The Melting World

I still have a hard time imagining a human mind as separated from the body and from the natural, as a floating autopoetic code. For one, I don’t imagine such a type of projected immortal existence as pleasurable or advantageous for me (I actually like being ‘in’ this big happy/sad messy world and a cup […]

I was traveling all over Japan last week, not able to participate much in the class forum. But I did try the chat bots as well and was not impressed with them. Darth Vader as a chat bot seemed annoying and very stupid to me, I wonder if he ever guesses correctly? My thought he […]

From class forum: I am still thinking (in media res) through my argument here, but I think I can agree with cyborg theorists that technologies (as we use the more interactive ones more and more) become part of our physical/mental selves and maybe this co-joining strengthens us in some ways (we can ‘know’ facts instantly […]

This week we read about cyborg theory, a recent view that life as we thought we knew it (as the individual animal/human as a separate cohesive entity) is a myth and that all life forms are really collectives: we are each composed of many living organisms (cells, bacteria, amoebas, etc.), chemicals, electricity, and now technologies […]

This cyborg theorizing appeared when we reach for ways to make our machines/technologies more like us: we begin to investigate what a human being is, and discover that DNA sequencing and electrical synapse (information looping) are the Human machines we will need to understand to replicate or mirror life. This then brings us to question […]

I agree with Paula and Marianne that Nature vs. man’s –and therefore technology’s–attempt to control it (which seems to always fail in the end, too) runs throughout the Science Fiction genre, and Donna Harwaway mentions the omnipresence of Nature in SF (see Murphie&Potts, pp.116-117): Frankenstein’s beast comes to life from an electric storm & rain […]

I am very concerned about teaching myself and my students to think much more critically (and more importantly) creatively about all the data at our fingertips and barraging us via new media. I’ll give a talk in one week on creative thinking skills at university–so this is big on my mind. To me, creative thinking […]

As part of the Cultural and New Media Studies Class, I am to keep a journal of things I discover as I go through the week’s readings, providing links to anything that sparked my interest or sparked some sort of reaction in me. This week the topic is Science Fictions and AI (artificial intelligence), something […]

When he needed to take a break, he did (and he also had me carry him back down the mountain side, the clever boy).

The Ainu carve willow branches in particular ways to honor the many spirits (Kamuy) of the world. This prayer stick is for Happiness, which surprsied me. I had never heard of the Ainu honoring concepts (non-living things), but then again, maybe happiness is an entity to them? That is a fascinating possibility…

This prayer stick is for the Earth god

This prayer stick is for the Mountain god.

This prayer stick is for the Water god.

My sons waits for his beloved trains to cross the Osarape River bridge

Absence from this journal serves as a sign that my wheels are spinning again, too fast, you might say. I just completed my first big media production for my New Media Studies class, and it took much time and experimentation. I am not happy with the quality of later scenes in the film (some parts […]

I thought it might be beneficial to view the very different approaches toward Internet regulation between the US (although I am not sure how applicable to Canada, sorry, please help me out there) and Japan, where I live. Iastericked the word p*rn to avoid those devious spammers from plastering my blog with p*rn links…:-)! Here’s […]