Self.Net 2006: Wednesday, Midday Tutorial Blog

Reflective post

2006-10-26T14:18:00.000+08:00

Honestly, I am techno idiot. I have had no prior experience in weblogs and such things. Having said that I must point out that I do have an account in live journal or well I did, I guess.. but that’s only because one of my friends forced me to get one and I thought ‘hmm.. why not’. But I never wrote anything in there, and have never been there since the day I signed up for an account. Why? Simply because I am not interested or rather can’t force my self to go online and be part of a so called ‘virtual community’. However when I took this unit I was very much interested to see how I would deal with this whole idea of blogging and the truth is, I really loved it! It was fun and I felt that I had to at least go there every now and then just to see what others have put up and check out the comments we all made – it kind of became addictive I guess. Having to work on a weblog for this course was pretty interesting and I thought it was really helpful. This is because, you practically new each member of the that small weblogging community – everyone in your tut group (u might not know them personally but you were able to put a face to each of the webloggers name), which meant that when we were supposed to post a comment on a another’s tutorial presentation or the annotated web assignment we were sort of taught how to criticise in a constructed way. I mean we had to say what we wanted in a way that would be beneficial for that person but in a non hurtful way.

Do I consider myself as a cyborg? Well from what we have learnt if we can become a cyborg by merely wearing contact lenses or having a pacemaker and things like that, then yes, I might be a cyborg. But we all have different interpretations when it comes to ‘what makes us cyborgs’. But I don’t think we should label ourselves as such, because they become the very things that cause so many problems in this world. SO WHAT if we are cyborgs or not, it might just be another step in the evolution of humankind just like the time when we advanced from quadrepedalism to bipedal locomotion. There would not be any progress in our species if we remain stagnant as just ordinary citizens, maybe performers such as Stelarc and other like him have shown a different path that we could take – whether it is for the better or for worse – what lies ahead in the future can only be guessed at!

Hilary's reflective post

2006-10-26T00:06:00.000+08:00

While the blogging aspect of the assessment for this unit was an interesting idea, it turned out to be not so interesting for me in practice. Given that this unit was supposed to be about the construction of identity in a digital age, I found the way the blogs were used disappointingly narrow and much more simplistic than was probably necessary. If it had been more actively taken up by members of the tute to discuss the course as it progressed, or if we had been encouraged to spend some more time using the blog, or if there had been more tasks we had to take part in online as opposed to face-to-face, then I might have found it a more useful learning tool. As it was, the blogs seemed to be used more as a chute through which one pushes an assignment, never to see again until it comes back with a grade written in red at the top. I must say it was a much more convenient assignment box than one on campus, since it meant it was actually possible to keep working up to the deadline and not have to travel to uni and run across campus with a heavy bag of library books to be returned, but an assignment box nonetheless.

Whether or not I see myself as a cyborg depends rather heavily on what definition one applies to the word "cyborg". If you want to say that any contact with technology- be it through vaccinations or driving a car or momentary engagement with a video game- is enough to make somebody a cyborg, then sure, I guess I am. I think that's a rather silly definition, since the majority of the world's population has experienced some form of technology within their lives, including very newly born babies or even fetuses, but since it's the definition the unit has spent so much time exploring, I assume it's the one I'm supposed to focus on. To look at a more traditional definition of "cyborg," since that is what most people (and I'm willing to bet this includes all those academics who seem to think they're being incredibly controversial and/or clever by saying we're all cyborgs) immediately associate with the word, I do not believe that I am a cyborg because I have not undergone any irreversible procedure which incorporates cybernetic technology into my body. Having access to modern medicine, a car, a TV, a toaster- these things do not change the fact that I am the human being just as I always have been and, short of any major organ failure leading to transplants, always will be.

As might be obvious from my above comments, what I most disliked about the course was that it had a very narrow focus. If we had perhaps looked at the construction of identity in the digital age without having to first assume that we're cyborgs (an idea which most of us seemed to think was a little naff), and if perhaps we had used a wider variety of technologies- or used the blogs in more depth than we did- then perhaps the course would have been a more valuable educational experience for me. What I liked about the course was that since I did have a little previous experience with computers and blogging, and do in fact enjoy tinkering with various technologies and analysing social trends, I found the readings and discussions (that weren't still related to being cyborgs after the first few weeks) interesting without being terribly taxing. Something else I like about the course is the irony of asking us to state our likes and dislikes about it on the blogs, when I always thought that's what the anonymous surf and spot tests were for. As ironic as I've been tempted to be in response, honesty is something I value and my response has reflected this.

To anybody who is reading this, I would like to echo Anna's thanks for interesting tutorial discussions. It's been fun :)

Reflective Post

2006-10-25T10:07:00.000+08:00

When i first started this unit, i wasn't really clued in as to what it was all about. However, i liked the fact that i had a unit which solely revolved around computers and digital culture. i wouldn't say that i am the most computer literate person in the world, but this unit has helped me to understand more about vitual worlds and in particular cyborgs.

While i would not consider myself a 'cyborg' in the true sense of the word, i think this unit has helped me understand the whole the concept, and maybe pushed me a little more towards becoming one. i particularly enjoyed the week about online communities. i found this fascinating in reading about individuals connecting to each other from all over the world via digital technology.

Reflective Post

2006-10-24T01:39:00.000+08:00

I think the use of weblogs is useful for those who are new to the topics which are discussed in the units. For example, if you did not have much prior exposure to discussion of ‘cyborgs’ and other digital culture ideas then weblogs enable you access to an arena where these ideas are discussed and explored and thus contribute to a better understanding. They are also a useful tool to get to know your classmates as people often find it easier to write their opinions rather than to say them aloud. I personally found they worked well for me as I didn’t have much understanding prior to the unit of the realms of digital culture and the complications and ideas that arise from digital culture, so the weblogs helped me to further my understanding.
I don’t believe my self to be a cyborg, as I still feel as though cyborg is a term, which is more closely related to a robot, a computer simulation or something highly technical. Although I do live in a world completely surrounded by technology and I heavily rely on technology, I don’t feel as though technology as consumed me to the point that I believe myself to be a cyborg.
In this unit, i didnt like much the focus on the weblogs and the compulsary weblog postings, though I did find them beneficial at times, I would have enjoyed the unit much more without them as I often found it difficult to have access to the internet and etc etc. On the upside I enjoyed exploring areas which I previously knew little about and there were several readings which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Reflective Post

2006-10-24T01:38:00.000+08:00

Evana's reflective post

2006-10-23T22:14:00.000+08:00

At the start of this unit I was intrigued by the thought of incorporating weblogs into the course. In other units online communication has been facilitated by mediums such as WebCT, but to my mind blogs hold a far greater potential for promoting useful discussion.

To that end, the use of blogs in this unit has been interesting, but I'm not altogether convinced that the potential of blogs has been taken advantage of in full. My main qualm was with Blogger. I'm not a big fan of Blogger and found it a little tedious to use, particularly when it came to creating a new post.

I think that the blogging part of the unit could have been reined in a little, with perhaps weekly suggestions for topics of discussion. Having set questions to answer or a very specific topic to discuss centralizes the debate as opposed to seeing dozens of different posts and not knowing which to reply to or whether a discussion will be fired up if you even comment.

In terms of whether I think that I'm a cyborg... the answer would have to be no. While I interact with technology on a daily, hourly, minute-ly basis, I don't feel that it has made me any less human. I don't think that mere psychological connectedness to computerized technology qualifies a person as a cyborg.

To consider the definition of a cyborg, I think that the word 'cybernetic' is essential to the concept. I think that to be a cyborg, you would need to have some sort of robotic implant which you utterly depend on or which would cripple your functioning if you were to be without it. A theoretical and fun way of thinking about it, or testing for "cyborgness" would be to set off an electro-magnetic pulse in a room filled with people. Whoever was affected by the pulse adversely could then be considered a cyborg. I'm not totally sure how pacemakers work, but I think that the EMP would probably make it malfunction. So by that reasoning, the person would be a cyborg because they have a robotic device implanted in them that aids their functioning, or is central to it.

Overall, I enjoyed this unit and the sorts of issues it made us consider. I found it interesting to discuss and explore the various facets of information and communication technology and our mutual relationship with it - how we have shaped its development and how it has shaped us.

Reflective Post

2006-10-20T18:01:00.000+08:00

I think the weblogs have complimented the course nicely. Participating in the weblogs is probably that most effective way of demonstrating how blogs function and what it is like to take part in them. Aside from this I felt that the blogs fit well with the tutorial. I liked having the chance to read everyone’s webliography and see how others’ ideas resembled or differed from my own. Also I enjoyed reading the interesting side notes that were posted. All in all I think that the weblogs were a good experience. We may not have used the weblog to its full potential, but I certainly think it was worthwhile and useful to the course.

After taking this course I still don’t think that I am a cyborg, at least in the sense that the terminator or Stelarc can be seen as cyborgs. I may spend hours in front of my computer and have my phone close by at all times, but I don’t see these things as part of myself. I could live with out them if I had to. If I lost my phone it wouldn’t be the same as losing a limb. The technology I depend upon is to an extent replaceable and expendable. Maybe we become cyborgs when technology stops being expendable to us. Or maybe we become cyborgs when the body starts becoming replaceable. While this course has demonstrated how the self can be constructed through technology, I agree with theorists like Sherry Turkle and Martti Lahti that remind us that identity continues to remain very much embodied.

This course was, for the most part, an interesting and enjoyable one. In particular I thought the workshops were a fun way to expand upon the ideas that were talked about in the lectures. I liked that the workshops broadened the mediums through which the course material was communicated and I don’t think that the unit would have been as successful or enjoyable if they had been excluded. It’s also great to take a course that diverges from the usual lecture-tutorial format.

Rae's Reflective Post

2006-10-20T15:57:00.000+08:00

I think weblogs have a great deal of potential as tools for learning, though I am not convinced that this potential was particularly well-used in this instance. I was disappointed with the lack of general involvement of the tutorial blogs in the unit, and feel that a greater focus in online interaction would be preferable, increasing the usefulness of the weblogs and allowing a greater exploration of some of the topics covered in the unit.

I do not believe I am a cyborg. I found the arguments of various theorists that engagement with the modern, technological world makes a human into a cyborg unconvincing; if we are cyborgs now, then we were, equally, cyborgs a century ago, when we started using telephones to enhance our ability to communicate, or three hundred years ago, when we had learnt to inoculate ourselves against disease, or three thousand years ago, when the lame took up using crutches to replace damaged or missing limbs, or thirty thousand years ago, when we took up wearing clothes to enhance our surviveability in adverse conditions. If interaction with technology shifts us from the human to the posthuman, then we have never been human; since I find the idea that the concept of humanity which has sufficed throughout our history is somehow entirely negated ridiculous, I conclude that I am not a cyborg.

I found the exploration of concepts of identity and the social and political consequences of the digital revolution interesting, but I was frustrated by many theorists; it seems that many academics work in this field despite having a poor comprehension of computers, the internet, and what seem to me to be the foundation concepts on which the study is based. The course readings were consequently quite difficult to take seriously, containing as they did many fundamental factual errors and inadequacies.

Kathryn's Reflective Blogging Post

2006-10-20T14:57:00.000+08:00

Blogging as a part of this unit I think has been quite important. If it hadn’t been involved in the course, some people would never have made a post in their lives on anything, making me think it would have been difficult for them to fully engage with the webblogging topics we covered.
For my part, blogger and I shall never be friends. Give me livejournal, deadjournal, anything but blogger. Having to validate your humanity with every post gets irritating (the word verification to make sure you’re not a spamming-advertising-machine). The layout is uncomfortable (small writing) and uncustomiseable. Additionally, there is only a temporally descending display of posts, while posting on a messageboard for example would allow some categorization of the different sorts of posts.

Am I a cyborg? I would meet all the criteria by the majority this unit’s readings. And unlike many others in this unit, my dependence on technology is at the level where (for medical reasons) I would not function without it. However, despite all this, I feel the biological, material aspect of my identity dominates and is so demanding (wanting feeding, causing pain, etc) that it sidelines the mechanical. If I am a cyborg, it is not enough! The constant physical limitations are too distracting to embrace a functional cyborg identity – perhaps in the future further cyborgization will solve this? I’m reminded of dog-identity, where its commonly thought that a cross-breeding often results in offspring having the best qualities of both parents. Or the philosophy behind the Borg, where incorporating as much of everything into their culture is the Borg way to achieve perfection. Or the Mesoamerican incorporation of the Christian god as another element into the supernatural pantheon already populated by foreign deities (“The devil and the saints in the conquest of Mexico”, by Fernando Cervantes). I think part of my response is best expressed through an understanding of the anime Lain (1998), where Lain creates an identity for herself with no basis on anything material. Eventually, finding this identity preferable, she changes to exist only in The Wired (the internet) and as a cyborg with equal distribution between machine and biological identity, she deletes her physical identity (in both its machine and biological forms). So you can’t have a cyborg where you just keep adding machine to human, there needs to be some loss of humanity accompanying the process. As I have always known myself to act at the same level of humanity, cyborg conceptuality is difficult to accept. If all people are like this, shouldn't "cyborg" be assimilated into the umbrella of "human"?

One thing I particularly liked about this course was its overlap with science fiction, and the understandings that can be reached through use of pop culture.

Anna's Reflective Post

2006-10-20T14:17:00.000+08:00

I thought the weblogs provided a useful practical component to the unit. We are in a unique position to be able to compare a real life and virtual community where we had the same people and discussions. Which was more effective? I found our real life community more productive because I can never discount the importance of face-to-face contact and the benefits of communicating in synchronous time. I do have an interesting observation to make though: this is the only tutorial that I’ve ever had where I was never able to learn peoples’ names. This is very unusual for me and I wonder if I have perhaps underestimated the impact the weblog’s virtual community had on my real life community of the tutorial.

I believe there is a distinction we need to make between ‘living in a technological age’ and ‘being a cyborg’. I would argue that we all are likely to rely on the technological trappings that shape our day to day lives, but this doesn’t necessarily mean we become a cyborg. Therefore, unless we have undergone an irreversible procedure to our physical body, I would argue that we’re not cyborgs.

Thanks for the interesting discussions over the semester.

Reflective Post

2006-10-20T10:40:00.000+08:00

Reflecting back on this course I am still unsure as to whether or not I believe myself to be a cyborg. To be quite honest, the thought of being a cyborg still scares me! Ultimately, I think that to be a cyborg one must be implanted with cybernetic technology, simply using a mobile phone for example, does not constitute being a cyborg in my opinion.

Before this course I had never used a weblog before and therefore found the new experience interesting. I must admit it was a little daunting having to post up my webliography for peer comment but it proved useful as I gained a great deal of insight from reading other people’s submissions. Overall, I enjoyed the online workshops the most and the incorporation of media throughout various lectures. Having no previous knowledge in most of the topics covered in this course, I enjoyed the content and found it to be a great learning experience.

Brendan's Reflective Post

2006-10-19T17:08:00.000+08:00

I thought weblogs were a brilliant inclusion in the course, and very relevant to the material covered in terms of virtual communities and blogging enterprises. I like the interactive nature of weblogs, and how you can comment on other people's posts. In some ways weblogs are like a utopian online tutorial discussion, it would be interesting to see an anonymous tutorial weblog where the participants don't know the identity of the other users. Even more interesting would be to hold a live tutorial discussion online through blogging software, although maybe that would begin to resemble a chat room. I found weblogs to be a very useful learning tool, though they are certainly different to lectures and tutorials!

Since the beginning of the course I have been trying to work out if I am a cyborg. On the one hand, I rely greatly on technology to go about my daily life. But on the other, I don't have any artifical components such as a pacemaker or hip replacement. Therefore, I feel that I am a pseudo-cyborg, still within the realms of humankind but also on the fringes of a world inhabited by Robocops and Mosquitors.

I thought the weblogs were the best part of the course - as far as I know it is the only unit which has weblogs in it and I found them to be quite interesting. Interacting online with class members was an enjoyable experience and the online workshops were fun - particularly the one on games!

Shan-Chun’s Reflective post

2006-10-19T01:18:00.000+08:00

I really enjoyed our weblogs in this course, especially to experience the technology as part of our learning. As the old said “actions speaks louder than words.” We had been discussing the relationship between technology and bodies in the areas of cyberculture, cyberpunk, cyberbodies, cybertypes, technological embodiment, virtual ethics, online communities, online games and flash mobs. By attending online workshop I have experienced the political simulation games, it gives me deeper understanding of what is political simulation games. We were formed in ‘Wednesday midday tutorial blog’ group as an online community, it brings me more sense of what is and how virtual community functions operations. By switching from ‘real’ (in class) to ‘virtual’ (weblog), we are experiencing the fantasy of cyberspace!

By participating and responding to each other’s works online, it is different compared to in-class discussion. As I found that it makes me to be more daring to voice my opinion online rather than in class. As reason being, English as my second language, I think slower and speak slower than others. Sometimes, I do have comments to make but it is hard for me to translate it to English by the time words comes to my mind the topic just passed. Therefore is kind of hard for me to express my opinions in class. In another words, without this weblog maybe I cannot survive through this course. Therefore, I think I am a cyborg! As the weblog is a part of my mouth!

In point of fact, I love this course’s contents so much. However, to be honest evaluate what I disliked about the course, is the in class tutorial discussion. I bring my mind, I bring my heart, I bring myself, I bring my soul, I bring my ears, I bring my brand, I bring all my organ, but did not bring my mouth. I hardly say something in class. I still think that I am a cyborg, without the computer, without the internet, I am like losing my mouth.

reflective post

2006-10-18T15:54:00.000+08:00

At the end of this course, i am still pretty apprehensive about using weblogs. personally, i would never create, keep or use a weblog. However, this is a unit based on the use of techonology and weblogs are inherently part of the course.So, in the view of using a weblog for this unit, i must say it has been an eye-opener. tutorial weblogs have been a useful part for this unit and i have found the process of using a weblog much much more easier after the initial workshop. I do not see any problem in using weblogs as part of the university course as being in university is all about learning.

With regards to what defines a cyborg, i am a firm believer that a cyborg is one that has been implanted with artificial technology such as metal arms/legs, bionic ears/eyes -to keep one alive or to make one's life easier. So, i am definately not a cyborg and my answer is the same as it was at the beginning of the unit.

At the end of this course, at least, i possess the know-how of the blogging sensation that is overtaking the world.

reflective post

2006-10-18T13:33:00.000+08:00

In evaluating the use of the weblogs for learning purposes I would say that posting comments online was an easy and interesting way to communicate with other memebers of the tutorial. I think that the weblog provides an environment in which most would feel safe and confident in sharing their opinions. In some ways, weblogging is almost not as confronting as direct physical contact with a person but on the other hand not as final as words on paper either. Remembering to post all six of the required posts was sometimes difficult and admmitingly I didn't really use the blog to comment on anything outside of these, but I still considered it to work well for me as I enjoyed posting them.

Do I see myself a cyborg? I dont really know. Im still sitting on the fence with this one. I agree in part with the point raised today that in order to be a cyborg one must inherently possess some sort of computer mediated technology but then I also see how this definition of a cyborg is increasingly becoming more problematic with the evolution of external technology/objects becoming addictive or pyhsologically embeddded within society (ie a mobile phones) but I still dont really know to what extent I consider myself a cyborg...not much I guess, I dont really fit either of the above definitions!

Overall I thought the course was well organized and interesting and enjoyed the contemplative discussion that arose from our tutorial.

Posthuman Possibilities

2006-10-18T08:03:00.000+08:00

“Posthuman Possibilities” Cyborg Citizen.

The main themes of this article include
-Discussion of the political breeding ground conductive of human-cyborg reconciliation and proliferation
-The pervasive nature of machines in everyday lifestyle
-Future prospects for man, machine, life and everything.

It is taken for granted in this section of the larger novel Cyborg Citizens that Gray has already convinced us of our innate cyborg symbiosis. This chapter of the book represents Gray’s thoughts on how cyborgs interact with the organic aspect of the world, as well as the political and individual. Cyborgization is presented as another well-politicized issue, alongside race and politics (and it encodes its own race and political issues) and it’s main foe is a totalitarianist take on any existing political opinion. “On the Net,” write Gray, “race and gender distinctions dissolve, but access to the Net is clearly a class (and therefore a race and national) issue” (p.188).

Touching on cyborg political issues – and the cyborgization of the political process, Gray looks at specifics and anecdotes. With an understanding that nostalgia is longing for the unattainable, Gray indulges anyway. The article views the future as a definite point in time, and details how the future is (or will be) the lesser of two evils when given the option to progress with cyborg lives or return to a pre-industrial era state.

Quotes to consider:
“Cyborg technoscience renders mass society a thing of horror. Uniformity is technically possible as it has never been before, making totalitarianism a nightmare to be feared. The only alternative is to go in the other direction and allow for the blossoming of cyborg citizenship in its many forms. Yes, it will have its horrifying moments, and the reaction of those who fear change will be more horrifying still. But reaching toward greater democracy, stronger citizenship, and a proliferation of human and posthuman possibilities is our only choice besides a turn to the past that, since it would be in the context of postmodern technoscience, would make the Holocaust and the Gulag look like rehearsals.” (p.201)

“To fail to come to terms with our cyborgian situation as part of both organic (the “natural” and machinic (industrial civilization) realms would be fatal. Crashing either of these systems will end humanity, and yet the two systems often seem to be on a collusion course. Perhaps this is how the repressed is returning in cyborg – as imperfection, self-contradiction, and unresolveable paradox.” (p.194)

Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many

2006-10-17T23:44:00.000+08:00

Smart Mobs: the power of the mobile many
Howard Rheingold

This article basically discusses the idea of the ‘Smart Mob’ and the ‘swarming’ and ‘netwar’ which eventuates from the Smart Mob phenomenon. As Rheingold writes ‘Smart Mobs consist if people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other. The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities’ (p 191) and continues on to say that ‘they enable people to act together in new ways and in situations where collective action was not possible before’

Discusses the idea that via mobile technology people can form ‘groups’ or ‘swarms’ as he coins it in the article, primarily for the purpose of making a statement or making something happen, for example for a political protest. For example to give a recent example of SmartMobbing is probably the Cronulla Riots in which text messages were sent out telling people to ‘reclaim the beach.’ Text messaging was cited for helping to incite the 2005 Cronulla riots. The SMS messages assisted in mobilising about 5,000 white Australians to engage in violence against those of Middle Eastern origin. In response, some Australians have called for the use of text messaging (or any other electronic means) to incite a riot to be treated as an aggravating circumstance, and thus punished more harshly than other forms of incitement.

Rheingold labells the current generation ‘Generation Txt’ with one of the key points throughout the article is the idea of ‘Non violent political swarming’ and he gives the example of Joseph Estrada who was the President of the Philippines until is resignation in January 2001. It is widely believed that his resignation was in the wake of a campaign against him which was coordinated with SMS chain messages. As Rheingold writes ‘Bringing down a government without firing a shot was a momentous early eruption of smart mob behaviour.’

Rheingold discusses the emergence of ‘netwar,’ where he quotes from John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt who coined the term ‘netwar’ to mean:
‘Netwar is an emerging mode of conflict in which the protagonists- ranging from terrorists and criminal organisations on the dark side to militant social activists on the bright side- use network forms of organisation, doctrine, strategy and technology attuned to the information age.. These networks are proving very hard to deal with; some are winning. What all have in common is that they operate in small, dispersed units that can deploy nimbly- anywhere, anytime.’ (p. 194)

If you were interested the National Securities and Research Division of RAND published a Monograph Report entitled ‘The Advent of Netwar’ which basically says that the information revolution is leading to the rise of network forms of organization, with unusual implications for how societies are organized and conflicts are conducted. "Netwar" is an emerging consequence. They define the term by saying, ‘the term refers to societal conflict and crime, short of war, in which the antagonists are organized more as sprawling "leaderless" networks than as tight-knit hierarchies.’ Many terrorists, criminals, fundamentalists, and ethno-nationalists are developing netwar capabilities. A new generation of revolutionaries and militant radicals is also emerging, with new doctrines, strategies, and technologies that support their reliance on network forms of organization. Netwar may be the dominant mode of societal conflict in the 21st century. The emergence of netwar raises the need to rethink strategy and doctrine to conduct counternetwar. Traditional notions of war and low-intensity conflict as a sequential process based on massing, manoeuvring, and fighting will likely prove inadequate to cope with nonlinear, swarm-like, information-age conflicts in which societal and military elements are closely intermingled.’

Netwar and ‘Smartmobs’ introduce the idea of ‘nonlinear conflict’ and the idea of ‘networks.’ As Rheingold writes, ‘networks constitute the newest major social organisational form, after tribes, hierarchies and markets.’ (p. 194)

Politics of Playing

2006-10-13T17:33:00.000+08:00

I looked at the games Donkey John and Kabul Kaboom.

Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I think these games would only have been effective in communicating with people who already shared the views they were trying to get across, and not even all of those people. Aside from the inherent crassness of turning such tragic situations into games, I think that by creating such simplistic, old-fashioned, and (in the case of Kabul Kaboom) tacky games encourages the player to feel more distanced from the reality that they are so clearly trying to send an important message about. However, the message that each game is trying to send is very easy to interperet and in this sense, anybody who sees the games will quickly recognise the political message that the games intend to communicate.

Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

Wow, thinking ahead without realising it! Well, as I said, I do think the political messages were immediately obvious. The instructions for each game make it very clear what they are trying to get across, making it easy for me to form expectations of what the playing experience would be like, before even hitting "play". Particularly for Kabul Kaboom, with its in-your-face sarcasm and grotesque Monty Python-esque cartoon figure of a mother with baby given the choice of eating MacDonalds or getting bombed, there was absolutely no need to ponder for more than a millisecond on what the games were trying to communicate.

If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

The very simple answer to this is that I wouldn't. While parody certainly has its place as an effective vehicle for social commentary as well as being good fun a lot of the time, I feel that these games were somewhat counter-productive and very tasteless. Having said that, if I there were a gun pointing to my head and I had to write such a game...

a) I wouldn't want to cover the tired area around the war in Iraq- or any war, for that matter- which has been well and truly trampled into the ground of the online protest march since its onset. I would prefer to tackle something like child obesity.
b) The aim of the game would be to win a series of running races, each more presitgious than the last. There would be junk foods such as candy bars and burgers which the character would have to jump over, or else be slowed down by. To win each race and thus level up, the player would have to successfully dodge all the junk foods as well as knowing to sprint or run more steadily to conserve energy at the correct times.

Rae's Workshop Response

2006-10-13T17:20:00.000+08:00

Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I elected to look at "Donkey John" and "New York Defender". I think these two games would be effective. Donkey John in particular is a subtle twist on a game more-or-less guaranteed to be appealing, as it is based on, and I identical in gameplay to, an extremely successful game of the past, one which will also have nostalgia value for many internet users. The political message is clear, but not so strident or overwhelming as to be discouraging to the user's engagement with the game.

Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

It was. I don't think I would feel it necessary to seek further information about the purpoes of the games' political messages, as it seems sufficiently clear to me.

If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point?

I would probably seek to address other issues other than the obvious concerns of Iraq and the Bush administration. I feel these issues have been thoroughly addressed, in the blogosphere and in recreational situations such as this, and would expand the concept to other social concerns I feel are important.

I think I would design something that was a conceptual hybrid of the Sims and a Tamagotchi, but which favoured for gameplay romantic liaisons that were opposed to the heteronormative stereotypes games usually assume. For example, homosexual and polyamorous relationships would be actively encouraged.

online workshop

2006-10-13T14:49:00.000+08:00

I looked at New York Defender and Donkey John.

NYD reminded me of the games you find as advertisements – shoot the [whatever] to win something. As a political message, I think it is effective in reflecting a common mentality. While you can’t “win” the game, I think that, after some game-play, winning an loosing become irrelevant because of the game’s highly repetitive nature. Their eventual loss would probably be construed as their choice to stop playing the game.
Donkey John I think is too difficult for the unskilled person (such as me) to get anywhere. This prevents any engagement with the topic and promotes the idea that the game involves an extremist point of view that the average person can’t grasp. To me, that makes it ineffective. While I understand the point of the game is that an individual can’t stop “Donkey John”, its my thought that the player needs some “winning” in order to connect with the game. So this is not what I consider an effective politically-motivated game.

The political message for NYD was very obvious, one of resistance. People who viewed the game without playing it would have known what it was about, thanks to the straightforward stucture. I found it amusing that you could only shoot planes, and shooting at the two towers causes no damage. For Donkey John, the message of resistance was embedded in the discourse of the instruction manual, making it more difficult to discern.

My political simulation game, whatever it did, would emphasize the tastelessness of the genre as I see it. Games like Donkey John and NYD leave no room for diverse political opinions, which makes me more critical of them. I’d choose some current event, and force the player to take the unpopular opinion of it – be the van driver picking up small children, or the sniper watching a “presidents of the world” parade, or the terrorist, defending his terrorist buddy in the pilot’s cockpit from the disgruntled passengers. I prefer the quick and simple NYD style game to the less-visually attractive and more complex Donkey John game, as I think NYD gets its message across faster and more effectively.

The Politics of Playing: Workshop response

2006-10-13T11:21:00.000+08:00

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

The games I examined were 'New York Defender' and 'September 12th'. I think that each of them drive home their respective points effectively, in that it's not difficult to understand the political points they're making. The two games are quick and easy to play, making them accessible to almost everyone. They're each also fatalistic; all players will reach the same outcome in each game regardless of how well they play. So in taking into account the design of the games, they do communicate effectively with people.

Three other things also help the games to reach as many people as possible: firstly, people do not have to pay to play the games; secondly, the two games are online also means that they have a wider reach than if they were to be sold by a retail outlet; and thirdly, people have the ability to send the game to their friends. In terms of the third point, sharing the game between networks of people may promote discussion about the moral(s) of the game.

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

I think the political message underpinning each of the games I examined were fairly obvious and made apparent after only a brief moment of playing the games.

'New York Defender' for instance, highlights the inevitability of the collapse of the Twin Towers, regardless of the defence strategy in place. As a side note, in light of the events of yesterday where a light aircraft piloted by a Yankee baseball pitcher struck an apartment building in New York, it seems that New York really needs to re-examine their aviation and airspace policy.

'September 12th' communicates the idea that violence breeds violence. In using the method of violence and warfare to target terrorists, innocent civillians are harmed - not to mention the infrastructure of towns and cities - and anomosity develops towards the perpetrators of the attacks.

The simplicity of the games 'New York Defender' and 'September 12th' work to the creators' advantage but may also entail a major disadvantage. For instance, it is not a stretch to say that the games only communicate one main point each and are constrained from communicating more than that.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

A) If I were to design a game, it would critique the motivations of the US for invading Iraq and the flawed evidence that they had for entering Iraq.

B) The map of my game would feature a map of Iraq. It would be a single-player game which invites the player to hunt for weapons of mass destruction. With each click of the mouse on the map of Iraq, holes would appear. The introduction of the game would tell the player that if they click on a spot of land under which WMDs are being hidden, a mushroom cloud will appear. If, for instance, they strike oil, a black spurt will rise from the hole.

Upon playing the game, the player will find that they only ever uncover oil and never weapons of mass destruction.

The poltical simulation games workshop

2006-10-13T00:40:00.000+08:00

1.
I examine two political simulation games Kabul Kaboom and New York Defender. Both of them have effects in communicating with people via the Internet by the way they design their game as an endless never win mode. The goal of the game is not for players to win, but to lose. This is a different way to convey the political ideas as the players experience it themselves. I think this is a kind of polymorphic narrative and crossmedia storytelling.

"It is the reflection of basic reality.
It masks and perverts a basic reality.
It masks the absence of a basic reality.
It bears no relation to any reality whatever;
it is its own pure simulacrum."
Jean (1998) Simulacra and Simulations

2.
Both of the political simulation games transmitted the political message very obvious. Kabul Kaboom has the words in game instruction “…you can’t win this game, just lose.” In a humanitarian game of a humanitarian war, we can only lose. While we are enjoying the nice American food, we still have to avoid their missiles. New York Defender also has the caution words before the game start “Go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back.” No matter how hard we defend twin tower, it only appears powerlessness as the airplane attack increasing. This is a reflection of our real life as no matter how many polices we have that to protect twin tower, terrorist still have their way to attack it. It is also implying the ‘powerlessness’ of the government.

3.
If I have to write a political simulation game similar to New York Defender, I would be pointing out the corruption of Taiwan government. The interface of the game would be a man doing office job in order to provide money to Taiwan government. The instruction would be users click on space key to make more money for Taiwan government to eat. The users have to keep on clicking space key. Otherwise, Taiwan government would eat the hard working office man. This is also an endless game, as the users would never win. This would be a political simulation games of reflecting how corruption and greedy Taiwan government is.

Politics of Playing Workshop Response

2006-10-12T17:11:00.000+08:00

Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

The games I looked at were September 12^th and Kabul Kaboom and I think both ‘games’ (September 12^th is labelled as a simulation rather than a game) demonstrated inventive ways of communicating information and opinion over the internet. I hadn’t personally encountered games like these on the internet before this tutorial, however, it’s easy to see how something like this could quickly reach a fairly wide audience online. The appeal of using a game as a medium for discussing a political issue is its gimmickry and interactivity. When you play September 12^th you launch the bombs and witness the results. Similarly, Kabul Kaboom is designed to frustrate you when realise that you really can’t win the game, only lose. I think these simulations deliver their messages so well because they work on a basis of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’.

Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say"?

After playing both simulations for a couple of seconds it was fairly obvious what message their creators wanted you to get out of them. In their introductions both September 12^th and Kabul Kaboom state that they cannot be won and there is no ending. Knowing that you are not playing the game to win, you are positioned to look for other meanings. Of course players will probably still try to ‘win’ the game at first (at least I did), but I guess that’s one of the points these games are making; they want you to experience something for yourself.

If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point?

If I had to make a political simulation game I guess I would use a similar theme to September 12^th and Kabul Kaboom, but in the more light-hearted style of Donkey John. I thought of setting the game in an airport. You play a security guard who checks people’s luggage. The aim of the game would be to completely eliminate the threat of terrorist acts by removing all dangerous items. Of course this is impossible, so there would be no way to win the game.

Politics of Playing Workshop

2006-10-12T16:11:00.000+08:00

1. September 12th is a very simplistic game; the terrorists; the civilians; and the context are all stereotypical. Both the civilians and terrorists are anonymous; they look identical apart from the colour of their outfits. It could be argued that this represents the ubiquity of the innocent civilians. Similarly, New York Defender is completely depersonalized as there are no humans in the plane or the towers. However, I am reminded of Salam Pax’s diary which was so popular because it humanized and personalized civilians’ experiences. As such, I find text more powerful mode of communication than computer games.

2. As the media release for September 12th suggests, the game is a satire on the US terror strategy which is caught in a paradox: attacking terrorists kills civilians which in turn generates more terrorists. The statement at the beginning of September 12th says that the game has no ending, and the way the screen scrolls across a never-ending suburban landscape represents the ongoing nature of war, and the ultimate futility of it.

New York Defender taps into peoples’ sense of powerlessness and unpreparedness that they felt after the Sept 11 attacks. The game’s advertisement is: “For those of you who wish we had a chance to defend ourselves on 9/11”. As with the September 12th game, New York Defender has an air of inevitability to it; no matter how hard you try to protect it, terrorism is ongoing.

3 a) My political simulation game would be called ‘Consequences’. After an act of terrorism, all the social, political, environmental and economic consequences are shown.

3 b) The game would consist of a map of the world, an all the land and water affected by the terrorism would be highlighted. You can choose to be a political leader and have a number of decisions to make. Each decision has different consequences and flow on effects.

Workshop: The Politics of Playing

2006-10-12T14:11:00.000+08:00

These games can be definitely described as being food for thought and quite effective in communicating with people via internet. The underpinning message in games such as the September 12th and New York defender seems pretty straightforward. While September 12th demonstrates the futile nature of trying to get ride of terrorists - but only succeeding in wiping out innocent people and destroying the landscape. And the fact that the game has already started, where the player can’t win or lose and therefore has no ending also seems to imply at the never ending cycle of war and terrorism. The New York defender also has a similar meaning. It points out that we can’t actually defend New York... I mean even though we are given the ability to shoot down the planes thereby protecting the world trade centre, u can’t help but wonder about all the lives we are willing to destroy (the lives of all the people in those planes). If we shoot down the plane to save the people in the world trade centre then it would mean killing all the people in the planes. I think the game also asks us about the choices we have to make – for e.g. like who gets to live in such a situation and who would have the right to make such decisions.

If I had to create a political simulation then it would have to be something that would convey the power relations between developed and developing countries. It will be something similar to the game Donkey John... In this I will have all the super powers – meaning George W. Bush, John Howard - hell why not – I might even throw in Bin Laden in there (just for the fun of it) – now what will they do? Simple. Throw barrels (actually implying sanctions and other laws created by them to keep the poor on a leash, preventing the 3rd world countries becoming richer) at the 3rd world nations – objective of the game is for these countries to reach the top. A hopeless situation complicated further by Bin Laden – who like a crazy maniac keeps dropping bombs and launching missiles in all directions, not caring who dies. Moral of the game? Easy, just to demonstrate that civilization is going down the drain!!!!

Politics of Playing - Workshop

2006-10-12T11:13:00.000+08:00

1) I looked at the New York Defender and Kabul Kaboom political games. New York Defender appears to be fairly ineffective in communicating a political message to players, as the game play is quite engaging and detracts from the message the game is trying to put forward (that no matter how well you defend New York, the trade centre will eventually be hit and fall to the ground). Kabul Kaboom seems to engage with the player more, as it is designed to be all but impossible to complete the objective of eating the food without being killed in a few seconds. This may make players more interested in the message the game is trying to spread.

2) The political message in both games was quite clear. In New York Defender, although we were encouraged to play to overcome our ‘powerlessness’, the amount of planes began to increase to the point where nobody would be able to protect the twin towers. In that sense, the game is trying to suggest that the events of September 11 were inevitable and could not have been prevented. Also, with each plane destroyed, more planes come to take their place, suggesting the never ending cycle of terrorism. In Kabul Kaboom, we are forced to take the position of a civilian in Afghanistan, who can’t avoid American missiles as they try and collect falling hamburgers. The message of the game is clear from the opening screen: “Remember kids, you can’t win this game, just lose.”

3a) I would try and make a game to suggest that September 11 was a conspiracy orchestrated by the Bush administration, similar to the theories outlined in the popular online film Loose Change and the documentary 9/11 In Plane Site (which screened on Channel Ten recently).

3b) I would structure the game so that the player would assume the role of a conspirer who is trying to make sure the conspiracy is never revealed to the public. The game would be quite similar to the September 12th game. On screen, there would be characters who believed in the conspiracy theories, and characters who believed in the government version of events. The player’s task would be to eliminate any characters that believed in the conspiracy by firing a missile at them. However, as more conspiracy theorists are eliminated, the other characters begin to question the truth, and so the game can only be ‘won’ by eliminating all characters.

Workshop: The Politics of Playing

2006-10-11T21:05:00.000+08:00

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I think they would have been effective as they are thought-provoking. Posting it on the internet enables a vast array of people to be able to access it or even stumble upon it whilst surfing the net. As Shuen-shing Lee states, in these games the player is destined to lose which therefore causes them to think about the message behind the game and what exactly the creator of the game is trying to say?

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

In my opinion, the political message behind the game ‘New York Defender’ was fairly obvious but effective. The same is true for Donkey John as right from the beginning the context of the oil grab is made known. I think this is necessary however as the player is given an indication of where the creator is coming from straight away. I think that because of this I was more inclined to want to find out exactly what message the creators were trying to communicate to their players.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

My political simulation is based on a comment by Bono from U2 from his biography entitled, ‘Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas’. He talks about the limited medical supplies in third world countries like Africa, yet there is an abundant amount of commercial products such as Coca-Cola vending machines. Therefore, with this as the political message my game would be structured in the form of a maze with the character being a sick/injured person. The aim of the game would be for the character to try and find the pile of medicine before they die, whilst having to dodge the falling coke machines (which would have money spilling out of them). Essentially the character would always end up being unsuccessful in reaching the medicine due to the coke machines preventing their access.

The Politics of Playing Workshop Response

2006-10-11T11:47:00.000+08:00

Although the September 12th and the New York Defender games would not have had a huge player following online (due to their simplicity), I think that they demonstrate effective way of communicating a message within the Internet. Such games are far more captivating than written text or even images in that it allows the user to physically interact.
I think the message embedded in the September 12th game was obvious to anyone who had any sort of understanding of the war on Terrorism and the debates it encourages. The main comment being on the adverse effects of trying to hunt down and destroy terrorists while killing innocent people and destroying their homes.
The New York Defender game did not have such an apparent political comment however it was interesting to not that the only way the game could come to an end was for the player to give up, to lose. I think this is a message in itself about the Terrorism situation. The only way any real progress is made (by either side) is via some dramatic event, for example, September 11.
I had a bit of a giggle when I was thinking about game ideas that made a social comment. I thought it could be funny to have a game in which the player controls a George Bush character at the bottom of the screen with the ability simply to move him left or right. Then at one top corner of the screen a John Howard character could be positioned dropping gifts, kisses etc down toward Bush and in the other corner Osama Bin Ladin could sit dropping weapons. The bush character would be controlled to move toward the direction of Howard’s gifts and to avoid Bin Ladin’s weapons, obtaining points for a gift and losing lives for a weapon. It would be a light-hearted game but could translate some public opinion I believe!

Week 11 Presentation

2006-10-11T10:06:00.000+08:00

Sarah Kember’s chapter on CyberLife’s Creatures investigates the computer games Creatures and Creatures 2 and the games producers CyberLife Technology Limited and CyberLife Research Limited.

The chapter briefly discusses the media effects debate – the effects of violence on the audience. Whilst it is suggested there is in fact a direct effect and that negative effects are echoed in psychological research on early computer and video games, the whole notion of Passive (those who are susceptible to what they are presented with) Vs. Active (those who choose to filter out what they see) audiences is discussed. This particular chapter discusses the idea that it is more productive to highlight the specific interaction between science and culture rather than the effects of science on culture or vice versa.

Several Virtual games are then explored:
Tierra - a complete virtual world or ecosystem which is governed by Darwinian evolutionary laws and life is created through evolution.
SimEarth - a system simulation which provides the user with a set of rules and tools
SimLife - an "artificial playground designed to simulate environments, biology, evolution, ecosystems and life".
SimCity - enables user to create dream cities from the ground up. citizen feedback is integral in this game

Creatures game is then explored - the game is made up of lifelike agents (known as norns) with neural networks and basic biochemical models. the Norns are extremely complex; when they mate, chromosomes are crossed over to produce offspring which inherit definition from both parents. players are positioned as the overseers of a process of evolution involving artificial life forms with a degree of kinship.

the article closes with reference back to the concept of the gmaes creating mirror worlds rather than alternate ones.

As We Become Machines: Corporealised Pleasures in Video Games

2006-10-11T01:15:00.000+08:00

This article traces the background through video game history of the subjectivity of the video game experience. Mariti Lahti, the author, argues for the increasing and overt intention of making the experience seem "real" and immersive to the player, and that, in unifying the machine and the human, video games become a cyborg experience even as the player remains physically unchanged.

Lahti also argues that video games in which the player is represented by an avatar, presenting as they do the opportunity to explore a wide range of desires and personifications, commodify those things and also place artificial limits on human exploration, through the way a player, though given the illusion of free choice in avatar selection, is prevented from true choice by the limited matrix of options.

Lahti also makes the relevant point that while the surface appearance of a character may be changed, games do not bring with them the social and political realities of the alternatives being explored. Perhaps the only thing really missing from the article are certain related concepts which have arisen from more recent developments in the gaming world, which I hope to discuss at tomorrow's tutorial.

Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games

2006-10-10T23:40:00.000+08:00

This essay discusses the construction of player identites in video games, with most of the focus being on the representation of gender and sexuality. Consalvo identifies four questions which are of central concern in this article:
1. How can we study sexuality in video games?
2. What are some theories that could be useful in this exploration?
3. Are there useful distinctions to be made between representations and gameplay?
4. How is sexuality expressed in the games studied?

Using The Sims and Final Fantasy IX as case studies, Consalvo explores the ways in which theoretical approaches to studying sexuality in other forms of media may be applied to video games.

The presentation in FF9 of a heterosexual relationship which occurs according to the stereotypical, idealized narratives of traditional fairy-tales is explored in great depth by Consalvo. She makes a distinction between the surface level representation of characters (and of course, their sexualities) in the game, and the relationship which is encouraged between the player and the main character. She argues that in gameplay where the intended player is male, and the central character is also male, the player-character interaction can be read as an erotic triangle, where the rescue or romantic pursuit of the main female character functions to facilitate a homosocial relationship between the two males as they work towards this goal together. Through this, the player is encouraged to care more deeply for the character they are playing. Consalvo also points out that a heterosexual female or gay male player will be alienated by this, as they are "forced" to flirt with a woman character; in Consalvo's words, "the flirtation dialogues within the game serve to remind the female player that she is not of the normative group hailed by the game... nonnormative players, however, collapse the erotic triangle and show how delicate subject positions can be- and how heterosexuality can play an important role in sustaining the positions".

The Sims is explored as a game which has no fixed narrative structure with which the player must comply, and no fixed characters that the player must use, which enables a greater range of diversity in sexualities to be performed within the game. Again a distinction is drawn between the surface representations of sexuality, and the performativity of playing the game, making it no longer a static text but instead dynamic and difficult to analyse. The instruction manual is referred to by Consalvo to explore the presented "naturalness" of heterosexual relationships within the game; all pictures in the manual of romantic scenarios involve a male and a female character. However, in the game the player can choose to create a family of Sims in any model they choose, be it nuclear, heterosexual with no children, or gay- with or without children. However, the game codes sexuality as an activity and not as an innate property. When creating a character, there is no check off box to choose a Sim's sexuality; rather, all Sims have the potential to enact any sexuality the player chooses for them in the game. While this may be seen as problematic, as it constructs queer sexuality as a choice rather than as an innate property of some people, it can also be seen as freeing a body from any label of expected sexuality. Also, in enabling Sims to be of any sexual orientation without specifying that they must conform to one set of behaviours, a "gay window" is created whereby the player may choose to read (or not read) gay sexuality as possible for their Sims. Because The Sims allows the gamer to "play God" with the lives of characters, a player may never be faced with a character which is homosexual, black, poor, or belonging to another minority group, unless they actively choose to do so. Consalvo argues that this limits the radical potential of the game, as homophobic players will never have to even consider the possibility that their characters have the potential to be gay, reaffirming heterosexuality as "natural" and "normal".

Using Final Fantasy IX and The Sims as case studies, Consalvo has explored the ways in which sexuality may be studied in video games, demonstrating how several theoretical approaches to other forms of media may also be applied to games. She distinguishes between the surface representation of sexualities found within the games and the way in which the performativity of gameplaying interacts with constructions of sexuality, which may be more subversive than expected.

blogging survey

2006-10-05T16:55:00.000+08:00

If anyone missed the workshop on Wednesday, it would be greatly appreciated if you would go to webct and fill in the blogging survey. Tama and I are really interested in your responses to the blogging aspect of the unit, and will be using the surveys to review the unit.
When you've filled it in, you could send it by email to me (bartlett@arts.uwa.edu.au) or the to English office (eccs@arts.uwa.edu.au) if you want it to remain anonymous.
many thanks,
alison

A Rape in Cyberspace

2006-10-04T08:59:00.000+08:00

In this Dibbell’s article, I would like to talk about behavior in online games, social norms and the ambiguity of virtual rape. It is possible to construct people’s identity, sexuality and even gender in cyberspace. LambdaMOO is known as Multi-User Domains. This role-playing game put people in virtual space and people can develop themselves to express multiple identities and to play with their identity in there. People split their mind, as being one or three more of themselves; they leave their bodies behind the computer.

What’s people’s view about the relationship, between virtual rape and free speech?

“what happens inside a MUD made world is neither exactly real nor exactly make-believe, but profoundly, compellingly, and emotionally meaningful.” (p.204)

How ‘real’ are events in virtual communities? More specifically, is ‘online rape’ even possible if it only involves text and no physical contact?

“Since rape can occur without any physical pain or damage, … the more seriously I took the notion of virtual rape, the less seriously I was able to take the notion of freedom of speech, with its tidy division of the world into the symbolic and the real.” (p.212)

Tutorial Presentation - Week 10

2006-10-04T01:27:00.000+08:00

The reading I will be discussing in the tutorial is Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community.

The Virtual Community explores the social, intellectual, and political implications of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technology; namely the internet. In the opening of the reading, Rheingold shares his experiences with the virtual community Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) and demonstrates the depth of his interaction with the members of the WELL. He also describes the history of the internet and the rise of virtual communities, detailing the circumstances under which each came into being.

I will be shaping my presentation around what Rheingold claims are the three different levels in which computer-mediated communication has the potential to change our lives. These include:

1) The interaction of human beings with CMC technology and the way in which we have shaped it and it has shaped us.
- E.g. The emergence of a new vocabulary as a result of the internet and online interactions.

2) The change in the level of person-to-person interaction with the popularisation of computer-mediated communication.
- Rheingold describes the new capability of "many to many" communication or, in other words, the ability of people around the world to meet and communicate with ease via the internet.
- Discuss: is a potential flip-side to the meeting of people outside of our physical stomping grounds the neglect of our 'real' friends and family?

3) Political implications of CMC.
'If a government is to rule according to the consent of the governed, the effectiveness of that government is heavily influenced by how much the governed know about the issues that affect them.'
- Promotion of literacy and debate by the internet and virtual communities giving rise to better informed and more keenly interested citizens in the democratic process.
- Internet as a vehicle for citizen journalism and as a place to voice opinions

I look forward to hearing your views on these topics.

Tutorial Presentation for Week 6

2006-10-01T23:23:00.000+08:00

Article: "A camera with a view: JenniCAM, visual representation and cyborg sujectivity" by Krissi M. Jimroglou

This presentation shall incorporate an analysis of Jimroglou's article and also the discussion of whether online interactions are inherently gendered and do online interactions take place in public or private spaces.

Ethics Being Compromised?

Websites like hers put the ethics of technology into question as it challenges the notions of privacy and pornography. The online interactions (such as emailing and interacting via streaming audio or video clips) between Jenni and her viewers indicate that Jenni has established a relationship with her fans and public viewers. This complicates issues of privacy and ethics in the world of technology.

Implications of such a controversial website
Men now have free access to a legal website that can satisfy their sexual appetites or fantasies. The website is not only free, it also offers convenience and easy accessibility which makes JenniCAM's website 'the perfect heterosexual male fantasy'.

"Voyeurism involves seeing what should not be seen." - Freud
The object of the voyeur's gaze does not know it is being watched. Yet, Jenni anticipates and even invites the gaze of the world into her bedroom: she situates herself in front of the camera as well as behind it. This dual position of the viewer and viewee uncloaks the performativity involved in the production and reproduction of JenniCAM.
JenniCAM website redefines the meaning of 'voyeurism' as she knows she is watched by others. In fact she invites others to watch.

Conclusion
Online interactions are very often gendered. However, in the case of JenniCAM's website, Jenni positions herself as a sexual object even though that may not be her intention. By revealing her body to public viewers of the Internet, she exposes herself to further scrutiny and gender stereotypes.
In Jenni's case, online interactions can be considered to have taken place in both public and private spaces. We can consider Jenni's bedroom to be a very private space as it is where she does most of her private and intimate activities but sharing it with other viewers via the digital camera in her bedroom has transformed her bedroom to a very public space.

Tutorial Presentation

2006-09-29T11:31:00.000+08:00

Hi, my article for discussion is Sherry Turkle's paper Virtuality and its discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace. Turkle poses a number of interesting questions on our relationship between the real and virtual worlds. The irony of the situation does not escape her: people are seeking connections online to make up for insufficient real life contact. Turkle asks whether it realistic to suggest that we can revitalise our real life communities by sitting alone making contact with our virtual friends?

Turkle describes how the real and virtual worlds become blurred, and identifies a number of situations where people identify more with the virtual world than they do with the real world. She asks whether the real self is always the naturally occurring one. Turkle considers the ethical implications of the virtual world as actions are symbolic and do not cause physical harm. She also looks at the potential damaging effects of peoples’ focus on virtual worlds, as instead of solving real problems, people choose to invest their time in unreal places.

Instead of asking why virtuality and real life must compete, we should ask ‘how can we get the best of both worlds?’ Turkle suggests we make the virtual and the real more permeable to each other. Virtual personae can be an avenue for personal reflection and self transformation. We can use the virtual world to improve our real life communities by having a better understanding of what is arbitrary and can be changed in real life.

I hope these ideas prompt an interesting discussion, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

My Tutorial Presentation: Week # 9

2006-09-26T19:31:00.000+08:00

This week we look at the notion that 'resistance is fertile' in the context of the World Wide Web and its encompassing nature.

"Warblogging as Critical Social Practice" by Redden, Caldwell & Nguyen (2003) looks, in essence, at the potential for alternative and democratic forms of communication on the net."Blogging [as well as warblogging] can be thought of as making the most of the hypertextual environment that is fundamental to the World Wide Web." (p. 69)

The article explores the close relationship between weblogs and news media, suggesting that news media is fundamental to warblogger's practice of remediating knowledge sourced from journalism. "The weblogs greatest strength - its uncensored, unmediated, uncontrolled voice - is also its greatest weakness." (p. 74)

The article discusses weblogging and its position within the digital media spectrum, and is useful in terms of the ways it questions the ethical nature of this and the potential for weblogging as a new media form. I address this discussion is four main parts;

a) Weblogging as Personal
b) Weblogging as Warblogging
c) Warblogging as Journalism
d) Weblogging/Warblogging as New Media.

I hope it makes for an interesting tutorial discussion.

Jane

Menu Driven Identities Workshop

2006-09-26T17:35:00.000+08:00

(Apologies for the delayed submission)
What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

Firstly, the identities that are visible on the profiles on Lavalife could be thought of as ‘constructed’ as the member cannot choose which particular aspects of their lives to divulge as they are to answer a set of predetermined questions which are assumed to be what most people would be interesting in when assessing compatibility
The categories that are revealed are ethnic background, body type, gender, age, drinking and smoking habits, however if you choose not to reveal any of these you do not have to. However, this is interesting in that is somebody chose not to reveal one of these aspects then questions could be raised as to why they didn’t want to reveal that particular piece of information. This is problematic as it is assuming that all people want to reveal these set pieces of information and may be excluded from ones consideration of them if they choose to to disclose their ethnic background, body type, gender, age, drinking and/or smoking habits.
Obviously it is assumed that what people select to put on their profile are truths and that photo’s are real. However, just like anything on the internet questions of reality are raised. Despite this, because this is a site which is set up to enable people to met potential partners we would assume that people would want to reveal their true selves so as to attract someone they actually have things in common with rather than pretending to have in common with.

Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?
Yes, many of them were, however not in an overtly offensive manner, however that could obviously be considered a biased comment. The idea that white is ‘standard’ and that any other race is ‘other’ is the feeling I got throughout these websites which in inherently racist. Also the assumption is made that users can speak atleast basic English, which could also be considered racist. At Lavalife you have the option of searching according to certain backgrounds, which could be considered racist in its self as it gives people to exclude others of certain races if they feel they have no interest in meeting someone of that particular race.

Tutorial Presentation: Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday

2006-09-26T14:44:00.000+08:00

In this text, Mark Poster discusses consumption as an 'everyday' issue and explores its cultural significance. In particular, Poster examines the effects of advertising, the media’s role in consumption, digital media and the changing role of the consumer.

Everywhere a consumer
“The visual space of contemporary urbanity is a mosaic of images and texts all selling something, all competing for the attention of the passers-by with bright colours, tempting imagery and large size.” (p. 409). Poster firstly, discusses the bombardment of advertising encountered by American individuals in society and contrasts this to the streets of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The street however is not the only arena for this barrage; the home facilitates a vast array of media advertisements also.

Consumer theory and the media
Consumption has shifted over time from a necessary means to sustain a market economy in the modern era, to a cultural creation in the postmodern era. Poster draws upon the work of Michel de Certeau as he discusses consumption as more than simply the purchase of an object, but a cultural resignification of that object.

Varieties of consumers and media
Not only has consumption become a cultural creation, it has also emerged as a signifier of identity. Therefore the self is constructed through cultural objects. As a result, identity has become more malleable and segmented. This has also occurred through the effects of globalization and the dissemination of cultures across geographical borders.

Digital media and consumption
Lastly, the advent of digital media has transformed both the cultural objects being consumed and the role of the consumer to that of producer and creator aswell. Signifiers of manufacturers such as brand names were once fixed whereas they are now disintegrating due to the fluid nature of today's cultural objects. Concerning the medium of television, digitization has caused 'commercial bypassing' to occur. As a result, “…the cultural object has been digitized and the ‘consumer’ has chosen to deploy the new medium to ends other than those of capitalism.” (p. 421).

Therefore, consumption has become an everyday practice in the life of many individuals as it has become virtually inescapable. However, the consumer has overturned this media bombardment to their advantage through the digitization of media. In Wednesday's tutorial I hope to discuss consumption as a cultural creation and the effects of media digitization.

Race and genre online

2006-09-22T09:35:00.000+08:00

Okay, this is several weeks out of date for the relevant tutorials but some of you may still want to read this.

Shame, an essay by Pam Noles about race experience in genre, sparked by the thing where Hollywood picked up Earthsea, one of the first major genre works to feature non-white powerful good guys, and making the hero into a blonde-haired white boy. (The different nature of the experience of race for whites and non-whites was made quite clear by fan reactions to this. Most white responses I read were along the lines of: "That's kinda stupid, but, EARTHSEA YAY!" Whereas to many black fans this felt like a horrendous betrayal.) There's also a follow-up replying to the responses she received to Shame.

The Internet is for Porn, WoW version

2006-09-21T21:07:00.000+08:00

Hilary posted the link to a proper version already, so I'm posting the version with the World of Warcraft video. WoW videos are sufficiently ubiquitous for a certain category of geek (which is the category I'm in) that I honestly didn't know this was from a musical until yesterday.

Enjoy!

The Internet Is For Porn song

2006-09-20T21:28:00.000+08:00

As requested in the tutorial this afternoon, I'm posting a link to the song Rae and I were talking about. I couldn't find a copy that didn't have a video of some description attatched to it, so I got one from a performance of the musical it comes from, Avenue Q. The camera on this one is a little shaky, but you get the idea :)

Here it is!

If you have time and/or want to procrastinate, try finding copies of other songs from Avenue Q. They're all pretty amusing and have some catchy tunes.

Tutorial Presentation- The Good, The Bad and the Virtual

2006-09-20T09:55:00.000+08:00

Mark poster argues that established ethical principles may not be applicable in the new age of information (internet). He states that " the virtual may not fit into existing demands of what is good or bad". In addition, this medium may undermine the ethical principles that is already in place. In his article, he focuses on three ethical issues such as the Annonymity of identity online, the content of the information and the censorship and meaning of information on the internet.

Ethics as a Problem

Present ethics may be so specific that it limits its range to where the ethics can be applied to. Hence, new ethical rules may be required for mediated culture since present ethical rules may not be applicable. The problem of ethics only arises because the internet breaks down familiar boundaries and incorporates everything. In addition, one's action and the consequence of that action is not regulated by any authorities. There are supposedly no rules and no boundaries, so does that mean that anyone can write whatever they want or post whatever they. So the problem of this information medium is, what type of morality will it produce. Mark Poster then tries to expand on Nietzsche's point of view on ethics and apply it to the information age.

Annonymity of Identity

Computer mediated technology is the only way of communication that "removes all traces of the embodied person". Anyone can assune anybody's identity and this creates a ethical problem. Isn't assuming another person's identity as good as impersonating someone in real life? Whatever is typed on the screen has to be taken as it is. What is real information and what is not real about the person cannot be determined.What is the ethical value of this unrelenting suspicion. There are two basic problems of anonymity online, one is the resposibility of what is being siad and posted online. Secondly, what is the difference between the real and the virtual relations.

Overload and Censorship

Moral issues are concern with what can be seen, read and heard on the internet. In addition, who are those that can access to such information and who are those that are excluded from such information.

Apparently "information is morally good". However, when information is excluded to certain groups in the society, it is considered immoral.

With so much information on the internet, how are we to decide which posting relay reliable information? According to Jean Baudrillard, " we live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning". information needs to be exchanged socially to evoke meaning.

Contents of Materials

Mediated and immediate identity online constitutes the next ethical qiestions. How does one discern between the real user and the online user? How does one know that the user online is the same user offline? However, one study known as the telephone-linked care showed that "mediated identities" may not actually be a big problem in identity deception.

In conclusion, Mark Poster argued that there is no definite online ethical principles. He states that ethical principles online is transcedental. He also urges a Nietzchean perspective that explores what is good and what is bad in a culture, encouraging cultural innovation. Hence, ethical issues in the digital age aims to seeks to place the responsibility of what information is being posted online, by the individual who publishes it. Ethics is also concerned with the issues of censorship and overloading of information on the internet.

Tutorial Presentation - Diary of a Webdiarist

2006-09-19T22:04:00.000+08:00

The article ‘Diary of a Webdiarist’ by journalist Margo Kingston is a reflection on how journalistic codes of ethics must adapt and change when applied to the internet, and more specifically to Kingston’s Webdiary. When Kingston decided to write an online column on federal politics she thought that it would be a ‘mere change in the forum’ of her work, however, she quickly discovered that allowing readers to contribute and criticize her writing opened up numerous ethical considerations.

In her article Kingston claims that ethical issues arose in Webdiary because the site’s ethics codes were based on the ethics codes of hardcopy journalism. ‘Online ethical codes drafted for hardcopy journalism,’ Kingston says, ‘must adapt and stretch to fit a medium less planned, more open, faster, and much more in-the-moment.’ In particular Kingston focuses on the issue of credibility and reliability for an online journalist. Although Kingston is an established journalist the reliability of Webdiary is made questionable because it is web-based and because readers, some of which use false identities, are able to contribute. As one of Webdiary’s readers points out, the ethics of the site are also questionable because Kingston has complete ‘power’ over whose emails get published online and reserves the right to edit the emails that she receives.

For both these reasons, Kingston’s attempts at creating an ethical code for Webdiary are aimed at getting her readers to ‘trust’ her. At the centre of establishing such a sense of ‘trust’ is Kingston’s engagement with criticism and openly admitting mistakes. This is where Kingston feels that Webdiary has begun to challenge traditional hardcopy journalism that is ‘loath to print corrections’ and makes readers feel ‘powerless’ to enforce ethical standards. By engaging with criticism Kingston feels that ‘ethical matter need not be matters for confrontation, but for conversation and resolution’. In this sense I feel that Kingston has presented Webdiary as a useful example of how existing ethical principles have been adapted to and changed by online communication.

internet porn - tutorial presentation

2006-09-19T21:18:00.000+08:00

Introduction

A growing number of theoretical and historical porn studies have appeared over the last decade, yet few have focused on porn within the digital media environments. And I found that this article presented multiple perspectives on our growing immersion in pornographic web-based media.

What’s wrong with pornography?

- Consideration that sex is an expression of private ‘married love making’ and not something that should be performed in public or for profit.
- images of immoral sex cause people to masturbate – which may in itself be an immoral act
its also immoral because it causes these pornographic performers to sell what is most sacred – which is their bodies
- Feminists argue that this industry is ‘dehumanising’ and ‘objectifies’ women – depicting themselves as objects of desire. (who are valued for their ability to service men – physically and emotionally)
- represents a limited range of body types as sexually appealing
- encourages people to exchange sex for money

Porn communities

The internet has blurred the borders of being a ‘publisher’, ‘distributor’ and ‘consumer’.

- On the internet x-rated content comes to us at the click of a mouse, with no need to physically visit sex shops or other restricted premises.
- and the idea that these material can ‘invade’ our homes or our private space is now being challenged as most internet pornography is produced at home – by amateurs, community chat groups and collectors
- They are able to fulfil sexual fantasies and become porn stars in the privacy of their bedrooms.
- ethnographic research in this field has revealed that people who engage in the porn industry considers themselves to be part of a ‘virtual community’ (like any other interest group) – rather than feeling shame or alienation. For these people it is a pleasurable ‘alternative’ to everyday life – an escape if u will.
- the ethnographic study also revealed that female informants felt that the internet was a more safe and comfortable place to explore desires which are usually too embarrassing, dangerous (or tabooed) for offline life style: such as experimenting bisexual relationships or having group sex for example. Alternative sex practices.
- There is a growing dissatisfaction with the work of porn professionals and many porn fans decide that they can do a better job at home through the net.

The Beauties of internet Porn

Pornography depicts an extremely limited and restrictive image of female sexual beauty and attractiveness. It is considered to be ‘unrealistic’ since it favours silicon implants, fake nails, Brazilian waxes etc. over the so-called ‘natural’ attributes. And this influences the men to idealize these images that are being created by the porn industry and because of that these men might not be able to appreciate the charms of their ‘average’ female companions.

Conclusion

Whether amateur or commercial, internet pornography offers a unique opportunity for those with unconventional sexual tastes and appearances (like very hairy women, amputees, very fat women or men etc.) interact in ways that are taken for granted by those with ‘normal’ interests. And in doing so they effectively expand definitions of sexual beauty and desires, rather than imposing limitations.

Net porn economy and history are affecting our everyday ways of sensing and understanding media and sexuality.

second life - discovered an attack on their servers - security breach

2006-09-09T19:36:00.000+08:00

hey guys .. i thought i should just let u know.. (may be u guys already do) that the 'second life' was hacked into by someone.. here is some of the stuff the owners of the game said:

"We discovered that a database was accessed by the intruder, and we are able to determine the aggregate size of the data that was downloaded through the intrusion. The database accessed includes customer account information, including Second Life account names, real-life name and contact information in unencypted form. Account passwords and payment information (consisting of credit card numbers and Paypal transaction IDs) are stored in this same database in encrypted form. However, there is no way to identify which data were accessed at the level of individual users, only the aggregate size of the downloads returned from the intruding database queries. We are conducting further investigation to try to determine the class of data exposed.

*SAN FRANCISCO, CA. (September 8, 2006)* - Linden Lab reported today that it is notifying its community of a database breach, which potentially exposed customer data including the unencrypted names and addresses, and the encrypted passwords and encrypted payment information of all Second Life users. Unencrypted credit card information, which is stored on a separate database, was not compromised.The breach was discovered on September 6, 2006 and promptly repaired. The company then launched a detailed investigation that revealed an intruder was able to access the Second Life databases utilizing a "Zero-Day Exploit" through third-party software utilized on Second Life servers. Due to the nature of the attack, the company cannot determine which individual data were exposed. The company's technical investigation is ongoing."

Menu Driven Identity worshop response

2006-09-08T16:39:00.000+08:00

1) The categories available seem to be rather perfunctory. I was interested in how while they ask for required fields, they seem to rely entirely off people’s honesty. Like in how Second Life asks for e-mail addresses, however it doesn’t compare the name of the e-mail account owner to the name of the second life account. Identity seems to be based off nationality and location. For Hotmail accounts, identity is also determined by interests, and which e-magazines people sign up for.
2) there are help books about how to meet the right people on the internet. There’s been dr. Phil shows about it. At Lavalife, all the identities seem highly contrived, which I suppose fits with my opinion that relationships derived from them would be fleeting. I always think the people who create these things must be desperate.
3) The identity that we see is a product of the websites’ ambition. They want to make people seem appealing. I find the layout corny, and trying to hard to sell its service. I can understand it’s trying to make people feel it’s ok to relax and use its service, but I would prefer a more professional approach. It’s probably just me.
4) Inherent racism is I think in some cases unavoidable. For example, I plan to travel to Japan, and so wanted to make friends with some Japanese people. Many of the websites turn out to have listings for men seeking Japanese women, and vis versa. There seemed to be a strict divide between Japanese, and western people. It was on friendly grounds, but you were either one or the other, or you were in the wrong place. This is a similar attitude that I’ve noticed in other areas. That race determines exclusive parts of the internet, where people who fall outside the specifications just aren’t welcome.

2006-09-08T11:26:00.000+08:00

Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

I thought it was interesting how all the fields in the yahoo registration are classified as being ‘required’. Yahoo registration has something called the ‘preferred content’ while hotmail does not. But what caught my attention was the fact that no matter which registration you pick you could still create a new identity for yourself and probably get away without anyone finding it out or maybe without getting into a lot of trouble – I mean u could give a false name, surname, gender, address etc. Better yet you could even steal somebody else’s identity; identity theft seems to be a bit easy even though you are protected by the terms and conditions of the service provider. I mean u are expected to be honest and if u ever get caught then u might get into trouble with the law but that doesn’t mean u can’t lie and anyways who’s going to keep track of what u do?

Another thing that caught my attention while reading the terms and conditions in the yahoo registration was the fact that they are constantly changing their terms of service or updating it every now and then without the knowledge of its users, of course they tell us that we can always check their website (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/) to see the latest version, but honestly who has the time to read these things! This seems like a good idea only to the company because every time something goes wrong they could say “oh well u should have read our latest terms and conditions – we updated it last night… so it’s basically not our fault…” and probably get way with it!

In the second life game u could only chose a avatar form a selected few that they have created and clearly they are classified into different groups for e.g. ‘city’ chick, cybergoth, girl next door, boy next door etc. thereby stereotyping people even further.

What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

The lavalife was mainly for heterosexual people and I just did a check for homosexual people and was quickly transferred to different webpage (manline and womanline) thereby showing that lavalife gives first preference only to heterosexual people. When you are signing up for membership you are only allowed to choose your interests and how your friends describe u etc. from a already made-up list. However they do allow u to describe ur interests and tell something about yourself in the last stage of signing up. And I thought it was interesting how they give u the choice to reveal your ethnic background, religion, body type etc. so if u don’t want to say anything u can just be silent about it. However, I found that everybody made it a point to reveal their ethnic background, body type, gender, age, drinking and smoking habits - showing that these are categories that most people look for when they are choosing a partner of the opposite sex (I don’t know but some how I find these categories to be a bit superficial). I also noticed that u are not required to give your real name and that you could actually say that you were born on the year 1900 (not kidding!!) and have no problems with it, so what I am basically trying to say is that even though u are in real life a very young child u could in fact join lavalife, become a member and communicate with the rest online and no one would no who u really are (I am just trying to point out that the ‘possibility’ to lie still exists). And u could also post somebody else’s profile without the consent of that person.

Menu Driven Identities Workshop Response

2006-09-08T10:50:00.000+08:00

What categories are available to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Tahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these make about users, and what does absence of certain categories say?

The most basic of assumptions that both websites assume is that the users speak English and have basic literacy skills. Given that the user is using a computer, we can assume a certain degree of computer literacy. This suggests that the user is at least has access to technology, and the ability to navigate it.

Yahoo! and Hotmail sign up accounts both require users’ first and last name, country, gender, age and postcode. Hotmail asks if the user works in or owns a small business, while Yahoo! asks for occupation and title. Gathering this personal demographic information provides them with information on their socio-economic status, and inferences can then be drawn on the users’ race and class.

There are two interesting differences between Hotmail and Yahoo!’s privacy statements. Hotmail allows users to create psydonyms or ‘nyms’ where users can enter a false name, such as Joe Bloggs. This removes the opportunity for cultural and ethnic inferences to be drawn from a user’s surname. In theory, it is possible to do this at Yahoo! but it is not explicitly stated as an option.

Second Life asks minimal information, asking only for users’ birth date to confirm login details. The only other information required is the user’s first name, and there is no requirement that it be genuine. User’s select a last name from a list which again removes the opportunity for cultural inferences to be drawn from a user’s surname. As there is no requirement to specify gender or location, there is no information gathered on a user’s gender, socio-economic status, or ethnicity.

The most interesting aspect to Second Life is that there is an option to speak in different languages, Korean, Japanese, German and English. This steps away from assuming a white Western audience and offers the service to a wider audience.

What sort of identities are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

The dating website attempts to construct a picture of a person’s social and cultural identity, interests and looks through a few key characteristics: gender, age, location, ethnicity, religion and body type. The website’s default search ‘female seeking male between 25- 34 reveals much about its target audience: it assumes an English speaking, white, young and heterosexual audience.

When I did a search, I was interested to note that many people listed ‘white’ for their ethnicity. This appears to be an assumed trait, and if people were from a different background, they would indicate it through their languages spoken and religion.

Menu-Driven Identities Workshop Response

2006-09-08T10:06:00.000+08:00

What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

Lavalife's profiles show details like zodiac signs, ethnic background, religion and drinking habits, but the short profile forms omit things like interests - which you can only select from a restricted list. The display makes assumptions about what a user will consider most important about a prospective partner (race, religion, job), and seems to marginalise anyone who doesn't fit into a predefined set of options. I suspect Lavalife also presumes a certain indiscriminate or desperate approach, as searching more restrictedly than simply for "a man" or "a woman" is only available from the custom search page, which is quite hard to find.

A closer investigation of the site also showed a distinct heterosexist and dualist bias. Searching as a woman for another woman transferred the user to a different site; creating a profile on Lavalife (which one is required to do in order to view more than one profile) does not include an option to state sexual preference, clearly entailing the expectation that heterosexuality is the default, homosexuality is 'other', and bisexuality apparently does not exist.

Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

Second Life is distinctly so. In signing up, the prospective user is offered a selection of default avatars. All of these avatars are white, with the exception of the "Harajuku" avatar, which is nominally Asian, but kitsch gimmick Asian. The assumption of a particular ethnic identity is quite overt.

Other sites, other than exercising the default assumption of the Internet that everyone speaks English, seem overall to avoid making particular assumptions about the race of users or to contain a particular racial attitude.

'Menu-Driven Identities'

2006-09-08T03:38:00.000+08:00

2. The ‘identity’ that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is depends by what kind of friends you want to meet. In ‘Dating’ section we can see gender, age, location, zodiac sign, ethnic, background, height, body type and drinking, habits. In ‘Relationship’ section we can see other than ‘Dating’ section more information on religion, smoking habits, have children, want children, education and annual income. In Intimate section provides all the dating section information and status, seeking and interested in. This is very interesting of different information it display for different viewer or maybe different information users provides for different intend. The website assumes some part of the information people might not need it for dating only and some information people might need it for seeking relationship. Especially the part or having children and want children would be a huge matter of marriage. Therefore, some users would like to let views know these kind of information before they meet up.

