intro technology alters implications for cultures and societies changes communication affects identities and relationships social structures

Transcription

1 introduction Whatever it is called, and wherever it is used, this simple, accessible technology alters the way in which individuals conduct their everyday lives. It has extensive implications for the cultures and societies in which it is used; it changes the nature of communication, and affects identities and relationships. It affects the development of social structures and economic activities, and has considerable bearing on its users perceptions of themselves and their world. Plant, Sadie (2001) On the mobile: the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life

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3 transforming the everyday? "Our awareness of them flickers between excitement (or anxiety) at the news of new devices and networks, and familiarity as some become part of the fabric of daily life and fall below the horizon of the new and exciting. Martin Lister (et.al.) (2003): New Media: A Critical Introduction

4 transforming the everyday? Digital media and everyday contradicting concepts? Western everyday life is inseparably intertwined with new media technology and practices

5 why everyday?

6 why everyday? "By everyday life we mean the family relationships, routines, cultural practices and spaces through which people make sense of the world. Lister, Martin et.al. (2003): New Media - A Critical Introduction

7 why everyday? Henri Lefebvre ( ) The everyday is the connective tissue of all conceivable human thoughts and activities with the potential for radical dis-alienation. Lefebvre, Henri (1961): Critique of Everyday Life

8 why everyday? Michel decerteau ( ) He stresses the creative and subversive nature of consumption in everyday life DeCerteau, Michel (1984): The Practice of Everyday Life

9 why everyday? Central place of use and consumption of technologies Generation of uses and meanings of technology: Introduction, Domestication, Definition Silverstone, Roger and Hirsch, Eric (eds.) (1992): Consuming Technologies Emphasizing the everyday opposes technological determinism MacKenzie, Donald and Wajcman, Judy (eds.) (1999): The Social Shaping of Technology

10 transforming the everyday? Focusing on three topics of academic interest: Culture and Society Mind and identity Space and body

11 culture and society

12 culture and society William Gibson Cyberspace (1984)

13 culture and society futuristic scenarios of Cyberspace Nicholas Negroponte Being Digital (1995)

14 culture and society futuristic scenarios of Cyberspace Nicholas Negroponte Being Digital (1995) William Mitchell City of Bits (1995)

15 culture and society Manuel Castells networks as a new organizational paradigm "As new technologies of energy generation and distribution made possible the factory and the large corporation as the organizational foundations of industrial society, the Internet is the technological basis for the organizational form of the Information Age: the network. Castells, Manuel (2001): The Internet Galaxy

16 culture and society Manuel Castells networks as a new organizational paradigm Castells, Manuel (2001): The Internet Galaxy informational capitalism Castells, Manuel (1996): The Information Age: Economy. Society and Culture

17 culture and society consumption of digital media: celebrating the digital lifestyle digital lifestyle: isleep

18 culture and society consumption is always and everywhere a cultural process (Cultural Studies) "Through the use of goods we can construct and maintain an intelligible social universe, since by classifying, comparing, ordering the things we have and use we make sense of and organize our social relations, classifying persons and events. Slater, Don (1997): Consumer Culture and Modernity

19 culture and society is consuming digital media more active than consuming old media? example: viewsing digital media = viewing and using Harries, Dan: Watching the internet in ed. Harries, Dan (2002): The New Media Book

20 culture and society digital objects are used as instruments and tools, but they also function as fashion, signs, symbols and toys. Martin Lister (et.al.) (2003): New Media: A Critical Introduction icombat female mouse

21 mind and identity

22 mind and identity identity is a concern in psychology, social, cultural and cybercultural studies identity is an everyday experience cybercultural thinkers emphasize the procedural character of identity

23 mind and identity George Herbert Mead ( ) The self arises out of social experience as an object of socially symbolic gestures and interractions Mead, George H. (1934): Mind, Self and Identity

24 mind and identity Erving Goffman ( ) Presentation of self is a constant and ongoing process of negotiation and information management to influence other s attitudes and behaviours. Goffman, Erving (1959): The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

25 mind and identity Erik Erikson ( ) Identity is constructed in developmental stages in a human s life cycle, involving experiments with different selves. Erikson, Erik (1980): Identity and the Life Cycle

26 mind and identity Research about identity in cyberculture predominantly in the following areas: - gender - sexuality - race Haraway, Donna (1985): A manifesto for cyborgs: science, technology and socialistfeminism in the 1980 s Nakamura, Lisa (2002): Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet Wakeford, Nina (2000): Networks of Desire: Gender, Sexuality and Computing Culture

27 mind and identity Mark Poster: The self in postmodern times is unstable, multiple and diffuse

28 mind and identity Sherry Turkle: Computers and the Internet are redefining human identity. [Now the computer] is in their home and they interact with it every day. And it turns out they are also getting an object that teaches them a new way of thinking and encourages them to develop new expectations about the kinds of relationships they and their children will have with machines Turkle, Sherry (1995): Postmodern Virtualities

29 mind and identity a cyber-self in chat rooms, MUD s, Blogs, newsgroups: - can disembody and de-locate the real self - can create a different identity OR - can reveal the real me (anonymity/pseudonymity)

30 mind and identity there is a strong scepticism that virtual cyber-selves can affect the real me "While [pseudonimity] promotes the production of multiple selves, those selves are not easily lent to practices of intimacy or community. Phillips, David. J Negotiating the digital closet in: Information, Communication & Society 5:3

31 mind and identity A field of research is the question, how personal homepages affect identies Daniel Chandler: strategies employed on homepages are similar to interpersonal strategies of selfrepresentation (Goffman) Personal homepages are identities under construction Daniel Chandler: Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web [online]

32 space and body

33 space and body Digital media hyper-extensions of the human body? ( > Marshal McLuhan) - printing press Internet - letter - landline phone mobile phone What s next?

34 space and body ambient intelligence : Aarts, Stefan and Marzano, Stefano (2003): The New Everyday - embedded: many networked devices are integrated into the environment - context-aware: these devices can recognize you and your situational context needs - personalized: they can be tailored towards your - anticipatory: they can anticipate your desires without conscious mediation

35 space and body "Computers as we know them will... disappear into things that are first and foremost something else: smart nails, self-cleaning shirts, driverless cars, therapeutic Barbie dolls, intelligent doorknobs... computers will be a sweeping yet invisible part of our everyday lives: we'll live in them, wear them, even eat them. Negroponte, Nicolas 1998: Beyond digital in: Wired 6.12 [online]

36 space and body three areas of research and experiments: - ubiquitous computing - wearable computing - implanted computing

37 space and body Ubiquitous computing Mark Weiser ( ) "Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives."

38 space and body Ubiquitous computing "Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world, ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people. [online]

39 space and body Example: The Smart Home - digital control over a network of appliances, machines, switches et.al. in your private home environemnt

40 space and body Wearable computing

41 space and body Wearable computing - No.1 research address for Wearable and Pervasive Computing is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

42 space and body Example: Steve Mann (University of Toronto) - considers himself as the first ever Cyborg: for years he is testing a totally wired existence with data devices

43 space and body implanted computing

44 space and body implanted computing "With the development of robotics, the automaton has progressively acquired competencies, talents, and even sensibilities we once considered unique to our species, forcing us continually to redefine our notions of what constitutes our own humanity. More dramatic yet, the development of wet and biocompatible interfaces are enabling the insertion of electronic elements inside our own bodies. Arlindo Machado 1998: A microchip inside the body, [ ]

45 space and body Leopolda Fortunati: machines become more and more like humans and humans become more and more a machine.

46 space and body Leopolda Fortunati: machines become more and more like humans and humans become more and more a machine. "My thesis is that machines are inundating our bodies at an increasing rate because the human body is already, in essence, technology [...] There is already a sense that the body works within the organization of everyday life as a machine." Fortunati, Leopolda (2001): The human body: natural and artificial technology in Katz, J. (ed.) Machines that Become Us: The Social Context of Personal Communication Technology

47 space and body Example: BrainGate - the System consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that measures and interprets brain signals and translates these signals into useful computer control "It is hoped that the BrainGate System might someday allow people enable to use their arms or hands to control a computer using their thoughts. [ ]

48 space and body Example: Kevin Warwick (University of Reading) - experiments with implants in his own body, e.g. transponder in the left arm to record all his movements (1998)

49 space and body The next step towards true Cyborgs? On the 14th of March 2002 a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibres of the left arm of Professor Kevin Warwick [ ]

50 space and body Q: What effects does the implantation of technology have on consumption and digital objects as symbols, fashion, toys?

51 space and body Q: What effects does the implantation of technology have on consumption and digital objects as symbols, fashion, toys? "What does miniaturization of machines, this tendency to become invisible, signify in terms of self perception and control? [...] What effects will the invisibility of computers, in addition to other technologies, have on our own capacity to control the everyday, and us alongside it? Leopolda Fortunati

52 some conclusions

53 some conclusions The study of digital media in everyday is an ongoing process including interdisciplinary research (sociology, psychology, cultural studies, IT, bio sciences)

54 some conclusions Virtual reality as experienced through digital everyday technique (Internet, Mobile phone etc.) offers people genuine new experiences but this reality is not an egalitarian, non-historical and innocent space! Everyday life in the global village is not a friendly egalitarian community.

55 some conclusions "Practices of consumption are of crucial significance; that is, the day to day, local, choices, relationships and politics of individuals, families and other groups are integral not only to the commercial success of new media but also to the ways in which new media are used, to what they mean. Martin Lister (et.al.) (2003): New Media: A Critical Introduction

56 some conclusions "The question is not what will technology be like in the future, but rather, what will we be like, what are we becoming as we forge increasingly intimate relationships with our machines?" Turkle, Sherry 2003: Interview, OpenDoor,

57 end of lecture