Pertinent Article

The future of books.

This is neat

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137053719

CYBORGTASTIC

and quite reminiscnet of Neuromancer, I must say.

http://techflesh.com/9-implants-that-make-human-healthy-body-even-more-useful/

Final Exam

“Reading w/ the Digital Human” Course Description

One of Marx's main ideas is that of “historical materialism;" he argues that, rather than ideas, it is the technological developments of an age which change human societies and thus human beings. The spinning jenny brought the Industrial Revolution, and the computer brought what many have come to call the Digital age. The press is no longer the printing press, but the barrage of online and television news outlets—Facebook and Twitter included. The e-mail has replaced “snail mail,” and for some, the internet itself has come to dominate their personal communications so much so as to have almost replaced the “human community.” But what is the human being and what is the human community? Can there be a set of “criteria” that determine whether a human society is functional or dysfunctional? And how do the digital technologies affect the functionality of these societies? In this class, we will explore these questions using texts from the fields of literature, sociology, philosophy, critical theory, and even the blogosphere. One such text is McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage, a book which is itself multi-media in its format, and which deals with pressing questions of the human and the environment, and how the new media come to define the new “global community” that we find ourselves living in right now. It claims that we live in a more participative society; is this still true, or has the internet made us more passive?

We will also challenge, then, what constitutes “reading,” and the importance of reading, and thinking, and most of all, thinking critically, within ever-changing social contexts so that we may achieve a better awareness of our world and a better way to live (actively) in it.

Book: “Pluto” by Urusawa/Tezuka

Synopsis:

Mainly because of Hollywood, we often equate robots with apocalyptic settings. But what about the notion of a robot designed to be completely selfless? In Pluto, we see a modern-day incarnation of Tezuka's “Atom,” the selfless robot. Set in a highly developed world, Pluto commences when a serial killer begins to murder the “greatest robots of the earth,” often beloved robots responsible for much of society's progress.

Some questions for discussion:

The story provides ground to discuss some questions about “humanity” and the “human community.”

1. As robots became more advanced, they were allowed more into human society (ie, the “robot bill of rights”). As a result, there has been a backlash of (racist?) humans who form groups like the anti-robot KKK, etc. How plausible do you think this scenario is? Which side would you take?

2. We see robots “acting like” humans (as Atom does when he pretends to eat ice cream) without experiencing any of the “actual” human feelings. What does this say to the concept of “human” as a social construction?

3. Robots often exchange their “memory chips,” literally containing all their lives' memories. Where is the robot's soul? And where is the human soul?

Final Exam

Course Description:
We are living during an intersection of old and new technology. We are uniquely poised to view the coming world and see how it supplants or enriches what our experience of the world has been. Marshall McLuhan shows us how our mediation of information shapes our reception. Baudrillard expresses our concerns with how our reality is shaped and shapes itself and us. The iPad is an excellent representation of new technology but is in no way unique. It is, however, indicative of the sea change taking place in media and technology.
By “reading” the iPad by reading texts we engage and take part in understanding the future of things to come. The future is now so to speak and we would be remiss not to explore it. We will look into this world through the lens of fiction, theory, and research. We will seek to see not how we are shaping technology but how it is shaping us.
Neither the iPad nor the student is an independent subject separate from each other. We will explore what it means to be human but also put pressure on the need for this distinction. How do we express our human-ness? How does the iPad cyborgize us and us it? At what point are we do we stop being human and become defined by our prostheses? William Gibson’s Neuromancer explored this concept in a fictive dystopian world. We are living in a reality that is not far removed from this fiction. It is time to start looking at the state of humanity and understanding that it is as dynamic and shifting as technology.
Ancillary Text:
In order to more fully understand the enmeshing of humanity into this digital age it is necessary to read Simians, Cyborgs & Women and particularly “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century” by Donna Haraway. It will allow us a theoretical perspective from which to look at the dichotomies not only of machinery and humanity but also that of man and beast and reality and fantasy. It will critique the idea of the holism of nature and how in fact “By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short we are cyborgs.” She will help us dispel the rumor of our untainted humanity and force us to see that we are not only cyborgs now but that we have been for quite some time. Her work shows how we have become a sort of hybrid species equally well adapted for both the natural and unnatural world. We are post-human and advancing.

