The lost reality in technology

           Technology is growing fast, so fast that at times, one lost its perception of reality. How long will it take for us to truly lost perception of whats real and whats now. We indulge our life in technology, It slowly sucks out our time and mind. Technology brings with it great profit, thus the improvement of it is non stop. but when will be the point that we totally get engulfed by technology. Technology connects us with people, but at the same time disconnects us with people. Facebook, how real is that, how many friends there are you actually talking to? “likes”, how real is that? or is that now simply a motion, something we do as we scroll? Would there be at one point, what we are interested in are no longer the “friends” we have in Facebook but rather we are interested in Facebook itself. Technology at times takes away our perception of what is real and what is not, at the end of the day, what is reality anyway? 

          After the industrial revolution, technology took a huge turn. Back then, everything seem to develop at a much slower pace than it is today. Two decades ago was just the start of cell phones, personal computers. A decade ago, cell phones got smaller, computers got faster, smaller lighter. Today, computers are combined with cars, Iphone with print recognition, color screen, touch scree, and even Siri, they all seem so normal. Maybe, we are not that far off from artificial intelligent. Siri seem so real, ably to respond to to commends and even able to have some form of chat with its users. As technology like this grow further, one would seem to be able to have stronger interactions and connections with machines, programs. How long will it take before one looses track of reality and start to dive themselves into things that are cyber?

          I would like to talk about two works, All roads by Jan Ingold and Bad Machine by Dan Shiovitz. Both of them are simple programing that leads the user to experience a program that is set up that leads the user to have a unique experience. The experience is interesting, mesmerizing, certain commands lead you to different places. This seem to be an early version of interaction programing. All roads provides a narrative interaction while bad machine provides a confusing interaction of codes, errors and reports. After all, both of them respond to the commands provided by the user, there seem to be a form of interaction but seem too primitive for one to actually have a strong relation and connection to it. There seem to be a lack of character and face to the program. However, the set up of the two program provides a very unique experience compared to actual video games. There is no music, sound or graphics but simply text. The text itself could already grasp some users to be very interested in this two programs. They are also both made 14 years ago, where technology have already took a huge leap compared to  back then. They are indeed very successful digital poetic, but for users to loose themselves within it, it still seem rather primitive to do so.

         Siri is an iPhone program that could complete certain tasks for you, but at the same time, it could respond to commands that are not really tasks but rather simply chat. It is a highly defined, yet easily accessible programing that seem to have some form of sassy character that is able to respond to its user. Things like this are fun yet, indulging. Even though this is still primitive but it already provided a strong character and face to it. The character and face are important elements, it creates connection and feeling that one could actually create relationship with this program, siri or Samantha, which is the female voice. In the movie “Her” , talks about a man falling in love with a program that is like siri. As impossible as it sounds, I think this is very possible. There are lonely man out there that would very much fall in love with a program. Just like how many people spend hours and days in virtual games. As extreme as this sound, it only sounded extreme because Siri is still primitive, once it gets even more character, even more face, one would start to accept the possibility of falling in love with a program.

A conversation with Siri

Siri's response to the movie "Her"

          Hatsune Miku is a very interesting case study to look into. It started off as a program developed by Crypton Future Media with yamaha’s vocaloid system that auto tones the voice of Saki Fujita. It is music program that allows people to make music with this auto toned voice. It pairs with Japanese and english. What is interesting is how it slowly grew into a celebrity. It start to materialized. The producers gave it a face, a 3D animated body and have a form of character even able to hold concerts. This in all itself is already bazar enough, but whats crazy about this is the amount of fans it generated and people seem to love her. It, not using her, is now holding live concerts, playing with live bands and with crazy crowds. As technology grows, people start to loose sense of certain reality."Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out: with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work.” (Walter Benjamin) This would be on the cult value. Created by animation that created some form of character and value with its audience that allowed something like this to grow into an accepted pop culture. People start to believe it is real and exist in our world. it also carries the virtues that celebrities would not have. They would not marry, fall in love but does as what the programmers made them to do. Android seem to be the perfect celebrity in this sense, it is controllable and able to do what the people want. 

Live concert held by Hatsune Miku

          As many movie have explored the topic of human android, I would like to bring up “Be Right Back” from the second season of black mirror. The narrative is about a women's lost of husband thus he bought a android wight he face of her husband. She then installed the memories she have of her husband into this android. This doesn't not feel too far away. If now, people could be clanged onto games, Hatsune Miku it does not seem impossible that we lost track of whats reality and start to live in the virtual world. Would androids ever be like human? Thats is all another discussion and not important. What is important is that, how will we people, react to androids. From what we see today, we will very likely loose track of reality. 

