This prayer stick is for the Mountain god.
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Water Kamuy
This prayer stick is for the Water god.
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Waiting for Trains
My sons waits for his beloved trains to cross the Osarape River bridge
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Absence over-rationalized
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 are quite blurry, especially on the low res file), but I also learned a great deal this time around, so that is the main point, right? Right! Now I have to complete the other one early since I will be out of town for the third week of June (presentation and conference).
Anyway, if you’d like to check out my latest media experiment, go to Media Production 1, and choose either high or low quality (Dial-up vs. DSL/Cable modems). The second looks much better, of course. It’s on my homepage for the New Media class at UBC: Click here.
I also have an upcoming presentation at Future University in Hakodate on integrating creative thinking skills into the classroom to organize. I am arguing why such thinking skills are critical for students to be problem-solvers vs. followers/consumers in society. It is actually commonsense. Right now the imbalance of current educational systems (not all systems perhaps, however, but most) tends to stress the acquiring of knowldege as something put in the brain for safe keeping (banking system), but little instruction is given on what to do with that knowledge or how to explore using it. Or even if they do some activities, the students are just guided to learn only one way to use the knowledge, and options and self-discovery are not valued.
On top of these two projects, and the regular load of teaching and prepping and reading for classes, my son and I also succumbed to a bout of something flu-like last week, so this factor, too, put me far from this blog. Good news is that we were back on on feet and we managed to do a bit of hiking on Saturday. More on that in another entry.
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Cyber p**n regulation
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 a synopsis from a comparative study concerning
p*rn regulation on the Internet:
“Protecting children from accessing p*rnography in
cyberspace is a legitimate concern. To achieve this
purpose, the U.S. enacted special legislation to control
the content of cyberspace communications by imposing
potential liability on Network Service Providers and
users. However, this approach is very problematic given
the lack of consensus about what speech to permit and
what speech to punish. The U.S. approach is also likely
to lead to protracted litigation that stymies rather
than encourages reasonable resolution of the problem of
how to protect children from cyberp*rn.
On the other hand, the “voluntary” approach in Japan
that places all responsibility for online contents on
network users and absolves Network Service Providers may
do little to constrain the most controversial features
of networked computer communications. Moreover, relying
upon extralegal administrative guidance creates a
dangerous precedent in the field of speech, where truly
coercive government action should be subject to judicial
review in order to help preserve free speech.”
In sum, in the USA, over regulation leads to
protracted litigation. In Japan, self-regulation leads
to social pressure to conform, and may stymie legitimate
voices on the Internet, and no legal ramifications for
governmental “pressure.”
There are words such as “co-regulation” and
“light-handed regulation” buzzing about these days…Any
thoughts on these attempts to control free speech on the
Internet? By taking an extreme topic (cyber p*rn), we
can test ideas of regulation limits best.
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Monday Sun
Oh, what a beautiful string of four diamond days we have had: sunshine, fluffy white clouds, and 70 degrees (and resultant sun-burned shoulders).
Life really flies into the blue sky when such miraculous weather happens. We who last through long winters probably have a heightened sense of love of the green grass and the tulips and the warmth and the birds chirping…
This Friday evening I even heard and saw an authentic Japanese cuckoo-bird (hottogisu) for the first time in a nearby park. Just like the sumi-e paintings, it perched high on a pine tree in its ruffled white and black feathers and sang “Ooo-ooo, Ooo-ooo.”
I took my friend Keiko for her birthday to my new favorite cafe, which is nestled in the side of a hill and overlooks a rushing river and another mountain side. We sat outside (as inside there are only two tiny cramped seats) and I devoured my new craving: coconut scones, slightly warmed, with orange marmalade.
The cafe is also in the coolest neighborhood, Arashiyama (storm-mountain) Pottery Village. There are so many funky, artistic homes there, with many potters, woodcrafters, and otherwise artistic types…someday I hope to have a home built with Andre’s and my own designs in mind, too. That said, no copper coins have been appearing on our tin plate of late. But dreams are nourishing for the soul…and dreams go well with cuckoo birds, blinding red, yellow, and orange tulips and lush greens.
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Happy Friday
Happy Friday!
I am so happy to see Friday here as I have many ideas for the weekend. I want to start collecting film takes for my two upcoming media productions which I will need to build for my New Media Studies class. Since we have a lot of liberty in interpreting the assignments, I am going to have a great time.
I am also excited because I decided to spend the money and attend a short Intercultural conference in Tokyo in June…thank goodness I will get reimbursed eventually…I really need to travel: that is clear to me now….I guess I am just so used to traveling every five months or so that when I can’t I feel trapped.
The extended winter didn’t help…we are still only reaching temps of about 60 degreesF (15degreesC)…but the occasional sunshine feels so lovely. My son is absolutely thrilled to run and run and run in the big parks. At two and a half, he has gotten so fast that sometimes I wonder if I can catch up with him….
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Artest
I made a very short test film production (a bit over 1 minute) as part of my New Media studies class…check it out:
Just click on Artest: test production (the bright blue square)…
Ciao!
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Ainu traditional house
A woman helping to build a traditional Ainu house, called a chise: the walls are made with sa-sa (bamboo) leaves. I think the “sa-sa” name matches the way these bamboo grasses sound when the wind blows through them.
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Ainu dress
Students putting on ‘Ainu’ dress (actually made for the tourists to try on).
Tuesday my world culture seminar (all four students!) went to the nearby Ainu Memorial Museum run by the Kawamura family. We learned the Ainu language has over 80 words for bear, an animal who is probably the most important spirit-god in the Ainu religion. For example, there’s a word for a one-year old bear, a two-year old bear, etc.
My cynical self looked up the number of synonyms for ‘lie’ in English the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: 37. A cultural gauge or coincidence? Hmmmm….ask the US president, as he practices all 37 versions….
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Recent pic
And here’s a recent pic of sunshine boy
Andre ate about a quarter of a moldy pot pie ordered from a natural foods store before he realized something was odd…this is the other bad pie that luckily noone ate…replete with mold. Yech!
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Lost pic rediscovered
Hi all just wanted to post a pic of my son which I find hilarious. This is about six months ago….
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‘The Way’ to go
I definitely think both push and pull and blend of the
old and new occurs in the world, including art
movements. As mentioned elsewhere (God knows where) so
far I like Jay Bolter’s idea of remediation (revolt and
imitation as interactive forces in change) in his book,
Writing Space (2001).
Please check out this MUST-SEE animation of how
traditional art (in this case Chinese ink paintings) can
become something else when it goes digital. A
breathtaking work by Qing Huang:
For the work THE WAY.
The artist said this of his animation THE WAY: “…I was both
fascinated and inspired by this modern technology in
handling the visual components of shape, colour, light,
and form. This led me to the idea of adapting computer
graphics to capture traditional Chinese aesthetics and
to elucidate their underlying principles.”
Huang, in my exaggerated opinion, blows the other ‘art’
animators out of the ocean, perhaps because he has a
firm grasp of the old and the new techniques….
Kudos to hubby for finding this work!
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Who goes there? R. Mutt
R. Mutt was the pseudonym Marcel Duchamp used when
exhibiting a porcelain toilet in NY in 1917…unleashing
an uproar in the art world with his later written
protest to the Society that rejected “R.Mutt”‘s work.
This link shows you a picture by Alfred Steiglitz of R.
Mutt’s “Fountain.” I like the detail provided here that
if a man were to urinate in it as it was to be
displayed, he would urinate on himself.
http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/fountain.html
What does it have to do with technology and art?
Duchamp was the best known modern artist to take a found
object (machine crafted in a factory by unknown
hands&machines) and place it a ‘sacred’ space reserved
for ‘art’. He boldly challenged the idea that art needed
to be of a certain genre and technique and by a certain
persona; he erased the idea of there needing to be an
artist by inventing one. Or, maybe Duchamp teaches us
that the artist is one who has the power to
elevate/highlight an object that others see as mundane
or vulgar to ‘art.’ Shock value seems always to be a
part of any new art movement, though…
I agree that there are complex intricacies of power and
how those who are oppressed become numb (or accepting)
of what is happening to them, to see it as ‘normal’ and
to even self-regulate and peer-regulate continued
oppression.
Too often, these days, I think I blame the ‘rich
powerful white guys,’ but I think Foucault’s ideas you
mentioned (via Gerrie, 2003) of focusing on the very
power structures themselves, we can better recognize the
roles all of us play in oppressive structures: I would
rather think, like Foucault, that those at every level
of society are complicit in the inequalities and everyone
can gain awareness, and with effort, directed action..
His ideas seem related to the educator Paulo Freire’s in
that when fighting one’s oppressor, one cannot do so
healthily or entirely until one becomes aware of the
role one’s self plays in the power game
(“Conscientization”).
Also, he makes the apt observation that many so-called
“revolutions of the people” end up behaving exactly like
their oppressors, with the same propaganda tactics used
to influence the masses, resulting in intolerance for
protest and the fattened cats on the top.
You comment peaks my curiosity about how some workers in
these corporate factories must be fighting/resisting the
systems.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Herder
and Herder.
Last thought:…the revolution may not be televised, but will it be digitalized?
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Devil’s advocate: smart Apple?
In response to the idea that Apple succeded due to great products:
Like my classmate, Doug, who sees advertising directing consumers
choices (and as perhaps somewhat of a techno-cynic,
since I tend to question the success stories of most
companies as a result of successful marketing more than
anything else),
I have to take a less ‘Darwinist’ approach on the rise
and fall, or steadfastness, of product popularity. I
think we cannot underestimate the power of the corporate
thinktanks who carefully research, design and target
very specifics subgroups in society to sell their
products. The same critique can be made about art, which
starts officially soon ;-).
Not all consumers in North America fall for the ‘cult of
identity,’ but I think many do, and many have been
lulled asleep to use the critical powers needed to be
aware of the fact that the ads targeting them are
succeeding in convincing them to “need” a product.
