Reflective Post --Kory

Honestly, I am very worry about I cannot get clear understanding of this unit in the first lessons. I have not clear idea of cybrogs even though I have some blogs. For me, blogging as a tool to express my feeling and communicate with other because of some times I don’t know how to express my feeling with others in reality. Therefore, blogging is one of the ways to express my feeling and became my hobbies.

Although weblog exercise and theories seems quiet academic. For me, the weblog provide a good platform for me to communicate with my classmates and have more interactive with them. Also, the presentation outlines is helpful for me because our classmates provide some good summaries of those week’s readings and I read it easily. Besides that, Wesley also highlights some key points for us in the tutorial. I think it is useful for us to get more clearly of readings.

After studying this course, I get a clear idea of cybrog. As a matter of fact, I am a cybrog. We are cybogs. Cybrog are everywhere in our daily life since technology complete our life. It totally shifts my impressions of cybrog which was like robot with human appearance before I study this course. And I learnt many new concepts which I never heard before, such as posthumand. Also, I like N. Katherine’s point in the How We Became Posthuman “the important intervention comes not when you try to determine which is the man, the woman, or the machine. Rather, the important intervention comes much earlier, when the test puts you into a cybernetic circuit that splices your will, desire, and perception into a distributed cognitive system in which represented bodies are joined with enacted bodies through mutating and flexible machine interfaces.”

Lastly, the 60% research essay is a bit too heavy for whole assessment and it make me worry and full of pressure. Also, critical annotated webliography is not easy to do too.

Kelvin's reflection

Nowadays, we have to rely on a lot of modern technologies. When television was invented in the mid 20th century, people sought it as the major source for entertainment. In the late 20th Century, the invention of computers changed our daily lives as computers are having a lot of different functions. The most significant function for computers in modern days is that computers become the major communication medium with the others. We are embodied to it. We can ask ourselves a question, is it possible for you to live without a computer? I would probably say: NO. Therefore, we are becoming cyborgs as we are merging into our computers.

First of all, I would say this course did help me to understand our concerns and problems in our modern technologies and it did meet the aim of the course. However, the percentage of the marks for different assignments should be balanced.

Secondly, the blogging exercise seems that it could not enhance communication and discussion between different tutorial classes. I hope that the blog can be combined together to stimulate discussions.

reflective post

“Self. Net”, gave me the first impression that it seems to be quite difficult and hardly to be understood. But after having lectures and tutorials, it helps us to understand more about the negative and positive impact on technology which we may be neglected.

Writing weblogs become more popular today. It can be easily found and supported by different providers like blogspot that we used now, facebook, xanga, wordpress etc. I think it is very convenient for us to know others responses, how they feel and what information bought from an event. Also, it functioned as dairy and we often can get some updates from others. In this course, weblog become a tool for us to exchange knowledge and information. When we browsed some scholars or journalists blogs, it have given a platform and allowed different perspectives to criticize on one single event which can achieved greater varieties in discussion.

I believe that most people in 21^st century are cyborg and myself included. It's quite hard for me to exclude technology in my life because it invaded our lives in different ways. Undoubtedly, we benefited from technology like it is easier to get communicated with others through internet or mobile phones. However, humans have a great dependency on it. Technology and humanity is still a controversial issue for people to debate. I think that there are still a room which needed to work hard in keeping the harmony between technology and humanity.

reflective post

After taking this course, I think it brings some new ideas, which challenges a boundary between human and robot that I have never thought before. With the development of technology, we use more and more technical products: we use an ipod to listen to music; we use some mobile phone to communicate with others. All those technical products become important elements in people living; we may say that people are no longer passive to consume them as the past. However, it is some kind of invading of human. At this moment, I would not think that I am a cyborg although I wear contact lens almost every day. However, I notice that human may not simply viewed as human in the modern days, we have to think about my roles in some extent that we may become a cyborg, for example, install some artificial parts in our body.

Moreover, I think that using weblog is a fresh practice in taking the course. Besides three hours lesson every week, it provides another platform for us to discuss some ideas, which we may not cover in lessons. Throughout a discussion, it helps us to learn more and understand the ideas more clear. It also gives us time to prepare for a discussion. It is easy for us to view and review others posts and comment whenever we want as well.

