Digital Culture –| 2008

RFID chips are being used as a new device for security and ticketing sales, this is a very interesting soluition to stop the high levels of fraud ticketing and identity of holders. What the chips have are unique barcodes or micro chips that allow each tickets to have a unique number, which only the original will have, so any alterations will be detected if so occurs.

Customer information is not stored on the RFID wristband or tag, however is safe and secure on a central server.

RFID wristbands Access Control functionality makes managing access to restricted areas simple and automated. Access priveleges can be assigned to individual wristbands that correspond to different areas within the venue.

Verichip: The Human barcode.

before the class, i didn’t know much things about the RFID. now i found RFID had been used on different domain in China, like distribution in airport, transportation tickets, library, national ID card, hospital(MES), food safety control, traffic control, military, etc. The most popular one is the RFID using in tickets for the BeiJing 2008 Olympic Game. A whopping sixteen million RFID embedded tickets will be sold during the games.

the Global Information Inc research on the FRID Market size in China. in their research report predicts the development of RFDI technology and the market in the future 10 years. in 2007, China has become the largest market for RFDI by value over the world. The global spent is $4.96 billion, and China accounted for 38% of it.

Wow, has it been a week already?

Technological Determinism in Media Art was an interesting, but hard, reading for me. I have to go back and read the section of McLuhan and McLuhanism 5 times before I kind of get it (Is it about McLuhan’s theory “the medium is the message” in which subsequently got warped with some cold war political agenda?) This goes together with McLuhan’s Key concept which explains more about his famous theory.

Futuristic Flu, or The Revenge of the Future was a much easier read. Every text mentioned in this paper should be the all-time classic of the Sci-Fi genre, especially the one coming up next: Roadside Picnic. The analogy of flu is a brilliant one. It brings along many associations that really help illustrate the message in this paper. I won’t repeat what’s in there but one thing that I take away from it is that the paper acknowledges the East’s cyperpunk culture, and I really need to catch up. I really have no info on the genre apart from some cartoon I saw, which is not much.

I really have to catch some Asian cyberpunk pieces and do some comparison, maybe from Tetsuo?

Anyway, for anyone who are about to read Roadside Picnic, since it’s short enough I strongly suggest reading everything. The most sensational part would be what Petra prescribes, but you really need to see the first chapter, and the last – especially that ending! (Yeah, Golden Ball that grant wishes… )

Which brings me to yet another recommendation and this time I really mean it. Roadside Picnic raised interesting questions the impact of technologically-advanced artefacts on the society. In Hayao Miyazaki’s manga version of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the technologically-advanced artefacts did not come from the future, but from the past. The animated movie version only covers the first few books, and is considered a little bit naïve in comparison to the manga. Miyazaki took 13 years to complete seven volumes of now regarded as one of the most influential graphic novel of all time, both artistically and intellectually.

I’m sure by now everybody should be familiar with what happened in the film. The civilisation of the world was once wiped out by the Seven Days of Fire, now believed to be nature’s countermeasure to man’s pollution. It was many centuries ago but the repercussion does not end. The forest still gave out poisonous miasma and the sea becomes the sea of corruption while its denizen mutated. With the technological knowledge lost through the age, the population turns back to agricultural era and salvage what remains of the wonder of technology. Iron hull from the spaceship was scavenged and turned into swords and shield – truly “bashing a nail with a microscope”.

Birth rate decline while a war between the two factions is going on. The story continues on with the struggle in the war, and humanity’s foolishness in rushing the coming of the Daikaisho, the climax of the poisonous forest. Why has the forest turn poisonous, and what’s inside the forest?

After her gruesome adventure, Nausicaa is involved with the excavation of the God Warrior, the ultimate biological weapon of the old, the symbol of nihilism. This sentient being answered many questions regarding humanity, but posted even more. With the existence of The Crypt, the monolithic construct containing past humanity’s technological knowledge, is revealed to be the true cause of the war, the race is on. Would humanity left it alone as “the devil’s play thing”? Not even The Garden of Eden, truly a refuge to the weak mortal but a prison for Nausicaa can stand uninvolved. And the final realisation… what will happen after the Daikaisho, when the air is clean and nature is free. Where will humanity go?

Nausicaa is, perhaps, more pessimistic than Roadside Picnic since it not only depicted the culture responds to such stimuli, it downright horrified it. Unlike the Visitor’s “trash” which (mis)direct humanity’s path onto a new road, every single technological advancements that was retrieved in Nausicaa was put towards the annihilation of nature and mankind. It highlights a very dangerous human trait that we should avoid.

Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind is a MUST read. It is available now under the “Editor’s Choice” branding from VIZ, (which is excellent by the way. Every title on that brand deserved a go.)

By the way, don’t forget to pick up Snow Crash at the Uni’s book shop. Took me ages to find it but they’re located under English Literacy and nowhere near DESC section.

