The last post of the unit from Alex Wong

It is the time we are going to the end of this unit. This unit provide me a opportunity to know more about Cyberspace, Cyborg and online communication. Those readings and material help me to understand the concept within gender, cultural and communication studies which relate to cyberspace and identity.

As we learn the theory of Cyborg in first two lessons. I am wearing glass. So, I believe that I can classify into Cyborg, since glass is type of machine. It helps me to see the thing clear. I cannot live without glass.

This webblog is useful for sharing the ideas in learning this unit. It would help us to know more about other classmates opinions. This webblog is just like the virtual community for us. We would have sharing our feeling, ideas and information via the blog and we do put the time on engaging with the blog and the unit.

Margaux's Presentation Outline

My assigned reading is "Interactive Audiences?", by Henry Jenkins



1. Some features on Collective Intelligence

2. How computer and network affects Collective Intelligence (by using fan community as an example)

3. The interaction and conflict between Knowledge Culture and Commodity Culture

4. Bloggers and culture jammers


These are some points that have been covered in the reading and I am going to explain them further in tomorrow's tutorial.

Presentation outline by Lam Sz Ki, Kiki

Smart mobs
the power of the mobile many
by Howard Rheingold

Howard Rheingold is the introducer of “smart mobs”. He states that “Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other”. A few worldwide examples are used to illustrate the concept of smart mobs including Philippine, Britain, Toronto and so on. Smart mobs use many of the current technologies to spread out certain idea. It is easily found in protests.

The idea of “netwars” is similar to smart mobs since they are both created by the network.
The “swarming” strategies mean many small units work together with some purposes.
Wearable news-gathering system is related to peer-to-peer journalism. Swarm intelligence talks about the power of group activity rather than individual.

Questions are raised by the writer at the end:
1. What do we know now about the emergent properties of ad hoc mobile computing networks, and what do we need to know in the future?
2. What are the central issues for individuals in a world pervaded by surveillance devices – in terms of what we can do about it?
3. What are the long-term consequences of near-term political decisions on the way we’ll use and be affected by mobile, pervasive, always-on media?

Presentation Outline by Viven Szeto

“Cyborg Citizen: Posthuman Possibilities” by Chris Hables Gray

Within certain technologically determined limits, we can socially construct the future we choose. The process of choosing, however, is profoundly political and therefore it is anything but straight-forward

Subjectivities of posthumanity
-Talk about the different attitudes towards cyborgs in different cultures
-Bodies can be remade technologically

Carnival Cyborg
-Humans have always aspired to be cyborgs and we have always feared that aspiration
-Cyborging ourselves is costuming ourselves from the inside out, a disturbing technocarnival with permanent consequences
-We are a cyborg society of tools, machines, and organisms but we deny it
-Cyborging is something we do to ourselves as well as the world
-Cyborgs are invented as new technosciences

The future is not yet written
-Cyborg politics are about power, as all politics are. Power is both coercive and constructive
-Knowledge is power. Knowledge as power moves from the specific to the general and back again
-Knowledge is situated. Specific types of cyborgization have their own histories and implications
-Meanings are constructed, which means they can be chosen

Cyborgization will not make us like gods, but we may be able to live better and longer than any human or protohuman has before

Reflection

The use of weblogs for learning purposes is the first time happened in my study time. I think it is a quite innovative learning experience. However, the posts were assessable and compulsory, seemed not to meet the purpose and nature of blogging. We did not use it as a typical blogger would, such as we did not discuss or give any opinions on current events, but we need to meet the requirement for the unit. The blog was just the medium to submit assignments, not a forum for debate, opinion or even simple conversation. On the other hand, it has been helpful reading outlines of tutorial presentations before the actual in-class discussion.

As I believe myself to some extent of a 'cyborg' after all the theoretical analysis, I have to remark on how prevailing the internet and cyberspace really is. I am also excited by all the virtual communities. I really do consider that the internet is an extension of our physical reality.