Lastly, I think that although some ideas covered in this course are quite difficult for me to understand, it provides some general ideas about cyborg, human and post-human, which we have to notice in the modern days. I think those daily examples happening around us, which mention in tutorials, are useful for me to understand some theories, because some theories are hard to get if we just read those articles.

Reflective Post

This kind of assessment is quite refreshing. Using such form to do the assignment is like what I usually do in daily life with friends. I mostly interact with friends through facebook and MSN. When I do it in the same way in this weblog, I found that weblog discussion could be so serious like what we did here. However, my practice here is not as freely as what I am doing in facebook. It is because I would consider who audience to notice my post are and it is like a censorship in which lecture had the ultimate power among this virtual community. No doubt, it is a valuable experience of using weblog for giving more ideas, interactions and discussions with classmates. Besides, I could read more classmates’ works and be comment by others through this CMC technology. It helps me to learn a lot from them and have a better understanding of the course. Indeed, I need to be a cyborg as I have to use the technology to complete my assessments on weblog. Because of this, I can’t deny that I am not a cyborg; at least I should wear glasses to attend the classes. I think this weblog unit is the most interesting part in this course as it can help me to understand what means cyborg practically.

Reflective Post

I think the term that I always hear in the course is “cyborg”. Initially, I am very surprised to hear that we are “cyborg”. At least I wouldn’t expect glasses can turn us into “cyborg”. But then, I believed that I am a cyborg as my life becomes inseparable from the technologies. For example, I use my mobile phone to store up others’ phone number. And, once my computer is broken down, all my data and photos cannot be restored, I feel extremely moody as if I have lost part of my important memories. Technologies surround my life and influence my sentiment, and honestly, I cannot live without them.

As to the weblog, although I am used to post some dairies on my blog, this is fresh for me to submit my assignment in this form. Posting the Webliography on the blog and leaving comments to others are useful for exchanging opinions on the topic, helping us to have greater understanding about it. The outline of presentation also gives us a clearer concept of what others are going to say, which makes me easier to follow the presentation.

Finally, I think this course can help us to go deep into the relationship between human being and technology and the concept of “self” in this digital age in theoretical perspectives. But it is hard for me to understand all of them since I don’t have such fundamental knowledge or concept about this topic as well as the difficulty of absorbing those difficult theories.

Reflective Post

The weblogs function as a platform that allow me learn more about this course. The presentations of other classmates help me to know more about the readings. It is better than study the readings by myself. Besides, the weblogs facilitate practical experience of the concepts we learnt from the lessons.
To sum up, this course enables me critically evaluate the way identity is articulated via CMC. Also, it helps me develop critical skills of more generic utility relating to understand and evaluating identity, knowledge, texts and media in both offline and online contexts.

For me, the impressive concept I learnt from this course is cyborg. Doubtlessly, I am a cyborg. Although there are different definitions of cyborg, it is a word that was consisted of cybernetic and organism. I believe cyborg referred to a human being with bodily functions aided or controlled by technological devices, such as an oxygen tank, artificial heart valve or insulin pump. Over the years, the term has acquired a more general meaning, describing the dependence of human beings on technology. In this sense, cyborg can be used to characterize anyone who relies on a computer to complete their daily work. hence, with the aids of glasses, medicine, etc, I become a cyborg.

Reflective post

I think weblog is an effective platform for learning purposes. First of all, the introduction of classmates provides a good chance for me to know more about them. Second, the outline and summary posted by my classmates before each tutorial class is useful for us to get the general idea of required readings. It is easy for us to catch the main idea of readings. As we have only 1 hour for tutorial class, so weblog is a good place for us to further discuss our opinions anywhere, anytime. Third, the Critical Annotated Webliography, I think it is good for us to read other classmates’ work and leave comment to them. For me, I can improve my work from reading comments which posted by my classmates. So, using weblog is a beneficial way for learning purposes.