Jeffrey Muir

Final Exam-Chris Langer

Through Reading W/ the Digital Human, our class confronted the quickly changing world of technology. To what extent are these conventions, reading with paperback books, merely just habituated muscle memory actions that just need to be readjusted. We have naturalized the experience, and part of this class was talking the nostalgia that is reading. How can we get over the passage of the medium and appreciate the content, as opposed to the medium? When did we move past it with paper? It is relatively new, and was seen as an impediment to thoughts and speech at first invention. The habituation of new tasks is the new challenge. What we are experiencing through this transition is a movement from a work to text. Barthes describes a work as “concrete, occupying a portion of book-space,” with the being experienced “only in an activity, a production.” The book is transcending, the novel can cut across works; the medium has changed. This class delved into the world of technology, explored the pyramid of the e-book, and looked forward into what could be the future of learning institutions, as we know it. One of the main fallacies of the rise of digital technology is that technology has lost a human aspect. No technology is “human-less,” and by absorbing new features and implementing them in different fields, technology only furthers human progress. Our study through the Ipad broadened our scope into the penetration of technology in our world.

Additional Text.
I would add Michael Foucault’s “Of Other Spaces” to the syllabus, using it to show the implication of the Ipad as a space itself, something unlike other, but also playing off the influences of the past. Foucault describes a heterotopia, an other space that embodies the functions of society it resides in. A heterotopia is able to, according to the third principle, “juxtapose in a single real space several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible.” An e-book is a representation of this, with it’s ability to bring in multiple forms of medium into one, whether it be the video, audio, or text, the e-book brings all of these together.

Final Exam

Reading (W/) the Digital Human is a course which examines the different ways technology has contributed to our understanding of what it means to be human. Through Massumi, we examined how technology functions as a partial subject, and is therefore crucial to our existence as humans. What Technology Wants provided another (and, some would argue, overly rigid) framework for understanding the role technology plays in the lives of humans. Both of these works had in common a similar tendency to define by interdefining—humanity was defined in relation to other animals as well as technology, and in the case of What Technology Wants, the characteristics of technology were compared incessantly to those of other life forms to establish patterns between different kinds of being, and also to examine the differences. It would appear that it is impossible to define any type of being without reference to other types of being. In support of this observation, Parables for the Virtual offered a metaphysics in which no being was complete unto itself and each only existed as a “partial subject,” a being with the ability to interact with other beings. It was this interaction that defined the different sorts of being; in the same way, humans are defined not by their own existence, but by how they interact with other existent beings. By examining the ways in which humans interact with technology, Reading (W/) the Digital Human created a long, messy web of (inter)defintion for what it means to be human.

The obvious choice for a text to be added to this course would be Donna Haraway’s “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” which lays a philosophical foundation for cyborg existence (as Neuromancer could be said to provide a practical model of how cyborg existence might become possible). Haraway embraces a more interactive definition of humanity, purged of the mythical essential human—a cyborg culture would be based on the assumption that we were all born (created) “a hybrid of machine and organism”. To be human (or to be existent) is to be a cyborg, a shifting web of “contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes”. For a cyborg, to exist is not to be a whole—it is to be interdefined, to contain and be contained by other existences.

