– Innovation and progress is hindered by scientific regulation –

Another interesting statement proposed in the lecture this week, I am going to try and unpack this as best as I can.

I think that it is more like Innovation and progress is hindered by regulation. Because in reality, scientists are always trying to push the boundaries of what can be achieved, however, there are many factors that can contribute to the limitations that may be experienced during innovation and progress. One of the most notable set backs in scientific progress, as well as the push for human innovation, is religion. I have no intention of trying to be rude or negative towards religion, instead, I use it as an example, in order to unpack this topic further. Throughout history, there has been a large conflict between science and religion. When religion and science overlap on certain topics, such as human evolution, tension is caused, often resulting in science being condemned due to religions vast power. I must note, that I am talking about very early examples of when religion played a much larger role in society than it does today, although religion still plays a great role in the lives of many people, today there is a much better acceptance of different beliefs that science and religion share. However, in the 17th century, science was rarely accepted when it challenged the beliefs of religion, namely Catholic. For example, in the 1600’s, Galileo Galilei famously challenged the Roman Catholic church over the movements of the solar system. Originally the catholic church interpreted the Bible as teaching the geocentric system in which the Earth is at the centre of the universe. The Sun, Moon, other planets and stars revolve around the Earth. However, Galileo Galilei questioned this, saying that our world actually operated in a heliocentric system in which the Sun is the centre of the solar system. Despite the church punishing Galileo for this discovery, it wasn’t until 350 years later when John Paul II addressed the conflict between Galileo and the church without admitting the church was wrong. This is just one small event in the large amount of controversy that has sparked between the church and science, however, it is important to recognise that it is not necessarily science that regulates innovation, I believe that majority of time, even today, scientists are very restricted to innovate due to externally bodies. Other notably feuds between the Church and Science:

• Creation and evolution
• Beliefs concerning the LGBT community

In the current day of science, there are many aspects that hold progress back. I think that there are three main and perhaps only reasons that hold the development of our species back that does not necessarily have anything to do with scientific regulation.

1. Governments
2. Corporate Companies
3. Society’s morals and beliefs

These are three aspects that contribute to the restraints of innovation and progress. All the points relate to each other and contribute to the overall restriction of human development. First governments will always try to maintain ‘power’ over it’s people. If things begin to progress to0 fast, how is the government going to control the society in a stable manner, as a consequence the government would restrict the release of information or new technology that science has found, believing that people are simply not ready for what is going to come or concerned that it could cause major issues to the stability of the government. The more likely reason that ties in with governments is Corporate Companies, whose main objective is the pursuit of money. Capitalist views often restrict new ideas to come to the forefront of society. If a new discovery is made, often it has no chance of reaching the public eye without the help of major funds. Although social media, plays a role in enabling ideas to be spread easier, often, without sufficient funds, it is difficult to turn these ideas into a reality. Therefore companies, will attempt to buy out ideas, once these ideas are taken from an individual they will be manipulated so that only small bits are released to the public every so often, allowing profit to rise. It’s all about greed! The final reason, is the morals and beliefs of society. One of the hardest things to change is the beliefs and culture of an individual or community. It may take years for an idea to be successfully integrated into the community. Each new technology is met with caution, sometimes with more caution then others, stagnating progression and preventing growth in society. Sometimes people are simply not ready to accept change, change can be very hard to deal with, especially when you have fallen into a routine and that routine is disrupted by some major innovation.

Overall, I think the point I am trying to get at, is that there are many factors that prevent society from progressing and innovating. I believe that scientists want to continue to push ideas further in order unpack and understand our complex world. I doubt that scientific regulation is the main reason for humanities stunted progress in both technology and understanding the world in general. I expect that it is likely that many other factors, such as the ones I have listed above come into greater play when regulating both science and innovation.