It is interesting to learn the concept of cyborg from this unit. At the beginning, I felt confused about the concept of cyborg, because I thought cyborgs are robots, but not human. However, during the lectures, I found that people wearing glasses or contact lens, having plastic surgery can be regarded as cyborgs. In my opinion, I think those cloning human; people putting technical material into their body part are cyborgs. For me, in a world where I can’t live without technologies, I believe I am a cyborg.

Overall, I like this course, as it introduced many new concepts for me. Wesley always mentioned, traditionally, women are not expected to relating with technology or science. But today, the world is changing, many women like playing computer games and buying high-tech products.
In fact, I really appreciate that Wesley is always well prepared for the classes and provided some local examples to illustrate concepts, because some ideas from readings are abstract and hardly to understand.

Reflective Post

To be honest, I think this course is a bit difficult for me, as Wesley has introduced many new theories and ideas. Though some of the concepts are somehow not easy to understand, I think it is pretty interesting and worth learning. I especially enjoy the lessons about cyborgs, I have never studied and considered this “stuff” so seriously, those scholars’ ideas and examples towards cyborgs were quite new to me. Before attending this course, I thought cyborgs were robots with human appearance. During the lectures, I was told that a person with glasses or often with her computer can also be regarded as cyborgs, but I still insist my old idea at this moment, which cyborgs should something like robots with human appearance (maybe I have watched too much terminators^^), I don’t really think (or can’t accept) I am a cyborg.

 

Besides, I think the weblogs are quite convenient and useful, I can read others webliography just sitting in front of my computer. Moreover, the readings of this unit are rather puzzling, thus, it is nice that I can have a look of the readings outlines written by my classmates, this helps me to understand the readings more easily. Overall, I think this course is “new” and worth attending (truly from my heart).

Reflective Post

1. The use of weblogs for learning purposes
   
   Self.Net: Identity in the Digital Age is a very unique unit within these 2 years studying in UWA. It is because we have to work in the weblog time to time within the semester.
   
   To have effective learning, interactive learning must be included as one of the elements. I think the use of weblogs for learning purposes can achieve it. I think the required assessments in this course are complementary well with each other.
   
   It is especially to the case that student is required to post the outline or summary of his or her presentation before the tutorial class. It benefits others students a lot. First, it gives a way to the audience to understand the presentation content beforehand. So that when they sit in the tutorial class, they can be more focusing on the presentation and absorb the information. Moreover, since students are supposed to finish reading the proposed reading in that week before the tutorial class, more questions can be raised and discussed within the tutorial class. From the discussion, we learnt a lot as well. I think the weblog facilitate well among the assessments and can help us to have a better learning process.
   
   As for the Critical Annotated Webliography, I think it is good for us to leave comment to the others. From the posted comment in my own post, I could be able to know the way how I could do this assessment in a better way. And by reading through other posts in this task, I could figured that there is a different way for others to interpret the same topics which the same as I did. Then, I could be learn in this way as well.
   
   In my point of view, using weblog for the learning purpose does give us a lot of effective learning opportunity besides the assigned assessment.
   
   
   
2. Me? A cyborg? NO!
   
   The first time I come across and learn the concept of cyborg is from this unit. However, after the whole unit I do not believe myself although I use many digital device everyday. For example, when I walk alone, I’d have my ear plug of my ipod on. I’d feel I am not alone once I get online at midnight. Yet, I still think that I am a so called human being instead of a cyborg. It is because I believe that I can live without these digital devices in my life. The reason why they are around me is just because we are now in a digital or technological world. It is because the consumption pattern we have and the way the world promotes the technologies. For instance, I know some friends like reading through the electronic books that SONY promote instead of the traditional one. But these are just the environments or say a trends made by many aspects within the world. Therefore, it’s something external from our body and it doesn’t count as part of us.
   
   If you say that will I treat myself as a cyborg if I got an electronic heart implanted to continue myself. I’d say no as well, it is because I still got my soul, my own thought. I think that I am a human being and will never become a cyborg. It would happen only if I were caught by the alien and being transformed to be something else and I am not who I am. Then, that person would be treated as a cyborg.
   
