Self.Net -- Wednesday, 10am Tutorial

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

2004-11-12T14:49:00.000+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 (and have fun networking in your own Cyborgain Worlds!).

It is time to move on ...

2004-11-06T13:47:00.000+08:00

So, given the overwhelming enthusiam with which everyone responded to my call for names for a new blog (or not!) ... I have made an executive decision and decided for y'all.

Our new blog is ... (drumroll please!)
http://cyborgminions.blogspot.com/

I hope this name appeals to everyone else's sense of humour as much as it does mine :-) And if not, just petition me to change it.

I have sent invitations to everyone who's had anything to say beyond the compulsory posts (the three Ks, Orietta, and me). Anyone else from this group is most welcome to join in the fun, just drop me a line or add a comment here.

So I guess this is the point where I say "adios!" to this blog. It's been a kind and dear friend to us all ... except when I was panicking over compulsory posts ... *sob*

address to the peeps

2004-10-29T08:20:00.000+08:00

well i certainly hope that everyone's essay's went to plan, i managed to get mine in on time so that's the main thing right? :) i was thinking that if we are serious about keeping our own blog it wouldn't be *that* hard to make another one, i dunno seems like hassles are arising from using this one and then, the people who don't want to do it can go back to real life, pft, "real life" hahah. so overrated. meh, i just thought it might be easier that's all and then aaron could attack the template. attack i say. w00t!
later my minions
Kat xx

Warm Fuzzies

2004-10-26T09:55:00.001+08:00

This little post goes out to all you naughty people who are procrastinating instead of studying! (Although the fact that I am writing this post proves that i am indeed doing that very thing)

here are lots and lots of warm fuzzies and good luckies to get you through your essays and exams.....

!@#%)(*&%%#$%!$%%$&&*^^%#!$@

no, they are not expletatives they are just inarticulatable (if that is a word) in arabic font.

it is also to prove to tama that this blog will be used post self.net.
the world does not end when we walk out of the tute room, tama, even if you may think so! ;)

while i am on that subject (sort of) hey tama can we please have super rights on this blog now so that we can change the template and stuff to make it pretty, kitty kat and aaron with an h want it too!!! PLEEEAAAASSSEEEE?

okay i will go and stop procrastinating now and so should you

GO AND DO SOME STUDY!!!!!!

warm fuzzies

orietta

ps cranium information will be posted at a later date (after about the 27th of nov when me and my flatmate stop stressing about all the STUFF we have to do.....)

cheers big ears!

i will stop random commenting soon....

,,,,

.....

now seems like a good time

no wait a minute

did anyone see what happened to carly? she hasn't posted or tuted lately?????

ok now i am done.

Look a non-mandatory post!

2004-10-24T01:26:00.000+08:00

Ok so i found this and i found it amusing and slightly relevant to the topic and it goes on what i was saying about the movie i robot, so i thought what the hell, il blog it for my fellow tute people to enjoy.

Farewell!

2004-10-22T18:53:00.000+08:00

I found weblogs to be a useful part of the course because one is able to absorb other’s ideas more effectively due to its permanence. They are always there for reference, and one is able to analyse other points of view and consequently think more critically about one’s own perspective. It also broadens the amount of information you can take in because in tutorials and lectures, sometimes you only selectively tune in, picking up on information that seems to be congruent with your own existing ideas. Weblogs may be seen to provide an antidote to this, well I found anyway.

The notion of being a cyborg at first seemed absurd to me, but that’s because I took it too literally, invoking visions of Robo Cop etc in my mind. However, when you consider the notion more subtly, and attend to it in a more metaphorical sense then yes, I definitely do consider myself to be a cyborg. Outside technology is inextricably bound up with my modes of communication, for instance my mobile phone acts as my ‘voice.’ The use of contacts facilitate in more accurate vision, rendering them an undeniable part of my body. There are a plethora of other examples I could use to convey my point that technology exists as an inextricable part of my ontology.

I really enjoyed the use of videoclips during the lectures to illustrate your points. I found them entertaining and effective at the same time. I also feel empowered learning about race on the internet, because I never really questioned the assumptions behind menu-driven identities before. I also found the theme of collapsing boundaries interesting, for I now view things as less rigid as what we’re conditioned to believe.

...focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

2004-10-22T16:16:00.000+08:00

well, yes obviously i'm not alone in thinking that this was a pretty darned good unit. the use of weblogs as part of our tutorials was something that encouraged my enrolment in the unit to begin with, i have a blog which some of you may have read and i thought it would be pretty cool to use them as a way to communicate with fellow students. and thankfuly it seemed to work! having the readings posted before the tute was helpful because the tutorial group knew the kind of argument that you would make and could prepare comments accordingly. it was also good to see people's different approaches taken in addressing the webliography questions and being able to give encouraging and perhaps even critical comments. the commenting function, and the mandatory comments meant that we were able to continue discussions after the tute. and even though we may not have used it to its full potential the fact that the option was there to post brilliant thoughts, clarify points or argue further when the tute was long over is useful in itself.

the infamous cyborg question...i was pretty against the whole "you're a cyborg" mentality right from the start. and i still don't really like it all that much. it's not because i don't agree that i am embedded in technology just that the word cyborg to me doesn't seem appropriate. maybe a word which has never had a hard core definition- a NEW word rather than a word which already has connotations attached to it. again i don't disagree that technology is a part of me and that i am a part of technology just that the word cyborg literally doesn't work for me as a definition. but as that is the only definition we were given the option of using, i am a cyborg- i admit defeat, you've broken me down, finally.

the course (though i'm sure this along with everyone elses comments will just be used to inflate tama's ego!)was different from anything i have ever done and many of the students i have spoken to agree that more discussion was stimulated in this unit that any other. ethics issues and debates on a range of topics were new and challenging. this unit certainly challenged the way i think about the future and "life" whether it be real, virtual or artificial. the guest lectures were relevant and extremely interesting. the multimedia and etc used was a great way to keep us awake and making the lecture not only educational but enjoyable. i could go on but it's only going to be more about how great i thought the unit was!!

p.s. i thought you guys in my tute group were wicked. there was always discussion and humour-a-plenty. i'm a better thinker for having listened to your opinions, it's a shame the tutes couldn't run for longer like the 8 point units used to do, i had so much fun with you guys! thanks guys and thanks tama for being so approachable and available for consultation, you're a wikid unit co-ordinator and awesome tutor, ok enough about you :)

p.p.s. cranium (wink wink orietta)

p.p.p.s. please don't mark me on my blogger grammar!

Egad, it's, like ... over!

2004-10-22T11:55:00.000+08:00

So this is it, eh? And to think I was only just getting used to hearing Tama stumble over complex words in lectures! (I say this with the memory of what he said in our second-last tute, "nobody else is showing any restraint, why should you?")

I must admit to being a bit disconcerted by everyone's willingness to so readily identify themselves as a cyborg, although I'm not quite sure I can produce a good argument to disagree :-)
Early on I think most us interpreted being a "cyborg" as being at one with our technology, and although I suppose I fit this description I still like to believe that if cut off from my phone or computer, I'm able to improvise (although that might just be with more technology ...). But as I've mentioned a few times, I find it easier to agree with the later readings' interpretation of Haraway as being about the blurring of boundaries, particularly (but not just) those between nature and technology. This seems to me to be a very common thread in our contemporary society and one that digital technology is but one part of, and I suspect I'd have agreed to it sooner if I'd realised this was what Haraway was getting at! I quite doubt I'd have ever realised this fact if I hadn't done this unit.

As for blogs, well, what can I say, they seem to have been a resounding success. I think it was Orietta who described them as "like the forum in WebCT, but something we will actually use", but I think this was a tad cynical. Although there hasn't been too much spontaneous discussion, it has been quite thought-provoking to read through everyone's ideas here, especially since they're usually presented in more detail than what you can say in a few minutes of a tute. It would have been nice to see it used more, but then I suppose you can't expect too much from struggling over-worked students like us ...!

I think one of the most useful things I've taken from this unit is the idea of applying critical analysis much like what we do in other units in the context of online environments. I've seen a bit of writing about this before, but I've never thought about identity or community on the Internet in as much detail as we have this semester (hmm, can I start a debate here about the validity of applying ideas from 'real life' to virtual space?!). This was complemented by having an awesome tute group -- really, I've never had this much fun in a uni class (to quote Kat's first post here, "w00t!"). So thank you all, and good luck with essays!

The End.

2004-10-22T08:58:00.000+08:00

I thought the use of weblogs was a novel idea, and worked well with the themes of the course being related to digital communication. I found the fact you could read others thoughts on a similar topic very interesting, particularly with reference to reading others webliographies and looking back over tutorial reading introductions that related to research essay topics. Having never used a weblog before i found them very easy to use, and provided an alternative method of communication between students. It was also interesting to read other people's (internet) writing styles and the way issues were discussed compared to tutorial discussion. Overall i thought the use of weblogs was very effective, and well aligned with the themes of the course.

At the start of the course i refused to believe i was a cyborg, admittedly my understanding of what comprised a cyborg was based on clips of various star trek films so i was in a sense fairly ignorant about the idea. As the course has progressed i started to consider myself more of a cyborg, particularly in relation to internet and email which i have come to rely fairly heavily on for communication with overseas friends and finding out sports results!

I originally chose this course as it didn't seem to be concerned with english literature in a traditional sense ie reading old, boring 400 page books and writing an essay on character construction. I enjoyed the discussion of temporary, sometimes ethical issues such as CD copying. I also enjoyed doing the reading for my research essay on video games as it was an issue i could relate to having grown up with and played video games at an earlier age. I would recommend this course to anyone who is studying english and is sick of reading old, long books and studying shakespearean plays, as im sure they would enjoy this course as much as i did.

Sayonara fellow Bloggers!

2004-10-21T16:01:00.000+08:00

Having never used, nor read blogs in an academic sense this was quite a different experience for me. Overall I found that it was an extremely helpful one! The aspects I found best about blogging were:
1) The ability to read by fellow students' webliographies and other mandatory posts. This allowed me to see what kind of level I should aspire to be writing at.
2) The tutorial presentations being posted on the blog were very handy as normally in tutorials you have to scribble down as much as possible so you can remember any good points that were made. However, by blogging it first the information was permanantley there for future reference. I think this would be really handy for any unit, not just one that revolves around digital technology.
3) I think overall that it made us a bit more conscientous about our work as we knew everyone and anyone could read what we had written.
Also I think the 30% mark that was designated to the blogs, the presentation and tutes/workshops was fair, as in most English units you only get a measly 10% for tute presentation and tute participation.

Am I a cyborg? I still stand by the notion that I am indeed a cyborg, YOU ARE ALL CYBORGS WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. Okay, that might be a bit extreme, perhaps cyborgism is a state of mind, like age is for rich 70 year old men with underwear model girlfriends... Anyway I digress. I think I am a cyborg, and after completing this course I am even more of a cyborg than I originally thought. I have often said that when I forget my phone or temporarily lose it that it feels like I have lost a limb. I love technology and it (perhaps disturbingly, depending on who reads this) has become inextricably intertwined with my life so that it is now part of me. My phone is my arm to reach out to people, and without those wonderful magicians called orthodontists I wouldn't be able to leave the house. If I had lived in an age without the various technologies we have now, I could possibly be dead, or at the very least I would die a hideous spinster. I digress again. Cyborg is a word that can hold many meanings. Through my personal understanding of it, yes I am a cyborg, and I'm proud of it!

Overall I have really enjoyed this unit, it has been different to any other English unit I've done before. It was refreshing and fun and everyone in our tutorial was great (no horrible and long awkward silences where everyone stares at their desks because they haven't done the reading). Thanks Tama :)

This is the end...

2004-10-19T23:28:00.000+08:00

I have quite enjoyed using weblogs in this course, and i think that they could be applied successfully in other english courses. I think the mandatory posts were useful for making us put some effort into tute presentations and think out the major themes of the course. Also having to comment on other peoples posts got the whole interactivity thing going. I think I might have got more out of the blog if there were a few more spontaneous (for lack of a better word) blogs about things related to the course (like Toadie and Connor creating a on-line dating site and pretending to be girls - obviously i watch too much television!). These posts maybe would have added a few more examples of what we are studying in practice.

Ok the cyborg thing. I don't remember being vehemently opposed to the idea to begin with, now I am even less opposed to it. I think it all depends on how you define the term cyborg. If you think of it in the Terminator sense of the word then I am not technically because my body is the biological one i was born with, with no other technology in it. However if we use a broader definition along the lines of 'the use of technology to better your existence' then i would agree. I am absolutely dependent on technology. Without my phone i couldn't message my friends when i am running late, without email or msn or a livejournal it would be alot harder (and more expensive) to talk to my friends who are overseas, and without technology i would be broke because i wouldn't have a job. So in that sense of the word i am definately a cyborg and proud of it.

Well thats it. I have really liked this course (even though the overview given in the first lecture freaked me out because i didn't know what a blog or a webliography meant). And i think it is the first class i have never missed a tute of. Possibly this is because they are only 45 minutes instead of the usual hour and a half of english tutes. Otherwise i would put it down to the fact that I have enough experience to discuss the topic. And despite getting off the topic quite easily this tute has been enjoyable so thanks for not putting me to sleep!

Reflective Post

2004-10-19T11:49:00.000+08:00

Weblogs have been an effective learning tool in this course and, I believe, could prove useful in other courses. Having our own tutorial blog has been particularly effective in this course since this course is preoccupied with notions of technology and our human relationship with it. I like the practicality of working within one of the technological structures that we are analysing in this course. For general english courses, blogs are useful because we can prepare for tutorials more thoroughly by reading eachothers posts before the tutorial and using the blog as a forum to discuss issues related to the course outside of tutorial time. Unfortunately in our particular blog, there was not a significant amount of this type of discussion, but this is possibly due in part to the (relative) unfamiliarity with the medium and preoccupation with writing mandatory posts.

Now to turn to the elusive sixty-four dollar question. Do I believe I am a cyborg? I remember in the first tutorial of the course verhmenently disputing this idea. I believe the ability to identify as a cyborg is based largely of notions of the cyborgian creature. If we associate the cyborg with the overtly machinical creatures from popular film culture such as The Terminator then it is very uncomfortable to identify with these creatures. I would definately agree with the notion that people who have been fitted with prosthetic body parts in surgery can be considered as cyborgs. Upon re-evaluation those, I think the notion of the cyborg is one of those slippery terms, like postmodernism that means everything and at the same time nothing. Let me qualify that statement. I think that Haraway was trying to use the cyborg to describe a new way of being where the discrete boundaries between 'technology' and 'nature' are blurred. Also concrete descriptions of any individual subject are blurred in this definition. In this sense I agree that we are all cyborgian subjects. We define ourselfs in interrelated and sometimes contradictory ways. Although I would live and breathe without digital technology, it is so enmeshed in my life, that my lifestyle without it would be unrecognisable. In that sense, I am a cyborg.

Overall I have found this course to be a challenging learning experience. I liked the course set up with workshops and blogs, it was refreshing to have different to the norm components in the course. The tutorials were great, it is the first unit when I haven't thought "When is this tute going to end!" I liked the practicality of the course aswell. Examples were given of current as well as dated sources, which I guess is crucial in a course about current technology. I also liked the interactivity of the lectures.

See you all! :)

Political Games Workshop

2004-10-15T09:25:00.001+08:00

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

The simplicity of September 12th (ie you shoot a terrorist, you get 5 more in its place) made the message it was trying to communicate quite effective immediately. The start instructions were heavily loaded with the overall message when it stated how you couldn't win or lose in this situation and that you could make the choice to shoot or not to shoot. Thus the unfamiliar way this game was supposed to be played out, teamed with the simple way the political message was shown made this game quite effective in communicating with its player.
New York Defender was also very simple in its format. However, tiny simplistic games such as September 12th and NY Defender would not necessarily get a huge scope of mainstream gamers playing them except for those who are already somewhat aware of the political message that the games are trying to communicate to people. Thus, due to their simplistic nature and untraditional anti-win format, these games may not generate enough appeal to get enough play in order to effectively communicate to the masses over the internet.

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

I didn't immediately get the message of the futility of trying to protect the twin towers. I just kept playing the game repeatedly, shooting more and more planes down until I finally realised that it was impossible to get them all. Then I thought, "What a stupid game, as if anyone could get all these planes". Then I got the message (after allowing the towers to be repeatedly destroyed under my watch).

In September 12th I got the message, but I felt like I was supposed to feel some kind of epiphany when witnessing the results of accidently killing the civillians whilst trying to kill terrorists. For a brief moment I did, as I pondered and then panicked about the Norn debate we had in the tutorial and of the potential lives I had just destroyed in this toy town. Then I got bored and started to shoot anywhere I could to see how many terrorists I could generate. It was as if I acknowledged the political message that the game was trying to tell me, then I moved on to set myself a new game goal to make it more 'fun' and I could win in my own way, even though this kind of trampled on the credibility of the message that the game was originally trying to create.

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

My game would be about the upcoming US election. You are Bush and you have to become elected. To do so you've got to keep everyone's 'fear meters' at a certain level (ie a meter at the bottom of the screen that has to stay red and if it gets down to green then you lose the election) so they are all in a state of fear and thus end up voting for you.. you keep their fear high by using as many catch phrases as you can
ie, calling the middle east countries the 'axis of evil', and continually putting national security levels on Orange level etc.. and using the mass media to contribute to the fear mongering. You win when the people of America are in a perpetual and irreversable state of fear and you win the election as a result.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2004-10-14T22:58:00.000+08:00

Question 1) New York Defender: I feel that the game was fairly effective in communicating a political message per se, however the extent of the impact would be limited. This is due to the saturation of these images in the media, and the time that has passed since September 11.

