From masters of technology to piles of meat, the portrayal of humanity widely varies in this week's film selection.
Starting with an advertisement from Toyota, we are presented a world that is all "pixels, pretense, and driver assist."
Humanity has lost its ability to feel and to tell what is "real." Only Toyota can help our protagonist feel alive for the first time as evidenced by his goosebumps. Oddly enough, Toyota is the one piece of technology that can help this human escape to the real world, which is demonstrated by transitioning from an urban to a rural landscape.
Next up, is an ad from BT Landline.
In this commercial we are shown that the only true way to really communicate at a distance is through your land line phone. Somehow, this piece of older technology provides a more meaningful connection than newer forms of telecommunication. The commercial asserts that it is the voice connection rather than a screen connection that allows real communication to happen. However, this message seems undercut by the woman's look at the end of the commercial as it it obvious that she is not fully communicating with her partner.
The next film, "World Builder" presents a view where humans are able to use technology to their benefit in order to make connections and heal the sick.
Here the man in the film is presented as a god-like figure as he creates and manipulates the world around him. As the woman appears, we see the man nervous that his creation is not real enough as he has missed a few areas of the fabricated world. In this film, technology is given a more beneficial role as it can help to restore the sick and bring people closer together.
And finally there is "They're Made Out of Meat."
This films provides a comical look at two aliens' frustration that Earth's intelligent life is simply "made out of meat." A nice reminder that our humanity is linked to our flesh. Despite our use of technology (radio waves, in this instance), we still remain a biological mass.
This week in E-Learning and Digital Cultures, we examined visions of technology in the future as well as the metaphors we use to describe the Internet.
In the mini-film series, we were shown two commercials (one by Corning, the other by Microsoft Office) that attempt to create a utopian vision of how their products in development will drastically improve all of our lives.
Here is Corning's "A Day Made of Glass 2":
And Microsoft's "Productivity Future Vision":
Both of these commercials demonstrate how all information will be seamlessly connected through our devices. Information will largely become image based. And information will be easily malleable from program to program. Communication will also primarily take place through images and we will be connected at all times despite physical space. Both of these commercials give us the impression that technology will lead to a utopian connectedness that is only possible though their products.
The second set of films presents a dystopian critique those types of claims.
Here's "Sight":
In "Sight," we are presented with a creepy vignette where the characters have eye implants, everything is now a game, and you are flooded with information anytime you look at something. While access to information is immediate, when the system crashes, people are entirely lost since they are incapable of knowing things on their own. What's worse is that people's minds can be controlled by the programmers of the system. This film reminded me a bit of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451. Instead of the walls of your home being covered with your television "family," the walls in home featured in "Sight" displays the characters apps and achievements. And rather than Bradbury's ear bud that constantly stream music, the character's in "Sight" have eye implants that constantly feed them product information, stats, and other information.
In this FutureStates serial, our protagonist Charlie is presented with the dilemma of joining adult society by being implanted with a tracking chip on his 13 birthday, or with running away to search out his father who has deserted. "Charlie 13" presents us a society where constant surveillance has become acceptable as a means for keeping people "safe." As one character comments, the "chip makes you part of something bigger," showing how privacy is sacrificed in order to create unity in society.
In "Salvation and Destruction: Metaphors of the Internet," Rebecca Johnston explores how we use metaphors to help make sense and meaning of the Internet. We use metaphors in order to access our previous knowledge or schemas so that we can understand new and difficult concepts. However, metaphors can both improve as well as limit our understanding. Johnston describes three different types of metaphors:
Structural: where one idea is used for another
Orientational: where the idea is related to a physical action
Ontological": where we change an abstract idea into a physical form
From her examination of editorials concerning the Internet over a short period, Johnston identifies several themes from the metaphors that she has located. Those themes are: physical space, physical speed, destruction, and salvation.
These metaphors help us to normalize ideas and to make sense of an abstract concept. We also see many of these same metaphors play out in the films listed above.
This week in E-learning and Digital Cultures we have asked to watch as series of films and to consider whether technology creates a utopian or dystopian vision of society. The short films all in some way portray both the negative and positive affects of technology on our daily lives and interactions with each other. However, some weigh in a little more firmly on the issue.
The first film Bendito Machine III presents probably the most clear cut dystopian view.
In this film we see the instant obsolescence that technology presents us. The always progressing nature that alters what we believe in and causes us to devote ourselves to objects that we will soon throw away as soon as the next thing comes along. The film transitions us from radio to TV to the Internet to a satellite (?). The people's response to each type of technology is similar and the technologies cannot co-exist in this film.
The next film, Inbox, gives the clearest utopian vision.
Here we see how technology can bring strangers together and how technology can help us to form connections.
In this portrayal, technology is a tool that humans use to connect to one another, rather than technology being a god to worship and reign over us.
The third film, Thursday, provides a more nuanced picture of technology as having both utopian and dystopian properties.
In this film we see how our lives are a series of experiences involving technological devices. The grids of our cities mirror the grids of a processor. The interaction of the birds with each other and the birds with the humans provides us with a nice juxtaposition of themes. And one character's humanity is displayed when he see the hurt bird. It seems that the only time the characters experience peace is when they are removed from technology and can view society from a distance.
The final (and shortest) film provides the most bleak view. New Media provides haunting images of a city abandoned by human life that is now taken over by technological debris and tentacle like cables.
The title causes one to wonder what is "new" about this media? New in that it has supplanted human life? New in that it seems to construct itself?
Our assignment also asked us to reflect on utopian or dystopian representation of technology that we have seen in a popular film. Last weekend I saw Terminator II for the first time. While overall, the movie's message is one that technology will lead to a dystopian future where the machines will turn against humans. However, we see in Arnold Schwarzenegger's character a glimpse of a more utopian vision, where the machine can be reprogrammed to help humanity and to ultimately sacrifice himself for all of humankind.
This blog is primarily a reflection space for me to discuss and review the materials that I will be learning in a MOOC I am taking through Coursera entitled "E-Learning and Digital Cultures".
Last September I was hired as the Learning Technologies Librarian at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS). Part of my position is to assist faculty in developing and implementing an online learning program. While I have taught in the classroom and taken several online classes as a student, I am new to teaching online. I am hoping that this course will assist me in helping the instructors at APTS develop their own online pedagogy and give me an opportunity to get more hands on experience using many of the digital tools available to teachers and students.