I disliked most about the course was that we begun with the early heavy theoretical issues. They were totally unfamiliar to me and frightened me off a bit. But as we continued, I found the topics and theories really related to my daily life, which made it much easier to identify with them.

Presentation Outline by Nik Yu

From Wuake Grrls to Desperate Housewives: A Decade of Gender and Computer Games

by Henry Jenkins and justine Cassell

Based on two Conferences

1. From Barbie to mortal kombat, Gender and computer Games,
2. conference held by Yasmin Kafai, Carrie Heeter and Jill Denner at UCLA 2006.

The Girls Game Movement, Took shaped by five factors,

• Economic , Political , Technology, Entrepreneurial, Aesthetic

How Computer Games Construct a Gender Divide.

• From first wave of girls' games to The Sims
• From the Sims to Desperate Housewives

Presentation outline by Margaret Leung Foon Ming

"As We Become Machines: corporealized pleasures in video games"
By Martti Lahti

Suggestion:

A "new cyborgian relationship" between players and technology is attempted to erase the boundary between the virtual and the real.

Claims:

video games as a unique "paradigmatic site for producing, imaging and testing different kinds of relations between the body and technology in contemporary culture."

"games actually anchor our experience and subjectivity firmly in the body or in an ambiguous boundary between the body and technology."

Her argument consists of two view points:

1. the dissolution of the boundary between players and the game world.

3D graphics, rumble packs, joysticks, pedals and wheels produce the physical immersion with the game world. --> "corporatization of perception”.

First person point of view -->representation of their bodies.

The bodily experience will create “a hybrid condition resonant with the cyborg”.

2. video games encourage a merger between perspectives and subjectivities with the onscreen world.

The virtual self can be created and customized

The pleasure-->the ability to control and construct the body we desire, the ability to ‘try on’ different bodies and to ‘trespass or toy with racial and sexual boundaries’.

Conclusion:

Video games focus on an immaterial and disembodied vision in a virtual world but at the same time offer players to rethink our “bodies.

"the body is a site where sensory stimuli are registered"

Video games WILL NOT turn players into cyborgs

but build up a close relationship with each others.

Presentation outline by Kristy Leung

Hot dates and fairy-tale romances studying sexuality in video games will discuss in the following:

Final Fantasy IX and The Sims will be used for case study.

- Players are encouraged position themselves in as the character.

- Different expectation of man and woman in game.

Final Fantasy IX:
- The main character( Zidane) is heterosexual.
- Potential problems addressed when played by different players.
- Woman used for rescue Male from gayness.

The Sims:
- More liberate game
- Reaffirm social norms
- Possible pairing allowed
- Different language used in different type of sexuality.

--> Heterosexual is always preferred and natural.

Presentation Outline by Allan Wong

My assigned readings is "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life" by dannah boyd.

My presentation is basically separated into numerous parts in accodance to the readings, and they are:

1. Introduction
2. Methodology and Demographics
3. The Making of Social and Network Sites
4. Profiles, Friends, and Comments
5. Networked Publics
6. Initiation: Profile Creation
7. Identity Performance
8. Writing Identity and Community Into Being
9. Privacy in Public: Creation MY Space
10. But why there?
11. Conclusion

Presentation outline by Kelvin So

My assigned reading for the presentation is “The virtual community” by Howard Rheingold.

The article can briefly divided into two parts, the first section covered how the author make use of internet, how he interact with the virtual community in his online or offline time, his observation towards the virtual communities, and the potential benefits that the virtual communities can bring to us.

The second part of the article talks about the development of virtual communities. In the beginning there are small number of computers start to form a network for the American Military research institution, then the computer conferencing technology change the way who people communicate. After civilians put a lots of affords to build up the telecom networks, the bulletin-board systems (BBSs) appears and it allows general citizens to make communication through internet. As there are particular number of people formed different kind of virtual discussion BBSs, virtual communities like WELL start to be formed. As the computer technology is improving, virtual community brings revolutionary changes to the way how people communicate to others.

