Self.Net -- Tuesday, 12pm Tutorial

2005-08-02T17:14:00.000+08:00

my gosh, i just re-found this site and remembered my username and password after many attempts! as lyrian wrote before, no one will ever read this, but here's 2 those who might! :)
i would like 2 commend the self.net subject that kat, orietta and myself took last year, we are all now education students, and are currently creating our own online community as part of programming for our future students... cheers to tama for enlightening us to the educational benefit of bloggs! :)

this subject actually taught me something that i use and will continue to use both personally and for the students i teach
bravo hehe
ciao and hope every1's doing well in watever :)
cat

100th post

2005-01-03T04:30:00.000+08:00

Wow, this thing is still here. Groovy.

Hope we're all well and happy. Have wonderful holidays full of learning and growth. Good luck with keeping your new year's resolutions!

(Nobody will ever read this, will they...)

Take care.

The End of the Course as we know it...

2004-11-12T14:47:00.000+08:00

Okay, the major essays are all marked and can be collected from me in room G.07. I'll be in my office most of next week (Nov 15th - 19th), so please do come and pick your essays up.

Also, can I take this opportunity to thank you all: firstly, for your reflective posts which will be very useful in evaluating the course (and thanks for the kinds words about your tutor, too!); and, secondly, and most importantly, can I thank you all for your participation in the many facets of Self.Net. It has been a real pleasure running this course and being your tutor and participating in some fascinating conversations about all things digital which, I'm sure, will continue long after the course has faded in your memories!

I hope your increased critical awareness of digital culture serves you all well in the future, and with any luck I'll see a number of you in other courses, or doing Honours (since so many of you are writing at a level which would see you do very well in an honours program).

Byebye.

reflective post

2004-10-26T13:58:00.000+08:00

On the whole I thought the self.net unit was an interesting and engaging unit. Although it initially took me a while to get used to blogging, in the end it proved one of the most valuable exercises. I often used the annotated webliographies of others to point me towards good resources to use for essays in other units such as communication studies. I also liked the fact that the lectures contained a good mix of powerpoint slides and electronic media clips.

As for the unit content, the range of readings explored have managed to convince me that we are indeed all cyborgs, at least in Donna Harraway's sense. It also encouraged me to think critically about the ways in which digital technologies intersect with and re-construct issues of identity, gender, race and class, simultaneously disturbing ethical certainties and modernist discourse. The articles I found most interesting and engaging in this regard include Lisa Nakamura's discussion of menu driven identities, Kath Albury's critique of the ethics of internet pornography and the article on a rape in cyberspace.

By the way, sorry this post is a little late, my internet connection at home crashed and I wasn't able to get into uni last week... Hope everyone has a great summer break :-), Happy holidays, christmas and new year!

Reflective Blog

2004-10-24T16:30:00.000+08:00

Knowing that Tama just wants a response on how valuable a learning tool weblogs have been so that he can refer to us at his wednesday blognite, i'll try to say something intelligent.
I had not even been aware of blogs prior to this unit, and now am amazed by this fact. I would have thought that the phenomenon would have been reported more in mainstream conventional (not digital) media due to their snowballing influence on the way people gather information about the world. I now refer regularly to the blogs of commentators that I respect, for insights on global and domestic matters - as well as finding the perfect chokito and passiona chessecake recipe (also Rocky Road - thanks Laura!).
But in terms of the course, I thought that having a tutorial based blog was a brilliant resource, generally you produce responses in a bit of a vacuum - tutorials can be useful, but having the opportunity to expand on the ideas after thinking a bit was brilliant. Being able to read the work of other students is also a pedagogical brainwave. They have LOADS to offer others - particularly those who have their own blogs or are really into new social technologies, and use digital tech in loads of social discourses i.e. MUDs.
The other important aspect to blogging your responses comes through the awareness that your peers will read your work. Perhaps it encourages you to extend yourself, certainly it influences the decision to do some additional reading and know what you are talking about. I tried a bit harder to make my contributions readable, humourous (debatable) and not too wanky.
They certainly worked for me as learning tools, I am even contemplating starting my own blog now. I feel that my world has broadened hugely and totally believe in the legitimacy of digital communities.

I know enough after this course to say that I am definately a cyborg. But interestingly I still feel some kind of resistance. There is that interesting interplay between what we believe is the spiritual core of our being (a "natural" force inherently rooted within the concept of the human being) and the extension of our selves (corporeal and psychological) within cyberspace - which then makes us cyborgs, . I never doubted the cyborg reality from the beginning really, yet never felt 100% comfortable with the concept of being dually human/machine as opposed to human operating machine. Whe I play with my son there is no technology, just us and a book, or a garden or the ocean. But when I tell everyone about it via email/sms/blog what am I doing to the experience? It has been given an everlasting digital life, if our lives are nothing but imaginings anyway, the the extension of them into cyberspace is no less legitimate. But the at the same time - I disagree, it lacks something - it lacks the complete sensory experience of physically being in the world. So until I experience the technology that plugs into a USB located slightly behind my ear - bringing me a recreated digital life inside my mind - I believe myself to be primarily a woman constituted of flesh and spirit (god how medieval).
I have no doubt that in many ways ,my son will become more of a cybernetic organism than I have been at this late stage (kimmy), but it will occur in increments, degrees, and society will shift along with the developments, ethical boundaries will always exist but weave themselves between the 'new' (tricky word to use) technological realities and commercial offensives.

What did I like/dislike about this course? hmmm. I liked the online interactions, the mandatory exploration of digital resources, the use of up to date examples of how digital technology is manipulated for social/political and academic reasons. I loved exploring the social ramifications of digital tech. And I have personally found that this course fits into a whole range of areas in my life, some too personal to comment on, but it has drawn my attention to the wide range of ways that digital life has become enmeshed within my daily routine, and most meaningful relationships. There is little that I disliked, I loved the mix of workshops (online and RL), blogs, tutes and lectures. It worked really well, and i genuinely felt like I was introduced to some new and fascinating concepts that will increasingly affect us all. Above all it was fun, and I vastly appreciated the enthusiasm and insights that Tama brought to the subject.

The Final Blog

2004-10-23T11:50:00.000+08:00

I apologize for the lateness, and was sorry to have to miss the final tute - but this morning I managed to drag myself (and my IV drip - no just kidding) out of bed to make the reflective post :P

I thought that the weblog was useful to the learning process, especially to this unit - we couldn't have thought about the issues without engaging in any of them! The tute blog was helpful in showing everybody's thoughts as a collection on the topic of "identity in the digital age" - you can browse through and see the progression of the unit. However the unit is good whether we use weblogs or not ;)

I don't believe myself to be a cyborg, or maybe I am considering it yet can't go all the way with this idea. The organic experience of being a human is too strong to suggest that technology is going to become dominant in my experience - yet I can see how technology offers an extention to what we understand as being human. For me, I always see myself in the drivers seat with technology as a passenger - I see it as a tool whether it extends as a part of me or not. Sure I form strong attachments to technology, but perhaps due to the more sensory/bodily world of "real life" I can't quite embrace the idea of technology being "real" to us, I see it as a part of what we are, (in the case of the internet) a projected self.

I liked exploring this idea most of all throughout the course, it made me think of things that I hadn't before, made me analyze into our world and the way we interact, and how technology is articulated into our already existing ideas about being human.
At first I really disliked the idea of weblogs, I felt pressured to share opinions and especially my work (that I was self conscious about) and I dreaded each mandatory post. As the course went by though, I realized that the weblog caused me to be more open with my ideas online and in tutes - it made me more confident in sharing thoughts with others. I don't think I've learnt much more than I already knew about the internet - I think I'm always going to be clumsy - I managed to make mistakes in nearly every post! And tried to correct them but failed :P (sorry Tama)

I really liked the course, and Tama was a great tutor, thanks everyone in the tute too
:)

Playing Politics (Can't do much worse than Latham)

2004-10-22T14:31:00.000+08:00

I'm going to focus on 'September 12th' and 'New York Defender'.

1.Yes definitely. Interestingly, what I initially thought was the downfall of these games - their simplicity and brevity, is of course what makes them so effective. You get the point quickly and profoundly, which is crucial for most net users (viewing the game via email attachment or simply having stumbled across it) as you are usually bombarded by millions of distractions and gimmicks while browsing.
I think that both games tapped into many 'ordinary' peoples desire to have had some sense of agency in the nightmare that was brought to the forefront of minds with 9/11. Both these games positions the player as having a reactive role. New York Defender was particularly powerful, given that the visuals of planes swarming towards the WTC was strongly reminiscent of the broadcasts at the time that repeatedly showed the planes hitting the towers.
I think 'September 12th' would have brilliant for many Americans to ‘get’ a simple insight into the ramifications of an excessively aggressive military response (and perhaps into the notion 9/11 was a response to something, rather than just a simple act of incomprehensible inhumanity). News reports made no attempt to depict human consequences of the effects of US bombing, whilst they did produce truckloads of sympathetic homage to those affected by 9/11. Something as simple as this game may have started some sideways thinking.

2. The political message was obvious in both games. The power of the message came from the fact that you had to come to the point through playing the game, and finding it futile and destructive. Both games work because of the way they subvert the traditional understanding of computer games, i.e. as try to ‘win’, have fun, learn from previous sessions and improve on the outcome. (I actually found it very difficult to play Sept. 12th and repeatedly blow up children). They are clever in that they are simple and maybe even boring games to play, the point is that real life situations of war are the not bells and whistles and exciting strategic decisions that most combat games have us believe. Rather they are pointless, futile and a waste of life, time and resources. The more I thought about the analogies of the games the more layers I uncovered – do we view life with that computer game mentality that once the game is over its over and we can start afresh? Have we learnt from our mistakes? ‘New York Defender’s power comes from the fact the towers are rebuilt after every failed attempt – which is followed by another failed attempt. September 12th certainly made me want to more about the reality of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’s (vomit) response, and what it had meant in real terms to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

3. I would make a simple game situated in split screen format – one side showing the public school teacher in a state school (the player) the other (the computer) showing a private school. The context is Howard’s education policies. The player needs to juggle different variables shown as icons i.e. govt policy, achieving outcomes, catering for disabled/learning deficiencies/abused/low SES students, professional development, pastoral care etc while attending to students in class which all have different needs which need to responded to tamagotchi style (or they’ll sue). The computer (independent school) will every now and then display *BONUS* Extra Government funding, ex student becomes governor general/prominent politician with clout/donates money. Funding icons will drop down at regular intervals for the independent school – state classroom will need to earn it. Every time a student leaves the class(due to players failings) funding is withdrawn and given to the computer player. Demands on the player’s teacher will become too many for the player to respond to and the teacher will eventually drop dead. The computer players screen will depict a class of homogenous looking students and all will look smug and happy. This game is for Brendan Nelson’s personal education.

Reflective Post

2004-10-22T13:51:00.000+08:00

i think the weblogs worked well in this unit as they were both topical and very practical for communication amongst our tute. I found that the most interesting stuff posted was the things that were not compulsory, but rather out of interest, such as links to sites and articles that people found interesting or useful. This really exemplified how blogs were able to encourage sharing knowledge and being able to learn from our peers rather than just our lecturer (not that there's anything wrong with that)

On the cyborg issue... in the first workshop I was particularly confused as to what a cyborg was and how come some people knew so much about it and i didn't. However as it turns out my whole semester has revolved around cyborgs as I chose to do a communications studies project on them too. Anyway i am definitely a cyborg, or at least i have become one this semester due to my excessive use of my computer to complete my project.

With the course I enjoyed all the media that was shown in workshops and lectures. The culture jamming stuff was cool and it was fun having to come up with ideas for the ipod ads in the workshops. I also found the stuff about computer games interesting too, especially the Sims, even though i have never played it. And most of the readings were really interesting...i think i may have even read them all, or at least most. Overall the unit was really good... and of course Tama is fantastic, but the highlight was definitely my rocky road;)

Politics Playing Workshop Response!!

2004-10-22T11:27:00.001+08:00

I looked at New York Defender and Donkey John.

1. With regards to New York Defender I think the game would definitely have been effective in communicating with people via the internet. It was very quick and easy to play and did not involve much downloading or any other drawn out process. It was quick and to the point and anyone who could use a mouse could figure out the message of the game. The imagery was also very effective in communicating to the user with the world famous Twin Towers under attack over and over. Donkey John was a little more complicated and relied on prior knowledge of the Donkey Kong games from several years ago in order to extract a message from the game. I found the general message of the game easy to understand. Oil was being stolen from the rightful owners and this is a bad thing. This to was easy to download, access and play and as such would be effective in communicating to many people over the internet.
There is however the danger with games that people do not even go so far as to think about any underlying message. This would be even more likely to happen on a little internet game, however for those who think a little about the game and its message, both these games would be useful forms of communication.

2. The political message of NYD was fairly obvious and easy to figure out. It is impossible to 'finish' the game and protect the Towers from all attacks. No matter how hard you try. This was a possible critique on methods of controlling terrorism that occurred since 9-11. I was not interested in finding out more about the message or the game. Donkey John was more interesting to me as I was not familiar with the political situation the game refers to. I was more driven to find out the back ground with Donkey John mainly because the imagery and situation had not been on the front pages for a couple of years like the 9-11 situation had been. The amusing thought of Howard as a barrel throwing ape also pushed me to find out about the background more and the unusual name of the hero was also interesting ot me.

3. In my game there would be a simple and obvious message about the state of the world and the uneven distribution of power that exists. As God the player would be in control of the 'world orchestra' and he/she would start with a situation where everything is uneven and out of balance with the various instruments in the orchestra labelled after countries. A terrible noise at the start of the game can slowly be changed to something more harmonious as the user adjusts the volume levels of each country's instrument in the orchestra.
This would be rather hard to achieve and would possibly be larger in size and structure than the above games and would also involve music which may be harder to get across over the internet. Still i think it might convey a good message if it was made a reality!

Final Blog!

2004-10-22T11:08:00.000+08:00

I had never made use of or even heard of blogging before this unit. Now that i have figured it out and learned a little about it i think that it is very useful indeed. I think it is one of those things that would become more and more useful and vital the more you use it like email or text messaging. I am rather traditional and come from deepest darkest Africa so I am not too sure that I would immediately make use of the blogging skills anytime soon. But I am glad i now have the skills if the need should ever arise! And i'm pretty sure it will.
I love the concept of a cyborg. Terminator 2, Blade Runner! Yeaah!! I think we are all cyborgs in the western world now. The trick is to be smart and useful cyborgs rather than destructive because it is definitely a matter of all things in good measure. Play your computer games and talk to someone in Japan, but then go ride a bike afterwards!
I found the section on race and gender very interesting. There is no way the utopian dream of internet as a bias free zone could ever come true because behind the machines there is always a bog standard human doing the talking and thinking and nothing yet can change the effects of this. Would we ever want to change something so innately human?
Great unit and Tama was very impressive as a tutor. Thank you all!!!

Last Blog Post

2004-10-21T21:56:00.000+08:00

I didn’t know what a blog was before I started this unit, and now I consider myself a pro (well, sort of). I enjoyed learning about the blogs and what they could and couldn’t do, and my familiarity with them has certainly helped me access a wider base of information. For example, I now regularly check out a few subversive blogs which give me heaps of info that the mainstream media do not publicize. This is certainly helping me to fulfill my long-term goals of bombing the patriarchy, destroying capitalism and destabilizing popular assumptions.

I thought using the blog for educational purposes was a great idea. The advantages include being able to read your peers’ responses, being shamed into actually making a consistent effort with the unit (if you post a dodgy blog, everyone will know!), and getting to participate in an online educational environment.

However I believe there were a few logistical problems. For one, the bloggers who posted first didn’t get the advantage of being able to read previously posted blogs. Also, the mandatory blog posts sometimes got a bit much: I remember for the Gattica blog I put in at least 2 hours which I hadn’t planned on for that week and it did impact on how much other study I could do. Also, the mandatory comments of other people’s webliography were very tough. Most people felt like they had to have some constructive criticism in their appraisal of the webliography to get good marks for the response. This criticism by peers led to some slightly bruised egos, and I think I saw more than one ‘revenge post (done under the slick veneer of mutual constructive criticism).’

That said, I believe the benefit of using the blogs outweighed the negatives, and with a minor alteration here and there they would be a great addition to most units at the uni.

And I don’t think I am a cyborg. I have always thought that concept was really silly (sorry!). If I am a cyborg then everyone who ever lived (even Neanderthals with their bashy-sticks) and ever will live is a cyborg and the term has lost all meaning. However, I do appreciate the benefit of the question in so much as it makes people think about the way machines and even simple technology integrates itself into their life in such a major way.

I still always think of technology as instrumentally valuable, however. The technology I use is valuable to me in so much as it produces effects that I find desirable and aids me in my life. I don’t think technology has any intrinsic value that can be separated out from the value humanity get from using it.

all's well that ends well

2004-10-21T07:21:00.000+08:00

yes. i am a cyborg. Or if u like a computer nerdette. I love my computer and technology. It makes life easier and definitely lazier for me (no more walking to the mailbox with email in my room!). Cant seem to remember the time where fun was riding a bicycle or going to the park. Now fun equals computer games..even movies can be watched on my computer. I loved the portion of the course on culture jamming though. It was a new term to me and definitely expanded my horizon on media and self.

Initially i thought that the blog would not be helpful...then i discovered that it's sweet because it's something in black and white and can be accessed any time in the day. Ahh the conveniences of technology. However, the blog needs to be edited maybe more frequently (the layout/format of some of the posts need to be corrected.) I'm on 56k at home and it takes forever for the blog to load..sometimes the right hand nav bar appears at the bottom. Otherwise, i thought it was an extremely effective way of learning about the course and definitely the more interesting of the english units. Tama is an incredible tutor. Thank you Tama.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2004-10-20T18:27:00.000+08:00

1. I think the political simulation games may have been effective with communicating with ppl via the net. But I duno. I guess if they have generated discussion on forums as Donkey JOHn has, then they have impacted at least some people! Making more ppl aware, educating people just a little more than they are before they play. However many people who don’t use the internet much, or at all, would never have the opportunity to view these games and be impacted by them.

2. It was obvious with Donkey John that there was some political message underpinning it, however, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Obviously to do with John Howard and the other Islands around Australia.
I was interested to find out what it was trying to say…

i was interested to find out what the game was trying to say with New York Defender
It was a rather simplistic game, so got boring after a few goes (I kept trying to shoot down the buildings for fun!), but I still wanted to find out a bit more about it.

I did think the fact there was a political message underpinning the game was obvious immediately. It was a pretty obvious set up – 9/11, planes crashing into the twin towers. However, what the heck that message was, I had no idea!
And thought the explanation by Shuen-shing Lee was funny as it was using a game to symbolically represent our inability to protect our society. Maybe its just me, but having such a simple computer game represent deep political intent was just amusing, as if that could change the world, one simple game.
However I suppose, from a less cynical aspect, the more games that had symbolic meanings, then gradually one by one, society changes thru information, perhaps.
“Gaming within the context of 9-11 and the shadow of terrorism, one easily sympathizes with the defender's inability to protect the twin towers, or symbolically our society, which projects a tragic sense of powerlessness and hopelessness in confronting terrorism, as Clive Thompson (2002) points out” – this quote was a bit generalized, I didn’t see that one “easily” sympathises with the defenders inability. Seems like it was written from an American perspective, or maybe its just I hate generalisations like that.
Anyway.

3.
If I had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to the two I examined, I would make a really simple one, that is very visually striking and interesting that addresses ideas of poverty and consumerism. I would like to juxtapose the Western idea of consumerism, and the insane amount of stuff we have, and the continual drive for more, especially here in Australia, against the poverty and simplicity of people’s lives in third world countries. I really don’t know how I’d be able to this, but that’s what I’d like to do! To reveal some how that we can actually make a difference, that just ya know, like 1$ of our money can make an impact and a difference to those who have none, and are starving, and the simplicity of how we can do it (thru some organization or something).

I don’t know how, but maybe some way juxtaposing the choices one has in a Western Society to do with 10$, and the choices one might have in a poorer society for $10

LAURA'S WORLD-FAMOUS ROCKY ROAD

2004-10-20T07:24:00.000+08:00

395g can condensed milk
30g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
375g dark chocolate
200g marshmallows
100g turkish delight or jellies
1 cup cashews or peanuts(roughly chopped)

line lamington tin with baking paper
scatter over marshmallows and jellies
in a saucepan combine butter, syrup and condensed milk...heat until smooth
add the chocolate and mix through
pour mixture over lollies
scatter the nuts
chill to set, cut into small squares

post-mortem reflective post

2004-10-19T19:36:00.000+08:00

I really enjoyed blogging as part of this course, although I half wish that we had used LJ instead of blogger because LJ's threaded comment and email notification makes communicating much easier, though I admit that blogger's search capabilities are better. I loved being able to read other people's work and I think it'll really help me in my essays (I'm doing another digital-based one for Anthropology 211).

Overall, I enjoyed the workshops and random bits of media in lectures most of all. I liked seeing what other groups came up with for each week's exercises and I think it's much easier to learn in an interactive environment.

Due to my personal background, this was definitely the most fun course I've taken at uni. It was a pleasure to be able to relate to almost all of the content and situate it in a personal context.

I'm happy to consider myself a cyborg under most if not all of the definitions used in the readings. I use CMC to facilitate my specialist hobbies, to sell/buy on Ebay, to access academic journals and to waste copious amounts of time. I have few qualms about the intergration of machine/body and would (use?) parthenogenesis if social, technological and legal circumstances allowed.

Thank you Tama and Karen :) I hope a course like this will continue to run in the future, because I think the information we covered is really worth while.

Reflective Post

2004-10-19T15:49:00.000+08:00

I think that using weblogs in this course was very appropriate. It’s all very well to study internet culture, but even better for us to be involved in creating our own. I suppose this comes back to the idea of interactivity and the blending of boundaries that has been so prevalent in this course. Similar to the way the producer/consumer divide has been blurred, we too have blurred the divide between student and teacher. We have learnt that there are many different sources of knowledge within the class environment. This also reiterates another point covered in the course regarding the dispersion of knowledge rather than a centralized source of knowledge. So, all in all I think the use of weblogs tied in very well with the course. There was however the issue of always having access to the net and the extra time involved in posting and reading blogs.

Now, onto the issue of cyborgs. I guess I believe myself to be cyborg. I think the lives we lead are very much a consequence of certain technologies. In the sense that most consumable goods are produced by technology and our houses themselves are filled with technology. It seems we have developed an interdependent relationship with technology. In fact many of us have some kind technology permanently around us ie mobile phones, mp3 players etc. I think we are also cyborgs in the sense that many of us have multiple, hybridized identities, whether this is in regard to race, gender or just tastes and interests. The diversity and complexity of modern identity is vast and the cyborg is one of way of characterizing this.

I really enjoyed doing this course and am glad I got the opportunity to do it. There were a lot of interesting topics covered and the lectures and readings blended in well together. And, I guess I’m slightly more net proficient as a consequence. So, thanks to Tama and Karen for doing a good job.

the "reflective blog"

2004-10-18T14:49:00.000+08:00

after this semester using a weblog, I think it could possibly be the “way of the future” in education. I don’t see why they are not used in every subject – they are really helpful, and it’s great to see what every one else thinks, and their opinions and ideas. I learn a lot from peers and teachers so I think weblogs are very useful.

I think I am definitely a cyborg these days
I have my laptop permanently attached to me, it seems
And a mp3 player, and a digital camera, oh and a mobile phone.
I feel like im using so much technology daily
It makes me more productive and I get a lot more done.. but then again ‘work expands to fill the time’
But some times I wonder what my life would be like without all this technology!
the fact i'm now aware of my connection to technology probably makes me more of a cyborg.

This course was “great”. I hate saying it was great, but I really think it was! I’m so glad I took this course, I had no idea what it was really about or what it would be like, but I took a leap of faith and I believe it has really enhanced my life

And my understanding and knowledge about issues to do with the internet and technology and its representation in the media.

I believe this course to be greatly beneficial, and I think it could be a good first year subject option…. Because you learn about the internet, and options available, such as weblogs etc, which I’d never really come across before, or been shown how to use

I found all the hand outs really specific and thus very helpful

The workshops were interesting and enjoyable- I like the idea of interactive workshops, where you’re interacting with your whole class, not just your tute group (plus the ipod ad competition with chocolate was excellent :)

One disappointment for me was not being able to attend lectures due to a lecture clash, listening to it on the net is just not the same… :(

Ok, so I’ve rambled on for long enough

I suppose the general idea is I really enjoyed this subject and keep up the great work Tama and Karen :) thanks

2004-10-15T15:31:00.000+08:00

Playing Politics Workshop Response
The games I chose to review were
September 12 and New York Defender.

Q. 1.
September 12 and NY Defender are both ideal examples of the success/effectiveness
of political simulation games to not only communicate with people but also to
register political satire on the internet.
In the words of September 12 creator Gonzalo Frasca, NewsGaming.com lead designer: -
"Through this piece we want to encourage players to think critically about the efficacy
of the United States’ current strategy against terrorism. Terrorism is a terrible problem
and we think it should be fought in a more intelligent way.
We see the concept of newsgaming as a 21st century equivalent to traditional printed
political cartoons: short, controversial satirical pieces that convey biased ideological messages".

Q. 2.
The point of both these games is immediately obvious and yet totally confronting
in terms of the absence of the possibility of winning. These both encapsulate the
dreadfully paranoic, impotent and limited path that the USA and her allies have
chosen in response to "the terrorist threat".
By subverting the win/lose dichotomy by illustrating that the only possibility is
the lose/lose dynamic, the creators have potently and poignantly demonstrated
the pointless stupidity of exercising such reactive responses.

Q. 3.
(a) I think I would like to create a game which illustrated the point that the more
diligently we try to police against "the terrorist threat" the more blinded we seem
to be to the prison walls and surveillance structures we are erecting around ourselves
and to show that the resultant outcome is and will be more and greater incursions
into the already seriously depleted civil liberties that we are so dearly and democratically defending.

(b) Ummm. Hmmm. Yeh. Well. That's a good question!
Obviously it would have to have a very simple structure which involved a self defeating
loop of behaviour. Such as is the case in September 12. The harder one tries to win
the more one loses. I can only think of the metaphor of trying to dig at the seashore
close to the water's edge. The faster you remove the seepage the faster more floods in,
and the wetter you become trying to stay dry. Not a good one, but it certainly illustrates
the pointlessness of the operation. Perhaps it would have to involve perimeter walls, guards,
and imprisoned populations whose only crime is in exercising freedom of movement.
According to the current political paradigm. Freedom from terrorists is only attained
through increased control of the general populace.

Playing Politics WS (Anli)

2004-10-15T11:51:00.000+08:00

I looked at New York Defender and Donkey John.

1. I think that well-written games do get circulated pretty rapidly to a lot of people. As others have written, the interactivity and challenge of games encourages user involvement. Most of the games would load fairly quickly even on 56k dialup so they're not excluding people with a slower system. Donkey John expects a familiarity with the GameBoy interface and the original Donkey Kong game, but this is a reasonable expectation given the demographics of the internet.
However, I still think RPG-type structures are the most useful for giving extended messages - I started playing the Bush Game, mentioned in the Donkey John interview - it was very compelling with a good mix of action and text, and the elevator sequence they used to illustrate Bush's over-spending of the surplus left by Clinton, where the player descends into a Dante-esque hell guarded by Orwellian pigs in suits is very effective. However, these longer types of games would fail to engage the casual user and people without a good Internet connection.

2. Regarding New York Defender: we all remember watching the news around the time of September 11, and the feelings of vulnerability created by repeated viewings of the planes smashing into the towers. These feelings of frustration are recreated by playing the game, but it's not clear how we should react afterwards. Yes, terrorism is bad and scary, but how should we respond to it? Are the developers making an ironic point about how merely reacting -- shooting down planes during the attack -- is a useless form of defense? Is the game criticising the US's response and earlier foreign policies, or is the enemy simply a faceless and overwhelming foe out to get 'us'? The interpretation of the game is complicated by its apparent non-American origins (the instructions are in French).

In Donkey John, most users would read the extended instructions to find out how the game mechanics work, and along with the instructions is a paragraph about the message of the game. Even if a player didn't read this, the anti-Howard sentiment at least is obvious, and the tiny monetary increments that Xanana earns suggests the immense economic disparity between Australia and East Timor. Also, there is extended information linked to an external website that also gives people something they can actually do about the political situation. Players in the high scores also seem to be giving URLs to socialist and progressive sites.

3. I would like to make a game where the player controls the character of a young German person during the Third Reich, where the player had to contend with the pressures of Hitler's popularity -- reflected in the pro-Nazi stance of the player character's (PC's) family and community conflicting with the player's knowledge of the inevitable outcome. The PC would have a choice to either enlist or to join a resistance movement. The former choice will force the PC to perform morally objectionable tasks such as overseeing a concentration/death camp, arresting Jews/gypsies/homosexuals/rebellious characters, whilst the latter will eventually lead to the PC getting arrested (preferably by a character earlier on identified as the PC's childhood friend) and executed/sent to a concentration camp. This game would be targeted mostly at highschool students learning about the Nazi regime and the pressures of conformity. I would like to include a scene where, if the PC chose to join the White Rose (or similar resistance movement), the PC would have a choice to either betray (his) friends or die horribly. This game would be much larger and longer than the games we studied... and actually now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it could be classified so much as 'political'. Oh well ^^;;

PlayingPolitics

2004-10-14T19:23:00.000+08:00

September 12th
New York Defender

1. The games would do the rounds on the Net in much the same fashion as amusing e-mails and attachments. So I am unsure how much of an effect these games would have, in communicating a comprehensive understanding of issues, but certainly they are an interesting way of framing things, and affirm a sense of there being a community of people who disagree with current politics. For instance, September 12th contains a simplistic "bomb civilians = morph into terrorists" equation, which just highlights cultural blindness.