Final Exam

Reading (w/) the Digital Human is, I believe, primarily concerned with dispelling the myth of real versus virtual (a dichotomy pervasive in our culture) and that digital technology represents a ‘new’ (or even better or worse) form of human existence. By starting with the iPad and e-books, we as English majors confronted a topic close to home: The paper book versus the digital copy and whether one is more physical or “real” than the other. This was opened up to the wider field of the digital age including art, music, and social media. It seemed to me that the culmination of the class occurred in Brian Massumi’s Parables of the Virtual, which made clear that all experience is virtual to some degree because of our mind’s reliance on prostheses; using a computer is not that far removed from typing with your hands or viewing through eyes. Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler further drew attention to this mediation and sense of space. It was a physical book that drew attention to its own virtuality and our placement within that strata. Another theme we spent time exploring was what place means in regards to new media; For example, where are you when you are on the internet? You seem to inhabit both, say, a book store and the uncomfortable low backed chair you are sitting in. There are also servers that that data you are browsing seem to physically inhabit. We discussed what this may mean for our consciousness; unfortunately, it became quite clear that there are no easy answers.

I would choose to add what is pretty consistently considered one of the greatest narrative video games of all time, Deus Ex, to the class syllabus. This allows us to explore a different type of digital narrative and media, one that was only touched upon in class when we discussed the “choose your own adventure” stories. What are the differences between an e-book and game? Are the two blending? Further, the game’s story directly deals with themes of prosthesis and the evolution of technologies. It is also steeped in post-cyberpunk culture, thus making William Gibson’s Neuromancer the perfect lead in.

-Andrew Maxwell

Final Exam Essay

Reading (w/) the Digital Human is a course that explores the socio-digital culture that our generation is immersed in.  Particularly in the Western world, society is co-dependent on the technological advances that have happened within the last several decades.  This dependence is seen not only through the physical objects such as cell phones, computers, or e-readers.  However, it is seen within out language, education institutions, and perspectives. Both Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, as we read in  Marc Prensky’s “Digital Native, Digital Immigrants,” understand techné on varying levels, but society as a whole still sees in terms of their digital dependence. 

Therefore this course was important in understanding the effects that the digital age has had on us and vice versa.  Furthermore, technology will keep advancing in the coming years and future generations so it is imperative to not only understanding but embracing.  If our society thinks in terms of techné then we must utilize it. 

The iPad allowed for this utilization.  I was able to use the iPad in terms of my classes, my scheduling, and social media.  From the beginning of the academic year until now I have a heightened awareness of my digital dependence and can think in terms of it at a scholarly level.      

One of the additional reading I would have added to the class is Crash by J.G. Ballard.  It is a book that would have fit perfectly with the course description. It is about James Ballard who becomes close to a man, Vaughan, and both show each other sexuality in automobile crashes.  This sexuality progresses and forms into a issue of dependency.  The men, and certain women, in the narrative are addicted to technology and can only experience pleasure through violence in cars.

Reading (w/) the Digital Human Tentative Syllabus

Course Description
The goal of this course is to examine, challenge, and dissect the word “human” and the terms and conditions under which we (as a society) use this word. We will attempt to deconstruct “human” by discussion of what it means to be “human,” especially through our exploration of the “human” within common (though perhaps misapplied) dichotomies (i.e., human vs. machine, real vs. digital, human vs. environment). As the name of the course suggests, we will not only be attempting to “read with the digital human,” gauging how we should understand our increasingly digitized environment and the issues that come with it (for example, planned obsolescence, gatekeepers of information, movement between realms of physical and digital, generational gaps, etc.), but also to “read the digital human,” investigating how we have been programmed by the technology that we (as a society) have created. In order to achieve these goals, we will read and discuss several texts over the course of the semester, ranging from theoretical essays to short stories. For example, will examine William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, and discuss how its setting, characters, and themes challenge accepted notions of reality and humanity. In this particular novel, we will look at the ontology of prosthetics insomuch as humans use prosthetics (i.e., drugs, body modification, the Internet) to implement or otherwise alter “reality” and “traditional human experience.” Students will hopefully come away from this course having learned to question and to deconstruct the given; rather than assuming, “I am human,” students should ask themselves, “What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be living? What is reality? Why do these terms matter?”.

