.
The next thing I know, some guy is circling me and asking me if I am as sexy in RL as I am in SL. Both amused and a little disturbed by his question, we start talking, only for him to suggest that we find a room. I tell him that I am queer in both RL and SL and he responds by contacting his lesbian SL friend, whose home we all eventually land at…you’ll have to ask me how the rest of that story goes, as it is too long and weird to get into, but it very much turned into a scene out of some old porn film.
I wonder what it is about second life that makes people so sexually aggressive. I understand the idea behind cyber sex, but that usually involves some sort of interaction btw. two people, whether it be through typing or photos/videos….In SL, there are actually preprogrammed functions for sex. There are buttons to get in various positions and to form various acts, taking out much of the work of the avatar operator in terms of interaction.
What puzzles me even more is that there are entire clubs dedicated to sex and sex acts. However, I rarely see people so much as chat, before anything starts off between SL characters.
I would definitely like to talk more to some people about what the appeal is.
day in the life 2
Day 2…sorta
Ok, so clearly one has to download Second Life onto the computer.
I'm in, like sin and clearly I am missing something. I spent a good hour just trying to figure out how to dress my avatar. I have heard stories of people going wild with their appearance and to be honest, I don't want to infuse my avatar with all my insecurities about appearance, but I have heard that an avatar can be seriously ostracized for not having the right look. Since, I don't know anyone else on Second Life, I am inclined to pick the most attractive make-up for my avatar.
Initially, I constructed a Black, slim-bodied avatar, big breast, shapely, but not too shapely. She has tight ad low-cut black top and tight white pants. I find that although my identity is (arguably) hidden in the virtual word, I still am very shy about the idea that my avatar will be judged. As soon as the being appeared, I was very aware that it was me. To an extent, and I feel very protective about it's appearance. However, I am also a bit torn about the anonymity of the virtual space.
Before I left the initial communal avatar dressing room, I decided that maybe it was worth being a little more adventurous. Under the cloak of anonymity I should push a little more. So, I lightened the skin-tone of my avatar and headed out into the wild frontier.
…first day of second life and I did not meet anyone. I did not even see people. I typed in names of big cities and categories like nightclubs, but everywhere I went, streets and dance floors were empty.
Ok, so clearly one has to download Second Life onto the computer.
I'm in, like sin and clearly I am missing something. I spent a good hour just trying to figure out how to dress my avatar. I have heard stories of people going wild with their appearance and to be honest, I don't want to infuse my avatar with all my insecurities about appearance, but I have heard that an avatar can be seriously ostracized for not having the right look. Since, I don't know anyone else on Second Life, I am inclined to pick the most attractive make-up for my avatar.
Initially, I constructed a Black, slim-bodied avatar, big breast, shapely, but not too shapely. She has tight ad low-cut black top and tight white pants. I find that although my identity is (arguably) hidden in the virtual word, I still am very shy about the idea that my avatar will be judged. As soon as the being appeared, I was very aware that it was me. To an extent, and I feel very protective about it's appearance. However, I am also a bit torn about the anonymity of the virtual space.
Before I left the initial communal avatar dressing room, I decided that maybe it was worth being a little more adventurous. Under the cloak of anonymity I should push a little more. So, I lightened the skin-tone of my avatar and headed out into the wild frontier.
…first day of second life and I did not meet anyone. I did not even see people. I typed in names of big cities and categories like nightclubs, but everywhere I went, streets and dance floors were empty.
day in the life 1
Day 1
I signed up for Second Life, but don't know how to get started. I have clicked on Wikipedia, which seems to be a great informational source for Second Life, but found nothing that was helpful. In fact, anytime I type anything about Second Life in an engine search, there seems to be a plethora of information…it makes the whole process seems even more overwhelming.
I have to stop and do something else. No Second Life, today.
I signed up for Second Life, but don't know how to get started. I have clicked on Wikipedia, which seems to be a great informational source for Second Life, but found nothing that was helpful. In fact, anytime I type anything about Second Life in an engine search, there seems to be a plethora of information…it makes the whole process seems even more overwhelming.
I have to stop and do something else. No Second Life, today.
Living the life.
Living the life.
Recently, I have been suffering from a technological breakdown.