Kabul Kaboom: The message was very effective, due to its simplistic design. The way in which the game was devoid of all the nuances inherent in common games forces the user to consider its philosophical merits, rather than its entertainment value. If a game immerses one too much, the values and messages behind the game become rather nebulous. Therefore, the lack of sophistication in this game works in its favour in conveying a political message effectively.

Question 2) I think it’s fair to say that the New York Defender’s political underpinning was pretty obvious. The message I find quite palpable is you can’t really defend yourself against terrorism. The impossibility in which one tried to defend the towers engendered some frustration. This affect encompasses the sense of ‘powerlessness and hopelessness in confronting terrorism’ that Lee describes. I’m not saying that after playing this game I felt thoroughly depressed or anything, but the political message may have the capacity to evoke such feelings in the sensitive, or at least in the more apathetic, get one to consider what these images mean. This is because the setting is a highly political piece of iconography, and consequently, most people will be able to deduce that there is some political message embedded in the game, and by average deductive skills will be able to work out the fact that more firing means more airplanes arising, rendering defence impossible.

The political message in Kabul Kaboom was also obvious, with the farcical nature of bullets and hamburgers being disseminated from the sky. It is hard to miss the hypocrisy that is evident in the Bush attacks from this game. One particular message I immediately picked up is that the hamburger is symbolic of US hegemony, with the proliferation and ubiquity of american hamburger franchises over the world. The fact that they are using a hamburger as their image symbolises US aggression.

Question 3) The game I would design would be in relation to the 25% increase in HECS. The avatar would be a (potential) student (dressed in glasses and a backpack) and would have to defend itself against some governmental figures by using textbooks as weapons to throw. As the student advances to higher levels, this will be denoted by an increase in HECS, and subsequently there will be a reduction in books to use as weapons. When the student loses, a picture of a person in the dole queue will be invoked with the caption ‘game over.’ However, a successful student wins the game and an image of a graduation hat will be shown. The point being that the increase in HECS is making it difficult for some people to acquire a degree.

Workshop - Political Games

2004-10-14T13:26:00.000+08:00

The game “New York Defender” was somewhat effective in communicating with people via the Internet, the most basic information I received from the game was that a) the twin towers were destroyed because planes flew into them, and b) had their been someone handy with an anti-aircraft gun things may have unfolded differently. Beyond this however the game seemed to make no effort at serious political communication. I feel the target audience of the game also prevents it from conveying any serious political message. This game seems to be based on many other shooting games such as Virtua Cop (where people pop out of buildings and you have to shoot them), the gameplay makes it hard to interpret a real political message as it is very easy to get caught up in simply shooting the planes. I think the political message underpinning the game was rather clear, however juvenile. The game positions the player as a “New York Defender” and allows the player to take on the role of protector of the twin towers. This re-enactment of history seemed fairly morbid, as the buildings you are protecting have since been destroyed and the nature of the game is such that at one point the planes will get through your gunfire and hit the buildings, causing them to be destroyed – again.

I don’t feel the game, Kabul Kaboom was effective in communicating with people via the internet, with no clear reference to a particular political event, or any effort towards conveying information or ‘a message’. The language used in the opening screen hints toward and attempt at black humour, however only manages to reinforce the vile, morbid and somewhat condescending overtone of the game. It was not clear what political message was underpinning the game, and having played it I had no intention of exploring it any further. The aim of the game (eat the food, dodge the missiles) doesn’t allude to any real political message, and struggles to meet its objective of “a humanitarian game for a “humanitarian” war.” Apart from being offensive, I felt this game conveyed no real message, and the effect of so-called ‘black humour’ which inspired the game left me with no desire to explore it any further.

3a) If I were to make a political game of similar size and structure I would try and convey the message of the need to destroy ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
b) In order to convey this message I would have the player hunt down these weapons of mass destruction (through a maze or city landscape) whilst trying to beat either a time limit, or a band of militants chasing him/her down. I’d like to hope this would convey to the player the need to destroy weapons of mass destruction before they are used in a violent manner (represented by the time limit) or before they fall into the wrong hands (pursueing band of militants)

Political Fun and Games

2004-10-13T16:24:00.000+08:00

Kaet plays Donkey John and New York Defender

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

Donkey John: Although the game was very simple and i can see how one would get addicted to it. i think its message was quite effective. The rules that you have to read before playing the game give an outline of what the situation is, then it is coupled with the graphics which give a visual (kind of) how it is done.

New York Defender: I don't think this game was very effective, a lot of people would play the game (i definately spent more time playing it then donkey john), however i dont think that people will spend to long considering the issue, not only because so much time has passed, but also because we have seen the images of the planes crashing into the towers so many times i think we have become desensitised to the image.

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

Donkey John: i think that the political message was immediatley obvious because of the little introduction and you are looking at it whilst playing the game. Also because of the election campaign focusing on this issue it has been getting a bit more awareness about it lately. I would be tempted to find out more about this issue because it plays to the side of me that wants to defend the little people. A nifty idea might be when you get out for a link to appear on the exit screen that would take you to the site, so those who are interested but couldnt be bothered looking can be taken straight to it.

New York Defender: Im not altogether sure what the message of this game was (was it written in french somewhere?) Does it have something to do with France opposing the coaliton of the willing from when all that was going on? or is that over analysing and it is really just about the fact that skyscrapers are very vunerable? Anywho i would not be driven to find out the message or cause behind this because I am over the whole event from too much media coverage.

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

OK my game would be called the Political Fishbowl. It would be based on a real game that is slightly addictive called InsaneAquarium The way the normal game works is you have an aquarium in which you have to feed all the fish and keep them happy, when you feed them they poo money which you collect and once you have so much you go up a level, once every so often an alien comes and tries to kill your fish who you must protect, the levels get progressivley harder. In the political version you would be john howard and the fish you are looking after would be the minor parties and core community groups with vested intrests. You keep them happy by feeding them with your lies and they poo out political support and funding. The alien will be played by Mark Latham who will try to corrupt the minds of your fish by offering them better lies which you must protect them from. Once a certain amount of political support is gained the problem will be solved and you can progress to a harder problem such as the 25% hecs increase.

Political Games Workshop:

2004-10-12T16:18:00.000+08:00

The games that i played were September 12th and DonkeyJohn.

Question 1) Would the games have been effective in communicating their political message with people via the internet?
September 12th: Upon reading the press release for this game i realised how much it hadn't communicated anything to me. I didn't think about the civilians i might be killing in the process of protecting the towers nor did i think about the US terrorism strategy, however this is just me and perhaps it would have been more effective around the time of September 11th and not 4 years later.
DonkeyJohn: I think that once it was found this game had great potential. More people began to play it and political discussion surrounding the game increased. I think that combined with the rules it effectively communicates it's message despite its simplicity, though whether or not it would increase political activism in real life is questionable. It is a game and as such individuals might be reluctant to accept the reality of what it represents.

Question 2) Was the political message immediately obvious? Were you driven to find it out?
September 12th: for me the message wasn't immediately obvious and i wasn't driven to find out the political message because (if i wasn't in the tute) i wouldn't have known there was one. This is probably because i'm politically apathetic and as much as i should take note of policies and such i simply don't.
DonkeyJohn: only having read the rules would the political message of DJ obvious, if it was on the screen with no rules the it would be difficult to understand who we were as a character and what the barrels were- or maybe i'm just too unaware of the oil crisis.

Question3) My political simulation game;

The point i would try to make would probably be something to do with the lack of bulk billing available in australia.

the game would be arcade style, maybe like pac-man and you would have to collect money to pay for your doctors consultation without being trapped/killed by private health insurance monsters, or something like that :)

Tutorial Introduction

2004-10-12T11:37:00.000+08:00

As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures in Video Games (Martti Lahti)

Lahti’s paper delineates some of the ways in which current video games act as extensions to our bodies. This is envisioned in the sense that a body and technological–like symbiosis is seen to be present in these circumstances, formulating a cyborgian entity. Lahti gives a description of older forms of video games, whereby there is a more distinct demarcation between the user and game. These boundaries are seen to disintegrate when the games become conceptually reformulated to give the player a more subjective view and a more realistic, three-dimensional setting in which the game is played out. It is manifest that more emphasis is placed on the body in these games which is exemplified in representations of grunts, sounds of physical violence inflicted on the body and “health metres” on the screen. In this instance, Lahti uses an excellent metaphor in which to envisage the cyborgian nature that exists between machine and human where we “see ‘through the eyes of the monitor’ what our body is supposed to feel and register.”1 In this context, our bodies really do appear to be entwined with technology, as the monitor effectively becomes our eyes.

The level of detail given to describe the differences between older and more contemporary models of video games give credibility to Lahti’s argument when she explains the corporeal emphasis that is inherent in the latter models. It was necessary of Lahti to first describe the level of abstraction and more rudimentary perceptual governance that was characteristic of the older models in order to highlight the huge perceptual and corporeal shift that has occurred. A compelling proposition is made in that the physical body has become integrated into the game. Lahti’s paper offers another postmodern perspective that identifies with a current theme in this course of the blurring of boundaries. Here, the video game and body are conceptualised not as distinct entities, which is depicted in this quote, encapsulating the essence of the whole paper:

“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 experiences, thus creating a hybrid condition resonant with the cyborg.”2

I would tend to agree with this notion that when engaging in video games we are situated along a virtual and real continuum, rather than acting as discrete entities. We are absolved into a delirium of fantasy, yet are still made aware of our physicality. This is the quality that Lahti deems to be attractive in video games. Through first person positioning, the onscreen avatar and the player’s subjectivities are seen to fuse, facilitating the corporealisation of perception.

The pleasure that is derived from avatars is then discussed in the later parts of the paper. The representation of self on the screen permits the experimentation and projection of desired body type onto the avatar. This is described by the player “being able to augment and upgrade the real body through customizing the represented body.”3 However, this is described to reinforce the narrow categories and boundaries that exist in relation to gender and race, whereby the player inhabits “an easily assumed, ready-to-be-invaded vessel of the Other,” aligning itself with the menu-driven identities we have studied earlier in the course. The context of our current cultural situation is then discussed in relation to video games. Capitalism takes on a dimension in one game, Extreme Sports, where money must be earned to permit an upgrade of a vehicle in which the self is situated. Games are thus seen to “commodify our cyborg desires, our will to merge with and become technology.”4 Patriarchy is also touched on when it is seen that the experimentation with different onscreen bodies to the white man is facilitated without the abdication of any cultural or social power.

Overall I found Lahti’s paper to offer some compelling insights as to the corporeal nature that is now becoming embedded in contemporary video games. I do believe that the perceptual alignment between the avatar and player, along with other devices which absolve the player into the virtuality of the game and yet maintain emphasis on their corporeality founds a significant basis with which to assert the proposition that we become cyborgs when playing video games.

1 p.294 Course Reader
2 p.296
3 p.297
4 p.297

Playing Politics: Blogged Workshop Response

2004-10-12T11:06:00.000+08:00

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

As a Space Invader’s style game, New York Defender is effective in keeping players interested in stopping the planes from hitting the Twin Towers and thus playing the game over and over again. I am not sure if this would encourage players to communicate with others over the internet and there are no links to other sites. Kabul Kaboom asks the player to question the political message to a greater extend and in this way would inspire more political comment. It would be an effective ‘neutral’ starting point to discuss the 9/11 events. When I say neutral, I mean the game itself is a fact that is undisputable, unlike people’s interpretations of the initial attacks and what should be done about them. Although these games would not be effective in creating an online community in the style of Creatures where players would ask each other for advice and download patches and so on, which is how I initially considered the question.

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

I think the political message in New York Defender is that terror is going to attack and the only way to stop it is through pre-emptive strikes. (In this case by getting the planes before they get the twin towers.) This is shown from the planes moving faster and coming from many different angles. I don’t know about others, but I found it pretty impossible to defend the Twin Towers for any length of time. On the other hand though, it may have been an ironic message, the planes instead symbolizing the paranoia present in Bush’s reaction to the attacks. In Kabul Kaboom the political message is more overt. The ludicrous nature of the Bush attack-aid strategy is clear when the player is collecting hamburgers whilst dodging bullets. There is a similar inevitability of death in this game as in New York Defender. By placing the player in a simulated caricature of a possible position of a civilian, they are able to empathize with the character and question the necessity of the attacks. This message was especially poignant for me playing the game directly after playing New York Defender because I was able to draw parallel between the inevitability of the terror attacks and the inevitability of the Bush attacks.

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

Although there are many political points that I would like to make since, in my opinion, the scope of political points currently being represented in mass media is very limited, I think the area in dire need of attention is environmental issues. If I were to focus my game on an Australian audience (which I most likely would) then possibly I would tackle the salinity problem. There would be a central character with enough detail to appear lifelike, but enough fuzziness to be of indeterminate gender who the player would be positioned to identify with. Possibly the player could even create the character Sim-style. The important thing is the player should identify with and thus empathize with the character. The player would then move with the character through their ‘everyday life’ in such a way that the player would make the character do things that they would do in their everyday life. This section of the play would be in the center of the screen which is divided up into, say five sections. In the other sections there would be animated images showing the direct and indirect environmental effects of the character’s actions. For example if the character consumes food, the screen would show the effects of farming on land or as they sit in their manufactured chair, the effects of industry would be displayed. Significantly, as the character’s actions effect different things at once, the interconnectivity would be emphasized by multiple screens showing different effects. At the and of each animation, the screen would display a possible solution to the problem it previously displayed and end with the caption: “So what are YOU going to do about it?”

A Rape in Cyberspace...

2004-10-05T19:57:00.000+08:00

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

The tone of Dibbell’s article resembles a craftily written fantasy narrative. This may seem out of place at first considering the serious nature of the topic at hand, but upon reflection, fits perfectly with the setting of the crime in a place which Dibbell describes as a “semi-fictional otherworld”. One of the most significant themes I took from this reading was the exploration of online experience with reference to ‘RL’ and ‘VR.’

I don’t think that ‘rape’ is really the right word to describe what happened in LambdaMOO. The article also works awkwardly with this term alluding to both its excess (in the physical sense) and lacking (in that the actions were of a nature that is indescribable by current technology.) This mismatching of old terminology with phenomena created through digital technology has resonances within other areas of the course such as the theory surrounding weblogs. This use of terminology is just one way we look to use things in ‘real life’ that are readily understood to describe actions ‘online’. It is evident that these two spheres are not mutually exclusive. Our physical and online lives give and take meaning from each other.

The people who interact in online communities are the same people that exist in the offline communities. As we have seen in the Blacksburg Electronic Village, existing prejudices and concerns in the ‘real life’ community are transferred into the online realm. This can be seen in the way the users of LambdaMOO dealt with their ‘rapist’ and indeed with the act of rape itself. As Dibbell states “[legba] suffered a brand of degradation all-too-customarily reserved for the embodied female.” In the lecture, Tama discussed whether gendered power relations could exist in a completely textual space. I think the fact that these relations do occur shows that the embodied person behind the online persona cannot be separated from it. Dibbell describes the different sectors of the online community, which are similar to sectors found in a geographical community. As in ‘RL’ a serious common cause was able to bind the community together in order to action some form of social justice. A judiciary system was put in place that resembled their ideals of a democratic system experienced in real life.

A note on narrative ideals: I was recently reading a book that discussed the use of terra australis as a space of utopian narrative prior to European settlement. The book said that after Australia became a colonized space, other spaces such as outer space became the sites of narrative utopias. I would like to extend this proposition further, to say that since the entire of the planet and indeed our immediate spacial areas have been colonized, they are no longer available as utopian sites. Around the time of these writings, the Internet was being created as the next utopian narrative site. (“techno-utopian ecstasies of West Coast cyperhippies”) The significance of the ‘rape’ was that it shattered, for the users of LambdaMOO, this idea of a safe place, a utopia. So in the absence of this a community was created, where they attempted to create a utopian democracy. The impossibility of an Internet utopia comes from the idea I discussed earlier about bringing offline ‘baggage’ online, we cannot create a utopia and exist in it too, so to speak.

Tutorial Reading – Week 10 - The Virtual Community

2004-10-05T15:17:00.000+08:00

Tutorial Reading – Week 10
The Virtual Comunity – Howard Rhinegold

Article written in the first person about one man’s experiences of online communities.

· WELL’S (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link)

- Feeling of authentic community due to inclusion of many ‘real-life’ events ie marriages, births, funerals.
- Merging of physical and virtual – those part of the virtual community are still real people you can meet on the street.
- Potential of online world – ability to ‘be’ in more than one place at one time, no physical restrictions. Ie Rhinegold says at one given time he can be in a parenting conference on the WELL, playing online games, browsing through online information and news sources and taking part in an IRC chat room.
- Most appealing aspect of virtual communities is the lack of physical prescence and the removal of limitations which physical prescence can place on experience.

“We leave our bodies behind. You can’t kiss anybody and nobody can punch you in the nose, but a lot can happen withing those boundaries.”

· EFFECT OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES ON REAL LIFE

“I have written this book to help inform a wider population about the potential importance of cyberspace to political liberties and the ways virtual communities are likely to change our experience of the real world, as individuals and communities”

- Technology that makes virtual communities possible has the potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens are relatively little cost, intellectually, socially, commercially and politically.
- Whinegold warns us of the future for virtual communities and the potential threat of cencorship and commercialization by the political and economic ‘big boys’.
- Emphasizes potential for the internet if managed properly. Loses ‘leverage; if barriers to entry are setup restricting access to the more privileged societal groups.

