Dave Young Graduation Project Proposal Final version 05.12.2012 2012

Tentative Title

Untitled (The Noun of Noun in the Noun of Adjective Noun)

General Introduction

My project explores how cybernetic systems have been used to mediate social discourse in order to maintain some sort of non-hierarchical democratic ideal. My main interest is in why and how these systems tend to fall apart, resulting in the emergence of a hierarchy within a group of people.

Relation to previous practice

In my past practice, I was examining the relationship between cybernetic theory and cold war computer technologies, and their resulting impact on popular culture. I was particularly interested in how computer technologies were represented in the science-fiction cinema, often as a propaganda device that illustrated the technological prowess of the United States over the rest of the world. Last year I had also investigated how cybernetic theory was reappropriated by the counterculture, removing it from its military/corporate background and using it to create non-hierarchical social systems within the communes in the early 1970s. My current interest is a development of these ideas: firstly, that cybernetics had a large social impact through its representation in cinema and print media during the Cold War, and also to explore the reasons it might be used to influence the behaviour of a group of people.

Practical steps

Currently, my practical steps involve two experiments. The first is a workshop where a group of people are challenged to build a city in the game Micropolis.

References

Books

• Bateson, Gregory Steps Toward an Ecology of Mind (2000) University of Chicago Press, United States.
• Carey, John The Faber Book of Utopias (1999) Faber and Faber, London.
• Edwards, Paul N. The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (1996) MIT Press, United States.
• Poster, Mark and Savat, David (Editors) - Deleuze and New Technology (2009) Edinburgh University Press, UK.
• Rand, Ayn The Fountainhead (2007) Penguin, England.
• Vossoughian, Nader Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis (2008) NAI Publishers, The Netherlands

Web

• Beagles, John: In a Class all of their own: The incomprehensiveness of art education, Variant 39/40, accessed 22/09/12
  
• Becker, Gary and Posner, Richard The Becker-Posner Blog
  
• Flacy, Mike : Facebook wants you to snitch on friends that aren’t using real names, Digital Trends accessed 23/09/12
  
• Hopkins, Don: HAR 2009 Lightning Talk Transcript: Constructionist Educational Open Source SimCity, accessed 25/09/12
  
• Huebner, Lee: The Dawn of Politics' TV Era, 60 Years Ago: Nixon and the Checkers Speech, The Atlantic, accessed 22/09/12
  
• Humdog: Pandora's Vox, repost of 1994 essay, accessed 24/09/12
  
• Kunkel, Benjamin The Unbearable Lightness of Slavoj Zizek's Communism, accessed 09/10/12
  
• Madrigal, Alexis: Driverless Cars Would Reshape Automobiles *and* the Transit System, qz.com, accessed 30/09/12
  
• Soulskill: Decentralized Social Networking — Why It Could Work tech.slashdot.org, accessed 8/10/12
  
• Tegel, Simeon: Can private cities save a nation with world's worst murder rate? Independent.co.uk, accessed 24/09/12