4. Lavalife.com is one of the website I’ve visited and do not feel comfortable because of my race difference. I did not found any success stories about Asian in Lavalife.com. What does this mean? Non Asian success meets people in this website? Although, I found they have international sites to provides people to use it by their own language and in that page they have show a picture of four people in three colors (white, black, yellow) From my point of view, it is the users matter to led the website racist. In Cyberspace, the identity is not important. Maybe, because this website is trying to bring people out from Cyberspace to our real life so the identity is very important. Therefore, here comes racist.

menu-driven identities

2006-09-07T23:55:00.000+08:00

What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

Lavalife users are asked to construct their identities through the same categories, which make the assumption that all people have an equal interest in categories such as gender, age, physical appearance and ethnic background. All candidates must choose a gender, and no option of "other" is available for people who may not identify with either gender. Although the option "prefer not to say" is available for categories such as religion and ethnic background, having chosen not to say might reflect negatively on this person, leaving people to wonder why they feel there is something wrong with divulging information which would be made apparant as soon as they were encountered face to face.

In displaying other users' information in a certain pattern (gender, then age, then location, zodiac sign, ethnic background, religion, appearance, smoking and drinking habits) the assumption is made that these are factors people ought to care about in choosing a friend or partner.

Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

At Lavalife, users are asked to decide whether they are interested in learning more about a person based on these criterion, which enables users to practice racist behaviours in choosing only to associate with persons of a certain race. It seems that as the age range for a search increases, there are less and less candidates who are not white and Christian; whether this indicates that the site deliberately attracts white people, or simply relfects trends in internet use for older members of Australian society, is unclear from examining the site. Further, although an option of "other" and "prefer not to say" are available, there are a vast number of ethnicities which are not mentioned explicitly, which places an emphasis and an assumed higher value on those that are listed as options. While at hotmai and Second Lifel the number of countries you can select are greater than the number of ethnicities that can be chosen on Lavalife, showing much more variety, still not all backgrounds are represented. The default setting of United States at hotmail is also rather telling of the tendency to assume that all internet users are from an English speaking, western background. Yahoo allows far less choices, seeming to offer only broad options which will filter content and advertisements based on assumptions about what interests people from different countries will share.

Menu Driven Identity Response

2006-09-07T20:50:00.000+08:00

The majority of profiles I found belonged to heterosexual Australians with what was classified as a ‘white’ ethnic background. In most cases Lavalife users presented themselves as ‘fun’, ‘energetic’ individuals who were looking for a similar individual to ‘hang out’ with. I found that Lavalife users typically constructed their identity in this way regardless of gender or sexual preference. There were relatively few examples of profiles that deviated from this norm, suggesting that these characteristics tap into the user’s perception of the ideal partner.

Lavalife allows users to construct their identity with a photograph, a username, a tagline and a list of defining characteristics. The stereotypical fun/energetic personality is typically constructed through the photograph, the username and the tagline. The major text of the profile consists of a list of categories that best describe the user. There is limited space in the public profile for listing such categories and the order that these categories are presented in is controlled by Lavalife. I assume that Lavalife has chosen which categories to list in the public profile based on relevance or importance to prospective partners. Gender is the first category (even though you have previously limited your search to either male or female profiles), followed by ‘age’, ‘location’, ‘zodiac sign’, ‘ethnic background’, ‘religion’, ‘height’, ‘body type’, ‘smoking habits’ and finally ‘drinking habits’. Profiles follow this exact pattern unless the user speaks another language. This extra category is not just added on to the end of the list however, it appears forth, suggesting that it is more important than the categories that follow it. I found it unusual that Lavalife would list ‘languages spoken’ before categories like ‘smoking habits’ and ‘religion’ that, in my opinion, are more useful in judging compatibility. To me this implies that the ‘languages spoken’ category is used to infer nationality despite the fact that ‘languages spoken’ are not necessarily related to nationality.

How much of the "identity" that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is restricted by the overall design of the website? What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?

I found that the Lavalife profile is fairly restrictive in the types and the depth of ‘identity’ that its users can display. The fact that profiles seem so similar to me indicates this restriction. In particular I found that the categories that users were able to describe themselves with were fairly broad. For instance I found the ‘ethnic background’ category problematic. In the profiles I found there were only three ‘ethnic backgrounds’ represented; ‘white’, ‘Asian’ and ‘mixed’. Users have a total of eleven options to choose from. Also there is no option (other than the ambiguous ‘mixed’ category) to select multiple categories, suggesting that you are either one or the other. The available categories themselves are also incredibly general. What does it mean to have a ‘white’ ethnic background? Can these categories really be called ethnicity? The broadness of these categories suggests that the ‘ethnic background’ is more concerned with the colour of your skin rather than your nationality.

To improve the way ‘identity’ is represented on Lavalife profiles I would suggest that the list of categories is removed altogether, or at least given a secondary function. Instead I think that users should be allowed to tell prospective partners what they feel is important.

Menu-Driven Workshop

2006-09-07T20:18:00.000+08:00

1. Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, or in order to use the Second Life Gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

When signing up for a Microsoft “Passport” the first question which is asked is ‘Country/Region’. This gives an indication of the importance they place on their users’ location. When registering account information they ask for name, gender, birthdate, time zone and in some cases, state and postcode. Omitting this last question can be seen as a form of racial discrimination as these countries are generalized in this way. Occupation is also hinted at as the user is asked whether they work within or own a small business.

Yahoo’s menu is similar but more specifically seeks to customize the users email account around their work and specialization. This feature is only available however, for American users of Yahoo! Mail. It seems the presumption made here is that the email account is work related or that the users’ main interests would be work related. In making this feature only available to the USA it is clear that Yahoo! Mail is dedicated more to providing extra services for their American users.

The Second Life Gameworld however allowed a more mysterious identity at first. Users are able to choose their own first names without restriction but the last name must be selected from a menu. The list of surnames appears to cover a variety of ethnicities, therefore allowing users to select a race in doing this. This is due to the fact that many surnames are key indicators of ethnic background. Interestingly, the users’ real full name is asked for later in the registration process. The aspect I found most interesting was the avatar selection menus. One could choose from a boy/girl next door, city boy/girl, harajuku boy/girl, cybergoth boy/girl, furry boy/girl or nightclub boy/girl. The absence of categories such as ‘country boy/girl’ and the depictions of many of these avatars as white in skin-colour or Japanese are also clear indicators of who they believe to be using these programs.

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

The most common identity I found whilst doing a general search was “white, non-religious, non-smoker, casual drinker”. These ‘identities’ are displayed in one-word phrases with no room for particulars. Interestingly, in the category looking for a relationship, income and children (want and/or have) are stated by many Lavalife members. As a non-registered guest scanning through these profiles, it is evident that the users want others to be able to gain a general insight into their identity whilst remaining brief. These listed ‘identities’ must therefore be the details deemed most important by the users, when providing a brief summary of themselves.

Menu-Driven Response

2006-09-07T12:03:00.000+08:00

Q1) Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld...?

When signing up for an account with Hotmail, one category you must select is the country you live in. The default option that came up for me was Australia, and with this selection the website asked me to enter my state and postcode. However, when I changed my country to Zimbabwe, the site no longer required this information to be entered. The absence of the state and postcode categories for many countries on the Hotmail registration page can be read as a form of discrimination, as the information is probably used to target advertising to specific users.

Yahoo’s registration page is slightly different – instead of selecting a country, users select ‘preferred content’ – with options including ‘Yahoo! US’, ‘Yahoo! Brazil’ and ‘Yahoo! Taiwan’. Selecting an option presumably delivers content to the user in the relevant language of the country, but the obvious point to note is that there are very few countries represented in ‘preferred content’, with no African or Middle Eastern nations. Users are also prompted to ‘customize’ Yahoo by choosing the industry they are employed in – but only if they select ‘Yahoo! US’ as their content – selecting ‘Yahoo! Asia’ removes this option. Again, this is an example of discrimination in removing certain options for users from different areas of the world.

Second Life, in contrast, requires very few categories of personal information, and also gives users an option to choose from a list of pre-defined last names for their character. There is a long list of names to choose from which seem to be representative of a huge range of different racial backgrounds, so a user could presumably either select one close to their own name, or ‘cyber-pass’ and adopt one which is completely different. The fact the website doesn’t have a category asking the user to enter their country of origin is a positive, in that they can’t use that information to discriminate between users – however if you progress further through the registration process you are asked to divulge this information.

Q4) Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

From the three websites discussed above, I am firmly convinced that racism is present in the registration pages for Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Hotmail clearly isn’t ‘interested’ in obtaining any more details than necessary if you live in Uzbekistan, but for if a new American user signs up then they want more information, and this information must be used for something. In my opinion, the ‘preferred content’ service offered by Yahoo is even more discriminatory, as it provides services for a very restricted group of people. The fact that extra information regarding the employment of an American user must be submitted is significant. These websites don’t even try and disguise the fact that they discriminate against people from other countries, and this is disappointing considering they are two of the most popular and successful email services online.

Online Workshop 6/9/06

2006-09-07T11:23:00.000+08:00

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

The sorts of identities which are visible in the profiles of Lavalife include Gender, Age, "Race"/ethnicity, Religion, Body type, and Social indiscretions. These categories are displayed in the order that I have mentioned them. The descriptions each profile provides relating to these identities are brief, summed up in just one word. If the suitors want to supply more information about themselves, they are given space to offer one statement that they agree with, or which reflects who they are as a person. This sentence is displayed below the suitor's nickname. Pretty much all of the suitors have chosen to supply this extra line.

The profiles provide very limited information about each suitor. It is presumed that this is done so that people browsing the page can scan through each profile quickly and efficiently. The main identifying categories available are assumed to be the pieces of information people seeking a suitor consider most important. Their importance is also ranked by the order in which they appear. It can assumed that people reading the profiles first look at the age of the candidate, and if the age mentioned fits the age range they have in mind, they will look at the next piece of information supplied, and so on.

In terms of the way the profiles are formatted, it could be assumed that Lavalife designed the profiles in a manner they felt would be most appealing to both readers and users. I've already covered how the profile format could appeal to readers, so in terms of the users, perhaps Lavalife felt that users are attracted by a profile that is quick and easy to fill in. The users might also be reluctant to share too much information about themselves, so Lavalife has not demanded too much of them. Also, in having profiles that only provide a bare minimum of information communication is encouraged between users and the people browsing the site. It encourages the people reading to make contact with the users in order to discover more about them.

Furthermore, it could be argued that having a 'tick the boxes' style of profile is preferable to having the users give a brief description of themselves, whereby the users can choose to say what ever they want. The 'tick the boxes' method relieves the users of the need to really think about the type of information they want to convey and of the need to construct a coherent paragraph.

3. How much of the "identity" that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is restricted by the overall design of the website? What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?

As an unregistered member of Lavalife, that is, the casual browser, the amount of information we are privvy to about a particular user is quite limited. Lavalife is structured so that browsers can simply scroll down the page to get a rough idea about a dozen different users. This design promotes the idea of the 'Seven-second soundbite' method of getting across information. As a result of the design, browsers are presented with the details they perhaps most want to know about the users, the essential pieces of information they want to know before they learn more about the user.

If I were interested in seeking a suitor and was browsing Lavalife for this purpose, I would want to know other details beyond what is provided in the current profiles. Details such as favourite movies/books could be quite telling of the type of person the user is. Also, if there were a space to list hobbies or the sorts of things the user likes to do in their free time, that would be informative too. Ideas for change aside, I like that the current profiles reveal to browsers the religion (or non-religion) of the user, whether they drink or smoke, and the highest level of education they have attained.

Menu-Driven workshop

2006-09-06T17:08:00.000+08:00

Q.1 Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

Names can actually be a category. Names pretty much give away a person's skin colour assuming you know much about race to begin with. According to stereotypes, a surname "Tan" would be "yellow skin"/"asian". Consequently, a surname "Brown" would be "white skin".

Yahoo seemed to be the easist website to sigh up for because a lot of "required field" was not required. Among the three websites, Yahoo and Hotmail do not require ethnicity and religious background. The absent in categories does not matter, in the sense that Yahoo and Hotmail are for private use- and any mail or interaction with these mails would be from someoneone you know.if not, unidentified mail ends up in the junk mail.

However,Lavalife does require certain racial information. In addition, lava life requires the division of gender. Should the cybersphere be as Utopian as proposed during the mid-90s, there would be no questions/"boxes" to answer/tick for gender, location, race, age, and the like. In a cyberutopian world, less personal information should be required since it does not matter. These information should be deemed as unnessary. Therefore, the only information that should be required is the login name and password.

Q2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

Lavalife requires personal information spiced with specific details. There are columns that require information on ethnicity, religion, age,gender,height and body type. The identity of a person becomes evident as more details are revealed.

Well, prople would presumably know that the users are White male or females. In addition, wanting to know the "make of the body" suggest that attractiveness still plays a key role in wnating to know a person. People reading these profiles would like to know the age- presumably so that they can hang out with someone their age. Since it is an online dating website, it maybe necessary to disclose "these" particular information in order to allow others to know more about them. However, all these INFORMATION SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY because it may be made up.

4. Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

Lavalife itself is a racist website. To begin with, the homepage title screams "Australian only". Then there is the inevitable stereotype of an attractive white male/female character on the webpage.What in the world makes the creators of the web page assume that "a chinese is not an australian?". Is it because the skin colour differs?

Based on that point, Lavalife could be targeting white Australians...so if you do not belong to this coloured category...please keep away! This is a website not for Asians, Aboriginals, Indians and the list goes on and one..

To prove my point, I continued browsing the website and guess what...all the profiles were unmistakably "white".

Char's Online Workshop Response

2006-09-06T15:52:00.000+08:00

1.) As discussed in today's lecture, the internet does not act as a utopia in which we can be completely anonymous and free our true identity. In signing up for an MSN or Yahoo Mail you are required to provide some personal information in order to become a member. Both sites require a user to divulge their exact age. MSN is pretty keen to know exactly where you live. It asks you to reveal the country that you live in and also the state/territory. Although it would be purely assumption based, other users could use such information to establish race and perhaps even class information (particularly in the US where there are a significant number of states, some known for their wealth and others known for their poverty.) Both sites also ask whether the user is male or female, meaning that gender is established immediately.
Yahoo has an optional section in which it asks about ones employment. The industry you work in and your title within that industry. Such information included could lead to assumptions about social status and wealth.
At first glance, the Second Life registration page seems to ask very little of its users. The only personal information required at first is your age. However, if you continue through the registration process, Second Life asks you to pick a character to represent you. All the options are obviously gendered. Although this avatar does not need to represent your true self, it is still obvious that knowing gender is important in forming online relationships. Later in the sign-up process you are required to enter your "real" name, address and phone numbers. Although this may not be information that would be revealed to other users, Second Life still knows exactly know you are!
None of the sites require one to enter ethnicity, religion or details about physical appearance. So while we can appear online free of a physical image, there is certainly enough information being provided that could enable another user to make educated assumptions about our backgrounds… However the internet does enable anyone to lie!
2.) When having a looks through Lavalife I found that the information that users provided on their profile varied. Some seemed to have a greater emphasis on describing their physical appearance whereas others went into more depth about their personalities. I think that the information on ones profile can be used to determine what the important features in a partner would be for that particular person. I think that the way you would present yourself in your profile would be constructed to attract the sort of people you were looking to meet.

Workshop 4 on WebCT this week only

2006-09-05T15:29:00.000+08:00

Some fantastic webliographies posted - well done!
Just to let you know that this week's Workshop IV is online on WebCT and will only be available for this week. It's on time release and disappears at the end of the week, so do get on and do it while you can.
Alison

Annotated Webliography

2006-09-05T11:22:00.000+08:00

Sorting through the amazing number or articles and texts available on the internet and picking out appropriate and relevant information is quite a task. However, with regard to this topic and in particular the question which asks one to; "critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies," the sources I found were great for obtaining the information I would need to construct an essay around this topic. Google scholar is an example search engine and tends to eliminate all unnecessary and irrelevant material. Here are six of the best articles I found.
1. Wajcman believes that technology has remained a predominantly male enterprise, and firmly reinforces the idea of technology as a new form of culture. She gives an example of female astronauts, who go through all the same testing as the males and prove to be just as well qualified, however, due to the masculine culture of technology, they are not given the same opportunity as the males to travel into space. Throughout the article there is a lot of reference to the "gender-blindness" of social studies, particualarly in the field of technological studies. She goes to explore, however, that since the early 1990’s, more and more people are becoming aware of feminist issues and many of these issues are beginning to be addressed. This being said though, many employers are interested ni retaining the sex segregation. Many feminist approaches have dismissed technoscience as inherently patriarchal and malignant. Cyberspace has proved, though, that it can in fact act as a site for the creation of new feminist communities.
Judy Wajcman. ‘Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State is the Art?’ Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30, No. 3 (June, 2000), pp. 447-464
Accessed through JSTOR Journal 24 August 2006.

2. Wendy Faulkner’s article looks into the ways in which technology may in fact be gendered. She often poses the question, why are there so few women in many of the technological fields and in particular in engineering? She believes that there is a symbolic association, that the filed is masculine, despite all the government backing and encouragement for women to be active in the field. Cultural images and representations of technology present as overtly powerful and masculine, thus she poses the question, are women portrayed as victims of mens technological power? She believes there are two reasons why technology is gendered. Firstly, men mostly make the decisions which shape technology, and secondly, men had greater success than women in claiming skilled status, especially when it comes to technical competence.
Wendy Faulkner. ‘The Technology Question in Feminism, A View from Feminist Technology Studies.’ Available on-line;
http://www.rcss.ed.ac.uk/signis/public/backgrounddocs/Tech_Q_in.Feminism.doc (accessed August 25 2006)

3. Cheris Kramarae believes in her article Technology and Women’s Voices that there has been a social hierarchy present since the industrial revolution. She also believes that revolutionary technologies are actually conservative because of the fact that they have not actually dismantled these hierarchies. Throughout the article, thus, she tries to explore why it is that technology has failed to empower women.
Kramarae, Cheris. ‘Technology and Women’s Voices. Kepping in Touch.’ Routledge and Kegan Paul (Methuen), NY, 1988. Xii, 246.
Accessed through JSTOR Journal August 28 2006.

4. According to Anne Balsamo the biological body has merged with the technological body. This has brought about the emergence of a new "techno-body", which sees an unbound potential. She argues that despite "techno-bodies" potential mutability, the traditional ideas of gender still exist. The border between male and female remains distinct, thus technological advances have in fact heightened the distinction between the two genders. However, Balsamo believes that computer-mediated communication, where participants only know one another through textual representations, that gender and the constraints of the body can be escaped.
Anne Balsamo, ‘Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women.’ Durham, NC: Duke 1996.
http://prometheus.cc.emory.edu/cfm/academic/balsamo.html (access August 29 2006)
5. Stone’s article looks into the reconstructing identity in the digital age and
highlights the complex and confusing circumstance that is online social spaces and the negotiations that surround this space. Stone suggests that while there is this "root" person being used to communicate and while many people beileve that this "root" person may only exist in cyberspace, the "root" person in fact represents the person themselves and when you take it away, there is nothing left. She believes that cyberspace is a social environment and therefore is gendered.
Allucquere Rosanne Stone, 1995. ‘The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age’. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/Reviews/revDesire.html (Accessed August 26 2006)

6. Don Ihde believes that we are surrounded by technology in every aspect of our lives. Technology is included in what we do, where we go and we are unable to escape its influence. The term "Technoculture" seems to best describe this contemporary phenomena within our society. He poses an interesting question which explores the notion that society is extremely eager to explore this new digital age, but does the controller control technology or does technology control the controller?
Don Idhe, 2002. ‘Bodies in Technology’ Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Modern culture still constructs communication technology in a way that most certainly is gendered. Cyberspace is manufactured as a social environment where individuals interact with other individuals and many believe that due to this social nature the border between the male and female genders still deeply exists. There is most definitely still a strong belief that technology remains a masculine world, and that in many ways women are powerless to this gender domination.

Ruminations on cyber-race - Tute Presentation

2006-09-04T10:07:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone, I'll be talking about Jerry Kang's article 'Ruminations on cyber-race' in our tutorial this Wednesday. Kang's focus is on 'technology and its impact on society', and he examines how race has been treated in an online environment. To deal with the issue of race online (or cyber-race, as he refers to it), Kang proposes and explains three main 'strategies': abolition, integration and transmutation.

Kang firstly examines claims that the internet is working to abolish race, with the majority of interactions between users in a text-based format. Although this type of interaction appears to abolish race completely, Kang believes that implicit ‘cues’ in conversation may still permit racial mapping. Further, he predicts that the internet will incorporate interactions through different media as bandwidth increases, prompting his observation ‘a videocam is no more racially anonymous than a face-to-face encounter.’ Kang goes on to examine the concepts of integration – bringing different races together online – and transmutation – encouraging people to adopt a different race in online communities.

With the technology underlying the internet developing at such a rapid pace, I feel that some of Kang’s ideas in a three year old article are already becoming less relevant. One of Kang’s proposals – that technology companies ‘should develop user interfaces that promote some chance encounters with other people’ – seems unlikely to eventuate, unless such an interface could increase their revenue. Kang also argues that online marketplaces should abolish race for transactions, and yet it would appear that this is already the case, unless online merchants are discriminating against certain types of credit cards.

On the whole, Kang does raise some interesting points about cyber-race and I’ll be looking forward to hear what everybody else thinks about it on Wednesday.

Jane's Critical Annotated Webliography

2006-09-03T22:17:00.000+08:00

The process through which I obtained the material I used to answer Donna Haraway’s assertion that by the late twentieth century we are cyborgs, was a fairly progressive one. I took the advice of the handout and literally began by brainstorming names and key words that might fuel a prolific internet search. Once having done this, I worked my way through pages and pages of articles on the internet to attempt to grasp an understanding of some of the key idea’s being discussed and to begin to formulate my own response to the assertion that we are all cyborgs. The following is what I found…

1. Carolyn Keen’s article [1] on Donna Haraway’s ”Cyborg Manifesto” was a valuable starting point for my research. The article provides a brief but concise summary of some of the tools of socialist-feminist analysis that Haraway finds problematic, including Marxism, psychoanalysis and feminism. Keen dismantles the concept of the Cyborg as metaphor, “’Cyborg’…is grounded in ‘political-scientific’ analysis. This analysis takes up most of the manifesto,” and suggests that what is interesting about Haraway’s idea’s resides not in it’s uniqueness but in its rhetorical strategy, the suggestion that an anti-science stance is unrealistic. I think Keen’s article is particularly useful to me in helping me locate some of the key Idea’s of the manifesto while providing critical insight to the Cyborg theory. The article is easy to follow and relatively to the point with the only weakness being Keen’s overuse of direct quotes leaving little room for her own analysis.

2. “Computers and The Communication of Gender” by Elizabeth Lane Lawley [2] is a useful source in terms of its discussion of the current conceptions of re-gendering in a virtual world, and its locating of the relationship between gender and biological sex within Haraway’s conceptual framework . Despite using her idea’s as a major point of focus, Lawley digress’ from Haraway in much of her article. She refers to others in the field, namely males, Van Der Luen and Baudrillard, as both being somewhat critical of the blurring of boundaries and fearful of the power that technology assigns women. The article is written in a text book fashion with sections such as ‘technological determinism’ and ‘gender as a social construct.’ and is both clear and explanatory. I think the source would be extremely valuable for my essay (despite being one of the least current), due to its attempt not just to provide a ‘female-centred’ vantage point for the examination of communication technologies, but also to examine the ways in which our definitions of ‘woman and man are constantly shifting in the still ‘new’ technological environment.

3. “Cyborgs at Large: Interview with Donna Haraway” [3] is an in depth discussion with Haraway herself about her Cyborg Manifesto. Although somewhat tedious in length and a little bit convoluted on the whole, the article is helpful in its attempt to get Donna Haraway to simply explain her idea’s (something I think most of her readers would find beneficial.) The part I found most pertinent to my research question was that on cyborgism and its social relations becoming a myth that can be swung both in good and evil directions, bereft of social guarantees, which Harway identifies it as rightly being. Haraway also discusses becoming a little more resilient to psychoanalysis as opposed to the view she held more commonly in 1985 of cyborgs being totally distinctive to anything ‘as archaic as the unconscious.’ The interview is very insightful and unique and really delves into Haraway’s concept of the cyborg.

4. “Living as Cyborgs” [4] is a fictional day-in-the-life style exposé of the Assistant Mailroom Clerks of a EXISTech Corporation, relating the experience of entrapment in a subjugated computer-mediated reality that
extends to all hours of their day-to-day lives. Although I completely acknowledge the illusory nature of the source, I chose to include it because I considered it to be a very applicable illustration of the cyborg as reality. While the other sources discuss cyborgism explicitly in theory, here the authors put it into practice. I would only allude briefly to it as to ensure my essay was supported by appropriate academic literature but I think it would be fascinating to compare some of Haraway’s ideas of authority with those being discussed in this essay. “Nerve impulses no longer travel directly to the muscles of the body, but must first get security clearance for muscle movement, speech or action to take place…”

5. Heather Walton’s [5] is an article that looks at the way the cyborg works to sustain the representational practices through which gender is enduringly inscribed within our culture. This article focuses upon the sexual politics of contemporary cyborg iconography and looks at the implications on femininity in particular. Walton alludes to the work of Ann Balsamo as well as other prominent scholars in the field. I was particularly impressed with the writing style of Walton whom I think writes very simply but effectively. Her discussion of the cyborg as a postmodern icon is very interesting as are her allusions to cyborgs in popular culture such as the Stepford Wives. A source I would draw much influence from in the writing of my essay.