It’s nearing the end of semester, in fact it’s week 12 and this is the last week… Let me rephrase. It is the end of semester and it is that time of the year when all the work that you once put off, comes back to haunt you during the next few weeks. With my subjects only requiring me to do assignments, I do not have to work about studying, thank God! I never want to return to the year 12 madness that once seemed to consume my whole life. However, as the days near closer to the due dates of these various projects, I am beginning to regret not getting on top of my work more and more. If you have come across some of my posts, or perhaps your an avid follow of my posts (I don’t know why you are) you probably realise my lack of time management, a trait that I continue to suggest I will get rid of, but then precede to spiral out of control and lose track of all my time. I promise i’m not taking drugs everyday to get me into this delusional state, although, it may sound like it!

Every assignment accounts, with all of them nearing 40% of my mark it is nerve wracking that if I ruin this for myself, my high hope of reaching a HD for me work in media will be ruined. Why just media you may ask? Well, I take Politics and Asian Studies as well, and to say the least, it has taken me a while to warm up to them. Regardless it is important for me to ignore the new distractions that tinder and snapchat offer me and focus on my work. It’s both comforting and concerning that majority of other people can relate to the mad mess that I consistently find myself in. Is this generation a bunch of delusional idiots who can’t tell the time? Of course we aren’t, not all of us are struggling during this mad ‘rush’, the people that actually took the time to do the work when it was due, are the ones sitting back and relaxing, drinking some tea and watching all of us (peasants) suffer. I promise, next semester will be different. But… will it though… will things really change?

(This photo represents me walking out and giving up)

In class we watched a short film about artificial intelligence, called ‘Kara’. The film explored similar concepts to many other films that have been made about robots before, such as whether robots can really feel human emotions. The film begins with a robot, named Kara, being assembled, whilst an operator asks the robot questions, testing for the quality of the product. As the film progresses we gradually see the robot, who resembles a very realistic depiction of a girl, becoming increasingly aware of her environment. As the production nears completion, Kara continues to ask questions regarding what her life is going to be like outside of the factory. To her shock and disappointment, the operator effectively tells her she is going to be a slave for someone else throughout her life. Kara begins to express clear distress regarding why she has to be a slave, which then prompts the operator to make Kara defective and preceded to terminate her. However, as Kara’s scream’s for her ‘life’ to be held onto, the operator stops the dissembling of her body, putting her back together so that she can keep the ‘life’ she believes she deserves.

The film, although nothing I haven’t really been exposed to before, was really interesting due to the amount of emotion that was conveyed through the animation. The animation is pretty incredible, not necessarily in terms of graphics, but in it’s ability to illustrate human characteristics so effectively through the robot (Kara). The film reminded me very clearly of a recent film called ‘Ex Machina’, that explores very similar concepts to what is shown in the short film, just with the added depth of a feature length. What struck me, was the uncanny similarities between ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Kara’, both from the aesthetics of the robot, to the themes of wanting to escape, even down to how the robot is assembled as well as the arrogant and comedic like personality of the operator in the short film, that can clearly be juxtaposed to the main inventor in ‘Ex Machina’, Nathan Bateman. Even the name of the robots are similar to some extent, ‘Kara’ and ‘Ava’, both sound comparable. Despite ‘Ex Machina’ being a good film that was enjoyable to watch, some of that joy that I got from the film is almost diminished by the major similarities that it seems to draw from the film ‘Kara’. Perhaps ‘Ex Machina’ was made in conjunction with the creators of ‘Kara’, but it does seem a bit strange. Nonetheless, both films where well created, it would just be interesting to find out more about the influences that went into making ‘Ex Machina’ and whether there actually was some direct things taken from the short film ‘Kara’

(TOPIC)

Machines are becoming too intuitive/intelligent

Are machines becoming too intelligent? Are we becoming to reliant on machines to do the dirty work for us? What is the future looking like for the human race?

