Tutorial Notes 19-09-12
General
Continuation from last year's research on the 'war sciences' (cybernetics, game theory, operations research) and their representation in popular culture during the Cold War.
Points of interest for this year
- 'The cybernetic view of society' - citizens as 'agents', vectors, inputs, processes, feedback etc
- Neurath's 'gypsy planning' in early 1900s Vienna and socialist urban design
- Game vs Play - Gregory Bateson (ask Steve more about this!)
- Micropolis (OS version of Sim City - maintained by Don Hopkins) - city-building sim based on cybernetic concepts
Workshop
Through our interactions with urban networks - tagging on and off transport, logging shopping habits, calculating traffic, and tracking with positioning systems - the city has become a cybernetic entity, a generator and manager of information flows and loops.
Using Micropolis as a means to explore cybernetics applied to society.
I would like to encourage a debate about the benefits and drawbacks of 'systems-oriented culture' - in what way does it help the citizen? In what way does it distribute power and control?
Soft control/hard control - Deleuze.
Gaming/playing - Game as 'serious' rule based system, play as entertainment?
What kind of city does Micropolis force you to create? How does this reflect contemporary urban design?
How does this culture play out online? How does this differ to IRL?
The workshop should be split into three parts.
1 => Introduction to systems culture, with the emphasis on Cold War history of computing and the complex societal shifts that occurred as a result. This will hopefully get everybody on an even level and give them an open context for the next two parts.
2 => Playing the game Micropolis [in small groups? / individually? / collaboratively on a server?] The question here is a technical one - it would be preferable to have a system where a group of 6-8 people have to collaboratively decide on how they should build their city, which would help to trigger debate and discussion about the processes and rules involved in the 'game'.
3 => Finally, a group feedback session about the previous two parts of the workshop, and a friendly debate about systems culture, returning to the question of hegemony and the benefits to the citizen.
The aim of the workshop is to draw links between the military history of cybernetics with contemporary systems culture, and debate the drawbacks and benefits for the citizens who find themselves living in such a society.
NOTES
- Critical code study
- Minecraft - constitutions / readymade worlds
HOMEWERK
- List of related concepts/ideas/keywords
- Project survey => related works, prior art
- Choose related source [book/film/etc]