I remember when I got my first email account. It was 2001 and at the time, I was not even fully clear on the concept what e-mail (which I do believe may have still have still been hyphenated) meant. I was not deprived teen and owned my own personal disc player and two-lbs. cell phone that was so wide, I couldn't even fit it in my back pocket.
In fact, the introduction of electronic mail came into my life via a request that my AP Literature teacher made for there to be an class email list. That way, we could all stay connected, during the six hours that we weren't actually all floating on the same campus.
Eventually, my involvement in the internet grew and over the next seven years, I would find myself with not only multiple email addresses (one for school, one for personal/friends, one for general/family and one that is old and I just don't want delete), but also, I was a member of four or five different social networking services, including: Facebook, Friendster, Myspace, Downelink, Aim and a few others, most of which I had elaborate and thoughtful personalized profiles, written and designed by myself.
By 2005, I had gotten to the point of acquiring a cell phone with email capabilities, because I needed to be connected when I was on the bus, sitting outside, in the classroom, etc.
By 2007, I had had enough. I felt overall too connected. I did not like being so highly accessible and I did not like that idea that people continually had access to me. I NEEDED SPACE. So, recently, I kicked many of my connections to social networks to the curb. Although, it took me a month to build up the nerve, I closed most of my accounts, only leaving my two main email addresses up and still running.
I wanted to get back to communicating to people face-to-face. I missed sitting down and talking to my friends and having them not know everything, because they have been tracking my updates on Facebook and Friendster.
When I learned that I would be entering the world of Second Life, I was a little hesitant. My virtual break-up is still new and fresh and ethnographic research or not, I was not sure if I want to plug back in. Just by hearing descriptions from my classmates, who all made to move to both sign up and explore, before I even could figure that I had to download Second Life onto my computer, I got the impression that it was a networking tool that would require constant attention and time spent living, exploring and forging new relationships with other SL Avatars…a challenge I am not sure I am up to.
Recently, I have been suffering from a technological breakdown.
I remember when I got my first email account. It was 2001 and at the time, I was not even fully clear on the concept what e-mail (which I do believe may have still have still been hyphenated) meant. I was not deprived teen and owned my own personal disc player and two-lbs. cell phone that was so wide, I couldn't even fit it in my back pocket.
In fact, the introduction of electronic mail came into my life via a request that my AP Literature teacher made for there to be an class email list. That way, we could all stay connected, during the six hours that we weren't actually all floating on the same campus.
Eventually, my involvement in the internet grew and over the next seven years, I would find myself with not only multiple email addresses (one for school, one for personal/friends, one for general/family and one that is old and I just don't want delete), but also, I was a member of four or five different social networking services, including: Facebook, Friendster, Myspace, Downelink, Aim and a few others, most of which I had elaborate and thoughtful personalized profiles, written and designed by myself.
By 2005, I had gotten to the point of acquiring a cell phone with email capabilities, because I needed to be connected when I was on the bus, sitting outside, in the classroom, etc.
By 2007, I had had enough. I felt overall too connected. I did not like being so highly accessible and I did not like that idea that people continually had access to me. I NEEDED SPACE. So, recently, I kicked many of my connections to social networks to the curb. Although, it took me a month to build up the nerve, I closed most of my accounts, only leaving my two main email addresses up and still running.
I wanted to get back to communicating to people face-to-face. I missed sitting down and talking to my friends and having them not know everything, because they have been tracking my updates on Facebook and Friendster.
When I learned that I would be entering the world of Second Life, I was a little hesitant. My virtual break-up is still new and fresh and ethnographic research or not, I was not sure if I want to plug back in. Just by hearing descriptions from my classmates, who all made to move to both sign up and explore, before I even could figure that I had to download Second Life onto my computer, I got the impression that it was a networking tool that would require constant attention and time spent living, exploring and forging new relationships with other SL Avatars…a challenge I am not sure I am up to.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Second Life. Real Life. We all scream for the Best Life!
"The relationship between carbon man and the silicon devices he is creating [is like] the relation between the caterpillar and the iridescent winged creature that the caterpillar unconsciously prepares to become."
