Hot vs. Cold... Media?

   So in terms of media, what really is "hot," and what is "cold"? It all depends on whether there is "high definition" or "low definition"; it depends on the concentration of data. The more mechanical something is, the hotter it is; opposite, the more rustic and less industrial something is, the cooler it is.
One way to look at "hot" and "cool" is to think: "performance" and "rehearsal," respectively. "Hot" is tightly uniform and packed, precise even; "cold" is more fluid, more flexible, not so definite.

   We can observe is that as technology develops, humans become bored with the present and past technology and look for better. Humanity becomes more dissatisfied, more prone to complaints rather than action because there is a dependency that is formed with the advancement of technology.

In this course, I think we work to combine the "hot" and the "cold" forms of media. We try to combine the mechanical and computational components with the abstractness of art and the creativity that doesn't come from technology but from being human and imaginative.

Does "natural" exist? Pg 10-20 Discussion

With the advancements and increased involvement of technology, is it possible that anything in the world is "natural" anymore? Is it possible to say that anything is organic and in its truest, unaltered state?

Control strategies are an example of how technology has come to affect humanity--rather than focusing on the integrity of a human, the main concern is in terms of statistics and numbers, focusing on stabilizing birth rates and maximizing goal achievements. Technology makes us more like cyborgs and robots; it creates a system to chart humanity in, to study how to change it. We become codes of communication.

So if we were to consider ourselves as code, the next question would be: What are we striving towards and what is the optimal/perfect code technology is pushing us towards?

Some may technology is developing the world for the homework economy. I truly can't say what I believe will happen in the future and what society will become.

Cyborg Manifesto

     In "Cyborg Manifesto" Donna Haraway tries to confront many existential observations. She believes that most people identify themselves and the ones around them according to gender, class, and species. Haraway claims that this is a problem because most people, instead of using these three attributes as simply a description, use these three attributes as identities. Haraway claims that most people are confusing what is a description with what is the most important element of a person- their identity.

     Haraway knows that since many of us have identified with a specific gender, class, and species for our whole lives that it can be difficult for us to imagine identifying ourselves any other way. To get around that, Haraway uses the cyborg metaphor.

Cyborg Manifesto-What if?

In Donna Harraway's Cyborg Manifesto, she writes about how she thinks cyborgs in a way mirror the liberation of women in the late twentieth century since they move us from something that is science fiction into something that is real. We are liberated from life and death, and we would be outside of the salvation history of human kind. Cyborgs are a hybrid between machinery and humans, and yet, there are important distinctions. For example, cyborgs themselves are genderless. So, what would a genderless society look like? There would be no distinction in roles between men and women, no oppression based on gender, and an unnatural way for reproduction. Harraway writes about how much of the Western politics and religious traditions would be gone, along with their restrictive male dominated culture. In addition, a world with cyborgs would be one without end since they cannot return to dust, and cannot form families. The social structure would be broken, and no group can form a hierarchy as the one that exists in our world. They would have no reverence to anything holy since they would be unable to connect with it, but they might be into united politics. Harraway also contests that under the evolutionary theory, humans and animals are very closely related to each other, and that there exists a connection between nature versus culture that has not been fully recognized up to this date. Another distinction she made was between the organic nature of animals and humans versus the mechanical nature of cyborgs. Cyborgs would lack a clear will of their own since their will would mirror that of their creators, which are mankind. They would also lack what we refer to as a soul. Another major difference between cyborgs and humans is that modern technology allows for ubiquity under the quantum mechanics principle, so cyborgs could be nonphysical or easily invisible if made to be so. Humans, on the other hand, have a determinate position in time.
All of the parallels that Harraway makes between the natures of both humans and cyborgs gives us an introspective perspective of humanity, but also lets us ponder on the possibilities that would exist in a post-human society.

Cyborg Manifesto

Cyborgs are creations that are hybrids of life and machinery/technology. They mimic reality, but could also be completely fantasy-like. A cyborg has infinitely many possibilities of what it is determined as. Typically, when I think of a cyborg, I am imagining a robotic, human-like structure, but as I said previously, a cyborg could be anything.

 Feminism is a social construct. As said in the Cyborg Manifesto, consciousness is an achievement, as well as uniting women. I think it's important to be aware of the circumstances that limit a woman's rights and to stand against those who oppose women's equal rights. On another note, the structures of gender, race, and social classes are bound by history, and will continue to be factors in the future as they change.

Welcome to Responsive Arts

Hello folks, and welcome to the course blog for Responsive Arts at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts! I'm excited to get to work with you all throughout the semester.

This will be the repository for your responses to assigned theoretical readings in the course. Whenever a reading is assigned, you will post a response to that reading the following week on this blog. This is a way to add to the conversations we will have about these readings in class. Post your thoughts and any associations you have with the material in the reading here in the form of thoughts, questions, or other items like pictures, videos, and links that might contribute to the conversation.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys make and guiding you through this semester!