Chapter 35

1985
Donna Haraway

• created the idea of a cyborg "socialist-feminist" as opposed to the image of the goddess, "the cyborg engages in the here and now"
• Haraway enjoys that the cyborg is not working towards regaining an imagined purity, but can embrace the boundaries of dualism
• her work had a large impact on "progressive scholarship in science and technology"
• "I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess"

It's an interesting idea to use the image of a cyborg for a new form of feminism. I would have to agree that I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess, but I'm not sure I understand her complete perspective as it relates to feminism. I sort of see her ideas as pertaining to both genders, and I enjoy how she has embraced the dualism. If we can understand black and white but live in the gray I think we can be much more effective in working with society.

Chapter 34

1984
Sherry Turkle

• video games become hugely popular in the 1980's
• wrote The Second Self, which explained how different age groups worked with computers
• approached computer technology from a basis in psychoanalysis (human-computer interaction)
• understood the beginning of the "avatar"
• in her second book Life on the Screen, she explores how our interactions with computers can affect how we see ourselves and the world around us
• considered Dungeons and Dragons to be an important antecedant to many computer adventure games
• discovered that as much as designers would like, gamers are not as concerned with narrative and story-telling in their game-play

I'm sure it may be true for many gamers that the narrative is unimportant, but I feel otherwise. After listening to Noah Wardrip-Fruin talk about video game narrative, I feel like there is still hope. There seem to be many ways to improve the stories and dialogues in a game, and personally, I really enjoy video games with great stories. (This may, in part, be due to the fact that as a child I much preferred to watch my brother play video games, than to play them, so games like Final Fantasy were my favorites.) I'm much more likely to pick up a game with an interesting story line than the hundreds of games that all have the same narrative where you are given a weapon and must kill everyone you can find and steal their belongings, honestly I've had enough of those.

Chapter 33

1983
Ben Shneiderman - Direct manipulation

• proposed that it would be more effective to instruct the computer in a more graphic way, rather than command language
• this idea informed: graphical user interface, visual programming environments, and other systems
• direct manipulation: seems to imitate the outside world via metaphor/representation
• advantages of this system can be seen with graphical applications (Photoshop)
• uses images that we are familiar with to represent mostly equivalent computer programs/commands

Chapter 32

1983
Ben Bagdikian

• new media often over takes old, but sometimes they begin to integrate themselves
• 6 companies now dominate all of US mass media
  
• will all media become integrated into these companies, or will the expansion of the Internet overcome this
• more and more internet companies are preventing users from transmitting too much data, and often prohibiting public servers

This is my biggest fear! This is what my entire concentration boils down to, media is converging, we are losing the freedom and wonderful anarchistic democracy of the internet, what is going to happen to culture!? If I have to, I will work the rest of my life to overcome this ungodly monopoly of power over the media, this is not the way it works in every other country, it does not have to be this way in the US.

Chapter 31

1982
Bill Viola

• Viola is one of the "highest-profile of video artists"
• created "70 millimeter" video art
• video art: began as an exploration of the video medium as opposed to film, "reconfigured public and industrial conceptions of the video image"
• poetic approach to video
• created the Aspen Movie-Map - mapped onto a system that was familiar, with the challenge to create something new and surprising
• questions how we use language

I'm always for artists who question the everyday, who rework familiar concepts to create unfamiliar new ideas. Video art has always really interested me and it was really in its prime with the era of the "Happenings". I took a class at Gallatin where we were able to play around with video art and explore what happens when you stop trying to make a narrative and just enjoy the instrument; it was fantastic.

Trip to Chelsea

Our trip began on the Highline which is a favorite New York treasure of mine. I love that hidden in plain sight all throughout the city are these great cultural monuments and I'm particularly excited to see some of the art installations along the path. We passed the Gehry building on our way towards the first gallery and I was amazed I'd never really noticed it before. Autumn and I decided it should only be allowed for artists' studio spaces because corporate businesses wouldn't appreciate such great architecture. (Some day I hope this is true,maybe we'll at least have our studios there.)
Our first stop was the Postmasters gallery which when you first walk in seems pretty abstract. However, after the curator explained to us the exhibit and the concept of data visualization I was really intrigued. I loved each of his pieces almost purely as opportunities to alter my perspective. I love when an artist asks me to rethink the way I see the world. His piece representing the night sky of the battle of Troy was inspiring; the details that went into its creation were fantastic.
Next we went to see Bitforms, which was opening its new exhibit that evening. I was completely drawn in by its pieces that redefined space, text, and sound, again asking me to rethink my perspective. I was particularly pleased by one of the artist's play with typography by creating the giant vagina with multilingual text.
I think, however, that I was most impressed with the last gallery we went to see, Eyebeam. Especially for our generation which has seen much of our social lives turn into the "screen," it was so refreshing to see people looking for ways to bring it back out again while still maintaining our fascination with technology. It gives me so much hope that a place like this exists to put faith in artists, engineers, and inventors to come up with new ideas and challenge the status quo.

