“Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by Alan Turing

“Computing Machinery and Intelligence” was written by an expert in the field of artificial intelligence. Alan Turing created the “Turing Test”, which I found exciting and interesting. This whole concept is over my head, and naturally so since I am not an expert in computer intelligence. I think that art and technology are seperate entirely, but can work together to create new and interesting concepts and mediums of art. They will always be different things with different goals and meanings. They will develop simultaneously as two parts of our growing and developing world, whether they work together or not. Can computers really become more intelligent than us? Some people believe they already are, and that could be seen as positive or negative. I think it could be very beneficial to the human race as a whole, but the impications are a little frightening…

“A Cyborg Manifesto” Donna Haraway

  Haraway presents the idea that we are all cyborgs and we have become this way through mutations in media, technology and social organizations.  Her definition of a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of a machine and organism; a creature of social reality and fiction. A quote that I found eerily interesting is: “The cyborg is resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity.”To claim that we are all cyborgs in a “post gender” world is scary and reminds me of science fiction movies, as it seems to be a popular theme. She says we are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism. Again, I find this to be frightening if its at all true. What makes this “manifesto” feminist is that unlike the dualist socialist-feminism, a cyborg feminist is only interested in looking forward. Cyber-feminism is seen as more progressive than its predecessor who looked back to Marxism for answers.

  Haraway breaks down traditional boundaries into three divisions, the first being human and animal. Here she refers to the animal rights movements as a prime example for “a clear-sighted recognition of connection across the discredited breach of nature and culture.”Then she moves on to the human/animal and machine relationship. I agree with Haraway’s observation that the technologies of our time have given us a frame of mind that never existed before, a part of us that recognizes the difference between natural and artificial. The last distinction that she makes is between the physical and non physical. She suggests that because we cannot fully rid our minds of these differences and boundaries, feminists in particular should give up the utopian dream of some return to nature and purity. The answer to all of this is the cyborg. She says that if we are all cyborgs, then we can experience a whole new set of social and political practices and we can decide what is appropriate instead of relying on the rigid set of standards that have existed thus far.

  Technology and informatics have become so advanced that societal norms are becoming obsolete and the roles that people played are changing. We are attempting to find some common ground through a universal language and cybernetics is the system through which some sort of control is being attempted. We are now going beyond dualism to a point that is blurring the boundary between human and non human.

  In order for me to really absorb the point Haraway was trying to get across, I reread several sections of the manifesto. The ideas represented here are so foreign to me, which I suppose was to be the idea, but I find the whole thing to be terrifying. To think of society in the comfortable way I understand it to be and then to know that it is changing beneath our feet into something that is so unnatural and artificial-it is a little uncomfortable. I do feel challenged however, to pay attention to my surroundings and really observe the roles that I play. At first, I thought the writer was a little crazy and maybe had read too many science fiction novels, but the more I tried to wrap my brain around her ideas, the more they made sense to me. I wonder what she thinks about how far we have come since 1985…

I found this interesting video interpretation of the manifesto. Its a little cheesy, but worth watching.

breakdown of “As we may think” by Vannevar Bush

In his essay entitled “As we may think“, Vannevar Bush addresses the meaning of “new media”. He defines new media as computer based artistic activity. It is a placeholder until a more accurate term develops and something new takes on the identity of “new”. I agree with this definition. It seems that it is the best way to make sense of the term, because after all, “new” is never permanent description. Bush came up with eight propostions to answer the question: What is new media? They are as follows:

1. New media is cultural computing whereas cyberculture is social computing.

Bush says that the study of cultural objects is the domain of new media. Hasn’t that been the domain for art in general for centuries?

2. New media is computer technology used as a distribution platform

That is to say that according to popular press, new media is cultural objects which use computer technology for distribution and exhibition. This leaves out paper-based publications. Included in new media is the internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD Roms, DVDs, virtual reality, and special effects. Not included in this definition are television programs, films, magazines, books, and other paper-based publications. This seems contradictory because the latter group uses computing technologies for production and storage, but this definition is referring to final distribution, to which they do not conform.

3. New media is digital data controlled by software

An example of this is that it is easy to find a word in a text through a simple search, but it is difficult to find an object within an image.

4. New media is the mix between existing cultural conventions and the convenetions of software

An example of this is a clickable image map.

5. New media is the aesthetics that accompanies the early stage of every new modern media and communication technology

Everything is new media at first. Examples are photography, t.v., cinema, telephones, and the internet.

6. New media is faster executions of algorithms

Algorithms were previously executed manually, but thanks to technological advancement, it can be programmed and solved in a fraction of the time.

7. New media is the encoding of modernist avant garde/ metamedia

8. New media is the parallel articulation of similar ideas in post WWII art and modern technology

  The proposition of #5 is a redundant statement, but makes the most sense to me. Every new media is “new media” in the beginning. “Media” refers to the medium by which art is created. Digital art and art that is conceived through technology is the conception of our generation. The medium of technology in art is relatively new and constantly evolving, so that leads me to believe that it will be considered “new media” for some time. When compared with classical art of ancient times, the technology and digital art of the even the last 50 years still feels “new”.