2. The political tone of the games was immediately obvious, especially with the simple objectives and 'bad taste' overtness which immediately places the player in a sceptic's role... However, the message is a matter of interpretation, and a responsibility on the part of the player to move beyond a superficial interaction with the games' superficial rendition of the world event/media stage.

I was interested in the unethical responses I had to the gameworld to begin with, the mindless element of game-playing in contrast to complex issues. Therefore I felt like some political conscience was poking a stick at my comparative ignorance and remoteness to global events.

When I first started playing New York Defender I mindlessly entered the game world and thought the objective was to hit the two towers, and that hitting the mouse produced a plane! I was also interested in my immediate tendency to want to score well, I scored 657 in the first round and was determined to score over a 1000 in the second, which i did, in the 1800's. Unlike the other 3 games there was very little text or message (Donkey John has a link to background information, September 12th and Kaboul Khaboom both have introductions/ending pointing to the despair of the situation) - and was in French, yet the muteness or ambivalence of the game set up was just as eloquent.

I was also bemused by the naff-ness and comical look of the little figures running around in September 12th. At first I just wanted to watch, and not shoot with my omniscient sight line, but then I just had to see what reaction would be. Then I wanted to see how long it would take to destroy the buildings. That they looked and behaved like ants was probably a deliberate move, and foregrounded the way sensationalist-style media coverage manipulated the peoples' feelings towards the Middle East into a LCD (lowest common denominator) of both non-empathy and hatred/fear. The game design was canny for factoring a wait and reload time so you could observe the blue figures morph into terrorists.

3. My game might go something as follows:
-A room full of sleeping people.
-An offscreen space with different coloured "bombs" interspersed with pop-ups.
I don't have time to compile a list of pop-ups cos i think i am missing "Chaser Decides" and i want to go home but they should be brief and provocative, perhaps just stating issues like "Higher Education" "Medicare" (national) or some international issues or perhaps an abbreviated news headlines, or perhaps provocative bits of rhetoric.....
-Player picks up the bombs
note: bombs are not in the lethal sense but more like a pie or water balloon....
and launches them at the sleeping people....
I would like there to be a 'happy ending' with a punch line with a graphic or animation where if you 'win' and all the people wake up there's some kind of change.... not sure how to represent this...

Playing Politics Workshop

2004-10-13T15:13:00.000+08:00

1. The game was small enough to download quickly and could easily be emailed as an attachment. It’s the kind of thing that everyone can play because the rules are so basic and usually very familiar. I think most people would play the game if they received even if they didn’t really realise what it was or that it contained a political message, but I think if the same message was forwarded in essay form, it is less likely that people would read it. So I think it is an effective way to communicate something important that is really accessible and perhaps more interesting to people that may not be so interested in reading about the same issues. I also think the potential for distribution is huge as people would play the game and then forward it on to others.

2. The first game I played was September 12th and its message was evident immediately. The instructions stated that you could chose to shoot or not, so initially I didn’t shoot, and nothing seemed to happen. So then I began to shoot… and it all came clear. Next I played New York Defender, which I thought I was pretty good at for the first 20 seconds, until I realized I might be in some trouble. I think from the interface it was obvious that the game was not going to be light hearted and the serious nature of the game became evident as the planes increased. The idea of ‘I lose, therefore I think’ is very clearly shown in these examples and is a really easy and effective way to get across a point. In September 12th it was easy to stop shooting as you could see that you were just making things worse, whereas in New York Defender I felt like I really had to try and stop the planes. In both games however it was clear that you were essentially powerless to what was occurring.

3. I have no idea what kind of game I would make…sorry Tama. But I do really like Saywood’s idea, so maybe I could help her:) I can however recommend some other games that I’ve played at http://www.futurefarmers.com/home_feb_2003.html , if you look in the section entitled ‘stimuli’ there are quite a few cool things there. Anyway there is one called Pinga which is an anti-GMO game where u have to stop the pollen from floating over to the non-GMO field, in the next round the pollen and butterflies and so on… there is another game called Kosovo elf and a thing were u can deface president Bush and also look at the ways other people have defaced him.

"Playing Politics" Workshop

2004-10-13T11:56:00.000+08:00

Kabul Kaboom and September 12th
Kabul Kaboom: You must dodge missiles and catch hamburgers in between, the slogan reads “the humanitarian game for the humanitarian war” and the instructions, “use the arrow keys to get the nice American food, but avoid their missiles, remember kids, you can’t win this game, just lose.”
September 12th: Similarly to Kabul Kaboom, the game instructions are more of a political message than anything, telling us ‘it isn’t a game,’ that ‘it never ends,’ and that ‘you choose to shoot or not shoot.’ Every civilian shot when aiming at terrorists becomes a terrorist.

1) I think that both games would have been very successful in communicating their intended messages to the audience over the internet; they lure people in with the promise of fun, and then position them with the civilian point of view, in this case the ‘war on terror’ and its consequences on the people is the focus of the games. The people have no escape and no choice and the relationship with America is confusing and hypocritical, the inevitability and bitterness expereinced by the people caught up in the middle is captured in the game instructions in particular.

2) The political message in both Kabul Kaboom and September 12th were immediately obvious through the names of the games, the instructions for play, then the game play itself. The understanding of the message becomes stronger as you progress through the games. I feel that a strong effect is created by the immediacy of the game, the player has to learn how to play applying the instructions as best they can, particularly in Kabul Kaboom, the game is fast paced and on first experience it moves too fast for you to able to navigate the avatar in time to dodge the missiles, this creates shock value. Especially with the image of a real bomb scene in the background of the cartoon remains of the avatar, and the slogan “game not over, play again.” In September 12th the game is slower, but you are just as powerless as you are in Kabul Kaboom, it is almost impossible to shoot terrorists without killing innocents – you end up creating more terrorists than there were to begin with. Taking control away from the player adds to the political message by making clear the powerlessness felt by the people involved. Another very effective part of each game is the fact that there is no ending and no real beginning, it remains the same the whole way through until you give up/close the window, this is emphasised by instructons that state there is no ending, reflecting the position that people are in during this war on terror. After playing the games we are left with thoughts about the issues involved, I think that it would encourage people to take an interest in the facts or discuss the game and the issues with others.

3) If I were to create my own political game, I would create one to reflect the relationship between Australia and America i.e. Howard’s seeming following of Bush’s policies - the war on terror, gay marriages etc.

My game would show a Howard avatar and a Bush avatar with its pants down and bottom showing. The aim of the game would be to navigate the Howard avatar through a maze in pursuit of the Bush avatar scoring points if you manage to touch the bush avatar as it moves over parts of the maze labelled “war on terror,” “Kyoto agreement,” “Ban Gay Marriage,” and etc. You lose the game if you lose track of the Bush avatar, you have to get as many “points” as you can before you get to the end of the maze. Perhaps at the end of the maze a screen with message will pop up depending on how many points you scored, for example, a high score may show a picture of Bush and Howard holding hands.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2004-10-12T19:51:00.000+08:00

1. September 12 made a very good point that in trying to target terrorists to kill, you would invariably blow up innocent civilians, as well as destroying the infrastructure and buildings of the town. It was then shown in graphic form that crying civilians would mourn the dead people, and then the mourners would themselves become terrorists. This message was clearly sent in a fun way. The same can be said of Kabul Kaboom, where the character has to dodge the bombs while catching the hamburgers.

As they are both fun and addictive, it is likely that during lunch breaks and even (shock horror) during working hours and in leisure time, people will play them. Most people will not read essays, long news reports or political blogs, but more people would be willing to play a game about it.

2. September 12 sends a very strong and obvious message about the ethics and justifications behind retaliation. Initially it begs the question of if it is fair to try to target terrorists by bombing towns and places they have known to be. This is exactly what Bush did after the September 11 attacks, and thus takes on an urgent political message. Innocent civilians will be killed when you bomb places and terrorists in the simulated game, which may draw attention to the fact that innocent civilians can and have been killed in the retaliation bombings.

The game also explores the real effects of retaliation and questions if it is indeed a valid philosophy. After retaliation some of the civilians in the game who witness the atrocious deaths, themselves become terrorists. In reality, this logic does work. Many people in the world do not benefit from Western (and especially American) consumerism and trade, and live in dire poverty while many people in the West do not, and thus they are already hostile towards them. When they see real tangible and direct American intervention killing their citizens, their dislike of America can only increase, and thus their willingness to engage in likewise extreme retaliations towards America is greatly increased.

Both of these messages are very obvious and are immediately recognizable while playing the game. At the beginning of the game it says “this is a simple model you can use to explore some aspects of the war on terror” thus making it clear that the simulation is directly inspired from actual events.

Kabul Kaboom also sends the very clear message about the odd logic of simultaneous American aid and bombs. The avatar can get American hamburgers, but has to dodge American bombs, which is a very clear attack that clarifies how nonsensical the American’s position is.

3. Probably the most popular topic on our collective minds right now is the recent Howard win. My game would try to highlight the atrocities committed under the Howard government so far in an effort to educate people about how dodgy and appauling he really is.

The game would have an evil looking caricature of Howard walking down a corridor with 4 or 5 doors. On each of the doors would be written something, such as ‘the Kyoto protocol,’ ‘equitable and affordable education,’ ‘Medicare,’ ‘queer rights’ and ‘old growth forests.’ The player could make Howard open any of the doors. Once a door is open, a new screen appears (i.e. the character has moved into the room), with various things and methods for Howard to destroy them.

An example would be, once the ‘Medicare’ door was opened, a screen with two or three old and sick people could appear, and Howard could choose the method he wished to kill them with (under funding, smothering with a pillow or jumping all over them). Once the “queer rights” door was opened Howard could fire bomb gay bars, send queer people out to an angry mob and say ‘I object’ during a queer wedding.

Hot Dates and fairy-Tale Romances by Mia Consalvo

2004-10-11T22:34:00.000+08:00

This article highlights the fact that sex and sexuality is an important part of games, and generally the types of sex and sexuality represented reinforce the mainstream sexual values of heterosexuality and marriage.

The first game Mia discusses is Final Fantasy, which is a role playing game where the main character that the player controls (Zidane), fights monsters and ultimately rescues the kidnapped princess (because “she is pretty”). By looking at the game on a surface level (i.e. reading it like a text), we can see that this theme is concerned with notions of ‘happily ever after’ and ‘love conquers all,’ and works to clearly define and position the two characters as heterosexual subjects, and that there is an idealization of compulsory heterosexuality.

But when Mia takes gameplay into account, this relatively uncomplicated idealized romance may be problematised. By taking the performative aspects of gameplay into account, it becomes obvious that the player can change the narrative and subvert the mainstream heterosexuality that is assumed in the game.

Mia also discusses Eve Sedgewick’s Erotic triangle, which is an explanatory model of how homosocial desire (the non sexual interest and affection between men) can be managed. An example to explain this is a situation where two men compete over the same woman, who can be seen as the conduit of the relationship. The men really desire each other, but fear of being seen as homosexual makes them displace their feelings for each other into competition over a heterosexual love object (the more acceptable object).

Mia argues that in Final Fantasy, the player is encouraged to identify with Zidane. If we assume a male player, then the triangle can be used to show how the player manages any potential desire they have for Zidane by transferring it onto the female love interest character of Garnet.

She comments that potential desire for Zidane is possible because of the fact that the player is encouraged to care about him and to identify with him in order to successfully play the game. For many reasons (including that Zidane is feminized through long hair, small stature and lace clothes), identification may not be able to occur without too much desire for the character. So the triangle spatially collapses the two men into one, hence allowing the player to channel feelings for Zidane into Garnet (which is a validation of masculinity and heterosexuality).

The other game Mia discusses is the Sims. The Sims manual proscribes certain limits on the players’ imagination and desires. Queer Sims can be created (same sex Sims can kiss and sleep in the same bed, among other things) which challenges the hetranormative assumption often found in games. However, one limiting facet of the game is that “only opposite-sex relationships qualify for a proposal of marriage.” This can be seen as a not too subtle coding of heterosexuality as right and normal, as opposed to queerness, which is thus constructed as the ‘other’ of the disjunctive pair, where hierarchical value judgments see straight as good and queer as bad.

Of further interest is that the manual tells you that choosing a sex for your character is the best place to start as “gender is a pretty basic constituent of self from which to build a personality.” Despite the obvious fallacy of using gender and sex as interchangeable terms, it is interesting to see that there is no sexuality box, which indicates that either sexuality is defined within the game as an activity rather than an unchangeable part of identity, or that is assumed heterosexuality is such an ingrained part of everyone’s identity (or should be), that it wasn’t considered an option.

The player can choose the appearance, race and gender of Sims. Through a range of options the player can choose different skin colours, heads, ages and bodies, so the possibility to create radically different Sims is available. Apparently, the options are endless. (To see the ‘amazing’ individuality offered, see this page). Given the normal trend in games to be given a set character, this seems positive, but Mia then critiques the options and questions how real the choices are. We can see that there are some assumptions and traditional ideas about race, and gender inherently coded into the very choices available.

For instance, there are 16 bodies available for women, 18 for men and 5 for children. No obese, disabled or otherwise different bodies are offered, and from this choice it is hard to imagine this covers every possible body. The fact that choices are offered suggests that diversity is important, but the diversity itself is heavily restricted and the body forms that are excluded are telling.

While it is true that exclusion is a practical and financial reality, the options that are “ultimately considered necessary and which (are) expendable” (page 273 of the reader), indicate a definite hierarchy that is assumed in the making of the game. I also find it interesting that some things that are definitely not normalized in our society are included in Sims, such as polygamy and alien neighbors. This shows that the game doesn’t only mirror popular trends in contemporary culture, and makes it reasonable to ask why gay marriage (which is not currently a state sanctioned activity) is not allowed.

However all hope is not lost; Sims fans who do not feel their diversity is recognized and allowed within the Simscape have created their own Sims, as shown by Overweight Sims and
Nude Sims (Sims are not shown naked in the traditional Sims game and by creating nude Sims, players are challenging the proscribed rules set out by the game)

Mia also uses the concept of gay window gaming, which is a term used for advertising that has been designed to appeal to both gay and straight people. These ads, by using coded signs and subtext, suggest to gay consumers they are included, but the coding is not so explicit that straight consumers would pick up on the cues. In this way, both gay and straight consumers are targeted, without the fear that straight consumers will be offended by the intended appeal to gay people. This can be seen as positive or negative.

In the Sims, gayness is not coded in, but it is not forbidden either. So players can create gay Sims if they want to, while homophobic players need not create gay Sims, and they are not forced to read any of their Sims as gay.

So, from the examples used in Mia’s article it is clear that in most games a normalization process occurs when heterosexual narratives, characters and themes are included, whilst homosexual interactions are ether absent, or perverted. This inclusion is a subtle way of reinforcing stereotypes about ‘proper’ sexual practice and sexualities. This can be seen most obviously in Final Fantasy, but is also present in the more radical Sims.

Important Quotes:

“Even if diversity was limited only for financial or practicle reasons, it is important to raise this issue, to better understand which options were ultimately considered necessary and which were expendable.” (page 273 reader, 186 of article)

Regarding the erotic triangle: “But ultimately they are not as interested in the relationship with the woman as they are in their relationship with each other – yet societal fears of being seen as homosexual lead the men to displace their feelings for each other into the safe area of friendly competition over a heterosexual love object” (page 269 reader, 178 of article)

Wk11 Tute Reading- As We Become Machines

2004-10-11T21:24:00.000+08:00

For my particular reading, I covered Martti Lahti's article in The Video Game Theory Reader, entitled As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures In Video Games. As the name indicates, it deals with the role video games play in the barrier between technology and humanity, and the effect such video games have on the senses and the actual body itself- hence the ‘corporealized' part of the title.

Lahti argues throughout the article that videogames serve as a way of bypassing the ordinary limitations of the body and experiencing things normally considered impossible or improbable without actually literally undertaking them in the body, and that there has been a distinct evolution throughout the history of video games that has made this integration of the human body and the actual experience of the player's avatar in the game more and more complete. This is something I personally can agree with, having myself played several videogames and found myself getting so ‘into it', so to speak, that I was thinking in terms of the game, as opposed to my actual surroundings. For example, when playing the computer game Descent 3 four years ago, I didn't see the computer screen around me or the room I was in, I didn't hear the background noise in my house, and I wasn't thinking about school or any other ordinary teenage worries- instead I saw the cockpit of a ship flying over the surface of some asteroid somewhere- plus the installations and enemy craft below-, I heard the sounds of enemy gunfire and my own ship's afterburners and guns, and I was thinking about how best to avoid being blown out of the sky. The experience of the game was almost real in some ways, overriding most of my own sensory intake of the real world around me and the truth is that the game is considerably old by the standards of today's games. But I digress. This is exactly the sort of idea that Lahti is trying to get across when talking about the merging of the human being, the player, and the character, the player's avatar in the game.

The descriptions of the various games and their influence on the bodies of players reminded me of my own experiences, and thus enabled me to engage more with the actual text by relating this knowledge to my own experiences. The same can be said for the actual games listed in the texts, such as Doom, Perfect Dark, Half-Life and the like, games which I played when I was younger. The mention of these particular examples allowed me, at least, to draw on my own experiences to gain a particular insight into Lahti's arguments that would not have been as clear were they only supported by abstract concepts.

One of the ideas Lahti presented that interested me the most was the idea of the male gamer playing a female avatar in a game. While a user is compelled to integrate with the female avatar in the course of the game, at the same time the male player is also asked to ‘dissassociate himself from her and instead to take visual pleasure in looking at her'. I found this very interesting, considering the long-standing arguments about Tomb Raider's Lara Croft being either a positive female item or busty titilation for male players, and the idea of a male both integrating himself to play the role of the woman while at the same time disengaging himself to admire the female character is a compelling and complex idea that I feel could warrant a lot more study on. However, I found the idea of video games being ‘a safe way to try on being a different race or sex without the risk of relinquishing any social or cultural power' to be an idea that was perhaps overconsidered. I don't believe most male video game players play games featuring female characters for some kind of fantastic way to masquerade as a woman. I certainly don't. The idea never really crosses my mind, and I'm normally more concerned with the matter of the game itself than whether I'm male, female, black or white. Although with the upcoming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Playstation 2 game, which allows players to take on the role of an African-American gangster, it might be interesting to see whether or not players see it as a safe way to become another particular race and social class, that being an African-American criminal.

Lahti's final, concluding summary of her arguments states that ‘various games emphasize an immaterial and disembodied vision that explores a virtual landscape with relative freedom and liberates perception (and the body) in some fashion from its normal limitations of placement and movement in daily life', and also that this is done by actually connecting the ‘cyborg bodies' of the game with our real bodies by the use of various input and output technologies such as more evolved points of view, pedals, force feedback, light guns and various other technologies designed to immerse players in corporeal sensations. By this, Lahti indicates that players do not actually lose all concept of their bodies and become technology, but instead that their bodies are influenced by technology, rather than being taken over by it.. I find the actual arguments in themselves very compelling and persuasive due to their correlation with my own experiences, in addition to the description of what seem at least to me to be artificial stimulation of the body to create the effect of escape from realism that the video game designers wish to convey.

Key quotes:

"According to Ted Friedman, computer games teach us to ‘[think] like the computer', a process which creates a sense of ‘self-dissolution', being ‘sucked in'. He goes on to describe playing a game such as Civilization II as being in an ‘almost meditative state, in which you aren't just interacting with the computer, but melding with it'"
(Course Reader, p. 293)

"Character and player are unified into a first-person movement through the virtual space. One effect of this unification is the creation of a stronger experiential homology between the fictional world of the game and the real world, where virtual space begins to seem continuous with the player's space rather than sharply delimited by the frame of the monitor as I have been arguing."
(Course Reader, p. 294)

"In this sense, our pleasure is based on blurring the distinction between the player and the character we jump, fly, shoot, kick, and race when we are actually clicking the mouse or tapping the controller."
(Course Reader, p. 295)

"The monitor guides us into (a perceptual and corporeal) interaction with the computer and, as a technologized form of vision, it becomes a component and extension of the body; it replaces our body, or rather extends its capacities, and becomes both a representation and source of bodily experience, thus creating a hybrid condition resonant with the cyborg."
(Course Reader, p. 296)

Week 11 Tute Cyberlife's Creatures

2004-10-11T18:26:00.000+08:00

In Cyberlife’s Creatures Sarah Kember mainly discusses the Creatures game. She provides a detailed analysis of how the game works. Specifying that perhaps Creatures is on the way to realizing Artificial life. She alerts us to the aspects of genetic engineering and evolution that are integral to this game. And, posits that an innovative relationship has developed between producer and consumer in regard to this game.

Kember’s article covered a rather interesting area in gaming. One that I’m that not too familiar with. There seemed to be quite a scientific technical aspect to the Creatures game. Especially seeing as the major underpinning of the game is that of evolution and genetic engineering. The issue of genetic engineering is still a controversial one in real life. Yet, it appeared as unquestionable in the game. Its basic assumption is that the user wants to fiddle around with random genes in the name of creation. Yet, this has proved to be popular and is probably so for the same reasons The Sims is popular. It seems to me like having your own pet or plaything and a kind of wish fulfilment rolled in one. And, in the case of Creatures there is the added surprise of not being able to exactly control the agent.

Key Quotes:

“Interactions with the human user may alter the norn’s behaviour, but the human can only influence a norn, not control it” Kember pg 284 in Course Reader

“Partly by design, and partly because of the building-block nature of biological systems, there turned out to be number of ways people could enhance the product and hence their enjoyment of it…………Infact they were so good at this that I decide to save them the trouble of working it all out for themselves, and simply published the necessary documentation so that they could get on with it.” Steve Grand (Creator of Creatures) quoted in Kember pg 287 in Course Reader

Critical Annotated Webliography Q. 3.

2004-10-11T13:37:00.000+08:00

Introduction

In my quest to critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies I reviewed the initial course readings, Donna Haraway[1], Markussen,[2] Waldby[3] and Hollinger[4] to background some of the notions inherent in this question. Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto exposes the inherent power of cyborg technologies to interrogate identity markers through the suspension of the boundaries previously ascribed to ‘mapped’ bodies. The cyborg amalgamates the human and the machine, merging the two, thus collapsing naturalised markers of identity constructed through such binary oppositions as nature/technology, human/machine and male/female. I will question the ways in which other technologies also skew these naturalised and erstwhile ubiquitous identity constructions.
I ran a search through Google,[5] using Haraway which revealed many sources from which I chose Futurism by Hari Kunzru.[6] My next search involved the following key words: -
cyber technologies, identity constructions, boundaries of self,
revealing 1,730 possible sites from which I located the following selection: --

Annotations

Hari Kunzru
http://www.harikunzru.com/hari/futurism.htm [7]
This article helped clarify and historically and politically background, Haraway’s ideas in an easily digested way. Further it helped me to formulate a position about the potential fluidity of identity constructions and their possibilities for extension/alteration.

Tomasz Mazur
http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/social/papers/mazur.txt [8]
Mazur considers theories of Donna Haraway[9] and Homi Bhabha[10] suggesting the possibilities for reconstitution of differences implied by gender, race, and class in the new spaces created in the virtual world of cyberspace. He investigates ‘ ... whether the "virtual" of cyberspace or, specifically, of text-based virtual space, offers a possibility of the "in-between space" of contestation of issues of "identity" and, specifically, the issues of sex and gender.’[11] Mazur sees the ‘“virtual”’ as a space in which the body and its correspondence to a ‘gendered subject’ position is troubled, and seeks to formulate a theory of the body, and the reworking inherent in the processes of this correspondence, in cyberspace.This article provided some useful material around these ideas and helped me to further clarify the ways constructions of identity have colonized bodies as strident demarcation sites, and the ways in which the virtual spaces created by new technologies play with these constructions, disturbing the limits and potentially blurring, perhaps, in some instances, erasing, some of these markings.

Jyanni Steffensen
http://www.va.com.au/parallel/x1/journal/jyanni_steffensen/robot.html [12]
Steffensen offers a discussion of the power of monsters in the processes of ‘...infiltration and re-mapping the possible futures outside the (chromo) phallic patriarchal code.’ Prior to the development of cyborgs, in the pursuit of stable identity, humans eschewed certain monstrous instincts seen as violating the human/monster binary. Fortunately, according to Steffensen, these traits still sufficiently resonate in the human psyche and are therefore being re-established in the pursuit of a healthier, more fluid and inclusive sense of identity.
My discussion of identity construction will include the notions raised herein.

John Frow and Mark Pegrum
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP1801jf.html [13]
This interview, though lengthy, provides some very meaty points of consideration in relation to the alteration and extension of constructions of identity and new technologies. John Frow raises some important and cautionary issues with regard to fluidity of identities and the potential for negative as well as positive outcomes. This discussion has furnished me with deeper material from which to consider the potential impact on constructions of identity.

Glenda Nalder
ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw96/cultural/nalder/paper.htm [14]
This paper explores some interesting ideas around the concept of subjectivities and identity constructions implied through the domestication of the virtual language scape. Two examples of which are ‘being @home’ and having a ‘home page’. Nalder explores these ideas in the thus created ‘ ... fruitful point of rupture within the “networked relations of power” surrounding informatics, for the in[(ter)]vention of feminist knowledges.’[15]
I think this is an important aspect to consider that such ‘nostalgic’ markers of constructions of identity are operating in new technologies to implicitly reinforce the existing power dynamics notwithstanding the proliferation of theories which promote the role of new technologies to question such dynamics.

Sherry Turkle
http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html [16]
Sherry Turkle in this article discusses ‘the extensions of ourselves’ made possible in the text-based environments MUDs. She is optimistic about the ‘reconstructions’, the ‘constructions’ and the ‘explorations’ of identities and communities creating a ‘privileged context’ for re-examining the ‘social,’ ‘cultural’ and ‘ethical’ issues of our worlds. Her outlook is positive and she approaches the potentials of such extensions from the point of view of an academic and theorist who is excited by the prospect of newly created fields of exploration of identity. This will be a useful article to use in juxtaposition with arguments raises in the Mark Pegrum and John Frow interview.

Rosanne Allucquere Stone
http://sandystone.com/violation-and-virtuality [17]
This article provides a further aspect of consideration when looking at constructions of identities. Stone inserts the idea of the ‘location of the self’ in the physically mapped body, more than just ‘ ...the physical map of the body and our experience of inhabiting it... ’, as ‘also socially mediated’. This is a valuable discussion in terms of the potential for violation and the parameters for control on the internet and the resultant impact, or otherwise, on extensions and/or contractions/alterations/ perversions of the constructed identities of self.

Rosanne Allucquere Stone
http://sandystone.com/eyes-of-the-vampire [18]
This article posits three stories in a non-linear chronological order, which demonstrate three separate instantiations of identity obfuscation in ‘virtual’ space and the ensuing chaos that can accompany such blurring of identities. This provides thought provoking illustrations not only of the ways in which constructions of identity in information and communication technologies are possible, but also of the ways in which such smudging can impact on the human psyche of the author as well as the reader of the constructed identity.

Conclusion

Identity and its constructions are seemingly obvious but difficult notions to tie down. However, from my research undertaken for this essay, my main arguments would reflect the following ideas. Historically the body has been a solid marker of the location and limits of biologically implied racial and sexual identity constructions. Further, the relationship of that body to the physically manifested ‘other’ has been integral to its identity construction. The body’s interiority was also previously far less available to external intrusion through invasive scientific and medical scrutiny and surveillance.

Ever since the onset of printed materials, the transmission of ideas and other communications have extended the sense of identity formation through the intellectual processes incumbent in the transmission of ideas from author to reader. This was a linear process functioning from one ‘other’ to many ‘others’[19]. Inclusive to this, (although this requires further discussion), are the other visual media interventions such as Television and Film. However, in the digitalised and cybernetic newly (un)-defined world of the mass information and communication vectors, the internet and mobile phone technologies, transmission with the ‘other’ as an identity marker, has taken on unwieldy proportions. It is now transmissions of exponential parameters involving interactions from the diverse many to the diverse many others. The body and the other’s body are no longer the limits of identity construction. Notions of identity work-shopping; identity shifting; identity colonisation; and identity swapping, etcetera, have altered and extended the concepts of identity that previously misinformed our interactions. In the virtual possible worlds created by new technologies, cyberspace is populated by an assortment of possibilities of selves and otherness albeit we/they are textual, disembodied entities.