Required Reading
Neuromancer by William Gibson
“A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway (Available on BB under “Course Materials”)

Justification for Reading
We will be reading “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century” by Donna Haraway. In this essay, Haraway criticizes modern social structure (from a feminist standpoint) by arguing that the term “human” is irrelevant because humans have become “cyborgs” (which she defines as, “creatures simultaneously animal and machine, who populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted”). This reading has been selected because of Haraway’s close examination of dichotomies (human vs. animal, human vs. machine, science fiction vs. reality, etc.), which results in the deconstruction of the term “human,” a term that is called into question by the very nature of this class.

Recommended Reading
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Justification for Recommended Reading
I have chosen to include two novels (Frankenstein and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), which are not required, but which focus on themes relevant to the objections of Reading (w/) the Digital Human. Both of the listed novels question the meaning of the term “human” by depicting technically non-human creatures (Frankenstein’s monster, Replicants), which seem to display a greater scope of human emotions to a greater intensity than actual human characters. These novels beg to know whether it is possible for a creature to be more human than human and whether the accepted system for differentiating human from non-human is intrinsically flawed. I believe that either (or both) of these novels would serve as excellent supplements to Haraway's Cyborg Theory.

AI and the Uncanny: Presentation Post

As simulacra of humanity approach that of a real live person we experience an increase in affinity with said simulacra—but only to a point. For instance, we have no problem with a character like C-3P0, because although he behaves like a human he bears only the most passing resemblance to a person. The epitome of the uncanny valley is a corpse, because while it looks just like a living person, it lacks that requisite humanity. The same is true of robots, androids and cinema. Humans like to try and emulate human emotion and expression, and as of now, artificial intelligence is far from perfect, though that won’t stop scientists from trying to obtain “more human than human” perfection. Latest AI scientists seek to program computers (and thus robots) with cognitive thought so that a computer will have the ability to visibly read--and understand--the expressions on the user's face. With a flick of the user's finger or a tightening in his lips, a computer may soon be able to read these motions as "angry," and react accordingly. For some people, advanced technology such as this will be world-breaking, exciting, a new way of approaching our more mechanic counterparts; for others, however, the mere thought of computers with cognitive thought is downright frightening and shocking. The uncanny valley is really an uncanny wall in which those who strive to create a human that is "more human than human" will continuously face a Zeno's paradox situation in which no matter how close an animator or sculptor gets he will never reach perfection.
This might be in part explained by Kristeva’s theory of abjection—that humans are repulsed by those objects which challenge our sense of boundaries and limits. Things which come from the body but are not alive, which are part of oneself but simultaneously not part of oneself, meet this criterion, and according to Kristeva this explains the disgust of a human when viewing spit, dung, or other forms of bodily discharge. Similarly, androids who approach, but do not reach, a human appearance may fall into a gulf which challenges our perceptions of what it is to be human. Androids force us to acknowledge the fact that we are cyborgs, and differ from our machines in degree, not in kind. This terrifying (and liberating) revelation has led to a new late-20th and 21st century conception of intelligence and consciousness as detached from any specific state of matter (such as the human body)—the posthuman is a construct which we use to understand our existence as cyborgs, and to try to reframe the paradigms through which we understand our existence in relation to other beings, both living and mechanical.
That being said, it is also important to realize that while AI is still imperfect, it is constantly improving, and as it continues to improve, it constantly challenges our conception of what it means to be human and blurs the lines between human and computer. In our presentation, we used examples like the computer-generated post-modern essay and the Turing test using the Internet chatbot A.L.I.C.E. to show how difficult it can be to distinguish between human and something else—something robotic, something computer-generated, something virtual, something other. So, if we can’t tell the difference between human and this robotic other, what is the difference, and why does it matter? Maybe there is no difference. Perhaps it is already irrelevant. As Timothy Morton puts it, “The brilliance of Blade Runner, and of Frankenstein, is not so much to point out that artificial life and intelligence are possible, but that human life already is this artificial intelligence.” Maybe that’s the most terrifying thing about the uncanny valley; the closer humans get to being able to successfully replicate what is human, the more our notion of what it means to be human is obliterated.