“The future of the net has become too important to leave to specialists with special interests.”

“If we do not develop such a vision for ourselves, the future will be shaped for us by large commercial and political powerholders.”

· OTHER VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

- CMC’s (Computer Mediated Communitcation) allow the formation of virtual communities. As Rhinegold defines; “virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships within cyberspace.”
- Rhinegold comments on the desire of human nature to form communities where possible – is made possible by CMC technology.
- CMC has also allowed the emergence of Usenet groups.
- BBS (Bulletin Board System) has also allowed the emergence of virtual communities which allows easy communications over large distances and across cultures. Allows education of foreign countries and users to expand their horizons.
- A wider range of online experience can also be achieved, as Rhinegold concludes;

“One minute I’m involved in the minutiae of local matters such as planning next week’s bridge game, and the next minute I’m part of a debate raging in seven countries. Not only do I inhabit my virtual communities; to the degree that I carry around their conversations in my head and begin to mix it up with them in real life, my virtual communities also inhabit my life. I’ve been colonized; my sense of family at the most fundamental level has been virtualized.”

- It is this potential diversity of experience and the ease of which information sources and conversation topics can be reached that underlies the real advantage of online communication and virtual communities.

Adjustment

2004-09-19T21:57:00.000+08:00

Aaron, thanks for pointing out that one of my link's wasn't accessible. I've fixed it up, so you can read the interview with anne balsamo now if you want:)

Matthew Soar's "The First Things First Manifesto and the Politics of Culture Jamming"

2004-09-14T18:17:00.000+08:00

Matthew Soar's paper examines the potential important role and responsibility of graphic designers with regards to the First Things First Manifesto and culture jamming. I will begin by defining these three key terms:

Graphic Design is an applied art of arranging image and text to convey a message. It can be used in any media. Throughout the 20th century, technological advances have made this a profession that is done almost entirely on computers. It is now predominantly a visual rather than a literary experience for the audience. (For an interesting history of graphic design click here!) An important point in the development of graphic design culminated with the introduction of the First Things First Manifesto in 1964.

The First Things First Manifesto (1964) called for a revolutionary form of graphic design. It criticised value free design. It had a wide influence on the resulting generation of graphic designers.

The re-introduction of the First Things First Manifesto in 1999 reintroduced the same idea. It held the belief that designers must be critical in their designs to take a stand against hegemonic ideologies. For example they should not stoop to working or promoting those industries or products believed to be controlling and 'bad' (Such as cigarette companies). It also alludes to the fact that designers should not lower themselves to doing menial, 'innessential' (p. 239 of course reader) work such as using their skills to sell dog biscuits.

This is related to culture jamming. This is the use of existing mass media to comment on those very media themselves, using the original medium's communicative method. This is not art for art's sake - it has the purpose of pirating, subverting and resisting dominant, oppressive culture. Predominant modes of culture jamming are expressed through the appropriation and modification of corporate logos and slogans. Visit this website for a more indepth definition of culture jamming.

The Potential Role of Graphic Designers: In his paper Soar reviewed others' ideas (Ken Garland, Katherine McCoy, Milton Glaser, Kalle Lasn) that graphic designers have an accountability and social responsibility to provide alternative graphic media to counter the effects of capitalist commercialism. As opposed to those working for corporate advertising, graphic designers are not limited by constraints of the company they work for and as such are able to be personally expressive. As a result it has been suggested by the above mentioned designers and academics that they can be agents for a positive social change - or even a revolution.

I thought I would provide my personal responses to some of the issues raised by Soar:

Controversy surrounding the First Things First Manifesto (2000): The backlash against the updated version came in 2 forms -
(1) It was seen by some as 'elitist nonsense' (Paula Scher, p. 222 of course reader).
(2) It was seen by some as being 'absolutist', or too rigid (Bierut, p. 222 of course reader).
I found myself agreeing with both of these criticisms of the manifesto. To me it does seem to be a form of ethical or intellectual elitism. Within the manifesto there was a snide attitude towards anyone who doesn't feel the need to be putting their skills into this type of politically charged use. Furthermore, Bierut stated that those who signed the manifesto 'have specialised in [designing] extraordinarily beautiful things for the cultural elite, not the denizens of your local 7-Eleven', (p. 581 of course reader) meaning that they're simply preaching to the converted and not bothering to spread their intellectual, ethical superiority elsewhere.
With regards to the absolutist issue - the standpoint of the manifesto leaves no room for alternative perspectives. Summarising Bierut, if you do not adhere to the manifesto you have 'sold your soul' to capitalism, but if you do follow it your aim has to be to 'bring capitalism to its knees'. There is no middle ground in the manifesto.

The utopia that results from culture jamming & the First Things First Manifesto:
I think that it's a bit idealistic that culture jamming and graphic design's reaction to the manifesto can result in a revolution against dominant popular culture.
I've seen enough feckled youth at the train station wearing 'McShit' t-shirts in the full knowledge that they'll be downing a chilli quarter pounder tomorrow to think that culture jamming can have such a huge effect on dominant forms of advertising.
I think it does have a grungey underground popularity (especially with the younger generation), however it is not yet anywhere near as salient as other forms of graphical advertising and as such I don't think at the moment it can truly counter or revolutionise the way we view the media that is currently so dominant.

The need for the education of graphic designers:
It is suggested in Soar's article by Katherine McCoy that the effect that the First Things First Manifesto has will be greatest in its impact on the education of graphic designers. (For two of Katherine Mccoy's essays on graphic design education go here and here.)Teachers should realise the 'apolitical' nature of their students' education and as a result will start to place an emphasis on the need for issue-driven work.
This can furher be seen in the introduction of the Registered Graphic Designers exam where aspiring graphic designers must demonstrate their knowledge of their profession's code of ethics, and this is becoming a requirement for many graphic design employment positions.
This is perhaps the most likely way graphic design could cause a revolution - if the current generation of graphic designers are educated in this politically charged way, perhaps in the future we will see more graphic media that is in tune with the First Things First Manifesto and the ideas of culture jamming.

Mark Poster 'Consumption and digital commodities in the Everyday'

2004-09-08T01:36:00.000+08:00

In the article 'Consumption and digital commodities in the everyday' Poster aims to disprove modernist theories which label consumers as passive acceptors of company driven images, instead he argues that the digital age enables consumers to take an active part in their consumption and as such become a creator of the object.

Poster begins his article with a juxtaposition between American patterns advertising, which he describes as a “mosaic of images and texts all selling something, all competing for the attention of passers-by with bright colours” (p. 209), with the lack of any advertising in Slovenia in the late 1980’s where the only way to find out what a shop was selling was to go into the shop and look.

His argument then progresses into descriptions of previous theories of consumption, so the reader has an understanding of how views of consumption have been formed and evolved over time. He describes the modernist theories viewed consumption as a way to satisfy the needs of the communities, consumers were categorised as passive. He argues that “Postmodernity is the recognition of the complexity and importance of consumption” (p. 210).

Poster’s discussion on postmodern consumerism, in my opinion, raises some interesting points. He points out that consumption of clothing patterns have changed so now young people and minority groups are increasingly dictating fashions, fashions that are hybridised through the experience of globalisation. However his suggestion that “in Postmodernity [consumer objects] express one’s identity…consumption is a part of self-construction” seems to reduce all aspects of identity formation to commodity consumption and fails to recognise other factors (such as cultural heritage) that influence ones identity.

For an article entitles ‘Consumption and digital commodities’ Poster only discusses the digital aspect for the last few pages of the article, and very briefly. He argues that through digital technologies ability to be altered from the original takes the ownership of the commodity away from the original producers and allows the consumers to actively control that which they consume (p. 213). This argument is furthered through his examples of consumers having control over the amounts of advertising they watch through channel surfing, or the invention of TiVo.

Whilst Poster provides an interesting account of the evolution of changing consumption patterns, I feel the article did not really focus on the digital side of things and as such it left me wanting to know more about how advances (particularly on the internet side of things, such as Ebay emailing customers with similar items to those which they have already purchased). However as an article on consumer culture it was quite good.

A parting quote “while new technologies do enable producers to modify commodities to particular consumer preferences in what is termed a postmodern economy, no one argues that consumers are thereby producers, distributors, or reproducers of the commodity” (p. 215).

(all page numbers are from course readers)

Webliography Responses

2004-09-06T08:43:00.000+08:00

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

Webliography

2004-09-06T08:01:00.000+08:00

Question 4: “From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, technological ‘progress’ has always forced society to reevaluate the meaning of ‘life’.”

The renegotiation of that which constitutes ‘life’ becomes unavoidable as technological progress and its representations in popular culture continue to blur the boundaries between that which is life and that which creates the illusion of life.[1] Defining life is implicated by the inherent dualisms which parallel opposing notions that exist between technoscientific and theological discourses. This breakdown of once distinct binaries- Life/Death, Inorganic/Organic, Essence/Information, Natural/Artificial, Form/Matter, Bodies/Machines, Invention/Inventor[2]- has characterized the history of anatomy and biotechnological advancements. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was “the first fictional text to speculate about the possible transformations of organic life in response to technoscientific innovations”.[3] The historical context of this text therefore provides a starting point for examining society’s continuing reevaluation of the meaning of ‘Life’. The Visible Human Project will represent the present for the purpose of this discussion as it marks the “factual realization on what had been considered merely science fiction.”[4] Catherine Waldby has labeled the Visible Human Project as “an apparatus which recapitulates an entire history of anatomy within itself.”[5] In considering the meaning of ‘life’ I have elected various ‘mid points’ in biotechnological and associated medical history from which renegotiations have stemmed. These sites of possible renegotiations include, Galvanism and electricity as life; the development of medical imaging technology; Oncomouse as an example of patented life; Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life with reference to the Turing test as a determinant of achievement; The Human Genome Project which illustrates life as organization of information. These instances are derived from background readings and are revealing not only of ‘life’, but of the associated issues commonly raised of death, immortality, technogenesis, Posthuman medicine and humans as inventors of life. I searched a variety of terms through Google to locate the following online sources which could be used to develop a critical discussion on the reevaluation of life within society, alongside technological progress.

The Visible Human Project was created with the intent of educational, medical and research applications. This has in turn generated much theoretical interest amongst which the meaning of life, its origin (‘Virtual Eden’[6]) and the terms of death, have been renegotiated. Eugene Thacker’s article[7] raises many of these issues and provides some history of technology in medical science; however his article is of particular use for its explanation of the processes undertaken in the creation of the VHP.

Catherine Waldby’s work on the VHP[8] is summarized in a review by Stuart J Murray.[9]
Waldby’s text on the VHP is invaluable in addressing a question such as this and Murray’s source simplifies Waldby’s original into a series of main points and questions. The usefulness of this source is its efficient (in terms of length and aptness) referral and explanation of concepts such as ‘Technogenesis’ and ‘Posthuman’ which are central to discussing life aligned with technological progress. While the review style of source must be approached with caution, Murray’s review involves only a limited deviation from Waldby’s original.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein marks a point in the history of technological progress when the possibilities of “life giving and death dealing technologies”[10] were bought to the realization of wider society, forcing the rise of questions regarding life and its origins. The NLM- Birth of Frankenstein[11] looks at the life of Mary Shelley and the scientific interest in the boundary between life and death of her times. This source includes a brief account of Galvanism which dealt with notions of life, (and later death), through electricity and illustrates this instance in technological progress where society has been forced to reevaluate the meaning of life.

Gary Banham’s[12] article is useful to developing ideas about the expanding nature of societies mindset when it comes to categorizing and integrating technology which challenges pre established modes of thought- i.e. development of Artificial intelligence. Banham’s incorporation of direct references to Christopher Langton’s writing on the subject provides further insight, ground for rebuttal based on Langton’s obvious marriage to AI as well as credibility born from Langton’s relationship with developing technology.

‘Defining life, explaining emergence’ [13]applies existing definitions of ‘life’ within science to explore Artificial Intelligence as ‘life’. It makes specific reference ‘emergence’ as a feature determinant of ‘life’ as does Christopher Langton who coined the term A-Life, in his work on the philosophy of life in a society approaching the achievement of Artificial Intelligence. This source is useful firstly, in providing general discussion on the principles underpinning society’s attempts to define life and secondly for it’s focus on A-life as a definable form of life. Technological progress resulting in the computational ordering of information forms a base from which ‘life’ has been reevaluated. This source is long and some of it content is irrelevant to this particular discussion however that which does apply is particularly useful as it further explores concepts that I encountered in my preparatory reading[14] on ‘Life’.

Edwards’s article[15] was published in Humanist; a secular magazine and it draws parallels between religion and technology as major influences over the thoughts and actions of people. While its content must be viewed with caution, it is for this bias, amongst other reasons, that I included this article. The article explores instances in the history of biotechnological progress which have forced religious society, at least, to reevaluate the meaning of life. Amongst these instances specific reference is made to the Oncomouse (human as the creator of patented life form), and the Human Genome Project (Life as information and sister project to the VHP), two of the points of progress that I intend to highlight. Further instances which are detailed in the article are also useful, as they direct reader’s thoughts to the relationship between technological progress and societal response.

Since the beginning of time humans have indulged in a preoccupation with divinity. Recognition of the fact that human kind has eternally overvalued their existence has since been forced through technological progress. In reevaluating the meaning of life we must also acknowledge the resulting altered terms of death. With immortality as a suggested motivational basis for applied biotechnology an irony exists as in reaching this end point it must be accepted that we need not exist in the first place. Humans have now become both the subject and the object of their own knowledge. There is no answer to the meaning of life and this is reflected in the nature of the above sources. Questions are continually posed and then answered with further questions arising from the implications associated with the provision of absolutes. These online sources act as guides to considering the focus question as well as provide theoretical background to assessing the meaning of life. They act to contextualize the discussion rather than lead to a conclusive endpoint just as life and the blurring of its meaning under humans quest for immortality.

[1]Catherine Waldby. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pg 18
[2] These dualisms established from:
Iwan Rhys Morus. (ed.) Bodies/Machines. UK, Berg- Oxford. 2002.
Catherine Waldby. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. Sarah Kembel. Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
[3]Catherine Waldby. “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture” in Tofts, D., Jonson, A. and Cavallaro, A. (eds.), Prefiguring Cyberculture, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2002, pp 28-37.
[4]Catherine Waldby. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. Pg 5
[5] Waldby, pg 51
[6] Waldby, The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine
[7] Eugene Thacker. “Lacerations: The Visible Human Project, Impossible Anatomies, and the Loss of Corporeal Comprehension” (2001). http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissue/j003/Articles/Thacker/impossible/htm (accessed 29.08.04)
[8] Waldby, The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine.
[9] Stuart J Murray. (2002). On Waldby, C. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine.. http://www.reconstructions.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm (accessed 26.08.04)
[10] Morus. (ed.) Bodies/Machines. UK, Berg- Oxford. 2002. pg. 110

[11] “The Birth of Frankenstein” (Feb 2002). The National Library of Medicine. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frank_birth.html (accessed 28.08.04)
[12] Gary Banham. “Transcendental Philosophy and Artificial Life” (2001) http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j003/Articles/banham.htm (accessed 26.08.04)
[13]Claus Emmeche. “Defining Life, Explaining Emergence” (1997). http://www.nbi.dk/~emmeche/cePubl/97e.defLife.v3f.html#explaining (accessed 27.08.04)
[14] Sarah Kembel. Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life. London and New York: Routledge,2003.

[15]Fred Edwards. "How biotechnology is transforming what we know and how we live." (1999) http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_5_59/ai_55722249/ (accessed 28.08.04)

References

Banham, G. “Transcendental Philosophy and Artificial Life” (2001) http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j003/Articles/banham.htm (accessed 26.08.04)
Edwards, F. "How biotechnology is transforming what we beleive and how we live." From, Humanist mag (september1999). http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_5_59/ai_55722249 (accessed 28.08.04
Emmeche, Claus. “Defining Life, Explaining Emergence” (1997). http://www.nbi.dk/~emmeche/cePubl/97e.defLife.v3f.html#explaining (accessed 27.08.04)
Jones, S. (ed.) The Giant book of Frankenstein. Robinson, London and Australia. 1995.
Kember, S. Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Morus, I.R. (ed.) Bodies/Machines. UK, Berg- Oxford. 2002.
Murray, S.J. (2002) on Waldby, C. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine.. http://www.reconstructions.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm (accessed 26.08.04)
Thacker, E. “Lacerations: The Visible Human Project, Impossible Anatomies, and the Loss of Corporeal Comprehension” (2001). http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j003/Articles/Thacker/impossible.htm (accessed 29.08.04)
Waldby, C. The Visible Human Project: Infomatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
Waldby, C. “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture” in Tofts, D., Jonson, A. and Cavallaro, A. (eds.), Prefiguring Cyberculture, Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2002, pp 28-37.
“The Birth of Frankenstein” (Feb 2002). The National Library of Medicine. http://nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frank_birth.html (accessed 28.08.04)

Hourann's webliography

2004-09-05T22:14:00.000+08:00

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

Through history, the development of new technologies has often led to redefinitions of the ways in which identity is constructed. Computing technologies are no exception, given their significant differences to older forms of communication. Early ideas of how communicating with computers changes identity were somewhat utopian (e.g. ‘gender is irrelevant’) but these have been thoroughly disproved, leaving open the question of just what changes do occur.

To examine this, I tried several searches on Google, finding resources such as Frank Schaap’s list of links on identity and technology, which is slightly dated but still very useful. This gave a very broad (and complex) range of articles, so I will focus solely on the Internet and related technologies.

One of the most significant ways in which the construction of identity does get altered is due to the easily changeable nature of identity in online spaces. Users can never really be sure that the people they’re interacting with actually are who they claim to be, leading to paranoia about what people’s ‘real identities’ are in online spaces.

Judith Donath’s 1998 article discusses this paranoia and its causes. Focussing on Usenet, she discusses (in some detail) several examples of real interactions, analysing their implications for the presentation of identity. Her work reflects the anxiety of late-90s Internet users who were fearful of ‘true’ identity becoming obscured (or completely lost) online, and is therefore useful for showing just how significant the construction of identity is to everyday communication.

Meanwhile, Stalder’s article provides a thorough discussion of identity while also exploring this paranoia. Stalder describes ways in which identity is constructed in general, then examines how those apply to online environments, providing a valuable background to issues of identity in these contexts. His focus, though, is very general (and often on identification rather than identity); it is necessary to look elsewhere for specifics.

The article by Daniel Chandler is old enough that it discusses ‘personal home pages’ as a new phenomenon (well before the advent of blogging), but it still draws useful insights into how identity can be constructed in this context. Chandler notes the way in which home pages make the inherently private world of someone’s personal life a matter for the public sphere, by disseminating it to the world. The article points out the relative ease of changing a home page, and notes how this is related to the dynamic nature of constructing identity. It is somewhat more descriptive than it is analytical, though, so it is useful primarily as a source of basic ideas and definitions.

Arnold and Miller’s later article, although still focussing on ‘personal home pages’, provides a more analytical perspective. It considers gender rather than the broader notion of identity used by Chandler, and highlights some of the differences between how men and women present themselves on Web pages. This, they point out, is in response to social and cultural structures, such as the tendency for female academics to not be taken as seriously as their male colleagues. Their essay, then, provides a strong indication of how the power structures of the offline world can readily translate to the online.

Deanna Weber’s article also focuses on gender as part of identity. Weber briefly refers to her own experiences in interacting with other people online, but deals mainly with theory and abstract examples. She also surveys a broad range of relevant texts, bringing up a range of useful quotes and important ideas. Weber reiterates the significance that people attach to gender when communicating; for instance, someone who uses a non-gendered name and profile to identify themselves will still be confronted by questions like ‘a/s/l?’. She then begins a detailed analysis of gender subjectivity, arguing that the different nature of identity construction online is a potential platform for social change.

This said, gender is not the only aspect of identity being constructed online. This is shown by the article on the online community New Zealand Edge, which explores cultural identity alongside issues of race and ethnicity. The authors point out that people often feel a need to ‘belong’, and will actively seek out community whether the context is online or off. Their sociological study reveals how many of the factors that make up cultural identity in the ‘real world’ are still present in the online community, but the techniques of construction used in the online space are significantly different. For instance, the Internet allows for community to be formed by any communication, rather than geographical positioning, but this can still produce the strong sentiments of belonging that accompany offline communities. In this case, then, the new technology disrupts the process (but not the outcome) of constructing identity.

Like the study of New Zealanders, Loong Wong’s article also deals with the idea of ‘belonging’ as part of the construction of cultural identity. Wong describes how the Chinese diaspora have created communities online, much like those built offline, but argues that these can sometimes homogenise the identities of subtly different groups. This stands in contrast to early utopian ideas that the Internet gives an open voice to everyone, and shows how online environments can alter even the problems of constructing identity.

Finally, Frank Biocca’s essay offers a much more radical perspective on the ways in which new communication technologies alter the process of identity construction. He argues that the integration of the Internet into our everyday lives alters our identities by transforming our bodies, making us more like cyborgs every day. Biocca points out that the body is involved somehow in all forms of communication, and hence is also an important part of how we construct identity. If his claim about embodiment changing in response to the changes of online communication is true, then it seems certain that the growth of the Internet will lead to identity becoming ever more fluid in all aspects of life.

To conclude, it is clear that Internet technologies bring about significant changes in the construction of identity, particularly by making it a much more fluid and less certain process. Nonetheless, important aspects of identity from the offline world continue to play a role, such as gendered power relations.

Given that the question is so broad, a list of references as short as this can never be more than a very brief overview. I have tried to survey a broad range of aspects of identity, while also looking at how opinions towards the construction of identity have shifted over time. This reveals important disagreements in how identity is constructed online, while also highlighting the many similarities to identity offline.

References

Arnold, Jill; and Miller, Hugh. “Gender and Web Home Pages”. March 1999. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Biocca, Frank. “The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments”.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, volume 3 issue 2, September 1997. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Donath, Judith. “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community”. June 1998. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Chandler, Daniel. “Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web”. August 1998. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Schaap, Frank. “Cyberculture, Identity and Gender Resources”. March 2003. [accessed 30/08/2004]

Stalder, Felix. “Digital Identities – Patterns in Information Flows”. July 2000. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Tripp, Anna; Williams, Jocelyn; and Jacobs, Glenda. “A picture of New Zealand community and cultural identity in cyberspace”. December 2003. [accessed 01/09/2004]

Weber, Deanna. “Subjectivity and Gender-Identity in Cyberspace”. The Laughing Medusa, Spring 2001. [accessed 02/09/2004]

Wong Loong. “Belonging and diaspora: The Chinese and the Internet”.
First Monday, volume 8 issue 4, April 2003. [accessed 31/08/2004]

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

2004-09-05T22:01:00.000+08:00

After reading Anne Balsamo’s paper[1], I was given a broad scope of how technology and gender interact. I wanted to find additional information regarding Balsamo’s ideas and so used Google to search for the terms ‘anne balsamo feminism technology.’ A more specific comprehension of gender identities in relation to information and communication technologies was needed and hence a Google search for ‘gender information communication technology’ was enacted. After successful articles were retrieved from this search, Leticia Nien-Hsuan Fang’s essay introduced me to and elucidated some of Judith Butler’s ideas regarding gender constructions. I then sought to deepen my understanding of fundamental ideas pertaining to gender identities and categories and therefore conducted another Google search for ‘butler subversion gender.’ A search through UWA’s Course Materials Online for relevant topics concerning femininity in the cyberspace realm was also conducted.

Fiona Webster[2] provides an excellent foundation for exploring general issues of gender identity. The paper makes available a platform for which one can gain ideas of what it means when ‘women’ are placed into their own category. Fiona Webster gives a comprehensive analysis of how Benhabib and Butler diverge in their conceptions of ‘women’, the agency derived from gender identities, and the consequent political implications of their views.

In a theoretical framework only, I found Butler’s idea of “once an identity category (such as “women”) is no longer understood to represent a unified, stable, identity (“woman”), then the legitimacy of identity-based politics is itself brought into question” to be appealing. However, the practical application of this is inadequate.

Butler’s opened up for me, a whole new theoretical paradigm with which to think about gender identities. I did however think that the theory here might be incongruent to the ‘real world.’ Fiona Webster gives a well-researched and balanced account of both views. However, I agree with her when she critises Butler’s “reluctance to address explicitly the questions of how it is that individuals in practice resist determination by dominant gender norms and how such norms might be actively contested in the context of a feminist political movement.” A possible limitation of this paper, however, is that lot of theoretical thought is given in relation to the ‘subject’ but little exploration is given to the ‘context’ of this subject in real-life terms.

Elizabeth Lane Lawley’s[3] paper assesses the gamut of theories in relation to technology and gender. Lawley critiques technological determinism and aligns herself with feminism. This would be helpful in my essay as Lawley explores possible avenues for female emancipation on the internet. It is explained how if one views the user of technology as a subject instead of an object, women can ‘act as agents of change in this digital revolution, rather than ineffective objects.’

Lawley then examines Butler and I took note of how current gender identities or categories need not only be reflected in the worlds created by information and communication systems but can, instead, be utilised as another arena with which to reshape those categories.

Lawley then strengthened my view on men’s hesitation to attribute any power to technology that aids in the process of destabilising gender boundaries. For without categorical identities, society cannot discriminate based on biological characteristics.

Signalled by her vast array of references, Lawley goes to great trouble to highlight the strengths and inadequacies facing theories that pertain to gender and technology.

An Interview with Anne Balsamo[4] was incredibly rich with ideas emanating out of feminism and technology. She gives insight into the underpinnings of why genders are still binarised with technologies. Throughout her interview, two ideas became salient to me; (i) that technologies are being used to reproduce the power system and (ii) intervention at an institutional level (that actually structure the meaning of the technology) needs to be met in order to reconfigure gender relations with technology. Although you could still apply Balsamo’s ideas to my essay, I found there was a primary focus on the broad scope of technology, with no particular analysis on communication technologies being made.

Miranda Mowbry’s study[5] of an online community in Little Italy underscores the fact that people are usually accurate in guessing the correct gender of a masqueraded identity. The study also reveals that people will not be satisfied with conceiving sex-unidentified individuals in androgynous terms. One is always compelled to assign people to binarised categories in accordance with existing schemas. It is also demonstrated that there is increased chance for expression and acceptance of non-heteronormative identities. However, the limitation of this study resides in the fact that it is geared towards one specific locality. Also, it is unclear whether the users are becoming more accepting of non-customary gender identities or anyone less tolerant will not find the community a congenial environment and will leave.

Leticia Nien-Hsuan Fang’s study[6] is an analysis of gender in relation to the more specific field of information and communication technologies. Fang briefly reviews cyberfeminism making an important point that communication and connectivity are pertinent to the formation of female identity. She then delineates her research, which had the aim of ‘exploring the multiple facets of the experiences, problems and imagination of female internet dropouts in metropolitan Taipei.’ It is a study of how the imposition of information and communication technologies shape women’s’ identity in the offline world. This is examined in the context of ‘what sense of identity can be raised by women who are failed by the cyberculture, or decline the cyberculture?’ The study is helpful in that it allows for the impact of these technologies on identity to be distinguished in the offline world, rather than conforming to the myriad of research which examines this impact in the online environment only. The drawback, however, is that only a very few number of women were observed, and only a very specific locality is researched.

I found Susan Hawthorne’s essay[7] to make some substantive points regarding what social effects the offline world absorbs from technologies that permit the exchange of identities and gender. She explains how they serve to ‘emotionally deskill’ people. Hawthorne signals the possible disruption of identity in the outside world as these types of software fragment the psyche – ‘who and what will we be?’ Also underscored in the essay, is identity in the western world perhaps becoming devoid of sensitivity and compassion; as the ‘fake recuperability of virtual characters will desensitise us to real suffering and pain. We will be silent and silenced.’

If I were answering a question on the ‘ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/or altered by information and communication technologies’ I would have apt resources to employ. Some of the ideas I would incorporate into this potential essay would be as follows:
Identities made through virtual communication will always have a predilection to be categorised into gendered binaries, with androgyneity being unsatisfactory to a significant proportion of users. A discussion of why the body cannot be transcended would be made in reference to Mowbry’s study (people can not ignore their existing schemas). Butler’s theoretical paradigm would also be mentioned when addressing gender constructions, or “categories”, the way in which they impact on identity and the possible avenues in which one could collapse or transcend such constructions. An analysis of the ways information and communication technologies influence identity in non-cyber domains would be given in light of Balsamo’s notion that these devices are just reproducing the current power system. Another offline implication offered would be in reflection of Hawthorne signalling western identity to be emotionally inept. In general, I would offer a non-technological determinist view indicating that while the rapid growth in what information and communication technologies can do is intriguing, but what matters more is what people actually do with these devices.
1
Balsamo, Anne. ‘Forms of Technological Embodiment: Reading the Body in Contemporary Culture’ Cyberspace, Cyberbodies, Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment. Eds. Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows. London: Sage, 1995
2
Webster, Fiona. ‘The Politics of Sex and Gender: Benhabib and Butler Debate Subjectivity’ Hypatia, 15,1, http://iupjournals.org/hypatia/hyp15-1.html (accessed 23 August 2004)

3 Lane Lawley, Elizabeth. ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’ (April 1993) http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 23 August 2004)

4 Schmidt-Gleim, Meike. ‘An Interview with Anne Balsamo’ (28April 1997) http://www.t0.or.at/balsamo.balsamoint.htm (accessed 24 August 2004)

5 Mowbry, Miranda. ‘Does Online Gender Masking Work?’ International Journal of Communication, 11 (March 20 2004) http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2002/HPC-2002-47.pdf (accessed 24 August 2004)
6 Nien-Hsuan Fang, Leticia. ‘Involuntary Divide or Segregated Well-Chosen? The Analysis of Membership Categorization in Female Internet Dropouts’ Accounts’ http://www.pucrs.br/famecos/iamcr/textos/fang.pdf (accessed 25 August 2004)

7 Hawthorne, Susan. ‘Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies and Organic Bodies: Theoretical Feminist Responses’ Cyberfeminism: connectivity, critique and creativity (1999) http://cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04155.pdf (accessed 19 August 2004)

References

Balsamo, Anne. ‘Forms of Technological Embodiment: Reading the Body in Contemporary Culture’ Cyberspace, Cyberbodies, Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment. Eds. Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows. London: Sage, 1995

Hawthorne, Susan. ‘Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies and Organic Bodies: Theoretical Feminist Responses’ Cyberfeminism: connectivity, critique and creativity (1999) http://cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04155.pdf (accessed 19 August 2004)

Lane Lawley, Elizabeth. ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’ (April 1993) http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html (accessed 23 August 2004)

Mowbry, Miranda. ‘Does Online Gender Masking Work?’ International Journal of Communication, 11 (March 20 2004) http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2002/HPC-2002-47.pdf (accessed 24 August 2004)

Nien-Hsuan Fang, Leticia. ‘Involuntary Divide or Segregated Well-Chosen? The Analysis of Membership Categorization in Female Internet Dropouts’ Accounts’ http://www.pucrs.br/famecos/iamcr/textos/fang.pdf (accessed 25 August 2004)

Schmidt-Gleim, Meike. ‘An Interview with Anne Balsamo’ (28April 1997) http://www.t0.or.at/balsamo/balsamoint.htm (accessed 24 August 2004)

Webster, Fiona. ‘The Politics of Sex and Gender: Benhabib and Butler Debate Subjectivity’ Hypatia, 15,1, http://iupjournals.org/hypatia/hyp15-1.html (accessed 23 August 2004)

Webliography

2004-09-05T20:21:00.000+08:00

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

There have been a number of information and communication-based technological innovations in recent years, in order to accurately their effect on constructions of identity I decided to first define what comprised ‘technology’, specifically which technologies have facilitated the extension and/or alteration of identity. I began my research with a broad Google search on [“construction of identity” +technology +internet] with the hope this would provide a focus for further investigation. The large majority of responses referred to constructs of identity online through personal web pages, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), discussion boards and forms of virtual reality (such as online role-playing games). From these initial results I decided to focus on these ‘online’ technologies with reference to construction of identity and located 6 articles which critically discussed these issues. When reading the articles I highlighted the major areas which discussed issues of altering and extending identity keeping in mind the initial guiding question.

Source 1
Haya Bechar-Israeli’s article, Bonehead to Clonehead[1] discusses the role of nicknames or ‘nicks’ in IRC with reference to ideas of identity. Bechar-Israeli identifies a person’s ‘nick’ as being a strong identifier in a virtual world where a person’s physical existence and identity must be “condensed textually into a single line which states the nickname and the electronic address.”[2] Bechar-Israeli discusses the importance of ‘nicks’, and how people will use this one identity for a long period of time and become deeply attached to it, a point he re-enforces through portraying a scenario in which an IRC user’s nick is ‘stolen’. Bechar-Israeli then discusses the relationship between a ‘nick’ and one’s true identity, quoting Morgan, et al. (1979) by saying that someone’s name represents his/her essence, whether physical or mental. This article is very detailed in its discussion and by utilizing real logs from IRC chats constructs very sound arguments with relation to construction of identity through use of nicknames in IRC rooms.

Source 2
Judith S. Donath’s article Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community[3] discusses the role and construction of identity in Usenet groups. Donath discusses the reasons for joining Usenet groups as having some grounds in identity construction, “For most participants, identity – both the establishment of their reputation and the recognition of others – plays a vital role.”[4] This article provides some detailed information on identity construction within Usenet groups and is written in a very clear, concise manner. Donath covers other vital points such as the role of user’s account names, and signatures as mediums for identity construction. Donath’s article also discusses issues such as some user’s desire for anonymity and identity theft or deception which would be vital to mention in an assessment of how identity has been altered and/or extended through such online technologies.

Source 3
Brenda Danet’s article Text As Mask: Gender and Identity on the Internet[5] deals primarily with issues of gender and sexuality. She contrasts the construction of gender and sexuality through physical attributes which we see in real life with the noticeable lack of such conventional signals in cyberspace, where people rely on other things such as language and nicknames etc. Danet discusses the construction of Gender Identity with reference to MOOs, an environment where individuals are able to create an elaborate ‘persona’ or ‘character’ whose description is registered and available for reading by anyone logged on to them. This article was very useful as it discussed the construction of identity through another form of technology which was still relatable to the previous two articles. However Danet dedicated a large amount of time to a discussion of gender online, and so if using this source to write an essay on the construction of identity, care must be taken not to include sections of the article which aren’t relevant.

Source 4
Gianna LaPin’s article Pick a Gender and Get Back to Us[6] also deals with gender identity online and explores in detail some of the issues Danet introduces in her article. (Source 3) LaPin focuses on women’s gender identity is affected in an environment which is historically male. Of particular interest is the contrast LaPin suggests between male and female users online which also can be related to ideas of gender identity explored to a lesser extent in Danet’s article. There are a number of quotes taken from online logs or WebPages which LaPin uses to support her arguments that could be used in our essay focusing on the construction of identity online.

Source 5
Sherry Turkle discusses construction of identity through online role-playing games in her article Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs.[7] Turkle notes that “there are over 300 multi-user games based on at least 13 different kinds of software on the international computer network known as the Internet.”[8] Thus, as these online role-playing games are so widely accessed, an essay on the altering and/or extension of identity through technology should discuss nature of role-playing games in identity construction. Turkle’s article covers issues such as the ability to create characters by specifying gender and other physical and psychological attributes. The abundance of ‘real-world’ examples of people creating characters far different to their own physical self provides ample material discussion into the ways in which technologies have made the extension and particularly the altering of identity possible.

Source 6
The sixth article I found was also written by Sherry Turkle, entitled Who Am We?[9], in which she discusses the potential for multiple personalities or ‘characters’ through online and other technologies. Turkle comments on how the “Internet links millions of people in new spaces that are changing the way we think and the way we form communities.”[10] She suggests that computer screens are the new location for our fantasies, both erotic and intellectual, and that Windows allows us to be in several contexts at the same time – an online role-playing game, word processing program, in a chat room or typing an email.[11] The issues raised in this article would be provide a strong basis for concluding an essay on the altering and/or extension of identity, as Turkle examines the many forms of technology through which identity is constructed in a very clear and concise manner.

[1] Bechar-Israeli, Haya (1995) ‘Bonehead to ’ [Online], Available from http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue2/bechar.html (Accessed 23rd August, 2004)

[2] Ibid
[3] Donath, Judith S. ‘Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community’ [Online], Prepared for: Kollock, P. and Smith M. (eds) Communities in Cyberspace, London, Routledge. Available from: http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html (Accessed 24th August, 2004)
[4] Ibid
[5] Danet, Brenda (1996). ‘Text As Mask: Gender And Identity on the Internet.’ [Online] Prepared for conference on Masquerade and Gendered Identity, Venice, Italy, February 21-24, 1996. Available from: http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/mask.html (Accessed 24th August, 2004.)

[6] LaPin, Gianna (1998), ‘”Pick A Gender and Get Back to Us”: How Cyberspace Affects Who We Are.’ [Online], Available from: http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/various/LaPin_G.1998.Pick_a_gender_and_get_back_to_us.htm (Accessed 24th August, 2004)
[7] Turkle, Sherry (1994) ‘Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs’ In: Mind, Culture, and Activity, Vol. 1, nr. 3. [Online], Available from: http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html (Accessed 24th August, 2004)

[8] Ibid
[9] Turkle, Sherry (1996) "Who am We?" In: Wired, Vol. 4, Nr. 1. [Online], Available from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html?person=sherry_turkle&topic_set=wiredpeople (Accessed 25th August, 2004)
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid

References
Bechar-Israeli, Haya (1995) ‘Bonehead to ’ [Online], Available from http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue2/bechar.html (Accessed 23rd August, 2004)
Donath, Judith S. ‘Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community’ [Online], Prepared for: Kollock, P. and Smith M. (eds) Communities in Cyberspace, London, Routledge. Available from: http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html (Accessed 23rd August, 2004)
Danet, Brenda (1996). ‘Text As Mask: Gender And Identity on the Internet.’ [Online] Prepared for conference on Masquerade and Gendered Identity, Venice, Italy, February 21-24, 1996. Available from: http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/mask.html (Accessed 24th August, 2004.)
LaPin, Gianna (1998), ‘”Pick A Gender and Get Back to Us”: How Cyberspace Affects Who We Are.’ [Online], Available from: http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/various/LaPin_G.1998.Pick_a_gender_and_get_back_to_us.htm (Accessed 24th August, 2004)
Turkle, Sherry (1994) ‘Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs’ In: Mind, Culture, and Activity, Vol. 1, nr. 3. [Online], Available from: http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html (Accessed 24th August, 2004)
Turkle, Sherry (1996) "Who am We?" In: Wired, Vol. 4, Nr. 1. [Online], Available from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html?person=sherry_turkle&topic_set=wiredpeople (Accessed 25th August, 2004)

Webliography

2004-09-05T14:28:00.000+08:00

4. “From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, technological ‘progress’ has always forced society to re-evaluate the meaning of ‘life’.” Discuss Critically.
The meaning of ‘life’ is not a notion that can be conclusively defined, and as such our understanding of what constitutes and is allowed the label ‘life’ has remained fluid over human history. I was struck by Waldby’s question, “What forms of life are emerging from new entanglements or organic and informatic matter, and how is the human to be situated among these forms?”[1] As such I have chosen to explore the theory that humans and technology are converging to what some would claim is the future of ‘life’. This was depicted as a grave warning in Shelley’s Frankenstein, but nonetheless seems to be becoming the inevitable future for humanity as shown by medical achievement in endeavours such as the Visible Human Project. I began my hunt on google.com by searching for the writer Eugene Thacker and uncovered a database for many of his pieces that were published online. Through reading some of his material I then discovered further writers and academics that had written appropriate works on this broad notion of what the future holds for the re-evaluation of life.

Allison McConnell’s is one of many articles that make the obvious comparison between Frankenstein and currently emerging technologies such as bioengineering. Frankenstein made the fatal mistake of creating his monster before realising the implications it would have. McConnell predicts that although these new technologies have not yet had an overwhelming impact on society, it is inevitable that they will.[2] She is of the more pessimistic group of writers who believe that technological progress will have a dystopic effect upon how we currently experience and define ‘life’, unless it is spurned on by “spiritual beliefs” and “inventors with a sense of responsibility”.[3] Although there is undoubtedly a requirement for social responsibility and ethics in these emergent technologies, McConnell’s article tends to drift towards the paranoid, claiming that perhaps “we are not scared enough”[4] of the future possibilities for ‘life’ compared to how we know it today.

Even with these dire warnings, human technological progress has not halted. Eugene Thacker’s exploration of the Visible Human Project’s history as embedded in the human fascination with anatomy is interesting as it develops the notion of ‘digital anatomy’.[5] This espouses the idea that through new technologies such as MRI scanning and RealVideo, the human body (and therefore human life) are becoming “hypertexted… and electric”.[6] Hence there is an “indissociability of the body from the intimacy of mediating technologies”,[7] and through this, the meaning of ‘life’ will need to be re-evaluated. I found this paper quite difficult to read, and it did jump to a number of different theories. Nonetheless it did contain some interesting notions, as mentioned previously.

A useful site for gaining further appreciation into Waldby’s critique of the Visible Human Project is Stuart Murray’s review on her book The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. Murray examines Waldby’s questions of what a “life” or a “subject” really is.[8] Like Waldby, Murray holds a sceptical stance on the notion of Cartesian dualism, and as such does not believe in other dualisms. For example, “life” cannot be placed in binary terms as it does not have a clear definition, and thus cannot have a clear opposition, including from technology.[9] This review was helpful as a web-based resource as it gave the reader a critical overview and insight into Waldby’s entire book, without actually having to read it!

The final three sites I will examine all claim that ‘life’ as we know it is currently undergoing re-evaluation as we strengthen our inextricable intertwining with technology. Thacker’s Nanomedicine Talk details the fascinating technology of nanotechnology, and what implications this will have for human life. Thacker claims that this may entirely alter our ideas of what it means to have a body, and to be a body.[10] Furthermore nanotechnology views the body as an “arrangement of atoms”,[11] in the same category as any other molecular structure. The human body is then regarded as an “intricately structured machine” and becomes “programmable matter”,[12] which gives some ideas as to how human ‘life’ as we know it will become intrinsically linked to technology. This page was written in a laypersons style unlike Thacker’s previous page, therefore making it both informative and enthralling to read.

Albert Borgmann and N. Katherine Hayles on Humans and Machines depicts these academics’ views on the subject of emerging digital technologies and the implications this will have for human life. Hayles especially advocates the idea that we are moving into a time where there will be a cyborg hybrid of humans and machines, which will ultimately challenge our definition of life.[13] This was an interview styled site, and as such was useful for the reader to see Borgmann’s and Hayles’ differing opinions on technological theories and predictions as they will pertain to the future of our definition of ‘life’.

Finally, Dvorsky’s paper Destination: Cyborg both accepts and is excited by what the future holds for human life. Unlike McConnell’s dystopian ideas concerning progressive technology, Dvorsky embraces the idea that we are already living the life of robots, and will continue to move in this direction in order to improve and enhance human life.[14] The article was finished with the statement “cyborgs are a higher form. I’m eagerly awaiting the next stage of human evolution, and I hope that you’ll join me.”[15] I thought this seemed as though Dvorsky was preaching to the reader in order to recruit them to some kind of cyborg religion. Nonetheless I found this to be an interesting and informative site that allows for a clear (if not biased) insight into all the positive qualities that could arise out of the future cyborg ‘life’ in society.

In summation, our definition of ‘life’ is constantly being re-evaluated in order to fit in with technological advances in society. The previously discussed websites allow for further insight into this notion, especially concerning how emerging technologies will affect how the future meaning of ‘life’ will be viewed. By evaluating these websites and assessing who wrote them I have been able to ascertain that they would be appropriate for use in an academic essay where the ideas and theories I summarised could be explored in greater depth.

[1] Catherine Waldby, “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture,” in Prefiguring Cybercultures: An Intellectual History. eds. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson and Alessio Cavalaro. (Sydney: Power Publications, 2002), p 33.
[2] Allison McConnell, “It’s Alive, It’s Alive! Shelley's Frankenstein and How the U.S. Is Creating a Monster,” http://www.steveersinghaus.com/contributions/mcconnell.htm (accessed 01/09/04).
[3] McConnell.
[4] McConnell.
[5] Eugene Thacker, “.../visible_human.html/digital anatomy and the hyper-texted body,” CTHEORY, (June 1998), http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=103 (accessed 31/08/04).
[6] Thacker, CTHEORY.
[7] Thacker, CTHEORY.
[8] Stuart Murray, “On Catherine Waldby's The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine,” Reconstruction, (2002), http://www.reconstruction.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm (accessed 31/08/04).
[9] Murray.
[10]Eugene Thacker, “Nanomedicine Talk,” (December 2000), http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0012/msg00147.html (accessed 31/08/04).
[11]Thacker, “Nanomedicine Talk”.
[12]Thacker, “Nanomedicine Talk”.
[13]Albert Borgmann & N. Katherine Hayles, “An Interview/Dialogue with Albert Borgmann and N. Katherine Hayles on Humans and Machines,” (1999), http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/borghayl.html (accessed 01/09/04).
[14]George Dvorsky, “Destination: Cyborg”, Betterhumans, (Febuary 2003), http://www.betterhumans.com/Errors/index.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/Destination_Cyborg.Article.2003-02-16-3.aspx (accessed 01/09/04).
Dvorsky.

Bibliography
Borgmann, Albert & Hayles, N. Katherine. “An Interview/Dialogue with Albert Borgmann and N. Katherine Hayles on Humans and Machines,” (1999), http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/borghayl.html (accessed 01/09/04).

Dvorsky, George. “Destination: Cyborg”, Betterhumans, (Febuary 2003), http://www.betterhumans.com/Errors/index.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/Destination_Cyborg.Article.2003-02-16-3.aspx (accessed 01/09/04).

McConnell, Allison. “It’s Alive, It’s Alive! Shelley's Frankenstein and How the U.S. Is Creating a Monster,” http://www.steveersinghaus.com/contributions/mcconnell.htm (accessed 01/09/04).

Murray, Stuart. “On Catherine Waldby's The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine,” Reconstruction, (2002), http://www.reconstruction.ws/021/revVisibleHP.htm (accessed 31/08/04).

Thacker, Eugene. “Nanomedicine Talk,” (December 2000), http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0012/msg00147.html (accessed 31/08/04).

Thacker, Eugene. “.../visible_human.html/digital anatomy and the hyper-texted body,” CTHEORY, (June 1998), http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=103 (accessed 31/08/04).

Waldby, Catherine. “The Instruments of Life: Frankenstein and Cyberculture,” in Prefiguring Cybercultures: An Intellectual History. eds. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson and Alessio Cavalaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002. 28-37.

Waldby, Catherine. The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.

Kaet's Webliography

2004-09-02T17:19:00.000+08:00

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

Identity is not a static, tangible object, and as such identities are always constructed in relation to the contexts they find themselves in. Information and communication technologies have given rise to different forums in which you are given the agency to construct your own identity, which is not marred by physical markers that shape your identity in the ‘real’ world. These forums, including online chat facilities (such as Usenet groups), online gaming communities (such as Second-Life) or weblogs, offer a chance to change, extend, or alter your identity whilst online. In order to find sources I initially searched the UWA library website for journals on science fiction, after finding some useful articles in various journals I then searched Google using the keywords from the question of ‘construction’, ‘identity’ and ‘online’. I tried to find six articles which all had a different focus, such as the forums mentioned above.

Judith Donath’s [1] essay on the formation and representation of identity within virtual community would provide an excellent starting point for researching this topic. She provides basic terminology and explores several forums in which identity construction. Within her article she analyses ‘identity markers’ that people leave on the internet which are linked to your embodied identity. The examples she provides from user groups, not only demonstrates the identity cues that we bring with us to the virtual world, such as speech and writing patterns, but explores issues of deception and transformation within these communities. Whilst the aspects of her arguments centring on identity deception, concealment and impersonation would prove a useful source for this essay, the section of her essay focusing on signatures, signs and credibility were not particularly relevant to the topic.

These ideas about ‘identity markers’ or clues are dealt with by Susan Herring [2] who expands upon these ideas in relation to communicative differences based on gender. She categorises masculine style of writing in Usenet groups as “characterized by adversariality: put-downs, strong, often contentions assertions, lengthy and/or frequent postings, self-promotion, and sarcasm” [sic.], contrasting to the female style which he describes as “supportiveness and attenuation”. Through her use of ethnographic research methods (such as surveys), I think her article brings, not only a gendered based approach, but also provides some quantitive data to solidify her hypothesis. However the article could be more useful for the essay if it did not focus solely on academic Usenet’s, but also looked at whether these gendered differences were prevalent throughout other groups.

An understanding of some theoretical background into theories of communication differences amongst males and females would also prove a valuable resource to have, if I was to write this assignment. Becky Mulvaney’s [3] article goes into such theories, tracing the formation of gender codes back to history providing examples from early philosophers, such as Plato. She outlines what she believes the two main systems of communications – epistemic, containing our systems of knowledge, and also that all communication is axiological (or contains implicit and explicit values). Whilst the theoretical side of her research will provide a good background, the article does not specifically deal with gendered communication on-line, so as such its use will be marginal, but not altogether insignificant.

Polsky’s article ‘Skins, Patches and Plugins: Becoming Woman in the new Gaming Culture’ [4] looks at the way that gaming character choices have moved beyond Mario and Luigi and how through patches we can create our own gaming identities. Her argument centres on “ways in which gender identities are negotiated in video game play reflect the ways that real-life gender investments operate in the real world”. In the context of the essay question this article would prove a helpful source as it looks at constructions of identity in online gaming and what people choose to represent when they are presented with the option of creating their own identity. This article is also helpful because it has some theoretical basis that would provide me with some theories to guide my argument. The downfall of the article for this topic is that she does not go into how people decide on their online gamer and how their online gamer relates to their ‘real’ identity.

Michael Maranda’s [5] article provides a parallel to gaming identities through his discussion of gender formation in relation to LambdaMOO. His argument that men who characterize women within this setting are often the women characters most sought after for ‘Tiny sex’, due to the fact that they were created by a man and therefore come close to representing stereotypical masculine fantasies of women, provides an interesting side to how identity is constructed on the internet. He the turns this argument into a Freudian-style psychoanalysis of repressed homosexual desire being legitimised under the cover of heterosexuality, an aspect of his argument that I do not think will be useful if I were to explore this essay topic.

Cartwright’s ‘Virtual or real: the mind in cyberspace’ [6] outlines dangers associated with the use of virtual reality as an alternate identity might cause on the individuals mental health, offering a very different view on online identity. He outlines the psychological dangers of altering your online identity and uses the example that “such a perfect virtual body, a quadriplegic might resist returning to the real world,” offering a critique of the ability to alter identities through communication technologies. He also argues that the ability to maintain multiple personalities at one time may create an increase in multiple personality disorders amongst these groups of people. Whilst I am not all together sure that I agree with all of his fears regarding identity formation through virtual reality, this article would provide my argument with a slightly different approach from several of the other articles.

If I were to write an essay on how our constructions of identity are altered or extended through information and communicative technologies I feel that these articles would provide a solid starting point. Whilst some of them provide background information, other sources concentrate on examples from specific sites where the ability to construct identities are offered, and offering critiques of these practices. Overall I think these sources provide a nice cross-section of the literature that is available on this topic.

[1] Judith Donath. 12th November 1996, ‘Identity and deception in the virtual community’ [accessed 30th August 2004]
[2] Susan Herring, 27th June 1994, ‘Gender differences in computer-mediated communication: bringing familiar baggage to the new frontier’,[accessed 30th August 2004]
[3]Becky Michele Mulvaney. 1994, ‘Gender differences in communication: an intercultural experience’ [accessed 30th August 2004]
[4] Allyson Polsky. 2001, ‘Skins, patches and plug-ins: Becoming woman in the new gaming culture’, in Genders, [Online], 34, [accessed 30th August 2004]
[5] Michael Maranda. April 1994, ‘Faking it in Cyberspace: Boys will be girls will be boys’, [accessed 30th August 2004]
[6] Glenn Cartwright. ‘Virtual or real? The mind in cyberspace’ in The Futurist, [Online], 28.02, [accessed 30th August 2004]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cartwright, Glenn, ‘Virtual or real? The mind in cyberspace’ in The Futurist, [Online], vol. 28. no. 2, Available from:
http://80-proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/pqdlink?index=54&did=000000000479870&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1093845963&clientId=20923, [30th August 2004]

Donath, Judith, 12th November 1996, ‘Identity and deception in the virtual community’, Available from: http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html, [30th August 2004]

Herring, Susan, 27th June 1994, ‘Gender differences in Computer-mediated communication: Bringing familiar baggage to the new frontier’, Available from: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/gender/herring.txt, [30th August 2004]

Maranda, Michael, 1994, ‘Faking it in Cyberspace: Boys will be girls will be boys’, Available from: http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/social/papers/maranda.txt, [30th August 2004]

Mulvaney, Becky Michele, 1994, ‘Gender differences in communication: An intercultural experience’, Available from: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/gender/mulvaney.txt, [30th August 2004]

Polsky, Allyson, 2001, ‘Skins, patches and plug-ins: Becoming woman in the new gaming culture’, in Genders, [Online] no. 34, Available from: http://www.genders.org/g34/g34_polsky.html, [30th August 2004]

Kat's Webliography

2004-08-31T14:30:00.000+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.

Although finding the answer to the meaning of life is a philosophical question that will possibly go unanswered forever, the way we, as a society, evaluate the meaning of ‘life’ in terms of what we do know has been greatly affected by technological progress. From looking at Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project the meaning of ‘life’ has been a constantly developing idea, continually abstract and intangible yet strangely omniscient and ‘real’. In order to critically discuss the ways in which society has been forced to re-evaluate the meaning of ‘life’ I will be looking at the population’s evaluation of ‘life’ in the past by looking at views on ‘life’ in the period surrounding Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; what ‘life’ is in terms of religion and ‘life’ as disordered by the Visible Human Project, with discussion on this. I will also look at what ‘life’ is in terms of advancements in cloning and A.I.

An interesting look at the evaluation of life in the eighteenth and nineteenth century is available on the US National Library of Medicine’s “Birth of Frankenstein” web page[1]. This page is particularly useful when looking at the popular view scientists and physicians of the period held, that the bodies of the dead might be brought back to life. Although fairly short in content it is a helpful introduction to possible means of resurrection; electric shocks, smelling salts and vigorous shaking and begins to shed light upon the evaluation of life as renewable from as early as the 1700s.

In terms of religion ‘life’ is of phenomenal importance. An excellent site on the meaning of ‘life’ through the language of religion is ‘The Meaning of Life' [2]. Obviously the site is soaked with religious discourse but it is definitely valuable when looking at the way people have evaluated life for hundreds of years. The purpose of ‘life’ in very general terms is to ‘love and worship your God,’ which is the reason moral debate continues to surround the cloning of human life. I think discussion of life from a religious point of view, being that God is our creator, not the scientist, will help in the examination of cloned ‘life’ and AI.

Discussion surrounding the Visible Human Project (VHP) seems to focus in part on the boundary between the body and what we can loosely term the soul. Stuart J. Murray’s critical look at Catherine Waldby’s writing on the VHP gives insight into what the VHP does to bodies and ‘life' [3]. Murray looks comprehensively at Waldby’s dialogue on the value of life and the destruction of the binary distinctions between the actual and the real. I think this page is useful as it gives a critical overview of Waldby’s research and allows the reader to assess issues raised by Waldby, after they have been written, which we would not otherwise get.

Views on ‘life’ have been greatly disturbed by progress of the phenomena of cloning. Dr Patrick Dixon’s on-line book “The Genetic Revolution”[4] is a fantastic source looking at, among other things, cloning humans, patenting human clones, creating designer people and the “potential [of such experiments] to devastate the planet.”[5] Dixon discusses ‘life’ as a commodity like software on a floppy disk. He suggests that the cloning of humans is a step towards viewing ‘life’ of ‘real’ humans as progressively less important and sees cloning as a loss of individuality. Dixon also notes that, “there is more to life than life” and moreover, “you and I are more than the sum of our constituent parts. There is more to a human consciousness and individuality than just a bunch of chemicals.”[6] I think Dixon’s clear view on cloning and genetic interference opened my eyes a lot with regards to what ‘life’ is becoming and will offer some very helpful links to the discussion of A.I. later in my essay. It is quite a lengthy read but well worth it, especially Chapter 9- A Practical Response.

The view of American society as represented by world leader President Bush, in Melanie Hunter’s Cybercast News Service Article[7], provides some additional insights into what the future of cloning may hold. Bush is uncompromisingly against cloning, and sees life as a creation not a commodity. In Hunter’s article on Bush and cloning we are privy to the views against cloning by a multitude of organizations including Concerned Women for America and The American Centre for Law and Justice. This article notes that society is very much concerned with the protection of human life. I think this article will be extremely helpful when discussing life in terms of religion and views on cloning in general.

Artificial Life has also raised many questions as to what ‘life’ is: can a “machine” have life? Rinku Dewri’s [8] article on artificial life discusses ‘life’ from a scientific standing point, as a merely “pre-defined course of functional activity carried out by organic entities (cells) and a series of changes determined by some bio-chemical reactions. All other complex phenomena that occur originate from these two basic attributes only.”[9] I think Dewri’s perspective is very useful in terms of discussion on the artificial as possessing ‘actual life’ and on ‘life’ as being able to be created. Again it is fairly lengthy but is also very in depth and helpful.

AI Research’s Homepage [10] shows that there is a great deal of interest in creating a ‘new form of life’. From the history of AI, to choosing your own HAL child to speak with, the realisation that AI is closer than we think and the intelligence of a new form of ‘life’ is frighteningly real. This site is quite beneficial when looking at AI as ‘life’ and the implications this has for the future. It is fairly comprehensive and has an understandable section concerned with background information on the development of AI and whether or not it can be considered as ‘life’. You are also able to converse with “Alan” a form of AI thereby giving hands on experience in dealing with intelligence in its non-human form.

The meaning of ‘life’ is being constantly evaluated and re-evaluated; technology and the progress in this field being one of the main reasons for this. The websites that I have discovered would all be extremely helpful with the construction of an essay related to this topic and also gave me some new perspectives as to how I view ‘life’. I think that carrying out a webliography before writing an essay gives you many advantages as a writer and allows you to assess Internet resources critically before using them in an academic environment.

[1] U.S. National Library of Medicine. ‘Frankenstein: Birth of Frankenstein’ (February 2002)(accessed 20 August 2004).

[2]'The Meaning of Life' (updated daily)(accessed 17 August 2004).

[3]Stuart J. Murray. On ‘Catherine Waldby’s The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine’ (15 January 2002)(accessed 20 August 2004).

[4]Dr. Patrick Dixon. ‘The Genetic Revolution’ (c 1995)(accessed 18 August 2004).

[5] Dixon, "The Genetic Revolution."

[6]Dixon, "The Genetic Revolution."

[7]Melanie Hunter. ‘Bush: ‘Life is a Creation Not a Commodity’.’ (4 October 2002) (accessed 20 August 2004).

[8]Rinku Dewri ‘Artificial Life: A Programmers Perspective’ on ‘The AI Depot’ (accessed 21 August 2004).

[9]Dewri, "Artificial Life"

[10]Ai Research. (2001)(accessed 20 August 2004)

Webliography

2004-08-31T12:32:00.000+08:00

2. Catherine Waldby argues that contemporary society is gripped by a sense of ‘technogenisis’, ‘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?

It is interesting to theorise contemporary society as being gripped by ‘technogenisis’. In Waldby’s article, she cites Frankenstein’s monster as the ‘archetypal techno-monster story’.[1] Are reflections of ‘technogenisis’ in digital culture today similar monster narratives or has this ‘loss of origin securely located in nature’ itself become ‘naturalised’? When considering everyday life, we constantly interact with each other and the world through digital media. Communications are increasingly mediated through digital telephones and the internet, we view culture through the digital camera, television and cinema, sound is digitally mediated through CDs, MP3s and so on. Marx argued that in a capitalist society, interactions are alienated and become relationships between things rather than between people.[2] We could further this argument with relation to the notion of the cyborg in Haraway’s ‘Manifesto for Cyborgs’.[3] In a cyberculture, relationships between things become relationships mediated by digital media. How is digital culture ‘humanised’ whilst at the same time humans are ‘digitalised’? Does the digital self become more ‘real’ than the real self? We can think of this with reference the representations of the self in The Matrix.[4] Another effect of ‘technogenisis’ is the way in which the human body itself becomes theorised. [5] These ideas should be discussed with reference to their representations in digital media.
Mark Poster’s article[6] on the consumption of digital commodities discusses the way that ‘mediated commodities’ are consumed in everyday life. It builds on theories of everyday life written by Baudrillard and de Certeau. Poster makes these theories accessible by summarising the relevant parts in his article. This proves to be useful because I wanted to analyse the ways in which ‘technogenisis’ presented itself through everyday interactions. By juxta positing the highly mediated space of New York with the relatively ‘free’ space of Ljubljana, Poster highlights the ways in which social interaction in a digitally mediated space forces relationship between digital media rather than people. The invasion of both the public and private domain by invasive media is discussed. Poster discusses the social implications of digital media, which although very interesting are not all entirely relevant to this essay
The inclusion of Cohen’s article[7] from New Scientist may seem at first to be less than scholarly. It is true that the article is conversational in style and does not delve particularly deeply into the ‘scientific’ workings of the brain. The reason I find this article useful is to look at the way the brain is re-evaluated in the wake of the advance of digital media. The article quotes John White, a biomedical engineer who analyses the workings of the brain in terms of moving from computers models to mathematical description.[8] Just using one article of this nature is possibly too small a sample to analyse the way digital media has reworked theories on ‘how the body works’ so in my essay I would probably look at a cross section of articles in order to argue my point more strongly.
To complement my argument about the way the brain and body are likened to machines through the advent of digital culture, Klein’s discussion of the mechanical brain[9] explores notions of the brain from Descartes to Hayle’s idea of the posthuman. This article presents the information in sufficient depth, but at time fails to recognise its own biases when theorising about the human body. In spite of this it is still a useful base from which to postulate about how ‘technogenisis’ is reflected in digital culture through dominant ideologies about the human subject while positing these notions firmly in the history of ‘human’ thought.
The nature of media is discussed in Miyagawa’s article from Technosis Quarterly.[10] He discusses how digital media is turning from mass media to personal media where the consumer is not passive but acts as the ‘producer’ also. Specifically he speaks of how personal media must appear to come from the user’s perspective. This comments on the nature of ‘technogenisis’. The consumer of digital media searches for a personal identity within the media since their origins outside it are lost. The article also discusses the ‘humanisation’ of digital media through what Miyagawa refers to as ‘personal media’. This would be a useful part of arguing how loss of origin is attempted to be replaced through the digital media. (Which was the original displacer.)
The concept of the ‘digitalisation’ of the human body is unpacked in [12] It is very useful in exploring the human in its digital representation and what this might say about the status of the ‘real’ human body in digitally mediated culture. It explores the notion of the posthuman body which is an important effect of ‘technogenisis’. Another good point for this reference is its own reference list which leads to more interesting theory on notions of the human body in cyberculture.
Another discussion of the notion of the human body in cyberculture is Herzogenrath’s article in Enculturation.[13] The article discusses the cyborg in a multitude of ways. It discusses the way man is both produced as subject and erased by technology. This article has strong arguments that are well supported by dominant theories and would help create a substantial position for an argument on how the body’s origins can no longer be secured firmly in nature and possible suggestions for what this might mean for the human subject. The exploration of the complex relationship between human and machine emphasises the idea that the distinction between the two cannot easily be made in our highly digitally mediated society.
I believe this selection of online resources will be useful in aiding my discussion on the reflection of ‘technogenisis’ in the digital media. I would also complement this with other texts such as Katherine Hayle’s discourse on the posthuman.[14] I have used articles that explore both historical and contemporary theories. Two other types of theories I have encountered are the ideologies of ‘scientific’ discourse in light of recent technological advances and cultural theories on digital media and its effects on social reality. I realise there realistically would not be enough space to do all of these ideas justice and I would focus on how the human is represented in digital media as well as the ways in which we appropriate the technology itself into ‘human’ forms.

[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 28-37.
[2] Haslett, Moyra. Marxist Literary and Cultural Theories. New York: St Martins’s Press, 2000.
[3] Haraway, Donna. ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s.’, The Haraway Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 7-45 (originally 1984)
[4] Burbank, Calif. The Matrix Warner Home Video [distributor] 1999
[5] Klein, Herbert G. ‘The Dream of the Mechanical Brain: The Rise and Fall of AI’ Enculturation, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall 2000 http://enculturation.gmu.edu/3_1/klein.html (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[6] Poster, Mark. ‘Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday’, Cultural Studies Vol. 18 No. 2/3 March/May 2004 pp 40 -423 http://80-cmo.library.uwa.edu.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/04158.pdf (accessed 31 August 2004)
[7] Cohen, Philip. ‘Small World Networks Key to Memory.’ New Scientist 26 May 2004
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995012 (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[8] Cohen, Philip. ‘Small World Networks Key to Memory.’ New Scientist 26 May 2004
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995012 (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[9] Klein, Herbert G. ‘The Dream of the Mechanical Brain: The Rise and Fall of AI’ Enculturation, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall 2000 http://enculturation.gmu.edu/3_1/klein.html (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[10] Miyagawa, Shigeru. Technos Quarterly Summer 2002 Vol. 11 No. 2 http://www.technos.net/tq_11/2miyagawa.htm (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[11] Thacker, Eugene. ‘.../visible_human.html/digital anatomy and the hyper-texted body’ Ctheory.net 6/2/1998 http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=103 (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[12] Waldby, Catherine. ‘The Visible Human Project: An Initial History’ in The Visible Human Project: Information and Posthuman Medicine. London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 1- 18
[13] Herzogenrath, Bernd. ‘The Question Concerning Humanity: Obsolete Bodies and (Post)Digital Flesh’ Enculturation, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall 2000
http://enculturation.gmu.edu/3_1/herzogenrath/index.html (Accessed 31 August 2004)
[14] Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Workshop 5- Menu Driven Identities

2004-08-27T16:41:00.000+08:00

Blogged Response- Menu Driven Identities
Re: questions 2 & 3.

The ‘identities’ on Lava Life are generated from details required upon registration to the service. An identity is created for each individual from their selecting of characteristics from categorical menus. These menus create a profile based upon outward appearance, location and language, class, religion, addictions and desires to procreate. The inclusions indicate the prioritizing of these characteristics in judgments. Judgments can then be made upon mass produced representations which allow mapping based upon cues learned from within cultural context. The architecture of the lava life identity generator restricts the individual entirely. The fact that each ‘individuals’ profile resembles that of thousands of others is revealing of the limitations inflicted by the overall website. This can only be improved if the individuals are allowed to construct their own profile in which they can include those aspects of their identity which they prioritize. Perhaps variation may then exist and the profile will be more revealing of each person as their inclusions and exclusions are further telling of self definition.
The underlying presumptions made by the creators are:

1.Users are prejudice- revealed through the assumption that race, religion etc dictates response. Here comment should be made on the inclusion of star signs as a staple in the identity profiles. Perhaps an attempt to establish universal symbolic or spiritual ground- but more revealing of the fickle nature of applying character outlines cued from popular culture.
2.Users are superficial- initial interaction determined by the body. The sexed body, the raced body, the body condition. In this an irony exists, as online utopian ideals are again overridden, as the physical remains inescapable. Such profiles of identity cater to the society which establishes categories and hierarchies of value which are perpetuated in all interaction. Therefore users value race, etc as potential determinants of value and worth of interaction. This presumption, I would argue, is not unfounded and to an extent the online identity profiles found on Lava Life do simulate the nature of relationship initiation off line. I.e. The identity cues we possess, perform and manipulate within the constraints of our cultural context (e.g. though fashion etc.), are mapped from our outward appearance in embodied interactions offline. Therefore, these menu driven identities produced online may be comparable in value to a glance and two sentences with a potential partner in an offline environment. Superficiality is a presumption under which the majority of social interactions take place.
3.That an accurate portrayal of a user’s identity exists within boundaries outlined by the menus which drive them. By including a “prefer not to say” menu options users can opt out of including certain details. These omitted details can not be substituted for other aspects of identity that the individual may prioritize and as a result the limits on identity expressed increase. Further expression is only available between those who respond/ gain response based upon partial revelations of predetermined prioritized identity indicators.

In saying this I don’t believe that such websites are designed with the direct intent of exclusion. I recognize the limitations faced when operating within the architecture of online spaces. Menu driven identities have been developed to pursue the ultimate goals of mass appeal and its resultant economic benefits which motivate the provision of such ‘services’. I personally do not derive offense from the denial of self expression that occurs within this site, as here users exist purely as a commodity and it is this fact that would primarily deter my participation as opposed to having my identity misrepresented to other participants who are involved under the same constraints. I suggest an exchange of the term ‘the user’ with ‘the used’ to emphasize the alternate dimensions which underlie the provision of these online services.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2004-08-26T23:24:00.000+08:00

I think the questions about categories and picking-a-box for Hotmail and Yahoo! have been thoroughly discussed, so I will look at Lavalife and Second Life (questions 1 & 2, I suppose).

The Lavalife site tends to reduce users to objects that you place in boxes according to rigid categories, the same way you might sort books or cars (when you search cars online, you choose age, colour, make, model ...). If you click on a person's name you can see their about-me spiel, which allows a bit more self-expression, but on the whole the site just imposes its own structure on the complexities of identity. This seems a bit patriarchal to me ...

(Incidentally, I just saw an ad for Lavalife while browsing another site; it had a picture of a blonde, blue-eyed chick and the text "Lavalife - Meet sexy singles right now." I think this confirms that they're pandering to what's seen as common heterosexual male desires.)

Meanwhile, it's pretty obvious that Second Life is playing on the "your real gender, race etc. don't matter online" idea to sell their service. This is nicely illustrated if you click the link to the Second Life home page, where there's a big graphic (which freaked me out!) of a person's "real" identity juxtaposed against their Second Life identity, using one of those face-cut-in-half pictures. I thought it was interesting that they chose to show a "real" Second Life user in that picture, rather than a totally virtual construction ... perhaps this is because of people's yearning to know everyone else's "true" identity (like we discussed in the tute)?

Continuing Caz's theme of intent, I think the makers of Second Life earnestly set out to create a world where identity really was fluid and really could be defined by whatever a person wanted to present themselves as. All of their marketing material (if you explore the site) sounds much like the utopian "gender is irrelevant" writing from the early days of the Net.
However what they've produced doesn't really live up to this completely disruptive and radical kind of thinking. To me it seems like a bit of a caricature (also as mentioned in the tute), in that there's a limited range of categories you can use to build your identity. For example, although there's a mix of ethnicities and made-up names in the surname list, much of it is just token diversity (I didn't see any Chinese-sounding names). Also, the pictures on the site of Second Life avatars all look like fairly "normal" people to me, except for unusual clothes or hair colours, so even though people are able to create wild and radically different personas, they actually don't, and just to stick to categories they know (or if they do, it's not highlighted on the site).

Menu Driven Identities

2004-08-26T13:19:00.000+08:00

(1) I had never really considered sites like hotmail or yahoo! As being racist before, yet I had always experienced a feeling of irritation when you have to change the default country from United States to Australia, and you have to wait for the whole page to load again in order to enter a postcode rather than a zip code. Upon analysing the other options on the pages, I found it interesting to note that they too had some kind of inherent bias as to who would be accessing these pages and signing up for their services. Obviously, as other people have already discussed, the black and white gender options available have left no room for any shades of grey, which must be a continual frustration for many transgender or transsexual people who probably have had hotmail accounts somewhere along the line. Also, the time options available only pertain to different timezones in the US (apart from GMT), despite selecting Australia as my country of location.

I found it interesting in one of the terms of agreements sections on hotmail that it stated “It is with the express will of that parties that this agreement and all related documents be drawn up in English.” I’m not entirely sure whom the said ‘parties’ are, but I’m willing to bet they are Yankee Doodle Dandies.

Yahoo! Mail had an option on its login page where you could select Yahoo! Mail for “international users”, which at first I thought was kind of Yahoo!. Then I realised that this implied the whole Internet was U.S. based and anyone else using the Internet was stepping on to foreign soil. What happened to that utopian idea of no boundaries, the Internet transcending and rendering useless the barriers of physical geography? Also, it irked me that Australia and New Zealand were lumped together. We are not the same country! Why doesn’t USA and Canada get stuck together in the same way? When I went to www.mail.yahoo.com.au I expected to see USA on the international users section, however that option didn’t exist, while Australia/NZ was still present despite the .au suffix and Australian-aimed design of the page. It appeared then that yahoo! mail for Australians was still inherently US-centric.

Back to hotmail, there was a section in the terms of agreement section that stated, “You are not to create a false identity with the purpose of misleading others” This negated Kang’s ideas for transmutation on online spaces, where it becomes known that everyone creates identities however they please to fit in with the utopian notion that there is no race, gender or age on the internet. Hotmail and Yahoo! do not abide by these ideals. On the other hand, Second Life appears to, to some extent. The aim of this site is to escape the mundane realities of your offline life by creating a more exciting online second life. You create a new ‘second life name’ which cannot be your real name because you have to choose from a list of names available. However, when it gets to the gender option on the page, it does not ask you to select your ‘second life gender’. Instead it states that you must ‘select your gender’. This implies that your offline gender should not be escaped in your second life. This gender option was again binary leaving no room for alternative gender positioning. Thus, Second Life, whiles appearing to be transpositional on face value, still contains inherent biases as to the type of people using the service and the way that their offline lives should affect their online lives.

Another note on Second Life, though not really relevant,.. it stated in the about section that you can “create beautiful scripted 3D objects in a totally live online environment – from weapons to clothing lines…” Weapons? So you can somehow fulfil your violent offline desires in an online space? Creepy, much!?

(4) A quick answer, I don’t think that these sites are overtly, blatantly racist in that they state explicitly that they are for white Americans only, however this is in part due to the social norms at the moment. Ie, most people don’t really think it’s a cool thing to be a member of the KKK. The prejudice on these sites is more aversive and subtle, and still acts in accordance with salient social norms. It is less direct, and the makers of those sites may not even admit to themselves that they are racist or biased because it is hidden behind other values that are embedded in the current ideologies (ie, ‘most of our users happen to be white, middle class, American males so that’s how we gear the site’). Nonetheless this subtle prejudice contains racist elements so, yes, I would say (tentatively) that these sites are inherently racist, though not overtly so.

Menu-Driven Identities

2004-08-26T11:58:00.000+08:00

4) I do not espouse Nakamura's notion that the design of webpages are 'insidiously rascist.' What I witnessed when viewing the Hotmail, Yahoo and Second Life sites was just a creation manufactured by computer-science, commerce-orientated people who lack sophistication in relation to the nuances of race and identity. I did not get the impression that it was deliberatley attempting to dishonour any race or country. In fact, the hotmail website did not presume the users of its domain to be only westerners as countries like Nepal and Myanmar were included too. The creators of these pages are the most at risk for binary driven thinking as their profession constantly requires them to organise things into categories e.g the chater of different accounts, costs and so on. They become automated to conceive of things as belonging to only one thing or another. I am not defending the way in which these pages are constructed but merely pointing out that the intent behing them is not rascist. The sites are just another manifestation of society's need to organise things into categories to derive some sense from what one receives in the external world.. otherwise information becomes too detailed and defeats the purpose of even having a language to aid in meaning. Hotmail, Yahoo and Second Life all seemed to default to 'English' in the language category obviously assuming a dominate white base, but I see this as clearly, (and sadly) just a perpetuation of what the manufacturers have been exposed to in their lives. For instance, if one analyses children's Crayola Crayons it will be apparant that a crayon identified as 'flesh' coloured is pinky-white (not black etc) signaling 'whiteness' as the norm. This obviously is not a good thing, but in relation to the question, I do not consider the producers of the assigned webpages to be intentionally affronting the mestiza and races but rather view it as people being primed to think and manufacture accordingly. But perhaps this is just my bias to think of people as inherently good:) However, Nakamura does make a good point regarding the exclusion of people of a hybrid nature on websites and this needs to be addressed. As my stance is to balance what's practical with racial identity sensitivity... I think a positive step is to perhaps allow people to tick as many boxes regarding basic race as they desire, rather than having to feel relegated to the 'other.' If discrete boxes of different hybrids are created I do not think this is practical as it would open up the floodgates of hybridity and there would be just too many combinations to cater for. Also, ticking two boxes denoting for example *Asian and then *African could very subtley break down binary thinking instead of just ticking one box *Asian/African. When you physically tick the boxes in the former way you are assuming to be a subset of two different categories embracing two races. In the latter way, however, you are just an isolated, discrete category by yourself.

2) Identity in Lavalife is marked by gender, race, age and location. These are obviously what these people deem as necessary to know and important. A lot of the 'identities' are then very formulaic and prone to insipidity and I agree with Kate when she points out that it is then hard to rember a single identity. Lavalife presumes sexuality in either/or terms as bisexuality is not an option - one can only search hetero or homosexuality. People's sexual nature is emphasised on this site indicating sexuality to be an extremley important component in a relationship.

Menu driven Identities

2004-08-25T00:18:00.000+08:00

Whilst signing up for a Hotmail or Yahoo! account several blank fields are deemed required in order to gain an account. Whilst most of these categories are basic details about name, age, date of birth some other fields lead me to ask questions. The fact that hotmail automatically goes to the USA English default and presumes that you live in America gives a clue as to who the site deems their demographic users. Gender is another blank that must be filled in. Although it does not default to male or female, the fact that it is a required field maintains that it is deemed an important category, also as no alternate to the male/female dichotomy is offered the form offers little room for an alternate gender positioning. Occupation is another required field and whilst Hotmail leave it at that, Yahoo goes further and offers the chance to enter your specialisation (why do they need to know this? can they not determine enough about our socio-economic standing from our job description alone?) As Orietta mentioned the 'secret' questions asked do presume a Western background and a certain degree of literacy. From my understanding these questions are there to protect your indentity from online identity theft, however through using these standardised questions it would not be all that hard for people (especially people who have a slight knowledge of your life or can craftily get answers out of you if they find you on Yahoo chat or msn Messenger) to easily gain access to your account. As to Second Life I didn't get very far in the sign up because I didn't want to put my credit card in because knowing me I would forget to cancel it within 7 days and get billed, however from the opening screen you are offered a degree of individual identity by getting to choose your name, also the fact that the surnames come from a variety of different backgrounds suggest no privlidging of race, but the denial of choosing your own surname does take away some of your ability to create a unique identity.

2/3 combined.

I found the Lavalife format of profiling highly restrictive and felt that the mini profiles stripped everyone of their identity. I read around 30 profiles from all of the different rooms and at the end of it could not remember a single 'identity.' This is probably due to the lack of information in the profiles. The fact that after age and location race was the next most important thing was quite astounding to me for two reasons: 1. most people had a picture and the people who identified themselves as 'african-american' or 'asian' were identifiably so from their picture so the fact that it was written in their profile just highlighted the importance that the Lavalife creators placed on race. 2. In my opinion I am much more interested in the things people are interested in then their race. If there were 2 men and one was of a different race but was into the things I liked, and one was white I would be more inclined to chat to the person with whom i share interests. Unless I am mistaken Lavalife is a site aiming to find you a partner, not to find someone of the same race, I can do that for myself thanks. One last thing in regards to race, I found it interesting that some people identified themself as 'mixed' but never said what they were a mix of, I'm not entirely sure what I make of that but it does seem like they are denying these people of their ethnicity. The only way I found in which you could create a tiny degree of individuality was in creating your username (as long as it is under 16 characters) and your 'pick up line' (again as long as it fitted into the blank fields). The final thing I found interesting in regards to what assumptions that Lavalife make of their users was their descriptions in the "intimate encounters" area. The heterosexual page was described as "try something wild" seeming to imply that heterosexuals use this space to indulge in forms of deviant sexual activities or to indulge fantacies. The male homosexual site was titled "hook up for sex" which seems to imply once discussing their sexual desires the men will 'hook up' and have sex in the real world. The female homosexual page was described as "start something sensual" which raises questions about stereotypes of lesbians and also conjures up idea's of the heterosexual male fantasy of lesbian sex.

Workshop V - Menu Driven Identities

2004-08-24T18:10:00.000+08:00

1) Both yahoo! and hotmail require basic information from the individual wishing to open a new account. With first & last name, address, date of birth and country of origin being fairly common-place questions in online forms such as these. I would be hesistant to suggest that the default selections on these menus make unfair asusmptions about the users, for example when i visited both sites to sign-up the country/region was set to Australia and the language to English (US). Information such as country/region is set by the origin of your IP address listed by the ISP, and the language English (US) is assumed as i visited www.hotmail.com and www.yahoo.com, for example if you visit www.yahoo.co.uk the defualt language is English (UK & Ireland), therefore the default language seems to replicate the origin of the site, while there is no www.hotmail.jp (Japenese based) i would hazard a guess there is a japanese web-based email provider whose default language would be set accordingly. There is no default gender set, so no assumption is made there, and apart from the slightly restrictive 'Occupation' listings other questions are fairly open-ended. However these two online forms vary greatly from the one found on www.secondlife.com, this form allows a far greater degree of anonymity as the user is setting up a 'second life'. What struck me most was the list of secnd life last names that you could select, whilst this list is largely restrictive they make an attempt to include last names from various origins so there is no assumption that the users all come from a similar background or country.

2) I assume lavalife have done some sort of research into what information people are looking for when browsing an online dating site, as people’s profiles seem fairly detailed in some respects and are clearly geared toward generating interest from potential dating partners. As a result there are sections such as interests and (basic) personal details, social habits, religion, and family - from which people can judge whether a relationship with that particular person is possible. Ultimately Lavalife’s goal is to get people to meet and form relationships in real life, therefore their profiles are restricted in such a way to facilitate this.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2004-08-24T11:13:00.000+08:00

It is interesting to analyse sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail since I am so used to using these types of menus in my online experience. I never really considered the assumptions made when constructing these menus prior to reading Nakamura's article. On reflection, the categories available to choose from in these menus are very restrictive. Racism is not overt within these sites, there are no sign postings telling particular ethnicities that they are not welcome in the site, but as Kali Tal suggests, racism is present in the absence race withing the sites and the assumption that users are white, middle class and male. We can see this assumption in a few of the different information categories that the sites request. Firstly both Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail assume the user to be English speaking and living in the United States. If a country is chosen other than the United States, the whole menu has to be reset. Interestingly enough, Lavalife also assumes the user is searching for someone from the United States even though one would assume the site Lavalife.com.au to have an Australian bias due to the .au suffix. If the user is not of the United States, they are required to select one other country which does not give the option for partial residency in more than one country. Although there are many different country options available, the language options do not reflect the multiplicity of languages spoken in these different countries. (Although Yahoo! Mail is more flexible in this example giving options of different types of one language such as Mexican Spanish or Spanish as spoken in Spain etc. , but even this does not allow for different dialects within Mexican Spanish such as Chicano.) Other languages such as 'native' languages like Nyunga or any African language and even Japanese are not offered either. The languages offered are predominantly European colonising languages, although Chinese and Korean are available. So these menus do not allow for fractured or less 'dominant' languages. This would have something to do with the effort and space needed to rewrite the sites in all languages, but does show the assumptions made about the ethnicity of the user as predominantly European.

We can also see what assumptions are placed upon the user through the choice of secret question. "What is your favourite pet's name?" assumes domesticity; "What is your favourite movie?" assumes use of and access to mass culture which is predominantly Western; "What is your anniversary, spouses name, firs't child's middle name" assumes family values such as marriage and children; questions about high school assume a medium/high level of education; "What is your favourite sports team?"; assumes interest in sports. Two of the sites asked "What is your father's middle name?" which is patriarchal. One other site asks about the mother instead, but the question is "What is your mother's maiden name?" which assumes once again that the mother is married and that she has chosen to take her spouse's name. Other questions not on the Hotmail site such as "What is your favourite book?" assumes competent literacy and questions such as "What is our favourite pass-time?" privellage leisure time. These questions support values held by dominant, white, middle class, Western individuals. On the Lavalife website, the default search assumes the user to be a heterosexual male. These assumptions are passively racist because they do not allow for an equal oppurtunity for different identies on these sites.

Another area where there is no room for partiality or transcendental identity is that of gender. Every site has only two options, male or female and no option for transexual, transgender and other gender identifications.

One could suggest these sites are attempting to cater for mass use and as such offer choices that reflect the majority of users, but these categories are created by the makers of the sites and thus more accurately reflect their assumptions on race, class and gender which, if reaffirmed in the distribution of the users, is only so because there are no other options available.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2004-08-24T11:06:00.000+08:00

Question 1) It has been noted that the categories available for users in Hotmail and Yahoo are quite similar. Both ask for first and last names, birthdate, and gender. It is interesting to see that there is no default gender marked. Both Hotmail and Yahoo have default languages. Hotmail's is "English" and Yahoo's is "English- United States." The use of these defaults presumes that the users will be predominantly English speakers, and Yahoo; that they will be predominantly English speaking Americans. I'm not sure what this really says about assumptions of location and race because if you spoke a language other than English would you be opening a mail account with Yahoo in the first place? Are there other mail services that cater specifically for say, japanese? Hotmail's Terms of Agreement note that "It is the express will of the parties that this agreement and all related documents have been drawn up in English" This is then restated in French. Perhaps it is regarded as too difficult and too expensive(?), not worthwhile(?) to have the site interpreted into different languages. Yahoo also offer Content options added on to language such as French Canadian or Irish English. I think that by adding this option they feel as if they are covering all their bases, with regards to user languages and therfore "race". "Second life" does not allow options such as surname, job category, country or language. Perhaps this allows a degree of anonymity for users because this is of course a second life and to be the same person online as well as offline seems a bit pointless if you're paying money to be someone else. Of course this does not negate the option of being yourself, it just allows users more fluidity of identity.