          Reality is loss bits by bits as our technology grow bits by bits. On the subway, how many of us are actually looking up, looking at the scenery or whats around of. How many of us are actually just looking down on our phones, using facebook, whatsapp, and maybe whats around you is a real friend or person that you could interact with. Reality is lost. Maybe at the pace the world is not, we have to live in the virtual world just to get by. 

Carving in Possibilities by Deena Larsen, with sounds from Matt Hansen

Carving in Possibilities
by Deena Larsen, with sounds from Matt Hansen
Publicized in 2001

This is a very interesting piece. The idea of sculpting David through questioning phrases is a mesmerizing experience. This piece forces me to go back and replay it again and again since I was not able to go through it, It always comes to an end before I can go through all the lines. The sound effects and background music provides a strong build up. As one goes through the piece with their cursor, every movement pops out a new line and with the emergence of a new line a stone chipping sound goes with it. One will realize that as they move around, the face of david gets clearer and clearer.  This is a powerful piece and grasps ones attention as they are going through it. There are plenty questions and statements. some related to David some are not. It seem to calling for curiosity and self questioning as one goes through the process of carving david out of the blurry vision.

Chapter 2 of Hayles

I greatly enjoy the section on database by Hayles in chapter 2. It pointed to a strong fact that databases could provide a lot of new things. Lloyd does point out that although some elements would be lost in the process of transformation, from print to database but you also gain a lot through this process. It also seem like there is a lot more one artist could do if their work is in a database format. I enjoy the idea of restriction and freedom created by Kristen. The limitation or warning she provided with her image would not have been possible if they were in a print format. In the print format it will be wether you choose to read it or not, not having the option to choose to just read the text and not the image.

"The emphasis on databases in Digital Humanities projects shifts the emphasis from argumentation— a rhetorical form that historically has foregrounded context, crafted prose, logical relationships, and audience response— to data elements embedded in forms in which the structure and parameters embody significant implications."

Databases in Digital Humanities have changed the world of humanities. Everything seem to have more freedom, freedom to alter, freedom of interface, freedom of interaction, freedom of access, freedom of interpretation, etc. There seem to be a bigger world. Maybe there are cons to databases, but for sure it opened a great door for possibilities.

My body - A wunderkammer

My body - A wunderkammer is an interesting piece of work. It is a collaboration between three artist. It is thought up made bu Shelly Jackson where the breath was produced by John Wesley harding and the html programming is done by Ken Fricklas. The work itself reminded my of my work in sound poetics. The combination of the woodcut print and the sound of the breath creates a great image within ones imaginary image. yes, there is already a image of the mouth on the screen, drawn by Shelly Jackson of her own body parts. If the two, the sound and the image is separated, we will see the two very differently.

The image as the image, we might imagine how the mouth will actually look like in a photo realistic view/rendering, but we might have a hard time doing that. As for they sound it is powerful and clear and full of image but there is just not enough for one to create and actual image. However, with the two combined, one could actually feel the image coming to live and further more able to have a vivid and clear image of what might the photo realistic version look like. The combination of the two made it much greater than if they stand on its own. The text very much pairs with the image and helps to set the back ground of what one is viewing. This being a digital humanities, a html on the internet, makes use of technology at its best. If this is on paper, how would the sound ever be able t transpire. if one is looking at the image on a paper then have a recording player playing on the side, what kind of experience is that? surely an interesting one but one so excluded that maybe today, i would have no access of it.

How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogensis

The first chapter of the book laid very good grounds for what is coming next. The attempt of the author with other scholars to have a win win solution for both digital humanities and traditional humanities. It started off with laying the grounds low and made a strong point that digital humanities could not be neglected. Even though the example is set on the lower level of digital humanities, it is obvious to see that how the digital is now a huge part of our world. He then pointed out to text citation upon traditional humanities and shows that the percentage have grew fairly low. However, it is obvious to say that the point of the author is not to neglect or attack traditional humanities but rather attempting to figure out a solution for both to coexist on the same path and not on their own way. 

“Without abandoning print literacy, Comparative Media Studies enriches it through judicious comparison with other media, so that print is no longer the default mode into which one falls without much thought about alternatives but rather an informed choice made with full awareness of its possibilities and limitations” (9)

It is a great idea to set print as a medium rather than the “only way” or “old way” but providing a better ground of understanding about what it could do and not do.

“Another way is through the concept of technogenesis, the idea that humans and technics have coevolved together.” 

This set digital humanities to be something that is ought to happen and that print literacy is still a part of it. A part of the process. I also greatly enjoy the point where it is shown that now is a age of hyper read. We now have very low tolerance to boredom. Lastly, I love how he stated that his title is an open ended question. giving us much more freedom and understanding of where he is coming from.