User:Eleanorg/RWR Notes 19 Oct 2011

THE ATLAS, Otto Neurath 1930 Early ISOtype book, 'state of the world'

Later Soviet Graphics

Q: Do these images describe workers, or produce the idea of 'the worker'?

KEY TEXTS THIS WEEK: Benjamin - Work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction - 1938 Bill Nichols - The work of culture in the age of cybernetic systems - 1988 James Harkin - Cyberbia. (Harkin worked on film 'the Trap'.) Maurizio Lazzarato - Immaterial Labor

HOMEWORK Make a 500 word synopsis or 250 of 'immaterial labor' including a bit of contextualisation, incl. how they reflect the time they were written in

These texts mark part of the shift towards subjects being situated within networks (rather than within the workplace, for example)

Charles & Ray Eames - 'A Communications Primer' (film) - 1953 http://www.archive.org/details/communications_primer Inspired by: Norbert Weiner (coined term cybernetics), Claude Shannon (head of research at The Bell, communications company, for whom the film was made) (See 'Acknowledgement' page of credits at the end for list of influential figures in the shift to 'information society' discourse) Margaret Mead - also involved in Macey Conferences (after the war, to discuss impact of feedback systems)

Fascintating opening shot running along telephone lines Mentions 'noise' interfering with transmitted signals and changing them, incl different types of noise in different communication types English language is half redundant - thus noise usually doesn't completely destroy the message Importance of redundancy as insurance against noise interference Painting is re-conceptualized as 'a signal trasmitting a coded message' Descripes mental conditioning & prejudices in viewer as potential 'interference' preventing transmission of a painting's signal Even a wave breaking on shore is described as a 'code' which, if you know it, gives information about far-off ocean events Stresses importance of 'knowing the code' Great audio sample in the emphatic description of binary messages - on, or off, stop, or go, black, or white.... use as a rap? Nice visualisation of punch-card patterns Human brain conceived as a giant (obviously superior) computer, making millions of 'yes/no' decisions making up smooth-looking actions 'feedback system' act as a check as each decision is made

This film begins to articulate 'ontology of communication' - world running from simple decisions (binary) up to more complicated ones.

<r> Ocean symbols - storm warning flags, fires, etc (mentioned briefly in Communications Primer) <r> Etymology of 'cybernetics' - comes from the greek - metaphor of 'feedback' central to our idea of society today. Link to Weiner's military work?

'Ontology of the enemy' - 1994 Charles Gallison Buckminster Fuller ("medium is the message") & Marhsall McLuhan (example of lightbulb, 'centre' around which things happen)- later theorists both influenced by cybernetics

Catherine M Hales - 'how we became post-human'; 'my mother was a computer' - conceives evolution of consciousness as universe running on software Maurizio Lazzarato - Immaterial Labor - mid-90s (reflects on shift to info society from labour perspective; we become the commodity) - performance and production are collapsed into one. http://www.generation-online.org/c/fcimmateriallabour3.htm Reality TV much cheaper to produce than paying actors

Facebook users are a product/producers - they produce data. If they realize this, could they use it to their advantage?