[1] Donna Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’, The Haraway Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 7-45.
[2] Randi Markussen, Finn Olesen, and Nina Lykke, “Interview with Donna Haraway.” Chasing Technoscience. Eds. Don Ihde and Evan Selinger. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003, pp. 47-57.
[3] Catherine Waldby, ‘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. (and)
“The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture.” Prefiguring Cybercultures: An Intellectual History. Eds. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavalaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002, pp. 28-37.
[4] Veronica Hollinger, “Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism.” Mosaic 23.2, 1990, pp. 29-44.
[5] Google Search Engine at http://www.google.com.au/.
[6]Hari Kunzru, Futurism: 1995-2001.
http://www.harikunzru.com/hari/futurism.htm (accessed 3 October 2004)
[7] Hari Kunzru. ‘Futurism: cyborgs’ Futurism: 1995-2001, (1997) http://www.harikunzru.com/hari/futurism.htm (accessed 3 October 2004). {This piece was commissioned for Ars Electronica 1997. It appears in Ars Electronica: Facing the Future ed. Timothy Druckrey with Ars Electronica [MIT]}
[8]Tomasz Mazur. Working Out the Cyberbody: Sex and Gender Constructions in Text-Based Virtual Space, (1994) http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/social/papers/mazur.txt (accessed 4 October 2004).
[9] Donna J.Haraway. (as qtd. in Mazur), "The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others." Cultural Studies. Ed. Grossberg, Nelson and Treichler. New York: Routledge,1992: 295-337.
[10]Homi K.Bhabha. (as qtd. in Mazur), "Discussion." Cultural Studies. Ed. Grossberg, Nelson and Treichler. New York: Routledge, 1992: 165-173.
[11] Mazur.
[12]Jyanni Steffensen. ‘Decoding Perversity: queering cyberspace’, Parallel Gallery and Journal (1995)
http://www.va.com.au/parallel/x1/ journal/jyanni_steffensen/robot.html (accessed 3 October 2004).
[13]John Frow and Mark Pegrum. ‘The State of the Net: Reflections on New York Dogs and Trojan Horses’, An email interview with John Frow by Mark Pegrum, Mots Pluriels No. 18. (2001) http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP1801jf.html (accessed 4 October 2004).
[14]Glenda Nalder, ‘@ Home: Virtual Domesticity’, AusWeb96 The Second Australian WorldWideWeb Conference, (1996) ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw96/cultural/nalder/paper.htm (accessed 3 October 2004).
[15] Ibid.
[16]Sherry Turkle. 'Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: playing in the MUDs', Mind, Culture & Activity 1 (1994) (Reprinted in Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation, Timothy Druckrey (ed.). Aperture Foundation, 1996 and Culture of the Internet, Sara Kiesler (ed.). Hilldale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.) http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html (accessed 3 October 2004)
[17] Rosanne Allucquere Stone. 'Violation and virtuality: two cases of physical and psychological boundary transgression and their implications '(1993) http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~sandy/violation-and-virtuality http://sandystone.com/violation-and-virtuality (accessed 3 October 2004)
[18] Rosanne Allucquere Stone. 'What vampires know: transsubjection and transgender in cyberspace' (1993) http://sandystone.com/eyes-of-the-vampire (accessed 3 October 2004).
[19]H. Rheingold, (as qtd. in Pegrum and Frow), The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Revised ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000, esp. ch. 9 & 10, pp.255-322; these chapters are also available at: http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/9.html (15 May 2001) and http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/10.html (15 May 2001) respectively.

Wk 10 Tutorial Readings: Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace..."

2004-10-04T22:12:00.000+08:00

Julian Dibbell – “A Rape in Cyberspace; or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society.”

A Rape in Cyberspace is the account from Dibbell on an occurrence of cyber violence/rape that occurred in LambdaMOO, a virtual text based community. It dealt with the follow up consequences for the perpetrator, reactions of victims and community, and the resulting politics that were implemented afterwards. This article sheds light on the grey area of virtual experience, the psychological attachment we have with our ‘self’ online.

I found the article interesting, yet at the same time I found it exaggerated in style – using comments throughout the article such as ‘they wanted his virtual head’ sometimes made it hard to take seriously despite the fact that the writer declares it a serious issue for online communities. What I took from the highly descriptive almost screenplay-ish writing was a sense that Dibbell was trying to re create the feeling of an MUD in the article, and also that, despite how confronting virtual violence can be, that perhaps we need to lighten up in order to protect ourselves from the trauma of it. Although Mr Bungle was ‘toaded’ he came back later on, there is really little that you can do to avoid such occurrences at this time – if there is someone out there who really wants to abuse people then they will, despite the consequences. We cannot avoid the act itself. I find this interesting in that it ties in with violence and crime in real life – we walk through the world with the same problems – violence is punishable not always preventable. In this sense the LambdaMOO is displaying characteristics of real life community.

The point I identified with most was the feelings created by the abuse. I can see how the virtual self being violated can be traumatic for the real self. ‘…the combined power of anonymity and textual suggestiveness…unshackle[s] deep-seated fantasies…’ allowing people to experience feelings of passion and emotion, thus a cyber rape could bring about negative and traumatic feelings in the same way. If you have invested time and you have developed this persona that is your instrument in communicating then it is a part of yourself, a perception of self. It not only belongs to you, it represents you.

Key Quotes:

CR pg 248
‘…perhaps the body in question is not the physical one at all, but its psychic double, the bodylike self-representation was carry around in our heads…’

CR pg 248
‘…what happens inside a MUD-made world is neither exactly real nor exactly make-believe, but profoundly, compellingly, and emotionally meaningful.’

CR pg 248
‘…every set of facts in virtual reality…is shadowed by a second, complicated set: the real-life facts.’

Presentation: Turkle's 'Virtuality and its discontents'

2004-10-04T22:04:00.000+08:00

Sherry Turkle’s Virtuality and its discontents: Searching for community in cyberspace opens with the much-touted angst of modern man: the loss of social interactivity and strong local networks. Turkle suggests that online communities are an attempt to recreate this sense of belonging. She cites TV, along with mall culture and other forms of media as forces which contribute to our acceptance and preference for the artificial. This preference for the artificial over the real she calls the 'Disneyland effect'. This leads into the 'crocodile effect', where the fake is more compelling than the real. Finally, she points out that due to the compelling nature of 'artificial' experiences, we may believe that we've achieved more within it than we actually have.

I read Turkle's conclusion as an affirmation that we can have both the virtual and the real - but it's important to distinguish between the two of them, and Turkle makes it clear that the 'real' should at all times have precedence over the virtual. I felt her most emotive quote was this one on page 387:

"...is it really sensible to suggest that the way to revitalize community is to sit alone in our rooms, typing at our networked computers and filling our lives with virtual friends?"

I feel that this image unfairly panders to the geek stereotype. It is complicated by the fact that online groups and personalities do interact away from their keyboards – yesterday there was a Perth meeting of deviant artists, and there have also been RL meetings of Livejournalers, to name two instances that I know of. Other communities interact the opposite way; ie., form groups IRL then continue to communicate online.

I doubt that the majority of people who participate in online communities feel that their online interactions are an adequate substitute for RL communities.

On another note, I was amused by Tama's accusation that Turkle may not have sufficiently immersed herself into MUD culture to study it. Personally, I have roleplayed in various forms excluding MUDs since I first started using the internet in 1998. I visited the infamous Lambda MOO as research for this paper but was quickly put off by the archaic and unfamiliar interface. From experience, it certainly does take time (as in any RL society) to get the most out of an online community. However, for those of us who may not have spent their childhood lost in the ether, here are a few roleplaying links that are much easier than MUDS to lurk on:

Kip's Inn. Fairly standard fantasy chat-based RPG, with ties to the fictional world of DragonLance, part of the infamous Dungeons and Dragons line. Peak lurking times are around 9am-1pm.

HP Dungeons, a forum-based Harry Potter RPG on livejournal. Rated R, with (much) homoerotic content. One of the better Potterverses, with a number of Big Name Fans participating. I particularly like their Lupin.

RolePlayOnLine - one of the best general messageboard RPG sites, but more useful for those intending to play rather than lurk. It's another bonus that the admin lives in Perth!

Compulsive blogging... :P

2004-09-22T06:23:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone.

I thought my posting in here was getting a bit excessive, so I tried to lay off for a little while, but now I've come across some cool stuff and I can't help but share it with you! Heh.

Alright. So, first and most recently-come-across, we have the ultimate manifestation of online identity construction: the bot. See SexyGrrl16, created and controlled by Triffid_Hunter, for an example. (Bots per se aren't new to me, but this link to share with you is.) Notoriously found in chatrooms, bots are little programs designed to appear like fellow online users. Bots serve various functions; for example, to moderate real (whatever "real" means) users' behaviour in a chat room, to log and statistically analyze chat room content (example here), or to "interact" with, or at least respond to, other chatters -- this last function is usually primarily for the bot creator's amusement, and is exemplified in the case of SexyGrrl16.

And here we have a blog about female gamers, or women in gaming at least.

I thought there was something else I had stumbled across and wanted to show you but I can't find it now. Nevermind. :)

Hope we're all having a very enjoyable study break.

Ciao!

2004-09-16T01:48:00.000+08:00

Greetings, fellow cyborgs.

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this essay, which I thought would be good for us all to read.

It starts off by suggesting to the reader that all creations are laden with the values of their creator(s), and that this is not always immediately apparent to the creator(s) but becomes so when excluded populations are discovered. From here the discussion develops into one of gender (female) representation in computer games.

I particularly like the way the author discusses real examples very closely and doesn't stray into an abstract argument based on opinions and potentialities. If you ask me for any negative criticisms I have about this essay, I'll need a while to think.

If you can't be bothered reading the essay itself, I think it's worthwhile reading the comments at the bottom of the page.

Cheers.

Tutorial Blog: Warblogging as CriticalSocial Practice by Guy Reddens, Nicholas Caldwell and An Nguyen

2004-09-14T02:10:00.000+08:00

This article theorises warblogging as an emerging social practise which has evolved

from a confluence of technological innovation and socio/political crises/events .

This phenomena, they describe as having evolved since the introduction of new software

which made the process of blogging attainable to a lay user as opposed to a technologically

savvy IT professional.

This, plus the 'seismic' social impact of September 11 specifically,

conspired to inflame the profligation of blogging as an exercise in

opinion sharing providing alternative commentary.

I found the article to provide a very clear and concise picture of the topic

and that it placed warblogging into a cultural, social, political and historical context.

The article explores the contingent relationships
between warblogging and professional media,
arguing that genre may be a useful concept for understanding
how the social potentials of the Net emerge
through situated practices. [Abstract (p.68.)]

Blogging is defined thus: --

[A] journal placed on a World Wide Web site
that is maintained and updated via software that
automatically organizes, date-stamps, and archives
the content uploaded by users. (p. 68.)

Two factors which Reddens et al cite as being imperative and integral to the success of blogging are: --

the obligatory ‘chronological narrative structure’ and,
the elective ‘interconnections with other online media sources’

First generation Net theory.

Theorists cited by Reddens et al -- Lewis (2001); Negroponte (1995); and Lévy (1997).

The first decade of the Net, was attributed as having a technological determinism slant... positing that there would be ‘thoroughgoing social effects’.

Reddens et al, offer that a decade further on:-

...the rise of blogging provides a good illustrative case for an
emergent process view of new media development... ...[n]ew
online genres are liable to come about when technological
innovations dovetail with broader social, cultural and political
influences that spur certain kinds of communication. (p.76)

They remain hopeful that warblogging will retain its integral blend of the personal

pursuit of re-mediating official media reportage with alternative commentary without

losing touch with mainstream attitudes and wide-ranging social substance;

‘...contingent upon mainstream journalism and politics...’, and be instrumental in

the regeneration of ‘...civil society and journalistic practice.’(p.77)

Matthew Soar's 'The First Things First Manifesto and the politics of culture jamming'

2004-09-12T19:42:00.000+08:00

Main points of Soar’s article
1. Commercialism and advertising have taken graphic design to a slave/subordinate status level. The oppression of graphic design by advertising.

2. This oppression has effected the compromising or loss of values and purposes in the graphic design industry. Graphic design being used to promote consumer-capitalism, a means/tool used to push the “eyeballs” (audience) (p. 224 of reader, 577 of article) into buying non-essential products: social (ir)responsibility.

3. Graphic designers are largely unhappy with this social function; they do not identify with persuading people into consumerism (p. 224 of reader, 577 of article) – such persuasion is referred to as “sinning” (p. 223 of reader, 576 of article and 226 of reader, 579 of article). Designers are calling for a renewal of design’s values – a reintroduction of the First Things First Manifesto, seeking an ethical revolution.

4. Somewhere in the middle of the discussion Soar downplays the enemy status of advertising by voicing its side of the story: he interviews Richard Wilde, an “ad man” who mentions that advertising pays for many public service announcements (p. 226 of reader, 579 of article). Soar also points out that advertising is powered by societal values to begin with, and this is a running theme throughout the article. It is touched on that “Helfand thought that ‘intrinsically there’s nothing wrong with advertising’ – although she did feel that ‘marketing might be [the enemy]’.” e.g. “market research, focus groups and brand-building.” (p. 227 of reader, 580 of article). Soar also suggests that while graphic designers are uneasy about the ethics of their commercial work, this commercial work does provide for non-commercial and personal/expressive work.

5. This last point turns around into graphic designers having some degree of power in influencing/changing these societal values that can be used to 'clean out the cycle' and allow for graphic design to be put to 'better' use, e.g. “‘Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resource of design’.” (p. 219 of reader, 572 of article). Ideal instances of where this could take place are nominated in the Manifesto, "Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects" (p. 239 of reader, 592 of article).

6. Education as an arena for manifestation/experimentation of the implications of the Manifesto (p. 229 of reader, 582 of article).

What was missing from Soar’s article
1. More voices from advertising’s side of the argument. Many “ad men” are also all about community benefits, charitable causes, the greater good, and so on; although, I suppose they’re not of the commercial variety, which is Soar’s and the Manifesto’s/designers’ target.

2. The choice designers have re: who they work for. Statistics perhaps. How and why has design gained this alleged synonymity with advertising? It takes two to tango. e.g. the Manifesto (p. 239 of reader, 592 of article) reads, “Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many new graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do.” – how did it come to be this way?

3. Not only do “ad men” provide charitable ads but also, for example, Ronald McDonald House, Channel 9 Appealathon, Channel 7 Telethon, etc. Commercial advertising can be promoting charities too. Soar does not address this.

Tutorial questions from unit guide (answered with reference to Soar's article)
Is there space to resist the top-down domination of cultural capital?
Not really, but graphic designers will make room to do so.

If people are going to be reduced, in part, to a logo, they should have some agency in (re)designing those images.
Yes – this is implicit in designers’ attempts to renew standards: the Manifesto is their logo.

Does culture jamming succeed as a voice/platform of resistance?
Yes. e.g. “When power and control are foremost, moral purpose is reduced to whatever is popular . . . rather than to what is right.” (p. 219 in reader/572 in article) – culture jamming is aimed at realigning graphic design/advertising with what is right rather than (and so resisting against) what is popular. (Relates to Socratic philosophy.) Also, “graphic design ‘is a true guerilla art form’” (p. 227 of reader, 580 of article).

What does the controversy around the revival of the First Things First Manifesto say about the advertising and graphic design industry?
Industry or industries? This revival indicates that there are different and conflicting ideologies/sets of values in play. The advertising industry is allegedly socially irresponsible (although perhaps the finger should be pointed at marketing, not advertising per se).

Is there a relationship between digital activism such as culture jamming and face to face activism such as crowds protesting?
Naturally. The latter can be thought of as inspiring the former: face to face activism includes writing, signing and reviving the manifesto; digital activism includes the Adbusters’ 46ft billboard, insistence on putting graphic design to non-commercial use. Also “the promotion of activities such as Buy Nothing Day and TV TurnOff Week” (p. 219 of reader, 572 of article) .

Does the fact that culture jamming relies on the news media as a source mean that these forms will always be reactionary, never proactive?
That’s a chicken/egg question: Which came first? They’re both reactionary – to each other.

Other key quotes:
“Personal and non-commercial projects, often indirectly funded by income from business clients, appear to provide a more reliable means to creative fulfillment.” (p. 218 of reader, 571 of article)

“the manifesto proper and Adbusters’ framing of both First Things First and culture jamming . . . identify designers in particular as potent agents of positive social change.” (p. 219 of reader, 572 of article)

“‘[graphic design] is not an industry in which you need to purify the practice, but there might be some basic understandings, some general context in which we can define the values we bring to our work’.” (p. 222 of reader, 575 of article)

“‘there is an area of ambiguity about what is harmful, what is not, and so on’.” (p. 223 of reader, 576 of article)

“Bierut praised Adbusters in particular for ‘see[ing] design as an active tool in creating social change’.” (p. 224 of reader, 577 of article)

“it is through this kind of realization [of their role as mediators] that designers can come to a more grounded epiphany about the potential harm – or good – they can effect through their work practices.” (p. 225 of reader, 578 of article)

“[Kevin Lyons’] work is ‘informed by culture and politics’.” (p. 227 of reader, 580 of article)

“if graphics, ads and commercials are often so abundant in ideological cant, why not pay attention to the activities and beliefs of the highly skilled group that created them – the cultural intermediaries – with the ultimate aim of training and using such talent more responsibly . . . ?” (p. 233 of reader, 586 of article)

“cultural economy . . . holds the premise of opening up a critical space in which to further develop our understanding of the intermediaries and, by extension, contemporary culture.” (p. 233 of reader, 586 of article)

Related links:
1. Adbusters, http://adbusters.org/home/

2. Culture Jamming, http://www.levity.com/markdery/culturjam.html

The internet as a means for exploring the facets of humanity

2004-09-07T19:02:00.000+08:00

Hey everybody.

I'm sorry if I didn't make much sense when I talked about "the documentary on SBS some time in the last week" in our tute today. I looked it up and found that the doco was broadcast at 10pm on Friday night. I haven't yet found an especially informative webpage about it to share with you, but I did find this short blurb about it:

10:00 pm DOCUMENTARY - THE CLITORIS - FORBIDDEN PLEASURE
Topics about female sexuality are growing in popularity. Magazines and talk shows all discuss it. Yet a fair percentage of women are said to suffer from female sexual dysfunction. While male sexual problems have traditionally received the most publicity, only recently has research begun into the problems that plague female sexuality. This film looks at the medical, cultural, psychological and relational reasons for women's dysfunction and explores female arousal and its anatomical basis. (From France, English subtitles) MA (S,N,A,) (Rpt)

The doco addressed the issue of sexuality, women's sexuality in particular, and argued that, in this day and age, there's not much point in trying to suppress or deny women's sexuality, as all humans are sexual creatures (although this conflicts with another doco aired on ABC that proposed some people's brains are more wired for religion than sex, but that's a whole other kettle of fish -- I wish I could find a more informative page than this). Women's sexuality, like so many other facets of humanity, does exist, and suppressing or denying that isn't doing us any favours.

Point being, as far as ethics on the internet are concerned, perhaps the internet is an ideal medium for exploring, revisiting, and expanding our ideas, including those ideas that aren't traditionally socially acceptable. For me, the real controversy lies not in the content of online material, but in the ramifications this content may have offline, and this raises the question of morality. For example, graphic images of a brutal murder online may be perfectly ethical, particularly if these images are completely synthesised; what is non-ethical, however (in my mind, at least) is a person's enactment of the murder scenario in the physical world.

This is what I was getting at when I said that the ethical soundness of the effects of online material come down to individuals' morality -- it's a matter of what the individual chooses to do with the ideas presented to them. Personally, I think it's important to not suppress or deny any facet of our humanity; to acknowledge, accept and deal with every facet in whichever way we see moral, and I think the internet is a suitable medium to explore these facets (as long as otherwise 'unethical' things do not find themselves in the physical world).

I hope this makes a bit more sense than my incoherent babble in the tute.

Peace out.

The Ethics of Porn on the Net

2004-09-07T09:50:00.000+08:00

The Ethics of Porn on the Net
Kath Albury

Albury examines traditional pornography and the moral viewpoints of religious, Marxist and feminist groups. She argues that although pornographic sex may be immoral, it is not without ethics. She highlights the differences between commercial and non-commercial pornography and asks the reader to consider internet porn as offering something different to commercial porn, both for the producer and the consumer. It is important that our definitions not be restricted to a binary of good vs. bad, but rather to be thought of in a way similar to Poster’s notion of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Virtual.’ The internet variety of porn sees no money exchanged, it can actually give women greater access to sexual liberation and a diverse range of tastes are provided for; or at least have the possibility of being provided for.

Albury also looks at the fact that “for some ‘ethics’ and ‘morals’ are interchangeable”. I think that the notion of morals is too subjective and can vary greatly from one individual to another especially due to religious or cultural beliefs. Even within the porn community… For example if you look in the stories and articles section of www.hairtostay.com you will find the opinion…“Well, to me (and many others), any man that likes shaved women, ONLY shaved women, is a pedophile. They like that little girl look. Deep in their psyche something calls to them to like that clean-shaven, pre-teen look. Yech!” Ethics however is different because it is a code of conduct. Eg it is wrong to webcast a video of someone if that person is unaware they are being filmed however it is ok to webcast a video made by someone knowingly for use in the internet porn community. Websites such as www.watchersweb.com will actually remove pictures from their site if they are found to be fake.

Key quotes;

“In summary, pornography is widely considered to be immoral primarily because it:• makes something ‘public’ that should be private;• encourages people to exchange sex for money;• exploits women by representing them as being sexually active and available; xand• represents a limited range of body types as sexually appealing.” (202)

“…the internet has not simply brought porn into the home, but has in fact facilitated a kind of ‘domestication’ of pornography, by allowing porn fans to become amateur pornographers in their own bedrooms.” (198)

Diary of a Webdiarist - Margo Kingston

2004-09-07T05:34:00.000+08:00

In a refreshingly personal piece, Kingston talks about the ethics, politics and decisions that frame her webdiary. In spaces such as this, the internet serves as an effective medium for the reader and the mass media to communicate. It is an open space with "no censorship, no boundaries" where people can openly air their views and comment on other people's opinions. Yet, as raised by the article, several issues come into consideration precisely because of the anonymity, boundary-free zones of internet and the ethics involved in publishing it into existence.

Being used to internet chatting software, i must admit that i found no problem with anonymity and using a nickname for all posting purposes. It was my 'online identity' However, in the case of more serious discussions, that may pose a problem. Nobody can take an individual with a nickname such as 'rainman' seriously. Yet, as Kingston brings to our attention, "journalists quote anonymous sources all the time". Whether it is to protect the identity of the individual or to warp our perception of events, the media makes the executive decision on the editorial of the article. It is definitely not ethical to present an article whose original meaning is different from the old, but does it cross the boundary when the sources contributing to the article are anonymous? In the article, it is mentioned that "Knowing how to use power responsibly is the essence of ethics" I thought that it was probably the most well written line in the whole article. The editor has a responsibility to present at least an unbiased factual account of events for the reader to make up his mind, not make up the mind of the reader for him. Web-ethics therefore actually refers to the professional ethics of the editor/ moderator. A slight transgression of this can be found in which the moderators of the site allows similar discussions on the leaders and politics of Australia with people using pseudonyms.(kingston,166) With this kind of anonymity, i would think that the public would be more inclined to 'let loose' with their posting.(Kingston,162)

Another aspect of the internet as a bridging medium is the 'doorless' feature where everything is accessible to anyone with the correct URL, and anyone can do and say anything they want. And the best part is that the individual can choose to metaphorically run back into his home and slam the door whenever he want by disconnecting from the internet and never responding to the same nickname again. Ethics here therefore not only lie on the onus of the moderator, but it takes two to clap. As Kingston repeatedly mentions, trust is feature of her website. Ethics is about fair play. Can the media then be considered ethical on that grounds considering that they shy away from making a channel of communication between the reader and themselves, which leaves the reader feeling powerless?(kingston,163)Do they have something to hide? Kingston further enforces the notion of a borderless community when she says that she says that she is not worried about the requirement of the code of ethics on the offensive material as "it is a deliberate choice [for the user] to log on". The user can choose not to log on, and when he/she does, that choice becomes their responsibility.

Kingston appears to have done a fairly good job with the ethical issue of keeping a webdiary. Coupled with David Davis, she has not only drafted a list of obligations to her readers, but also a list of ethics that she expects her readers to follow. This is more than the average journalist's effort to engage in fair play.

Technology + politics = blog

2004-09-07T01:37:00.000+08:00

Hey all.

Some of us may or may not be interested in reading this "Cyborg democracy" blog. I found this entry particularly interesting. It introduced me to transhumanism, and if you're like me and aren't really aware of what that daunting word means, and would like to find out, you can read about it here.

Have a good one.

The Good, the Bad and the Virtual

2004-09-06T23:45:00.000+08:00

Although Poster’s article "The good, the bad and the virtual" was not all that long I thought it raised a number of important issues about ethics in the digital age.

Of these, I would like to explore;

1. The extent to which ethical certainties, historically constructed in relation to oral and print cultures, are applicable to the new medium of the Internet

2.The ways in which new media complicates the contemporary ethical environment as a result of its unique content, censorship and anonymity

Poster draws upon Nietzsche’s genealogy of moral systems to suggest that ethics are historically and socio-culturally defined, and, as such, that the ethical principals established in pre-modern oral and modern print cultures are (at best) only partially applicable to contemporary information societies. For example, as highlighted by laws regarding online child pornography (where one is allowed to possess digitized erotic photographs of children online but not analogue photographs), online experiences alter the context of human experience and disrupt “ethical certainties”. Different laws apply to the virtual realm because of the different kinds of interactions we engage in though the computer interface and the conventional understanding of online and offline identities as separate and distinct (one which is increasingly being challenged by internet theorists).

To expand upon this, Poster suggests that the new media complicates the contemporary ethical environment, primarily as a result of its unique content, censorship and anonymity. For example, in terms of content, he suggests that the ease with which we are able to present and distribute disturbing materials on the web requires “a new level of moral restraint” on behalf of the individual. Furthermore, in terms of anonymity, it requires a deeper moral obligation to “act so that you will continue to maintain the identities you have constructed in relations with others” (Poster p. 533). And finally, in terms of censorship, the contradictory arguments that information is “morally good” and that as the quantity of information increases our quality of life decreases (Baudrillard’s theory), illustrates that as a communication medium, the internet does not fit within the neat binary of “good” and “bad”.

Thus, to quote Poster, as the familiar boundaries between relations among people and the media are…beginning to crumble”(p.536), the internet disrupts older ethical assumptions, shuffles and remixes the basic elements of cultural coherence and most importantly reterritorializes the ethical and the political.

And so, to conclude, Poster argues that the internet has the power to provide us with the estrangement, disorientation and critical uncertainty Nietzche outlines as the basis of cultural questioning. It performs the re-organization of the ethical subject; bringing chaos (self-reflection, self-examination and self-rejection) to the souls of those that go online. As a result, “ethics in virtual space might suggest multiple relational patterns that at once invoke issues of power, the good, and the beautiful” (Poster, p.542)

Although I tend to agree with Poster’s arguments (as outlined above), I am somewhat sceptical about the extent to which the Internet can be said to “re-shuffle” and “deterritorialize” culture. In my experience of the internet, people who share similar interests and commonalities, and are therefore, generally speaking, also from similar cultural backgrounds, tend to group together and interact online - creating enclaves of like minded people. Furthermore, if I have understood him correctly, he seemed to place a lot of emphasis on the individual to behave in a morally responsible fashion online, suggesting that the teaching of “Netiquette” had to be abandoned with the rapid uptake of the net in the 1990’s. Perhaps, however, the ideas inherent in netiquette were abandoned all too quickly. For example, as Pamela Mendels article suggests, maybe online ethics could and should be taught in classrooms.

However, on the whole I tend to agree with Poster’s stance. As he states in an interview:

“…in so many ways, (the internet) upsets the normative configuration of modern institutions, practices and cultures that it must be regarded as providing an opening, a space of transformation, without in any sense “guaranteeing” the arrival of utopia or even serious improvement upon the current order…” (p.5).

Annotated Webliography

2004-09-06T11:41:00.000+08:00

Donna Haraway argues that ‘the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion’. Critically assess this assertion in terms of contemporary digital culture.

