User:Francg/expub/thesis/draft1

Graduate Proposal

Draft

What do you want to make?

Based on the idea of E-Lit (Electronic Literature), I want to deepen into the topic of data collection and create a story-telling device, exploring symbiotic information exchange between "selfs" and "machines". I want to either track and catalogue a real or simulated experience, or create a series of factual stories. How does a graphic visual language can translate this? Throughout analyse the significance of our status quo in the digital world (trans-humanism) and the current shifting ethics in relation to an increasing dependency on technology (algorithms, numbers, data). This could be used to further speculate on future scenarios?

[Steve: this could be a lot more specific. What could it be? Your "hands on practice" needs to be up front! What can you MAKE?]

This can be a platform with multiple hybrid publications, or a single cross-over publication set in a unique digital & physical environment. It can also be seen as a type of story-telling platform, in which data is not neutral but subjective and meaningful.

Why do you want to make it?

My interest comes from a project I made about the dangers of online objectification in the digital medias at the Glasgow School of Art, which I produced by mixing 3D printing and digital techniques. Moreover, some of my previous essays on the human body & media censorship, and my recent writings about online addiction and cybernetics, have made this to be a significantly mysterious and yet difficult to comprehend topic.

We are constantly lurking in the digital world, being not too mindful about our environments and the roles we are taking. We need to be more critical and self-aware about how technology is influencing (with pros and cons) our lifestyle.

Topics on morphological freedom, bio-ethics, trans-humanism, simulated reality, e-lit or hypertext stories, hyper-body, body as data / dody as device, story-telling data, hybrid publishing, ebook,...

Here is the very first step

[Steve wrote: Think about what the minimum expression of your idea could be and make it. In the next session these “miniatures” will become engines for discussion, so don't come empty handed. It is important to start the process of making at the beginning so things don’t become too abstract.]

Relation to larger context

Looking out for identity make us become an "actor network", there is a cultural perspective of society in relation to personal data as a valuable, interesting and/or hazardous thing (e.g. social media usage). Explore the role of adaptations and modifications in our relationship with nature.

Who can help and how?

Michael, Aymeric and André have experience with digital publishing (+ Delphine with printed matter), also in terms of literature (seen as a story-telling object) Steve can be quite beneficial to find relevant resources.

+ Other yet unknown helpful entities.

How do you plan to make it?

I would work on html, css and/or other programming languages, graphic design interfaces, learn more about hybrid publishing and self-publishing. Work on online libraries such as "Calibre" cloud (+ alternatives) to share books or other platforms. Weasyprint? or other sort of "e-lit" conversion to printable books? Explore issues of communication and technology through medium and imagery. Example: http://collection.eliterature.org/2/

What is your timetable

I want to start researching the conceptual implications of this issue and alongside keep on producing prototypes to help me acquiring skills and a better a understanding of its theoretical & technical complexities. This means to find out why this topic is interesting to an specific audience, and how to communicate it. Ideally by the end of each trimester I will be able to gather a series of prototypes and collect more relevant thoughts, which will define a more visible pattern of what my work will be.

References

Brendan Dawes. Artist and designer exploring the interaction of objects, people, art and technology using form and code with a mix of analog and digital materials.
Nicholas Felton

Back to old sources:

Lanier, J. (2010) You Are Not a Gadget, Penguin Adult
Hayles, K (2008) How We Became Posthuman. Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, University of Chicago Press
Electronic Literature Collection 3, 2016
Electronic Literature Collection 2, 2011
Electronic Literature Collection 1, 2006
Eastgate - Patchwork Girl
"Now You're Playing With Power" - Nintendo 1986 Commercial
Feedback: Signal Noise Nir Eyal Tristan Harris

Helpful webs for now:

The Guardian Data blog
http://thedigitalhuman.tumblr.com/archive%7C The digital Human Archive]
https://wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman%7C Superhuman exhibition]
Music and Fractal Landscapes
Post Digital publishing Archive
Daniel Engber - article
The Internet of Cells - article

Some possible book sources:

Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945, Halpern, Orit
From Print to eBooks - A Hybrid Publishing Toolkit for the Arts, Pzwart
The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future
Artists’ Magazines. An Alternative Space for Art
The Century of Artists' Books, Drucker, Johanna
Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, Drucker, Johanna
Reading Writing Interfaces, Emerson, Lori
Book to the Future, Cataloguing the World, Wright, Alex
Book to the Future, Worthington, Simon
Writing Machines, Hayles, Katherine

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Session 1 proposal draft