--Jeffrey, Maria, Amelie, and Holly

"Everything is Amazing and Nobody's Happy:" Louis CK on the Modern World and the Eternally Unsatisfied Human Being

Here's a humorous bit on people being ungrateful that our amazing technology can sometimes be... a little less amazing.

Creeptastic.

Funny story... while I was logging into blogger to post this article, Google checked with me to make sure it had my correct phone number. When did I give Google my phone number? ...oh, wait, I have an Android. Yeah, that'll be it.

A Blogga My Own

So I've been working on this blog now. It purports to be on "stories, as long as they're told." Check it out if you want.

http://roundaboutstorytelling.blogspot.com

Statistical Error in Hikikimori Presentation

In the presentation, I mistakenly said that 10% of the Japanese population were hikikimori. I had gotten this statistic from a Japanese video, but I read it mistakenly. The actual number are thus:

According to psychologist Tamaki Saitō, who first coined the phrase, there may be one million hikikomori in Japan, representing 20% of all male adolescents in Japan, or 1% of the total Japanese population.

From: Saitō, Tamaki. 1998. Shakaiteki Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal). Tokyo: PHP kenkyuujyo.

Sorry for the confusion. It's still a big number, though.

Related news in America:

Neglected child dies while parents play World of Warcraft: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2005/06/547.ars

Teenager goes into convulsions after playing World of Warcraft computer game for 24 hours: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1086700/Boy-goes-convulsions-playing-World-Warcraft-24-hours-straight.html#ixzz1JWxgN9eb

Broken Heart

My first stop motion attempt.
Snow Patrol, Headlights On Dark Roads

Simularea and the World of Art

 

 

CaitEmma

Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson

Cole Rise

Cole Rise

Dove Evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXf8fr0Kp3Q
GirlTalk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JBAxkZun3s&feature=related

READING FOR TUESDAY APRIL 12

Hey guys,
We were hoping that everyone could take a look at these two short articles before our presentation tomorrow. Both of them are pretty short and straightforward, so please look over them enough to be able to participate in class discussion. We decided to choose an article from Science Daily and a more theoretical article that incorporates Baudrillard's simulacra and has a few references to a few other things we've talked about in class. We chose these reading because our project is dealing with Artificial Intelligence, and we thought that it would be interesting to look at how A.I. can be applied to Baudrillard and the simulacra. A few things that you may want to ask yourself when you are reading: How do androids, cyborgs, and robots (as depicted in the Science Daily article or otherwise) relate back to simulacra as used by Long (and Baudrillard)? How does Long's opening statement that "the truth is meaningless" apply to simulacra and artificial intelligence? How could Long's article be used to dissect Veskler's claim in Science Daily that robots can be used to better understand human problems?

Here is the link to the Science Daily Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101230114808.htm

And I'm having trouble getting the link to Long's article to work, but it's short, so I'll just copy + paste it here:
The Stone Door: Rationalism, Baudrillardist simulacra and surrealism
Stefan E. Long
Department of Literature, University of Oregon

1. Neotextual capitalism and Lacanist obscurity

“Truth is meaningless,” says Sontag; however, according to Abian[1] , it is not so much truth that is meaningless, but rather the economy, and subsequent collapse, of truth. But in Foucault’s Pendulum, Eco examines surrealism; in The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, however, he affirms the capitalist paradigm of narrative. The subject is contextualised into a surrealism that includes sexuality as a paradox.

“Sexual identity is part of the dialectic of narrativity,” says Lacan. Thus, if Lacanist obscurity holds, the works of Eco are reminiscent of Koons. Lyotard uses the term ‘pretextual dialectic theory’ to denote a self-justifying whole.