Donna Haraway’s suggestion raises many questions about traditional boundaries that have existed in society. After re-reading her Cyborg Manifesto I decided to explore the ideas of boundaries, fiction and reality that are so prevalent in Haraway’s article and use my results to answer two main questions: “What purpose did the traditional social boundaries serve?” and “What are the social consequences of a breakdown in these boundaries as proposed by Haraway?” Since the concept of a Cyborg is loaded with these questions and is the main subject of Haraway’s article, I performed a Google search for the related terms “Cyborg Haraway boundaries”. This led me to thousands of results, of which I concentrated on the first fifty results and found four which help place Haraway’s work on Cyborgs into the context of several different social boundaries.
Laura Jacobs’s article on Science Fiction and ‘artificial persons’[1] proved to be a good introduction to the ideas of social boundaries and how they have historically been created. In particular she showed the creation of Cyborgs and the blurring of boundaries in science fiction to be directly related to three main processes; time, Psychology and religion. The last process of religion led me to perform another Google search for the related terms, “Cyborg religion boundary”. This produced over six hundred results of which I chose one as a further source. Jacobs also is however rather brief and all-encompassing with her writing, though she also provided another useful link to a Scientific American website[2] which I subsequently made use of.
Continuing my research into the impact of Haraway’s claims on religious boundaries, Brenda E. Brasher’s comprehensive article[3] addresses the difficulties that are produced in a digital culture when talking about the world in a Judeo-Christian tradition of agrarian tales and morals. The boundaries of right and wrong are seemingly completely confused by the meshing of body and machine in the Cyborg age, especially because so much of Christianity is based on the flesh and body of the living Lord. Brasher outlines the fear that can be associated with such a radical re-conception of our bodies as Cyborgs. This was also a feature of the first article by Jacobs and the idea that we are out of control of the digital culture on the planet is recurring through much science fiction. However both Haraway and Brasher offer hope for us Cyborgs and it is this concept of hope that I subsequently started to explore with relation to my further chosen articles.
Directly related to the previous religious article, I saw Jeffrey Cook’s article[4] on the history of the search for meaning of the Brain, Mind and Body to highlight the historical context of all our worries and hopes with regards to scientific progress. Haraway herself wrote her article in 1983 and as such was part of the Cold War disillusionment with scientific “progress” that we are probably still part of. The pictures of old technologies blended with new digital age technology that accompany the article, as well as Cook’s stressing of the merging of science and art for real progress shows us how many seemingly unbreakable boundaries eventually do get broken. Cook feels that this boundary breaking needn’t be a terrible nightmare situation as Jacobs depicted in her analysis of the situation. Instead it seems to raise many more questions which we must think about before answering.
So far the articles I have used have tended to show the boundaries Haraway talks of as once having existed and in recent times having been broken. My next three articles will rather show the somewhat illusionary nature of these boundaries, and confirm Haraway’s suggestion that they did not exist at all in the first place except as control mechanisms in the human psyche.
A prime example of Science Fiction and Social Reality being one and the same thing is the growth of human organs as depicted in Christine Soares’ article.[5] Within the next ten to twenty years scientists feel they will be able to produce human organs for transplantation. This claim however works against the reported previous claim of six years ago by the same scientist that organ development would be available in the next ten years (four years from now). This trouble of prediction combined with the assuredness of the scientist in question that the feat is really possible acts as a good example of the fiction versus reality conflict that Haraway I feel was alluding to with her provocative remark. This article by Soares also included an insert on a typical science fiction nightmare situation that may occur if scientists were to blindly continue with xenotransplantation with pig cells and human stem cells. The hybrid results as well as the contractible diseases from species to species sound like a plot straight from a science fiction novel, yet both possibilities are grounded in real research.
The last two articles I wish to feature answer the question of the illusion of a boundary between science fiction and social reality in terms of metanarratives. William Grassie’s article[6] places Haraway’s claims at the most recent end of a line of feminist writings. Starting with ‘feminist empiricism’, Grassie then movies on to ‘feminist standpoint epistemology’ and finishes with ‘feminist postmodernism’ in his placing of Haraway in the history of feminist thought. His is a long and comprehensive look at feminist theories of science and religion over the years with a strong emphasis on, and constant return to, Haraway and with a moral message at the end. From this article it would seem that the main significance that we should take from Haraway’s article is a warning for the future. The warning essentially gives us two options for the future with regards to Science fiction and future possibilities: Utopia or Apocalypse.
With this in mind my last chosen article[7] attempts to take Haraway’s radical writing and make it more practical and applicable in the form of another manifesto, (Just as Haraway saw the Communist Manifesto as being out of date, so to does Cook see Haraway’s as needing improvement). Just as the ideas involved in many science fiction stories is still out of the question in our modern society, so to be Haraway’s radical thoughts. Therefore I feel that if the concept of science fiction essentially being or becoming reality was made more understandable, as I believe it is in Cook’s article, pieces such as Haraway’s will speak louder and be easier to grasp in the future, as will so many other radical concepts that are being developed today.

[1] Laura Jacobs. ‘Concluding Conclusions’ (Date?) http://pages.slc.edu/~lajacobs/Conclusions.htm (Accessed September 1st 2004)
[2] By Christine Soares, ‘Body Building, Growing replacement organs is still a long way off’, (May 10th, 2004) http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000424BA-9B29-1084-983483414B7F0000&ref=sciam&chanID=sa006 (Accessed September 1st, 2004)

[3] Brenda E. Brasher, ‘The Cyborg: Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture’(1996) http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=404 (Accessed September 1st 2004)
[4] Jeffrey Cook, ‘Reading the Machine, Brain, Mind and Body - a Unity of Multiplicities’, (July 1998) http://www.culture.com.au/brain_proj/Stephen%20Jones/R%20Machine_body.html (Accessed September 1st 2004)
[5] Christine Soares, ‘Body Building, Growing replacement organs is still a long way off’, (May 10th, 2004) http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000424BA-9B29-1084-983483414B7F0000&ref=sciam&chanID=sa006 (Accessed September 1st, 2004)
[6] William Grassie, ‘Cyborgs, Trickster, and Hermes: Donna Haraway's Metatheory of Science and Religion’, Zygon (June 1996) http://www.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Cyborgs.html (Accessed 1st September 2004)
[7] Jeffrey Cook, ‘The Symborg Manifesto’ (Date?) http://www.anat.org.au/pages/archived/1998/codered/cook.html (Accessed September 2nd 2004)

Webliography Responses

2004-09-06T08:42:00.000+08:00

For guidelines on making your Responses to your peer's Critical Annotated Webliographies, please see details here.

Webliography (leisel)

2004-09-06T04:43:00.000+08:00

Critically discuss the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

The physical markers of identity have always functioned within social groups to signify individual cultural subjectivity. The primary identity markers of race, gender, age, and even health and wealth are communicated through an individual’s physical reality, and are the key tools by which a society may surveil and relegate it’s members according to it’s cultural epistemologies. Given that technological developments of global communication systems now allow people to engage with one another without disclosing a single physical characteristic, it is fascinating to consider how existing social orders (and the role of individual subjectivities within them) will be perpetuated without its conventional tools of regulation.
Clearly notions of identity can be interrogated in a way like never before, as the physical borders of identity become blurred and even invisible. Given this fact a general essay on the constructions of identity would be mind boggling huge, and I would be nervous about appropriating the experience of any one of a number of subjective identities in the attempt to represent this phenomenon. Resultantly, my focus proposition for this essay would be on the representation of the gendered identity in cyberspace (i.e. the Internet) and whether it can be corporeally liberated. I began with a google search on the terms gender + identity + cyberspace + body, scanned the first few pages of results and then followed the network of links to new resources.

McAdams offered an accessible starting point, which was useful in raising specific questions relating to online gender representation and interpretation and what the absence of body does to such notions. In representing the notion of the gendered mind/body split through a 1st person POV – the inference is that McAdams does not separate her female mind from her female body. Despite this cyberspace is referred to as ‘there’, while her body is ‘here’, bringing in ideas about cyborgs, and a collective conscious which I think offers some interesting exploration for my essay – if our minds combine in cyberspace, separate to our bodies, are ideas of gender still useful? Does it in fact invent a new category as defined by Haraway’s manifesto? McAdams suggests while changing or concealing one’s gendered identity in cyberspace is easily achieved compared to RL - leaving one’s gender behind is an impossibility as interpretations of online engagements are always informed by powerful cultural notions of gendered identities.

Gerrard follows McAdam’s assertion that although the online self has no body, others will imagine one. Her discussion is useful in exploring the connection of the gendered body to representations of online identity. Gerrard proposes that Internet users do not manipulate cyberspace engagements in order to reconstruct their gendered identities, but instead, use the space as a dimension in which to expand their existing identities. Her view is that as women have always been represented by their physicality, and despite the fact that the Internet offers an escape from this scrutiny, women still bring their physical images to cyberspace as a result of unshakable patterns of self definition (and for men the familiar methods by which to interpret women). Even the act of not promoting her corporeal reality, engages with a women’s understanding of how she is physically evaluated, and therefore does confines her within the borders of gendered identity. Interesting idea that as technology improves and more imagery is exported in cyberspace, we are brought back to representations of the physical body.

Kibby’s research reinforces these notions by drawing attention to the fact that many women use an image of their “sexualised” body as the primary denotation of their identity on their web pages – despite the ability to avoid this online. Kibby’s main point is that the virtual context defines to what degree a constructed identity is determined by the gendered body. Kibby’s research suggests that women’s identities online are still closely tied to notions of the gendered body –according to whore/virtuous (domestically or professionally) binary constructions, (an affront to Haraway’s notions that western civilisation’s traditional dualities are irrelevant to the cyborg’s identity?). Sexuality (a physical occupation?) is not easily separated from identity for women online. Kibby explores the idea that since language is used to construct identity on the Internet, and language is the product of cultural context, RL identities are reproduced online; bringing an ‘othering’ of marginalised ‘voices’, which the female communication, despite having broken free of the body, still retains.

While Danet provides an alternative to notions that socially rooted identities are dragged into cyberspace, the piece was written in 1996, and as such betrays the hopes for a cyber utopia liberated from traditional prescriptions of subjectivity. It is useful though, as an historical piece with which to contrast some later writings that clearly demonstrate a frustration with the Internet’s inability to shake free of conventional constructions. Her initial discussion about the RL forces that construct social expectations of the ‘natural’ embodiment of gendered identity informs our reception of her subsequent exploration of gendered roles in cyberspace. That is, that we leave our bodies behind as we enter cyberspace, entering a new ‘frontier’ (dear me!), she backs up her claims with discussions about the assumed identities of RL male and female users of MUD’s (Multi User Domains) and the flexibility that these roles allows. A bit dated, but provides an alternative launch.

Lawley engages less in specific discussion about how a corporeal cognisance is (or is not) incorporated into online gender awareness, than with how the RL boundaries denoting the categories of male and female themselves are established (as well as some exploration of historical notions about the marginalised role of women within technological spheres – i.e. as user or object) and how they might differ in cyber domains. Lawley’s reading, and the inferred possibilities, of the female subjectivity in cyberspace as an identity essentially with nothing less to lose – i.e. as possessing a RL body that offers no true protection from the advances of aggressive masculine hegemony – is insightful. After all the removal of the physical boundaries that denote power in RL are only threatening to those who hold it, My argument would take Lawley’s cue to interrogate why then women perpetuate the hegemony in the cyber sphere through sexualised self representations as in Kibby’s work.

Boudourides and Drakou with a backward glance again assert that despite the early hopes, the body continues to be a “defining factor of social systems of difference”. While there continues to be discussion of mind/body dichotomies, the physical body is still as much a part of the cyberspace experience as in any other aspect of RL. Even the act of gender masking reinforces and reproduces gender distinctions (Oldenziel, quoted in Boudourides and Drakou, 8) largely due to the proportionally higher number of men appropriating and promoting feminine gender stereotypes, and that while women may pose as men it is to be taken seriously for their own words and ideas, and to be free from harassment. Is this an act of gender liberation or survival? An interesting idea for exploration in the essay is that while the online self might be interpreted as a different gender to the physical reality – it is still be ascribed a gendered physicality, and if (as Gerrard and McAdams suggest) all online users bring their cultural epistemologies to cyberspace, then where is the true liberation from the repression of the patriarchal hegemony for any gender? The more compelling readings suggest that women (and therefore men in their reading of women) are reluctant to abandon the body as a marker of their identity. The portrayal of gendered identity remains tightly bound with embodied experiences and knowledge (Kibby, 5-6). After all, as Kibby states “the embodied self at the computer creates the electronic persona”.

Bibliography

Boudourides Moses A. & Evangelia Drakou. “Gender @ Cyberspace” Dept. of Mathematics, Dept. of Communication & Mass Media, University of Patras: (September, 2000).
http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/gender@cyberspace.html (accessed 28/08/04).

Danet, Brenda. “Text as Mask: Gender and Identity on the Internet” Dept. of Communication & Journalism, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem: (February, 1996). http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/mask.html (accessed 01/09/04).

Gerrard, Lisa. “Thoughts on Computers, Gender and the Body Electric” CoverWeb 2.2. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.2/coverweb/invited/lg.html (accessed 29/08/04).

Haraway, Donna. The Haraway Reader. NY & London: Routledge, 2004.

Kibby, Marj. “Babes on the Web: Sex, Identity and the Home Page.” Media International Australia 84 (May, 1997), pp. 39-45. http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/babes.html (accessed 01/09/04).

Lawley, Elizabeth Lane. “Computers and the Communication of Gender” (April, 1993) http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 01/09/04).

McAdams, Mindy. “Gender Without Bodies” CMC Magazine (March 1, 1996) http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1996/mar/mcadams.html (accessed 28/08/04).

Annotated Webliography (Anli)

2004-09-05T22:55:00.000+08:00

W/C = 1060

Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

A psycho-social interpretation of construction of identity describes it as a process that occurs continuously throughout the lifespan, involving a person's sense of self and the categories they may affiliate themselves with such as gender, ethnicity and sexual preference [1]. With this in mind, I wanted to examine how these attributes of identity formation were constructed in online settings as opposed to offline. Although 'communication technologies' could refer to technologies such as the telephone and telegram, I chose to focus on the various means of Internet-mediated communication, specifically home pages, chat-rooms and online gaming. Initially I attempted many Google searches, using key words such as "online identity", "gender", "race", sometimes limiting the searches to educational (.edu) sites and so forth, with limited success. I found the links pages of Frank Schaap [2]. and Jae-Hyun Lee [3]. to be particularly useful, albeit a little out of date.

[1] John W. Santrock. Life-span development, 7th ed, Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 1999. [back]
[2] Frank Schaap. 'Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources', (2003) http://fragment.nl (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]
[3] Jae-Hyun Lee. 'Internet, Cyberspace and Social Theory: Virtual Identity', (2002) http://www.internetstudies.pe.kr/VIdentity.html (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]

In my first source, Sherry Turkle discusses self knowledge and identity, and cites examples where people have used computer mediated communication in order to learn about themselves and to experiment with alternate identities [4]. She claims that the self is multiplied through interaction in games such as MUDs (Multi User Domains) where a person may create several very different characters. I found it useful that she also describes the negative impact that a divergence in online and offline identity can have on a person's well-being. She uses many different examples, featuring different 'types' of people and the various identities they construct, which is interesting but I find that it doesn't give the article a sense of cohesion.

[4] Sherry Turkle. 'Who Am We?', Wired Magazine, 4.1, (Jan 1996) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle_pr.html (accessed 29 August 2004). [back]

Kathryn Wright also explores the setting of online gaming in my second source [5]. Specifically, she addresses issues of gender by conducting a survey that asked for input from males who chose to play female characters in games both online and offline. The survey generated a small sample (64 respondents), and the nature and size of the response poses problems for the generality of the data, as Wright (a psychologist) also notes. Although Wright did advertise the survey on other gaming sites, I found it curious that the article was written for and published on a web site for women gamers. As some of the respondents were teased for submitting the survey (on top of playing female characters in the first place,) perhaps locating the article on a women-friendly site negated some hostility. However, Wright does not speculate on the effect this may have on her research.

[5] Kathryn Wright. 'Gender Bending in Games: Parts I and II', (2001)
http://www.womengamers.com/articles/gender.html and http://www.womengamers.com/articles/gender2.htm (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]

My third source focuses on the identity that is created in a chat-room setting. Paul ten Have [6] explains how the fleeting encounters in a chat-room lead people to use shortcuts such as a/s/l (age/sex/location) to reduce identity to a few categories. I never realised before how many components of identity such as gender, race, age and sexuality can be visible in a username; then again I don't visit (or wouldn't admit to visiting) rooms where YOUNG_GAY_BOY is a common username. Ten Have spends a fair amount of text detailing the schematics of a chat-room, which I personally found tedious but which could be very helpful to someone unfamiliar with a standard chat layout.

[6] Paul ten Have. " 'Hi, a/s/l Please?' : Ways of Finding Chat Partners", (July 2000) http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/Have2000/asl-mc.htm (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]

Contrasting with the chat-room setting, Daniel Chandler's examination of personal home pages in my fourth source [7] sees the construction of identity as a more solitary pursuit where one can clarify their own thoughts and emotions. It is an opportunity to show only the best side of yourself, but Chandler also notes that letters and other traditional text-based communications also have this effect, which I think is important to remember. However, he states that people tend to reveal more on web pages and cross the boundary between personal/public because with online publishing it is easy to alter anything you've written. I liked how Chandler is careful not to over-generalise. Although the manipulation and subtle presentation of one's identity can be useful for certain minorities (eg. gay men), he notes that this is not true for all minorities -- and certainly not the economically underprivileged.

[7] Daniel Chandler. 'Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web', (1998) http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]

Paul Baker, in my fifth source describes how an Internet identity can be partially constructed and maintained by a collaboration of individuals [8]. His example is a series of communications over several months where a person nicknamed "Macho Joe" antagonised a Usenet group about the portrayal of homosexual characters in the media. The construction of "Macho Joe" as a conservative, uneducated chauvinist was embellished by his detractors, even when the 'real' Joe was adopting this stereotypical identity only as a joke. Baker's description and analysis of the event is compelling, particularly near the end of the saga where Macho Joe's other identity was revealed to be queer and previous attackers of Macho Joe now turned on the person who unmasked him, stating that this violated issues of privacy.

[8] Paul Baker. 'Moral Panic and Alternative Identity Construction in Usenet', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7.1, (October 2001) http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol7/issue1/baker.html (accessed 31 August 2004). [back]

In my sixth source, Mark Warschauer details how a minority ethnic community can utilise the Internet to increase awareness of a culture and identity, and to keep an endangered language alive [9]. Although the native Hawaiian group he studies successfully challenges the English hegemony of the web, he also notes that many minority groups may be unable or unwilling to use the Internet in a similar manner. I found it useful to consider the problems of identity that hapa or mixed race people can face when trying to 'pass' in person, and how these differences can be minimised online where one is free to choose to emphasise parts of their ethnicity that may not be visible offline. I feel that Warschauer may have chosen to focus more on the positive potential for racial/cultural/linguistic diversity that the Internet can offer, rather than the negatives.

[9] Mark Warschauer. 'Language, Identity, and the Internet', (1999) http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/lang.html (accessed 31 August 2004). Later published in Race in Cyberspace, Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura and Gilbert B. Rodman, (eds.), New York: Routledge, 2000. [back]

These sources show that constructions of identity online vary with the context of their development, like offline identities. Whilst one may have multiple, experimental identities in the context of a MUD or game, in a chat-room one's identity is prescriptive and stereotypical. However, as identity development is always mediated by others, changes in the way we communicate and access information has also changed the way we construct our identity. The medium of the Internet allows greater opportunity for users to create their own identity outside of their visible gender or ethnicity. This freedom is not distributed equally, however, as members of underprivileged ethnic and economic groups are still restricted by their access to information and communication technologies, and thus to extended ways of constructing identity.

Did anyone feel like the fact that this assignment was going to be blogged changed the way they wrote or approached it? I felt nervous because my peers are going to expose all the fallacies of my writing, but I don't think it changed my actual submission.

References

Baker, Paul. 'Moral Panic and Alternative Identity Construction in Usenet', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7.1, (October 2001) http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol7/issue1/baker.html (accessed 31 August 2004).

Chandler, Daniel. 'Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web' (1998) http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html (accessed 31 August 2004).

Lee, Jae-Hyun. 'Internet, Cyberspace and Social Theory: Virtual Identity', (2002) http://www.internetstudies.pe.kr/VIdentity.html (accessed 31 August 2004).

Santrock, John W. Life-span development, 7th ed, Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 1999.

Schaap, Frank. 'Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources', (2003) http://fragment.nl (accessed 31 August 2004).

Ten Have, Paul. ' "Hi, a/s/l Please?": Ways of Finding Chat Partners', (July 2000) http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/Have2000/asl-mc.htm (accessed 31 August 2004).

Turkle, Sherry. 'Who Am We?', Wired Magazine, 4.1, (Jan 1996) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle_pr.html (accessed 29 August 2004).

Warschauer, Mark. 'Language, Identity, and the Internet', (1999) http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/lang.html (accessed 31 August 2004). Later published in Race in Cyberspace, Beth E. Kolko, Lisa Nakamura and Gilbert B. Rodman, (eds.), New York: Routledge, 2000.

Wright, Kathryn. 'Gender Bending in Games: Parts I and II', (2001)
http://www.womengamers.com/articles/gender.html and http://www.womengamers.com/articles/gender2.htm (accessed 31 August 2004).

webliography

2004-09-05T21:48:00.000+08:00

Question 4: "From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, technological 'progress' has always forced society to re-evaluate the meaning of 'life'." Discuss critically.

Technological advances over time raise important questions about life and its meaning. To formulate some ideas on what the meaning of life in relation to technological advances, I began by reading the Catherine Walby’s articles (1, 2). To analyse the ideas of the meaning of life in relation to technology, I searched Google with the key terms ‘Frankenstein + meaning of life’ and ‘Visible Human Project + meaning of life’. These searches produced many results, not many sites were helpful or reputable. By browsing the top responses I located seven reading which illustrate these concepts.
I also wanted to discuss future possibilities of technological advances affecting life’s meaning, so I searched for ‘Cloning + meaning of life’.

The Catherine Walby’s article (4) on the Visible Human Project proved to be extremely useful as she discusses how this project is disturbing understandings of the meaning of life and death through projecting human life onto the internet, creating digital existence, and digital life. Her explanation of the process of the Visible Human Project (VHP) gives a scientific overview which is helpful in understanding the project, and revealing that a visible embryo will soon be joining this ‘virtual family’. Also the point about the VHP containing “heavy affective and mythical significance”, that it carries significance upon the meaning of life would be important for my essay. Her article is well structured, with an abstract; introduction and conclusion which made it very simple to follow and understand, and well researched, with references cited.

Stuart Murray’s (5) comments on Catherine Walby’s article on the VHP were very insightful, and simply structured in point form. He critically assesses Waldby and produces his own questions to her work, which are helpful.

David Brown’s (6) article on the VHP gives a small historical background to the VHP and why it came about and a detailed overview of the VHP from a medical viewpoint. This was useful for an overview however it did not contain any information relating to the VHP and the meaning of life, thus would have limited use to only the VHP/technology aspect of the question.

Allingham’s (7) article on Frankenstein points out the historical background of the novel, and its relation to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the creation story and the responsibility of the Creator towards its created. This is an interesting and important point that I would raise in my essay, that technological advances and its subsequent revaluation of life’s meaning always points back towards humankind, and all who create these advances, and their ethical responsibility. I thought the article was too heavily referenced and as thus, distracting.

Robotics is a current issue that continually forces society to evaluate the meaning of life with technological advances in these machines.Patricia Neal’s (9)article describing how Frankenstein is a myth for modern man reveals the historical perspective of technological progress, that is has been evolving over time, since before Frankenstein was created over 200 years ago, thus this is not just a current issue. She highlights the prevalence of the Frankenstein myth in widespread media, via novels, and many movies. A overview of the novel is provided, which is useful seeing I have not read it. She also questions Victor Frankenstein and his ethics behind bestowing life upon Frankenstein, which is an important question to be raised in the ethics of technology, and technological advance, such as in cloning humans, a controversial topic. The article was easy to read with helpful endnotes.

Anne Nielsen’s article on the meaning of life proved to be helpful and simple to read. She evokes similar questions to Donna Haraway’s article. That is, what is a ‘true human being’ and where boundaries lie between humans and technology, the natural and artificial. This is important when thinking of the meaning of life, in determining what exactly is life, and what is technology, and whether they are intertwined, or separate and stable entities. I found her assumptions about a “Shallow Life" to "Deep Life", and "Dream Society" to the "Life Society" were hypothetical and unfounded, detracting from her article.

Over time technological process has forced society to re-evaluate the meaning of life, and will
continue to do so as long as humans exist. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein revealed future human capabilities in creating without reproduction, today, the virtual human project has mapped human bodies into virtual space, the internet. In the future, possible replication of human bodies via cloning will force society to re-evaluate the meaning of life, as well as other technological advances in areas such as robotics. Life’s meaning is a very subjective issue,
difficult and perhaps unnecessary to define, differing across culture, time and religion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allingham , Philip. “Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) -- A Summary of Modern Criticism”. (December, 2002)
http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/mshelley/pva229.html (accessed 31/08/04).

Brown, David. “The Visible Human Project: A Slice of Life”, (January, 1999).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/jan99/body.htm , (accessed 31/08/04).

“Is cloning the meaning of life?”.
http://www.humancloning.org/life.htm (accessed 20/08/04).

Murray, Stuart J.“Catherine Waldby’s The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine”, (January 2002)
http://www.reconstruction.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm (accessed 32/08/04).

Neal, Patricia. “Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Myth for Modern Man”
http://ntserver.shc.edu/www/Scholar/neal/neal.html (accessed 31/08/04).

Nielsen, Anne. “The Meaning of Life”.
http://www.cifs.dk/scripts/artikel.asp?id=348&lng=2 (accessed 1/08/04).

The Open University: “Robotics and the meaning of life: a practical guide to things that think” (2004).
http://tscp.open.ac.uk/t184/html/lesson1/artificalintelligence.htm (accessed 31/08/04).

Waldby, Catherine. “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture.” Prefiguring Cybercultures: An Intellectual History. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002, pp 28-37.

Waldby, Catherine. “The Visible Human Project: An Initial History” in The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routeledge, 2002, pp 1-18.

Waldby, Catherine. “Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny” (August 1996).
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html , (accessed 31/08/04).

Critical Annotated Webliography

2004-09-05T21:34:00.000+08:00

Critical Annotated Webliography

Donna Haraway asserted that “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion”[1]. This quote was made in regard to her theory concerning cyborgs. This concept is a good place to start in assessing this quote, as the cyborg is situated on the borders of science fiction and social reality. In further understanding this assertion, a look at ideas concerning the literal meshing of science fiction and reality is also relevant. As well the effect of these ideas on contemporary digital culture. The following articles examine these concerns. They were located through using the information toolbox component of cygnet, through course materials online and various searches on Google. The Google searches were done through searching searching various academic writers and certain papers, as well as by topic.

1. Zoe Sofoulis Cyberquake[2]

Zoe Sofoulis’s article can be seen as summarizing, contextualizing and critiquing Donna Haraway’s “ A Manifesto for Cyborg’s”. She alerts us to the fact that she is speaking as Haraway’s student and so explains her rather affirmative anaylsis. Yet, this article remained helpful for me in fleshing out Haraway’s ideas regarding cyborgs and their place in contemporary culture, as well as contemporary digital culture. The cyborg is placed as myth, identity and even literally - within the realms of art, genetic hybrids, bionic components and implants.[3] This latter category highlights the collapsing boundary between science fiction and social reality.

Sofoulis’s article also dealt with feminism in relation to Haraway’s article. She offeres some feminist critique in regard to Haraway’s cyborg concept and manifesto in general. However the article gives the overall impression of supporting Haraway’s arguments. The feminist aspects of Haraway’s article are quite pivotal to her argument and so examining them in further detail also brought issues regarding females and technology to the forefront. This also furthered my understanding of what Haraway’s cyborg stands for.

2. Susan Hawthorne Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies and Organic Bodies: Theoretical Feminist Responses[4]

Susan Hawthorne’s article proved to be an onslaught on Haraway’s cyborg concept as well as on virtual reality and cyberspace. Hawthorne presents the cyborg as less of a metaphor and more as a literal entity (especially in regard to her concerns regarding virtual reality).

Hawthorne provides a dystopic vision regarding virtual reality. Pointing out that the creators of such concepts, are providing consumers with their vision/imagination and so making the general consumers imaginative mind processes defunct.[5] Hawthorne’s perspective throughout her article provided a rather essentializing view of the cyborg, virtual reality and cyberspace. She did make some valid points in critiquing this area of thought. And, so did help broaden my view regarding this discipline. Her close look at a literal merger between social reality and science fiction was also helpful in illustrating concerns and problems regarding such an event.

3. Gareth Branwyn Will we live to see our brains wired to gadgets? How about today?[6]

Gareth Branwyn’s article is not strictly academic and has appeared in a number of magazines. I, still however chose to use it as a source as it provides a kind of literal look at science fiction becoming reality. This article basically looks at the actual possibility of humans being literally wired to electronic devices and their consequent immersion into cyberspace. It starts by looking at the possibility of bio-electronic devices assisting people with disabilities, a real area of research that creates actual cyborgs. He then goes on to discuss the possibility of literally jacking the human brain into a computer for the purpose of recreation and entertainment.

The existence of articles such as this one highlights how far into popular culture the concept of literal cyborgs has gone. There exists a belief that science fiction could be in our grasp.

4. N. Katherine Hayles How We Became Posthuman: Humanistic Implications of Recent Research into Cognitive Science and Artificial Life[7]

N. Katherine Hayles article looks at theory regarding the post-human. This concept can be looked in the context of the cyborg concept, and holds further implications in the realms of contemporary digital culture. Hayles develops the definition of post-human. In doing so she shows this concept can be helpful in understanding humans and their interactions with machines. The post-human that is envisioned here is one that, if it does interact with Virtual Reality it does so as an extension of its boundaries, not through leaving the body behind.[8] A kind of embodied awareness is promoted, not a mastery of the body over technology or vice versa.[9] Hayles definition of the post-human was posited against the liberal humanist subject. She is looking to provide a more complex, dynamic concept of the human, one that incorporates humans interactions with machinic elements.

