Let no-one say the Guardian (or its readers) are always deadly serious about digital cultures. Here’s a flippant piece, to prove the point: Continue reading ““Six of the best gadgets for cats: goodbye analogue mog, hello cyber hepcat” https://t.co/aq2jQtf2G9 Cyborg human/animal blurrings?? #mscedc”
Lifestream summary, week eleven
In this week of my Lifestream, a dominant theme has been the everyday diffusions of digital culture, the mundane data rather than the big data, which are a major conduit for technologies becoming normalised within consciousness and practice. This is no different to technological changes from previous stages in history, but needs documenting and researching, as some of the Lifestream posts this week document.
This also has a cross-cutting tension within it. Technologies easily infuse when they appear to augment ordinary life. Pink et al. (2017) report on fitness devices, and on any Saturday morning of the year, thousands of people will run in Parkruns across the UK, carrying their bar-codes to the finish, many armed with personal data-gathering devices of their own. It’s an ordinary sight in an ordinary site. But, as other Lifestream posts indicate, the simple addition of the suffix ‘-augmented’ can be deceptive for critical thinking and action. The emerging constellation of digital assemblages is too complex for that.
A final theme highlighted in this week’s Lifestream anticipates what I think will predominate its closing stages within the EDC course: looking towards the future. Is there a next stage or, even more, any kind of telos, a goal, in all this? Biggest amongst our ‘digital dilemmas’ is this: what kind of cultures are we making – and, in terms of education – what kind of learning do we want to engage in, and for what purpose? Is ‘expressive individualism’ the future – and can we even dare to ask whether it’s the best kind of future to hope for, to learn for?
Cyber cultures; community cultures; algorithmic cultures. Is there a cultural form beyond algorithmic cultures – or is this ‘it’? #mscedc
In this Tweet, I’m beginning to feel towards the end – of the Lifestream, for this course, at least. We’ve had three excellent blocks which have a fed a narrative, an interweaving one, and one that isn’t immediately teleological. Unless ‘agorithmic cultures’ are, somehow, the telos. Continue reading “Cyber cultures; community cultures; algorithmic cultures. Is there a cultural form beyond algorithmic cultures – or is this ‘it’? #mscedc”
Some of the complexities within the emerging assemblage: (2) some taxing questions about robots https://t.co/U9kOAGcwcQ #mscedc
Related with my previous Tweet, this article from the Guardian unsettles our easy assumptions of life-as-usual-but-just-with-AI-augmenting-it: Continue reading “Some of the complexities within the emerging assemblage: (2) some taxing questions about robots https://t.co/U9kOAGcwcQ #mscedc”
Some of the complexities within the emerging assemblage: (1) a fairly 360-degree view on AI, robots and jobs https://t.co/ai5ZRXnQPE #mscedc
Schools often say, these days, if they’re forward looking (or want to appear to be so) that they’re preparing learners for jobs that don’t yet exist. This article from the Guardian reports on the possibility that the problematic word might be ‘yet’: Continue reading “Some of the complexities within the emerging assemblage: (1) a fairly 360-degree view on AI, robots and jobs https://t.co/ai5ZRXnQPE #mscedc”
@CinziaPG @stanfordmag An hour long, but I think well worth the watching: ‘Lecture 2.0’: https://t.co/Q8cIkN5WUA #mscedc
Replying to this Tweet, and looking to avoid too much and too rapid a dichotomy, drawing on something I watched during, I think, the IDEL course.
Hmm. “I’m not an algorithm,” said Neil Gorsuch “judges practice and hopefully we get better at it with time” https://t.co/kx367uzT1O #mscedc
Neil Gorsuch is taking part in a US Senate Hearing regarding his nomination by Donald Trump as a Supreme Court Justice.
These quotes came from a very tactical conversation held over several days. Continue reading “Hmm. “I’m not an algorithm,” said Neil Gorsuch “judges practice and hopefully we get better at it with time” https://t.co/kx367uzT1O #mscedc”
No more back-stage cellphone-cyborgs running the Oscars: https://t.co/hpEJUtuUm0 Case of cyborgs not observing boundaries, it seems. #mscedc
I love this photograph – well done Matt Sayles for taking it. I’ve no idea why he did take it at the time but, given how the night unfolded, it became perhaps the picture from Oscars night 2017. Continue reading “No more back-stage cellphone-cyborgs running the Oscars: https://t.co/hpEJUtuUm0 Case of cyborgs not observing boundaries, it seems. #mscedc”
Imagine your browser history was up for sale https://t.co/7WCgrFhVN5 would you buy it yourself, and at what price? Or sell to whom? #mscedc
Here’s, perhaps, a thin end of a wedge:
Provisional idea for my assignment
I’m thinking of interacting with Donna Haraway’s The Cyborg Manifesto, specifically with her presentation of a ‘myth’ which is deliberately set against existing myths. As a critique, i want to problematise her locating of the biblical meta-story, what she calls ‘salvation history’. As a constructive alternative, I want to revisit and re-invigorate that biblical meta-story, to see how far it can accommodate an alternative myth for digital cultures. I hope, at least, to establish a theologically-alert reading of Haraway and, hopefully, even something more than that – I’m seeking the seeds and skeleton for a robust biblical theology of technology, its entanglements, and humanity within it. This will be important for bringing digital cultures within my professional context.
In terms of modality, I’m thinking of producing a Prezi. This seems to be a flexible format to work within, and one which will allow me some words but also restrict purely a word-based presentation and invite a graphical interface with spoken and written words. I’ll look to incorporate images (and, possibly, self-produced video clips) into it, together with sound and voice-over.
Provisional questions I have about this plan include:
- how to calculate an appropriate scope of the project?
- how to use online visual images responsibly, in terms of acknowledging sources?
- whether to ‘film’ the final product via screen capture and, if so, what kind of software will do that?
Provisional title: Humanifest? I’m grateful for any thoughts on these questions, and other thoughts, comments or questions about the idea as a whole.