   
   
3. Most liked and disliked
   
   I like the knowledge that I got from this course the most. Take the chapter of the digital gender as an example, it inspired me to think more of the woman is being represented in the digital world in the perspective of a feminist. I think women can be much liberated by the means of the digital world. From the virtual community, they can really overthrow the idea of patriarchy system in the social community. In the coming future, maybe, it can be brought from the virtual to the social community. I am interested to have further study in this aspect.
   
   The thing that I dislike the most of this subject is the proportion or distribution of the assessment within this subject. It might be said that only an essay which owns 60% of the whole course is quite normal and it’s the same when we have the thesis writing in the master degree. However, if the proportion of the essay must really be set as 60% from the overall course, then the workloads of other pieces of assessments should be reduced. It just makes our effort to disperse on various mini-tasks and they still carry certain amount of score. If we are supposed to focus on the essay in this unit, then there can still be some mini-task such as weblogs to do as an assessments but not too much and too odds and sods.
   
   Lastly, I’d like to thank and appreciate to our lecture Wesley who gives us the detailed knowledge of this unit. His efforts and heart in teaching us can be seen especially during the tutorial classes. For instance, he prepared himself well and even underlined and written some notes on the readings for telling us the ideas and some difficult points from the readings during the tutorial class. His examples given to us for illustrating some of the theories are quite inspired and interesting as well. Thanks a lot!
   
   
   

Reflection of Stella :]

This is probably the last blog entry I have for this course. So, here comes to my self-reflection upon the course in this semester.

I guess I do believe I am a cyborg to a certain extent because I feel the majority of my life revolves around technology, whether it is at home, at work or even in university. Computers are an integral part of my life, and my home personal computer holds many memories for me in the form of photos as well as written texts. So I guess it is an extension of the memory in my brain. I would undoubtedly be devastated to lose the information on the computer but probably to a lesser extent than if I found out I had something like alzheimers. I guess what it comes down to though is that I can essentially function without technology, but it does play a huge role in my lifestyle.

As for the weblog, I think it is quite a useful and interesting tool for learning. It is really easy and convenient for me to post my blogs and comments onto it as we all can access it whenever or wherever we are. And I find this learning experience useful as I can value the opinions of others and help me understand more about the course materials, as well as the theories that we discussed during lectures and tutorials.

However, I do think the course has the initial heavy theoretical issues that we begun with. It scared me off a bit as the theory are really difficult and it took me time to understand and digest all of them. But as we continued I found the issues and concepts did actually relate to my own everyday life, which made it much easier to identify with them.

presentation outline~Interactive Audiences?

Henry Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences?"
Dan Harries (ed.), The New Media Book, London: BFI Publishing, 2002, pp.157-170

The new participatory culture in three trends:
~consumers can appropriate and recirculate media content
~do-it-yourself (DIY) media production
~economic trends encourage consumers to be more active

the new knowledge communities
~voluntary, temporary and shift from one community to another
the history of science-fiction fandom
~form some informal network
~circulating letters and convention
~many science-fiction writers emerge

Share knowledge~ information known by all members of a community
Collective intelligence~ knowledge available to all members of a commodity

computer brings some change to fandom
-express and receive instant response
-translate some Japanese programs for American

some conflicts among different people
e.g. between male and female fans, between different generations of fans.

knowledge cultures change the ways that commodity culture operates
building brand loyaltyà broaden consumers participation

-culture jammers want to opt out of media consumption
-fans see unrealized potential in popular culture ,want to broaden audience participation

Jenifa's reflective post

Finally, this is my last post in this unit.

Overall I think this unit is quite interesting yet a bit difficult that it had introduced some new concepts and theories regarding identity in this digital era. For instance, this was the first time that I have ever heard of the term “cyborg” – seems like a very techno-term but never thought of we might already been a cyborg ! While the term “cyborg” is viewed differently according to different people, for me, I think to little extent I could consider myself as a cyborg as I’m quite over-dependent on new technologies, (and as I’m shortsighted that I have to wear glasses or contact lenses everyday). I like the topic of “Resistance is Fertile” the most because it had introduced some new ideas that (luckily!) we are not merely passive recipients of new technologies, but we also have the power to resist the new technologies or commodification of cultural objects.