6. Anne Kull in “Speaking Cyborg: Techno-culture and Techno-nature” [6]
refers to Philip Hefner and the term created co-creator, but especially to Donna Haraway and the term cyborg. Kull argues that simultaneously, humans have been fascinated by the thought of transgressing the boundaries that seem to separate them from the rest of nature. Any culture reflects the ways it relates to nature. “Our reality can be best approached by the metaphor and symbol cyborg. Donna Haraway's cyborg is not just an interesting figure of speech, it is also a description—of ourselves and our culture.” I was particularly impressed with Kull’s explanations of the cyborg and found her east to understand. My only criticism is that the source was slightly repetitive at times which I think was part of Kull’s attempt to provide a well-designed interpretation of Haraway’s concepts.

In conclusion, I felt that I was able to acquire a diverse range of sources to cover my topic of Cyborgs. While some material discussed the politics of Haraway’s cyborg as a tool for social-feminism, others were critical of the gender politics and were not so consenting to the notion that ‘we are all cyborgs.’ As for my own interpretation, If I were to write an essay on this topic, I would say that Harway’s cyborg is applicable to an extent, in some contexts. But I would also include the material that suggested otherwise and provide both sides to a fairly contentious assertion.

[1] Carolyn Keen, ‘Carolyn Keen on Haraway – “Cyborg Manifesto”’, University of Pennsylvania Website, (1998)
http://www.english.upenn.edu/jenglish/curses/keen2.html (accessed 24 August 2006).
[2] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’, (1993)
http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 24 August 2006)
[3] Constance Penley, Andrew Ross and Donna Haraway, ‘Cyborgs at Large: Interview with Donna Haraway,’ Social Text, No 25/26, (1990)
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/view/01642472/ap020021/02a00020/0?currentResult=01642472%2bap020021%2b02a00020%2b0%2c00&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FArticleLocatorResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26ArticleTitle%3DCYBORGS%2BAT%2BLARGE%26Author%3D%26JournalTitle%3D%26ISSN%3D%26MonthSeason%3D%26Day%3D%26Year%3D%26vo%3D%26is%3D%26StartPage%3D (accessed 24 August 2006)
[4] Dr Steve Mann, James Fung, Corey Manders, ‘Living as Cyborgs’ (2005)
http://www.netzspannung.org/version1/extension/cast01-proceedings/pdf/by_name/mann.pdf#search=%22EXIStech%22. (accessed 24 August 2006)
[5] Heather Walton, ‘The Gender of the Cyborg’, Theology & Sexuality: The Journal of the Institute for the study of Christianity and Sexuality Vol 10. Issue 2 (March 2004)
http://content.epnet.com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/pdf13_15/pdf/2004/8PW/01Mar04/13062533.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=13062533&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80Seqa84v+vlOLCmrk6eprNSsqu4S6+WxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGpsU22rbdOuePfgeyx+Eu3q64A&D=aph (accessed 24 August 2006)
[6] Anne Kull, ‘Speaking Cyborg: Techno-culture and Techno-nature’, Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, Vol 37 Issue 2 (2002).
http://sas.epnet.com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/externalframe.asp?tb=0&_ug=sid+E95C8679%2D792C%2D4685%2D8A59%2D0103FEABD852%40sessionmgr6+9B22&_us=SLsrc+ext+or+Date+034D&_usmtl=ftv+True+137E&_uso=hd+False+db%5B0+%2Daph+1BEE&fi=aph_6832387_AN&lpdf=true&pdfs=&tn=&tp=PC&es=cs%5Fclient%2Easp%3FT%3DP%26P%3DAN%26K%3D6832387%26rn%3D1%26db%3Daph%26is%3D0591%2D2385%26sc%3D%26S%3D%26D%3Daph%26title%3DZygon%253A%2BJournal%2Bof%2BReligion%2B%253F%2BScience%26year%3D2002%26bk%3DS&fn=1&rn=1&bk=S&EBSCOContent=ZWJjY8Pe9HePqbBrsOvma6Gmr4GPp7GFo6i5f6SWxpjDpfJ+oqu3gqisrbjQ3+151N7uvuMA&an=6832387&db=aph& (accessed 24 August 2006)

Rae's Webliography

2006-09-01T18:06:00.000+08:00

Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘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’.

In searching for a web references for a proposed answer to this question, my first recourse was keyword searches using the search engine "Google". I then reviewed the premise and content of each link the search retrieved, and followed available citations, links, and references and assessed their credibility and the inherent assumptions and conditions of theoretical expectation implicit in the authors' approach to Haraway's conceptual framework of cyborg identity. My search placed primary reference on texts which took Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" as a focal point of critical assessment.

I found Wikipedia's article on Donna Haraway useful. While of course Wikipedia, as a source, requires intense critical appraisal and the utmost in caution towards citations and secondary resources prior to the appropriation of its content for any serious purpose, as a means of acquiring general background information towards contextual appreciation of Haraway's oeuvre, it is not without a certain usefulness. I would use this source, and the secondary sources it references, in my hypothetical essay to be able to assess, in the light of her disciplinary background in Zoology and Philosophy, the origin of her approach to post-digital identity.

As a nexus of resources related to the question of the Cyborg Manifesto, "Hyperlink to Donna Haraway" would be particularly helpful. The content of the site is in itself a collection of critical assessment of and commentary on Haraway's manifesto, and, though it is important to note the implicit ideological bias in the assembled references through their apparent selection by a proponent of Haraway's work, as a collection of positive critical appraisal it is valuable to the analysis of Haraway's quoted assertion.

In contrast to these references supportive of Haraway's work, an article such as Bill Joy's feature in Wired, "Why the future doesn't need us", does not subscribe to the essentially humanistic conceit of Haraway's work; that, however modified, it is the future of humanity which is and should be the central concern of theorists of identity in the technology-pervaded present and the digital future. Though not addressing Haraway in a direct sense, Joy's pessimistic vision of post-human futurity is an interesting counterpoint to the cyberfeminist assumption that a future inclusive of a strong interrelationship between humanity and technology would be beneficial.

William Grassie's article "Cyborgs, Trickster, and Hermes: Donna Haraway's Metatheory of Science and Religion" would be valuable. It places Haraway's own philosophical/idealogical framework for the consideration of theories of identity in the digital age within a greater conceptual structure of mythology, critical and feminist theory, epistemology, hermeneutics, and philosophy, and provides for an improved perspective on her ideas in the context of a more widely-considered system of thought. In assessing Haraway's concept of our cyborg status Grassie's article provides a metaconceptual system for understanding her work which I would use in part to establish the way in which Haraway is both bound by and capable of overcoming the arguably patriarchal legacy of the system of Western rationalist thought.

For another, albeit overtly functionalist, examination of the systems of thought to which "The Cyborg Manifesto" is heir, Robert Young's article, "Science, Ideology and Donna Haraway" is interesting. Young discusses the science/ideology dichotomy and the possibilities for subverting or overcoming that dichotomy, and demonstrates Haraway's work in overcoming it to produce research based on a more unified approach. Though primarily concerned with her researches which do not primarily take identity theory as their focal point, and though it must be borne in mind that Young acknowledges himself to be "generously cited" in Haraway's work and she in his, as an additional data point on the ways in which we are now, in the digital/post-digital age, subverting the traditional dialectical approach to understanding, it would be a useful contribution.

Ingrid Hoofd's "Cyborg Manifesto 2.0: discussions in feminist figurations, new technologies and social change", as well as being a consciously and deliberately extremely hypertextual project, would be useful for analysing Haraway's quoted assertion in the light of its effect across our time. In evaluating its relevance to the time at which it was written, taking the perspective of a subsequent period allows for the capacity, in retrospect, to consider its validity with the benefit of hindsight. Critical assessment of a concept which is theory of its own contemporary within the perspective of the nature of that contemporary is assisted by a certain distance.

My primary direction in an essay assessing Haraway's assertion would be to analyse the role of myth and the conception of a collective identity underpinned by pervasive technology in modern cultural perceptions and critical theory. The implicit assumptions both of Haraway's work and of critical response to it also bear examination; it would also be interesting to establish the degree to which her self-proclaimed ironic and blasphemous approach is self-sabotaging. The theoretical environment in which her argument is constructed was not unconscious, and so it is difficult to consider her statement prima facie without being forced to take that ideological context into account.

Webliography

2006-09-01T01:35:00.000+08:00

Guide Question: ‘From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.’ Discuss critically.

As we move further into the 21st century the idea of what it means to be human is continually changing and being reinterpreted. With the advancements in modern medicine, plastic surgery and ever improving modern technology, the existence of a totally ‘natural’ human being is fast becoming extinct. As technology and medicine improve, we are forever discovering new aspects of the human body that allow us to solve, or at least attempt to, any problems that come in the way of perfect health. With the current average life expectancy of the Australian population risen by almost 25 years since the early 1900’s, it is clear that allowing a human to pursue a totally natural life minus the intervention of modern medicine and technology will drastically reduce their life expectancy. However, the question can be raised about how far is too far in regards to the intervention of modern technology and medicine? It can be argued, that while the pursuit of longevity and good health is predominantly a good thing, has the quest for the ‘perfect’ human gone to far and is there a point at which we should stop striving to learn more about the body and be content with the advancements that have been made thus far. The article ‘Is human embryo research going too far?’ is an article which I came across which certainly raised questions of medical research gone to far. The page is a forum on which viewers of the BBC network can post their opinions, in particular on that of a ‘mixed sex human embryo.’ It is interesting to see the conflicting opinions on the topic, one notable response was ‘I think the research should go on since it could definitely bring us further hope in life.’
Catherine Walby’s article on The Visible Human Project was a particularly interesting article discussing the controversial project started by the National Library of Medicine in the late 80’s early 90’s. The VHP is a prime example of the ever increasing want and need for more extensive medical knowledge. Is allowing the general public the see every millimetre of a strangers body, internally and externally taking medical knowledge too far? As Catherine Waldby writes, the VHP is an’ abolition of the bodily interior as a private, or sacred space’ (Waldby, 2000, p 6). The disturbing fact of the VHP and similar projects, is that a person who was once a living breathing human being becomes nothing more than a medical project. In the case of the woman used in the project, she was simply known as ‘Maryland Housewife.’ The human is depersonalised, dehumanised, and although their inner most workings are broadcast for all to see, we think nothing of who the actual person is. As Waldby writes, the VHP is ‘simply another step along the road of medical progress and another tool in the advance of knowledge.’ (Waldby, 2000, p. 4) What it is to be human is reinterpreted as an advance of knowledge, rather than personal experience. I found that Walby discussed this point in a highly engaging and informative manner.

This idea of a desire to be ‘human,’ a want for human purity and the aspiration to be the perfect human is certainly not a recent phenomenon. Walby again discusses this in her article The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyber culture. The story of Frankenstein illustrates the want to be human and the desire to create the perfect human. Frankenstein brings into play the problems that arise from toying too much with nature. As Waldby writes in her article ‘The word Frankenstein is used in an instantly recognisable allusion to what are considered the destructive potentials of recombinant DNA technologies.. any scientific practise that threatens to change the human body in new an unfamiliar ways, and is indifferent to notions of human purity.’ That is, the problems that arise from toying with human purity. There is inevitably a point at which we cannot improve upon ones self anymore, and the question can be asked, have we reached that point? The ideas brought up in Frankenstein are a concern that is still relevant to modern day. As Walby writes, the stock narrative (of) technology out of control is a common theme and is also a common worry. ‘Frankenstein is one of the earliest attempts to deal with the malleability of life and the possibilities of human ‘techno genesis,’ the loss of an origin securely located in nature.’ (Waldby, 2002, p 29) Recently in the UK a failed medical testing program testing a drug intended for the treatment of leukaemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis went horribly wrong when participants bodies swelled, and their fingers and feet turned black, and according to the doctors, their bodies had sustained severe damage, as discussed in this online article. Drastic consequences ensued in the pursuit of human purity. This could be seen as the point at which maybe human purity should be left at the point we have reached, however, there is never any doubt that this will not be the case and the search for ultimate purity will continue.

‘The V.H.P has been taken up as a new iconography of ‘Man’ for the virtual future... even the mysterious materiality of the human body can be hypermediated, transported by the computer’ (Waldby, 2000, pg. 4) The human body, that was once mysterious, has now gained increasing clarity. This discussion of the ‘virtual future’ in Walby’s article inevitably lead me back to thoughts of the idea of living through a virtual simulation. The VHP reasserts what it is to be human, the question of what it is to be human is an idea brought up in Nick Bostroms article The Simulation Argument: Why the Probability that You Are Living in a Matrix is Quite High. Although the article seems hugely far- fetched, particularly if read from the point of view of someone who doesn’t fully understand the idea of the The Matrix, what is interesting about it is the discussion that theoretically sometime in the future there could be computers that could interact in a similar way to human beings.

Finally, the article The New Facts of Life by Christopher Mayer discusses the idea that ‘the nonliving world is very much alive.’ This article, although mildly difficult to read due to the usage of computer terminology. He discusses four main ‘life properties,’ emergence, self-organization, reproduction, and coevolution, as discusses how these properties show up in systems that are ‘generally regarded as non-living.’ What it is to be human, or to be living, is being questioned as he discusses the linkages that exist between the natural organic world and the inorganic technical world, or as Mayer writes it ‘technology and biology are converging.’

Reference List
1. Australian Government, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [online] http://www.aihw.gov.au/mortality/data/life_expectancy.cfm ‘Life Expectancy’ (accessed 17 August, 2006)
2. Helsinging Sanomat, International Edition, [online] http://www.hs.fi/english/article/BACKGROUND+Failed+British+medical+test+sparked+safety+concerns/1135221070973 (7.8.2006) ‘Failed British Medical Test sparked Safety Concern’ (accessed 12 ugust, 2006)
3. The National Library of Medicine [online] httpp://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html , (28 July 2006) Visible Human Project (accessed 16 August 2006)
4. The Simulation Argument, [online] http://www.simulation-argument.com/matrix.html, (May, 2003) ‘Why the Probability That You Are Living in a Matrix is Quite High.’ (accessed Aug 23, 2006)
5. Waldby, Catherine. ‘The Visible Human Project: An Initial History’ in The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp.1-18.
6. Waldby, Catherine. "The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture." Prefiguring Cybercultures: An Intellectual History. Eds. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson and Alessio Cavalaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002 28-37.
7. Wired Magazine, [online] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/machines.html 2004. ‘Living Machines: The News Facts of Life’ (accessed August 22, 2006)

Additional Sources
8. BBC News, [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3034438.stm, (July 10, 2003) ‘Is Human Embryo Research going too far?’ (accessed 24 August, 2006)
9. BBC News, [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3040126.stm , (July 3, 2003) ‘Have scientists gone too far?’ (accessed 24 August, 2006)

Webliography

2006-08-31T23:14:00.000+08:00

The Limitations of the Body
Annotated Webliography

Image: Torture implement and arguably an early cyborg blending human and technology: The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg. Photo taken before 1923. From the public domain, can be found sources such as Wikipedia. The Iron Maiden was destroyed in air raids on Germany in 1944.

“from Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.” Discuss Critically.

Foremost in examining this statement came the need to establish the current running capability of the human body. This is where Tama Leaver’s article became particularly relevant. Detailing trends in speculative fiction regarding the construction of cyborgs, Leaver makes a comment about how human identity is portrayed as complimentary to the machine. It is a requirement to find meaning in humanity, that the subject needs to be human, and yet Star Trek, the program Leaver’s cyborgs stem from, demonstrates the blending of machine and cyborg that can cause the very definition of “human” to be examined. Additionally, Leaver argues through cyborg modifications, the physical and mental abilities of humans are exemplified, but at the cost of the cyborg’s emotional capability. Leaver’s article, while a good look at popular science-fiction cyborgs, does not address the more problematic cyborg characters of perhaps more obscure science fiction.

Appropriately, the limitations of human identity and capacity are examined at in the article “Identities and differences: Philip K. Dick through popular culture” . From Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the later film Blade Runner, cyborgs are portrayed as almost more human than human, through the embellishment of their imperfections. They are “the children of humanity” and humans are rarely responsible parents, Bošković argues. They have shorter life spans and more intense emotions than humans, and readers often extend their sympathies to the “replicant” cyborgs, which humans grew as a slave race. Bošković makes the point that often identities are formed through gathering together of people into groups. The paper is rather open ended, deciding that finding meaning in humanity involves exploration that cyborgs may not be inclined to undertake. Identity is shifting, and the human response is to cope with that.

It ties into the articles by White and Best, on head transplants (or body transplants) and cryogenics respectively. White makes the point that human identity, as far as the body is concerned, is thought to reside in the brain. Jovial and easy to understand, White’s writing begins to familiarize a reader with practical applications of head transplants, as well as details on previous successful head transplants (we are told non-human primates have survived up to 8 days functioning normally, with alternate heads). White predicts that it will be entirely possible sometime this century to construct our own Frankenstein, made entirely from the leftovers of the recently deceased. Best looks at the use of technology in correlation with human identity. His article, while raising interesting points, is at times difficult to agree with. The Duplicate paradox is that, if you could create a perfect duplicate of a person, their identity would be as a duplicate and not as the original person, despite having all the molecules in place so as to provide them the exact memories of the original. Best talks about how some life-extension specialists believe that this renders it impossible to revive the original person when unthawing them, as a loss of consciousness corresponds with a loss of identity. This causes me to wonder about people who may simply forget to pay attention for a moment to their identity – if is it then gone forever. To respond to this, I return again to Bošković’s article, in stating that even in an unconscious state, the experience of being unconscious on a physical level, becomes part of that persons’ identity, which is fluid and changing. And if a Human body is subject to limitations lessening it in comparison to any other human body, it can be traded with pieces from complete human bodies.

“Why the Future doesn’t need us” is a document spanning many topics, with the common theme that humans, in efforts to make living easier for ourselves, are becoming out-of-vogue to machines. It embodies concepts that humans will be inferior to machines, and eventually become extinct like so many other species – for whose deaths ironically we are often responsible. The document is easy to read, however doesn’t dwell on the philosophical repercussions as much as was necessary. However, when used in conjunction with the more technical articles by Best, Laird and Lent, it served to fill in the corners with an appropriately humanistic perspective.

The final stage of my examination, was looking at identity when there was no body. For this, John E. Laird and Michael van Lent’s article on Artificial Intelligence was very useful. While the point is all too often made that it has fast become a stereotype for machines to be cold and emotionless, there are cases when they are deliberately created as blood-thirsty machines out to kill humans. Why would people make machines for this role? For video games, as it turns out. Ability to create meaning has become a matter of power and processing ability outputting specific data, and reacting in non-concrete modes of behaviour. Artificial Intelligence researchers pour their lives into the development of these computers, in a way transferring their identity from the body to exist online.

Reinitiating fears from movies such as Terminator, these machines are still the products of humans, Bošković would argue, and so to retain our identity we should take responsibility for our actions. Laird and Lent make no such philosophical or moral claim: it is what it is, and for now, it is ours. This final article, when read in connection with others, seemed to prove their arguments. Cyborgs may be represented as cold and emotionless and less human, but in the Freudian way, it can all be traced back to their entirely human parents.

Webliography

2006-08-31T22:36:00.000+08:00

Question 1: Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘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’.

In searching for credible online sources of information, my first port of call was the UWA library website, specifically the SuperSearch function. I found various useful articles, but the only one which could be found in its entirety and which was also available to the general public was ‘Cyborgs and Moral Identity’. A working URL to this article was found by using the title of the article as the search terms in Google. The Google search engine proved itself to be the single most important locater of relevant articles. The articles ‘Cyborg Urbanisation’ and ‘Make way for the bionic man’ were found using the search terms ‘pdf cyborg’. In googling the word ‘cyborg’, the article ‘You are cyborg’ was found. The search terms ‘cyborg manifesto’ produced the article ‘Cyborg dreams’, and searching ‘Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline’ produced the paper ‘Manfred Clynes and the cyborg’.

‘Cyborgs and moral identity’ was unique in that it was one of the few sources examined to not make any references to cyborgs in works of ffiction. Gillet provides a practical, scientific grounding to Haraway’s philosophies of modern day humans as cyborgs, and cyborgs as part machine part organism. He explores what it means to be a “natural” organism and the aspects that make humans different from machines – that of having a “soul”, the ability to reflect, and the concept of intuition. Gillet takes Haraway’s assertion that we are cyborgs and questions society’s reaction to this development, whether we fear, reject, or accept what we have, according to Haraway, become. Unlike in Haraway’s ‘A cyborg manifesto’, the article provides specific case studies which illustrate how humans are now cyborgs. Using these real life examples, he elaborates on the elements which make us part machine. Although ‘Cyborgs and moral identity’ is an academic paper, it is written in a journalistic style in the sense that it employs language in a manner that makes the paper each to digest. It does not, however, fall into the trap of becoming informal.

Almost every one of the sources I found were easier to read and than Haraway’s ‘A cyborg manifesto’, having been written in a more straight-forward style. ‘Cyborg urbanisation’ is an example of this. The article explores the idea of humans as cyborgs, and proposes ideas which neitther Haraway nor the other sources I collated had raised. These ideas include our urban environments acting as machinic extensions of the human body, and of cities resembling cyborgs. Mathew Gandy launches into a detailed discussion of what a cyborg is, exploring the idea of the cyborg and how it relates to the “cyber” metaphor. This discussion was very useful as it helped to clarify the ambiguity surrounding what makes modern day humans cyborgs, laying down the foundations for assessing whether we really are all cyborgs.

‘You are cyborg’ is very ambiguous in its definition of what a cyborg is. It says that being a cyborg isn’t about “how many bits of silicon you have under your skin” (p. 2); rather, that we are cyborgs because we have “carbo-loaded bodybuilding foods” and machines that can be used for body-enhancing (p. 2). This statement, however, is in contradiction to an assertion made later on in the article, when it is stated that the first real cyborg has been among us for almost 50 years. This cyborg, it states, is a lab rat which had a pump inserted in its body that injected into its system particular chemicals. This complication begs one to question whether a human needs only to interact with a machine, as one might do if they used a computer, to be considered a cyborg, or whether they need to be implanted with a machinic device such as a pacemaker to qualify as a cyborg. The apparent contradiction of the article aside, ‘You are cyborg’ presents an interesting and in-depth argument for humans in the present time as being cyborgs. Furthermore, it features an interview with Haraway herself, lending credibility to the article.

Similarly to ‘You are cyborg’, ‘Make way for the bionic man’ makes question the definition of “cyborg” and just what it incorporates. The article puts forward the term of “robo-sapien”, a term coined by a researcher the article centres on. The idea of a robo-sapien is similar to that of cyborgs, but the definition of the former is far clearer and narrower. According to Dr. Amir Karniel, a robo-sapien is simply a person who has been fitted with a robotic device such as a pacemaker or hearing aid. This form of cyborg is already living among us, and is predicted to become a more prominent feature of society in the future. ‘You are cyborg’ sees humans as becoming more mechanized, to the extent that they will be comprised of more mechanical elements than flesh and organic parts.

'Cyborg dreams’ is the transcript of an episode of an ABC radio program called Background Briefing. The transcript draws heavily on quotes by experts from the field of cyborgology, including Donna Haraway, as well as other technology enthusiasts. It also explores the ideas presented by various works of science-fiction. ‘Cyborg dreams’ raises an interesting point about virtual reality, giving cause to consider whether virtual reality is another way in which humans are cyborgs. Virtual reality represents the idea of transgressing our “meat” bodies, which feeds into the concept of cyborgs. The article’s one drawback is that it takes perhaps too broad a look at the idea of cyborgs and indulges in too much future-gazing and extrapolation.

In ‘Manfred Clynes and the cyborg’. Chris Gray Hables writes about the theories of the man who, with his research partner, coined the term ‘cyborg’. The established author on cyborgology discusses the origins of the term cyborg and the context in which it was coined. He tackles the idea of modern day humans as cyborgss using scientific examples to support his argument, but is let down in part by a too superficial discussion of his ideas. Hables’ paper is nevertheless informative and communicates its ideas in a clear and understandable manner.

All of the sources collated are in agreement with Haraway’s statement that humans in the present era are hybrids of machine and organism. The one point of variability, however, was the extent to which humans need to interact with machines to qualify as a cyborg. ‘You are cyborg’ is an article that highlights the broadness of the definition of cyborg though putting forward its own term to describe humans that have been fitted with a robotic device. Most of the articles view the origins of the cyborg as grounded in fiction but now see the image of the cyborg as being increasingly relevant in today’s society and expect humans to resemble cyborgs even more in the future.

