Ok so at this point I really feel it’s time I did something constructive as so far I’ll hold my hands up and say I’ve been “cautiously passive” in my attitude to documenting my thoughts within this blog. (An alternative way of putting this would be to say I’ve been really lazy.) Now picking up on that word “passive” it seems wise to begin by jotting down my thoughts on the quote itself, what it could mean how I feel it relates to the technology we are looking at. (This is a very odd post to make because I’m not sure who I’m addressing it too, Steve or Anneke? Let’s go with Anneke as Steve already knows what I think as we discussed it and helped each other to form many of the opinions contained in the pages bellow this post.) Anyway less waffle more thoughts, ‘We are all robots when uncritically involved with our technologies.’ This can be very simply split into three different parts the “robots” part the “uncritically involved” part and the “technologies” part (now that all seems slightly obvious but go with on this one.) By choosing to describe us as robots Mr McLuhan is attaching our preconceived notions of what a robot is to his ponderings, that is to say in my mind he could just as easily used the word passive but then that doesn’t have quite the same dramatic overtones and god forbid we fail to inject a large dose of drama into everything we say Mr McLuhan (criticising him for being over elaborate in his style of writing feels a little like the pot calling the kettle black…) The point being I believe that’s what McLuhan is simply saying that we have a passive attitude towards technology and possibly life in general, the large majority of us being perfectly happy to sit back and watch things play out in front of us with little involvement on our parts other than to occasional complain when things don’t seem to be moving in beneficial tandem with our own experiences. Think of it all like being sat on a comfortable sofa watching television, your mouth slightly open, eyes glazed over casually tossing the remote around between your sweaty digits when ITV news suggests you text in to offer your opinions on the northern rock crisis. Or course being the financial expert you so clearly are moral obligation drives you to pick up the phone and venture forth with your sound piece of financial advice. Perhaps this is getting off track ever so slightly (does that matter when writing a blog?) the point is we act in a passive manner when dealing with technology, choosing to be lead rather than guide. “Uncritically involved” this is fairly self explanatory and doesn’t much levy its way beyond its own meaning, such as how a Buddhist monk may walk the white path between heaven and hell along the assassins road, choosing neither the light nor the dark but becoming a black void (perhaps an automobile would be a more succinct metaphor.) Silliness aside more can be extrapolated on this subject in essence contradicting what I just typed out. How can we be uncritically involved?
Friday, 11 April 2008
Answers?... we'll see Part 1
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Orison was a product of Controlled society.
The Orison was a product of Controlled society. This could be an explenation as to why it is a part of a network and why its functions seem so controled. ?
Mind Over Matter
Towards our presentation we are looking towards having the transition of technology visible as our medium of presentation, for instance Pictorial, advancing into writing, transforming into print, TV, CG etc, etc.
I think written book to printed to typed up on a monitor is an interesting way of doing it.
However I don’t want to mince our ideas by doing this. Im not sure if the theory that suggests that eastern/pictorial and western/typographic ways of thinking will be used and or contradicted by a presentation that uses this visual description.
Could we show some kind of battle or contrast?
In David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas the distinction is made between civilized and savage individuals. Also that wee all contain a mix off both, savagery and civilized nature, individually and as a whole society. This argument supports the Idea that we are mechanical, when unattached to technologies and when using them.
Here are some concise readings of the above statement?
*TV zombies, using their technologies in an uncritical manner.
*People who use them uncritically and as a result the technology has no significant impact on the course of their lives, e.g. they destroy themselves or rot away regardless of their interaction with the technology. They simply carry on with their robotic/beast like Impulse led lives.
*People who use the technology but never take it beyond a physical extension of their being. Simply allowing it to change them??
This one I am still a bit confused about.
The character in the middle character of Cloud Atlas describes the down fall of mankind.
Wonderful aspects of our technologies are described, medicines and boats with fusion/fission engines. She goes on to describe how we burned our skies and poisoned
our oceans. How we chose denial over facing difficult truths and decisions.
It describes our technologies leading to a hollow existence much like that of the savages, where we take what we want when we want it. This led to our downfall, we rose to a bright shining future, but then pissed it away as a result of our robotic/beast-like nature.
“The Diets that Time Forgot”
Last night on channel 4 I witnessed the opinions of the historian “Sir Roy Strong”
whose view reflected this sentiment. “We live in a time instant gratification where they want it now so they take it now, people no longer understand the concept of restraint”
He also had this to say on the C4 website, just thought I would add it.
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/D/diets-that-time-forgot/
"We live in the golden age of the slob. I don't believe in going back, but I do believe there are serious and practical lessons to be learned from the past that could help us conquer the obesity epidemic of today."
I think that this is an example of the idea that we have regressed as a result of our technologies. Reflecting the views found in Cloud Atlas regarding our fall from grace.
We could have used this as a starting point to research ancient history, possibly to see if the collapses or reforms of ancient cultures had anything to do with a the effects of technology upon us or our reaction to them.
Maybe we could use the technology of mass production as something that effects our eating habits. Looking at an uncritical approach where the individual destroys their life.
We could display this in the style of 1950s advertisements. This fits that era of American style mechanization.
What have I basically said?
I think this might be a mistake, here I think I am saying that our beastly and impulsive nature causes us to be uncritical when approaching our technologies, possibly because I am using the words of others. What I mean to say is that our reactions to some technologies are uncritical as a result we become robotic and get trapped in that impulsive cycle, this may spread outward, affecting our approach to all the technologies around us. That last bit is simply speculation on my part.
I wanted to expand onto the Idea that being critical with your technologies may result in a higher state of being, a greater degree of awareness of oneself. Almost comparable to the Sonmi’s awakening, those moments where you feel slow and out of practice. Where you don’t really know your place in the world.
Burke “the first right of every man in civilized society is to be protected against the consequences of his own stupidity.”
Monday, 7 April 2008
Simmelar quote from Sonmi, second chapter.
"Thats a dangerously simple crypto"
"Merticulous brains often overlook the simple"
Random quote from Half-Lives
"the dumbest dpg can sit and watch. What takes brains is knowing when to look awway. Am I making sense to you Richter?"
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
I dont know what this means
we can pushh somnie and her interrigator, who is passive, who is inmpassive, which fitts the mold???
Chriss and Dave
Monday, 31 March 2008
Carrying on with Craaasy McLuhan
This next bit relates back to my thoughts that our culture may be conciderd robotic If we dont force it to advance or allow change. Looking at what McLuhan has to say I might hav been a little off mark (acording to his oppinion) but those thoughts seem to be in the right direction.
"the computer which we have a habbit of calling a machine" page 18
We are wrong to do this, this seems to reflect our missunderstanding of ourselves.
"coordination of limb movement and body posture - the information issuing from them hardley ever reaches the higher centers of the brain, but gives rise to what the biologist calls reflex actions" page 19
This refers to our libs "reflex" being a mechanical action.
"Man is not only a robot in his private reflexes but in his civilized behavior and in all his responses to the extensions of his body, which we call technollogy" page 19
This fits my idears about our reactions within our culture being robotic.
McLuhan goes on to suggest that these things are a "manifestation of the evolutionary process"
Well hope that makes sense to ya.
Different ways of thinking.
AN example is a literrary, print based western culture in coparison with far eastern culture which is hiligh visualy driven, Iconographic, pictorial and sculptural. (so Mcluhan says anyways, however he calls current chinese Toeism a "disgustin appology of its former self" or something like that. What is important is that I understand the destinction that he made.
A point that he mad of this, as people who think in a less litterate way and more of a sensory level of thought were those like Chaplin, who performed his scenes in revers down to his speach. Also I bellieve Thomas Eddison, who prefferd to read in brail, found it more tactile than reading fonts.
"Sensory Life"
This was hilighted in Understanding the media, he described people who are highly literate as often having slow controled patterns of speach, he contrasted this with sprch of people who biepassed this, In the case of a radio DJ who talked in a fast poaced. ungramaticall way.
Back to Bussiness
"Perception is guided by need" page 12
Funny Quote
Senator Thomas Dodd page 13
not quite sure why it is relevent to mcluhans book, jus thought it was funny.
We are all......
Still havent quite gotten to the point that I understand what he is saying, allmost their tho I think.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Ramblings and Oxidentalisum, a prolog
Another Quote....
"Were the diver to think on the jaws of the shark he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."
Sa'di Gulistan
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it."
Henry Ford
"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward"
Thomas Edisson
"Draw the verbs of the figure, Draw what the body is doing not just the body"
Michael D. Mattesie "Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators"
Criticisms
Just a quick brain spassem anyways.... thoughts?
Revelation? Are we beasts.
By beast I mean the same as with robot, that we simply follow our impulse to eat sleep and fuck.
Is that all we are with out Technology/Culture?
Quote
‘We are all robots when uncritically involved with our technologies.’
McLuhan quotes from "Understanding the Media"
”For the “message” of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding the Media, page 8 Line 19 – 20"
”For any medium has the power to impose its assumptions on the unwary” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding the Media page 16 line 12” I think this one is probarbly realy important?
”the never explained numbness that each extension brings about in each individual and society” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding the Media, page 6 lines 19 – 21”
”this is the age of anxiety for the reason of the electric implosion that compels commitment and participation, quite regardless of any “viewpoint” line 18 page 5
“today the action and the reaction occur almost at the same time.” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding the Media, Page 4 line 22”
My Idears so far.
For this our pressentation could actualy be a piece of fiction (maybee we could annimate it).
Ok, a sermon or confession boothe, maybee one of us could give a conffession to the other.
For some strange reason I liked the idear of an opperating table something where we could be pulling out representations of our idears from a body on a table? This would be a way of getting annika and spece involved, I think some kind of interaction might be interesting and more engaging (doing this digitaly would be fun but with our limited time remaning may now be impossible).
Finaly some literal representation of the orisons, wether in 3D building a warehouse of orrisons and impossing peoples faces over them in after fx or something or ac tualy building a real life fisical representation of them.
Anyways theirs some quick bullshit as a reecap.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
More McLuhan Bolox
Acording to these guys their are 3 Stages of perceptual development. The way that people adjust to the preciding environment. I think thats what they say anyways, do they mean that we are allways one step behind?
Anyways the steps are:
#1 Globality, where the world is more or less a blur to the individual.
#2 Differentation When figures emerge from the background.
#3 Integration when perceptual(need to check that this is right) patterns are formed.
Motivation ocours first this affects our perception. Perception is guided by need.
Presentation
War and Peace in the Global Village
He describes New Technologies as "Self amputations of our own being" he used this point in his book "understanding the Media" to, it illustrated the same point that
"all social changes are the effect of new tecnologies" thes were found on page 4 lines 13-15.
In addition I found this interesting;
"The West shall shake the East awake....
while ye have the night for morn...." (I still dont realy understand WTF this is on about)
James Joyce (finnigans Wake) page 4 line 5-6 in war and peace.....
The quote describes a inevitable meeting of east and west, to my understanding the "Awake" seems to mean that for example by looking back at our past we persistently meet them with increased "wakefullness" or understanding/critique. I thini that is one possibnle reading that McLuhan tried to describe.
He eventualy goes on to talk about the work of Bosh and his reaction to the introduction of Print in the C16th. The focus being on changes in the sensory mode, Heironymus Bosh produced paintings that expressed pain and confusion, this was his reaction to the feeling at the time as people struggled to cope and addapt to the introduction of print and the confusion it caused.
I like the description of how jarring we can sometimes find new technologies, as confusing/painfull/shocking or disturbing. Maybee we could force all of these ellements into our presentation? Just a thought.
Next point: "Today with Tellevision as a much more powerfull medium, pain has created musicall genres from Rock to Beatle that are exceedingly unpleasent to sensibillities earlier orientes to less demmanding technological environments."
"Hieronumus Bosh painted the new confusion of spaces"-"His Horror pictures are a faithfull artisitc recreation of the pain and missery that resulted from the new tecnology"
note: if it is printed then surely it must be true?
"Today the blues sound like carressing nursary lullabies" I just liked this quote as a point of contrast thats all.
Otto Lowenstein (bioligist) "The Senses" "penguin Books"
"wonder wether one can ever see something which one has had no previous knowledge"
I liked this quote to and feel it is probarbly a lot more relevent.
Example: Blinde people and a Biologist. "believing is seeing" as I will now explain.
*Blinde people having sight restored to them "Shrink at first from the wealth of aditional stimulation, longing at times for he relative seclusion of their former worlds." page 10
I wonder, does this bare any comparison to Somni? does she react in this way, i think it might be the opposite, she revvels in it, but what was her initial reaction? she was fearfull and resserved I think with her awakening, altho it never specifies exactly when that was? The experiment that awoke her, is that her technology?
"one of the most striking facts is that it takes a lot of time and effort before they recognise the objects around them as sepperate items-"at first sight" the world looks like a flat extension of meaningless patches of light. page 10
however
"one by one objects grow out of this chaotic world, and remain unmistakibly seperate once they have been Identified"
Biology, when looking through a microscope "the shapes defie description, untill the demonstrator has drawn on paper one or the other specific objects to be searched for" when looking in a microscope"
This is how we feel when deeling with adjusting to the unique sensory environment of new technology"
Monday, 3 March 2008
Soap
This may be reflected in cloud atlas. I like this quote from cloud atlass.
"Soap deadens curiosity; we prefer not to wonder."
and her itteration, "When you were three or four "Archivist, your father vanishd daily to a realm called 'work', did he not? He stayed at work untill curfew, but you didnt worry yourself over the dimensions, location or nature of that realm because your concerns lay exclusively in the foreground."
I think it is interesting, I wonder if their is any creative way for uss to demonstrate this view?
Hopefully one that is fun.
Hey this is wikipedias interpretation of the word Orison. I find that its description of it being a way to comunicate with a spirit most interesting, as it is a recording of the dead. Is it simply a recording or dose it record their attitudes personalities?
Anyhow, I also find the description of it as "Hope" quite interesting.
Marshall McLuhan
Well I dont know if you have read any of his stuff but heres a quick synopsis of what I think "Understanding the Media" is about.
McLuhan wrote about how any given Media or technologys affect uppon our habbits and our lifestyles, is theat medium/ technologies message to uss.
This fits into the category of the electric light changing our living habbits by providing perpetual day. Or the way mobile phones or the internett changed our communications abbilities, and how that has sped upp bussiness etc.
Some random Idears.
I am also curious about the way Anika refferd to the Orison as a charecter? Was she mistaken, actualy reffering to Somni instead? This I want to find out, I wonder if we should look at the orisson strictly as the tecnology, which makes more sense to me now I have now written it down. Or to look at the nature of its recording and the Somnis recording on the device.
Hey found this deffenition of what the Orison is " a reverent petition to a deity".
I found it here http://www.thefreedictionary.com/orison. So a prayer later basically.
So maybee we could base the presentation around a weird techno sermon.
I also had a quick mental image of how the orison could be dissplayed in 3D.
I see it like the corridors in the Harry Potter book where the Prophicies are stored, guess their the same thing realy. Anyways it would bee cvool to have a camera panning across the units in which the orisons are stored (im not sure if this will reflect the nature of our conclussion) I think we may have to tweak that as we go.
I like the idear of catching a glimpse of each recording as the cammera panns past untill it finaly settles on our orrison/s. I also like the idear off possibly having the Somnis orisson giving our presentation, but that may be stupid as she is probably dead/ reorientated. It also may not fit in with our Idears.
Lets actualy Start something.
First I want to put up a few points from the brief, just so I have a remider in one place. Well Hear is the brief:
"Examine a given communication technology in relation to a pre-selected quotation."
and our quote
‘We are all robots when uncritically involved with our technologies.’
Marshall McLuhan, War and Peace in the Global Village-
However I think that this point from the brief is perticularly important!
"Create a short presentation where the emphasis is on your conclusions."
Oh, im sure that we are both fully awair by now that the technology linked to the quote is "THE ORISON"
I appologise for being so boring and for stating the blindingly obvious. xx