I think using Weblogs is appropriate and very suitable for this unit. It did helped us to learn apart from essay writing or presentation - especially when we have to post our presentation outline on Weblogs so that our classmates can comment on it and we can even have a discussion about the topics there. It provides a platform for us to have a more in-depth discussion rather than just hearing other’s presentation without commenting.

Some minor things that I think could be improved is that some topics are really a bit difficult and theorized, and there are topics that are already covered in some other units (like gender in playing games, online community), the weight of the final essay is a bit too heavy as well.

Week 13 Presentation Outline -Smart Mobs

Howard Rheingold, ‘Smart Mobs: the power of the mobile many’ Network Logic. Eds. Helen McCarthy, Paul Miller and Paul Skidmore. London: Demos, 2004, pp. 191-202.

According to Howard Rheingold:
-Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other.
-‘Killer apps’ of tomorrow’s mobile infocom industry will be social practices.

1. Netwar
-The case of ‘People power’ in 2001
-The Battle of Seattle: the first ‘netwar’, use of wireless communications + mobile social networks , demonstrators had different interests but were united.
-The term “netwars,” by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt
-Smart mobs: violent or non-violent netwar -> only a few of the many possible varieties of smart mob.
-Netwars -> share a similar technical infrastructure with other smart mobs
-New form of social organization, the network
-Networks constitute the newest major social organizational form, after tribes, hierarchies and markets.

2. Peer- to peer Journalism
- Potential for violence, malign purposes of smart mob technologies and techniques, non-violent smart-mobbing in the future, a few experiments of mobile communications are provided
- WearComp researcher, innovator and evangelist, Steve Mann launched ‘ENGwear’

3. Swarm intelligence
-PARC researchers have studied the dynamics of social systems -> a diversity of cooperation thresholds among the individuals -> tip a crowd into a sudden epidemic of cooperation
- Steven Johnson’s 2001 book Emergence ->
1) Kevin Kelly extrapolated from biological to technological networks,
2) apply to cities and Amazon.com’s recommendation system
3) In the case of the cities, the emergent intelligence resembles the ant mind, but humans posses extraordinary onboard intelligence or at least the capacity for it.
- Connections between the behavior of smart mobs and the behavior of swarm systems must be tentative.


Conclusion:
- raises three questions
- Smart mobs are not ‘thing’ -> could not be described with words, but Internet can do that, Internet -> what happened when a lot of computers started communicating
- Smart mobs -> unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property
- more new media to invent

Jacqueline's reflective post

To be honest, it was really surprising to learn that one would be considered cyborg by having any single connection with technology. If this is really the case, we are all cyborg as we are now living in the digital age! In this sense, I can become a cyborg by just using computer/mobile phone, listening to ipod, wearing contact lens...etc. However, personally, I do not agree with such interpretation of cyborg. To me, cyborg should be like those as commonly shown in many sci-fi movies (part 'human' and part machine: they are actually completely robot, just that they are 'given' human-like appearance)

We are now living in the digital age, we rely heavily on technology and it is nearly impossible for us to be completely separated from technology. This is true, but I do not agree with the point that by simply having connection with technology, one would be considered cyborg. I think cyborg should not be defined in such a broad term. So I do not consider my self cyborg.

For the blogging exercises, it provides students with a good way to share ideas. I like the interactive nature of the blogging exercises. We can comment on other classmates' posts and share our thoughts on the subject matter regardless of time and space. We do not need to be face-to-face, by simply clicking the 'comment' button, we can share our thoughts together through the blog. We can have a more in-depth discussion on the subject matter and this enables us to have a better understanding of what we have learnt in class. Of course this would be even more effective if we are encouraged to blog more.

The presentation outline-- Playing Games

The presentation outline-- Playing Games
'As We Become Machines: corporealized pleasures in video games' by Martti Lahti

-->The video games link players to entertainment technology in what is a ‘new cyborgian relationship’ which attempts to erase the boundary between the virtual and the real.

William Gibson: “sees the players as already being subsumed by the computer, already as a cyborg’.