Hilary's Webliography

2006-08-31T21:03:00.000+08:00

Question 3.

Information and communications technology changes at an extremely rapid rate, and changes the society in which it is used at a similar pace. The manner in which gender is embedded in cultural constructions of ICTs may be expected to change also, but it appears not to; traditional patriarchal ideas relating to the abilities of each gender to understand and use technology, and the manners in which technologies should be used by each gender are firmly entrenched in common perceptions of ICTs. Using search engines such as Google (particularly Google Scholar) and AltaVista, I located many articles dealing with the ways in which gender is embedded in ICTs. From among them I have chosen a variety of online sources, none of which are more than ten years old, to illustrate that although ICTs change at an astounding speed, cultural constructions of such technologies continue to be gendered in a manner which reflects the particular traditions and biases of the cultures it is used in, even though the potential for an equally rapid shift in such perceptions is possible and indeed seems likely.

Cees Hamelink's article, New Information and Communication Technologies, Social Development and Cultural Change [1] was quite useful background reading, as it defined ICT, gave a history of developments in the area, and gave an overview of many social factors which influence and are influenced by ICT. He described two distinct prevalent views present in 1997 of how ICT revolutions will impact upon cultural change, including issues concerning gender and male-dominance (particularly in IT field), in years to come, and suggested directions in which we ought to aim for change. This drove home the notion that ICT is a field which changes rapidly and influences social change, which would be a useful starting point for mentioning that if notions of gender are embedded in our views of ICT then our perceptions of gender are also related to our ideas of change and social progress. It provides a good starting point for thinking about how common ideas of gender intersect with ideas of ICT and the ways in which perceptions of each influence the other to change. However useful each part of this article was, the first sections dealing with history were rather more detailed than I required, and I would have found it more useful if it had included a more in-depth discussion of the specifics of both the dominant views that the author felt were prevalent enough to mention.

I found Sorenson's exploration of issues surrounding gender and perceptions of ICT in Love, Duty and the S-Curve: An Overview of some Current Literature and ICT [2] was very useful. Before reading this, I hadn’t fully appreciated the trend to lump all Western (and Westernised) cultures' views of gender and of ICT together as one, homogenous view; although in hindsight it seems obvious, it was nonetheless a very valuable realisation. The discussion of the differing use of ICT between the genders and also her arguments concerning how inclusion of both genders can be encouraged equally in using different forms of ICT in five different countries would be very valuable to this essay, as it would enable me to discuss the ways in which different cultures have gender identity embedded differently, and how these differences relate to political and educational differences in these countries. It is also valuable in its examination of ICT in different fields, how its use in education and home life differs between the genders and how gender relates to the use of ICT in the workplace.

Neil Selwyn's article [3] was useful for its overview of reasons an individual may have for not using technology, and was refreshing in its examination of the individual's right to not use ICT if, for one of a plethora of possible reasons, they do not want to. Where most articles focussed on economic or educational lack and cast the (usually female) non-user of ICT as a victim of social pressures, Selwyn points out that to view them as such denies the individual their free will. This argument was helpful in providing a starting point to discuss the relationship between the way our culture often views women as victims of exclusive patriarchal hierarchies and the way we frequently construct women's non-participation in ICT as a problem which needs to be solved, rather than technology needing to change to suit women’s needs. Also, Selwyn gives a good overview of the social and cultural identities including but not limited to gender which are embedded in the cultural construction of ICT, and how these relate to non-use of the technologies.

Moving In, Moving Up, Moving Out? A Survey of Women in ICT [4] was very useful for examining the way gender is embedded in cultural constructions of the ICT industry. It enables an exploration of how ICT impacts (or doesn't) on women in the workplace generally, commenting on social pressures working to keep women either family or job oriented (especially in fields where ICTs are of high importance), and the manner in which gendered views of ICT reinforce the gap between the genders in terms of pay and likelihood of promotion. Moore, Griffiths and Richardson situate the relationship between social constructions of gender and of ICT in the wider picture of gender as it is embedded in constructions of work. This article also proved useful in exploring where the boundaries of ICT as an industry are, and what it means to say that a person works in IT.

I found this news article by Mike Langberg [5] of interest in considering the ways in which most people understand gender to be embedded in constructions of ICT. While the non-academic style of the article was a drawback, I found that this article provided me with a voice for and from among society, and its lack of concern with academic objectivity in considering constructions of ICT and gender seemed to give a truer account of the average person's gendered understanding of technology. Langberg's article explores the differences between men's and women's approaches to technology and their views of their own competency, giving typical exemplars from each gender. The acknowledgement of a gender gap in internet use in this kind of publication gave a good starting point for discussing the ways in which gender identity and its impact on access to resources and skills is often unquestioned by most of society although they may recognise its presence, and the (largely unchallenged) domination of ICT industries by men.

This case study [6] of the difference between male and female high school students' perceptions of ICT is somewhat useful in its identification of the differing ways in which girls and boys perceive technology and their abilities in using ICT. It shows that the younger generation's gendered construction of information technology is similar to that of their parents, technological and social revolutions over time notwithstanding, with female participants believing themselves less competent than males. This study makes a link between young women's perception of ICT as a field which requires high skill levels and their notions of their own lack of skill in this field, and their apparent lack of interest in a career based in ICT. I found this especially interesting as it illustrates the manner in which perceptions of ICT as a gendered area of work and technology are perpetuated and continued while gender hierarchies in other fields are broken down at a somewhat higher rate.

In conclusion, using these articles I have explored several different ways in which gender identity is embedded in cultural constructions of ICTs. I have examined the interrelated ways that cultural perceptions of technology influence constructions of gender, and constructions of gender influence perceptions of ICTs. The variety of ways that constructions of technology as gendered influence the use of ICTs in the home, in education, and in the workplace are explored in this essay, as is the trend to construct the of non-use of technology in every context available by any party as problematic, particularly when related to minority or disempowered groups. I will have demonstrated that gender identity is clearly embedded in cultural constructions of ICTs, and it does not appear that this will change, no matter how much the technology does.

1. Cees J. Hamelink. "New Information and Communication Technologies, Social Development and Cultural Change." (1997)
http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/462fc27bd1fce00880256b4a0060d2af/398d6a861127084780256b640051a497/$FILE/dp86.pdf (Accessed 26/08/2006)

2. K. Sorenson. "Love, Duty and the S-Curve: An Overview of some Current Literature and ICT" (2002)
http://www.rcss.ed.ac.uk/sigis/public/D02/D02_part1.pdf (accessed 27/08/2006)

3. Neil Selwyn, "Apart from Technology: Understanding People?s Non-Use of Information and Communications Technology", (2003)
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~twilliam/teaching/methods/readings/20-Selwyn-ApartFromTechnology-Non-UseOfTechnology.pdf (Accessed 27/08/2006)

4. Karenza Moore, Marie Griffiths, Helen Richardson. "Moving In, Moving Up, Moving Out? A
Survey of Women in ICT," (2005)
http://www.isi.salford.ac.uk/gris/winit/Publications/Symposium_on_Gender_and_ICT_Main_paper_pdf.pdf (accessed 25/08/2006)

5. Mike Langberg, "Internet Raises Gender Gap," Mercury News (July 2006)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15149724.htm (Accessed 27/08/2006)

6. Vania Chan, Katie Stafford, Maria Klawe, Grace Chen. "Gender Differences in Vancouver
Secondary Students? Interests Related to Information Technology Careers" (1999)
http://www.mun.ca/cwse/Chan,Vania.pdf (Accessed 26/08/2006)

Tammi's Critical Annotated Webliography

2006-08-31T16:32:00.000+08:00

In order to critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that we are all cyborgs in the late twentieth century[1], I firstly read her text[2], to gain a clearer understanding of both her assertion and her definition of cyborgs[3]. Next, I ran internet searches of ‘cyborgs’ in Google Scholar, online journals such as ProQuest and JSTOR and also in blogs and online journal websites to familiarize myself with the subject. A variety of sources were found, most of which supported[4] Haraway’s argument that we are all cyborgs. However, in order to suitably assess Haraway’s aforementioned quote it was necessary for me to evaluate varying perceptions of what defines a cyborg, presented reasonings into how and why humankind has transformed into cyborgs and also, how mechanical objects are increasingly attributed human characteristics.

Mihail Roco and William Sims’ report[5] outlines the proposed convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science in an effort to; “achieve a tremendous improvement in human abilities…and the quality of life”[6]. This report suggests that human ability can be significantly enhanced through the implementation of various technologies working in conjunction with the human body. These implementations are deemed highly valuable as, according to this report, vital organs such as the human brain do not function at a substantial performance level.[7] As this report is based on detailed research undertaken by a number of academics from a variety of fields, one can be sure that this site is reputable. I would use this report to assess Haraway’s assertion as it provides useful examples of cyborg technology and argues for it as an avenue of human progression.

The SIGGRAPH website[8] is ultimately a showcase of new technologies. A large number of these new technologies legitimize Haraway’s assertion as they fuse together the natural and the created. The Fingertip Digitizer[9] for example, uses “tactile and haptic stimuli…shared by humans and computers”[10] therefore emphasizing the commonalities between humans and computers. A second invention named The Huggable[11] raises questions concerning human dependence on cyborgs. This cyborg[12] has been designed to understand and interpret human behaviour. The idea of technology being better equipped to interpret human behaviour than a fellow human is somewhat alarming and indicative of human dependence on technology. The main use for this source in arguing Haraway’s point would be the fact that it highlights the concept of humans as hybrids. Hybrids which are in fact dependent on other hybrids[13] as a means of companionship and functional understanding.

A useful point raised by James Harkin[15] is the idea of technology and media as a means of representation[16]. Harkin particularly focuses on the inseparability of the organism from the technology. In pursuing this point he presents examples of the ways in which being a cyborg negatively affects social relations. These include internet adultery as a reason for divorce, cybersex as affecting the human sexual psyche and the use of the Google search engine as affecting the human ability to retain and associate information[17]. Therefore, although this article discusses the classification of humans as cyborgs, it is useful in outlining its’ negative aspects, unlike the previous two sources which both focus on the positives.

Whilst searching a number of weblogs and internet sites I found an Open Diary entry[18] which discusses Martti Lahti’s text[19]. Although this article is by no means scholarly[20] it provides a refreshing analysis on the issue of cyborgs, from an unknown human voicing their humble opinion. Lahti’s text discusses the melding of humans with technology whilst playing video games. He gives the example of human video game players moving their bodies empathetically in tune with the cybernetic world on the screen[21]. As the human becomes increasingly engrossed in the game world, corporealization of the human body occurs. This perception is then translated into the movement of the body. The author of this diary however, finds it difficult to believe that a human could empathise with a machine. Ultimately, the author of this online diary questions Haraway’s assertion that we are in fact cyborgs. The author does this by questioning the difference between consciously combining machines and organisms such as in the wearing of glasses, to that of melding with a technology as Lahti discusses through the example of playing video games. The author asserts the opinion that the use of a machine does not constitute being a cyborg. This is due to the reasoning that all humans are created with a soul and a conscience which technology dare not recreate.

Helen Kennedy’s text[22] approaches the issue of cyborgs from a different perspective; a technological creation with human traits. Arguing along similar lines as Lahti, Kennedy states that humans become technologized as the machines become humanized in the game world. “There is a sad irony in the idea that real women are more and more likely to use technology in order to become more like virtual women who fundamentally are just technology”[23], argues Kennedy. In this way, Kennedy argues that many favour the transformation from humans to cyborgs because they are more appealing. One is able to exert power, create an identity without social inequalities[24] and defy mortality.

Faith Wilding [25] discusses women as increasingly able to express themselves and communicate via the internet, they are able to globally create an alliance of goods against their masters as both women and technology are believed to be controlled by men[26].
Ultimately, Wilding supports the view of women as cyborgs as “cybergrrl-ism”[27] allows women to connect globally and create “new subjective and cultural feminine representations in cyberspace.”[28]

In conclusion, the main points raised in these texts include the opinion that we are in fact examples of Haraway’s definition of cyborgs[29]. Harkins’ text[30] recognizes the inseparability of humans from machines and highlights the negative aspects of cybernetic organisms. The blogger[31] on the other hand, challenges Haraway’s assertion that we are all cyborgs, arguing that using technology does not constitute a fusion of the body with technology. Kennedy’s text[32] explores the appealing nature of cyborgs and the ability for one to choose an identity and lastly, in her text, Wilding[33] discusses cyborg technology as an avenue for women to exert their own identity and unite globally. Therefore, these texts are all useful in assessing Haraway’s opinion that we are all cyborgs in the twentieth century, as they each provide different perspectives and challenges to her assertion.

Bibliography.
ACMSIGGRAPH, ‘SIGGRAPH 2006’, (2006) http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?F=conference&p=etech (accessed on 08/08/06).

dysfunctional_faerie. ‘Human?’, Open Diary (22/08/06) http://www.freeopendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=A820923&entry=20380&mode (accessed 25/08/06).

Haraway, Donna. ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’, The Haraway Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2003.

Harkin, James. ‘Where do I begin? From media shaping our relationship with the world to digital technologies transforming us into ‘human cyborgs’, our boundaries are being blurred’, Financial Times (06/01/06) http://search.ft.com/searchArticle?sortBy=datearticle&page=2&queryText=James+Harkin&y=9&javascriptEnabled=true&id=060106005916&x=13 (accessed on 08/08/06).

Kennedy, Helen. ‘Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?’, Games Studies (2001-2006) http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/ (accessed on 12/08/06).

Roco, Mihail and Sims, William (eds.), ‘Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science.’ (June 2002) http://wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC_report.pdf (accessed on 08/08/06).

Wilding, Faith. ‘Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?’ (1997) http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fwild/faithwilding/wherefem.pdf (accessed on 12/08/06).

Endnotes:
[1] “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” cited in Donna Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’, The Haraway Reader, 2004, p. 8.
[2] Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs’.
[3] Haraway’s definition of cyborgs is “A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism” cited in; Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs’, p. 7.
[4] Although not always consciously or directly
[5] Mihail Roco and William Sims (eds.), “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Cognitive Science.” (June 2002) http://wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC_report.pdf (accessed on 08/08/06).
[6] Roco and Sims, “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance”, p. 9.
[7] Roco and Sims, “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance”, p.18.
[8] ACMSIGGRAPH, “SIGGRAPH 2006”, (2006) http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?F=conference&p=etech (accessed on 08/08/06). NB: This hyperlink only accesses the main page, in order to view the technologies one must select ‘Conference’ followed by the ‘Emerging Technologies’ link.
[9] “A novel fingertip-mounted haptic sensing digitizer that captures physical phenomena at the fingertip during a user’s tactile activities.” Cited in ACMSIGGRAPH, “SIGGRAPH 2006”.
[10] ACMSIGGRAPH, “SIGGRAPH 2006”.
[11] A Therapeutic Robotic Companion for Relational, Affective Touch
[12] In the combination of animal, human and technology
[13] For example, creations such as The Huggable
[14] James Harkin, “Where do I begin? From media shaping our relationship with the world to digital technologies transforming us into ‘human cyborgs’, our boundaries are being blurred.”, Financial Times, (06/01/06), http://search.ft.com/searchArticle?sortBy=datearticle&page=2&queryText=James+Harkin&y=9&javascriptEnabled=true&id=060106005916&x=13 (accessed on 08/08/06).
[15] Harkin, “Where do I begin?”
[16] See Harkins’ description of Thomas de Zengotita’s response to the reaction of fellow thespians to the death of John F. Kennedy
[17] According to Harkin, because of the convenience and accessibility of the Google search engine forgetting information is not a problem because it can easily and almost instantly be ‘looked up’.
[18] dysfunctional_faerie, “Human?” Open Diary, (22/08/06), http://www.freeopendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=A820923&entry=20380&mode (accessed 25/08/06).
[19] Martti Lahti, ‘As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures in Video Games’, The Video Game Theory Reader, 2003; cited in dysfunctional_faerie, “Human?”.
[20] In fact it would be of greater use to just simply study Lahti’s text
[21] Lahti, ‘As We Become Machines’, p. 7 cited in; dysfunctional_faerie, “Human?”.
[22] Helen Kennedy, “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?”, Games Studies (2001-2006) http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/ (accessed on 12/08/06).
[23] Kennedy, “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?”
[24] This statement refers particularly to women being liberated in a masculine landscape through female heroines such as Lara Craft. Also, one is able to alter their race and/or gender as they select their gaming character.
[25] Faith Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?” (1997) http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fwild/faithwilding/wherefem.pdf (accessed on 12/08/06).
[26] Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?” p.1.
[27] Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?” p.3.
[28] Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?”, p. 3.
[29] Roco and Sims’ report and the SIGGRAPH conference website support Haraway’s assertion as they both present examples of cyborg technology in the twentieth century as avenues for human progression and improvement.
[30] Harkin, “Where do I begin?”
[31] dysfunctional_faerie, “Human?”
[32] Kennedy, “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?”
[33] Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?”

Webliography

2006-08-31T14:15:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

To canvas relevant literature available on the web I used Google Scholar and accessed online databases to find useful discussion papers. Given the literature on technology becomes dated quickly, I took into account the year of publication to assess the relevance of the article. I found that articles written in the early 1990s speculating on the future of gender identities and ICT were relatively positive about the implications for women. However, the more recent literature supports the claim that a stereotypical concept of gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of ICT. I demonstrate that normalised gender roles are transferred to the online environment through social processes, interaction and language. I show how even in a disembodied form, the dominant, socially constructed masculine world of technology and computing reinforces women’s limited participation in ICT and that typical gender relations in real life are transferred to the online environment.

Diamandaki, a doctoral candidate, submitted a graduate article to a journal. While it is unclear whether this is refereed, it provides an interesting discussion problematising understandings of social and gendered identity. She notes that online identities are constructed through a distanced and disembodied social world. She believes that this disembodied world is still naturalised and appropriated with stereotyped roles from the physical environment. However, Diamandaki argues there is a possibility that social, and therefore by extension gendered, boundaries can be renegotiated through a new medium of communication.

Herring surveys literature on gender and ICT between 1989 and 2001 and ponders an interesting paradox: how can disparity persist in an anonymous medium which allegedly renders gender invisible? Herring’s research suggests that women increasingly have equal access to the Internet. However, Herring believes that the creation and control of what takes place on the Internet is not equal for men and women. She believes that roles that require technical expertise are consistent with the traditional association of technology with masculinity. This discussion paper is written in a very accessible way and useful to critique and engage with some of the issues.

Lawley, in an article written in 1993, follows up on Donna Haraway’s exploration of the possibilities for women with the physical recreation of the body using technology. Rather than taking a technological determinist approach, Lawley explores the potential for Internet users to be self-aware, reflective, active participants. She argues that if we see the “user of technology as a subject, rather than an object, we provide an avenue for women to act as agents of change in this digital revolution, rather than ineffective objects.” While this article is very dated, it is interesting to note how theorists were viewing the possibilities for gendered uses of technology in a positive way. This is developed further by a blogger who shows that it is unproductive to reify technology; the way we use and understand technology is socially constructed. This is a critical distinction; we must not reify ICT, but analyse the way ICT is socially and culturally constructed. I would also make the point that as people have different uses and experiences of technology, they can make different meanings of technology. These are two crucial points to keep in mind when examining the literature.

Danet explores the possibility of men and women not being limited by stereotypical gendered identities in an online environment. She provides real life examples of how gender is socially constructed, and explores the possibilities involved in interacting in a disembodied space, particularly how people can mask their identity in both asynchronous and synchronous communication. She cites Bechar’s study of 260 Internet users’ nicknames, and she notes that less than 50 are identifiable by gender. It is interesting to speculate why people have chosen gender neutral names, and whether their online names match their real-life gender. This is beyond the scope of this discussion, but fits within a broader discussion of the differences between the construction of real life and online gendered identities.

Rodino argues that online gender constructions do not fit into the limited binary oppositions that shape our real life. She believes that there is substantial scope for users to perform masculinity, femininity or gender neutrality. Rodino uses Bulter’s idea of gender as a performance, and discusses the benefits of a more fluid definition of gender which allows for a greater understanding of peoples’ different experiences. I would develop this idea further as it allows a wider interpretation of gendered identities.

Huffaker and Calvert provide a useful case study analysing the language teenagers’ use in blogs. Given that a substantial proportion of Internet users are teenagers and the gender mix of bloggers is equal, this case study captures an appropriate demographic. Studying teenagers is also useful because it is a developmental milestone where are self-consciously creating and shaping both the gender and social identity. Huffaker and Calvert test a number of hypotheses, and their findings suggest that there is little difference between the blogs of males and females. That is, teenagers stay closer to reality in their online expressions of self than has previously been suggested. This is an interesting finding, and I would use it to support the claim that real life and online identities show little difference, and by implication gender identities constructed in real life are transferred to an online environment.

In this annotated webliography, I have critically analysed six articles that I would use to demonstrate the ways in which gender identity is embedded in cultural constructions of ICTs. I have explored early feminist theorist’s positive speculations for a more balanced gendered use of ICT. I also examined more recent literature which shows that cultural construction of ICT is constructed through a masculine discourse which excludes women from both the establishment and use of ICT, and that typical gender relations in real life are transferred to the online environment.

Ru's annotated webliography

2006-08-31T09:16:00.000+08:00

Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘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’.

In an attempt to critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘we are all cyborgs’ I have referred to six online articles by various authors. They are all commenting on the same subject (whether we already have or in the process of becoming cyborgs), with a minor exception in that they are each taking on different points of view and addressing different issues that fall under the same category.

Alexander Chislenko (the director of the New York based AI Company Intelligenesis Corp.) points out in his provocative article[1] called ‘Are u a cyborg?’, that we don’t have to wait for a futurist society to generate cyborgs and that in a sense they are already among us today. So when it comes to the concept of ‘what it means to be human’ it seems that he shares similar ideas with Donna Haraway. He is talking about how tools that are used to improve computer systems are now being used to enhance other various technological and biological structures – including our own human bodies, a process which he refers to as the ‘cyborgization of humans’.

I thought he made a valid point in arguing how many of the computer systems that are used today for various jobs ranging from accounting tasks to those PCs that are responsible for air traffic control (which were designed a long time ago) are constantly being repaired and modified. These old technologies seem unreliable, inflexible and too slow in the face of the new innovations of technology and are simply incapable of performing the demanding tasks of today. Likewise as we travel though the passage of time we begin to use external aids, replacement parts etc. to enhance our own performances – for example: contact lenses, pacemakers, clothes etc. This merger between the biological and the technological elements is, as he argues, a prerequisite for our existence, our evolution – simply put – our survival. His outlook on the matter proved to be quite useful on an overall basis.

Christiane Paul’s article[2] ‘Cyborg as a Cyber-body’ jumps directly to the point in addressing the fusion of man and machine and how it has reached new levels today. The author points out that we need to reconsider many of our traditional values – among them (and I think most importantly) identity. The essay introduces a few conflicting ideas about man vs. machine and evolution vs. design. He presents an interesting discussion of the opposition between evolution – which is regarded as a natural phenomenon with its own dynamics, and design which is a technologically-based development (by-product of research and hard labour). The information presented here proved to be good writing material for addressing the issue of boundaries and the whole concept of identity, because interaction between man and machine with our ever increasing dependency on these technological devices, as he points out - is responsible for dissolving the very borders that separate machines from humans, thus making us closer to either becoming or already have to a certain extent become man-machines, in other words - cyborgs.

Gareth Branwyn’s article[3] ‘Will we live to see our brains wired to gadgets?’, deals with our desire for "neural interfacing" (being wired directly to a machine) which has arisen from popular culture - fantasies mainly grown from science fiction movies like the Robocop and The Iron Man where the add-on technologies turn people into powerful hybrids of flesh and steel. He argues that we are already moving towards a post-human age with piercing, tattooing and other bodily modifications which he interestingly describes as ‘morphing’. His article captures both the negative and the plus side of neural prosthesis; while describing the advantages of these technologies (for e.g. devices like hearing implants are beneficial for deaf people) he also points out that there are various ethical and social issues. Criticism is based on the unproven bioengineered implants (only very few are clinically approved) which gives experimental subjects unreasonable expectations of sight, sound and independence. I found this article to be very useful as it gives an in-depth description of what drives us to become such hybrid creatures, as well some of the limitations and obstacles encountered. Facts presented here can be used not only for a good introductory but also to provide excellent examples of ‘bionic humans’.

Katherine Hayles’ article[4] ‘Donna Haraway: cyborgs and modest witness’ was written in response to Haraway’s work on cyborgs. Though short, this article manages to simplify some of the ideas put forward by Haraway. A ‘cyborg’ has been described as being a creature of both social reality as well as a creature of fiction. The author addresses the transgression of boundaries as Haraway has done – envisioning partial identities. Cyborg is seen as blending both materiality and imagination, pleasure and responsibility, reality and the utopian dream of a world without gender – simply a creature in a post-gender world. This article provided good background information and gave me a glimpse into the time period in which Haraway was writing in.