5. Mark Poster Postmodern Virtualites[10]

Mark Poster’s article looks at digital culture, and in particular the internet and virtual reality. He focuses on internet use as a new form of media and attempts to frame the internet in the realm of the postmodern. Poster discusses virtual reality in regard to the concept of simulation. He argues that virtual reality is a kind of duplication and that all duplications have the effect of altering the referent.[11] So, that the effect of virtual reality is to “multiply the kinds of reality in society”.[12] So, demonstrating the further melding of reality with science fiction. This article was relevant to my question in it examined the use of the internet and virtual reality in contemporary culture. This is further relevant as the use of the internet can be seen as an aspect of being a cyborg.

6. P. K Jamison Contradictory Spaces: Pleasure and the Seduction of the Cyborg Discourse[13]

P. K Jamison’s article discusses the concept of the cyborg in both a utopic and dystopic sense. The pleasurable or positive connotations associated with cyborg discourse are discussed. For example, the allure of modern technology or the appeal of a hybridized, many faceted identity. In looking at the varying cyborg states, Jamison posits that their exists a contradictory space between the utopic and dystopic visions. This seems apt given the ironic status attached to the cyborg – particularly in Haraway’s version.

This article is relevant to discussing the meshing of science fiction with reality, in that it further situates the cyborg in relation to society. It maps out possible scenarios for cyborg interaction in society in both a literal and figurative sense.

The selection of articles that have been provided here are quite diverse in their discussions. Together they have provided a literal and figurative look at the overlapping of science fiction and social reality. The consequences of which can be felt in contemporary digital culture. The concept of the cyborg, as well as the literal cyborg seems to exist as a substantiation of this.

[1] Haraway, D., 1984. ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980’s’ The Haraway Reader Routledge, New York and London
[2] SOFOULIS, Z., 2002. CyberQuake [online]. Massachusetts, MIT Press. Available from: http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04197.pdf [Accessed: 5 September 2004]
[3] SOFOULIS, Z., 2002. CyberQuake [online]. Massachusetts, MIT Press. Available from: http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04197.pdf [Accessed: 5 September 2004]
[4] HAWTHORNE, S., 1999. Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies and Organic Bodies: Theoretical Feminist Responses [online]. North Melbourne, Spinifex Press. Available from: http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04155.pdf [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[5] HAWTHORNE, S., 1999. Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies and Organic Bodies: Theoretical Feminist Responses [online]. North Melbourne, Spinifex Press. Available from: http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04155.pdf [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[6] BRANWYN, G., 1993. Will we live to see our brains wired to gadgets? How about today? Wired Magazine [online]. 1.04 (September/October) Conde Nest Publishing. Available from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/desire.to.be.wired.html [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[7] HAYLES, N K., No Date. How We Became Posthuman: Humanistic Implications of Recent Research into Cognitive Science and Artificial Life [online]. Available from: http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/hayles1/ [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[8] HAYLES, N K., No Date. How We Became Posthuman: Humanistic Implications of Recent Research into Cognitive Science and Artificial Life [online]. Available from: http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/hayles1/ [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[9] HAYLES, N K., No Date. How We Became Posthuman: Humanistic Implications of Recent Research into Cognitive Science and Artificial Life [online]. Available from: http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/colloq/hayles1/ [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[10] POSTER, M., 1995. Postmodern Virtualites [online]. Blackwell. Available from: http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[11] POSTER, M., 1995. Postmodern Virtualites [online]. Blackwell. Available from: http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[12] POSTER, M., 1995. Postmodern Virtualites [online]. Blackwell. Available from: http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html [Accessed 5 September 2004]
[13] JAMISON, P K., 1994. Contradictory Spaces: Pleasure and the Seduction of the Cyborg Discourse The Arachnet Electronic Journal [online]. Volume 2, Issue 1 (February 28) Available from: http://lydia.bradley.edu/las/soc/syl/391/papers/contra_spaces.html [Accessed 5 September 2004]

Annotated Webliography

2004-09-05T18:08:00.000+08:00

Catherine Waldby argues that contemporary society is gripped by a sense of ‘technogenesis’ ‘the loss of an origin securely located in nature’[1] wherein the boundary between natural and technological cannot be easily or concretely positioned. How is this reflected in digital culture?

Firstly I wanted to explore this ‘boundary between natural and technological’ so I searched Google with that phrase. Secondly I considered the concept of digital culture. I understand that digital culture is our interaction and relationship with technology, even the term digital coupled with culture implies some kind of technogenesis. What first came to mind was society’s psychological dependence on technology. I then thought about medical technology, our relationship to it, and how it challenges ideas of human subjectivity. Finally, I considered science fiction as a reflection of the moral issues and social consequences involved in advancing technologies. I searched Google for ‘psychological dependence technology’ along with ‘Catherine Waldby,’ ‘technogenesis,’ and ‘digital culture,’ I also combined some of the terms when searching. If I came across an interesting article and I wasn’t sure about a particular author, I would Google them and see what came up, what else they had written, and what qualifications that they had.

Science/Fiction: Imagineering Posthuman Bodies[1] is an article written in proposal of a funded research project investigating ideas about biotechnology and how it may alter they way in which we define the human in the future. Rossini talks about nature and technology, and the relationship between the two, with reference to feminist studies and literary science fiction (SF) texts. There is mention of Donna Haraway’s work and a hope to further it. I find Rossini’s article comprehensive. It could be a helpful starting point in presenting the nature/technology technogenesis argument. It could also be useful in discussing SF as a tool for social comment.

The science fiction of theory[3] talks about science fiction bridging gaps that technology does not fulfil: what is around the corner, what is really possible, would it be ethically sound if society was to turn out in this way? Csicsery-Ronay uses Donna Haraway and Jean Baudrillard’s contrasting theories of science fiction as a ‘discursive practice’[4] to explore they way in which SF attributes to the understanding and an acceptance of our advancing world. I find this essay very interesting and useful in reflecting a cultural product residing in the human awareness of technogenesis.

Andrew Kimbrell’s[5] article provided me with an example of an idea encountered in the Rossini article, of how people are becoming concerned with the idea that we don’t need nature anymore. It also resonated with my own ideas about human dependency on technology, the social effects of technology. Kimbrells aim is to encourage the ‘healing’ of our bonds with nature by withdrawing in our relationship with technology, which I do not see as feasible or progressive. The missing explanation of how we do would do this, reflected how enmeshed we are with technology; where would we begin, how do we know where we end and technology begins? I feel that this article could be used alongside a psychological report that I found called “Virtual Addiction’[6] that talks about psychological dependence on technology (in particular internet addiction and dependancy).

The Stem Cell Research argument is another example of technology impacting on how we perceive the boundary between nature and technology in society. I found an article written for the (American) Presidents Council on Bioethics[7] that discusses views surrounding the human rights of an embryo. Lauritzen points out that IVF and abortion are just as morally remiss if you argue about the presence of human rights. It is a reflection on how medical technology challenges what it is to be human; rewriting our existing boundaries of life and death. There are echoes of Waldby’s analysis of Frankenstein[8]; the future is always questionable and horrific because we have to adjust our ideas of human subjectivity in order to embrace it, technology can be monstrous because of this unfamiliarity.

During her work on The Visible Human project, Catherine Waldby wrote this article about ‘the computerisation of medicine.’[9] It speaks about medical technological advancements being revolved around the human body being dissected, recorded and reordered digitally. Waldby argues that human life is ‘understood as data’[10] and that death can thus be likened to ‘failure of information…(where)… diseases like AIDS proceed through viral 'reprogramming' of the body's immune system.’[11] I found it to be a very interesting take on medical technology; the article suggested the notion that human beings, through the desire to understand their own species, have recreated themselves in binary code, have computerised themselves.

'Avatars of the Tortoise'[12] discusses ‘artificial life and simulation’[13] in our technological society. Toft uses the examples of the video game, the tamagotchi and artefact – the work of an Australian digital artist to explore our perception of life and death in the digital world (i.e. using avatars to simulate life, and reincarnation of life in games and tamagotchi). This article, in examining digital life, reflects some kind of human obsession with permanence, the quest for the fountain of youth. This is reflected in a number of other areas (like medical technology). Our quest to improve and survive is reflected in digital culture, in avatars that regenerate, in digitalised corpses that won’t rot away (The Visible Human Project). I find this article interesting in that it made me consider subconscious underpinnings of technological advancement.

With respect to the articles I have discussed, I feel that the boundary between origins in nature or technology is very blurred. I ordered the annotations in the direction that I would carry this main idea, beginning with the more society/individual aspects of digital culture then turning to biology and medical technology and its impact on our culture. Perhaps a main idea I want to explore is that humans appear dependant on the advancement of technology to satisfy some deep rooted drive, yet they fear the ethical and social consequences of such advancement. The articles reflect this relationship. Digital culture reveals a technological infiltration into the societal, cultural and biological experience of being human, and more than anything, an infiltration into the perception of self: mind and body.

References:

[1]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 p.29

[2]Rossini, Manuella. ‘Science/Fiction: Imagineering Posthuman Bodies,’ Presented at Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference August 20-24th, 2003, Lund University, Sweden. (2004)
http://www.5thfeminist.lu.se/filer/paper_709.pdf (accessed 01/09/04)

[3]Csicsery-Ronay Jnr, Istvan. 'The Science Fiction of Theory: Baudrillard and Haraway,' Science Fiction Studies, #55 Volume 18 part3, DePauw University (1991).
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/icr55art.htm (assessed 01/09/04)

[4] Csicsery-Ronay Jnr, Istvan. 'The Science Fiction of Theory: Baudrillard and Haraway'

[5] Kimbrell, Andrew. ‘Adjusting Life to fit in with Technology,’ GlobeNet3, (October 2002)
http://www.globenet3.org/Articles/Article_Adjusting_life.shtml (assessed 01/09/04

[6]Greenfield, David N. ‘Virtual Addiction: Sometimes New Technology Can Create New Problems,’ virtual-addiction.com, (1999)
http://www.virtual-addiction.com/pdf/nature_internet_addiction.pdf (assessed 01/09/04).

[7] Lauritzen, Paul. ‘Report on the Ethics of Stem Cell Research,’ Monitoring Stem Cell Research, (January 2004)
http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/stemcell/appendix_g.html (assessed 01/09/04).

[8] Waldby, Catherine. “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture.”

[9]Waldby, Catherine. ‘The body and the digital archive: The Visible Human Project and the computerisation of medicine.’ Culture and Communication Reading Room, Murdoch University (July 1997)
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/body.html (assessed 01/09/04).

[10]Waldby, Catherine. ‘The body and the digital archive: The Visible Human Project and the computerisation of medicine.’

[11]Waldby, Catherine. ‘The body and the digital archive: The Visible Human Project and the computerisation of medicine.’

[12]Tofts, Darren. ‘Avatars of the tortoise: life, longevity, and simulation,’ School of Social and Behavioural Studies, Swinburne University (2003).

http://www.swin.edu.au/sbs/media/staff/tofts/essays/dc141-Tofts.pdf (assessed 01/09/04).

[13]Tofts, Darren. ‘Avatars of the tortoise: life, longevity, and simulation.’

Webliography Q.1

2004-09-05T16:47:00.000+08:00

Donna Haraway argues that ‘the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion’. Critically assess this assertion in terms of contemporary digital culture.

The cyborg is central to understandings of cyberculture, where theories routinely declare the ‘dissolving of boundaries’ as a condition of the present. In Donna Haraway’s formulation, the cyborg is both a metaphorical and material entity. The collapse of binaries and definitions of human/animal, body/machine, organic/artificial and so forth, takes place conceptually and as lived experience. Thus, I treated the assertion that “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an illusion” with the same double meaning. The distinction between the fictive and speculative, and the ‘real’ is as discursive as claims for ‘border-crossings’ and cyborg identities. I asked: How to distinguish between ‘science fiction’ and ‘digital culture’? How are the cyborg, and the related ‘posthuman’ constructed, and how do they bridge imaginary and social relations? What kind of social or political work is performed within these arguments?

I started with the following premises:
· That science fiction is indeed a science and less a fiction.
· That digital culture is a technologised realm at once banal and fantastic.
· That the concept of reality is increasingly fraught; a postmodern uncertainty is linked with the technological. Postmodern subjectivity, mediated by technology, is where negotiations over power, gender and embodiment take place.

My search began using the university library databases for online journal articles, then moved onto the Google search engine which proved more fruitful, due to more extensive links, often hosted, if indirectly, by academic institutions (for example, course readings posted online with subject and thematic links). I used the terms theory article culture cyborg posthuman and further, technology gender digital cyber as well as theorists’ names such as N.Katherine Hayles and Sandy Stone.

The discussion by Eugene Thacker[1] is precisely that “science fiction has disappeared”, or has been made ‘science’. Using the field of biotechnology as example, Thacker argues that current conditions of scientific research and practice necessarily incorporate principles of science fiction. Thacker examines the intersection of postmodern theory and science fiction, but only cites Fredric Jameson, a limitation in my view. For Jameson, science fiction functions more as a commentary on existing technoscience than as a construction of the future. Speculative, extrapolative aspects are drawn right back into critiques of the present. Thacker proposes a similar strategy of responsibility or relocation in the present for the techniques and advancements of bioscience. The article is really only a brief theoretical backdrop to introduce the work of art/media collective Fakeshop - however, there is use in its presention of science fiction as a social practice (I would have to argue for the adaptability of the term digital culture here, to apply to biotechnology).

Scott Bukatman’s article[2] was useful as a discussion of literary science fiction and for relating themes within literary sources with wider cultural concerns. Bukatman examines posthuman subjectivity through the work of writers such as J.G. Ballard and Bruce Sterling, performance artist Stelarc and the theories of Haraway and Deleuze and Guattari - the posthuman in biological terms (reconfigurations of embodiment fusing biology and technology), and ideological terms (‘human’ as a redundant concept). Interestingly, Bukatman adopts a surrealist reading of the posthuman and SF techniques and characteristics.[3] Surrealism is of course, located in the real, but entails a perspective of excess, contradiction and potential liberation from logic, hierarchies and dichotomies - a manoevre reflected in Haraway’s Manifesto for Cyborgs[4].

In “Carnival Cyborg”, Chris Hables Gray[5] offers an overview of ideas of the cyborg, arguing for the persistence of a dialogue between humans and machines/tools through time - “automatons have had a long history”. While Gray writes in a generalised, casual tone, the piece is useful for fixing the cyborg within the specifics of the ‘real’, in terms of social and historical contexts. This contrasts with Haraway’s cyborg wavering between a theoretical, proposed state and a ‘lived’ state. Gray argues humans have to be cyborgs in order to negotiate real areas such as “war, space, work, and medicine”. A criticism would be that the notion of the carnivalesque, from the title, was not examined beyond its use as a synthesising, deconstructing concept, and thus political and ideological issues are neglected.

N. Katherine Hayles[6] interrogates the ‘posthuman’ while advocating an alternative formulation of mind and body. This article avoids the determinism inherent in the notion of post-humanity, that is, a trajectory towards bodily obsolescence, or seamless technological integration. The division between reality and science fiction (in the futuristic sense of the posthuman) is negated by the emphasis on issues of embodiment and existence within ‘information-rich, highly technologised environments’ i.e. digital culture. The posthuman future is now, if such issues demand attention. Like the argument for continuity in Gray’s essay, Hayles supports the notion that the human/machine interface has always existed, as one of co-evolution.

So far - four articles to support the statement that the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an illusion. I would use the last two sources to explore the metaphorical side of Haraway’s Manifesto, to acknowledge the constructed status of the cyborg, that in many ways it remains a (science) fiction.

In Steve Dixon’s article the posthuman, the cyborg, is incorporated into the provocative notion that ‘AI metal has its own gender’.[7] Dixon argued for the necessity of a third gender, criticising the vacillating, neither/both treatment of binaries by Haraway. The third space of metal gender was intriguing for my thoughts on the distinction between science fiction and reality. The gesture of granting posthuman entities a third gender echoes Haraway’s invitation twenty years prior, to think of ourselves as cyborgs. Metal gender recognises that new symbolic inscriptions, hierarchical relationships and social practices are created in an advanced technological age. The cyborg here is ‘science fiction’ because of the fantastic element in describing “new desires, new ontologies, new language systems”; Dixon’s hypothesising stance.

My last reference is a transcription of an interview with the theorist Allucquere Rosanne Stone in the journal SPEED[8], issue 1.2 which considers science and re-enchantment, and the encounter with technological advancements and techological ubiquity. The discussion is situated on the ‘cusp’, the transition between the mechanical and digital age, and registers a sense of transformation and becoming. Consequently, I found some useful ideas for moving between the speculative and lived states of digital culture. For instance, Stone takes the idea of the boundary, from the cyborg model to be a very ‘pure’ concept. The boundary is highly discursive, existing as pure rhetorical strategy, yet can be applied almost anywhere. The ubiquity of the boundary (cultural, ontological, technological, internal etc.) entails a constant negotiation of parts and difference; a paradigm offered for the conditions of digital living. I would also use the idea of the ‘digital code’ as an ‘engine of reorganisation’ in a fictive/ speculative/ imaginative/ discursive sense.

The drive to collapse boundaries, categories and hierarchies through the cyborg figure came from an underlying feminist politic, leading back to patriarchal lines of power. Power relations, as laid out in the Manifesto, were attributed to the binary-thinking of the West which produced a position of privilege, and its Other, hence the need to challenge dualisms. Subsequent discussions of the cyborg, however, situated power somewhat differently, somewhat diffusely, due to the very processes of cyborgisation that Haraway advocated. The boundary between science fiction and social reality has to be an illusion for the cyborg of the Manifesto to perform political work, to fulfil the promise of gender liberation. Conversely, in digital culture the cyborg’s actualisation (through our increased engagement with technology) creates further networks of power relations and domination, as well as potential liberation. Cyborg and posthuman subject positions can be deployed in the examining the human/technology relationship, whether situated in a fictive, imaginative realm, or as part of the lived, digital technoscape.

[1] Eugene Thacker. “Fakeshop: Science Fiction, Future Memory & The Technoscientific Imaginary” CTheory, E087 (15/3/2000).
www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick+220 (accessed 24/08/200).
[2] Scott Bukatman. “Postcards from the Posthuman Solar System”, Science Fiction Studies, #55, 18.3 (November 1991).
www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/bukatman55art.htm (accessed 30/08/2004)
[3] To expand: the language of cyberpunk is noted for a cyborgian dissolution of boundaries - like the jarring juxtapositions of surreality - as subjects negotiate versions of digital, electronic reality. Meanwhile, the posthuman production of ‘new flesh’ enacts violence, eroticism and transgression.
[4] Donna Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in th 1980’s”, The Haraway Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 7-45.
[5] Chris Hables Gray. “Carnival Cyborg”, first published as “Die Cyborgsind unter uns” in Wunschmaschine Welterfinding, B. Felderee, ed. Spring Wein New York, 1996.
www.routledge-ny.com/ref/cyborgcitizen/cycitpgs/cycarn.html (accessed 30/08/2004).
[6] N.Katherine Hayles. “Flesh and Metal: Reconfiguring the Mindbody in Virtual Environments”, Configurations, 10.2 (2002) 297-320.
http://muse.uq.edu.au/journals/configurations/v010/10.2hayles.html (accessed 18/08/2004).
[7] Steve Dixon. “Metal Gender”, C Theory, A128 (14/5/2003).
www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=384 (accessed 24/08/2004).

[8] “Techno-Prosthetics and Exterior Presence: A Conversation with Sandy Stone” SPEED 1.2
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/_SPEED_/1.2/stone.html (accessed 30/08/2004).

critical webliography

2004-09-05T16:16:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

Identities are social constructs that define our everyday existence. We may represent the role of a companion to some, or a child to our parents. In addition to that, identities are part of our existence. Identities define who we are in our everyday lives. Whether an individual is selfish, exuberant, talkative or kind, who he/she turns out to be affects his/her personal identity in the world.

With the introduction of information and communication technologies, a whole new world of interactions was born. People didn't have to meet in person to interact with one another [1]. Some individuals saw it as an extension of their brains in their everyday lives [2] and others took it as a whole new world and thus formed a new identity as they saw fit. (As cited by Howard Rheingold in “Personal homepages and the construction of identities on the net.”) Information and communication technologies also apply to television and the various types of media. As Mark Dery puts it, media essentially fabricates and manipulates images where "the prime directive is social control [3]" and becomes the "mouthpiece of the government[4]". Our identities may thus be selectively influenced by the representation of information in our experiences.

In Forrest's article , the delights of the world web are highlighted, as well as how small the world has become because of it and how much children can learn with the help of technological media. Without a doubt, the world has gotten smaller with the introduction of the web. However, as we increasingly rely on the Internet to conduct our everyday learning and online interactions, our identities become built around an online-offline environment where the individual can choose which self to present. This dual personality can further extend to selective representation where certain characteristics of an individual like race or sex can be conveniently changed to suit the situation. This altered identity almost always occurs with online interactions with other users of this form of information and communication technology. Forrest’s article fails to consider what would happen to the identity of an individual if one spends too much time online or interacting with the computer, and is merely a biased discussion on the uses of the Internet.

Computers as technologies themselves are capable of holding a realm of information[5] using their massive storage capabilities. Students of today are transformed into cyborgs with their large dependency on computers. In her article, Boese briefly outlines the identity split with both virtual and real worlds. Her article is merely a ledge, from which one steps off into a discussion of information and communication technologies and it’s interaction between the constructions of self. The students in the article view computers as part of their everyday existence. Cyborgs essentially represent another type of identity where human and machines are fused to create an ideal self/other (eg. pace-makers, artificial limbs). How are these identities thus altered? Would the individual be able to function without these technologies? In a more comprehensive paper, Hawthorn's article[6] argues among other things that cyborgs are 'a redundant notion of stripping us of politically useful categories'. I agree with her on the same reasoning that since there is no clear line between being labeled as being a cyborg or not, and that because the virtual space is not 'real', virtual bodies tend not to be real too, and also, that the term 'cyborg' does not represent a certain group of individuals. Her article represents a cynical look at the virtual phenomena of self from someone who is sure who her real self is. She makes a convincing argument on the separation of both worlds and provides a well-rounded argument for the reason or lack of, diversion of identities with information and communication technologies.

With the initial emergence of digitally crafted beings on the net for dating, we start to see the resemblance of the cyber world to our real life. Then confusing this notion, online dating sites like Lavalife try to merge both worlds into one; or at least use the accessibility of information and communication technologies to make our lives easier. Depending on the individual, the experience of dating can take on a whole new dimension. And dating is not the only online activity one can find. If the individual wanted, he could conduct his whole life while in front of his screen in his home with a credit card - from ordering groceries to looking for entertainment.

The merger between the real world and virtual reality is even more apparent when companies like DoubleClick and Abacus Direct merge. Symbolic in the merge is what happens when these two companies combine and millions of online user profiles will be matched with their real-life offline profiles to build a comprehensive database of the individual for advertising purposes. In this report[7], clicking on a weight loss site could mean a link to a host of weight loss banners, and that insurance companies would refuse an individual henceforth insurance because they have purchased his/her online profile and discovered a history of heart disease. The individual would then have no choice but to have one universal identity online, as well as offline. Though this profiling is about to become illegal for Canadians, the report doesn’t say if it will be about to become illegal in the rest of the world too.

For those who see the online world as a parallel universe where a new identity can be constructed, Chandler[8] exemplifies with his discussion on identity construction on web logs. He discusses the different types of representation of selves in the many web logs out in the net as well as the dangers of being represented digitally on the net. He then concludes ominously that ‘virtual homes provide no shelter for anyone[9]' which leads us to think about the boundaries of self representation when we realize that internet has no security and doors, that anyone and everyone may come across an individual’s personal page and participate in his/her life without even having met that person. Chandler’s article takes us through the processes of identity constructions and the reasons it may be altered/extended beyond ‘real’ life but involves a rather personal/informal style. Otherwise, it cites a host of sources but fails to consider the aspect of cyborgs and how identities change as a result of the processes/reasons he outlined.

The influence of media (information technology) in our lives also serves to alter our construction of identity. Though Dery points this out in the early part of his article, the article mainly considers the influence of media on our lives. The article is generously littered with references to the somewhat ‘evil’ influences in our lives and is generally only useful as an example of how powerful media can be.

Of the sites reviewed, there was a range of suitability for the guiding question. Chandler’s proved most useful, though Hawthorns’ appeared more credible. This was partly due to the fact that it was available in print form too. The other sites catered to more specific reading preferences and were generally not ideal for constructing an essay if it were required.

Footnotes listed.

[1] Dave Forrest, “The world is smaller still”, (August 1997), http://www.soleil.com/english/theworldissmallerstill.html (accessed 31/08/04).

[2] Christine Boese, “The screen-age: Our brains in our laptops.” CNN (August 2004), http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/08/02/school.internet/ (accessed 31/08/04)

[3] Mark Dery, “Culture jamming : Hacking, slashing, and sniping in the empire of signs.”, http://www.levity.com/markdery/culturjam.html (accessed 31/08/04)

[4] Mark Dery, “Culture jamming : Hacking, slashing, and sniping in the empire of signs.”.

[5] Christine Boese, “The screen-age: Our brains in our laptops.”(August 2004).

[6] Susan Hawthorn, “Cyborgs, Virtual bodies and organic bodies : theoretical feminist responses” , p11. http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04155.pdf (accessed 31/08/04).

[7] Gordon Coleman, University of British Columbia site.(September 1999) “Online tracking – Personally identifying information”. http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr500/fall1999/www_presentations/g_coleman/idinfo.htm (accessed 31/0/04)

[8] Daniel Chandler, “Personal Homepages and the Construction of Identities on the Net”, http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html (accessed 31/08/04)

[9] Daniel Chandler, “Personal Homepages and the Construction of Identities on the Net”.

my Webliography

2004-09-05T14:47:00.000+08:00

Guiding Question 3: Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

Introduction

Information and communication technologies such as the World Wide Web have allowed constructions of identities to be dramatically extended and altered from more traditional modes of communication. I found the idea of online performance of identity to be fascinating and decided to re-read articles from the course reader, including Kang’s[1] work and Silver’s[2] work to start my research. From this, I decided I wanted to describe different identity representations possible online with reference to gender, sexuality and race, and also have a small discussion about the historical context and plausibility of disembodied experiences.

From my readings up until that point I decided to do searches on google for “cyber identity,” “disembodied + virtual,” “gender construction online” and “virtual identity.” I sifted through the results and eventually found the following six readings that I feel illustrate the ways in which gender, sexuality and race can be constructed online, and give a broader context to this form of disembodiment.

Site 01 - "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet" by Lisa Nakamura.

As Nakamura is an author in our course reader, and this online article has an extensive list of respected published works, I would feel very comfortable using her in my essay. Nakamura explores the idea of race construction in cyberspace and how “racial passing (which occurs when a person performs online a different race than that of their flesh body)”[3] is a clear indicator that web users have the control to shape their identities online.

She describes how identity representation online is conveyed “through the medium of keystrokes and mouse-clicks.”[4] In other words, online users can define themselves in any way they wish (closely related to the meat of their bodies, or otherwise). One example Nakamura gives of this is LambdaMOO, an internet role playing game that allows users to define their character’s race, gender and physical appearance.[5] So parts of the web allow not only an extension of identity but an encouragement of performitivity of self.

Site 02 – Cyberfeminism with a difference by Rosi Braidotti

Braidotti’s article was very useful as it places cyber identity in its wider context of postmodernity and explores different notions of post-human bodies. She explains that post-human bodies are “artificially reconstructed bodies” that are “a surface of inscriptions of social codes.”[6] The web allows for one manifestation of post-human bodies where representations of self not limited by embodiment can converse and perform.[7] This historical information about post-human bodies would allow me to explain in my essay how the web has allowed for an extended construction of identity, with reference to similarities and differences compared to other post-human bodies.

Site 03 – Computers and the Communication of Gender by Elizabeth Lane Lawley

Lawley describes how the web has the potential to be manipulated in such a way as to “reshape current conceptions of gender and sex roles.”[8] Lawley seems to view the construction of identity online as an uncomplicated process that allows participants to “effortlessly reshape their selves and their ‘appearance’ through manipulation of words and images--representations--rather than through modification of the physical body.”[9] I found these ideas to be particularity interesting as they assume that the web itself is not gendered. To argue against this in my essay and show that the web can have inherent biases, I would refer to David Silver’s article which discusses the ways in which interfaces used in the web can be inherently racist.[10]

Lawley’s view of identity construction online seems to be very simplistic and could be due to the fact that it was written in 1993, which is a significant time gap given the fast rate of expansion and change of the net. In my essay I would use her ideas as an example of what it was thought the net could do for society when it was still relatively new, and then contrast it to the works of Frailberg and especially Kibby to show that the construction of identity is not as uncomplicated as Lawley makes out.

Site 04 – Electronic Fans, Interpretive Flames: Performative Sexualities and the Internet
By Allison Frailberg

This article has a very good bibliography that cites not only articles about the dynamic of the web, but also texts about feminism and queer theory, which makes me feel very confident in using it as a resource. Frailberg’s discussion of performing sexual identity online mentions that the potential for the performance of sexuality is often the biggest when the section of cyberspace being congregated upon is not directly linked to sexuality.[11] She describes how the performativity of sexual identity itself is enhanced in such an arena as “the queering of net space becomes not a given, but a site of contestation.”[12]

Site 05 – “Remapping the Terrain: on the new media work of Nancy Patterson” by Randy Lee Cutler

Cutler’s article is very clear and contains valuable discussions of the relation between knowledge and cyberspace that I feel I could use in my essay as a useful adjunct to the construction of cyber identities. Cutler describes the relation between subjective experience and the web in general. He describes that as subjective knowledge is so firmly and inextricably rooted within the body and informed by the body, cyberspace is necessarily “rooted within embodied participants.”[13] In my essay I would note that this limits the construction of cyber identity as it means that our meat bodies still have an impact on the web, thus making our participation in virtual worlds not an entirely disembodied experience.

