Digital Culture –| 2008

This is a youtube post of a clip from BEyond tomorrow, i couldn’t find the clip about the car that could strink and expand, but this is equally interesting… it’s a link of a car powered by air.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=J0KXrDpowJk

This image is of a patient that is being rehabilitated in Chicago.  The research group DEKA focus on technologies that enhance quality of life. So mainly they develope there technologies which are medical devices and products that aid the people who need it. Some of these allow healthcare professionals to deliver better care, while some enable people to live better lives, with more mobility, more freedom, and less discomfort. 

That is pretty interesting how technology today is enhancing and becoming more advanced in the link of human senses with robotics. So if we are coming closer to creating a link between bot and human does this mean in the near future we will see humans with robotic legs or bodies ?? well lets hope for all that it does lead to this because it would be interesting on how human life will change and how this will affect the society.

check out Double-Taker (Snout) by Golan Levin – presented at Robot250. What is most intriguiging about this work is the way in which it works with its audience – or the audience’s perception, respectively. Why, you think, do we find this ‘worm’ to be so strangely alive and whimsically engaged? *P

check out the robot posts on the Gizmodo blog – also note the cultural bias of the comments! *P

robot spider

Here is an incredible cyborg robot technogy. I’m thinking to use this kind of technology in my sci-fi essay. A human is wearing a robot suit which can expand and improve physical capability five times stronger!! It is made by Cyberdine. The wearer does not feel heavy at all. Surprisingly,  HAL can even work in the snow at 4000 meters height!!

Application field of HAL is expected rehabilitation and physical training support, heavy work support(e.g., factory), rescue activity in disaster site and so on.  For example,  HAL is used by people with weakened muscles and by some people with disabilities due to stroke and/or spinal cord injury. The latest battery runs for 5 hours under normal activities.

Watch this video!!

Hi All,

Can’t remember which week we discussed 2nd Life but since last Tuesday have been a mammoth DVD marathon, frantically trying to cover as much ground as possible in preparation for our final submissions.

Apart from the class recommendations which I will discuss in later posts, I came across this DVD from the 70s when trying to make up my 10 for $15. I remember seeing it as a kid but didn’t quite get it.

Anyway Westworld is about providing a real world “2nd Life” in a US vacation resort called Delos. It features 3 worlds of the past where you can live out every fantasy.

Roman World: Lusty, decadent delights of imperial Pompeii.

Medieval World: Chivalry and combat in 18th century Europe.

West World: Lawless violence on the american frontier of 1800.

Each world is maintained by reliable computer technology, and peopled by life like men and women until…

Well you will have to watch it:

It has some similariries between the essence of what the creators of the online 2nd Life are trying to create, but without the “real” death and sex factor. I wonder if 2nd Life creators are aware of this film?

WALL-E , 2008 new science fiction 3d animation from Disney. it’s about the robots’ love between WALL-E and EVE. i think Disney’s animation is not only for children, specially for adults. even children cann’t really get the interior meaning of the story, they can still find lot of attractive things in the movie. however, the robot characters touch adults deeply. although robots’ figuration is really different to human, but their movements are familiar with human. when two robots fall in love, the figuration is not really important, the language is not important. they use empression in their eyes and movements to express their sentiments. this is the thing to touch audiences’ heart. the love between the robots is the essential love without estimating the appearance, riches and status.

MY GIRLFRIEND IS A CYBORG (2008)  Japan

love between Robot and Human

Just a quick respond to post AI computer systems in “Formular Car Racing” on something everybody should know. The greatest fictional robot ever. Period.

In the West there’s Mickey Mouse, in the East there’s Doraemon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon

Super popular and super influential, Doraemon is arguably the number one social literature that shape the development of technology in Japan today.

With around FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDREDS fantastic fictional inventions coming out of Doraemon’s 4th dimentional pocket, it stemmed so many directions in current researches.

Example:

Interactive Robot Project “Doraemon The Robot”

Takekopta project (Bamboo-coptor)

and more to come. 4499 inventions left to go.

Peace.

I thought this may be of interest for this week.

About twice a year cgtalk.com has a competition which is run internationally and attracts some of the best 3d artists in the world.

Machine Flesh is competition which challenges artists to incorporate human flesh onto a machine.  Here are some of my favourites:

Winner of Machine flesh 3d: What i like most about this image compared to the rest is the concept, have a look at the umbilical cord. Flesh is slave to the machine.

Here are some others:

For more go and check out there archive in forum format here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=125

Ghost in The Shell is a series about the futuristic elite police force that deals with cyber-crime – each episode/iteration seems to involve cyberbrain hacking or cyborg going berserk or the combination between the two (the best show premise ever!) As a solid entry into the cyberpunk movement, it explored many philosophical concepts such as what is human and can machine develop a soul. It became inspiration to many other show succeeding, including The Matrix (1999).

Ghost in The Shell has many iterations – 3 series of manga, 2 tv show, and 3 theatrical movies, not including minor spinoff such as Drama CD, video game, and a couple of novel – each with its differences in the way the story is portrayed.

GiTS started of as a Japanese manga by Masamune Shirow, first publish in 1989 and come back again in 1997. It is said to be the heaviest of all the incarnations since Masamune Shirow is a crazy guy. He tried to cram all the philosophy, ideology, and reflection on technological advancement all into something, like, 2 tankubon (Japanese graphic novel) of around 600 pages. It is consider to be very hard to read since not only there are over 60 pages of nearly pure text devoted to explain the setting and the technology, we still have to keep up with all of his footnote as well. It was the first comic I read that actually has a FOOTNOTE! Some are informations that did not exist in the dialog but for other you just get “After this, there’s a scene where Mokoto takes over the driving and Togusa check his gear and put it on, but it was too much of a hassle to draw so I left it out…” Thanks, Japan.