Argument: The video games as a unique ‘paradigmatic site for producing, imaging and testing different kinds of relations between the body and technology in contemporary culture.’
--> far from being ‘meatless’

Two contentions:
1.) The aspiration of gaming technology is to ‘erase the boundary separating the player from the game world’
- the sense of physical immersion created by advances
- the use of techniques
--> fuses the players perspective with that of the games character, and creates the impression of a ‘limitless space opening behind the screen.’

2.) The games encourage a merger of perspectives and subjectivities with the onscreen world
- the video games simultaneously invite players to take pleasure in the visual representation of avatars onscreen.
- the pleasure from:
--> to control and construct the body we desire
--> to 'try on' different bodies
--> to 'trespass or toy with racial and sexual boundaries'

Conclusion: complex relations between the player and the machine's cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay > the players are subsumed as a cyborg.

The presentation outline-- Playing Games

Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances----Mia Consalvo

Focus how the theories could apply in the case studies and how the norms of heterosexuality is in some way being challenged, but in fact reinforced in gameplay

1) Final Fantasy 9
idealizes the heterosexual romance
added many traditional norms in it to see the gender

Theory of erotic triangle
player-character relationship that emphasizes the nonsexual interest and affection between men, with female character to cover them as fears of being seen as gay
--> clashing of sexualized roles
The concept of Play---Johann Huizinga
“The disguised or masked individual ‘plays’ another part, another being. He is another being”
“a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own”
--> Players are masked to play various roles and being that roles in video game out of reality

2) The Sims
Structured polysemy game
Sexualities built on the activities but not identities
--> Limit radical potentials of sexualities (denied gay married status)

Theory of gay window advertising
Ambiguously to appeal both straight and gay players

Both of the games failed to challenge the heterosexuality because of the agency limited:

FF9:
The masked character does not stray far from the assumed identity of the game player (heterosexual male)

The Sims:
Forbidden of marriage between same-sex couples

Presentation Outline: Online communities

"A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell

This reading is mainly about the Bungle Affair happened in an online space known as LambdaMOO and how the online community(LambdaMOO), including the victims of the affair, handled the case. The writer uses the Bungle Affair to bring out issues regarding online communities.

Here is the outline of my presentation:

1) Brief information on the Bungle Affair: a cyberrape performed by a player called Mr. Bungle

2) The Bungle case highlights issues regarding virtual community:

->the boundaries between real-life and virtual reality (virtual offense = real crime?)

->the regulation of online spaces

The reading leads us to think about issues of regulation within virtual worlds and also the boundary between real-life and virtual reality (e.g. what was the real-life legal status of virtual offense?)

Outline of this week presentation (Edith)

I am going to present “The Virtual Community” by Howard Rheingold on this Thursday, here is my presentation outline:

 

1) The online community which the author participated in, was called WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), he found that…

-- “I was audience, performer and scriptwriter”

-- “I was participating in the self-design of a new kind of culture”

-- “begin to mix up with them (virtual community) in real life”

 

2) Our own thoughts towards Internet should be presented, as it might be used and shaped by the commercial and political parties in the future.

 

3) The writer considered that everything about the Internet grow extremely fast, even this article was written in 1993.

Week 10 Presentation – Resistance is Fertile

Article: Pranking Rhetoric: "Culture Jamming" as Media Activism by Christine Hardold.

Exploring the practice of "culture jamming" as a strategy of rhetorical protest.

The theory of "culture jamming"

An interruption / sabotage /hoax etc

The monolithic power structures governing the cultural life
“to introduce noise to signal”
the kind of “glutting” of the systems

Approaches raised by the author:

Joey oey Skaggs
- Opened a false dog brothel for dogs, and posted advertisements up. Skaggs quickly earning ABC News interviews and eventually even criminal charges.


®™ark
- Switched voice-chips within Barbie toys and G.I. Joe action figures and then returned them to stores


the Biotic Baking Brigade
- Plays with the image of power, and the media's obsession with images and scandal.


the American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth Campaign
- to urge the readers to “Spread the knowledge. Infect truth.”

Conclusion