Presentation outline by James Pang

The reading I am going to present is "A Rape in Cyberspace; or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a society." written by Julian Dibbell.

The narration of the "virtual" rape.

Background of the criminal and virtims

Punishment of the criminal, Mr Bungle

Different opinions from technoliberstarians, anarchists, wizards and other MOOers

The consequence of Mr Bungle

The changes of the writer toward "virtual" rape and LambdaMOO

Critical Annotated Webliography by Kelvin So

Guiding question 1.

We are living in an age which technology dominant our lives. In the past centuries, people’s living standard improved by wisely use of technology. Now, people start to further enhance human life by integrating technology to our body, the concept of Cyborg emerged under the notion of technology integration.

Kelvin Warwick’s article[i] gives us a practical example how to integrate technology with body and experimental usage of computer chip implant. By implanting a chip in his arm, he is able to switch on the light automatically without physically touching the switches when he enters his lab. That is only part of his experiment, he use similar techniques later to implant chip in to human to record bio-electrical signal between brain and muscle, and try to analysis emotion and sensation of human. Such research is very useful in the medical field, for example helping the limb-transplant patient gain the sense from the artificial limbs. In his second experiment, Project Cyborg 2.0, he try to install micro chips into silicon made artificial skin, by scanning the brain activity, the chip can transmit the signals which are possible for people to control computer system just by using their brain

When we talk about “Cyborg”, we may instantly have an image of Terminator, which has steel body and computer brain coated with “organic skin”, a “cybernetic organism”. Dan Sharpe’s article[ii] mentioned ethical problem that may encountered when we enter the age of Cyborg. One positive opinion of being Cyborg is enhancing human lives, take contact lens as example, it improve people’s vision by integrating a lens into their eyes. But the negative opinion is people will lose their will, or “be less human” by under control by technology. The example Dan takes is Borg in Star Trek, using technology to make their body perfect, but individuals do not exist in ­Borg, it act as collective consciousness. No matter Cyborg is good or bad, Terminator can only be classify as robot because Cyborg must be part of human, or “transform” from human. Terminator also lack of soul of humanity, of the concept of “Ghost” in Ghost in the shell.

In general people’s mind, Cyborg is the enhancing solution for many purposes. Military soldier cyborgs[iii] is not a new concept for us. There are already many projects about how to enhance the combat ability of soldier by integrating technology into their body. Some of them are aim to improve the communication ability: real time video and body status transmit, some are aim to re-engineering human body to make soldier gain more muscle strength and recover more quickly, and some projects are researching the way that make soldier can stay awake and remain alert for 7 days. These are not new concept for us, many movies has imaged such kind of super soldiers. However these projects are actually exist, funded by government and some of them already entered field-test stage. The article show us that Cyborgs are not only appears in our imagination, there maybe practical prototype cyborgs existing.

As mentioned before, Cyborg technology can be used in Military purpose, such technologies also can be apply in medical purpose. Samuel Dokko’s article[iv] give us some examples that Cyborg technology enhance our lives. In his article, he mentioned the Cyborg technology-artificial body parts can be implant in to human body, to “restore lost function, organs and limbs.” Artificial organs are not something new to us nowadays, we have commercial artificial heart invented in the last decade, which extend the patient’s life let them survive until they found the suitable organ donor. There are also researches which aim to invent a fully functional artificial limb to restore human limbs. The article give a detail example of a artificial hearing device which is implanted to restore the hearing ability to the deaf people, such technology enhance human lives greatly in physical way.

Except the “hardcore” cyborgs mentioned above, some people think that we are already become cyborgs since our modern lives have close relationship with technology. Amber Case’s Blog[v] has suggested that human are becoming cyborgs through uploading hypertext, or constructing their identity on the internet. This weblog entry are mostly talk about the cyborg anthropology, but his article gives us some online social interaction examples that how people using internet to construct their identity and build the power relationship to order people: “On facebook, identity and value is constructed through images, on Twitter, power is constructed through text, retweeting, link exchange, etc.” As we entered the digital age, such kind of social interaction is becoming part of our life. Under the current situation, we are all cyborgs existing both online and real life.