This is not to say Apple doesn’t have good products, or
that other companies don’t have quality products, etc.,
because to me, that is not essence of the issue when
examining business practices in a society. Who tries to
control whom? Who succeeds? Seems more apt to me.
In other words, is it possible that some people perhaps
choose Apple because they want to be ‘different’ from
the rest, a sort of consumer rebellion? But who profits
monetarily for this desire, not the consumer really.
Thus isn’t it then a false rebellion within the
capitalist system, and not one of significant social
upheaval, because after all, Microsoft continues and
Apple continues, and both survive quite happily.
Isn’t it just a sign that Apple has succeeded becoming a
powerful number two by selling a niche product that
makes the consumer feel like smart, alternative, rebels?
Playing the devil’s advocate…
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Spring update
And , yes, don’t worry–if you thought I might be getting too nerdish (my word) in that last entry–I have managed to glance away from my keyboard today, and through the rain, I noticed the leaves on the tree outside my office window are starting to fill in the spaces between the branches. Proof: In the photo: Yippee!
In my current class, Cultural and New Media Studies, we have begun to explore the theoretical frameworks people tend to use when they discuss the relationships or the collision-intertwining of humans and technologies. It is all quite overwhelming and academic and so, from my class notes, and my own interpretations, I wanted to sound out what the various schools of thought are:
The technological-determinists tend to see the technology itself as controlling the masses and determining how we behave, and the masses are without any means to stop this control and shaping of our society.
The cultural materialists tend to see the technological impact as intertwined with political, social and (namely) economic contexts, and they also tend to see humans as possible active agents of how the technologies may be used.
The essentialists believe there is a logical, rational, systematic explanation for how humans behave and how machines behave. If it can’t be explained scientifically yet, it simply means we haven’t developed the science, but that problem can be solved eventually, via progress.
The techno-utopians believe technology is the new promise for solutions to modern day ills. The technologizing of education, health, media and more is seen as beneficial and freeing to humans; although the emphasis tends to focus on the economic benefits for those involved in the technology industries.
The critical theorists saw the long-held notion of scientific rationalism as a means to control, manipulate and distract the masses from any political consciousness. This school of thought developed in a resistance to the rise of fascism. They felt the organization of labor and technologies were dehumanizing and opposed to self-actualization. They believed humans had the power to (re) shape their systems.
The constructivists ask that we examine who has the power of the technologies, what is their aim, and who tries to control whom. They also seek to expose and dismantle the fabricated nature of power structures. I think these people might also called radical humanists, seeking to actively overthrow power structures that create oppression.
Post-colonialists are those involved in expressing resistant ideologies to the dominant (colonial) power(s) ideologies. This counter-thought can be a focus on those marginalized globally or locally by many factors: ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, “race,” education and status.
Post-modernists see all studies as limited by context and locality, no center or universals can exist. I like to think of this as the ‘chaos’ theory of humanity. They attempt to explore a multitude (a cacophony) of perspectives and voices without hierarchy, but still rejecting the dominant western bias of one set ‘tradition’ or set of ideals as representative for all.
Contextualists do not see the political, social, economic factors as separable from technological factors: all is interdependent. Thus, technologies create contexts and contexts create technologies.
Interactionists, similar to contextualists, concentrate on how technologies form and change according to their constant intertwining with the other factors.
Finally, the most recent theories, such as hybridity and cyborg studies, erase the traditional delineation of social, political, economic and technological factors as well as dismiss notions of ethnicities, genders, alive and dead, completely. These theorists feel humans have become machines and machines have become human. Human-machine relations are neither harmonious nor antagonistic, rather the boundaries are so blurred and constantly repositioning, that the two cannot be distinguished from the other.
Well, those were ideas from my notes and often taken directly from my teachers Stephen Petrina and Francis Feng.
I conclude that each theory has its focus and emphasis, and most of us think with an amalgamation of theories (without much consciousness). I just hope to recognize the theories elements in what I read, knowing each one has its weaknesses and motives.
If you read this entire blog, you must enjoy the theorectical trampoline! Jump! Jump!
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Watch Nike really fly
From my classmate, Bonnie: “Brian Jungen’s Prototype for a New Understanding
takes Air Jordans and turns them into masks and
sculptures depicting North-West Coastal characters. View the collection here.
My comments:
Bonnie,
Thanks so much for the link. I loved the way this artist
turns a popular culture artifact on its head. He, like
many outsider artists I admire, take pieces of consumer
culture and re-vision it as an expressive form.
I think his way of thinking and building is the key to
freeing our minds from bowing to the dominance of
technological determinism in society.
We need people to realize we do have a role in the
interpretation, shaping and use of the technologies
available. We can ‘deconstruct’ a technologies intended
control over us, but it takes courage, depth of thought,
and creative play. I am definitely in the constructionist
camp that sees any culture as malleable and in-process,
but I also realize that technological determinism is an
accepted reality for people who haven’t the
energy/will/wish to challenge the great economic and
political powers.
Soap box, now tipped and filled with clothes.