Question 2) The identities visible in the profiles on lava life are extremely restricted. From what I can gather the only publicly viewable options are, age, gender, location, "race," starsign, religion, height, body type, smoker/nonsmoker, drinker/non drinker, view on children, education level and income per year. Obviously age, gender and location are general and fairly important, the others, although it seems most people choose to fill them in are optional. I assume people fill in the other options with view to finding somone with similar interests however, these interests are limited to smoking, drinking, religion and kids. There is little space for individuality. The identity that is displayed is very rudimentary. The presumptions that this makes about the people reading the profiles is that all these basic menu catergories are essential to finding a partner. Religion matters, "race" matters, income matters. I think as much as we would like to say that these categories don't matter, when looking for someone to settle with, these things ARE important (or maybe it's just me). Lavalife has taken the initiative to give searchers this information in advance, so that if religin is important to you, then you don't go barking up the wrong tree and on the flip side you don't have the wrong dogs barking up your own tree. These presumptions are definitely made on behalf of users by lavalife but are they really just picking out the things that society view as important rather than allowing "love to be blind"? On the other hand, if these categories did not matter to you, you would be hard pressed to fnd anyone with your interests as they are simply not available.

Question 3 [Briefly]) I think that identity in the form of individuality is extremely restricted by the lavalife website design. Changes that could be made might be as simple as having an option for interests, favourite movies, travelling locations or books. Essentially I think that lavalife is being fairly (not wholly) realistic in only giving these categories to choose from as these may be some of the first questions you ask when you meet a prospective partner in any case, lavalife have simply taken the hard work out and leave the finding of interests up to you. This would also be a great way to make money because you can't find out what other members like without being a user and I assume paying money to find out more about them. The less lavalife tell you the more money they make from you trying to find it out.

Changes to this tutorial blog

2004-08-19T14:20:00.000+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!)

Gender, Reproduction, and Gattaca

2004-08-18T16:32:00.000+08:00

In response to the third question, about 'liberating' women from reproduction, I agree that manipulation of genetics doesn't necessarily have to be a negative thing (if only because that sounds like a massive over-generalisation to me). That said I'm not sure the world of Gattaca would really be 'liberating' women from reproduction at all. Other responses have pointed out that when new technologies emerge they tend to just have existing gender (and power) structures imposed on them, like with the Internet in today's tute. In the film the mother was still presented as the parent most responsible for caring and nurturing the children even though she hadn't physically given birth to Anton Jr., and I wouldn't be surprised by this happening if that technology were real.

I suspect that there is potential in genetic technologies, assisted reproduction, etc., for women to be (at least partially) liberated, but only if it really challenges people's perceptions of what is normal. Someone in another tute mentioned contraception, which I think is a good example -- it seems normal to us that effective contraception is readily available but I'm told by older people ;-) that the pill was a Really Big Thing when it was new, and was part of some big social changes (like the 1960s "sexual revolution").

Perhaps if there was some new technology that led to a massive change in everyone's behaviour around reproduction, then there would be a redefinition of everyone's perceptions of gender roles and the "right place" of men and women, but anything short of that probably wouldn't be so revolutionary. Someone (Tama?) mentioned in a workshop that Hollywood films tend not to present worlds that are really radically different from our own (since they wouldn't sell), so in Gattaca's world the new genetic technologies haven't made that big a social impact. I think it's possible, though, that if that technology was real then it would be a major social shift.

Gattaca Post

2004-08-18T15:56:00.000+08:00

I do not belive that the eugenics represented in Gattaca are such a far cry from scientific processes we currently live with, rather i think that it is a reinterpretation formed from a large field of already published literature and theories. The ability to be able to choose the sex of your child and its gentic characteristics, in my mind, is a reality not too far away. People already use (with a certain degree of sucess) the ancient chinese charts that are said to determine the sex of your child, and their is research happening into developing a technological version of this device.

Out of the issues of class, gender, and race the class issue draws the most critical attention. Class is now redetermined with the dichotomy being drawn between those whose genes are 'natural' and therefor 'invalid' and those whose genes have been selected through technology, deemed as 'valid'. As such the social disadvantages previously relegated to women or ethnic people have been attrubuted to the 'invalid' people. In this sense women and people of ethnic backgrounds are privlidged over white men, who would be at the top of our own social heirarchy if they posses 'invalid' genes.

In regards to whether or not womens 'liberation' can be achieved in this sense, i doubt it. For some women it could be a liberating experience however it may detract from the special bonds felt between mother and child. However it could also be a positive experiece in the sense that it would allow women who were unable to reproduce the ability to have children, and it would also allow those, that our laws do not allow to have children (such as homosexuals) to have children which have the shared genes of both parents.

'Liberating' Women from Reproduction

2004-08-18T13:24:00.000+08:00

At the front of it, the thought of liberating women from reproduction seems to be a positive thing since women will no longer be required to bear the pain of childbirth and there would be a less overt link between women and childrearing as since the offspring has not physically come out of the mother, one would hope, women would no longer be 'naturally' expected to continue nurturing such offspring. Although I am not sure if these attitudes would really change. If we look at other examples of new technologies which could be potentionally challenging in terms of social ideologies, we can see a trend for existing ideologies to be re-presented in these new spaces created by such technology. An example of this, discussed in our tutorial this week is the way that the online BEV community re-presented attitudes already present within the 'real' Blacksburg and also the ways in which the space of the internet is in fact not the utopian classless, genderless, raceless space imagined as discussed in McGerty's article. What I am suggesting is that in reality women, even if they were 'liberated' from pregnancy and giving birth, would still be responsible for the majority of childrearing duties as is the case currently, unless social ideology were to change dramatically, which I am suggesting, it would not.

Another interesting angle of this argument is presented in Germaine Greer's The Whole Woman which is a responsorial text to the path feminism has taken since her first text The Female Eunich In The Whole Woman, Greer suggests that if women were to be liberated from childbirth through the production of 'artifical wombs' that they would no longer be needed by patriarchal society and would thus be disposed of and in effect 'bred out'. What is the need for a woman in such a society, she asks, especially since all embrios can be genetically modified to be male. Of course this is an extreme position, but it is an interesting idea. What would be the use of a woman in such a society now that she is no longer required for the survival of the species? I would suggest that she is needed to take on the dirty work of bringing up the children anyway - although robotic 'nannies' can be produced to this effect. Besides in all honesty society would not be balanced without the female of the species and there is always the pleasure principal, can technology ever be that advanced in that respect?

Gattaca- Workshop 3

2004-08-18T12:59:00.000+08:00

The opening scene of Gattaca presents some possibilites and consequences of genetic mapping and manipulation which may become apparent if and when a new eugenic age is reached. Given current scientific trends, that which seems fanastical in the film, now seems a close reality. However, while science may permit, I think the application of such techniques will be offset indefinately by the moral and ethical implications that arise from disturbing reproduction and threatning the 'natural' and 'divine' origins which society has always prioritised.

Silver, David. "Margins in the Wires..." Tutorial Introduction.

2004-08-17T19:06:00.000+08:00

The Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV), is an online community network established to connect the residents of Blacksburg, Virginia through the creation of an electronic town square and the development of an online shopping mall. In this article David Silver outlines some historical approaches to analyzing gender, race and sexuality in relation to access and establishing spaces online. He then provides a context for further analysis of online diversity and its reception focusing on the BEV.
“The BEV attempts to bring together a very real population of users who have very real races, ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations.”-pg 134
Despite these claims from the pioneers of BEV, Silver argues that marginalization is perpetuated through the ‘digital architecture’ of online spaces, as well as culturally determined obstacles to initial access. While Silver credits the BEV on their broad inclusive structure especially in terms of age groups he notes…
“… The absence of discussion groups based on the traditional cultural identifiers of race, gender and sexuality does not necessarily reflect racism, sexism, and homophobia, but rather signals a missed opportunity to foster a more diverse community network… the designers of BEV try their best to route around such marginality.”-pg, 145
Silver uses the film ‘Field of Dreams’ to illustrate that community networks are however structured to allow participants a degree of influence over inclusions, exclusions and the use of the network. Along with the limitations and selective nature of diversity inherent within the structure of the BEV, Silver is cynical with regard to the commercial interest shown in and encouraged by BEV.
“Significantly the lines between community and consumption often blur within the BEV.”-pg, 144
Distinctions between on and offline realms lessen upon reading Silvers article as his exploration of the BEV reveals similar obstacles to inclusion, a blending of commercial with the everyday and the reproduction of cultural marginalization. All that is online is the product of that which created it form the offline, therefore detachment, in my opinion is far from obtainable.

Issues of race, gender and class in "Gattaca"

2004-08-17T12:28:00.000+08:00

In the first ten minutes of Gattaca we are looking at a predominantly white society. One "minority" figure that is presented is the "African American" doctor. He is certainly portrayed as a man who is wise and rational, trying to do the best he can in his line of work by taking it upon himself to eradicate alcoholism, pattern baldness etc. from the genetically modified child. He has the desire for perfection and accordingly desires his work to be perfect. The only other "minority" character that I noticed was the Asian nurse who reads from the life expectancy transcript, though whether this is a nod towards women as important in the medical field or not is questionable. It is also interesting to note that Vincent's parents wish their second child to be born with fair skin, despite the father's obvious Italian heritage. However, I think that in general that world of Gattaca is not interested in race, colour and gender anymore but instead in discrimination through the genetic imperfections identified in your blood.

The clip shows a heterosexual family unit, Vincent's parents choose a son over "two very healthy girls" and choosing the sex of a baby raises a few gender questions in itself. In keeping with the idea that race and gender are redundant, gender is washed over in the film as a whole although heterosexuality is, obviously, shown as the norm.

In relation to class it is evident that the de-generates or "invalids" are relegated to performing menial tasks often associated with the second-class citizen. They are inferior to the "Valids" who are able to perform any task that they would possibly desire. We are told that there is a law against genetic discrimination but for some reason people here are above the law and only those with engineered genes are privy to "important" jobs; ie, science, government, aeronautics, etc. Vincent's own father notes, ["the only time you'd see the inside of a space ship is if you were cleaning it"]. From this quote we could also draw conclusions that there are class rankings within the family unit; Anton Snr will not give his name to his de-generate son and Anton Jnr is essentially the favourite.

More generally, as mentioned before, I think Gattaca is more concerned with what would happen if personality was no longer taken into account. Race, colour and gender have been pushed aside as "class indicators" and class structure is dependent only upon genetics. This, I think, is suggesting that even if we could take away the value of race etc. there will always be discrimination based on some form of difference and as much as society wishes for a utopian world it is invariably impossible.

McGerty: Gendered Subjectivities & Use of the Internet

2004-08-16T16:20:00.000+08:00

McGerty, L. " 'Nobody Lives Only in Cyberspace': Gendered Subjectivities and Domestic Use of the Internet" in Turow, J. and Kavanaugh, A. (eds.), The Wired Homestead, 2003. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 337-345.
Page numbers are from the original.

In this article McGerty considers the question of how the gendered realities of domestic life affect use of the Internet in that context, and vice versa. She briefly surveys what is known about gender subjectivity online, and concludes that it is not much. Hence, her main point is that there was (at the time) little documented research into this, and without such work we cannot properly understand the Internet's impacts on domestic life.

"That there are gender dynamics to Internet use seems highly likely", which is rather unsurprising, "although this is currently an area that is grossly undertheorised." (p. 340) McGerty blames this on the lack of research.

The shortage, she says, is caused by the popularity of early utopian ideas about gender being irrelevant online (such as in her one online reference). She refutes this, arguing that if we accept the common feminist claim that gender is largely performative (i.e. that a person's gender is constructed from the performances they give to others), then there is little difference between gender in the real world, and gender online (which is also all about performances).

"... at the level of the individual one could validly maintain that these characteristics [gender, race, and class] are tenuous performances both online and off." (p. 339)

I find this part of her discussion quite persuasive, although I do wonder if she's taking it a bit too far. At times, it seems that McGerty is in favour of looking at online experiences in exactly the same way and through the same theoretical framework as all our other experiences, but I feel there are still differences in the way we present ourselves online and off that shouldn't be discounted (even though the two are very closely connected).

"Recognising that online and offline experiences are materially one and the same ... enables us to improve our understanding." (p. 343)

McGerty's article does, though, cast a great doubt over that distinction, and strongly refutes the claim that the Internet represents a whole new world for gender relations. This kind of thinking, she argues, will only get in the way of trying to understand how network technologies fit in to, and interact with, existing structures of gender (and race, and class, etc.).

Cyberstalking: Gender and Computer Ethics

2004-08-13T10:47:00.000+08:00

Alison Adam

In its present condition the cyberworld of the internet is a forum that perpetuates the victimisation of women and the dominance of men. Essentially it has become a new tool for stalking. The current state of computer ethics adheres greatly to the phallocentricities of "real world" power structures thereby creating the urgent need for a more functional, protective and realistic set of rules for internet users to live by when on-line. Adam suggests using the discourse of feminist ethics and feminist theory to propose more useful and effective guidelines for computer ethics. In the examples she gives Adam notes that it is the female's rights that are most often violated and the male that is most often the perpetrator. Adam also indicates the necessity of finding the causes of cyberstalking in order to assess what can be done to terminate such behaviour before it gets to a stage where people of little power become victims of harrassment.

I think Adam discusses some extremely valid points in her chapter. The stance Adam takes in looking at the concept of "prevention being better than a cure" is certainly something that should be considered but doesn't seem to have many practical implications as the finding and treatment of such anti-social individuals would be virtually impossible. However the current justice system does seem to struggle with the handling of cases such as the ones mentioned and there is a definitely an unquestionable need for user protection, user education and the increased responsibility of service providers in relation to both content and abuse.

A few good quotes: all page numbers from course reader.

"sexual harrassment...the unwanted imposition of sexual requirements in the context of a relationship of unequal power." (pp 131-2)

"...a cyberstalker can hide behind the anonymity of the internet." (pg 134)

"the majority of reported cyberstalking cases involve women as victims and men as perpertrators." (pg 134)

"the normal channels of law and justice are either not available or are not sufficient." (pg 133)

"...it is not always easy to see when their (women) rights are being violated. This may partly explain the reluctance of official bodies to see cyberstalking as a problem that affects women to the extent that they may need special measures to counteract it." (pg 135)

"The Reno report was balanced towards counteracting cyberstalking behaviour when it happens but said little of how we may stop the behaviour in the first place." (pg 135)

Links:

Stalking behaviour
An article by JA Hitchcock
Download a paper on cyberstalking from the Australian Institute of Criminology
Wired Article

"Make no mistake: this kind of harassment can be as frightening and as real as being followed and watched in your neighborhood or in your home."
-Vice President Al Gore

See you guys on wednesday- Kat :)

1st message

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

Hey everyone, favourite website is www.soccernet.com, so if anyone else is a football fan this is the site for you!
Adam

introductory message

2004-08-10T11:44:00.000+08:00

Hi. I have just joined this blog. Here is a link to the uwa website.

Hiya!

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

Hey guys, isn't this fun! Are we all struggling for an 'introductory message' that doesn't make you feel goofy:)

I don't really have a favourite website to be honest, but for the purpose of this activity, this is just a made up one:
http://www.sillystuff.com.au

Ok, cya!:)
Caroline

Kaet learnt to Blog

2004-08-10T11:13:00.001+08:00

hello all,
considering we have so many variations of the name Kate in our tutorial i'm going under the spelling everyone else uses which is Kaet (no i am not dyslexic nor were my parents on drugs). now thats out of the way my favourite website at the moment is called rather good.
it is a webblog with hilarious little songs and the like that make fun of famous people etc.
anyway its funny
Kaet

Hello

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

Hi everybody~~
i 've just joined this blog~
i am testing is it work or not~
^__^

oopps.... forgot to tell you guys my favourite website,
but i don't have one~ but usually i like stay in the forum which is in chinese~
and..... i think when doing research, google.com is a nice place~

Random comics!

2004-08-10T11:11:00.001+08:00

Howdy y'all,
Random first post by he with the strangely spelt name that confused Tama last week :-)

As of thirty seconds ago, my favourite site is Calvin and Hobbes, if only because I'm addicted to that comic. If anyone cares, I also stare at Dilbert a lot, but that might just be my inner geek trying to escape. Must ... keep ... inner ... geek ... locked ... up ...

minky frog

2004-08-10T11:11:00.000+08:00

WARNING
this message contains greetings to other members of this blog. if you do not wish to be greeted do not proceed in reading this post.

if you are still reading i assume you would like to be greeted. well ha ha i have tricked you because that was a false warning. this message contains no such greeting. there is no true greeting behind the greeting signifier. hmmm...

now onto the second point of this post:

MY FAVOURITE WEBSITE

well that would have to be the Centrelink Website of course. Not only is it packed with absolute meaningless information on how to procastinate about getting a job or getting anything at all from Centrelink but it is also a way of filling out your fortnightly forms without actually having to talk to anyone employed by Centrelink or visiting one of their office - and THAT my dears is a blessing!

Muse-ic

2004-08-10T10:11:00.000+08:00

hey everyone, i already had a user name so just letting you all know this is "kat." can i get a w00t? my fave web-site at the moment is muse's website because i am going to their concert in september and i'm stoked. i feel a w00t comin' on cuz :)

Listening to- "plug in baby" by muse ;)

Blog Ahoy!

2004-08-09T15:20:00.000+08:00

Hello.
Hows tricks?
My favourite website is realultimatepower.net because ninjas are totally sweet.

Welcome!

2004-07-12T17:25:00.000+08:00

This (we)blog is intended for the Wednesday, 10am tutorial group in the unit Self.Net: Communicating Identity in the Digital Age.