Ghost in The Shell fanart:

To see how crazy Masamune Shirow is – CLICK HERE – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The first of Mamoru Oshii’s adaptation film of the manga came out in 1995 as Ghost in The Shell, with a sequel released in 2004 as Ghost in The Shell: Innocence. Oshii is a successful anime director, his prior works before Ghost in The Shell included Mobile Police Patlabour series – a cult classic for the giant robot Mecha fan about futuristic police force in a world where giant robot, regarded as weapon of mass destruction in other anime series like Gundam, were used in everyday life chores such as construction and crime. Oshii got his fame from directing Urusei Yatsura, a late 70’s super famous quirky love-comedy show in Japan (You have to know this one, Hide!) Adaptation from Rumiko Takahash’s manga of the same name, it influenced and spawns horrible, horrible spiritual offspring in several other shows collectively known as Rumiko Takahashi’s effect where the main couple are trying to get together and as they take a step forward, they got 2 steps setback – in which it became an obnoxious loop that goes nowhere for A FEW HUNDRED EPISODES. Thanks, Japan.

Mamoru Oshii’s version of Ghost in The Shell is considered to be very focused on the philosophy’s side and discarded many procedure/detective/cop-show elements exist in Shirow’s manga. Instead, Oshii’s version has gray overtone – mute elements – that veil over the source materials in his later works. Most of Ghost in The Shell’s franchise is unpopular in Japan, but is a huge commercial success in the west – all thanks to Oshii’s first film which is so penetrating in the late 90’s, just like how Akira was in the late 80’s. It was, at that point, a show where every anime fan outside Japan – no matter how casual or hardcore they are – must have seen. The first film was focused on the Major (Kusanagi Motoko) and her struggle to identify, and perhaps to confirm, her existence as human. The sequal, Innocence, is all about Batou walking around, talking. No wonder why they did one version of the dubbed with the original cast from the first movie, released it, then go back and re-record THE SAME CAST saying THE SAME LINE and release it again. Excellent dubbed, both times, by the way. Thanks, America.

The “crew” from Innocence

The TV series was the latest addition to the franchise; Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex was released as a 26 episodes in 2002-03 while the sequel, Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2^nd Gig was release in 2004-05. The TV series does not share the same universe as the manga nor Oshii’s film – almost all iteration of Ghost in The Shell in different medium did not share continuity in the same universe, but with the same premise. The name Stand Alone Complex comes from the psychological disease in the show as well as how the show structured – a Stand Alone episode for an episodic one-shot, while a Complex episode contain an overarching storyline throughout the series. Both GiTS:SAC and GiTS:SAC 2GIG have different arching storyline and could consider to be its own complete show.

Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is the definitive version, in my opinion.

Kusanagi’s butt

I’ll say it again; Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is the DEFINITIVE version to watch, according to me.

Let’s face it, Shirow’s manga was confusing as hell and while being very good, Oshii’s film has limited running time and as a result there was not much of a character development which should lead to more discussion of their dilemma. As a TV series, GiTS:SAC has time to pace things out. The first season is about Section 9 trying to corner the elusive cyberbrain-hacker The Laughing Man while the 2^nd GIG try to do Oshii’s plot in 26 episodes.

NOW THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH, FOLKS, so pay attention.

Not only we have time for character developments for everybody on the team, SAC also introduce other technological concept as well. From Oshii’s film we have the concept of the cyberbrain –

“This is the implantation of powerful computers directly into the brain, greatly increasing certain mental capacities such as memory. Coupled with ubiquitous access to the informational net, this is shown as a fundamental technology integral to the future Japanese society. Applications include wireless communication just by “thinking” it, massive informational recall capabilities, and digitization of printed media and the encryption thereof. The series is notable for portraying a comprehensive and believable user interface to this technology. At the same time, drawbacks are revealed in the form of “Closed Shell Syndrome” or cyberbrain autism and “Cyberbrain Sclerosis”. This technology is in many ways the crux of the series” -Wikipedia

Two more philosophy-related technologies that were missing from Oshii’s film included the ECHELON wiretap system which, because everybody’s brain is hooked up to the computer now, can wiretap every communication from everyone in Japan. A secret technology employed by the government without consent from the citizen. Yawn, I know.

The other technology, and the reason to watch GiTS:SAC is the troup of Tachikoma, sentient light “think tank”. Design to be Section 9’s artillery units, Tachikoma resembled spider while the AI personified little children with heavy dose of curiosity which became a stark contrast between the depressing human interactions in the series. Base on the manga’s Fujikoma, non-sentient light tank, the development of Tachikoma’s AI and the questions it poses (with or without it verbalising them out) drilled deep into what regards as a living’s “soul”. I was quite disturbed at a time when the Tachikoma was “decommissioned” because of its erratic AI.

Oh, and the cloaking device, thermo-optical camouflage, inspired a research in University of Tokyo to produce similar thing in real life.

The TV series spawn a film – Ghost in The Shell: Solid State Society in which the complex episodes were condense down to a feature-length film. Only watch this after you’ve seen the TV series. Please.

The animation of Ghost in The Shell has always been top-notch. The TV show is no exception, since new episode air only just twice a month on a pay-per-view channel, the budget of the show were bigger than normal. The production studio Production I.G. is also an excellent studio with proven track record.

The soundtrack of the film was done by Kenji Kawai, Japan’s excellent composer. Yoko Kanno’s SAC score kept very close to the spirit of Oshii’s film, and some more – in my opinion. The opening to both SAC and SAC 2^nd GIG was superb. Check it out

GiTS:SAC Opening

GiTS:SAC 2nd GIG Opening

Let’s not talk about the hidden opening only seen on TV and not the DVD version

In conclusion, I highly recommend the series. