Week 2 Presentations

So for this week we actually got through 4/5 presentations which is pretty good in my opinion.

I thought the two presentations on colorblindness was an interesting concept. My other class, Society and Technology; we have briefly gone over the idea of colorblind racism in which people chose to ignore race as something that was a fact about life to ensure that they weren’t being racist, but at the same time, this also meant that the social racial injustices that certain group members were inflicted with were also ignored in the process.

We talked about how people that are racially ignored in the Census that don’t fit into any race or ethnicity listed would reflect how the government itself doesn’t acknowledge their presences/existence, thus they would not qualify for health care benefits, financial aid, or funding for their groups if needed. There is inequality in among certain groups of people depending on what they consider themselves as. Feminists and the LGBT organizations face the same injustices as colorblind racism in which they are denied certain rights or benefits based on their identity. It’s an unfair world which we live in and watching the video on how the kids medical report came in to make a claim about his actions was grasping at straws to convict what appears to be an innocent teen facing racial injustice. I understand for the sake of exhausting all options and making a clear objective conclusion they provide all pieces of evidence, but in contrast it’s a contradiction to find an objective answer in my opinion, since the people we hold to a higher standard inadvertently create the standards are subjective to their own personal beliefs and personal experiences to make their own conclusions about an objective situation.

The easier way of saying all of that is that scientist have their own moral code and personal belief they fall under. They’re humans just like us that have lived their own life and have/have not been subjected to racism in their own way and beyond racism themselves, they choose to present their findings in a certain way understanding/or not understanding the ethical/racial ramifications it holds to their audience.

As for learning about vlogging, I know that its a very popular medium in which people within the digital media age use frequently to communicate to an audience on a larger scale. I think defining and understand what is vlogging, what is the criteria, how does it differ depending on the type of vlogging, what is the subject of vlogging and who is involved in vlogging are all points to hit on and clarify in the presentation or final paper/media project. I would like to know how it’s going to relate to the class readings (since I don’t remember all of the presentation) and make sure that those are clearly outlined in the project. It’s an interesting concept, but I guess also connect the benefits and negative outcomes from vlogging itself since the topic is very broad in its own way.

Presentations

I think my favorite presentation was Rebecca’s Online Dating for Eastern Asians. It was really interesting to see these tropes manifested in real cases. I mean I am biologically asian, but I identify as American based off the culture that I grew up in and seeing these sad and petty racist notions of how asians should act and allow those to be excuses for how they act is demeaning. I didn’t know how aggressive and widespread the treatment of these stereotypes existed. Such as the person claiming they could get away with inappropriate behavior because they felt “immersed in the culture” when visiting some asian country I don’t remember.

Online dating is new form that has recently surfaced as social media continued to grow and it doesn’t surprise me that there are asian dating sites since there are plenty of dating sites. Not to mention there are more specific weird dating sites out there; Farmers, catlovers, etc. So asian dating sites are more common, but I guess it surprises me that those that participate as a customer on the site don’t expect this treatment. I’m not saying there isn’t any excuse for the behavior, but I wouldn’t be blind about the stereotypes out there of those that lurk on the internet. People that are even a little internet savvy know through mouth or whispers that there are certain parts of the internet they don’t explore because the shocking, horrifying, and sometimes gross parts of society are celebrated and shared. But in contrast, that’s the dangers of giving an anonymous identity. They create a new face that can either parallel or differ from their offline image.

People complain and are surprised about the weird people that lurk on Tindr that make corny or tasteless techniques to further an intimate relationship, but some people are more conscious of these dangers and still participate in the applications service for, what some people look for, self esteem booster.

Victoria’s presentation was relevant to what we are studying since it’s women and video games. The video she presented was actually a clip and a source I am using in our presentation. Anita is well known for her critiques in the video game industry concerning women. I was a little confused on the focus of the presentation since women and video games has some prominent debates, but very wide variety of topics to choose from. For ours, we are critiquing on how sexism affects the players, the creators, and the industry in specifically three games; Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. Sex sells as a general standpoint and draws the audience and it is not short for the industry of MOBA’s. In League of Legends being a “Free-to-Play” model makes its money in micro-transactions. I was surprised by the women in the video game industry make careers in the graphic design focus, which ironically enough my current job and a potential career I am hoping for is working in the video game industry with those skills they are apparently needed for women in the industry. Makes me feel a little bit better : )

Current News

In this article it touches on the topic of Police Brutality and the incorporation of technology that help bystanders and citizens to bring truth to viewers. Several people have come up with different types of applications that will provide bystanders and citizens with the proper tools that can help catch these acts of violence in the moment.

Darren Baptiste, creator of Cop Watch, created an app that records a video and will instantly upload to video to youtube after releasing the record button. The reason for having instant upload time is because police will sometimes confiscate cameras with sensitive information pertaining to themselves.

In our Society and Technology class we talk about how police brutality can been seen post Hurricane Katrina. In Spike Lee’s Documentary “When the Levees Broke”, a photo shows cops walking out of a convenience store with DVD’s not concerned with the tragic events that have fallen. On the other side, they show the cops having a showdown with some local citizens who are locked in a store while the press covers them as criminals and stopping a “robbery”. Which I don’t think is justified as a crime because at this point, the government and police authority are preventing you to survive as a human being. To me those would be food, water, and shelter in order to survive. In this scenario, they stopped citizens who were trying to eat due the increase of chaos and lack of outside help in order to survive until help was on their way.

Documentation of police brutality and reformation in government authority protocols have been in change over the years as videos surfaced showing a more brutal side of the justice field. For example the demonstrations and protests of “Black Lives Matter” sparked another re-occurrence with the police.

The Obama administration has even started considering issuing their police uniforms with cameras installed into them for research and review of outside parties. If citizens don’t know they’re being filmed is this a violation of their rights and who has access to the information that is recorded on these cameras? If citizens are in a public space they have the right to videotape what they see and their are many people that support this idea since police have been telling others to stop recording of activities.

Player and Controller

Being a gamer this is probably the best topic I can think of for myself.

There are many stereotypes for video games that promote violence and sex, but at the same time we can also say that movies promote the same thing. They also say that video games are for lonely, antisocial people. But think about what people get in virtual worlds; they are rewarded more for the changes they make by achieving through leveling up and currency, they get more feedback from their community, they can achieve more things in smaller spans of time and feel positively rewarded for what they do.

I am not denying that video games do utilize violence in their interface along with using sex to sell the game, but I don’t believe that video games promote violent behavior in the real world. In our project we will be discussing how sexism is prevalent in gaming. League of Legends on professional terms, is a male dominated competitive sport. The only female that represents the face of League of Legends and Riot in tournaments is Shocks, who is a player herself, but mainly a newscaster and does the hosting of the game with introductions and sometimes appears on the analytical table.

I don’t believe that video games induce violent behavior outside of virtual world. It’s foolish and very passive to just write off the reason someone is a serial killer because they happen to play video games. Digitized Lives states that 97% of Americans play video games and only a small fraction become serial killers, but 100% of humans use air to breath and we don’t attribute breathing as reason why people are serial killers. There are far more factors and prevalent themes of violence that those 97%  are exposed to through the daily news and media.

The book also argues the difference between the “gaming world” vs “the real world”. There isn’t a direct link between what happens in the media vs in the real world. We don’t just happen to pick up a gun and forget we’re in the real world. Gamers are aware of the difference between the two. This is a myth that needs to be broken.

I do believe that some of the good things that video games promote a strong desire to achieve and learn. All games set their players in an unfamiliar environment or interface and following under certain constraints and rules asked to achieve a goal. Players will be induced with motivation and positive feelings to achieve the goal of the game. Why can’t we do the same things in the real world with solving real problems big or small?

Gaming promotes us to stick with the problem and think critically about the situation and actively collaborate with others in order to achieve a goal. Urgent Optimism is another way of saying believing that achieving is possible, Social Fabrics that creates more connections and trusting more, and given Epic Meanings that allow the player to feel that what they’re doing is important and valued. We get this feeling in the virtual world that we have the power and ability to change the world and make a difference, but how can we change the location and feel the same way in the real world.