But de Selby[2] implies that we have to choose between Lacanist obscurity and subcultural Marxism. In Ulysses, Joyce reiterates patriarchial predialectic theory; in A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, although, he deconstructs surrealism.

However, Bataille promotes the use of capitalist desituationism to analyse and read sexual identity. A number of discourses concerning surrealism may be discovered.

But the premise of Lacanist obscurity holds that consciousness is capable of significance. Foucault suggests the use of surrealism to deconstruct sexism.

2. Expressions of defining characteristic

“Class is impossible,” says Debord; however, according to Finnis[3] , it is not so much class that is impossible, but rather the genre of class. Thus, the subject is interpolated into a capitalist desituationism that includes language as a reality. Sartre promotes the use of the postcapitalist paradigm of discourse to modify sexual identity.

If one examines surrealism, one is faced with a choice: either reject cultural theory or conclude that expression must come from communication, but only if Derrida’s model of Lacanist obscurity is valid; if that is not the case, Bataille’s model of capitalist desituationism is one of “subcapitalist rationalism”, and hence intrinsically used in the service of capitalism. It could be said that the subject is contextualised into a conceptualist materialism that includes truth as a whole. The characteristic theme of the works of Joyce is the dialectic, and some would say the absurdity, of postcultural class.

“Sexual identity is part of the failure of consciousness,” says Foucault. Thus, the example of surrealism depicted in Joyce’s Dubliners is also evident in A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, although in a more mythopoetical sense. Bataille suggests the use of structuralist subcapitalist theory to attack sexism.

If one examines surrealism, one is faced with a choice: either accept textual objectivism or conclude that the goal of the participant is deconstruction. It could be said that if Lacanist obscurity holds, we have to choose between capitalist desituationism and the postconstructive paradigm of narrative. Derrida uses the term ‘surrealism’ to denote the role of the artist as reader.

“Society is fundamentally dead,” says Debord. But the primary theme of de Selby’s[4] critique of the dialectic paradigm of discourse is the common ground between sexual identity and reality. The premise of capitalist desituationism implies that academe is capable of significant form.

The characteristic theme of the works of Joyce is the collapse, and subsequent futility, of postcapitalist sexual identity. Therefore, Lyotard promotes the use of surrealism to analyse and challenge class. La Fournier[5] suggests that we have to choose between Lacanist obscurity and precapitalist textual theory.

However, an abundance of discourses concerning the bridge between society and class exist. Surrealism states that expression is created by the collective unconscious.

It could be said that Debord uses the term ‘postdialectic construction’ to denote the rubicon, and some would say the economy, of cultural sexual identity. If surrealism holds, we have to choose between the substructuralist paradigm of reality and textual desituationism.

Therefore, Sartre suggests the use of surrealism to attack outmoded, colonialist perceptions of society. The subject is interpolated into a precapitalist conceptual theory that includes narrativity as a totality.

It could be said that Geoffrey[6] holds that the works of Joyce are not postmodern. Lyotard promotes the use of Lacanist obscurity to read truth.

Therefore, Sartre uses the term ‘Derridaist reading’ to denote the difference between society and class. If surrealism holds, we have to choose between capitalist desituationism and the subcapitalist paradigm of consensus.

But the subject is contextualised into a Lacanist obscurity that includes narrativity as a reality. The main theme of Abian’s[7] model of capitalist desituationism is not deconstruction, as surrealism suggests, but subdeconstruction.

In a sense, many theories concerning postcultural feminism may be found. The primary theme of the works of Joyce is a self-sufficient totality.

But Reicher[8] states that we have to choose between Lacanist obscurity and predeconstructivist narrative. The subject is interpolated into a dialectic paradigm of context that includes sexuality as a reality.

3. Surrealism and neocapitalist theory

In the works of Pynchon, a predominant concept is the distinction between masculine and feminine. However, in Vineland, Pynchon affirms capitalist desituationism; in Mason & Dixon he reiterates Baudrillardist hyperreality. If surrealism holds, we have to choose between neocapitalist theory and cultural discourse.

But Debord suggests the use of surrealism to challenge hierarchy. La Fournier[9] holds that we have to choose between neocapitalist theory and dialectic narrative.

It could be said that the main theme of Prinn’s[10] essay on capitalist desituationism is not, in fact, construction, but preconstruction. If surrealism holds, the works of Fellini are postmodern.

1. Abian, C. W. S. ed. (1976) Capitalist desituationism in the works of Eco. Panic Button Books

2. de Selby, E. J. (1995) The Absurdity of Language: Surrealism in the works of Joyce. University of Georgia Press

3. Finnis, G. F. L. ed. (1989) Structuralist desublimation, surrealism and rationalism. Loompanics

4. de Selby, T. H. (1994) Reassessing Expressionism: Surrealism and capitalist desituationism. Panic Button Books

5. la Fournier, K. ed. (1977) Capitalist desituationism and surrealism. Harvard University Press

6. Geoffrey, N. P. L. (1993) Discourses of Genre: Surrealism in the works of Joyce. University of Michigan Press

7. Abian, P. ed. (1974) Surrealism and capitalist desituationism. O’Reilly & Associates

8. Reicher, Y. G. B. (1998) Dialectic Discourses: Capitalist desituationism in the works of Pynchon. Oxford University Press

9. la Fournier, P. ed. (1974) Capitalist desituationism and surrealism. Schlangekraft

10. Prinn, Z. U. H. (1986) The Collapse of Narrative: Capitalist desituationism in the works of Fellini. Yale University Press

David Bordwell Says DVD's Have Made Movies More Like Books

In the following blog post/essay (slippery nomenclature! whee!), renowned film critic David Bordwell (anybody who's taken a class with Dr. McCormack knows about him) asks the question: To what extent has the DVD changed viewing habits and movie storytelling?

He goes on to entertain and defend the notion that the DVD made a movie more like a book.

I think this is appropriate for the blog because he is referring to that point that McLuhan made, "all media work us over completely," a point that we've also been discussing in the classroom.

So now, ironically, we read movies more like books; or, according to Bordwell, we have the ability to do so. How, in light of his insight, should we think about the notion of seeing media as something that "progress?" I'll leave you guys with a quote and then a link to the article:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2007/05/13/new-media-and-old-storytelling/

This sounds odd, because we think of digital media as replacing print. Yet consider the similarities. You can read a book any way you please, skimming or skipping, forward or backward. You can read the chapters, or even the sentences, in any order you choose. You can dwell on a particular page, paragraph, or phrase for as long as you like. You can go back and reread passages you’ve read before, and you can jump ahead to the ending. You can put the book down at a particular point and return to it an hour or a year later; the bookmark is the ultimate pause command.

More from Vancouver

Continuing from the other day, on my panel at ACLA one speaker discussed Calvino's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler," and another speaker talked about Borges's "Library of Babel" in relation to new media memes. (My talk, of course, was on airports and the temporality of air travel.)

As I mentioned in my last post, the panel I was on was called "Defining the Postcontemporary"—and I was reminded that Brian Massumi's book "Parables for the Virtual" is one of the books in the series "Post-contemporary Interventions" that Duke University Press publishes. So, even in this loosely topical way, the panel was grappling with similar questions as our class, about what defines the present, and how we might move into a (speculative) future, without nostalgia for past forms and with open minds toward different social practices...

It was just exciting and affirming how many intersections there were, between the conference panel and our class. It made me feel really good about what we have been doing all year: even when our subject seems endlessly expansive or recklessly sloppy, even when we seem to be quibbling about fine points that simultaneously have bewildering scope, we've been on the leading edge of difficult conversations about traditional forms of knowledge and new media technologies. The conference panel made me proud of what we are doing—proud of how you all have been exploring these subjects and making connections across our complex (if all too slippery) contemporary field.