Author Archives: tigistk

In thinking about we feel fine I was conflicted in trying to figure out how I felt about the project, in terms of its function.  This desire to attribute some sort of purpose or functionality on this project is most likely embedded in this idea that our technology must be used for some sort of productive end goal.  The project of we feel fine IS doing something, it is creating a documented compilation of what we have coded as feelings all over the internet.  As users of the internet continue to blog and express what they are thinking, doing, feeling with the specific words “I feel,” it is an interesting concept to explore the internal and individual emotion through the written and shared word of “feel.”  Perhaps we can draw conclusions about the shared experiences and lives of the people who are using cyberspace to express these deep and heartfelt emotions with the world.   In recognizing this as being the work that we feel fine is doing, it becomes easier to understand the diverse role that technology and the internet can play in our lives.  Clearly there is the use of digital technology in an art space and atmosphere, which is easy to understand because the function in that work is not necessarily tied to producing some sort of object or completing a task.  However, projects that use technology in ways that straddle that line between art and machine are more interesting to look at, and ultimately open up our eyes to the multifaceted uses of technology.

Here’s the link to my final project:

http://tigistk.wordpress.com/

The applets aren’t up there, but let me know if you want them sent to you!

This class was really one of my favorites.  I think there were a lot of things that worked really well in terms of how the class was organized and run, as well as the content of the class.

Google Wave turned out to be a really helpful resource for the class.  At first it took some getting used to, but it did allow for everyone to assist in putting up ideas from the class discussion and then have that as a resource later.  The class room’s physical layout and the fact that everyone had a computer to use was pretty key to the class and using google wave made it easy to keep everyone from getting too distracted on their computers.
The blog was really helpful and interesting and a nice addition to the class’s discussions, readings and goals, the only thing is sometimes two posts per week were difficult to keep up with.  Otherwise people brought in a lot of really interesting ideas and connections onto the blog, expanding our topics even further into our lives/cyberspace.  Also, leaving up the blogs even after the class is over is great and will allow us to constantly look back and check out the interesting connections we’d made all semester.

The readings were awesome – the progression of the topics made sense in a theoretical and historical way – with each topic building off the last.

This was really a great class and I think that one thing to not change though is in keeping it small – I don’t think the class would have worked as well or been as engaging if it were in a much larger setting.

Thanks for a great semester all!

Scott Rettberg’s Kind of Blue provided a different take on what I had conventionally thought of as the serial novel.  The serial novel conjures up images of 19^th century literature as being written and distributed in serial form and being compiled into long books that we currently read and wonder why they are so long.  Rettberg’s novel though is in the 21^st century and is distributed through the form of e-mail, providing the reader with an ongoing experience of mystery and excitement for the next installment.  This modern take on an old phenomenon makes me wonder what it is that separates these two pieces of work and if it is tied to the form in which the literature is being written and distributed or if there is no difference between then and now.

The cost and time needed to print and produce print literature in a serial form is different than that of sending out an e-mail for free.  While, Rettberg isn’t getting paid for each installment that he writes it is clear that this is not about making a profit from these serial novels.  In the digital format the serial novel does more for the reader than it does for the writer, the reader is given full accessibility, convenience as well as intrigue without much work other than opening an e-mail. This changes the nature of the serial novel because the experience of print was focused around the consumption and act of procuring the next installment of the author’s book, while Kind of Blue is more about the reader being able to instantaneously experience the work that is being written.  If literature in the digital age works place the reader as the primary subject, then what happens to the writer?  Are they more appreciated in the world of print?

Here’s a link and I’ve e-mailed to the google group what I have so far of the actual program.  It might be confusing right now, but let me know what you think.

Thanks!

http://tkohoh.wordpress.com/

Ellen Ullman’s The Bug parallels the life of Roberta Walton with Ethan Levin’s as well as paralleling these human lives with that of the machine.  In doing so we as readers are able to understand the machine not in the terms of it being a machine, but rather an entity that functions within the world as a part of our life.  As Ethan’s search for the bug becomes increasingly difficult and important as the stakes are raised, we start to truly see the computer and the machine as something that can go beyond human control and desire.  In a novel that explores the world of a computer programmer, one could expect to gain more of a solid grasp on the power that humans have over machines in a more detailed way.  With the intermittent writing and explanations of code and programming, we as readers are able to further understand the close work these programmers have with the machine. However when the bug is identified as being elusive and “flakey” we are made aware of the way in which computers are not solely functioning under the control of the human.

As the bug begins to destroy Ethan’s life, the reader can start to acknowledge some critical issues to consider in the digital age.  As we have tried to position computers as different and separate from our lives as humans and our privilege to lived experiences, we have also failed to see the similarities that emerge during moments of chaos.  While human life can not be as easily programmed and “debugged” as computers can be, once “bugged” all rules or codes that we live by or have written are all no longer considered stable.  By recognizing that at our worst we are most like the machine, perhaps we can then begin to think about how what it is about our best that distinguishes us from the computer.