One of my favorite Ted Talks is with Jane McGonigal who makes reference to this “Epic Win” feeling in which the player achieves something that they didn’t predict or believe they could achieve. There are many moments in gaming that produce this feeling that go beyond the goal of the game and overachieve.

She also mentions how gamers are being utilized in the interface of video games to solve real problems such as finding alternative solutions to problems and thus the community as a whole has a larger audience that provides feedback that play under the certain constraints and rules.

Revolution with a Click

Let me first make note of a couple concepts before talking about the article to relate to.

In our class we discuss whether or not these technological products made by humans have helped or harmed our community and environment. Arguments can be made for claims. The media in particular holds a very powerful sway in how political status and government is sometimes dictated.

In my other class, Soc 430, we talked about a sociologist who mentions this notion of “The Tragedy of Culture”. Defined as a situation in which objective cultural objects dominate and (possibly disempower) individuals and society. In the words of Reddit –> tldr; All our technological dependence is taking over and weakens us as a person and us as a collective hive mind. These objective cultural objects can be translated to physical devices such as computers and cellphones which have become a secondary part of our life. Arguments have been made that these technologies make us impatient, our memory is very short term, and in general makes us dumber and a slave to the machine.

In contrast to this idea of The Tragedy of Culture”, we can consider the positive strides we’ve made with these technologies too. In this article we talk about the Egyptians overcome oppression, sexism, police brutality, unemployment, injustice, and poverty. There is a saying; “Once out on the internet; it’s out there forever”. I don’t actually know the exact wording to the saying, but you get what I mean. It’s out there for good and there is no taking it back.

Post-dethroning, citizens continue to fight for their freedom and against injustice. Their mode of bringing a sense of community and standing together as one: The internet, more specifically, Facebook and cellphones. With these devices they can now upload it for the world to see and make a commotion about the injustice being done to them. Standing against your leaders is hard to do in person, but the facebook and other social media allowed them to convene in secret, plan, and riot against the police together in greater numbers.

This incident is almost parallel and identical to another issue that happened in the Middle East. This was considered the Arab Spring conflict in which a Fruit seller was being bullied, looted, and blackmailed into keeping their stand. Unable to take the torment any longer, he went to the police and asked why nothing was being done, which he was faced with rejection. Soon after he set himself on fire feeling abandoned by the authorities that were meant to protect him. He became the straw that broke the camels back that started a revolution.
In the article, Khaled Said was the catalyst to the Egyptian revolution where he was faced with injustice which costed him his life. Like the Arabs, the Egyptian government faced a massive force that was knocking on their door online and offline. In an attempt to suppress the revolution they tried violent retaliation and taking down the internet in general. Unfortunately at this point, not only are they fighting against their own people, but foreign powers that were witnessing the events unfold which would reflect badly on them if they tried stopping them. Of course this failed.

It only goes to show that with a click, a world online and offline is behind you.
Here is the video about the Arab Spring Conflict

Commodifying a Cult

In Chan’s article, she talks about how the Peruvian government praised the Chulucanas ceramic artistry  and launched a project to promote the use of an “IP title” (aka Intellectual Property title), which is another fancy way of saying copyrights and patents. No it’s not for Internet Protocol in reference to IP address which I got confused at first since the article never defined the acronym, but took me like 4 pages in to go back to the beginning in a state of confusion and just read the title of the article saying “Enterprise Village: Intellectual Property and Rural Optimization”.

Moving forward with the article, it goes on to talk about how this project that was launched promised economic and cultural growth. These three things in particular were mentioned that were promised to the Chulucanas.

1) It would serve a branding function for consumers internationally that would distinguish Chulucanas ceramics in the global market. –> Essentially now they can brand these ceramics as Chulucana ceramics to the world and commodifying a culture to stereotype and centralize its culture and traditions and art into a physical marketable objects.

2) It would establish a set of “modern” market-oriented standards and regulations that ceramicists would have to adhere to in order to qualify their products. –> In my eyes it’s making this formula of what qualifies as Chulucanas art and setting an international standard not to just other ceramicists, but an international expectation of what they should be and anything that deviates from this new standard can’t be considered marketable or even considered a part of their culture. Thinking about it, it’s kinda funny that the expectations that outsiders have will be the judge of whats appropriate of their culture whether they have any knowledge or experience in the given culture. This establishment is saying “A+B+C= Chulucanas ceramics” to other ceramicists and ultimately that’s what will become the international standard.

3) It would recognize and protect the ancestral traditions of ceramics making inherited from the Vicus and Tallan peoples dating back to 500 B.C.–> The ideal is to protect and to continue this tradition of what they are known for, but in contrast to this, we can say that it’s also restricting the creativity of Chulucanas culture.

The reason why I’ve taken each part of these “economic and cultural” growths with a massive lump of salt is because I parallel this “IP title” with the issue that has been faced with Native Americans.

If we think about what is considered Native American art, we would respond saying that it includes these elements “A, B, C” (weaving, ceramics, painting; all including what the outside market as native american symbols).
To put that in simple terms:
“Native American Art” –> According to outside market and other competitors.
Formula –> Native American Art = A + B + C
A = Weaving (with native symbols)
B = Ceramics (with native symbols)
C = Painting (with native symbols)

Thus in turn, other competing artists in the culture accept this to be the way things are and must create art according to these perimeters in order to be marketable to the outside world, such as peruvian art to the world (relating to #1&2)

With Peruvian art being standardized in how it should look, feel, and function, this limits what they can do with their art and anything that deviates from this standard isn’t considered art. If an outsider saw a native american dress in blue jeans and a t shirt, they wouldn’t think they were native american unless they fit OUR standard of what they should wear. Chulucana ceramics will be not protect it, but cage the traditions and stunt further growth. (relating to #3)

I digress, the whole Native American Art history class has kinda made me cynical to this whole topic of branding and commodifying a culture.

Cyborgs and the Future

The concept of a cyborg is often seen as this futuristic creature; part man, part machine. The organic meeting the inorganic. We associate this (what seems to be) mythical creature with this the post modern era in which we do not live in where flying cars, and robotics serve a more automated purpose in our life. But maybe we’ve weaved this definition of the cyborg so closely that we don’t realize that perhaps we’ve achieved this “post modern era” where cyborgs walk the earth.

Mythically speaking we can think about stories that involve these cyborgs that have super human powers from the inorganic part of them that allows them to do the impossible. That or they are a part of this post apocalyptic world where the cyborgs identify with their mechanical side and are part of an uprising of the machine vs man. But what is the definition of a cyborg?

Talking to my boyfriend, he talked about being a cyborg it’s half human half machine. The ratio and unit measurement of half is varied and doesn’t physically have to be half. Ratio is important, but it’s not set in stone. He points to that having a robotic finger wouldn’t be cybernetic, but having four fingers would be closer. He believed that the mechanical part of the cyborg must enhance the human beyond human capabilities. He didn’t consider that having a prosthetic arm or pace maker be qualifications to be classified as a cyborg because they don’t go beyond the functions of a human organ. For example, ten years ago the pace maker didn’t enhance or even equal the function of a regular heart because once they were put in, people didn’t live more than 5-10 years after it. It was a detriment to the human body.

Objects such as Night Vision Goggles or cell phones, in my opinion, wouldn’t be qualifications to be called a cyborg because they are not a physical part of the human body. Yes they enhance what humans can’t do on their own, but it would be considered an extension of the human body. They are not infused in the body being half machine and half human. It is all human with the capabilities of manipulating a separate object. Being a cyborg means the fusion of human and machine are intertwined together in which both cannot be separated, which we also discussed. The fact that these dualisms exist because they are intertwined and cannot exist separately without the other.
Ex: Can’t have a whole, if there aren’t any parts and can’t have a part if there is no whole.
In this case: Can’t have a cyborg with machine without the human and can’t have the human without the machine.

The Noble Savage

After reading this, it was nice to find a familiar topic since last semester I took a class on Native American Art History. In the class and this reading many concepts overlap about the Indian identity. If we think about what is defined as Native American, we’ll most likely come across with the stereotypical image of a dark skinned person dressed in traditional regalia and participating in cultural staples such as pottery, basket weaving, or other arts that focus on the history and mythology of native americans.

This was a photograph by Edward E. Curtis. Compare the two. See the difference? What do you notice?

Left: Original vs Right: Final
– The final one is set in this sepia muted tone often used to reference the past or something old in tradition. Most photography is often taken with images of the native american in this filter that displays them in the past.
– The CLOCK is removed in the final cut because it is a reference to modern day culture and time which would conflict with the identity of the Noble Savage society has built up.

The media has a very strong sway in how we have continue to perpetuate this stereotype of the Native American. Regarding the arts, any artists that don’t associate with traditional native pottery making, symbols, or basketweaving the term Native American is not commonly used to identify these artists.

This was a music video by Cher that touched on the mixture and stereotypes of the identity of the native american. Is this a form of perpetuating the stereotype or challenging it? Is it changing it?

For modern native americans that are born as second generation to their parents that have been raised in the culture and traditions, where do mixedblood indians stand? Can they identify as Indian if they didn’t grow up in the culture? Are they limited to just art that is associated with exclusively native american history or can they create something completely unrelated and still be recognized as native american.

Would this image be considered culturally insensitive? This was during a Victoria Secret Show which the company made a public formal apology for the use of native american images. Does the media continue to perpetuate this identity of the Native American?

See article here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/11/victorias-secret-apologizes-to-native-americans/

After our discussion about identity and these perpetuations of culture in media shown in examples of native american regalia, we can make some connections. Regalia is explained as an extension of the who we are. Its a form of representation of ourself and reflects our being. In this example, this is considered a costume not reflecting on the person, but used to commodify a culture and perpetuate a stereotype to further another parties profit.

Here is another example of commodifying and using another culture and using them at another’s expense: http://gawker.com/5982466/kappa-sigma-suspends-duke-chapter-over-racist-asian-themed-party

The Dark Side of the Internet

As a kid,  I was completely blind to what the internet held. We had a computer and had dial up, but I never really used it often for things until I got into middle school and I didn’t explore that much other than an online community called “Gaiaonline.com” which I did for my friend. At the time MySpace was extremely popular, but I didn’t do anything with it because my focus was on the video games at the time. I’m a pretty blissful person that lives in ignorance. Happily in ignorance.

Internet 101:
1) Don’t click on random links you don’t know the context to
2) Don’t talk to strangers and give away information

I remember I used AIM (Aol Instant Messanger) a lot to talk to my two best friends which was the cell phones prehistoric version of instant messaging since none of us had cell phones and if we did talk on the phone, we had three way calls on a line talking for hours upon hours until I had to switch phones because the battery would die on the phones. (Cordless) I was talking to a stranger and when my dad confronted me the next day about it, I denied it of course because I was too ashamed and he said he had tracked the time the internet was in use and could find our conversation log. I was ashamed and didn’t do it again.

The anonymous identity people have shows a very sick sick side to themselves because they believe nothing can trace back to them or that usage of free speech became this warped empowerment. What’s worse the fact that there are twisted people like this out in the world that enjoy torture and all these very cruel violent acts of stimulation or the fact that someone, somewhere out there shares this sick twisted fantasy which motivates the other to continue and accelerate this behavior to prove they’re not alone and share an identity.

The idea of cleaning up because of the Grandma Problem seems like an impossible task because of how much stuff is uploaded and even though there are moderators that work around the clock sifting through the offensive imagery to take it down, there is still so much that goes unchecked. I mean that’s how I found the image that scarred me forever.

Censorship when it comes to social networking seems to be brought up in this ideal light where a uptopia of connections and networking is done, when there is a dark side of these spaces that goes unchecked.

People always tell you not to click on random links without knowing the context and I know why. Like the lady had mentioned in the article about the one graphic video that has haunted her and stayed with her even though she is out of the business of moderation.

My horrible experience that has destroyed my eyes
I was on facebook looking at a video posted by IGN on Dragon Age and I was scrolling through the comments and clicked a random imagur link that someone posted and….
—> I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but essentially it was Necrophilia Pornography.
It popped up so fast, but the image is burned into retinas and will forever scar me because it makes you really wonder that the hell are people thinking and doing with THEIR time? It doesn’t take much to find this type of content even when you’re not looking for it.

The PTSD that people must experience from having to sift through the content they do and battling a war that they can’t even hope to keep up with is extremely terrifying. I think about all these horror movies I’ve seen and feel like the “last standing survivor” that endures all the traumatic graphic violence physically or psychologically would need COPIOUS amounts of therapy and drugs to stay sane after seeing what they’ve seen (or what they did).

Makes me nervous about the Internet taking full advantage of the act of free speech which warps into this perverse society that lives in the cyber space. Such as craiglist adult categories or the B columns of 4chan.

When the 3DS came out, one of the applications that came with the game system was SwapNote, which allowed the gamer to connect with other people to send pictures and notes to others. The idea was great; execution wasn’t there. SwapNote was disabled because people would send dick pics and other things, which became a problem since company couldn’t stop the exchanges and since the company caters to many gamer age groups. Swapnote was taken down and disabled, but they recently re-released it.

Article: http://kotaku.com/child-predators-were-using-nintendos-swapnote-service-1459304126

As I was discussing this with a friend, he told me about a time when 4Chan banned images of My Little Pony for a period of time in the past. So the saying became “Mods are asleep. Post Ponies” which quickly became popular and a growing trend.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mods-are-asleep

The “World Wide” Web

Digital technology is something that we use second-handedly in our society. It’s a part of who we are. Technology in our society is abundant and its hardly a case where people don’t see another without some form of digital technology in their possession from smart phones, watches, or music devices. But “we” refers to only a significantly small portion of the world wide population (about 30%/ 2 billion out of a 7 billion) have access to the digital culture that North America and Europe thrive under.

What about those that don’t have access to the internet? Why aren’t they privileged to the same benefits of the digital technology we have access to? This is due to lack of economic resources, literacy and education that we have vastly available online and around us and other reasons. To create these devices, they need money which requires resources that can be refined and traded and placed on the market to make that money. Geographically speaking they just don’t have access to the same resources as us let alone tools to refine them into products to put on the market. This relates to why some societies are more advanced than others, which I recommend watching or reading Guns, Germs, and Steal. The point that is made, due to geographical locations, access to resources, and the medical technology available has placed societies in their current positions and explains partly why continents in Africa don’t have anything to do with the digital technologies that we have. Places such as Asia, have very limited access to the the full capabilities and resources loaded on the “world wide web”.

Not everyone that does have access to the Internet uses it the same way. Andrew Carver states that the digital technology and internet is the fastest growing invention toward education. Prior to the internet, education through what is considered “old fashion ways” such as lectures, taking tests, buying textbooks and reading. In this modern New Media era, knowledge and resources on how to build a house, creating a pipebomb, taking apart a car, learning about WWII, or learning how to make ice cream from scratch.

In this link to a Ted Talks, Steve talks about how because of the internet, it has drastically changed and challenged the previous conceptions of education and the pursuit of knowledge. Online schools and degrees are now available and this opposition to sit in classroom and get lectured when free resources are available at the tip their fingers. Technology plays a key role in shaping this institution, while not everyone is on board with this change and the fear of the machines replacing the leaders in these institutions, digital technology has and will forever be a major impact. Looking back on past fears of the written language, the printing press, to now; society has always over estimated the dangers of what will happen when these these technologies become a part of the society. Yes there are consequences to the introduction to these technologies, but one thing is for sure; they will continue to integrate into society with or without us.