Chapter 30

1981
Theodor H. Nelson

• proposed a universal electronic Publishing System and Archive, similar in function to Bush's Memex device
• give everyone the ability to produce their own documents and connect them to anyone elses public documents, with the ability to edit any version of any text, theirs or others public files
• envisioned a company who would be in charge of running this network and each member of the network would pay a small fee to access each document, in the same way we pay the utilities companies

My first impression of Nelson's text was that he seems extremely condescending. I just wanted to say to him stop blabberng about how we might not understand or want to take the time to read through and just say what you want. If I've taken the time to start reading, why are you trying to deter me? "Suggestions are welcome, if you are sure you understand the design first." This kind of statement made me care so much less about his really intereting archival ideas. What Nelson has come up with is very complex but also complete in that, if this program were fully developed it could easily be implemented.

Chapter 29

1980
Richard A. Bolt

• Bolt created a program called "Put-That-There" which inspired combined speech and gesture input, embedded computing and a computer interface that is more like spoken conversation
• provided a way to view data on two-dimensional screens in a three-dimensional simulation
• developed multimodal interfaces to communicate more effectively with the computer in a more humanistic way
• if voice recognition becomes popular it would change the way we use and understand computers
• he created an entire room "the media room" at MIT instead of simply a desktop that one would sit in front of to apply his multimodal experience
• with voice-gesture conjunction the user can use pronouns

This is an incredible system. I would love this kind of voice-gesture recognition for my own computer, or at least a voice and joystick since I don't have an entire wall to display upon. I still don;t know why voice recognition hasn't taken off because it would be a lot more efficient if the technology were advanced enough.

Chapter 28

1980
Seymour Papert
Mindstorms

• worked to create an environment in which children could use computers as learning tools
• was inspired by the work of Jean Piaget called "constructionism"
• learning in a self-directed, self-motivated way through his programming language LOGO which we began in 1967

I love that the computer can be used as a learning device for kids. Games and interactivity have always been the best way to teach children, at least in my experience, and when children feel like they are in control of the situation they are more willing to actively participate.

Chapter 27

1980
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari

• introduced rhizomatic writing - which they did not intend to feature a specific medium or even style, only to describe certain texts
• challenged readers to "reconsider dualism" and according to Foucault, "to be radical without being sad"
• a book is an assemblage of lines articulated and divided with various rates of flow
• attempted to quantify literature "There is no difference between what a book talks about and how it is made. Therefore a book also has no object"
• literature is about dichotomy and reflection it branches out like a tree

It would be hard for me to agree completely to the ideas in this article that I can ascertain and the rest is mostly a blur. I don't feel that all literature can be interpreted without meaning, doesn't that disrespect the author in some way? I can see where they're going with this idea, as a way to make all mediums connected by their innate structure and composition, but I'm not sure how interested I am in removing all meaning from a given work, I would feel cheated.

Chapter 26

1977
Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg

• envisioned the importance of the notebook computer with their Dynabook vision
• understood the computer from a totally different perspective than their peers - believed it would one day be a device used by "educators, business-people and poets" alike for computational and creative purposes
• their ideas were used to create the Star computer by Xerox Systems Development Division
• the interface designed for the Star was later incorporated into Apple's Macintosh
  
• helped to create the Ethernet cable, the mouse, the laser printer, and WYIWYG printing standard for today's computers
• Dynabook: handle all information-related needs (Iphone : check), a programming and problem solving tool, interactive memory, text editor, medium for expression
• the dynabook would allow for human-computer interaction, for the medium to be affected by the user; to be responsive
  
• imagined that there would be no delay in response time
• imagined that children should also be able to use this device

It is incredible that these people had the foresight to envision today's laptop or iphone-like device. They sought to create a computer that could literally be used by everyone, and that everyone's specific needs and wishes could be met. At the time, this would have been incredibly far-fetched but I'm glad they pursued it so that we can have this kind of technology today.

Chapter 25

1977
Myron W. Kruegar

• considered the "father of virtual reality"
• first rejected by and then later accepted by the art community for his innovations which seemed purely technological at the start
• his "aesthetic concerns" were not as easily accepted by the computer world
• believed that "response is the medium"
• meaning is created through interaction with the specific computer system
• technology can be used, not just as a problem solver, but to generate and inspire ideas
• encouraged scientists, artists, engineers to work together

It's true that we still don't often see the connection between technology and aesthetics but I think that we are definitely working towards that goal. There are more and more fields, and types of new media that are incorporating all of these ideas, which we saw very clearly in the exhibits we visited in Chelsea where art, science, and technology come together.

Chapter 24

1976
Joseph Wizenbaum

• discussed the negative consequences of his own technological designs
• urged other scientists and technologists to "take responsibility for the use of that which they discover and develop
• created the "Eliza" system from 1964-1966, which ran a set of scripts called "Doctor" which impersonated a psycho-therapist
• Wizenbaum feared that applications like his that would employ human language would blur the aapropriate functions for technology in a negative way
• the Eliza program inspired others to create other psychiatric simulations lie Kenneth Colby's Perry and Depression 2.0

As Turkle described, I do not believe that programs like Eliza distort our view of humanity because it did not possess enough variability to actually fool someone, but I wonder if a program was created today to act as a therapist would we be able to make a believable one? How would this affect us if we could actually treated and diagnosed by a computer?

Chapter 23

1975
Nicolas Negroponte
Soft Architecture Machines

• shows direct relationship between architecture and human-computer interaction
• some of the most influential architects in this field were: Michale Benedikt, Marcos Novak, William Mitchell, and Nicolas Negroponte
  
• architecture proved the need for virtual reality to see visualizations of physical buildings
• use of architectural knowledge about space and design have inspired work with computers
• users should be empowered by computers
• computers should have certain levels of awareness about its programs and users
• Negroponte opened the MIT Media Lab in 1985 to conduct research into technology applications

It's sad to think that we have all these great intuitive ideas about computer software, written over 30 years ago, and we still don't (not that we can't) put them into practice. When he mentions the movie program that turns on the screen saver 5 minutes in, I was reminded of all the times that has happened to me, and how simple a code that would be to withhold turning on a screen saver when the movie application is open; this seems like a no brainer. There are many other awareness issues with technology we have today, and perhaps we need to be taking more advice from the founders of these tools.

Chapter 22

1974
Augusto Boal

• went to jail for practicing his interactive techniques in performance.
• encouraged opressed peoples to take on the "cops of the street" and the "cops of the mind" holding them back (which is why the Brazilian military was so against him and those working with him)
• for one of his performances he decided to run for office, but actually got elected and used his theatrical techniques to put forth legislation to help the people without a voice.
• discusses the question of embodiment, which is often forgotten in discussions of new media
• techniques for overcoming the spectator/actor divide could help Baudrillard's quest to overcome the producer/consumer divide

It's amazing how so many people with progressive ideas throughout history have been treated as treasonous and sent to jail, or executed, or assassinated. It's always the ones that want peace and equality that are put down. How sad.

Chapter 21

1974
Computer Lib/ Dream Machines
Ted Nelson

• apparently the most important book in the history of new media
• Janus-life codex that joins two books
  
• Computer Lib predicted personal computers, and challenged what the fundamental use of computers would be from when he was writing
• meant to argue against Central Processing
• claimed that the importance of the computer would not be its computational skills, but its ability to generate new media
• wrote some of the founding documents in the field of human-computer interaction
• stressed the importance of design and having it be open and interchangeable
  
• predicted the explosion of knowledge that has occurred today with the Internet

Nelson was hugely influential and ahead of his time in this field. I would like to at some point actually read this dual-book and see how spot on he really was.

Chapter 20

1972
Raymond Williams

• one of the first to critically approach the medium of television
• discussed the importance of "flow" in the experience of TV watching
• TV remains a touchstone for the discussions of the relationship between technology and society
• once a technology is in place it operates as a life factor
• discusses the importance of collectivity in decision making over technology (specifically the Internet, whose standards are set by anyone with the time and interest to be involved)
• the problem today is that the government wants to privatize the Internet, and it has created a select few to monopolize
• the Internet was not created by one man, it was and is being created by everyone who participates because of the social processes interacting with scientific.technical processes

I worry that the Goverment will succeed in permanently privatizing the Internet and the whole beauty of its public-ness and democracy will be ruined. Hopefully we can get enough users to speak out against it and retain public control.

Chapter 19

1972
Jean Baudrillard
Requiem for the Media

• response to Enzensberger's "Constiuents of a Theory of the Media"
• views the media more in terms of social reaction and response to the media than the structure of the technology or the content
• the solution to the problem of our media is not to make everyone a producer, but to change the model of communication which is currently, a "simulation" that forgoes actual interaction
• Baudrillard wants to transgress the producer/consumer relationship, mass newspapers and video networks are only a start in his mind

I would like to see what Baudrillard imagines as an actual transgression of the producer/consumer relationship; when will we have gotten to that point? I can certainly see the importance of having more public interaction, but we live in a society of consumption and it will be difficult to rid the media of this idea entirely.

Chapter 18

1970
Hans Magnus Enzenberger
Constituents of a Theory of the Media

• new media is forward-thinking, action-oriented, away from tradition
• criticized media business - "operates to perpetuate an unjust society by convincing us t accept that society (similar to McCluhan)
• work with media to fix the problem
• media is not just for consumption, but a means of production
• proposes a new organization of media, not just mass distribution, if an organized campaign of videotaping were in place, it would have been more effective than the original Rodney King video

William S. Burroughs

I like William S. Burroughs for the same reason I like John Cage, because he was willing to think outside the box, to take something traditional and use it in an innovative way. Even though it was simple, to cut up writing and paste it together, it was considered unheard of, and we needed people like that to shake things up and pave the way for even more out of box ideas that just cut-and-paste.