The main problem with this article is that its bibliography doesn’t refer to many other sources (reputable or otherwise). It is also a little limited in its discussion because it is primarily critiquing Patterson’s work, and thus it only discusses the above ideas in relation to her.

Site 06 – Babes on the Web: Sex, Identity and the Home Page by Marj Kibby

Kibby’s article has a unique perspective on cyber-identity construction in that it discusses the difference between identities of female internet users within virtual reality. She describes how women who use MUDs to role-play in a virtual world often downplay sexuality in the creation of their characters, either constructing their sexuality as fluid and “disconnected from the gendered body”[14] or remaining entirely sexually ambiguous. She points out that this separation of sexuality from identity is not seen in all corners of the web: in home pages women often actively emphasize their sexuality by uploading sexualized pictures of themselves in ‘hetrosexy’ poses and making these deconstructable images the central part of their home page[15]. She convincingly argues that this shows that these women portray sexuality as “an integral part of their identity.”[16]

This example made me think about the differing identities that are allowed within cyberspace – that a person can have a range of identities that they perform in cyberspace, but that each individual identity can be relatively fixed in itself. In my essay I would describe how identity in cyberspace can be fixed and fluid at the same time – fixed in individual manifestations, while being fluid in so much as one person can perform in many individual manifestations.

Footnotes listed:

[1] Jerry Kang, “Ruminations on Cyber-Race.” Dissent 50.2, 2003.

[2] David Silver, “Margins in the Wires: Looking for Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Blacksburg Electronic Village,” in Race in Cyberspace. Ed. Lisa Nakamura, Gilbert B. Rodman, and Beth E. Kolko, New York: Routledge, 2000.

[3] Lisa Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet,” , June 2002.

[4] Lisa Nakamura, , June 2002.

[5] Lisa Nakamura, , June 2002
[6] Rosi Braidotti, “Cyberfeminism with a difference," , July 1996.
[7] Rosi Braidotti, , July 1996.

[8] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, “Computers and the Communication of Gender,” <http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html>, April 1993.
[9] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, <http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html>, April 1993.

[10] David Silver, “Margins in the Wires: Looking for Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Blacksburg Electronic Village,” in Race in Cyberspace. Ed. Lisa Nakamura, Gilbert B. Rodman, and Beth E. Kolko, New York: Routledge, 2000.

[11] Allison Fraiberg, “Electronic Fans, Interpretive Flames: Performative Sexualities and the Internet,” <>, October 1998.

[12] Allison Fraiberg, <>, October 1998.

[13] Randy Lee Cutler, “Remapping the Terrain: on the new media work of Nancy Patterson,” <http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~rcutler/writing/patterson.html>, September 2002.

[14] Marj Kibby, “Babes on the Web: Sex, Identity and the Home Page,” <http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/babes.html>, 1997.

[15] Marj Kibby, <http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/babes.html>, 1997.

[16] Marj Kibby, <http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/babes.html>, 1997.

Week8PreTutePost - Virtual Ethics

2004-09-05T13:19:00.001+08:00

Mark Poster's article outlines the changes in : patterns of consumption (from the modern to postmodern period), ways of viewing consumption (theories) and examines the implications of digital culture. Using de Certeau's notion that the activity of consumption functions like language, Poster suggests digital culture, or electronic media and the digitisation of cultural objects, reshapes the producer/consumer paradigm and allows certain points of resistance to the power relationships imposed by the culture industries.

Poster is discussing media culture - the music/recording industries, film, advertising and television, rather than material commodities, if this distinction can be made. The article sets up contemporary commodity culture, and the position of consumer as something to be resisted (see first section - 'Everywhere a consumer') - through digital media. "In the past decade each major industry has faced a threat to its existence from the digitisation of cultural objects and the transformation of consumer into creator/user"

De Certeau argued for the social and political significance of consumption, using the analogy of meaning production in language -

"...we should look for 'consumer' practices having the double characteristic...of being able to organise both space and languages...consumption is a type of 'enunciation', a production of meaning, a speech act. Consumption is not simply the purchase of an object fixed in its meaning but a resignification of that object... in acts of consumption, meanings are constructed and thereby life is organised and configured."

Poster extends the argument - "Digital media radically transform both the cultural object and the subject position of the consumer. When cultural objects are digitised, they take on certain characteristics of spoken language". Digitisation restructures cultural objects, they function even more like language, are open to processes of reproduction, transformation, synthesis, reassemblage, exchange...

I find the analogy with language quite interesting - but it seems the 'means' to allow this 'speech act' are disregarded (internet, recording devices etc). Technology is the ultimate commodity object - it is inherently disposable, has to be constantly updated... Culture industries may struggle to maintain copyright/property rights/pay per use relationship with users or consumers but manufacturers of technology certainly do not. Also, this 'speech act', or turning the consumer into user/creator (sidestepping the dictates of culture industries) is considered in a private, individualised light; the issue of consumer ethics is avoided. It's true that no-one 'owns' a language, but cultural objects are not language. Piracy or issues of intellectual property are not addressed, and thus issues of labour exchange... the article takes on a postmodern perspective of a lack of origin, or originality (that is, the creators of the cultural object in the first place). Thus, I find the conclusion of proposing a post-capitalist, post postmodern society rather idealistic - "no longer charactrised by fixed cultural objects and positions of creator and consumer, but by fluid text, sounds and images, costless reproduction and distribution, and postentially collective creation".

2004-09-05T13:19:00.000+08:00

Catherine Waldby argues that contemporary society is gripped by a sense of “technogenesis”, “the loss of origin securely located in nature”, wherein the boundary between the natural and technological cannot be concretely positioned.

Put more simply, Waldby is suggesting that within the framework of today’s “digital culture” human life is increasingly becoming a “biotechnological assemblage” (Murray 25/08/04, p.5), whereby it no longer seems valid to think in terms of discrete binary categories such as “the actual” and “the virtual”, “life” and “death”, “the organic” and “the mechanic”, “genesis” and “technogenesis”, “mind” and “body”. Having read Waldby’s article, “The Instrument of life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture” and the introduction of her reasearch into the implications of “The Visible Human Project”, I find her argument rather persuasive. However, in order to better understand and thoroughly critique her position, I felt the following questions required interrogation:

How has the boundary between the natural and technology historically been constructed in modernist thought?

How is this boundary collapsed/confounded in contemporary digital culture?

After reading up on some of the theorists Waldby draws upon, for example Donna Haraway, I conducted two main Google searches.

In the first of these I typed in the text “modernist”, in the hope of finding articles outlining the historical construction of “technology” and “nature” as mutually exclusive, oppositional categories. Although many responses to my search were generated, there was only one (within the top 20 responses I scanned) that I found of real value; Dragan Milovanovics article “Dualing Paradigms: Modernist and Postmodernist thought”.

In the second search I completed, I looked for the related terms “techno genesis digital culture”. This produced 100’s of results of which I scanned through the top 40. Out of these I located five which I felt illustrated how Waldby’s ideas are reflected in digital culture.

I have thus included here an annotated list of the six sites (in total) that I found helpful for thinking about the notion that “contemporary society is gripped by a sense of ‘technogenesis’…wherein the boundary between the natural and the technological cannot be easily or concretely positioned”.

1. Dualing Paradigms: Modernist and Postmodernist thought

By Dragan Milovanovic

This article is clear, concise and easy to follow. Primarily concerned with exploring the theories embodied in modernist and postmodernist discourse respectively, Milonvanovic discusses the opposing ways in which modernism and post-modernisim construct “(1) society and social structure, (2) social roles,(3) subjectivity/agency, (4) discourse, (5) knowledge, (6)space/time, (7) causality, and (8) social change” (Milovanovic, p.2). This article thus provides a solid theoretical background for the ways in which our concept of the world has been constructed in the past and challenged in the present, providing a valuable resource for thinking about how the conventional split between ‘technology’ and ‘nature’ is undermined through the events and practices of contemporary digital culture.

2. Self-identity of a cyborg: I am Frankenstein’s monster

By Michael Burgess

Asserting himself as a cyborg; a ‘creature’ whose “actual “self” is a complex amalgam of the “natural” organic parts…in concert with the technological “cybernetic” items””, (p.2) the author of this site foregrounds, in a rather quirky manner, the ways in which it is no longer possible to make a clear distinction between what is organic/natural and what is machine/technological.

Situating our experience in contemporary digital culture as almost always facilitated or informed by some form of technological mediation or interaction, the author proposes that, the fact that technological devices are not physically attached to one’s body is irrelevant: that our relationship with technology, in the digital age, is such that we are all cyborgs. This proposition auguers well with the idea, that the boundary between the natural and technological is no longer well defined. Furthermore, because it is written from a first person perspective, I would suggest it is more engaging and accessible for the average reader than Waldby’s work.

3. Stuart Murray’s overview and critique of Catherine Waldby’s book “The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine

By Stuart J. Murray

This article by Stuart J. Murray was particularly useful. It provides an extensive overview of Waldby’s ideas regarding the Visible Human Project and explores the challenges that are posed to human subjectivity through recent advances in medical technologies, made possible through digital imaging.

One feature of Murray’s work which I found particularly useful to my analysis was the number of concrete examples he provides, of practices which blur the line between the natural and technological in contemporary digital culture: “the mapping of human genomes, stem cell research, cloning…(the use of) life support systems, organ donarship and an increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals and prosthetic devices”. Thus, I would suggest this is an essential reading item for exploring how Waldby’s ideas can be located in contemporary digital culture.

4. Cyber Feminisms

By Afshin Yaghtin

In this article, Afshin Yaghtin does a very good job of summarising Haraway’s ideas of “the cyborg”, which, I think, tie in well with Waldby’s ideas about the blurring of the line between the natural and the technological. For example, as Yaghitn observes,

“For Haraway, the realities of modern life happen to include a relationship between people and technology so intimate that it’s no longer possible to tell where we end and machines begin” (p.2)

I think this point provides a great example and starting point for discussing Waldby’s ideas about the erosion of boundaries between categories in contemporary society. Furthermore, Yaghtin’s own thoughts, that

“although consciousness and imagination are reshaped through technology, communication, and information, it is important not to foget…when a patriarchal woman or man enters cyberspace she or he is not automatically reprogrammed into a gender-neutral organism (or cyborg)…”

made me more conscious of the fact that although, as Waldby suggests, dichotomies of thought may no longer be sustainable in contemporary digital culture, this certainly doesn’t mean that the relationships of power inherent in these dichotomies automatically cease, or have ceased, to exist. The only real criticism I have of this article is, however, that being of great length I feel the author should have broken up the text into hyperlinked chapters, in order to make it more “user friendly”. None the less, it is certainly a worthwhile read and valuable supplement to Waldby’s ideas.

5.The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments

By Frank Biocca

This was perhaps the most interesting, in depth and insightful article I came across. Focussing mainly on the implications of virtual environment technology, Biocca explores the ways in which the computer interface is becoming increasingly “human”. Building upon this, he goes on to suggest that as the computer interface increasingly adapts to the human body and mind “the more the body and mind adapts to the non-human interface”, hence the more “unnatural” (like cyborgs) we become. This then collapses the body/mind dichotomy and raises profound questions about the nature and stability of our individual identity, an argument I find most intriguing, Furthermore, I found Biocca’s integration of scientific, psychological and sociological ideas about the body, embodiment, cognition and representation, most useful as it allows him to delve more deeply than I felt Waldby did, into some of implications, for human subjectivity, of the progressive development of technologies of the body.

6. Digital Cinema

By Lev Manovich

This site is of value because it explores what digital media is, how it has changed our perception of the world, our aesthetics and our cultural forms; forcing us to re-conceptualise binary categories such as sign/signified, actual/virtual, dead/alive, nature/technology. Written in an interesting and engaging manner, much like a well written and researched essay, this article provides insight into how, in a world in which images can be quickly and easily accessed (through databases), generated (through digital imaging) and easily manipulated, the boundary between the ‘referent’ and object, the ‘actual’ and ‘virtual’, ‘old’ and the ‘new’ is becoming increasingly tenuous. Thus, although this site does not link as clearly to Waldby’s work as perhaps the “Feminista” or “I am Frankenstein’s Monster” articles I have cited above, I would still highly recommend it as a secondary reading source as I think it is important to have a solid understanding of the features of contemporary digital culture if one is to understand how and why the distinction between the natural and the technological is confounded in contemporary Western society.

Conclusion

Having thoroughly analysed Waldby’s work in conjunction with a number of related internet articles, I have come to the conclusion that her assertion that “the boundary between the technological and the natural cannot be easily or concretely positioned in contemporary society”, is in many ways reflected in contemporary digital culture. Whether it be bio-medical advancements, our increasingly close relationship to technology, the effect of cyberspace and virtual technology environments on our experience of reality, or the social and cultural implications of digital technologies; our illusion of the world as a structured space we can order into hierarchical binary antagonisms, such as natural and technological, is no longer sustainable. As Waldby suggests, contemporary society is gripped by a sense of ‘technogenesis’, distinctions between nature and artifice are being re-conceived as permeable and life itself is increasingly being redefined as “the life of information”, networks and data (Murray 25/08/04, p.4).

RESOURCES

Afshin Yaghtin, “Cyber Feminisms”, in Feminista: The Online Journal of Feminist Construction: vol. 2, no.2, Accessed (22/08/04), Available online at:
http://www.feminista.com/archives/v2n2/afshinyaghtin.html

Burgess, Michael, Self-identity of a cyborg: I am Frankenstein’s monster,(Last Uptaded 1997), Accessed (23/08/04), Available online at:
http://byronik.com/cyborg.html

Dragan Milovanovic, From the Department of Criminal Justice, “Dualing Paradigms: Modernist and Postmodernist Thought”, Revised version from Humanity and Society (19(1): 1-22, 1995; and revised in Dragan Milovanovic, Postmodern Criminology. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997)
Accessed (25/08/04) Available online at:
http://www.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/papers/drag-pomo.html

Frank Biocca, The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments, Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Lab
Michigan State University (Last Updated September 3rd 1997), Accessed (17/08/04), Available online at: http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue2/biocca2.html

Manovich, Lev “What is Digital Cinema?”, Accessed (20/08/04), Available online at:: http://www.manovich.net/TEXT/digital-cinema.html

Murray Stuart, Overview and critique of Catherine Waldby’s book “The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine
Accessed (29/08/04), Available online at:
http://www.reconstruction.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm

Waldby, Catherine, “The Visible Human Project: An Initial History”, in The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London & NY: Routledge, 2000, pp.1-18

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

Critical Annotated Webliography

2004-09-04T23:34:00.000+08:00

3. Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

The notion of constructions of identity, or identity creation, is a notion that many believe will revolutionise culture itself now with its rapid spread over the Internet. A particular question in the field of construction of identity is how it has been extended or altered by current communication technologies. To examine this question, firstly I examined some of the readings to get an idea of what sort of information I would find useful, then I conducted searches over three search engines, Yahoo, Google and AltaVista under three main phrases, ‘identity construction online’, ‘identity construction cyberspace’ and ‘identity construction web’, then selectively read through some of the literature offered. I found six sources that I found useful, authored respectively by Jennifer K. Mulcahy, Sherry Turkle, Amy S. Bruckmann, John Suler and Kalvin McLeod.

Mulcahy’s article interested me somewhat. The idea of two different classes, introverts and extroverts, and how introverts seek to make their characters an extension of themselves and how extroverts seek to make their characters completely separate was an idea that I found interesting. The idea of implementing one’s own personal values into a character also seems to be a perfect example of extending the construction of identity online. The most useful piece of information I found in the article, however, was the idea of playing an ‘improved self’, an idea in which individuals create characters like themselves, but with traits they don’t like removed. I found the article to be only moderately useful, however, as I felt the article really focused more on what somebody could do, not what they could become.

Turkle’s paper, on the other hand, focuses on the possibility for many people to create totally new identities and lives, those more preferable to the identities they currently have. Turkle discusses Peter, for example, an individual who is reclusive, and how he has ‘remade the self’ on an online Multi User Dimension (MUD), even engaging in romances and forging an identity in which this recluse becomes romantic and noble through his character. Turkle’s idea that this MUD has given Peter the ability to create his own identity and leave his current one behind is an idea that I find interesting and one that I think fully demonstrates the extent to which new media has extended the notion of identity construction. I found this paper very helpful, although I felt it tried to ‘broaden’ over ideas such as communities and thus seemed more like a multiple-themed article than a specialised discussion on identity construction.

Bruckman’s description of MUDs in her paper allows for the insight into how these online communities work that I felt Turkle’s work lacked. It allows for a reader to conceivably see and understand how the environment works so as to better understand Bruckman’s arguments. Bruckman’s paper does not detail how identity has changed explicitly, but she illustrates it implicitly when she talks about how male characters find it interesting how differently they are treated when they log on as female characters. An idea I found interesting was Bruckman’s notion of how males in particular construct gender identities, stating that many of the promiscuous ‘female’ characters on MUDs are actually played by males. I found Bruckman’s idea that the opportunity to be male, female or genderless at will has had a tremendous impact on internet culture nowadays very believable. I found the paper in general to be interesting, however I felt that its impact was lost due to the amount of focus given to the treatment of female players instead of the element of what it is actually like to change genders and importantly why individuals do so.

The first article by John Suler I viewed, ‘Do Boys (And Girls) Just Wanna Have Fun?’ caught my attention immediately with a powerful, yet amusing anecdote of a male university student pursuing a female student who he was genuinely falling in love with only to discover ‘she’ was a fifty year old man. This immediately outlines Suler’s argument and caught my attention far more easily than the other sources, which I had to read deeply into before understanding where the argument was going. This single anecdote illustrates just how easy it is to challenge the notions of sexual identity and to create your own totally separate identity through the use of the internet. Suler, unlike the other sources I have studies, writes in a simple informative style and doesn’t beat around the bush, explaining that constructing a new gender identity is not a new thing, but it is important now because it is ‘so easy’ (Suler, 1996). Also, unlike the other sources, which never really state how common these phenomena are, Suler flatly admits that situations such as the anecdote he discussed are becoming more common. This article was probably the one I found the most appealing and interesting.

Suler’s second article, ‘Identity Management in Cyberspace’, steps away from the gender-based idea of identity construction and instead examines identity construction from a more broad perspective, informing the audience about the extend to which an identity can be constructed. An interesting element I found here that was not mentioned by any of the other web sources was the idea that identity construction online is more than simply creating another identity- you can in fact control how much detail of your own identity you show the world. This in particular is an idea I liked. However, a lot of the rest of the article was not as relevant.

Finally, McLeod’s contribution to the online essay ‘Building the Virtual City’, described MUDs and online identity again. McLeod details the dangers of the online identity and how it can become so alluring and so interesting to the individual that it overruns the honest reality. For example, McLeod lists an individual’s timetable that is totally based around the MUD. I had never viewed online identities in such a negative and hazardous light before, and McLeod’s approach really caused me to consider it from a point of view other than one supporting identity creation online.

If I had actually tried to answer this question in an essay, I feel that I would have for the most part appraised new media and the Internet in particular as being positive in allowing individuals not to be bound by the identity they were assigned at birth, however, I would take Suler’s and McLeod’s darker side of identity creation in mind. My argument would definitely concede, however, that identity creation has advanced a great deal more and is a lot more easy and accessible due to information and communication technologies such as the Web.

Reference List

Bruckman, A. S. (no date supplied), Gender Swapping on the Internet, [Online], Available from: http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/stpp4C03/ClassEssay/muds.htm [Accessed 2 Sept 2004]

Mulcahy, J. K. 1997, Role Playing Characters and the Self, [Online], Available from: http://beyond3sigma.loki.ws/anthro.html [Accessed 1 Sept 2004]

(Note: the following two references deviate from Harvard style as instructed by John Suler- further information at http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/copyright.html)

Suler, J. (1999). Do Boys (And Girls) Just Wanna Have Fun?. In The Psychology of Cyberspace, http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/genderswap.html (originally published 1996) [Accessed 1 Sept 2004]

Suler, J. (2000). Identity Management in Cyberspace. In The Psychology of Cyberspace, http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html (originally published 1996) [Accessed 2 Sept 2004]

Turkle, S. (no date supplied), Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in
Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs, [Online], Available from: http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html [Accessed 1 Sept 2004]

Critical Annotated Webliography

2004-09-04T14:29:00.000+08:00

Catherine Waldby argues that contemporary society is gripped by a sense of technogenesis, ‘the loss of an origin securely located in nature’ wherein the boundary between the natural and technological cannot be easily or concretely positioned. How is this reflected in digital culture?

Waldby looks at the way in which there is a blurring of boundaries between our natural and technological selves and in turn raises questions about the consequences of ‘technogenesis’. In looking at the many ways this is reflected in digital culture I would discuss ideas of: creation of new identities online, taking real bodies online through the process of virtual reality, the rebirth of a natural body into a digital body as seen in the Visible Human Project (VHP). In searching for appropriate articles I used the Google search engine and searched the terms: Waldby, embodiment, natural, technological, cyberspace and boundaries.

1. To begin answering the question I think Thacker’s article is useful in explaining ideas from a historical viewpoint, which I believe is a good starting point. He discusses the early modern period in which it is evident that the way bodies had been known through medical discourse and practice was beginning to change from textual and diagrammatic representations to real dissections. The article also looks at the VHP in detail and discusses the transformation of the real body into the digital body and says “these 'technological cuts assemble an anatomical body at the same time as they dismember the cadaver” which poses the question “When the body is technically understood through an informatic logic, in what sense can a "virtual" body be said to exist?” Thacker refers to these online bodies as ‘digital anatomies’ and explores how we can read and understand the body as constituted through information. He also discusses ideas of ‘the impossible’ that occurs in the digital; the transgression of the limits of life, the body social structures, rational comprehension and language.

2. Darren Tofts’ article looks at artificial life and simulation. In the discussion of computer games Tofts says that games like Doom, crystallise “an intriguing nexus of ideas to do with death and reanimation, digital avatars and longevity". There always seems to be some way to reanimate yourself through the digital, whether it is a computer character or the VHP. This is a cogent example of Waldby’s notion that ‘real’ bodies permeate the screen and become part of the ‘looking glass world of the virtual screen, where the laws of everyday matter – the irreversibility of time, the inescapability of decomposition, the finality of death – are suspended.” In addition to this Tofts explores the virtual pet phenomenon and although I would not go into too much detail on this topic it would be interesting to note, as this further shows natural/technological blurring; the characteristics of a real pet created and simulated digitally and treated as a real pet.

3. Sherry Turkle’s article initially looks at the Sims series of games and the ways in which they simulate life. The reference to the animals in the game being ‘alive’, ties in with Tofts’ discussion of virtual pets. Turkle also looks at taking parts of the real online and conversely taking things from the virtual to the real. There is also an interesting story about a boy named Stewart, that as Turkle puts it “spends his time constructing a life that is more expansive than the one he lives in physical reality” which begs the question of whether or not a virtual existence is also a ‘real’ existence and what parts of our virtual and real lives overlap on relation to online identities, online sex and relationships.

4. Biocca’s article looks at a variety of ways in which the boundaries between natural and technological cannot be concretely positioned. Virtual Reality (VR) and the notion of taking the real body into cyberspace is discussed in detail and this is an interesting way to look at bodies in cyberspace and whether these bodies exist in both spaces simultaneously. Section 3.3 of the article looks at the design of the represented body and the poses questions about the real body in cyberspace “when the systems map the user's body directly to the first person experience of a full virtual body, as virtual body that provides feedback about the location of limbs and head in space.” It also has some interesting diagrams of the body and its relation to digital technology.

5. Simanowski’s article looks at “The body’s disappearance, reinvention, and reshaping online” and the different ways in which the natural and the technological are blurred. This article gives a really good overview of different ideas which are covered in the other articles as well as discussing notions of cyborgs. Relating back to Thacker’s idea of the impossible, the description and images of the ‘Puppet Tool’ program shows a technogenesis in which things can be reanimated and given life and in the case of the horse, a very different life to which is possible in the ‘real’ world. Simanowski states that “technology and cyberspace present ways to get beyond both physical limitations as well as social constructions" which suggests a reason for the desire to create an existence online.

6. Slater and Usoh’s article also looks at a Virtual reality and gives a brief history of the topic and generally discusses the possibilities and consequences of ‘taking your own body into cyberspace’ through the use of VR equipment such gloves, eyewear and more. The idea of ‘possession’ of the body is one that I found very interesting and this notion is discussed further in the details of a study conducted with VR and the idea of ‘presence’ both of the virtual body and the real body. The article also looks at the actions possible for someone in VR and makes the distinction between ‘mundane’ and ‘magical’ which ties back to the idea of ‘impossibility’ discussed by previous writers.

Although these articles cover a broad range of topics, they do highlight the many ways in which boundaries of natural and technological are pushed in digital culture. My argument would look at online/digital bodies and their relationship to physical bodies and whether they are ultimately referring back to the ‘real’ body or are independent of it. Through the use of the varied examples in the articles it is evident that there are many ways in ‘technogenesis’ can be seen to occur.

References:

Bioca, Frank, “The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments”, http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue2/biocca2.html#Abstract . accesses 30/08/04

Simanowski, Roberto “The Body in Cyberspace: Invented, Morphed, Generated, Dismissed” http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2003/parisconnection/durieu-review.htm, April 2003, accessed 30/08/04

Slater, Mel and Usoh, Martin, Body centred interaction in Immersive Virtual Environments http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/m.slater/Papers/bci.pdf

Thacker, Eugene, “Lacerations: The Visible Human Project, Impossible Anatomies, and the Loss of Corporeal Comprehension”, http://web.archive.org/web/20030510181251/http:/culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j003/Articles/Thacker/impossible.htm, 02/03/01, accessed 30/08/04

Tofts, Darren, “Avatars of the Tortoise: life, longevity and simulation” 2003, http://www.swin.edu.au/sbs/media/staff/tofts/essays/dc141-Tofts.pdf accessed 30/08/04

Turkle, Sherry, “Who Am We?” http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle_pr.html , January 1996, accessed 30/08/04

Attempt at a Critical Annotated Webliography

2004-09-04T05:30:00.000+08:00

3. Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies.

Introduction

Constructions of identity have been extended and altered by information and communication technologies (IT and CT), and identity can now be constructed in ways like never before. Free availability of site content and online chat mediums make it easier for users to expand their exposure to new things and reconsider their identities. In an effort to thoroughly cover the related issues, this webliography presents sources addressing inter-connected issues relating to identity construction in the following order: the digital revolution and new (techno-) culture, tools for interpersonal communication, chat identities and the mask of text-based communication, women’s online identities, electronic communities, and weblogs.

General impact of IT and CT on identity constructions

Kelly proposes that technological advances have created a culture separate from, but not independent of, science and art: A “third culture” which seeks and values novelty as opposed to truth (science) and expression of the human condition and beauty (art). He presents this third culture as inherently reforming nerd status – from unappealing to highly desirable and respectable – bringing into question the (re)construction of the nerd identity. Kelly suggests the components of nerd culture, and therefore nerd identity also, such as the contribution of new words to the English language, the pursuit of novelty, online expression, and experience in virtual reality (VR). It is these components that have altered the construction of the nerd identity, and that provide ways for information and communication technologies (IT and CT) to extend individuals’ identity construction.

London's book review of Negroponte’s 1995 Being Digital briefly explores the translation of the physical to the virtual in a discussion of the impact of the contemporary technological revolution-turned-culture on “the future of human social life, work, entertainment and commerce.” He sheds light on the digital areas of “electronic communities”, the growing prevalence of e-mail, and the generational social divide caused by the techno-culture revolution and its unequal distribution of the commodity that is information, of which the younger generation enjoys more. This divide inherently involves a change in identity construction – i.e. our constructions of identity have been extended to include our relationship with technology, and, hence, the prevalence of IT and CT have altered sociological dynamics, redefining generational social differences and interpersonal communication.

The mask of electronic text-based communication

Carlstrom thoroughly explains the construction of text-based worlds (MUDs). She explains the things that can be created in these worlds (namely rooms, objects, character names and descriptions, and pets), how they are created, and what they (can) do. This article illustrates the potential of CT to extend and facilitate identity exploration and construction through freedom of expression. The construction of MUD characters is a means for exploring and experimenting with interaction via different characters that may or may not be accurate representations of the actual user. This exploration and experimentation leads the user to new experiences which may affect their identity.

Baker reports a study of 18 couples, the comprising partners of which had their first encounters online. Baker’s aim was to trace the process that begins with meeting in cyberspace and later offline. Baker reports differences perceived by participants between their partners’ online and offline identities and appearance; namely, shyness and physical appearance. Implicit in the differences between online and offline impressions/identities are the constituents of a user’s online identity; for example, a picture of themselves, their username, user-profile, and so forth. Depending on the extent of internet use, the empowerment of the user and their increased ability for self-determination and control over what is presented of themselves to others may result in dramatic identity shape-shifting as increasingly more of the user’s identity may be constructed in, and derived from, cyberspace.

Kearns reports the online felony committed to a 14 year old boy by university student Galen Baughman in Bloomington, Indiana, USA in 2003, and the ensuing investigation and arrest of Baughman. An undercover investigator assumed the boy’s online identity in interactions with Baughman, who mistook the investigator for the 14 year old, and sent him pornographic material. The undercover investigator assuming the 14 year old boy’s online identity highlights the fundamental aspects of constructing an identity online: reportedly the investigator signed in to the chat medium (unspecified in the article) with the boy’s username and password, and mimicked the boy’s language responses. This illustrates that text-based communication provides an easily manipulated mask behind which may be a user (e.g. an undercover investigator) who is vastly different from the identity purported (e.g. a 14 year old boy). CT thus enables easy construction of different identities, interactions under which may facilitate identity-altering self-exploration.

Arnold and Miller offer an insightful report of a small study which investigated female academics’ online identities, referring to issues of authenticity (the ‘person factor’), credibility (of work) and authority (of their voice and perspective). An influential overtone was the acceptability of the online female identity construction to both the viewer and creator. That acceptability of women’s online representation is an issue reflects online gender struggles; i.e. reactions to the legacy of women’s oppression. The research uncovered participants’ perception of the internet as empowering and providing new freedom; for example, building homepages reportedly allows for exploration, expression, and renewal of respondents’ identities. Respondents reported an increased sense of security, worth, and control in expressing their work and opinions online, suggesting that the internet is altering female academics’ identity constructions. Also, the internet extends expressions of identity, by way of increased accessibility of academics’ work, which was previously restricted to conferences and journal publications. “Women who have been struggling not to be in the minority or invisible in their positions in academia, can now become visible” as a result of a building of confidence that occurred online behind a text-based mask.

‘Maskless’ personal expression and exploration online

In discussing the development of women-targeted sites, Brown highlights definitions of womanhood: the constituents of traditional definitions, Brown refers to as “fluff” -- a term encompassing beauty, sex and housekeeping tips, horoscopes, and celebrity gossip. An arguably ideal definition includes independence (e.g. DIY tips), worldly awareness, financial capability and autonomy, and intelligence. The essay’s own implicit definition of womanhood is mixed, and reflects the struggles involved in developing a consensual definition. Without the internet this development may have come later or progressed slower, as Brown writes that women have been exposed to issues and ideas they “never really saw before the Web”. The implications of this are alterations of female identity constructions, and the acceleration of these alterations.

Bruckman illustrates the diversity of form and content of internet communities. As identity influences membership to communities, community membership influences identity construction. Electronic communities are yet another means for self-exploration and, hence, another extension to the development of users’ identity constructions. The nature of electronic communities is, in many cases, different from offline communities, in terms of both content and members. Online communities provide new avenues for self-exploration and -discovery, and this is another way in which IT and CT both extend and alter users’ identity constructions.

Blood provides an account of the increasingly prevalent weblog: its origins, developments and purposes. She clarifies that the original weblog was exclusive to the html-proficient internet user, and its purpose was to analytically scrutinize the content of websites and online articles. The exclusivity and the content restrictions of weblogs rapidly receded with the introduction of the free-form interface blogger.com provided and the bandwagon-jumping of a broad clientele. Blood highlights the potential for a weblog to be a facility, not only for self-expression, but also for self-discovery. This is an illustration of the weblog as an extension of identity construction, as it inherently allows for the user to be exposed to issues and ideas they may not encounter offline.

References
Arnold, Jill & Miller, Hugh. Same Old Gender Plot? Women Academics’ Identities on the Web, May 2000, http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/miller/cyberpsych/gendplot.html, accessed 29th August 2004.

Baker, Andrea. “Cyberspace Couples Finding Romance Online Then Meeting for the First Time in Real Life” CMC Magazine, July 1998, http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1998/jul/baker.html, accessed 22nd August 2004.

Blood, Rebecca. “Weblogs: A History and Perspective” Rebecca’s Pocket, 7 September 2000, http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html, accessed 25th August 2004.

Brown, Janelle. What Happened to the Women’s Web?, 25th August 2000, http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/08/25/womens_web/index.html, accessed 29th August 2004.

Bruckman, Amy. Finding One’s Own in Cyberspace, 1996, http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/various/Bruckman_A.1996.Finding_ones_own.html, accessed 25th August 2004.

Carlstrom, Eva-Lise. Better Living Through Language, 15th May 1992, http://ftp.game.org/pub/mud/text/research/communicative.txt, accessed 26th August 2004.

Kearns, Colin. “Student Arrested for Child Porn”, U-Wire, 17th April 2003, http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=16228, accessed 26th August 2004.

Kelly, Kevin. The Third Culture, 26th February 1998, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kelly/, accessed 28th August 2004.

London, Scott. Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte, 1995, http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/negroponte.html, accessed August 27th 2004.

Ethics in Cyberspace

2004-09-01T03:42:00.000+08:00

Hey guys. Hope we're all going well on our current assignment. :)

I've found an article that relates to the question raised in our last tute regarding the ethical issues that arise in using online material for research purposes. Here it is if you're interested (What's Wrong with the "Golden Rule"? Conundrums of Conducting Ethical Research in Cyberspace by Christina Allen). It is quite lengthy - I confess, I haven't read the whole thing - but from what I've gathered, it discusses basic ethical (and moral?) principles and the relevance and usefulness of these principles to the online research arena, and, hence, the article encourages the reader to revisit these basic ethical principles and put them into practice.

Enjoy.

Oh, and happy First Day Of Spring! :D

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2004-08-27T17:01:00.001+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?

For both Hotmail and Y! Mail, users are required to enter their First names, Last names, Gender, and Date of Birth as profile information. However, both service providers make the assumption that users will provide authentic information during registration.

In Hotmail, the user is given a drop-list to indicate their language, country/region, state, and time zone. In Y! Mail, however, the list has a more limited choice in terms of language and country options as they are a combined category instead of being separate categories. E.g. Chinese – (Mainland) China, Chinese – Hong Kong, French – France, French – Canada, etc.

Both email service providers have a category for security, but the drop-list for that is very limited.

The registration for the Second Life gameworld, however, has a slightly different process. Here, the user is encouraged to fill in their choice of First name and to choose from a drop-list of Last names provided. The Last name in this registration process is assumed fake. Other categories of profile information are along similar line to that of the two email service providers, but with lesser information required. Users are not required to provide country or language preferences.

From this, we can note that the email service providers are more concerned about the identities of their service users, whereas the gameworld is more concerned with providing a level of anonymity for their users.

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

Personally, I do not feel that websites in general are inherently racist. Some of them may portray such an impression, but in digging-further, the user may realize that the particular website is targeted at a particular audience demographic, which the user may not be part of, thus creating the effect of racism?

I’ve yet to encounter an inherently racist website, but in online publishing forums, the tendency to make assumptions about a particular person is inherent, perhaps largely due to our individual need to ‘visualize’ the other party we connect to or communicate with. Just as we try to glean a sense of ‘personality’ from what we perceive from an individual’s online communications, we try to give an identity to the individual as well.

menu-driven identities online workshop

2004-08-27T16:55:00.000+08:00

1. All of these sites offer a very limited list of categories of identity.

The microsoft .Net Passport site asks :-
first name
last name
language ... very limited, no variations in terms of location versions of e.g. Spanish.
country ... seemingly a comprehensive list.
location ... limited unless American or other English speaking
time zone
gender ... only two choices
age
occupation ... western economic bias.

The Yahoo site:-
first name
last name
age
gender ... three choices male, female and ---.
industry ... huge presumption of bias toward wealthy, western, white, and dare I say, male.
................ No room here for the non-industrial, the non-technological, or the home based occupations the
.................negating and eliding category of "other".
title ...... same limitation.
specialization ... ditto.
special interests.... this category again presumes much about the user's identity in that it is defined here
.............................through parameters of westernised cultural interests.
............................ It also exists merely as a consumerist marker to be appropriated
.............................for the purposes of marketing.

The Second Life site:-
In operating as an "in-world" identity, SL presumes that a user's fictionality would still be based on a menu providing only two possible gendered positions that of either M or F. However the fact that it provides for
a fictional identity of Name, Age and Gender. Race is not on the menu though there is some room, albeit reductive, for choice in the nationalities suggested by some of the surnames. The presumption of this site
operates to reinforce the usual hegemony. White, Western (English speaking at least)and heterosexual.

The absence of more individuated possibilities of identity markers in these menu-driven identity sites, serves
to erase, diminish and reduce certain identities that have been deemed of little or no consequence or importance.
It assumes all the subjectivity for white, western, heterosexual, middle-class and decenters any possibilities of difference or diversity by reducing these either to the "anonymising" category "other"or by completely absenting them.

2.The kinds of identity categories on LL are initially restricted to choice of encounter, sex, sexual preference,age and location. However, once that is made, the identity markers, apart from those obvious in the photos, relate to age, sex, race, colour, location, star-sign, education level, income band and religion, physical stature and body type, smoking/drinking habits, children and desire for same or not.
The categories of race and locations seem to be quite inclusive though difficult to guage. The other categories of identity seem to preference certain standard assumptions in terms of desirability/availability like income levels and children, colour and body type.

A Title Similar to "Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response"

2004-08-27T15:21:00.001+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?

Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and Second Life all ask for "First name" and "Last name"; however, it appears that Y! and Hotmail assume the provided names are real/factual, while Second Life encourages the provision of a 'fictional' name as a starting point for the construction of a new, online identity. Second Life, unlike Y! and Hotmail, provide a list of surnames from which the user can select. This list is arguably extensive, but still limiting as there is no option for the user to choose a surname outside of that list. In the list there is only one ‘U’ surname, no ‘X’ or ‘Y’ surnames, and many of the surnames have predominantly Western connotations (although that perception may just be a result of the Western interpretation I happen to have). And so begins the construction of the user’s MDI (menu-driven identity).

The user’s choice of their Security Questions (used in cases such as the user’s forgetting of their password) is bound to the limits of the menus provided by Hotmail, Y! and Second Life. The menus, when considered holistically as entities, are remarkably suggestive of Western ideals, such as marriage, parenthood, institutional education, and having a (favourite) pet. Second Life provides questions such as “What is your mother’s maiden name?” which doesn’t appear to take into account individuals with more than one mother, such as people who have been adopted, people whose parents are a lesbian couple, or Australian Aboriginal people who regard their biological mother and her sisters in the same manner as each other. Another question/option is “What street did you grow up on?” which implies the ideal of having one childhood home, and appears to exclude those who changed their residential location a lot, such as people whose parents’ occupations required them to move, or whose parents changed life partners, or individuals who were members of a gypsy band.

Y! appears not to ask the user for their sex/gender, while Hotmail and Second Life both ask for “gender” (as opposed to “sex”). I find this interesting as it allows for transsexuals and hermaphrodites to consolidate their gender identities, although by the same token it may present some confronting and difficult issues. (And so continues the construction of the user’s MDI.)

2. What sorts 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 identities included in the Lavalife user profiles include age (18-99 years), gender (male/female), hetero- and homo- sexuality, education level, annual income, country, and personal interests. (I couldn’t find a way to change the search from English speakers.)

Profiles open with answers to “asl (age, sex, location)?”. This suggests that the Lavalife creators consider these factors as most important to the reader. The prioritisation of what is included in the profile excerpts in the search results pages over other details specified in the extended profile pages is interesting, too; for example, the prioritisation of annual income over personal interests. It seems that capitalism increasingly permeates our daily lives, as Lavalife creators feed us the financial value of the user rather than the user's own personal values (which, personally, I consider more important than their income). The lack of representation of other-than-USA currencies is also reflective of the values implicitly endorsed/perpetuated by Lavalife.

In Australian user profiles I noticed the option “college” had been selected – in my experience, Australians rarely refer to college. This is an example of the limitations and implications of menu-driven identities: there is no room to accurately and wholly express our true identities (for example, "university education"), and so users have to make approximations and compromises in many areas.

Maybe these days in the chat forums, instead of asking "asl?" we should ask our fellow chatters “mdi?”.

Lavalife and menu-driven identities

2004-08-27T14:30:00.000+08:00

2) The identities in Lavalife are very much dominated by characteristics that allow us to gain a rough picture of someone by stereotyping them, and leave us without really knowing much about the person at all, other than a bunch of common descriptions that don’t really set apart one person from another. We get a name, race, age, star sign, religious orientation, body type, whether or not they smoke/drink, whether they want children, and how much they earn. (There might not be as much info if it’s just dating)
I get the same sense when I am booking a hotel room or a table at a restaurant. Since they all seem to appear in similar order I assume that Lavalife organises the information this way with the assumption that from first to last this is what matters most to people when they are looking for companions. The format of the profiles gives the impression that the people who write the profiles are trying to sell a product, and the users can write people off who may be perfectly decent just because ‘the other one was an Aries AND had a muscular body’ it pretty much shows that the profiles cant guarantee much at all about the person other than faint sketch. In real life we may not even come across information like this about a person and it won’t affect the relationship at all, in fact t may not even matter.

3) The identities visible in LavaLife are determined a lot by the search engines structure. I was interested in the sexual orientation side of this; there are heterosexual males and females, and homosexual males and females. I found the differing displays for each interesting. What I paid particular attention to was the page you are taken to before the profiles are displayed, the one that gives you the three options:
DATING RELATIONSHIP INTIMATE ENCOUNTER
‘Meet new ‘find a committed ‘try something wild’
people and have fun’ relationship’

I noticed that for male seeking female and female seeking male the comments under these titles remained the same, but for male seeking male and female seeking female the comments changed to:
‘Meet guys to hang with’ ‘find Mr right’ ‘hook up for sex’ and ‘hang out and flirt’ ‘find someone to get serious about’ ‘start something sensual’
Is there need for the descriptions to be changed at all?
It is obvious after browsing through the site that it is geared towards a male majority (the default option is male seeking female) despite the fact that females participate. The homosexual search page is interesting. “Sex’ is used more freely but when there are women involved it’s more sensual /intimate etc
I also noticed that with respect to homosexuality be it male or female it was geared more towards the sexual side of relationships, even the pictures showed more sexual contact as opposed to only one category picture suggesting this in the heterosexual search page.
This layout also makes it impossible for heterosexual and homosexual people to mix. It is assumed that you can search for friends on Lavalife, but only friends of the same sexual orientation.
Perhaps you could fill out some kind of form in which you tick characteristics that you are looking for in a friend/partner and it can search across categories rather than all the categories being so separate from each other.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop

2004-08-27T14:14:00.001+08:00

OK. This WOULD have been done earlier, but the entire thing disappeared when I tried to highlight it all for some reason. I don't think I missed anything, luckily.

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?

Hotmail's passport profile categories consist of names (both first and last), language, country/region, state/territory, postal code, timezone, gender, birthdate and occupation. Certain presumptions are made via Hotmail's passport system- for example, the language selection only allows you to choose from a certain list of the more common languages in the world. There are selections for Chinese, French, Finnish, English, but there appears to be no selection for Swahili, for example, or Hebrew, or iddish, or any of the 'fringe' languages. It is possible that these languages simply cannot be supported by the Passport software, but it seems at least assumed that the languages listed are the only ones that will be known by Hotmail users. In addition, Hotmail assumes that, in terms of gender, users consider themselves either male or female, offering a radio button for either one or the other. There is no way of mentioning one is transgendered, for example, or hermaphroditic, or even asexual/genderless. There is no way of describing your gender yourself- you may only select the options given to yourself. This can say one of two things- that Hotmail has merely neglected to consider the possibility of such other genders or languages existing, or alternatively that they choose not to give users the option to choose these other alternatives, perhaps through considering such ideas unimportant or perhaps by deeming them inappropriate.

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 offer a variety of identities available in their online profiles, ranging in age, gender, location and personal quirks. These identities are displayed by searching for certain criteria, and can be displayed initially on a list of search results detailing a picture and such information as age, gender, starsign, skin colour, location and smoking and drinking habits. Then, if a user is interested, a profile can be viewed in more detail, displaying things such as ideal nights out and hobbies. The purpose of this is to allow users to view a shortened list of profiles and then to select the ones that interest them so they can view more. However, certain presumptions have been made by the Lavalife administrators, both concerning the people reading the profiles and the users creating the profiles. In terms of people reading, the default search setting is male searching for female. While this can easily be changed, it's quite obviously assumed that most people visiting the site will fit that particular criteria. In addition, the default setting is a search by American ZIP code, and a user must tinker with the search options to search for Australian people or people from any nation other than the US. This presumes that most people searching are from the United States- a racial assumption, it would seem. In terms of the creators of such profiles, I noticed that there was not any actual declaration of sexual preference in any of the profiles, in-depth or otherwise. This in itself seems to indicate an assumption that most if not all Lavalife users are heterosexual.

Menu-Driven Id. workshop response.

2004-08-27T14:14:00.000+08:00

Well firstly I reckon that at the end of the course we have an anonymous questionnaire to find out how many students of this course have engaged in online introductions since this workshop! I think this is a really fascinating aspect of the presence of the Internet in our lives. Online introduction agencies are effectively changing the way people live and perceive their lives. I got a bit carried away and also checked out the RSVP and Yahoo introduction sites. I found it really interesting to compare the formats of different sites, and the resulting differences in the construction of identies.
Anyway..
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 identities constructed through the pull down menu options are regulated and uniform. Until I clicked on the personal blurbs, I really couldn't tell one apart from the other. The opening sentence provides the only inkling to the human idiosyncrasies of the profiler (or how they choose to be perceived).
Obviously the denotation of race is set up as the primary indicator of the identity of the individual, the words "I am white" (the most commonly chosen) really arrested me every time I read them, what does white mean? It’s such a Post-colonial term.
Thinking about how I would construct myself on this site I guess I would 'fit' most closely within the 'mixed' term. But who wouldn't? Is the ability to only choose one racial category in the profile (unless you choose not to specify - then everyone is thinking why not?) tied to a notion that individual subjectivities have an identification with only one dominant racial heritage? This seems bizarre on a site that markets itself as an international meeting place, and that has carefully selected photos of culturally diverse people interacting with each other. How would the hypothetical children of these relationships profile themselves? The site relies on very rigid notions and stereotypes of racial subjectivity.
Its actually a very prescribed format, apart from the 'intimate encounters' forum, the options from which to choose from are mainstream and typical i.e. walks on the beach, pubs/clubs, videos on the lounge - what if you were into poetry readings, body piercing, visiting your grandmother or campaigning for the rights of refugees? I guess the format relies on the belief that people are a 'type' and not actually a thousand different elements driven by a thousands of different forces.
It relies heavily on depicting those elements that are generally apparent in western ‘commercial’ ideas about desirability and attractiveness. I.e. delineations of race, gender, money, power (education) that are promoted in mainstream marketing and advertising.

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?
Apart from the "in my own words" space, and the photo or video, the construction of an identity is fairly abitrary. (Although interestingly there was not any really creative usage of the personalised word and image spaces - perhaps due to the regulations of the site in which case, well its all regulated and is any of it truly representative?)
Changes that would allow an improvement in the way identity is constructed in my mind would be a totally free format in which you can describe in your own words those characteristics that you believe to be defining. The obvious hassle with this, given the format of the site, is that searching is made tricky because you could not specify desired characteristics. In this case maybe there just needs to be a lot more options - what about transgendered identities? What if you are looking to meet a particular man or woman to have sex with, but with a potential for a long term relationship? In its present form you can only have one or the other - sex or love (although there seemed to be quite a lot of sexual subtext in the personal blurbs I read - male and female)
I also found the complete lack of ability to design the space that you were exhibited on a bit boring- what about downloading music, links, images etc? What if you were a writer/artist/bricklayer/singer and you posted some of your work? Your favourite photo?Clearly all options are regulated by the profitablity of the site to its designers, but the potential to represent/contruct oneself online is boundlessly creative, and by comparison the represent of profiles on lavalife is pretty dull.

Menu Driven Identities W/S blogged by Anli

2004-08-27T11:41:00.000+08:00

In addition to being terribly, agonisingly ill, my computer just ate all my work, ANGST.

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?

The identity that lavalife users can project are fairly limited, and this is almost entirely due to the site design. A basic search for dating or relationships returns a brief and prescribed summary for each person, with a photo if available. The larger profile only has one section where the user can type whatever they wish (subject to lavalife rules.)

Eliminating the drop-down box effect or menu driven identity may allow each user to create a more individual profile. However, judging by the rather low quality of some of the profiles, at least the menu identities churn out a blurb that is grammatically sound and readable.

As opposed to a more networked approach, lavalife's profiles are organised into strict categories. These twelve categories combine dichotic systems of gender and sexual orientation (male/female and straight/gay) and desired level of interaction (dating, relationship or sex.) Sexual orientation is so clear cut that even in the profile section there is no available slot stating 'straight/gay' or 'biological gender/gender most identified with' -- it is assumed on the basis of where a user's profile is situated.

(Some users have described themselves as 'bicurious' and so forth in their short message before their profile, however. I only noticed this is the female/female section, but I was only searching for Western Australians.)

Combined with this is an inability through more than one category at a time, such as a search for female seeking female and female seeking male, or seeking dating and sex.

Breaking down or at least blurring the category boundaries would make the site more interesting but has to potential to cause offence (eg. a strictly het man finding something like "Kiss me and I'll turn into your prince charming!" in his search.)

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

Most of the websites visited certainly play on race stereotypes. In Yahoo's sign up splash page, a latino?mixed-race woman emotively promotes the free mail service, a white male promotes the upgraded version 'go[ing] to the next level' and a black male promotes his 'own address, as unique as I am'. The last picture certainly emphasises non-white as the other, as exotic/unique. This is also shown on the front page of secondlife.com, where the European female's secondlife/fantasy half is an exoticised Asian woman with a name fit for a pulp superhero ("Echo Omega"). Site design on lavalife uses mostly white figures (comparison image 100kb, which shows plenty of gender and orientation stereotypes as well.)

However, I find simply labeling these sites as 'racist' to be somewhat problematic. Dictionary.com suggests that racism is discrimination or "the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others". Certainly a form of discrimination is in place where English is valued above all other languages in all sites, but although this has implications of race, it also stems from a century of economic dominance by English-speaking nations.

The websites do promote whiteness as a norm, and there is an inherent superiority with the association of numbers (ie. more white people = because we are better.) I see this more as reflecting the fact that the web is still primarily used by white people based in the US. Would we call SAWnet discriminatory if it used only pictures of Asian women in its welcome page?

I feel really inadequate trying to articulate this, and anyway, I'm over the word limit.

menu-driven identities

2004-08-25T16:33:00.000+08:00

2. The sorts of identities we see on Lava Life are very limited and really don’t mean much for a potential soul mate. The categories could easily lead to people making value judgements through either the information provided or omitted. I’m not sure what the implication of omitting a part of the profile would be but I think that would be an interesting exercise. For example leaving some fields empty or selecting ‘prefer not to say’ may suggest that the person has something to hide. The order of identity markers in the profiles appear as: age, sex, location, race, star sign, religion, body type etc, which one can only assume is listed in order of ‘importance’. I found it very interesting that star sign appeared before religion and even amongst those criteria.

The way in which the profiles are set up is so that they can be scanned for information by potential dates. It assumes that these criteria are more important then having similar interests etc. Although it is assumed that these people will meet up in the ‘real’ world it is totally unlike finding a partner in the ‘real’ world. I assume that meeting someone and wanting to have a relationship with them would be based more upon emotional ‘feeling’ rather than their height and religion and therefore I find these categories very reductive as it is obvious that many people have great relationships even if they are vastly different in height or of different religions.

3. After reading a number of the profiles I felt as though no one was really very interesting because all of the profiles were constructed in exactly the same way. After reading a few I found myself only reading the ‘in my own words’ section of the profile. This personalised section gave a much greater insight into the person than any of the other sections did. There appears to be a lot of options available for pastimes and interests which I think leads to a ticking frenzy when completing the profile with the result being that there is too much to read and it seems too generic, for example ‘playing a musical instrument’. Also by having the fields in place there seems to be pressure to fill them all in, otherwise this may lead to people questioning your profile. It would be better if more of the profile could be completed in your own words as you can get a better idea of someone’s personality. And I think that the video idea is probably pretty good as it is more ‘real-life’ then just the written profiles. Although my favourite part was definitely the part which (if you had given your personal details) told you that the person whose profile you were looking at “lives approximately – miles from your home”….imagine if you found the perfect guy…and he lived next door!

Menu-Driven Identities Workshop

2004-08-25T09:35:00.000+08:00

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

Hotmail is inherantly racist as it assumes a white audience. This can be seen in many ways, one of which is in the language selection. First and foremost it must be noted that quite literally the default option is English – English is pre-selected for the assumed English speaking net user. This type of assumption is damaging to non-English speaking users, while affirming English speaking users as ‘correct’ and ‘normal.’ The majority of ‘white’ people in the world speak English, and while it is true that many ‘non-white’ people speak English, I still feel that this site’s use of English as a default option is symptomatic of a white-washing of the web.
There are 14 other language choices for hotmail, which I have taken the liberty to catagorise in a very dualistic manner that I imagine was something similar to how the original designers did:

European -
Dutch
Danish
Finish
French
German
Italian
Norwegian
Swedish

Asian-
Japanese
Korean
Chinese – simplified
Chinese -traditional

Other-
Spanish
Portuguese (brazil)

Thus it can be seen that Hotmail has very few language choices. In first year linguistics we learnt that the number of languages in the world today is between 2500 and 7000 (it is hard to be specific because it depends on the definition of language). 15 languages out of even the most modest estimate of 2500 other languages is a tiny percentage. The languages that have been included have been included for obvious reasons. The European languages are spoken most widely in rich European nations.

Europeans have a lot of disposable income and their many different cultures are generally not threatening to a Western culture. Also the languages that have not been included are telling: there is no Arabic, for instance (Arabic is the 6th most widely used language in the world, above Portuguese and French. For more fun facts like this, check out This Groovy Site which also shows clearly that English is the second most widely spoken language after Chinese.) People who speak Arabic are generally from an Arab country; and the Western governments seem bent on silencing people from Arab countries, so perhaps this is another avenue to do that.

Thus it can be seen that advertising, money, and xenophobia is probably one of the greatest limiter to the language selection on the Hotmail site, and this limited language selection and default option represent an inherently racist web site.

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 profiles in Lavalife that I observed (probably about 50 in all) were all ‘menu-driven.’ They listed a very limited amount of their (supposed) attributes in a tiny space. One profile which was very typical of the ones I viewed in Lavalife was found under Relationships while looking for a female aged 18 to 99 in Australia. The information she disclosed was:

Age – 33
Sex – Female
Race – white
Location – (I will keep this confidential so as not to identify the subject)
Smoking Habits – never
Drinking Habits – social drinker
Profession – nurse
Children – none, but would like to have them
Height – 5’6
Body Type – average

This taxonomic summary of who she is and what she has to offer for a potential partner is very telling. There is not enough information from this to tell anything meaningful about her – a person’s smoking habits, body type and age at most give a stereotypical impression of what they must be like, at worst a completely false impression.

This type of classification system relies on coded meanings in the words themselves. For instance ‘white’ conveys much more information that the colour of her skin; there are associated meanings that are borne in our society about someone who is ‘white.’ The person who is ‘white’ is socially acceptable, having a knapsack of white privilege on her shoulder instead of the heavy baggage that comes with being ‘Black,’ ‘Asian,’ or one of the many ‘others’ or ‘non-whites’ in our society.

Thus by asserting certain characteristics they believe they possess, users of LavaLife (either wittingly or unwittingly) code meanings into their words and hence their lives which are on display. This coding process relies on stereotypical thought patterns and is limiting for all involved.

menu-driven identities workshop

2004-08-24T22:41:00.000+08:00

“Menu Driven Identity” Workshop Response – By Ross Andrews

1. When signing up for hotmail accounts there are language, country/region, state, age, time zone, gender and occupation categories to fill out. The language category only gives the user an option of 15 languages which is a tiny amount and a huge assumption on the part of Microsoft that all users will understand one from this limited selection. This assumption is even more surprising when you look at the country/region options which offer a far wider selection. One would think that the choice of language would be at least as wide. The time and state options are assuming that the user is American by only offering American states and time zones. The absence of a third category in the gender options implies a traditional thinker behind the website - no room is made for a hermaphrodite or any other such user. There is also no option to describe ones race when signing up. This absence probably implies that the creators of the site found it less important for commercial reasons to know the race of a user than the “A.S.L” of a user.

2. The identities on the Lava life dating website include age, ethnicity, gender, location, religion, smoking habits, drinking habits, zodiac sign, and body type. These kinds of identities assume that the person reading them is trying to find someone to meet up with in the real world and not simply on cyberspace. If this were so then the user assumes that nobody is lying about their identity and that the people who made them are also willing to meet in real life if they feel that their two identities would suit. They are very similar too to the categories of the hotmail website and we can assume that the creators feel that this is the most important information to get about the users of their site with regards to targeting advertising and other commercial agendas of the site. The race section of the identity make-up was interesting in that most identities I came across were white. Even if there were undefined races in the identities, I felt as if it hardly mattered as the assumption of similarly privileged background was stronger than the assumption of similar race on my part. The fact that all these people were used to the internet and probably more accustomed to it than I am was far more important in my mind than what race they were and I feel this was a stronger feeling put out by the site than any racism.

introduction to "ruminations on Cyber-race", by Jerry Kang

2004-08-24T21:11:00.000+08:00

Introduction to “Ruminations on Cyber-Race”, by Jerry Kang.