An article [5]published in the I-D Magazine called ‘cyber-human’ gives a new perspective while describing Stelarc (an Australia performance artist) who has made compelling use of body art to demonstrate the endless possibilities of the body in a post-human age, a post-Frankensteinian world in which boundaries between humans and machines have already become blurred. The author points out that Stelarc’s artistic endeavours are not really surprising considering the recent increase in cosmetic surgery and impulses to leave bodies behind in an attempt to enter into a virtual reality. The article talks about both the pleasures and dangers of redesigning human bodies arguing that while the rich may get the chance to try out these innovations (hence probably branching off in another direction of evolution), the poor may experience a ‘de-evolution’ (as they are unable to afford such advanced gadgets). Even though this article concentrates more on just one person’s desires to playfully explore technological possibilities, it gave me an impression of what the future might hold for us. Better yet, the article presents the facts from both sides: those who fear (thinking that these technologically enhanced - cyborg - creatures would become destructive and see them as being a threat to our existence) and those who playfully explore such technologies in search of ways to improve and better ourselves.

The article[6] by Sean Carton (Dean of Philadelphia University’s School of Design and Media) – discuss the issues raised by Markus Giesler (a marketing professor at the York University). He points out that technology is changing consumer behaviour. A simple example of this is the iPod which is not just a music player instead it has become a personal soundtrack, a memory device, storing all the digital information we gather – hence the person and the iPod together forms a cybernetic unit which becomes an essential for the person’s identity and wellbeing. This hybridization is demonstrated even further with examples like the internet which blurs the line between work and home, allowing people to carry out home errands at work and vice versa. And mobile technology such as cell phones that keeps us always connected to our social and business lives no matter where we are. This increasing convergence, he argues, makes it impossible to separate people from technology thereby making us ‘cyborg consumers’. The ideas discussed here proved to immensely useful as it demonstrates how technology has made us cyborgs even without the actual need to fuse metal and flesh. In conclusion, these articles proved to be extremely useful in answering the essay question because they provided information on the same subject – ‘we are cyborgs’ - but with different perspectives. And by looking at the articles written by Carton, Branwyn, Chislenko and the others it became clear that most of us have become cyborgs even without realizing it by simply using external aids, iPods, replacement parts, clothes, piercing, tattooing etc. Hence the idea that we live in post-human age is made clear by these authors in their articles.

[1] Alexander Chislenko. ‘Are u a cyborgs?’, (23 November 1995)
http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/articles/Cyborgs.html

[2] Christiane Paul. ‘Cyborg as a Cyber-body’, ArtLab-23, Issue 1. (Spring 2002).
http://www.artlab23.net/issue1/Cyborg.html

[3] Gareth Branwyn. ‘Will we live to see our brains wired to gadgets? How about today?’, Wired Magazine, 1.04, (1993).http://www.thetunneller.co.uk/articles/The%20Desire%20to%20be%20Wired.htm

[4]Hayles, Katherine N. ‘Donna Haraway: cyborgs and modest witness’, October Magazine, (Fall 1993).
http://www.sfu.ca/~acapperd/Haraway.htm

[5] ‘Cyber-human’, I-D Magazine, (February 1992)
http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Cyborg_anthropology/stelarc.article

[6] Sean Carton. ‘Are u ready for the cyborg consumer?’, Click News, (February 7, 2005).
http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3468651

Sharon's Annotated Webliography

2006-08-30T22:15:00.000+08:00

Q3: Critically access the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

We are aware that technology has changed the lives of people and that the society largely depends upon it. Seldom do we think about the ways in which gender identity is incorporated in the cultural construction of mobile phones, laptops and computer networks just to name a few. In this webliography, I have selected several scholarly and journalistic articles to examine how gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and justify how their opinions have helped in reaching a clear understanding of this assessment.

The first article written by Maria Mogollon[1], stresses on the gender inequalities and lack of policies for women’s rights in the science and technology field. Her insights are based on surveys and research projects conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). There is a strong co-relation between the poor economy in LAC and the unequal gender-based distribution. Mogollon mentions quite clearly with examples that the aim of the government and several other feminist organizations, is to promote equitable participation in the Information Society (IS) decision-making process, giving us a glimpse of hope for the future. However, Mogollon also points out that the surveys lack a systematic and extensive approach towards the analysis. This results in a failure to provide an accurate illustration of the gender inequalities and their impact on ICTs. The statistics provided by Mogollon were not executed as well as they could have been and they did not reflect how gender identities were embedded in the cultural construction of ICTs.

In the next article of “Gender Issues in Computer Networking” written by Leslie Shade[2], major concerns in the computer network which includes sexual harassment, insecure electronic identities and pornographic material are discussed. She stresses that women are under represented and cases of sexual harassment still dominate in the world of computer science. Ellen Spurtus’ article, which has a strong emphasis on policies and recommendations for the benefits of women, highlights the importance of rules and guidelines which Shade feels strongly about. In Shade’s commentary on Michel’s article, the collected results were very helpful in gaining a better understanding of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)’s effects on adults. The discussion of pornography and its relation to the ethnics of computer users and computer networks was somewhat a futile attempt as only the obvious was stated and nothing was really said to resolve the pressing issues. It does however open the topic for debate. Shade concluded with more suggestions and states that women have much more to offer if they did not suffer from the stereotypes that society casts on them.

The dangers and ethics of technology are further explored in Mitchell Silverman’s scholarly article “Virtual Reality Sex”[3]. Silverman’s example of Multi-User Dimension (MUD) based on a virtual New Orleans is reasonably explicit. After reading, one is generally able to grasp the idea of an artificial created environment but what his illustration successfully manages to achieve, is an impression of a stereotyped women in a stereotyped environment of bars and striptease shows which positions her as a sex object. Users are able to manipulate and provide false information, making MUD a dangerous technology in this sense as many could be ‘gender-switching’. Silverman’s comments on Jay Bolter’s claims, on the freedom to choose one’s own gender and sexual preference now, made me realize that sexual interactions have become more accessible for genders and sexualities of all kinds. Silverman reaches quite a steady and sound understanding of the dangers and ethics of technology but with frequent quotes from other articles thus failing to provide much insights of his own.

Brenda Zulu’s article on “ICTs break Sharia compliances in Africa”[4] offers a simple interpretation of African women’s struggles in the world of advancing technologies. Zulu explains clearly the relation between rural women and ICTs. She made an obvious point of eradicating gender inequalities as it contributes to Africa’s low economic activity. Zulu’s interpretation of Garba’s presentation for the African preparatory conference is done with precision. She highlights the importance of gender equality and for women to have a voice. In listing all the resources and accessibility that the Africa community lacks, especially the women, she manages to create a very sympathetic article. One notable point is that she does not sound feministic which draws up a fairer picture that many can relate to. She makes the point of women being disadvantaged and suggests methods to improve their lives with the help of ICTs but also acknowledges what the rest of the African community lacks in general.

In Rich Ling’s article “We release them little by little”[5], he examines the maturation process of both genders with relation to the mobile technology. I found Ling’s examination of technology’s influence on gender identities to be extremely relevant. His article focuses on Norwegian youths and their reactions to the emergence of this new technology. He also explores the different reasons that both genders have when using or owning a mobile phone. He explains that men are usually more in tuned with the latest technologies available but women he argues, are often backward but are beginning to pick up this new technology. Though their reasons for using and owning a mobile would still be different from the males, they are starting to take advantage of the useful functions a mobile phone can provide. His analysis also provided insights of which I would not have thought about in my conscious mind.

The last article written by Rommes, Oost and Ordshoorn[6] introduced an interesting perspective on gender and its connotations on the design of new technologies. The attitudes towards the design of technology were concluded as masculine. Most of the designers were also male and had prior computer knowledge. This information that the authors provide have brought out clearly illustrates that the world of computer science and technology is dominated mostly by males and therefore catered to males. It is hence, a vicious cycle, where males produce masculine technologies for other males to admire and embrace. The authors’ unbiased perspective in this article ironically induces readers to think of technology as a very biased form of communication.

To conclude, all the above sources had achieved a similar goal and that is to raise awareness of the ways in which gender identities plays a part in the cultural construction of ICTs. Gender inequality was viewed as the most pressing women issue and clear examples were stated in each article to prove their case. Due to gender inequalities and the lack of policies to ensure equal rights for women especially, technologies are unable to be catered to everyone. All in all, the third and last two articles offered the most valuable analysis and comments to my webliography.

References

[1] Mogollon, M. (2005). In the Spotlight: Gender Experiences and ICTs in Latin America and the Caribbean
http://www.genderit.org/upload/ad6d215b74e2a8613f0cf5416c9f3865/trabajo_mogollon_ing_1_.doc
[accessed 18 August 2006]

[2] Shade, L. (1994). Gender Issues in Computer Networking
http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Gender_issues/gender_in_networking.paper
[accessed 28 August 2006]

[3] Silverman, M. (1995). Virtual Reality Sex: a case study in gender construction and the ethics of technology
http://www.sexuality.org/l/incoming/vrsex.html
[accessed 18 August 2006]

[4] Zulu, B. (2005). ICTs break Sharia compliances in Africa
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=91085
[accessed 18 August 2006]

[5] Ling, R. (1999). “We release them little by little”: maturation and gender identity in the use of mobile telephony
http://www.telenor.no/fou/program/nomadiske/articles/11.pdf
[accessed 18 August 2006]

[6] Rommes, E, Oost, EV, Oudshoorn, N n.d., Gender in the Design of the Digital City of Amsterdam
http://reinder.rustema.nl/dds/rommes/gender_in_design_dds.html
[accessed 18 August 2006]

Emily's Webliography - Question Three

2006-08-30T15:43:00.000+08:00

Critically access the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

In the imaginations of feminist theorists and science fiction writers alike, communication technologies have the potential to reconstruct gender identity. Theoretically, cyberspace is a space of equality in which gender, class and race are rendered invisible; Donna Haraway in her “Manifesto for Cyborgs” even suggested that these categories could be transcended. While I agree that communication technologies have the potential to change the way we think about gender, I would argue that gender identity remains strongly embedded in this technology. In order to explore this assumption I used the search engines Google Scholar and Google Australia to locate relevant articles. In my searches computer mediated communication (CMC) was often associated with the construction of gender identity and I found a particular online journal, The Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, to be helpful in locating related sources. To answer the research question I selected the following articles which discuss how gender is embedded in communications technology.

Of the many articles reporting internet demographics I found Bruce Bimber’s article to be the most useful because it not only addressed the fact that male users outnumber female users, it also looks at the ways in which their internet use and access differs. Bimber’s article implies that gender identity is embedded in internet usage; women, for instance, may have decreased access to the internet and programming skills due to socioeconomic status, constructing this technology as a primarily male domain. He also implies that internet usage is gendered in terms of function. For example, men are more likely to use the internet widely for recreational purposes or study, whereas women are less intensive users. Although Bimber’s article is drawn from an US/Canadian sample from 2000 I have chosen to quote it over more current reports that are not as theoretically centered. I find his idea that gender identity is related to internet usage particularly pertinent.

Susan Herring’s article suggests another medium for embedding gender identity in communication technology, namely the discourse of CMC such as email or message boards. She argues that men and women have distinct conversational styles when conversing online. Male users tend to have an aggressive style of speech using insults and sexual references, while female CMC is characterized by affection and support. While I found Herring’s categories to be fairly generalized (she does acknowledge this herself) I found that they served as an interesting framework for looking at gender identity in communication technologies; even when users adopt anonymity or a gender neutral alias they are subject gender identification through their discourse. In relation to this I thought that Herring made a particularly relevant point when she noted that users don’t often choose to be gender neutral, but construct themselves in cyberspace as they would in real life.

‘Gender, Identity and Language Use in Teenage Blogs’ by David Huffaker & Sandra Kalvert is a useful example of how CMC embeds gender identity in modern communication technology. Male bloggers were found to use language that was consistent with the active/aggressive conversational style implicated in previous CMC research, however females used language that was inconsistent with the passive/supportive feminine style, tending to be more assertive. This implies that gender identity is becoming less definitive; indeed in one study quote 24% of blogs analyzed were gender ambiguous. While I find this study has relevant implications for gender identity in language, I am reluctant to accept growing online androgyny. Had the study looked at gender identity in terms of avatar, screen name and theme I feel they would have found stronger gender differences.

The article by Elizabeth Lane Lawley uses feminist theory to discuss the construction of gender in a CMC environment. Lawley frames her article with a discussion of technological deterministic thought in which users, particularly women, are constructed as objects and technology is constructed as the agent of change. I found this was a useful historical perspective from which feminist thought, namely that of Judith Bulter and Donna Haraway, arose. These theorists were attracted to communication technology as it provided users with the ability to ‘reshape their selves and their “appearance” through the manipulation of words and images’, ultimately ‘redefining themselves outside the historical categories of “woman”, “other”, “object”. While the premises of Lawley’s article have been challenged by more recent thought (Susan Herring for example) I found her article clearly articulated how CMC could redefine gender boundaries.

An article by John Suler offers a useful exploration of online gender identity in light of ‘gender-swapping’. Suler’s examples of gender-swapping create interesting challenges to CMC studies which claim that gender is inherently present in online discourse. Instead Suler’s article places importance on a person’s ‘avatar’ or screen name. He discusses how these cues shape social interaction; a user with a ‘sexy’ female name/avatar, for instance, is more likely to receive immediate attention than male or gender neutral counter parts. Suler’s idea that gender identity can be faked when a user adopts an alias of the opposite sex implicates the importance of these cues. The notable drawback of Suler’s article is its lack of theoretical backing; nevertheless I find his article expressed the importance of name/avatar in online gender identity that wasn’t found elsewhere.

Finally Jocelyne Voisin's article offers an interesting example of how strongly gender identity is embedded in communication technology. The article discusses the movement towards separatist women-only forums that occurred around the mid nineties. I found Voisin’s claim that ‘communication is never neutral’ was well articulated by the example of masculine programming and internet jargon (e.g ‘cruising the information highway’). The creation of women-only spaces thus implies that women feel inherently alienated in a communication system that was largely made by men for men’s needs. Although this article is dated I find its arguments to be applicable; after all women-only sites and groups remain abundant online.

Gender identity is embedded in communication technology in a variety of ways; who has access to the technology, how this technology is used and the language with which users are able to express themselves. Admittedly these sources focus on the internet rather than the entire breadth of communication technology, nevertheless, I feel they capture the general relation between this technology and gender identity. Ultimately online gender identity is an ongoing process and it is probable that as access, use and language changes the construction of gender identity will change too.

Bruce Bimber, “Measuring the Gender Gap on the Internet,” Social Science Quarterly, 81.03 (September 2000)
http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/
SI110/readings/DigiDivide/Bimber_on_DigiDivide.pdf (accessed 30/08/06).

Susan Herring, ‘Gender and Power in Online Communication,’ Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, (October 2001)
http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/archive/CSI/WP/WP01-05B.html (30/08/06).

David Huffaker & Sandra Kalvert, ‘Gender, Identity and Language Use in Teenage Blogs,’ Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 10.02 (January 2005)
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html (accessed 30/08/06).

Elizabeth Lane Lawley, ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender,’ (April 1993) http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 30/08/06).

John Suler, “Do Boys (and Girls) Just Wanna Have Fun?” The Psychology of Cyberspace (April 1999) http://www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/genderswap.html (accessed 30/08/06).

Jocelyne Voisin, ‘Women’s Virtual Communities: Utopias or Dystopias,’ Designing Virtual Worlds (March 1995)
http://www.mud.co.uk/dvw/womensvirtualcommunities.html (accessed 30/08/06).

Cyberstalking - Tute Presentation

2006-08-30T15:30:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, I talked in class today about Alison Adam's essay "Cyberstalking - Gender and computer ethics". Apologies for not having posted this earlier, I will provide you with some notes I wrote up before the tute today and then check the comments section for a post-tute response!

In Adam's introduction she suggests that there is "substantial difference in men's and women's experiences online." My initial reaction was to disagree with her. In a chatroom or on an online discussion board, no one has to know one's true identity. Surely that makes us all equal? Online there is no evidence of men being physically stronger and no real evidence of anyone being significantly more intelligent. So aren't we all on the same level? However Adam's continues to demonstrate that online interaction is based on the same gender relations as in reality. In reported cases of sexual harassment or cyberstalking online, women are usually the victims and men are the perpetrators.

Adam provides a number of cases which demonstrate this claim. What I also felt these cases demonstrated was a lack of law enforcement when it came to internet harassment. Wcaught, the perpetrators were punished, it often took friends and family of the victim to do the research to find the offender in the first place. If such an offence had been committed offline, this would certainly be a job for the police. I think that internet policing is going to be something that will be taken more seriously as we become more and more reliant the technology.

In the 'Godfrey' case that is mentioned, an internet server provider was taken to court for not removing abusive postings that were left under a false name, creating a bad online reputation for the user whose name was used. I thought it was interesting to ask at what point should a server interfere with online discussion? Should the internet allow us to be free to say whatever we like? Or should content be monitored so as not to offend?

All worth thinking about I thought!
Char

Char's Webliography

2006-08-30T14:51:00.000+08:00

Type “Donna Haraway” into the Google search engine, and you are certainly confronted with a plethora of material. A lot of it rubbish! When responding to my selected essay question, I chose a variety of web extracts, each different in their narrative style and content. Some are factual and use a lot of scientific language while others are written with entertainment value in mind. I initially used the search engines Google, Google Scholar, Alta Vista and Ask.com in an attempt to come across a range of material. I narrowed my search by following links from what seemed to be pretty general websites commenting on Haraway’s theories, eventually coming across material that I feel would have been relevant when answering my essay question;

“Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘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.’”

Hari Kunzru’s article provides an entertaining approach to Donna Haraway’s background as a scholar in biology and her feminist studies. It also arranges many of Haraway’s cyborg concepts in a simple manner which in deed enabled me to have a clearer understanding of some of her arguments. Kunzru provides a description of what a ‘cyborg’ is before he delves into the technicalities of Haraway’s ideas. This would be extremely helpful for a reader who had little or no knowledge of Haraway’s theories. I found that the playful tone of the article captured and held my attention however its simplistic nature often made it obvious that Kunzru had limited ‘technofeminism’ background knowledge. It seemed that he was intent on targeting a general audience without cyborg feminism knowledge or even previous cyborg interest. Although, one would assume that the reader of Wired Magazine would be familiar with the internet, the digital world and the concept of technological advance so there would be no confusion when using technical jargon in the article. For example, the term ‘techno-utopians’. This refers to those who consider modern technological advances to be purely beneficial and positive. This article would be particularly useful in writing an introduction in my answer to the essay question as it is written with simplicity but not so general that it doesn’t provide effective insights into Haraway’s theories.

I’ve always been pretty skeptical about Wikipedia. It seems to know about everything which makes me question its reliability. However, I think it is good at presenting information in a straight forward manner without too much creative input that often distracts a reader in an article that has been written in a more journalistic style. It provides some relevant quotes that could be used in the essay. It also includes a table taken from Haraway’s “Simians, Cyborgs and Women” which could be useful when researching for the essay in that it provides some key words that could be further pursued when discussing the concept of a ‘cyborg’. Wikipedia websites are also useful in that they provide links to relevant key words, in this case words like “cyborg theory” and “posthumanist” which could allow me to expand on the main points of my essay by narrowing down the search.

Theresa Senft’s essay could be described as an overview of Donna Haraway’s text “A Cyborg Manifesto” with brief input from Senft herself. I found this essay particularly useful in condensing Haraway’s ideas of the cyborg and its role in the economy and social politics. They were presented in a structured and straight forward manner. Senft’s use of headings and summary notes at the end of each section of her essay lead me to a much clearer knowledge and understanding of Donna Haraway and her theories. This further understanding of what is discussed in “A Cyborg Manifesto” would certainly allow me to expand further on the concept of humans as cyborgs in my essay. Senft includes sections in her essay which she states as purely her own interpretation including the section ‘Terri's expanded definition of the cyborg categories’ which allows deeper explanation of what a cyborg actually is. Senft makes a brief critique of Haraway’s manifesto, describing it as “non – linear” and I certainly agree with this statement. Like Senft, I have often found Haraway’s texts somewhat difficult to follow which is why I think an essay like Senft’s is a great source to begin with when researching for this essay and exploring the concepts mentioned in the essay question.

A website created by Martin Irvine gives a number of definitions of the cyborg other than that of Donna Haraway’s which enables the reader to obtain a wider understanding of what a cyborg is and why it is a relevant discussion point in our society. The site makes the occasional reference to the bible which is something that had not been discussed in any other source and although the mention of the bible and religion is brief, it gave me another aspect to consider if I were preparing for my essay. Religion is a huge contributing factor to social relations and I think it would have been interesting to mention it when discussing the assertion that we are all cyborgs. The site raised interesting points about the “problems in cyborgology” which could be of interest in the essay, in particular, the point of all nature being mediated by technology in current times. The other concept raised in this website which I had not come across in any other web source was that of the cyborg as a sexual object. Body modification in an attempt to become more attractive (for example, piercing and tattooing) was mentioned in the article as a cyborg act. It may be interesting in an essay to explore the idea of cyborgism as a trend or style.

While an essay by Steve Mizrach was a little long winded and technical for the purposes of this essay, it raised some interesting points about the ethics of cyborg existence and future technological advances. It provides arguments stating both the positive and negative aspects of biotechnology (leading to the formation of the cyborg). The essay uncovers potential threats to society by increasing technological discoveries being made and applied to human bodies. These include health issues and the notion of competition, which I found particularly interesting. Mizrach argues that while today there is a competitive nature between cyborgs that have been altered in the form of plastic surgery, the competition could progress toward (even more) dangerous extremes. It could be interesting to examine the dangerous aspects of cyborgs that exist today.

Alexander Chislenko’s essay made an interesting statement about cyborg history. It certainly agrees with Haraway’s assertion that “we are all cyborgs” but it implies that the transformation was made with far more simple human advances than the creation of electricity and hardware and the transformation was made much earlier than the twentieth century. For example it discusses clothing as “external implements serving as extensions to biological organs” and also makes reference to shelter, transportation, cooking and heating as also providing a substitute to bodily function. Other everyday actions such as scribbling ideas on a piece of paper so that one will remember them are also mentioned as cyborg features as they create an extension of human memory. Such observations could be used in my essay to demonstrate that ‘cyborg’ is not a term belonging to a select group living in the now, but in fact to all human beings who have lived for centuries.

While some of the above websites would have proved more useful than others, together they provide a strong basis for critically assessing Donna Haraway’s above claim. This research activity certainly enforced the fact that a well researched essay can not be produced over night. Sourcing decent material is a time consuming activity and I found that I used several avenues to locate what I was looking for. While the web provides us with a fantastic opportunity to find information, it is an arduous task sifting through the junk!

[1] Hari Kunzru, ‘You Are Cyborg’, Wired Magazine, Issue 5.02 (February 1997) Accessed 18th August 2006 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway.html?topic=&topic_set=

[2] ‘Donna Haraway’ Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (August 2006) Accessed 18th August 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway

[3] Theresa M Senft. ‘Reading Notes on Donna Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto.’ (10th October 2001) Accessed 18th August 2006
http://www.echonyc.com/~janedoe/writing/manifesto.html

[4] Martin Irvine ‘Cyborgology 101; The Cyborg: Postmodern Icon for the Digital Age’ (12th February 1999) Accessed 21st August 2006
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/technoculture/cyborgy/cyborgology.html

[5] Steve Mizrach ‘Should there be a limit placed on the integration of humans and computers and electronic technology?’ Florida International University. Accessed 21st August 2006 http://www.fiu.edu/%7Emizrachs/cyborg-ethics.html

[6] Alexander Chislenko ‘Legacy Systems and Functional Cyborgization of Humans’ (1995) Accessed 24th August 2006 http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/articles/Cyborgs.html

Annotated Webliography

2006-08-30T13:55:00.000+08:00

Q1. Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘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’.

Contemporary science fiction movies such as Star Trek and Terminator often portray cyborgs, as a man-machine hybrid. However, in this technology driven world- the interaction and embracement of humanity with technology, changes the concept of what is a cyborg. Some academics, such as Ras Steryn and Steve Mizrach are still concern with how implanted technology/machinery into the body, transforms humans into cyborgs.

However, other writers, such as Andy Clark, Susanna Passonen and Hari Kunzra assume the identity as a cyborg based solely- on the embedded interaction with technology and machinery. Susanna Passonen [as asserted by Donna Haraway (DH)] believes that as technology eliminates the need for essentialism, we become cyborgs.

A cyborg as defined -is the combination of artificial technology and human parts.[1] In Ras Steyn’s thesis, “Post-human Body and Identity Modification in the Art of Stelarc and Orlan”, he mentions that as long as there are positive modifications to the human body, we are cyborgs.[2] He comments that biological engineering of machinery is extremely convincing at mimicking and imitating human behaviour.[3] These improvements in replacing body parts are so life-like that it becomes tricky to distinguish between “man-made assimilations” or the organic human. He provides two examples of technology that enhances the natural human body- such as the cochlear (Fig. 1) and bionic eye implant (Fig. 2)[4].

