NMR: "Man-Computer Symbiosis" summary (pgs. 73-82)

In 1960s J.C.R. Licklider was a very important promoter of science education, time-sharing systems, interactive computing, computer networks, and computing as a future form of new media. He was responsible for redirecting the Advanced Research Projects Agency funding to iniversities thus creating the "iron triangle" which is composed of industry, academia, and the military. Licklider strongly encouraged universities to link their computers together in computer networks to share important technological developments in computer software developed on college campuses. Licklider had a great vision for the future which was that we could more effectively communicate and carry out functions by way of the computer. In Man-Computer Symbiosis, computers have the capacity to carry out formulative thinking and find solutions to problems. Additionally, the computer would cooperate with humans in making decisions and controlling situations.

Timeline for Intoduction to "Man-Computer Symbiosis"

1960 - J.C.R. Licklider wrote his essay "Man-Computer Symbiosis"

1962 - Licklader leaves his post as VP at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) to head the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

1962 - Licklader addressed a memo to the "Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network"

1960s - Licklader encourages universities to link their computers together to share in the benefits from new software tools

1964 - Licklader left ARPA but the network he envisioned, the ARPAnet, took shape

1968 - With Robert Taylor, Licklader helped write the article "The Computer as Communication Device"...said that soon we would be able to communicate better through a machine than by face-to-face interaction

1969 - the 2nd ARPAnet was connected by Doug Engelbart at SRI wrich brought online the network that would become the Internet

NMR: "Men, Machines and the World About" summary (pgs. 65-72)

In his article "Men, Machines and the World About," Norbert Wiener discusses his new found field of science called "cybernetics," the study of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace the control functions of human beings. In order to do so, cybernetics applies statistical mehcanics to communication technology. Central to his discussion in the article, however, is Wiener's discussion of the implications of microcomputer technology. Wiener proposes the idea that a new industrial revolution is taking place in which the energy of the machine is replacing the energy of the human/animal. Wiener says that the discrimination of the machine is taking the place of human judgement and discrimination. Although such a system would be economical being that it would save time by way of automation, such a system may be flawed and thus potentially harmful. Such a system may not be suited to make good judgements because the information provided may be too complicated, it may be influenced by ecological factors not accounted for by the judging system, and the judgement itself may be too complicated and disordered for human understanding. With this in mind, it can be concluded that humans should not incorporate the use of such a system unless every and all environmental/external factors can be accounted for or we will, by way of the machine, rip ourselves away from the ecological foundations that, in fact, sustain life. The dream of an entirely automated world can mean the end of human life.

Timeline fore "Men, Machines and the World About"

WWII - Norbert Wiener engages in research project funded by Vannevar Bush's academic/industrial/ military "iron triangle."

1947 - Wiener writes "A Scientist Rebels" which is an open letter that discusses the importance of scientists being engaged with the consequences of their work. In the case of war where the technology of weaponry is concerned, scientific data is a matter life or death.

1954 - Wiener releases his essay "Men, Machines, and the World About" which discusses the history and concepts of his new cybernetic science which sets out to create an overarching study of "communication and control in the animal and machine."

Post WWII - Wiener refuses military funding for his work

1987 - Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility start awarding an annual Wiener Award to award others for their contributions to "socail responsibility in computing technology."

New Media Reader: "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

In Alan Turing's 1950 article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Turing introduces a new idea that he calls the "Imitation Game." He describes two versions of the game. In one version, an interrogator talks through a teletype machine to a woman and a man. The man is supposed to try and convince the interrogator that he is a woman. The woman, on the other hand, is supposed to keep the interrogator from concluding that the man is a woman. She might do so by convincing the interrogator that she is a woman and that the man is lying. Later in his essay, Turing proposes the other version of the game in which the interrogator talks to a person and a computer. It is the computer's task to convince the interrogator that it is a person, while it is the person's job to prevent the computer from doing so. Ultimately, if the interrogator cannot determine which is a computer and which is a human, the computer wins. The point in the game which came to be known as the "Turing Test" is to demonstrate a machine's capability for intelligence. ..the computer's ability to imitate the functions of a human being. In his essay, Turing proposed that within the next fifty years it would be possible to program computers in such a way that they would be able to win the imitation game at least 30% of the time after a period of 5 minute questioning by an interrogator. This idea of Turing's is evident of his optimism for the possibility of artificial intelligence in the future.

Timeline for Intoduction to "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

1943 - the British Colossus computers built with the help of Alan Turing, a Cambridge mathematician.

1950 - Turing releases his article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" which describes what would later be called the "Turing Test" which raises the question "can a computer fool a person into believing that it too is human while communicating over a teletype setup?"

1950s (early) - billing systems being developed for use by businesses in computing, performing and keeping track of mathematical calculations. Turing's predictions for the computer, however, went beyond mathematical function.

1966 - The Association for Computing Machinery starts offering the annual Turing Award which is awarded to technical contributors with the field

1988 - Ivan Sutherland is given the Turing Award for his advancements in computer graphics which started with "Sketchpad."

1991 - Turing Test inspires the annual Loebner Prize competition

1997 - Douglas Engelbart given the Turing Award for being the inspiration behind interactive computer technology

New Media Reader: "As We May Think" Summary (pgs. 35-47)

In Vannevar Bush's 1945 article "As We May Think," he discusses inventions of the time in addition to providing his speculations on future technological innovations that will come about. Bush, however, voices his concern that the ending of WWII may hold back scientific advancements due to insufficient government funding. Bush talks about future developments in the world of photography that would allow photographers to simply wear a pair of special glasses through which they could look and capture images of their field of vision. This film could then be developed instantly using a dry technique, rather than chemically developing the film over time. Bush then came up with his idea for a mass storage device which would store thousands of books and pictures. Bush called this idea of his the "memex" and proposed that users of the memex would be able to take notes right there on the screen using a keyboard in conjunction with different buttons and levers. The notes taken by each user and the different research "trails" incorporated could then be saved and made available to other users of the memex. The article closes with other technological predictions made by Bush.

Timeline for Intoduction to As We May Think

1940- Bush convinces Franklin D Roosevelt to give funding and supportto create collaborative relationship between military and academic researchers

1945- "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush published twice

Shortly after, Doug Engelbart, a radar technician read "As We May Think" which influenced the invention of the mouse, the word processor, the hyperlink, etc..

Thoughts on the Borges documentary

I thought the documentary on Borges was a great way for us to really see Borges's entire story. We see where he came from, how he was raised, his home life, his interests at an early age, the development of his intellect, etc.. We see how important his relationships are in his life and the influence they had upon his writings. We are also able to see a clear picture of the progression of his life...the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows. It is crazy to think that even with the degenerative disease glaucoma which also plagued his father, Borges continued on and earned many achievements during his lifetime. In particular, his Garden of Forking Paths truly laid the foundation upon which the concept of the Internet was built.

Thoughts on The Garden of Forking Paths

The Garden of Forking Paths seemed to me to be a very bizarre story. I kind of didn't really get what exactly was going on until we did the class exercise in which we came up with our own secret agent code name and killed someone who had the same name as the location that we wanted our army to blow up. This finally made things click for me. In The Garden of Forking Paths towards the end we see Borges illustrate all of the possible paths that the protaganist could have taken other than killing Allen. We see the correllation of the story to the thought process in creating the complex branching system we know today as the Internet. Both in The Garden of Forking Paths and on the Internet today there are routes, paths that fork away from eachother sometimes reconviening at later times or merging with other paths. Everything is all laid out. Everything is there within this realm, however, one simple choice in one's actions determines which paths will be made available to them in the future. Although a bit strange, I think The Garden of Forking Paths is a good way to illustrate the concept behind the World Wide Web today. The story engages the reader in a fictional tale that emphasizes key structural elements which opened minds up to the possibilities of Internet technology.

My opinion on Ken Perlin's work

Ken Perlin has made so many advancements in the world of computer programming that it is hard to keep track. I think that some of my favorite parts of his work include his use of noise function/turbulence to create textures and undulating surfaces. I am also really intrigued by his creation of real-time animated puppetry. Perlin allows artists the possibility to create computer characters that have a life of their own. The puppets/characters have a simple level of awareness that allows them to respond in real-time within the given parameters set by computer design artists.

My opinion on RYAN, Chris Landreth, & Ryan Larkin

RYAN was a great DVD that included great material regarding not only the biographical information on Ryan Larkin presented in a digitally animated medium which was a great bonus, but also included the actual short-films that Ryan Larkin throughout his artistic career. In RYAN, directed by Chris Landreth, we are able to see bits and pieces of some of Larkin's works including snippets from "Walking" and "Street Musique," but it was nice to be able to view the entire works which were included on the DVD. The DVD was also interesting because you are able to see the progression of digital animation from the 1960s up until today.