These are questions we don’t necessarily ask, but are things that sometimes pop into our heads when looking at the evolution of technology. The push for change and the search for the unknown are key human traits that have allowed us to advance far ahead of the other species that inhabit this large planet. We have constantly tested, experimented and tried new things, looking to change the way we live in order to make our lives easier and more efficient. From the earliest forms of human existence, individuals strove to make their lives more ‘effort less’ as a means of survival. For example when humans first discovered fire, this revolutionised the way food was eaten, how people lived and contributed to an overall culture that influenced many other aspects of human life. When the wheel was invented in approximately 3,500 B.C, this transformed transport across the world, allowing new forms of travel to be born, reshaping how people could explore and communicate with each other across the world. In addition, the harness of electricity in the 18th century was crucial in shaping the many inventions that shape the way we live today such as the internet. These things may seem insignificant, however they are fundamental to how we live our lives today and are at the heart of technology where humans continue to push the limits of what can be done. Now, what I have just said may seem irrelevant, however, it is important to recognise both the many feats that have contributed to where we are today as well as the many human traits that make us want to ‘go further’ in life and push the limits of what is possible.

With this in mind, is there going to be a point in our life where we say, have we gone too far? With the constant progression of technology, we are in the midst of a robotic evolution, something that that once seemed only reserved for science fiction films. In today alone drone technology is largely becoming part of our lives. Not only used for cool ariel shots in films, drones are becoming largely accessible by the public, opening up a wide range of potential uses during this new age of robotics. For example, self automatic drones are being utilised in agriculture, surveying and treating crops by using GPS and other sophisticated tools to measure the health of the farm. Furthermore, in the near future, as close as a decade, robotic pets may become a normal thing to have in a home, substituting the usual hassles of an animal for a pet that is mess free and customisable. However, despite these new advances, we still fail to see any sign of a killer, super strong, intelligent robot that seeks to destroy everything.

In pop-culture, films perpetuate this idea that these kind of super intelligent robots that have ‘feelings’ are something of the near future. However, I cannot see that happening anytime soon, is the need for these type of robots really there yet? Perhaps there is, but despite considerable progression in robotics, I think in the next 30 years we are more likely to see robots that do day to day functions rather than acting independently. The most notably example of this technology is the Asimo robot, something that I can see progressing into workplaces and households. I think that machines have the potential to act like intelligent human beings, but, I do not believe we will be seeing Terminators roaming the streets in the near future. At the end of the day, we are the ones that decide how far we want to push the limits of robotic technology, if things go out of hand there is always potential to limit a robots abilities, it just depends on how fast we act on it before it becomes too late!

Media Materialism:

Today we unpacked what media materialism is. We looked at cultural aspects of media and how they contribute to the development of texts. Here is a summary of what I took down from the lecture.

The cloud isn’t really in the cloud:

Technology: Compilation of skills and knowledge across different products. Things processes and skills. Ideology, cultural values. Incorporates the skills and processes that are uniquely human. How do humans manipulate language?

Technique: Anything that is both effective but something that is passed down in cultures or traditions. E.g. Walking, talking.

Culture: Identifying subgroups in a larger population (youth culture)

The world as a culture, humankind, man as a whole, and how we operate as a species.

Art theatre, cinema: Creative expression

Culture is multiple, it contains various different ethnicities. It is both messy and confused. Brian Eno, Culture is everything we don’t have to do. These include things that we don’t necessarily need to survive. We all need to eat, but the different types of cuisines and restaurants that we go to is part of a culture. We need shelter and clothing, but having various styles of houses from a small town house to a mansion is part of a culture, much like having expensive clothing labels. These are aspects of life that don’t ‘need’ to have, but these are aspects that contribute to the unique culture of individuals that inhabit this world. Culture is vulnerable to market forces, politics and consumer taste. Culture is not only something that we do, but also something that we are.

Technological determinism, each development has a preconceived course, talk about things like the steam age or the industrial age. Advances in technology change how we live and see the world. E.g the walkman, this was a massive revolution in listening to music, now we were not reserved to the privacy of our home to listen to music, now is was possible to listen to music on the go, wherever you were.