Till next time!

Man, it was a pain to go through all the reading, but I’ve finally finished the first week portion. See you later, RFID chip, I’m moving on…

Transforming Mirrors is very fitting to be the first reading, in my opinion. It outlined many interesting relationship model between the artist, the artwork, and the audience.

The one that catches my interest is the namesake “Transforming Mirror” model. According to the text, “the technology transforms our image in the act of reflection, it provides us with a sense of the relation between this self and the experienced world.” Relation is the keyword here. The Mirror always reveals more than our face…

Uta∽Kata is a 2004 anime TV series, by no means sci-fi since the most advance technological item in the show is a Japanese cellphone. Intended to be for little girls, this series surprisingly explore the psychological concept of seeing oneself and the world be revealed, both good and bad, and the effect thereafter.

The show’s premise is simple. Each week the Heroine saw herself and the world around her in a different eye, revealing little by little how evil and imperfect we are. At the very end, she is asked to judge if human race is worthy to continually live.

Just like the article, this series focused on how seeing the reflection of herself and the world around her – change her. (In the heroine’s case, she became misanthropy.) Thus, underlining our relationship with technology in which we can’t help but see ourselves in them. They will change us, and that is what I believe.

Now, for the next article, I might be wrong. English is not my first language and I have to read this paper two to three times to try to understand it.

Technological Other/Quasi Other: Reflection on Lived Experience also talked about and summarised the way human can have relationship with computer, followed by real life example on sound and video editing.

In my opinion, the most interesting point is the examples given to models of interaction. This is not some fantastic fiction instance but our everyday activities with computer. I muttered “I so did that” with many of them. My computer is the first electronic device I turned on each day, and the last one I switched off each night. I eat, work, involved, and be entertained by it.

Now, I really want to say something about Ghost in the Shell since it is such a dramatic contrast in the way people live with their quasi-other compare to the examples given, but I will saved it for when we actually get to Ghost in the Shell. Instead, I’d like to bring your attention to the setting of CLAMP’s 2001 manga series, Chobits. Similar to Zettei Kareshi, Battle Angel Alita, and hoards of other sci-fi, Chobits represents the experience with quasi other to the extreme.

2chobits

Chobits set in a world where personal computer takes a shape of human being with anthropomorphic traits. Interfaces are voice activated, just like you’d talk to another human being. The major difference between Chobits’ humanoid PC and, say, robots from Bladerunner, is that in Chobits, there is no artifical life, period. Everything is just computer programs expressed in lines of code (to an extended). In this world, we can see that people began to exclude other human being from their life. Why deal with real human when the PC can fulfil anything you could have ever asked for? Lived Body, Lived Time, Lived Space, and Lived Relation are being perfectly filled with the present of a PC up to the point that the inability to reproduce becomes a problem. Are we heading into that direction now and should we be concern?

Next up is Solaris – Sci-fi novel by Stanislaw Lem. How can you ask us to read the beginning of the story and skip EVERYTHING to read the ending chapter? This is not doing the work justice! With that thought I read through the entire 14 chapters.

And what a journey!

Again, I might lose the point completely due to my limit ability in English but one aspect has strongly impacted me – how human try, fruitlessly up to the point of almost comical, to classified the despairing jelly of Solaris. In the span of over 100 years, human arrogantly tried to impose his own theories and categories based on his understanding to the ocean. Everything can be summed up by one plum schoolgirl’s question – “And what is this for?” Indeed, would human be any worse off if we cannot conquer this unknown? Is it fair to say that human must proved our superiority or at least have our existence acknowledge by higher power as different, more superior than other species? Isn’t this the point of the Contact? If all life is equal, why the double standard?

After finish the novel, I’m still not sure what the answer to that question is.

Parasyte is a 1990 manga series about “alien pods come to Earth and, naturally, start taking over Human Hosts.” Even though after taking over human host they resemble human, these shape-shifting Aliens cannot be understand by human. They do not know why they are here, nor do they care. Their diet consists of animal meat, human included. The story is involved around how various people react to the incident. It really highlights the attitude we have about ourselves – that we are superior species, period. If you are going to check out anything I mentioned today, check this one out.

In conclusion, I believe Stanislaw Lem summed up his own work extremely well in a respond to the 2002 movie remake of Solaris. He said that Solaris is:

a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images.

Till next time~!!

LM3Lab crates interactive display for commerce, education and entertainment.

the ‘ubiq window’ works for a new kinds of e-commerce. customer can view the products and services through the interactive display in the retail shop. this design had been used in lot of mobile phone retail shop, like Samsung, iphone, etc. cusotmers can also use this interface to control the models turing around in the shopwindow to see the fashion design.

the ‘interactive mirror window’ let the customers to see their image on the screen as well. it remind s me the early interactive art work ‘Wooden Mirror’(1999) which is created by Daniel Rozin.

the ‘Catchyoo’ interface is the most usual design used in the shopping center, which works as the interactive floors, walls, furniture (tables), stairs, etc.

and also the interactive display has been used in the museum & gallery for education.

not sure about this is the production from LM3Lab or not. but it is the most interesting example the interactive display used in the perfomance. the Cirque Du Soleil creates a show called ‘KA’ in Las Vegas. the display works as the stage in the show, it can also turn 360degree to fit for different kinds performance. the stage can change into a ship, the beach, the sky, the sea, etc. the actors with the wires interact with the stage(screen).