What this week's reading did for me was really illustrate how natural technology is for man. In the Hayles "The Materiality of Informatics" piece, I found it telling that society operates in a highly mechanical fashion. In speaking specifically about the mention of Panopticon and Foucault's discussion of it, in relation to the concept of embodiment, society conditions the body in such a way that it simultaneously conditions the mind as well. This is a concept that theorist Robert Shusterman speaks about in an essay called, "Somaesthetics and the Body/Media Issue," in which he claims that, "as embodied creatures, we can act only through the body; hence our power of volition - the ability to act as we will to act - depends on somantic efficacy" (p.16).
The practice of society conditioning the body, in order to operate in a very specific fashion made the concerns mentioned earl in the Materiality reading about the body "disappearing" into technology both highly logical and illogical. When thinking about one of the readings from last week that discussed machines inability to be organic in operation, because they can only perform in terms of data and logic and also thinking about the concept of Panopticism, I see society and the societal individual as being mechanical and the individual being organic.
The societal "habitual memory sedimented in the body," that is discussed in the Materiality reading is wonderfully expressed in a breakdown of societal bodily discipline that I stumbled across when following up on the topic of Panopticism. The following is an excerpt from a Wikipedia entry on Foucault's ideas of Discipline and Punishment:
Discipline created a whole new form of individuality for bodies, which enabled them to perform their duty within the new forms of economic, political, and military organizations emerging in the modern age and continuing to today.
The individuality discipline constructs for the bodies it controls has four characteristics, namely it makes individuality which is:
· cellular - determining the spatial distribution of the bodies
· organic - ensuring that the activities required of the bodies are "natural" for them
· genetic - controlling the evolution over time of the activities of the bodies
· combinatory - allowing for the combination of the force of many bodies into a single massive force
This "single massive force" is the machinery of society. When Hayles speaks about gender as, "produced and maintained not only by gendered languages but also gendered bodies that serve to discipline and incorporate bodies into the complex significations and performances that constitute gender with a specific culture," these acts are essentially the data or gears moving things along in a very controlled and (limitedly) logical manner.
In understanding culture to be a well-maintained machine, I do not find the growing visibility of technology as a sign of the swallowing of humanity. The ways in which it is being used to organize people is very much so along the lines of the ways in which humanity has been already been organized through bodily and embodied conditioning.
It has been committed on in both one of the readings and one of the online sources that I came across that technology is serving like a modern day Panopticon, in that there is a prevailing sense of surveillance that comes along with technology, whether it be having your internet sites and chats monitored or mapping tools that offer surveillance of many public spaces. Also, taking a step back from Panopticism, there is also the flood of fitness, fertility and dating ads that further contribute to societal conditioning.
However, what technology offers and what is highly apparent in Rheingold readings like "Smart Mobs" or "Wireless Quilts" is that technology is becoming accessible enough that there is increasingly a more varied sense of norms being presented. Although not the most subtle example, the variation in online porn sites is really interesting in looking at widening the concept of normalcy. There is just about EVERY fetish out there that one could ever dream of and if it is not there, throw it into the pot by coming up with your own site, blog, or maybe peer-to-peer run communal site.
The reason I wanted to bring up porn is that in having read a little bit of work by Georges Bataille and Robert Shusterman, they stress that what are typically seen as taboo sexual desires harbored by people, are one of the few places where people maintain (even if they suppress it) a sense of the inner self that has not fully been renegotiated by society. Both Bataille and Shusterman read the body as a site of battle between society and self. Being able to express self, at the expense of the comfort of society, allows for one to begin the process of reclaiming one's own connection with trusting their own sense of embodied experience.
If this seems to far out, think simply of the example of the female orgasm mentioned in the reading. Because it was scientifically and psychologically analyzed and determined as being one very specific experience, many women began not to trust their own embodied experience. When trust in one's own experience is gone, then the self can easily be dictated by outside forces, such as society, whether it be to that being's benefit or detriment.
At the risk of sounding like a complete anarchist, I have to say that I completely understand the need for the societal machine, but I also see the need for a wider sense of the essence of humanity, which is something that I think can be achieved through the accessibility of technology.
However, as was brought up in the Rheingold piece "Wireless Quilts," I wonder if new technologies will be organized into the already dominant societal machine, before it has a chance to really change things around. As most know, there are already countries where access to specific sites are restricted and social network sites like YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK are continually adding new features that expand structured activities, while also limiting the free range of activities that was once available.
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