Wiener and McCollough

It is interesting how Wiener deconstructs the machine and illustrates its more human like qualities, and than addresses how humans beings are being treated like cold, lifeless machinery. It is also interesting to see this exploitation of people, whether for 20 cents or 20 dollars an hour, as a degrading lifestyle and that it is morally unjust to life (liberty and the pursuit of happiness) The over arching idea seems to be that there is more value in the machinery then those that create it, maintain it, and operate it. Yet, these machines where created by people using basic messaging systems that people use, and that at the end of the day the value should be in the people that are actually experiencing the physical and emotional toll of the experience. Wiener does a fantastic job at conveying the idea that messages are not just from person to person, but animal to person, person to animal, person to machine, machine to person, machine to machine, and alludes that this is not the end of sender and recipient combinations. He hammers home this idea without being redundant or boring, bringing in enough detail to sell his point on each variation but leaving out enough for further exploring later in the book.

As for in class discussion there really are not questions or anything that needs more in depth conversation, author note will be posted later.

Moving on to McCollough.

"While computers might seem to increase the mediation between the hand of the maker and the final product, McCollough pointed to the increasing tactility of digital design processes and predicted that this would only on crease in years to come." (Into to chapter) 
He was right. You can draw/paint with your fingers on several applications for apple. What doesn't have a touch screen these days? I can even go to target and they have a touch screen directory to their video games and systems. And even though the design process for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Move, or X Box Kinect, might not have been tactile, their digital uses all are.

Out of time, be back later.

Notes on weaving digitial

"Weaving is digital, in the sense that it relies on digits -- on fingers -- for its production. Digits, understood in this way, tend to emphasise the sensory, and more particularly, the tactile aspects both of technology and of culture per se. Thus, the digital involves a palpable relationality between producer, product, and culture. Digits imply a connection- a tactile, lived connection - to a wide array of cultural meanings, woven by the community as a whole, and handed from one generation to the next."

This passage best describes the link of digital and hand made items in DIY culture. It implies that they are one in the same. How do you not feel the key board as you are typing on html code? the camera as you adjust to snap another picture? the video camera when shooting a movie? the mouse as you manipulate your work in the various computer programs? And all of this is done with your fingers, by extension your palms, wrists, forearms, elbows shoulders and the rest of you. Digital craft is hand made. Even if you remove the tactile feeling of a project there is still the emotional behind it. The rage, joy, exhaustion, validation, and so on. All the same emotions that go into the hours of crocheting a scarf, knitting a sweater, carving a kayak, sewing a dress, are weaving and stringing together necklaces. Digital craft is not that far from hand made craft, just that the 'technology' of the two are different. The people are the same. The feelings are the same. 

[Notes on authors will be posted after class] 

Digital Artisans Manifesto...

This was an interesting read for two main reasons. The first, because the intro plainly tells you this is a joke, and is mostly plagiarized from other "credible" manifestos. Secondly, it throws around political terms that leave me having to check my ideas at the door. Neo-liberal for example. I see liberal and I think "like me" but as I read their description it is nothing like me, that's when you find out that neo-liberal is more like libertarian, and that is just an extreme that I can't wrap myself around, but it fits the tone of what the author is getting at. That everyone should have access to digital media, and the resources to create it. It should not be left to be exploited by those only high enough in the "digital mastery food chain" while those that can't afford the technology or the education for the technology are left at the wayside. (A sort of digital media social Darwinism.) This manifesto is very socialist in its idea of making technology, and not just its use but creation as well, available to all. To allow what has already been made to be recreated and shaped by others. To introduce forums and networks to expand the technology information and keep it progressing forward. To make it for everyone and not just the few. Also, to make it not only work, but leisure. It is to be enjoyable.

[Notes on the Author will be posted this evening.]

IT"S ALIVE: Making Something Digital

I took an Animation class in High School, I was also part of the Color Guard. This is from my first project in that class that incorporated my knowledge of twirling a flag, a flip book. To make this video, I un-stapled my flip book and took a photo of each page. I uploaded the picture to Adobe Premier and then began to work on getting each photo to fit into the frame size and adjusting the length each would be seen. Do enjoy!

Project Status

One week from today I will have a completed scarf. Well, I'm sure it will be done before that. I'm currently hovering around four feet in length, the target being six. I've added fringe to one end, and I've weaved in loose ends. Not a fan of going back and working the yarn in, it feels kind of aimless and haphazard, so I'm going to try crocheting over the loose ends when I add my next ball of yarn, I'm hoping that I'll have more confidence in the security of the loose ends without caving and just tying them off, which will look bad. The project tends to weave in and out a bit in its width, but honestly something only really noticeable when you fold it over and start comparing. At some point I lost a stitch, this almost put me to tears, but seeing that time is a constraint, I got over it and pushed forward. I got bored last week and started playing with how I was going to add another color to each side. Instead of making two separate pieces and then seaming them together on the scarf, I decided to just crochet right onto the finished product. With this, I'm hoping to help disguise any varying widths, and add a new texture to the scarf. So excited about all of this. Just wish I had a camera around whenever I started to work on it so I can illustrate the gradual process.

in response to Van

so Van brought up not being able to grow meat, and it reminded me of a book I had to read last semester called Feed. a difficult read because it uses a stylized and even more futuristic leet speak (like lol, omg, and other abbreviations for words) but it really touches on the idea of how far we will let consumption take us. back to Van's comment, the farms are meat farms. it is acreage after acreage of fillet mignon and other cuts of meat growing, and instead of the smell of dirt, hay, and manure found on farms today, it smelled like raw meat (ever walk into a cutting room at a grocery store or butcher shop, not pleasant.) it seems that if "farmers" could find a way to do it, mainly getting the government to ok it, they would