Dziga Vertov:  Is a renowned film maker, known predominantly for his work in documentary film making, said to be the pioneer of this genre. Drawn to to the ability of film to capture human life and tell stories, Vertov has famously said that film is ‘The only way to capture the chaos and complexity of life’.

Key terms that came out of the lecture: Social Constructivism, Cultural materialism.

These are concepts and statements that I am going to be unpacking in the next few blogs, exploring my interpretation of what these mean in our complex life.

• Technological determinism is a valid way of looking at the world
• Humanity is in charge of its own future
• Innovation and progress is hindered by scientific regulation
• Machines are becoming too intuitive/intelligent:
• Kara

Dust has negligible matter, but it has great power: The video game, ‘The Last of us’ was used as an example in order to explore the concept of ‘dust’. Furthermore this text illustrates the large amount of media material that have storylines that revolve around a post-apocalyptic era, where there is a strong sense of survival throughout the narrative.

Notable storylines that incorporate this concept of survival:

• The last of Us
• The Road
• The Walking Dead
• I am Legend
• The Book of Eli
• Resident Evil
• Fall Out

Things that I have to do this week in my Blog:

• What you’ve learn’t
• How you learn
• What you found most challenging in the course
• What you discovered about your own creative process
• Final post that references a selection of 5 posts from throughout the semester that you think best demonstrates your engagement with the course. Links to the posts. Try and illustrate how the posts demonstrate your knowledge of ideas and objectives.
• Include a scanned image of a learning graph
• Write a final reflection (500 words) learning experience of the course
• Reflection in the blog

Key discussion points that have come out of this semester:

• Discussion of media objects in terms of disciplinary frameworks
• Analyse and evaluate your own learning styles
• Explore and use a range of production technologies to make media
• Reflect upon and explain your creative choices in individual and group contexts.
• media is not a thing
• media is a public practise
• media integrates theory and practice
• media collaborate
• media is a form of research

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now – Samuel Beckett

This idea of mess explores the need develop a balance between all the stuff that feels all over the place and try using all this ‘mess’ to your advantage by making sense of it and make something useful out of it.

Glitch Art:

In this lecture I was introduced to Glitch Art. I had seen this art form before, however, I never knew what it was called. The concept intrigued me, so I did more research and asked around. Basically Glitch Art is the process of corrupting a file so that it results in parts of the image become distorted. The result of this can look aesthetically pleasing and thus the term ‘glitch art was formed’. “Glitch is predicated on exploiting wrongness to catch the sublime”. Harnessing a ‘glitch’ or a ‘technological problem’ is not new concept and goes back to a time when Tumblr and the Internet didn’t exist. Creating art out of things going ‘wrong’ dates back to 1935 where Len Lye experimented with celluloid to create short films. He burnt, scratched and painted on celluloid to create short films that were nonsensical, playful, and psychedelic. In his 1935 short film ‘A colour Box’, we see this process in action. The film is made up entirely of colours with small sections of text and imagery, the film has often been compared to that of a ‘Kaleidoscope’.

From 1935 onwards, individuals have continued to warp different media forms to create art. In the present day of the internet age, manipulating a ‘glitch’ remains a popular form of art work most commonly expressed through a GIF.  The GIF has been born out of the internet, allowing a DIY style of media/internet making to be born. GIF’s are the height of exploiting ‘flaws and mistakes’ in order to created interesting art work. Commonly found in the abyss that Tumblr seems to be, GIF’s have become ingrained in the way that we use and see the internet today. ‘Glitch art’ continues to exploit the ‘wrong’, ‘the mistakes’ and the ‘problems’,  yet in an ironic way, ‘glitch art’ remains thought provoking and often beautiful. If there is one important idea that can be taken away from ‘glitch art’ it is that anything can be turned into art as along as the individual has the audacity to pursue and experiment with ideas.