Chris Landreth is a computer animation genius. I have no idea how he is capable of creating the films that he creates, but it really is amazing. His work on RYAN and Bingo really showcase his artistic talent and both films do so in a very brief period of time.

Ryan Larkin is a true pioneer in the field of digital animation. He is largely responsible for 3-D animation being where it is today. I found all of his digitally animated films on the RYAN DVD to be captivating.

Ryan (summary)

Ryan, the short film directed by Chris Landreth is a film about the life of Ryan Larkin who is a critically acclaimed computer animator. In the film, Landreth's digitally animated version of Larkin is a highly unstable, emotional artist who is nearly always on the brink of collapse. Ryan sits down and speaks with different people who have been important to his life. Chris Landreth is the other primary character in the film who speaks to Ryan about his past accomplishments and his current state of being, which is not a good one due to his recent addiction to cocaine and current alcoholic tendencies. Ryan was abused by his father as a child and affected by his mother's alcoholism which ultimately brought her to her death. We learn that Ryan's first animated film to receive public praise was "Walking" which was released in 1969. In fact, Ryan received an Academy Award nomination for this short film. Just three years later, in 1972, Ryan released his last film, "Street Musique." It was at this time that he stopped creating. He felt as though there was no point in him making anything anymore because noone would ever buy his creations and therefore, he was never going to earn any money from his career. Disheartened and hopeless, Ryan turned to drugs and booze and ended up becoming a begger on the streets at the film's end.

Bingo (summary)

Bingo, the short film directed by Chris Landreth tells the tale of an average guy who finds himself sitting in the center of a scary circus ring. He is approached by different members of the circus such as the head clown; The Money Guy! who is a fat, blob-like bald man with dozens of arms, fingers, and paper money flabbing from his fingers; and what seems to be a cute little clown girl holding balloons that are constantly inflating and popping. All of these characters say "Hi Bingo the Clowno" to the average guy sitting in his chair. He keeps saying "No I'm not Bingo," but by the film's end he is brainwashed into believing that he is, indeed, Bingo the Clowno. Comically, at this turning point when the average guy stands up and starts dancing as he proclaims that he is Bingo, the lights come on and a voice heard over a loud-speaker says, "Thank you...next." It is as though this guy was an actor on an audtion and he finally gave the casting directors what they wanted.

Winged Migration

It is incredible to think that the camera crew used imprinting in order to condition the young birds into thinking the crew was their family, their parents. It is also crazy to think that an ultra-light robotic camera plane had to be created in order to film the flying sequences. I wondered, when viewing the film, how it was possible to get that kind of up-close footage throughout the migratory journies and when I found that out, I was really impressed. Great movie! I loved it.

Microcosmos

Through viewing the film I can appreciate not only nature, but the impplementation of technological advancements to allow us the possibility of viewing and experiencing things that we normally would not see.

The New Media Reader - The Garden of Forking Paths Summary

In "The Garden of Forking Paths" there is no progression of time. Instead, it is a self-contained world dominated by pathways branching out from one another. There is no right or wrong way, just a world of possibilities that exist. The Garden is not an environment in which exploration brings individuals to a state of Enlightenment or discovery. In the Garden there is no forward movement. Instead, there exists a "labrynth" that encapsulates individuals within an informational space.

The New Media Reader Intro #2 Summary

In Lev Manovich's "New Media from Borges to HTML," Manovich discusses the history of the new media field. It wasn't until the laste 80s that the field really began to develop in mainstream culture. New institutions dedicated to new media were popping up across all Europe at that time. Japan and Europe were the centers of new media technology where festivals, installations, and advancements in the field were being made. Although the technology was developed in the U.S., it did not really become used here until the 1990s. Even then, it was slowly assimilated into the art world over time. This was due in part to the fact of the U.S. having very low federal funding for the development and technologic display of such digital new media creations. Also the U.S. was still caught up in the idea of artistic works being one-of-a-kind, tangible creations of single artists. In the mid-90s, universities in the western states began to introduce digital new media programs into their institutions.

Software design has had a great impact upon modern art. With the development of computer software, artists are able to utilize such technology in augmenting their artistic visions producing final works of art that would not have been made possible if it were not for computer software. Additionally, it is the computer programmers, the software developers. the graphic artists, web designers, cumputer game designers, DJs, etc., that are the true artists and innovators of our time.


