User:Ssstephen/Reading/FLWR PWR

< Imagine a garden of dream flowers, powered by duracell,
made of abandoned Starbucks coffee cups, styrofoam cubes
cut from the latest iMac packing materials, a brain made in
Italy, a blossom made by 1/2 Tod 1/2 Bot. The flowers glow
with an eerie pulsating glow, sending secret missives across
a darkened room. Some flowers horde their individuality,
resisting attempts to transform, to change. Others broadcast
their distinctive natures broadly, encouraging nearby flowers
to go with them, to be like them. Still others promiscuously
adopt the patterns of others, reproducing, syncing, connecting.
They live, they die. The garden flourishes, it declines.>

What if your metaphor sucks?

Im not saying it does in this case.

The agents
(and the network itself ) thus become a kind of boundary
object (Star and Griesemer, 1999) that facilitates exchange and
sharing across disciplinary boundaries as well as being a mode
of engagement that explicitly connects technical work and
social analysis.

Is this art? Further reading: Star, S. L. and J. R. Griesemer, Reprint of Star and Griesemer 1989, ‘Institutional Ecology, ‘‘Translations’’, and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939.’ reprinted in Mario Biagioli (ed.), The Science Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 505-524, 1999.

elision

the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's ). "the shortening of words by elision"
the process of joining together or merging things, especially abstract ideas.

The final prototypes are not intended
to be displayed and to speak for themselves. Instead, they are
considered a means to an end, and achieve value though the
act of shared construction, joint conversation and reflection.

I really like the idea of this method, that something is created or explored outside and between individuals.

Using a shared
process of making as a common space for experimentation
encourages the development of a collective frame while
allowing disciplinary and epistemic differences to be both
highlighted and hopefully overcome.

This comes with all the usual difficulties of working together and collective action, not saying that's a reason not to do it but should be acknowledged at least.

This is a better version of what I was trying to do in the room for sound. It would be nice to find the code I'm curious what the GiftEconomy(), InfoCommons() and InfoNeighborhood() functions do. The metaphor of flowers has some nice aspects especially the sexual connotations. Does all communication have to be reproductive, can it have other functions? Communication because it's pleasurable? It strengthens social bonds, it's experimental, it relieves communicative tension. To become closer to God or as part of a ritual. So the other person feels good. Revenge communication. Make up communication. Break up communication.

A little bit of analysis of critical making at the end which is similar to my question, what if your metaphor sucks? But they suggest a few ways to tackle this: awareness, engagement at various levels, and scepticism.

Is scepticism a fundamentally rational and empirical method? Is it possible to have mystical and irrational scepticism?