This article was interesting. My first reaction to it was to wonder if that was a regular occurrence on the net. It made me want to strangely try what he did and see the difference between being a white user and another race of user online so last night I tried and didn’t get anywhere starting any conversation really! I got very confused but I still want to try!
He outlines 3 ways of defeating racial segregation and bias in online society. These are abolition, integration and transmutation:

Abolition:
There is the ideology that the net is supposed to be race free and I agree with Kang that this is a naïve goal to strive for.
He brings up the move by the University of California to abolish race from the databases. I agree that this is crazy and surely we must accept that there is difference rather than try to deny it altogether.

Transmutation:
Transmutation on the net brings up too many issues with reliability and as he says eventually collapses into an abolition of race on the net as even the racists will not trust the racial signal.

Integration:
First point at which I questioned what he was saying was that people would undoubtedly explore and move further into the seductive net after starting off in a comfortable race-specific community and that this movement would help increase social interaction between racial groups. I find this hard to believe in one way as it assumes a desire to be inquisitive and be open to other influences that so often in life is blatantly not there. I agree with him that integration is the way to break down these racial problems. His experience of a sort of accidental deceit of his housemate on the phone was very interesting and with this in mind I thought that the potential and the users of the internet need to be managed so that more interaction and experiences are mandatory for the user each time he wants to find his chat room. Already this is happening all over the place but for more commercial reasons rather than for social gain. If this was to happen it does raise the question of who has the authority to set these experiences for integration on the net.
The easiest benefits for the net in terms of race and ending racial bias are where there is a common interest or goal between people of different race on the net. If they are all online for gaming, or for talking about pregnancy or for a commercial or a supportive purpose then completely non-racial co-operation is a real possibility. He talks of buying a car in the real world through a fixed commission salesman to cancel racial prejudice in the transaction, and the net can function as such a mediator in certain shared activities between people of different races. I feel it is completely related to the real world and the racism that occurs there. Rather than the internet being some sort of quick fix for race issues, it should be viewed (in my opinion) as a potential tool to enforce the values that occur in real life. For real change to occur through the net I think it needs to occur in real life first and can then be accelerated on the net.

The fill-In Fields: Menu Driven Identities Workshop Response

2004-08-24T19:00:00.000+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?
I browsed through Lavalife using different combinations of age groups, orientation and gender. I also had a look at the fields in 'create a profile'. The profiles perpetuate a kind of Copy Cat Categories of First Impressions: in the 'dating' section they are brief and very similar. Such a site makes assumptions about what people would want to know about each other, and therefore homogenises exchanges. The categories body type, age and ethnicity attempt to recover information lost in the cyber/text i.e. non-face to face encounter, assuming those are the first things one registers; but also presumes such factors as star sign, smoking & drinking habits and decisions about children are vital or primary bits of information. The categories are reductive, function like a CV for potential candi(dates), and carry value judgements (e.g. education, religion, income). There were more detailed profiles in the 'relationship' section, but it was interesting to note hobbies and interests were considered secondary to those categories already mentioned. It was almost as if dates were potential partners and therefore had to have a 'use' value.
What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?
Curiously, the 'date' section was brief and boring, compared to the 'relationship' section which contained more individualised entries. I would have thought with 'date' suggesting fun, that section would have had more scope for interesting profiles.

Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?
Lavalife and Second Life do exhibit racist tendencies. Visually, a 'norm' is established : the home page on Lava Life shows three 'white' females'. The visual tour on Second Life also display a predominantly 'white' population. Raced meanings are internalised by users, thus, when on-line, driving the creation of on-line identities (the date-profile or cartoonish avatar) are embedded social ideas of what's 'cool' or attractive, and the result consolidates social hierarchies and representations of race. Prior to participation, Lavalife asks you to declare your ethnicity as a category of identity; Second Life appeals to fictitiousness, yet built in is a similar request - a declaration of what the user thinks is desirable, and it's raced.

Menu-Driven Identities Workshop

2004-08-24T18:41:00.001+08:00

1. The categories available for Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail are Name, Gender, Birthdate, Occupation, Language and Location. These fields can all be used to mark out certain aspects of identity. The fields of Language and Location seem to work on the premise of diversity. There is wide range of locations to select from, including countries that are deemed third world. Yet this wide range of locations is not reflected in the languages offered. It is, no doubt quite infeasible to offer the multitudes of languages that are in existence. Yet, this means that many will be forced to choose languages that are not their first. This further reinforces the dominance of certain languages. This is further exposed in Yahoo!Mail’s list of languages. Not only is English offered first on the list, but it appears many different times as location specific English. Although, this allows for different versions of English, it does so at the expense of other language choices. The Name field may appear fairly arbitrary, but this field more than other is more likely to provide clues regarding ethnic identity. Especially seeing as there is no specific field marked out for this concern. Instead nationality seems to replace ethnicity. The place in which you are situated seems to bear more importance in this case. However, there may be many cases of people logging on from places that they bear no relation to, ie as travellers etc. So, the field of location may be completely useless in attempting to place a racial/national marker on a user. This inability to specifically mark racial identity may work to further reinforce the hegemony of whiteness. But, this lack also resits uniform categorization. Again, we fall into this matter of either being pigeonholed into certain categories and their associated connotations, or having to be lumped into one generic category that holds its own preconceptions.

2. The identities that are revealed in the Lavalife profiles come across like they have ticked from a box of categories. The same phrases are repeated and there is a feeling of prepackaged answers. For example the phrase “I don’t have children, but have the desire to have children” occurs numerously. The structure of the profiles in order are: age, sex, city, state, country, race, starsign, religion, body description, whether smoke or drink, intentions regarding children (occasional category). We could assume that these are placed in order of importance. Importance as determined by the creators of Lavalife. This predetermined format limits what information people can give, the element of creativity and choice seems to be negligent. The only outlet given to express any facet of character is in the one line header at the top. This sort of check box profile encourages users to pick out the superficial qualities of a mate, in the same way you pick other consumer goods.

The category of race in Lavalife is placed quite high up on the list. There seems to be only few different answers for this category. Either White, Asian, Black or Mixed. There were a few others, as some chose to be more specific ie East Indian etc. But the majority fell into the aforementioned categories, especially that of White. Interestingly no-one I came across chose any white-skinned ethnic groups ie Irish etc. It seemed that the category White sufficed as a description. The inclusion of the category Mixed could be seen as a kind of coverall category, one that includes all the hybrids. Yet, it allows for a kind of mystery, these people are not exclusively White, but they are anything Other than that, which is a very broad area. I tend to see this as a positive category, in that no specifically fixed assumption can be attached to this category, as it is relatively undefinable.

Menu-Driven Identities Workshop

2004-08-24T18:17:00.000+08:00

I'm going to attempt a discussion of questions 2 and 3 since they are pretty much similarly connected. Hope i don't get lost in my thoughts :)

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?
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?

The basic identity markers of a person are easily visible, by that i mean the usual things that someone would want to know when meeting someone new for whatever purpose they choose : dating, relationships or intimate encounters. Everything is laid out nicely in a fixed format. It makes it easier to compare members (like shopping for products) {i know i'm so gonna get it for saying that} but on the other hand it disallows us to gain an insight of the organisation or thought processes of the member if they were to describe themselves in full without a preset 'template' to follow - It seems that the identities of the members follow a resonably comprehensive fixed template. They all start the same way and follow the same order; age, sex, location (ASL), ethnicity, star sign, religion. Then comes the height, weight and social habits, 'excess baggages' in terms of children (when one is looking for someone to have a relationship with), education level and financial status. Lavalife assumes that that is all a user would be interested in and the member is willing to tell. When i click on the nickname for more info, the standard get-to-know-him/her categories like interests and hobbies come up in addition to a little blurb that the member has written. Because of the overall design of the website, there's no room for other unique identity markers (eg. colour blindedness, piercings, disabilities, a psychotic ex...) unless the member decides to put it in his blurb. Which i doubt he/she would, which leads the user to assume that the member is akin to the majority of the population, whatever that is ;).

Anyway, these blurbs mostly contain information that we would have found out already, but in one of these blurbs, i saw something interesting :

" They say my this 'personal message of "tell us about yourself
in your own words" is too short, because i wrote this only: Nothing
to say accept VERY VERY SMART and CUTE! haha.."

For those not accustomed to Singlish (Singaporean english) , the member basically means that lavalife has told him that what he has written in the "tell us about yourself in your own words" box is too short, because he wrote like 10 words only.

So, it seems that lavalife is standardising the game and presumes that browsers like me are all interested in the same things. If i wanted to use one word to describe myself i should be able to. It's who i am - quiet? Lavalife presumes that the majority is interested in the same things. I guess it's the same theory for all other websites. They tend to cater to the majority of the web surfers who belong to the 'default' race.

I feel that lavalife is one of the better online dating and relationship webbies around. It has an instant messaging thingy AND video greetings (though u have to pay to use them). There should possibly also be a freeform box where the member can come up with some random thought, picture or drawing/s that he/she thinks may reflect his person. Given a fair chance that any member can masquarade his face and identity off in the wired world it's the risk that we all take, and i see no way that lavalife can reduce that risk. As quoted in their Privacy and Use of Information statement : "We cannot guarantee, and assume no responsibility for verifying, the accuracy of the information provided by other users of the Service."

(When posting your response in the tutorial blogs, please use a title similar to "Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response"). - yes tama :)

2004-08-24T10:50:00.000+08:00

1. the category options available for users to choose from when signing up for hotmail, yahoo and second life are to do with names, your age, gender

with the option of gender, only male and female options are available, with an absense of an "other" or trans/cross sexual, androdgenous etc category option. this shows presumptions made that the only categories for gender are male and female.

4. the yahoo website seems racist - or maybe its more to do with class... in the job section, you have to provide your job title, and if not, then the only other option to choose is "OTHER". which immediately makes you seem as though you are unemployed... and thus an other, an outsider. and the job titles all are very westernised

the fact the site is defaulted to english seems racist (hotmail, yahoo), but hotmail is also available in other languages, so it doesn't seem racist in that respect.

if you were using different language, then perhaps you wouldnt be using these sites anyway.

when on lavalife, it seems racist when you sign up, as your opening line can only be in either english or french. there are no other language possibiilites displayed

also when choosing the language you speak, there is no "other" option, there is a range of languages, but no place to write in your language if it is different to the language options presented.

Workshop response

2004-08-24T10:42:00.000+08:00

2. What sort of identities are visible in the profiles of lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions are made about those reading these profiles and those that made them?

In my first search on Lavalife (a female seeking a male aged 18-22 yrs for dating), the kind of responses that I got all addressed almost exactly the types of categories: Age, location, 'race' (including whether = white), star sign, religion (in most cases), whether they smoked or drinked, their height and body shape, generally without a photo included. There was quite a diverse range of people of different "race", star sign, height, religion and locations. What didn't vary much however was that almost everyone "didn't smoke", "drank socially"and was of either an unspecified of "fit/slim build".

The same sorts of things were included in a search of the same nature (female seeking male aged 18-22yrs) merely changing the preference for dating to relationship. There were however a couple of significant differences. Namely, that in this case, in addition to the things defined in the dating preference, a photo was almost always included, a salary range, whether they had secondary and tertiary education and whether they had or wanted children. The same degree of variation was evident in terms of location, star sign, height, religion and location and in most cases the salary range was around $50,000.

The search for male searching for female 18-22 yrs Australia was pretty much identical to the female searching for male one.

I am not sure whether you have a list of categories from which you select specific responses when you create a lavalife profile but I found it interesting that people tended to categorise themselves as either "asian" or "Australian", with none of the identities expressing a "hybrid" identity such as "Asian-Australian". If it is the case that they have to select their "race" from a rigid category list I think it says a lot about the perpetuation and reification of "race" in cyberspace through "menu-driven" identities, as discussed in Lisa Nakamura's article "Menu-Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online".

It is also interesting that all responses to my searches, whether seeking a male or female had either average, slim, fit or unspecified body types. None identified themselves as being overweight which I think most likely because it is presumed being anything other than average, slim or fit is undersirable.

None of the profiles responses for "dating" mentioned their education or salary while this was almost always included in the "relationship" response which is perhaps suggesting that those reading the profiles for dating are more concerned with appearances than with intellect.

It is also of interest that the default option is male seeking female 18yrs. This implicitly positions heterosexuality as "the norm" and both naturalizes and promotes the use of the program by young males within this age range, who it would appear are the "target users".

It therefore appears to me that the identity profiles on lavalife perpetuate and reinforce existing corporeal ideas about a presumed ideal body type (slim/average/fit), sexual orientation (heterosexuality), 'non-hybrid'/distinct racialised identity and set of social behaviors (scoial drinker and non-smoker). It also positions the act of searching the net for a date as normal for young heterosexual males. Thus, in conclusion, the lavalife site powerfully illustrates the inability to clearly distinguish between online and offline identities and the implications of online experiences on offline life, as addressed in last weeks tute readings.

Of possible interest...

2004-08-19T20:17:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, hope you're all well. I found this article that I thought might be worth sharing.

Not sure if this will actually work... If it doesn't, here are the particulars so you can look it up and access it through the library catalogue:

Article title: Computer self efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the Internet and reported experience with the Internet, by gender, in an East European sample
Authors: A. Durndell & Z. Haag
Journal title: Computers in Human Behavior (Volume 18, Number 5, Pages 521-535)

Let me know what you think!

Have a good one.

Changes to this tutorial blog

2004-08-19T14:18:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone,

New Link
A couple of changes to your tutorial blog. Firstly, you will notice I've added a link to the main Self.Net blog; this contains occassional posts from myself or Karen focusing on items which may be of interest for all students. Also, a number of curious people have found my own personal blog. Since some of you have found it, I may as put a link here, so if anyone else wants a read, you're most welcome (but do keep in mind, this is my personal blog, so isn't always 100% academically orientated!).

Blog Navigation Bar
I'm sure you've all noticed this new Navigation Bar at the top of the blog:

This adds some functions which might make using the tutorial blog easier:

The orange Blogger button will take you directly to Blogger.com.

Entering a search into the empty form box (the white box) and hitting search will search this blog (or whatever blog you are viewing). This should make finding earlier material much easier (only 15 posts remain on the front page, the rest go into the archive, accessible via the links on the side).

Finally, the BlogThis! button will automatically open a window to let you write a blog post.

FollowUp Comments for those Introducing Readings
Just a quick note: most of you who have already introduced readings this week in tutorials have gone back and published your reflection upon the tutorial after it finished. Those who haven't (and those presenting in the coming weeks) please remember that part of your tutorial presentation is to go back to the post you made before the tute and reflect on how well your presentation went (how well the ideas were received; what sort of conversation happened; any ways your ideas about the reading might have changed/expaned). Ideally, this should be done as soon as possible after your tutorial presentation (but really should be before the next meeting of your tutorial). Others are reminded, that they are always welcome to comment on any posts in their tutorial blog and are also welcome to post relevant links/ideas whenever you find things! (oh, and for those of you who've never read other people's comments, give it a go; there are some really interesting dialogues taking place in the comments!).

A reminder:
Before clicking the 'Publish Post' button, if you place the cursor inside the window where you have written your post press either Ctrl+A to select all and then Ctrl+C (on a PC) or Apple+A to select all and then Apple+C (on a Mac), this will place the text you have written in the memory of the computer (this is referred to as placing text on the clipboard). If something goes wrong during the attempt to publish, all you need to do to make the post a second time is place the cursor in the post window and press either Ctrl+V (PC) or Apple+V (Mac) to paste the text from the clipboard into that text box. (Occassionally blogger does 'hang' [which means not finishing the posting function], so it is useful to make this quick backup in order to avoid typing out the entry a second time!)

gattaca post

2004-08-18T16:55:00.000+08:00

Gattaca – blogged response

The genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evokes a new eugenics

Perhaps this is not such a new topic, maybe it was a newer concept when Gattaca came out.
Genetic screening and manipulation is “meddling with nature”, to produce the most “beneficial” human beings, ones devoid of human “defects” such as down syndrome, and other unfavourable defects

However, who is to say these are unfavourable outcomes in a human being? Who is to have the power of what a human turns out like? The medical world?

Genetic screening may become a new version of eugenics. In the wrong hands, it could lead to racist discrimination, for example, a certain racial group could be targeting and eliminated if this form of genetic screening and manipulation was used incorrectly.

This scenario does seem credible with current scientific trends – eg stem cell work, cloning, .. genetic screening is already in place with counselling about the chances couples have when having a baby, of the child having various conditions, eg down syndrome
Also, with sperm donors for IVF, how you can choose your donor, and view their intelligence, looks, personality etc when choosing

The genetic screening and manipulation does seem probable to me that this may occur in the future. That’s why I found the clip from GAttaca so interesting.

Gattaca: More than an exercise in watching Jude Law?

2004-08-18T16:07:00.000+08:00

Thinking about class, gender and race in Gattaca....

Gattaca is interesting in that it infers that new technologies can shift the cultural perspectives that construct marginalised (and dominant) subjectivities. Bearing this mind it would have been fascinating if the film had explored how the traditional delineations of race, class and gender might be transgressed by science. Of course the film fails to address this, and actually reinforces the idea that white upwardly mobile men (and women who act/dress like men in their careers) are those who maintain power. (Isn’t it interesting that the director has chosen a stylistic landscape for the film reminiscent of the mid twentieth century – a time of clearly defined gender, class and race subjectivity and the power relations that existed between them? Is this because he (or she, I don’t know) is trying to reinforce the idea of a repressive heavily surveilled society? Or is it nostalgia for the knowability of ones place?)
So maybe its just that any shifts in delineations of subjugated subjectivities caused by changing technologies is subject to hangovers from traditional cultural epistemologies, and that at the end of the day it is those in power that decide which genetic attributes are valuable anyway.

Gattaca - Blogged Response

2004-08-18T15:51:00.000+08:00

Does Eugenic screening and manipulaion as presented in Gattaca evoke a new Eugenics? Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?

The genetic screening as seen in Gattaca does evoke a new form of eugenics. Whereas eugenics in the past has been involved in preventing certain minorities from producing and ‘mixing’ with the so called ‘superior’ members of societies, the eugenics in Gattaca is aimed at the manipulation of genes to prevent the affects from such mixing. Perfection of the human race occurs more through ‘damage control’ than the prevention of reproduction. This doesn’t seem to be as severe an action as the holocaust or sterilization of disabled people if still has the same sense of forcible control over people’s freedom. Rather than exterminating people they are altering them at birth and not allowing them to become anything but what society wants them to be.

This scenario seems credible in light of the advancing technology of our day, it seems possible that scientists will be able to perform such procedures if they have already managed to map human DNA code and have successfully cloned animals. However, I’m uncertain whether or not society will move in such a direction, with respect to the moral issues involved. It can be a positive thing to eliminate diseases and birth defects but I highly disagree with the idea of choosing how someone will look and especially what sex! Does this leave room for further marginalisation between the sexes? Genetic technology in Gattaca has caused a new kind of discrimination (genoism) and life seems difficult for those who haven’t been genetically altered – being a member of society now has a new prerequisite. For example Vincent is unable to join a playgroup as a child because they won’t insure him, and he can’t have his dream job without assuming a false identity.

Gattaca- blogged response

2004-08-18T13:30:00.000+08:00

Wow, there have been some great responses so far! I'm worried mine is going to be a little bland, because I've had little time to work on it and I'm doing it totally off the top of my head between a lecture and a tute, but here goes.

Does genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evoke a new eugenics? Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?

I think that the idea of genetic screening and genetic manipulation shown in Gattaca does in fact fall under the category of eugenics to a particular degree. While the idea is not quite so harsh, cruel or brutal as Hitler's idea of eugenics or even the policies of sterilising mentally handicapped individuals, it still aims to achieve the same end result by instead intervening through genetic engineering and erasing particular undesirable traits in a child. This is perhaps best demonstrated when a doctor explains to Vincent's parents that a genetically engineered child would 'still be them', but would be 'the best of them'. The idea of taking the most perfect attributes of parents and eliminating the less desirable attributes is practically a word-for-word description of the concept of eugenics, that being to 'perfect human offspring'.

In terms of whether the scenario is credible, it is difficult to say at this time. It is possible that one day genetic manipulation will in fact be as complex and advanced as this, but it will be a great distance in the future as scientists are still only barely scratching the surface of what is possible through genetic engineering. Also, there are enormous ethical concerns to be considered, both through deploying this method on unborn children (particularly if there is a risk of failure), due to human rights- the child cannot consent to what is happening- and there is also cause for ethical concern about actually developing this method, as humans would have to be experimented on in order to develop the methods used to undertake this form of eugenics and thus many would be at risk of lethal genetic mutations due to the much higher failure rate in the early stages of experimentation.

Genetic manipulation, class, race, and gender, as explored in Gattaca

2004-08-18T11:23:00.000+08:00

Does genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evoke a new eugenics? Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?
The genetic screening and manipulation presented in Gattaca is a speculative enactment of “made to order” offspring. Genetic-oriented technology is presented as radically accelerating Darwinian evolutionary/eugenic processes; a more thorough genetic filter providing choice and control. Easier accessibility/attainability of genetic ideal(s) equates to the redundancy of the genetic compromise we presently face; hence, the evocation of a new eugenics.

Given current scientific trends, the conceptual potentialities regarding genetic manipulation presented in Gattaca are credible within the film’s own context; however, in the context of the real world, I feel ethical issues substantially decrease the likelihood of custom made offspring becoming a mainstream affair.

How are issues of class, race and gender explored in Gattaca?
Favourability informed by the potential for social mobility is interestingly and symbolically represented by the name “Anton”. It would appear that the boys’ father, Antonio, favours upward social mobility, and so the superior, “valid”, worthy son is given the father’s name as his first name. Vincent has his father’s name as his middle name, which is arguably inferior to a first name, because Vincent is an “in-valid” and is less likely to excel. Antonio’s want for his children to excel, and the investment of his identity in the son more likely to do so (i.e. Anton) in order that his (Antonio’s) identity is associated with success symbolises a favouring and advocation of upward social mobility.

Women and non-Caucasians are represented by characters in positions with some power; i.e. the mother and the doctor. The validation of this authority appears to depend primarily on whiteness and secondarily on masculinity. This is conveyed in the mother’s authority overriding the doctor’s (as exemplified in the conversation regarding the extent of Anton’s genetic manipulation), and Antonio’s authority overriding the mother’s (as exemplified in the naming of Vincent, and later in comparisons of the mother’s and father’s dialogue at the dinner table).

The film’s scant representation of women and non-Caucasians, coupled with Anton’s genetic superiority and Vincent’s will (and success) to excel, appears to suggest that the domination in Western society of the white male will continue into the future. It could therefore be argued that the film advocates a functionalist perspective of humanity.

gattaca

2004-08-18T02:31:00.001+08:00

I think genetic screening and manipulation in Gattaca does evoke a new level of eugenics that may potentially create more bad than good for mankind. The doctor in the film assures both parents that there are plenty of other imperfections that have not been 'fixed' in the child, which makes me question which traits are deemed unwanted. Eye colour, distance of positioning between two eyes, chance of liver failure.. sure,maybe nobody wants to have a liver that fails on them. But the possibilities are then endless. If the doctor has access to all the codes for the million traits or characteristics that a human body possesses, from the way he/she carries herself to the length of his/her legs, wouldn't that create insatiable greed for a 120% perfect child along the way? One that has a lifespan of a hundred years? Wouldn't all the superhumans then overpopulate the earth with their invincible immune systems?

Tinkering with nature is all good, but then what happens when nature cant work it's magic anymore? The city of zion like in The Matrix? Would we want to take on the superior qualities of the animal world or incorporate ourselves with technology? Slowly but surely, we see on the News breakthrough discoveries on medical research. Body parts can be harvested from pigs and the exact genes responsible for something like schizophrenia have been found. Are we likely in the future, to host parts from animals that allow us to see in the dark and possibly witness the extinction of schizophrenia? I feel we are definitely taking small steps towards a future not quite as extreme as the likes in Gattaca, but definitely something along those lines.

Gattaca Post

2004-08-17T21:43:00.000+08:00

Hi Everybody,
These are my answers to two of the workshop questions:

Does genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evoke a new eugenics? Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?

I feel that Gattaca certainly evokes a kind of new eugenics. The new eugenics is however only an advancement of older methods as used by many western countries prior to the second world war and then by Nazi Germany and other ethnic cleansing regimes throughout the world. However instead of killing off actual grownup cases of "poor" genetic makeup, the movie sees a "precognitive strike" on the poor genetics and a 'purification' of the population in this way. This certainly seems credible in terms of scientific advancement with the age of genetically modified food and cloning already upon us, but there are large questions regarding the moral credibility of the scenario in this day and age. Since there are already questions on the wisdom of genetically modified food, the next step to human beings is not about to be taken any time soon.

Does the prospect of scientific manipulations of genetics have to be a negative thing in terms of gender? Is there something to be said for 'liberating' women from reproduction?

Liberating women from reproduction could possibly afford them far more freedom and time to achieve in other more public areas than childbearing such as politics and the corporate world. However in the more advanced western societies women already have the choice to reproduce or not and with the help of contraception and government support can plan and pursue a career without being tied down to child-nurturing responsibilities. Does this mean the gap between the genders in politics, business, intellectual pursuits and sports will eventually close with this newly afforded freedom? What would happen to the power women currently and historically have had in the private world through their ability to reproduce and nurture children? This in turn opens up the big question as to whether or not women experience such intense satisfaction with regards to reproduction due to social forces or due to genetic factors over the years?

Gattaca - liberation question

2004-08-17T19:41:00.000+08:00

Does the prospect of scientific manipulations of genetics have to be a negative thing in terms of gender? Is there something to be said for 'liberating' women from reproduction?

The 'liberating' effect for women from childbirth is dependent on how such an event is experienced. In theory, if a woman could choose between a 'natural' or a completely technologically controlled birth, then for some women the choice may well be liberating. In the Gattaca clip, however, the parents and child of a natural birth were punished for their choice and the technological birth was much more privileged. In much of Western history, female events such as menstruation have been concealed, demonised and referred to as a punishment from God. The taking over of conception from the female body by technology reads as a suppression/denial/refusal of women's bodies, especially when coupled with the very traditional coding of the mother in the film clip -- did anyone else notice her perfect makeup when giving birth?!

I would have been much more impressed by the film if it had pushed the line of assisted reproduction to what I've been trying to propagate as its logical end - a state of reproduction that does not require men (the link on the back of the handout lists many books about this but I haven't read any yet). In my misandristic mind, this would truly be a liberation - especially if male-male reproduction was also possible. (In fact, "mpreg," or male pregnancy, has been fetishised by some women. Ask me about this later ;-) To make reproduction available to any couple, regardless of each person's sex would truly be liberating in terms of gender. However, the availability of such techniques in the near future looks grim. Regardless of scientific progress, our cultural progress is still in the dark ages -- note the recent ban on same-sex marriages (further discussion of that bill here).

Obligatory Gattaca Post

2004-08-17T18:26:00.000+08:00

The prospect of scientific manipulation of genetics is not necessarily a negative thing. One form scientific manipulation in this field could conceivably be reproduction of the human species without the need for traditional conception and pregnancy. From a feminist perspective, this is a delicate issue. From one point of view, some forms of parthenogenesis can be seen as ‘writing out’ women from reproduction; yet another way men silence and invalidate women’s experiences, words and abilities. Another view is that freeing women’s bodies from reproductive bondage is the only way to ensure that women and men are treated equally.

As it stands now, women are restricted on the social stage in many ways from having the potential to give birth. This can be seen when women don’t enact this possibility and remain childless (e.g. employers preferring male employees in part because a female employee is considered more likely to need time off work for having children), and when women turn the possibility into an actuality and have children.

Thus, in terms of gender equality, reproduction that bypasses the need for women to be pregnant can be seen as a positive thing as it would fundamentally change the power relations between the genders; probably resulting in a more equal power distribution between men and women.

Gattaca

2004-08-17T17:05:00.000+08:00

Does genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evoke a new eugenics?

I would have to say yes. From the very outset the film explores the way in which "artificial/scientific" reproduction is favoured over "natural" reproduction processes with the aim of producting the "most perfect" offspring of any given couple. For example the scientist tells the parents in the clip that the child will be "simply the best of both of them", justifying the need to manipulate the reproduction process by claiming we have enough "imperfection" built into us and that the child should have the best possible start in life.

In many ways, this kind of attitude mirrors the popular values and beliefs of the early 20th Century when the need was felt to sterilize certain "abnormal/disabled" people in order to ensure the development of the "human race". That is to say, in both cases, the intention is to control the 'evolution' of mankind and society through the control of genetic information and biological processes. Thus it would appear that Gattaca simply extends upon older methods of eugenesis, taking the process to a new level through invoking greater control over the ability to manipulate the genetic material of offspring in the hope of creating the most perfect human offspring possible.

Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?

No. I would suggest the film offers food for thought but at this stage it is my belief that given the nature of scientific ethics today, the fear of "fiddling" with nature and the (terrible) legacy of historical applications of eugenics (particularly the holocaust), that such a scenario is unlikely to occur in any near future - at least I hope so!