When we come across the identity on internet, we may have whole new experience because of the variety of identity we can choose to be on the internet. Jennifer Breen’s article[vi] give us details that why sex swapping is so common on the internet. While we can not choose being male or female when we were born, and it is difficult for people to take gender reassignment surgery, sex change online is relatively easy. The article suggested that under online environment, male would like to become female to express their woman aspect opinion, which they would not do it in actual life. Females also like to become male to experience “the feeling of a guy” or to see how other women interact with man. There are also interesting examples about gender changing in online game, the male players may tend to become female characters to gain the help from other male players, and the female players would like to become male character to get higher levels by helping the female characters. The essential element of gender changing online is not just take a opposite sex name or choice opposite sex character, the most important thing is to make other people sitting in front of the computer believe that you are a woman/man. The way to do so is the pretend the way how woman or man behaves, how they talk to others, and how they present themselves. This may solidify the stereotype of gender, but we can understand the way how the opposite sex thinks, such gender relationships cause a significant change in the way that we think about gender.

To conclude, as human are more depends on technology, if cyborg are figures that integrating technology into human bodies, people living under digital age can be classified as cyborg no matter they are “hardly” or “softly” technology integrated.

---

Reference:

[i] Kelvin Warwick. “Cyborg 1.0”, Wired Magazine, 8.02 (February 2000)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html (accessed 2 March 2009)

[ii] Dan Sharpe, “Cyborg Philosophy: ethical issues concerning augmentation”, CYBORG D. (2007)

http://cyborgdb.org/sharpe.htm (accessed 2 March 2009)

[iii] “Cyborg Soldiers”, Tactical Gear. (2007)

http://www.tacticalwarfightergear.com/tacticalgear/catalog/Cyborg_Soldiers.php/ (accessed 2 March 2009)

[iv] Samuel Dokko, “Cyborg Body in Medicine”, CYBORG D. (2007)

http://www.cyborgdb.org/dokko.htm (accessed 2 March 2009)

[v] Amber Case, “Robots, Robots, Everywhere – A Field Guide to Cyborg Anthropology”(12 December 2008)

http://oakhazelnut.makerlab.com/2008/11/12/robots-robots-everywhere-a-field-guide-to-cyborg-anthropology/ (accessed 2 March 2009)

[vi] Jennifer Breen, “Cyber Gender”

http://www.cyborgdb.org/breen.htm (accessed 2 March 2009)

Presentation outline by Goofy

The title of my reading is "Pranking Rhetoric: "Culture Jamming" as Media Activism" by Christine Harold



-"culture jamming" as a strategy of rhetorical protest

-what is culture jamming

-the political art of culture jamming

-what is media prankster


-3 case studies

a. the culture jamming collective ark

b. the San Francisco- based Biotic Baking Brigade

c. the American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth campaign


-conclusion

Eunice's presentation outline

- Why there is an anti consumerist organization?

example: Nike
used a billion-dollar advertising budget to force you to consume their products
but offer bad conditions to their employees


- About Adbusters

a not for profit organization
mainly for anti consumerism

- What is cultural jamming?
aim is to to create a large contrast between the corporate image and the real consequences of corporate behavior

- What are adbusters's campaigns?

Blackspot campaign
An Anti- megacorporation (mainly is Nike) campaign
The shoes is designed to resemble the Nike-owned Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
100%made from organic hemp and recycled car tires

- More about Adbusters

Presentation outline by Crystal Tsang

Tomorrow I will present the article "Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday" written by Mark Poster.

Introduction
1. situation of advertising in USA
2. main theme "relationship between media and consumption"

Consumption Culture
1. modernity
theorists: Firat and Dholakia
2. postmodernity
theorist: Michel de Certeau

Digital media and consumption
1. identity of consumer changed
2. problem of copyrights