When it comes to the question of "What is the new media?," Manovich provides 8 propositions:

The first distinguishes between new media and cyberculture. New media is centered on the new cultural phenomena enabled by computer technology, whereas cyberculture is primarily concerned with social networking within web communities.

The second proposition is that new media is a computer technology that is used as a means of distribution. It is hard to define new media in this way because it would have to be updated as more and more parts of culture come to use computer technology for distribution, most forms of media will come to use computer technology for distribution causing new media to take on a general rather than specific meaning, and it does not provide us with any information regarding how computer distribution can affect how media objects are perceived.

The third answer to the question is that new media is digital data that is controlled by "cultural" software. In other words, new media is broken down to mere digital data which can than be manipulated and changed to create different versions of that orginal data.

The fourth answer defines new media as a mix between existing cultural conventions and the conventions of software. New media takes old cultural data which are visual representations of human life and new data which is numerical data and then combines the two to produce new media manifestations such as image-maps, animated icons, etc..

The fifth definition proposes that new media is the aesthetics that accompanies the early stage of every new modern media and communication technology. According to this idea new media is every technolological advance in media and communication in history. Therefore, in the early stages, photography, film, telephones, and t.v., were all considered new media. When thinking about new media as a recurrence of aesthetic ideas over history rather than the computer-based technological advancements being achieved in recent times and today, it cannot be useful unless all aspects of history are studied alongside technologic innovation.

The sixth defines new media as a faster execution of algorithms preveiously executed manually or through other technologies. New media simply carries out the steps neccessary in accomplishing particular tasks that would take humans much longer to carry out without the use of new media. When thinking of this, however, one should not ignore that new media also provides real-time communication and real-time control, properties essential to the field.

The seventh defines new media as the encoding modernist avant-garde, meaning that new media software encodes 1920s avante-garde techniques. For example, collage in avante garde = cut and paste in new media. 1920s avante-garde, however, was about creating new ways of depicting reality and viewing the world. New media avante-garde, on the other hand is about developing and utilizing new methods of changing and manipulating pre-existing information. This is Manovich's concept of "meta media."

The final proposition is that new media is a parallel articulation of similar ideas in post-WWII art and modern computing. During the 1960s artists created pieces which they further developed in the 1980s with the use of interactive computer programming.

There are several other decades that are important in the development of digital new media discussed thoughout The New Media Reader in addition to the 1920s and 1960s.

The New Media Reader Intro #1 Summary

"Inventing the Medium" by Janet H. Murray we are able to discover the shifts in human thought in the 1900s that ultimately led to the creation of the computer. The computer, the digital medium, was made possible when technology and creativity joined forces to develop an invention that would completely change the world in which we live. Throughout the early 1900s, when only thoughts and visions of the new medium existed, engineers and humanists developed similar ideas of a new medium in which information could be collected, categorized, and made available to all as a readily accessible tool of knowledge. The shared ideas of engineers and humanists built upon one another over the years resulting in the creation of the computer. In the 1960s the computer become an object the was viewed as a powerful machine capable of countless possibilities.

As stated by Murray, there are 4 primary characteristics responsible for the fascinating and engaging nature of the computer. The first characteristic is the computer's "encyclopedic capacity," the system's ability to give us nearly all of the information we want in one singular place. The second characteristic, "spatial property," is so important because it allows us to conveniently and easily locate information within "cyberspace." We learn how to navigate the maps of computer systems and therefore, in doing so we come to expect things to exist in certain locations within this space created by computers. The third quality is the computer's "participatory" nature of the medium. It is an environment that actively engages users. The final characteristic discussed by Murray is the "procedural" characteristic of the computer which means the medium provides an environment that "responds coherently to our participation."

Throughout the 1970s there were skeptics who viewed computer technology as a negative invention that would only increase consumer alienation and isolation from the outside world. During the 80s, however, shifts in the minds of humanists were occurring as the possibilities of human connection through computer usage were realized as files and information could be passed from individual to individual. By the end of the 80s, the computer became a widely used tool in everyday life.

Soon after, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee created documents called web pages which could be viewable by all on the Web. No longer was it necessary to send around files of information between individuals. Now, thanks to Berner-Lee, information was viewable and available to all, everywhere.

In 50 years alone the computer has come a very long way and who knows where it will take us in the future.