Hi guys, Pete is in the house.

I might not be keeping up with the cutting-edge toy for technophiles but I’m a self-proclaim otaku. With over 4 months worth of marathon-anime-time (according to anime-planet.com) under my belt, I’ll be serving up different materials on technology for tomorrow through the sensational far-east pop culture.

First up is the RFID chip. Here’s one kick-arse application, put it in your law-enforcement officers. Coupled with some nanotechnology that forces the officers from employing firearms unless called up HQ for authorisation and have that same nanotechnology chained up to your loved one that will kill him/her in case you DIA, and you got yourself a very motivated officers!

Now, replace “officers” with “school girls with french maid outfit” and “firearm” with “superhuman strength” and you got My-Otome, an anime series from 2006 by Sunrise.

No, this is not a joke. Sure, this is a bad anime where a lot of screen time is devoted to showing school girls attending their cooking class in the morning and clubbing each other with morbid-looking sci-fi weapon in the afternoon, but my point I wanted to highlight is what happened after. Eventually bad guys did get a hold of “the system” which in turns strips our high school law enforcers of their power so they can be pinned and take out one by one. Chaos ensues.

Here’s the Youtube link of the moment when the system got shut down…

How scary is that? Use this series as a memento, folks. When all you need to do to take over the world is to capture that one lousy system, you are asking for it. (On a side note, in the sequel they did make a “backup system”. Blah.)

Ok, getting serious for a bit. People might still enjoy the traditional use of the ID chips. Citizen of Earth, you have two choices: with us or against us. People who are against us will be eliminated. People who are with us must show your dedication by letting us chipped you. That is what happened in Anime-influenced 1993 American cartoon Exosquad.

Well, if you’re with the Neosapian, anyway. Here’s what your leader looks like:

Nothing much to say about this textbook approach. After all, we did saw them being put to used in Nazi concentration camps, albeit very crude one.

Can you see the parallel between concentration camper ID tag and our RFID chip? Nothing to be laughing about, folks. If we are not careful, we might ended up like what happened in Exosquad…

..
…
or worse…

How about getting tag in your butthole? Not for just tracking you down, but for energy metering by defecation.

Oh, I love Korean…

Movie Poster

Movie Trailer

And, ohh yeah, the first 5 min of the movie (with subbed)

Meet Aachi and Ssipak, a 2006 animation cinematic feature from South Korean.

An intrigue story about the world where all the energy sources are depleted. All except… defecation. To regulate how people defecate, citizens are required to get chipped in the butt. People who is “productive” will received a stick of “juicybar”, psychoactive drug just like heroine except the overdose effect included turning you into a mindless blue Cat in the Hat.

Perfect movie on a Friday night with your love one since it got about equal amount of romance to Sex and the City. I mean, the lead lady is a beautiful girl who her feces can be swap for a large amount of juicybar! How romantic are you gonna get!?

Ah, what a wonderful world… Till the next edition of The Otaku Way!

Katherine Albrecht, who was in the video we watched in class this week, is one of the people who think that RFID chips are a sign of the impending apocalypse. The connection they draw is to the ‘mark of the beast’ – according to the book of Revelations, “He [the beast] also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name”.

Which, if you consider that RFID is being considered as a kind of credit card replacement, in some senses, and if you believe the bible, is not an entirely unreasonable connection to make. I guess. I mean, you still need to be a special kind of crazy.

But this, I think, is actually one of the main barriers to western societies rolling out an RFID-implant based ID scheme. Even though it’s crazy, there’s a lot of belief invested in the idea that we’re living in the end times (though there are very few periods of western history where we didn’t believe that the world would be coming to an end in the near-to-immediate future, which may actually explain our rapacious environmental devouring and general lack of concern for the future – if you’re convinced, on some level, that you’re going to be floating up into heaven with a returned and victorious Jesus, sometime in your lifetime, what do you care if the planet you abandon to unbelieving scum is broken and destroyed?), and I don’t think that that’s a hornet’s nest any politician is going to willingly poke with a stick.

Anyway! here‘s a link to a Wired article about Albrecht and her reasons for opposing the use of RFID. Enjoy!

– Dan

this is the link to the project I showed today … on altering your “airport security experience“:

Our excursion to Campbelltown on Saturday, August 23: Mirror States @ Campbelltown Arts Centre

D. Rokeby: Very Nervous System