Fig. 1-Cochlear Implant

Fig. 2 -Bionic Eye

Analysing his argument, it is intriguing to know that such breakthroughs in technology can actually allow the restoration of vision to the eyes or hearing in the ears. If some are tempted to say, they are not cyborgs because they do not have implants embedded, think again. What about the idea of contact lenses or even glasses to enhance vision. Anything that is used to augment the natural body- makes us a cyborg.

Steve Mizrach’s evaluation[5], also states that, the implantation of technological parts to enhance the body -is part of the process of becoming a cyborg. According to him, this is a necessary evolution before the human species becomes obsolete. However, he states that we have to face the dangers and take up the responsibilities that are associated with being cybotic. Consequently, he mentions that medicinal technology in creating drugs to improve life makes us a cyborg.[6]

This is an interesting argument - for it is true that since birth, babies are already given medicinal shots to reduce vulnerability to death. Thus, we are cyborgs since birth. His arguments make a good point that the human race is constantly searching to improve their capabilities and once we do improve, “these bio-electronic technologies cannot be wished away”.[7] These gradual improvements can be seen as the progress in becoming a cyborg.

In the article, “We have always been…Cyborgs” written by Terry Dartnall,[8] he analyzed Andy Clark’s assertion that we are cyborgs. Andy finds the definition of a cyborg, as coined by Clynes and Kline’s [9] old-school and constrained. He argues that we exist as cyborgs due to our interdependence on technology and machinery to solve problems for us (not necessarily as a fusion of machine and flesh). Moreover, our cognitive state of humanity has been altered according to the technology we interact with. Apparently, the natural human mind has- and always is, a “biotechnological matrix of brain” including a myriad of “non-biological props” such as “electronic files”, watches, mobile phones and “the like”.[10] Without these “props” to assist us in everyday living, our “problem solving system” would encounter many difficulties.

Hari Kunzru’s article[11] on DH’s manifesto[12] also concludes that- in a technology driven world, it does not have to be the literal fusion of the machine and body to be consider as a cyborg. Her impression of being a cyborg (based on DH’s ideas) relates to our immerse reliance on machines and technology-which creates “hybrid networks”. Our cyborg existence is firmly entrenched in our connections with a wider global community through the modern era of the World Wide Web. Apparently these “hybrid networks” has “integrated” to such a point that they are now a norm in our world-that without either, living in the modern world would become challenging, thus making us cyborgs.

With a feminine perspective, an article “Cyborgs & Cyclops: The Vision of a Man-Machine”, written by Susanna Paasonen argues that, in the context of “techno-science” and “contemporary media culture”- the term cyborg was coined by DH to challenge the notions of binary diversions[13]. Certain binaries include nature/nurture, male/female, right/wrong and so on.[14] DH uses cyborgs as an analogy where there is no distinction that cyborgs are “nature or nurture” or cyborgs as “machines or human”. This uncertainty erodes the need for coding practices.

A cyborg in this case, is not constrained by definitions but instead is free to express itself as it as. Being cybotic blurs boundaries and stretches the limits of traditional mentalities. The technological world has always been labeled as a man’s world, however, with a cyborg, that distinction is diffused and this allows the appropriation of woman ideologies and “active participation in techno-scientific research”.[15] It resists essentialism and encourages the notion of hybridization, fluidity and boundary-transgression of post-modern identities.[16] With cyborgs, Passonen challenges us to rethink how boundaries can be broken and altered. The notions of being cybortic is one way of the human race- liberating itself from the culture/nature, man/women trap, we often find ourselves in.

On a casual note, www.cis.unibo.it/pancaldi_princeton/metascience.pdf (accessed 18/08/06).

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, (1991).
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 18/08/06).

Kunzru, Hari. “You are Cyborg”, Wired Magazine, 5.02, (Febuary 1997).
http://www.wired.com/wired/archives/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html (accessed 18/08/06).

Mizrach, Steve. “Should There be a Limit Placed on the Integration of Humans and Computers and Electronic Technology”, Academic Matters, (May 2000).
http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/cyborg-ethics.html (accessed 18/08/06).

McGrath, Peter. “Technology: Building Better Humans the Great Decision Ahead of us is Philosophical—Do we Want Our New Machines Like Us? Or Should We be More Like our Machines? And Does it Matter?” NewsWeek, (2000).
http://egweb.mines.edu/eggn482/admin/Technology.htm (accessed 16/08/06).

Passonen, Susanna. “Cyborgs & Cyclops: The Vision of a Man-Machine”, Experiencing the Media: Assemblages and Cross-Overs, (2003).
www.translocal.net/susanna/cyborg_cyclops.pdf (accessed 20/08/06).

Steyn, Ras. “Post-human Body and Identity Modification in the Art of Stelarc and Orlan.”, Tshwane University of Technology, (February 2005). http://libserv5.tut.ac.za:7780/pls/eres/wpg_docload.download_file?p_filename=F1460946022/steyn.pdf (accessed 18/08/06).

Footnotes:

[1] Cyborg, Prinicipia Cybernetica Web:
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/CYBORG.html (accessed 20/08/06).

[2] Ras Steyn. “Post-human Body and Identity Modification in the Art of Stelarc and Orlan”, Tshwave University of Technology, (February 2005) p. 64. (Subsequent references will be made in author’s name and page number). http://libserv5.tut.ac.za:7780/pls/eres/wpg_docload.download_file?p_filename=F1460946022/steyn.pdf
(accessed 18/08/06).

[3]Ras Steryn., 2005, p. 60.

[4] Ras Steryn., 2005, p. 65-67.

[5] Steve Mizrach,. “Should There be a Limit Placed on the Integration of Humans and Computers and Electronic Technology”, Academic Matters, (May 2000) (Subsequent references will be made in Author’s name and year).
http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/cyborg-ethics.html (accessed 18/08/06).

[6]Steve Mizrach. (2000)

[7] Steve Mizrach. (2000)

[8] Terry Dartnall. “We Have Always Been…Cyborgs”, MetaScience (2003). (Subsequent references will be made in author’s name and page number).
www.cis.unibo.it/pancaldi_princeton/metascience.pdf (accessed 18/08/06).

[9] Terry Dartnall. p. 141.
Clynes and Kline’s defines a cyborg as “a human agent with some additional, machine controlled, layers of automatic (homeostatic) functioning, allowing her to survive in alien or inhospitable environments”

[10] Terry Dartnall. p. 149.

[11] Hari Kunzru, ‘You are Cyborg’, Wired Magazine, 5.02, (Febuary 1997)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archives/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html (accessed 18/08/06).

[12] Donna Haraway. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, (1991)
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 18/08/06).

[13] Susanna Paasonen. “Cyborgs & Cyclops: The Vision of a Man-Machine”, Experiencing the Media: Assemblages and Cross-Overs, (2003) (Subsequent references will be made in author’s name and page number).
www.translocal.net/susanna/cyborg_cyclops.pdf (accessed 20/08/06).

[14] Donna Haraway. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, (1991)
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 18/08/06).

[15] Susanna Paasonen, p. 10.
[16] Susanna Paasonen, p. 1.
[17]Peter McGrath. “Technology: Building Better Humans The Great Decision Ahead of us is Philosophical—Do we Want Our New Machines Like Us? Or Should We be More Like our Machines? And Does it Matter?” NewsWeek, (2000)
http://egweb.mines.edu/eggn482/admin/Technology.htm (accessed 16/08/06).

Brendan's Webliography - Guiding Question 1

2006-08-28T21:38:00.000+08:00

Donna Haraway, in her 1984 ‘Cyborg Manifesto’, asserts that ‘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’[1]. I chose to critically assess this claim for my Self.Net assignment. Complied in this webliography are the resources I used, and a summary of how I applied them to the question. The major resource used to locate sources was the search engine Google. Google, along with Google Scholar – a search engine which indexes scholarly resources – were invaluable in terms of locating reference material. Indeed, a fair percentage of the content I located was of little use, but by following the notes on online research in the unit guide I feel I have been able to select a number of relevant sources.

One source I found useful were the reading notes by Theresa Senft on Haraway’s manifesto. Particularly interesting was the way Senft ‘framed’ the social and political context of the world at the time of the manifesto’s publication, citing a range of factors which may have contributed to Haraway’s theories: from the radical feminism movement to the amount of funding provided for weapons technology in America. Following a link to Senft’s personal blog reveals that she has an interest in cyborgs and cyberfeminism, boosting in my mind the authority of her notes on Harway. My one criticism of this source is that while it provided me with a better understanding of the background behind Haraway’s work, it didn’t offer a discussion about the validity or accuracy of her ideas about cyborgs, something that my assignment required.

William Grassie’s online essay discussed the views of Haraway’s manifesto, and also those of a vocal critic - Sandra Harding - by presenting them in the structure of ‘a play consisting of three scenes’. This slightly novel approach ‘lightened the mood’ in what I found to be a complex, though useful source. In contrast to Senft’s reading notes, Grassie engages with the Manifesto, providing analysis of Haraway’s arguments and also examining the arguments of Harding, who wrote a book critical of the Manifesto. Grassie debates Harding’s claim that Haraway is critical of moralism in others, and yet is quite moralistic in her own views. Ultimately Grassie criticises Harding’s arguments and supports Haraway’s claims of human ‘cyborgness’, which gave me support for Haraway’s assertion in my essay.

The eldest source used in my assignment was an online essay, written by Elizabeth Lawley in 1993 when the internet – as we know it – was fairly young. Lawley’s essay does not focus on Haraway’s Manifesto, but rather uses it to discuss the topics of computers and gender, and how they correlate in an online environment. Though the focus of this document was on a clear tangent to my essay question, I found it interesting how Lawley accepts Haraway’s most contentious claim – ‘in short, we are cyborgs’ – without question when discussing the Manifesto. Lawley’s point that the future will see ‘a movement from Haraway's physical cyborg body to the virtual self created in [sic] through communication technology’ formed a basis of my argument in the assignment that Haraway’s assertion can be applied to more than just our physical bodies. I found this paper to be written in a clear and comprehensible fashion (in contrast to Grassie’s effort), although it did not focus on Haraway’s manifesto to the same degree as my other sources.

The only source I cited which made significant use of the dynamic nature of the internet was Ingrid Hoofd’s boldly titled ‘Cyborg Manifesto 2.0’ website , which was produced for a university project. The main page offers links to sub-sections focusing on themes in technology and identity. Following the ‘discussions’ link led me onwards to a page titled ‘Seductions’, which mentioned Haraway’s assertion that cyborgs are the ‘illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism’, an issue I expanded on in my essay. Hoofd’s website project provided a welcome change from the text format of the other sources, although I felt that the fact it was produced as an assignment may have undermined the credibility of the source. Hoofd’s resume - located through searching for her name on Google – led me to believe otherwise, after learning of her employment as an academic before the publication of Cyborg Manifesto 2.0.

I found Krista Scott’s university essay, uploaded to her personal website Stumptuous.com, to be an interesting resource. Scott writes about Haraway’s concept of cyborgs from feminist and scientific perspectives, though in an advanced manner similar to Grassie’s essay. Another link between these two essays is the fact that Scott introduces the argument of another author – in this case Teresa Ebert – who criticised Haraway’s manifesto for a number of reasons. Discussing the views of Ebert and Harding in my essay was vital as I wanted to provide material which supported Haraway’s vision of cyborgs, but also include work which was critical of her manifesto. Examining both sides of the coin enabled me to make a clearer judgement when evaluating Haraway’s assertion.

The final online source I consulted for my assignment was another online essay, with the wonderful title of ‘A Modem of One’s Own: The Subject of Cyberfeminism’. Written by Jodey Castricano, this source sought to compare the feminist theory of Virginia Woolf’s novel ‘A Room of One’s Own’ with Haraway’s Cyborg. Like Lawley’s paper, the subject of this online essay was not completely related to my assignment question, but some of Castricano’s views were actually quite useful. Her discussion of Haraway’s views on the impact of reproductive technology on humans helped me present the argument that technology is affecting us, and that we may becoming ‘fabricated hybrids of machine and organism’[2].

In conclusion, the sources used in my assignment - all located on the internet – were invaluable in assessing Haraway’s claim. There are detractors to Haraway’s argument – as evidenced in the essays of Grassie and Scott – but equally there are those who support the assertion, with the writing of Hoofd and Castricano providing examples. With the sources divided over the validity of the Manifesto, I argued that Haraway’s assertion has merit, but is not without criticism or controversy. While I agreed with her claim that the division between machines and organisms is growing increasingly smaller, I found it hard to accept her overall assertion that we are all cyborgs.

Footnotes:

[1] Donna Haraway. The Haraway Reader. New York & London: Routledge, 2004. p. 8.
[2] Ibid.

Shan-Chun Chou's Critical Annotated Webliography

2006-08-28T16:50:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

Elizabeth Lane Lawley’s [1] article is from Rochester Institute of Technology. The author is an assistant professor of Information Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her article on computers and communication of gender ideas proved to be a very useful source. This article contains information about the relationship between science fictional and technology. She argues that cyberpunk is a form of science fictions that foresees the technology process of social architecture. The article provides deep discussion of the definition of gender identity has ruptures the diversity in human bodies and the technologies. In virtual reality, our minds merge into part of the machine and our body is beyond the technology. I found the leisurely statements about the main points useful, from machine to human. This helps to build my argument on identity and feminism in a more constructive way.

Allucquere Rosanne Stone's [2] article is authoritative as it is from the publication 'Anthology Cyberspace: First Step' in 1991. The author is the director of the Interactive Multimedia Laboratory at the RTF Department. This article is unlike others; the author has her own understanding of technology myth. She states human communication is affected by technology in four epochs of virtual systems. She not only draws examples of how there is travesty of peoples’ opposite role under the new media but also raise the gender and social mode issues in discussion. This source is just right for my needs regarding the different aspect of technology media in order to release the boundaries of gender issues in human communication. It is useful because it discusses the construction difference of the bodies embedded in the virtual and reality community public space. This helps me support my point of new media that involves the blur distinct of privacy than traditional media.

Helen Merrick's [3] article is located in the University of Western Australia’s outskirts online journal. The author is a Research Officer for the Women in Leadership Project at Edith Cowan University. This article is unlike Veronica Hollinger’s [1] article, it provides clear idea of genre fiction in an understandable language. Merrick’s interpretation of idea about Donna Haraway’s 'Manifesto for Cyborgs' about feminist science fiction, made a supporting point for gender identity embedded in the cultural construction of information. For example, she examines the human culture myth of gender in science fiction without boundaries. This source is beneficial in my argument of gender issues in science fiction and can support the idea of post-modernism society. I would use this source to analyse the issues of ‘feminist literature’ in the development of information and communications. This would allow me to claim gender identity that is embedded in our culture, as she has drawn several examples from existing women studies.

Rosi Braidotti's [4] article located in Utrecht University women studies section. The author is a Professor in the Humanities Arts Faculty at Utrecht University. This is an accurate source because it has factual information clearly listed by verified references. The author interprets embodied technology that enables the split of body and mind by illustrating Haraway’s 'informatics of domination' in a very objective approach. This article is relevant to my topic about post-modernism of post-human bodies and feminism in science fiction. She discusses post-modernism by male-stream to contrast the gender difference and made a good link to the history changed by the embodied feminism. Therefore, it helps to determine that in cyberspace, it is not only gender but ‘class’ and ‘race’ are all parts of our bodies to represent our mind through the new technology. Although I do not agree her point of view that new technologies such as science fiction can random create bodies since it is beyond gender identity, this is still a useful source for building up my reverse argument.

Mark Poster's [5] article located in University of California humanities department. The author is a professor in University of California and is in the fields of cultural history and media studies. Also, this article is authoritative as it is from his publication 'The Second Media Age' in 1995. The author indicates the characteristics of virtual reality and ‘information superhighway’ has increase the speed of human’s communication age into a dynamic mode. This point have clearly present that media technology enables human to communicate in different ways, each individual could interact anywhere, anytime or in any mode. He also goes through and describes that Multi User Domains (MUD) has carried the reality into cyberspace, and confuse the gender identity. The article assesses the effect of gender identity as strongly surrounded in communication technologies by its intangibility. The author had adequately analysed different discussions together. For instance, he compares different multimedia to cover different discussion’s leak. It is useful because it contains comprehensive points of view from different perspectives.

Donna Haraway's [6] article located in The European Graduate School Media & Communication section. The author is a professor at the European Graduate School and researches in feminist theory. The article questions the view that politics empower the feminist, as organism and machine had never been defined clearly. The author highlighted at some gender issues from feminist point of view. I found this article very useful especially in the ‘women’s place in the integrated circuit’s section, it will be used to develop the historical background for my argument. From the past, feminist had embedded in our real daily life and now virtual reality is a reflection of the real world, this would build up the strong background of human culture having deeply influencing the information and communication technologies. The evidence indicates that gender identity is embedded in the culture industry. I would use this article to examine the reasons of human feminist culture.

Footnotes:
[1]Elizabeth Lane Lawley, “Computers and the Communication of Gender,” Rochester Institute of Technology (April 1993)
http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 23/08/06).

[2]Allucquere Rosanne Stone, “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?” (2000)
http://molodiez.org/net/real_body2.html (accessed 28/08/06).

[3]Helen Merrick, “Slumming with the Space Cadets: An argument for feminist science fiction,” The University of Western Australia (October 2005)
http://www.chloe.uwa.edu.au/outskirts/archive/volume3/merrick (accessed 24/08/06)

[4]Rosi Braidotti, “Cyberfeminism with a difference” Utrecht University (July 1996)
http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/rosi/cyberfem.htm (accessed 25/08/06)

[5]Mark Poster, “Postmodern Virtualities” University of California (1995)
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html (accessed 25/08/06)

[6]Donna Haraway, “The Ironic Dream of a Common Language for Women in the Integrated Circuit: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s or a Socialist Feminist Manifesto for Cyborgs History of Consciousness Board” European Graduate School Homepage (May 1997)
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/haraway/haraway-the-ironic-dream-of-a-common-language.html (accessed 26/08/06)

Kathryn's infamous late entrance

2006-08-27T15:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, a late introduction... my apologies. I did try this earlier but didn't have a day to donate to negotiating it on a computer until now.. did anyone else have problems with this second blog not showing up in Firefox, or was that just me?
These complications also have resulted in me having three blogger accounts ^_^" I also found it somewhat annoying how almost everything I tried gave me that "username/journal address taken" response. That's why my username is what it is :P

But anyway, made it eventually. I'm Kathryn, and need I say it this has probably made me a loyal livejournal user :P

Some interesting sites: has anyone ever read the manga or seen the anime Angelic Layer? Well for me it was an introduction to the incredibly detailed Japanese dolls. I didn't think they were real till I came across sites like this Dream of Doll where they are sold.

Also, just for my curiosity, how many people actually looked up the address www.self.net? I didn't even think to until a friend I was talking to mis-interpreted me and asked me why I kept going on about that website :P

Anyway, hope this works!

Webliographies

2006-08-17T16:25:00.000+08:00

Hi all,
Just wanted to clarify the requirements for your first assignment, the webliography.
Because this is a webliography, all components of the bibliography must be available online. This means that they should have a url that you can directly link to when you put your webliography on this weblog. This means that conventional academic journal articles that you access through JSTOR or Supersearch can generally NOT be used, because the user has to go through a process of authentification through the library. Don’t dismay, however, as there are many online academic journals, and e-books as well. The Faculty of Arts even has 2! Limina, and Outskirts (in which Tama published his paper on the Borg in Star Trek).
The point is for you to be research savvy online, and also to make that research accessible to everyone else reading the blog.
So, think about the forum in which you’re writing (a publicly available blog, and as an item for assessment), as well as the unit outcomes being assessed, namely:

Develop and expand critical research skills through a deepened understanding and familiarity with both online sources and conventional print sources

Express research findings and ideas logically, coherently and convincingly in both oral and written forms, the latter in both print and digital formats

Develop a critical, annotated Webliography.

And don’t forget that you get to comment on 2 people’s Webliogs, and yours may well be commented on too – so make it engaging!
All the best!
Alison

Introducing myself

2006-08-16T18:51:00.000+08:00

Hello all. I'm doing my introduction post a little late because I couldn't come to the workshops.

I'm Rae. Apparently I talk too fast in tutorials. I'm a lifelong computer user, and I'm kind of a geek. I've been keeping various blogs for years, but every so often I change them.

Some of my favourite sites include Tomato Nation, WebSnark.com, and Irregular Webcomic.

Wired Self III Lecture Links

2006-08-16T12:39:00.000+08:00

Hello Self.Netizens. As I promised, I've put up a blog post with all the links I mentioned in today's lecture here: The Wired Self III: The Wired Everyday - Weblogs. There may be other posts of use/interest (or perhaps procrastination value) in my blog as well, so feel free to explore.

Happy blogging!

hi

2006-08-15T14:24:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys!!!!

i am Ru. I have an account in Livejournal but never write anything in there, come to think of it i can't even remember the last time i logged on to livejournal.... wonder why i created it in the first place!!!! so in a way u could say that i am totally new to this blogging world.. kindda excited about the whole thing and looking forward to the experience of ..ehhh.. Blogging i guess!!

Mac computers are scary :{

2006-08-15T14:20:00.000+08:00

Mac computers are SERIOUSLY user friendly hey... :) My favorite website is http://www.nba.com/spurs/.

Blog!

2006-08-15T14:19:00.000+08:00

A shout out to my tutorial mates! I'm Sharon and i think its awesome that blogspot is incorporated into our learning experience! One of my favourite websites is the Pink blog which basically revolves around the lives of celebrities.
-- Sharon Kow, Wed 12pm

Excuse my username as i already have an account. Will create another one soon so my tutor can recognise me. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hello

2006-08-15T14:17:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

I've had a Livejournal for years, so having a blog here feels a bit like treason! Hm, since somebody else already said LJ was their favourite, I'd better come up with something else...

Have any of you seen Post Secret before? It gets updated every week and there's always something interesting there.

Hilary

Needs title................

2006-08-15T14:10:00.000+08:00

Hi, I'm Joanne. A good place to waste time is iSketch.net, which is like an online competitive pictionary. Other than that, I often download Triple J Hack notes to listen to on the bus ride home...

Hi

2006-08-15T13:21:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Blogger but maintain a blog on LiveJournal. LiveJournal, or my blog, is probably the site I visit most often. When I'm bored I also like to frequent other sites such as the Sydney Morning Herald. And just to throw in some useless information, I'm also a huge fan of Edie Sedgwick.

Looking forward to interacting with you all!

- Evana

My Favourite Website

2006-08-15T13:19:00.000+08:00

Hello everybody. My name is Brendan. I think this blog thing is very exciting :D My favourite website is Tesco.com. You can view all the specials in a virtual catalogue, and if you live in certain areas you can actually do all your shopping online!

2006-08-14T15:35:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone! I have just joined Blogger.com for the first time so this is a bit of a new experience for me. Im not much of a regular web user but I guess the website which I visit most would have be www.inthemix.com.au which is a site with photos and info on events around Australia. xxx
Jane

Hello

2006-08-14T15:34:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone,

I am a huge fan of www.bebo.com it is a great way to share photos with all you friends and write postings on their page. Only problem is, I have found this a big time waster and somewhat addictive.

See you later.
Courtney

First Blogs!

2006-08-14T15:21:00.000+08:00

Hello
I'm Anna and this is my first ever blog. One of the websites that I check all the time is sinosplice. It's a blog of an American who teachers English in China, and has links to my friend's website who is also in China. He makes insightful comments on life in China, and there are always lots of interesting comments posted.

Anna

Intro

2006-08-14T13:32:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, my name is Charlotte, more commonly known as Char. I have recently become somewhat interested in the site bebo which is another sort of blogging/photo sharing site that a lot of my friends use... I tend to spend probably too much of my time here... Some call it 'sad'. Other than that I am studying communications and enjoying it so far.
Love Char

Hello!

2006-08-14T13:20:00.000+08:00

Hello all Wednesday tutorial members :)

My name is Tammi and I don't really have a fave website so I'll just say www.hotmail.com because it's probably the site I check the most, it's always exciting to get mail!

Hello~~

2006-08-14T13:19:00.000+08:00

Hello,

This is Shan-Chun Chou I had already have a account in blogger, so i will just keep the account and write down my name at the bottom of my posts :) Hope this is not that confuse. My favourite website is Friendster

Hello!

2006-08-14T13:18:00.000+08:00

Hiya, this is my first post. The website I use the most is Gmail so this can be my favourite site.

welcome

2006-08-10T21:18:00.000+08:00

This is the weblog for the Wednesday midday tutorial for the UWA 2006 unit Self.net: identity in the digital age. If you're not doing the weblog workshop in the Mac Studio ensure you pick up a copy of the Blogging Guide anyway as it has listed all the required posts you need to make during this semester. It's available on WebCT or in the English corridor of the Arts building. happy posting,
Alison