Friday, February 1, 2013

Utopian and Dystopian Digital Futures


Bendito Machine III
This animated film tells the story of technological development in terms of ritual and worship - the characters in the film treat each new technology as god-like, appearing from the sky and causing the immediate substitution of the technology before it.
What is this film suggesting are the ecological and social implications of an obsession or fixation on technology?
Advancement in technology through the 20th century has been an ecological nightmare and I’m afraid this trend is not reversing. It may be slowing down. This video points that out in a funny but frightening way. Is this a shot at “digital natives”? Could this video be a playful (stereotypical perhaps) look at a tribal and maybe superstitious culture?
Do the film’s characters have any choice in relation to their technologies?
Technology comes from above. One character seems to have some idea about how to go about “receiving” this technology while the others are more or less consumers. This character at one points seems to understand what a frightening thing it is for people to blindly worship technology and sneaks away only to return with an upgrade to destroy the previous incarnation... and then more or less self destructs.
What are the characteristics of various technologies as portrayed in this film?
The technology is entertaining and maybe informative but fundamentally inane. This technology is exalted but does essentially nothing to better the lives of those who worship it.

Inbox
Inbox is a quirky representation of the ways in which web-based technology connects people, the limitations of those connections, and the nature of communication in a mediated world. Depending on how you interpret the relationship between the two main characters, and the ending, you might argue that this is a utopian account, or a dystopian one - what do you think, and why?
I liked this short naive story. Its scale was a bit too small to consider it utopian or dystopian. The elements are there I suppose for either. The playful nature of web-based social media could point to a bright and carefree future but on the other hand the sheer banality of this kind of social exchange could point to a gloomy future where we are slaves to the forces using technology as an “opiate of the people”... or of technology itself.

Thursday
Thursday depicts a tension between a natural world and a technological world, with humans caught between the two.
What message is the film presenting about technology?
Technology offers amazing things but requires great sacrifices.
What losses and gains are described?
Through technology we gain ease and convenience plus some very spellbinding abilities. However we lose all sorts of thing. We obviously lose nature. Or nature loses in any case. The poor birds have a small parcel of land with a few trees.
Who or what has ‘agency’ in this film?
The humans have agency as do the birds but only within the context of technology. They must respond to it and adapt to it while using it for their own ends. Technology in this short has become too large and complex a thing to consider it anything but the world in which they live.

New Media
A very short, very grim representation of the effects of technology on humanity. There are definite visual echoes of “Bendito Machine III” here - what similarities and differences can you identify between the two films?
Technology is portrayed as mystical and otherworldly... an alien intelligence that transcends our understanding. This short is more frightening to me than Bendito III as the interface between human beings and technology seems to be creating these hideous machines floating above these dreary buildings. The Human beings are enslaved it seems by the tech. or so given to the tech that they have lost their humanity and create these floating, frightening, destructive machines. Perhaps this short works as a metaphor for the dehumanizing potential of digital technology? 

Wonderful ideas coming through in the MOOC. I'm a bit lost and overwhelmed.

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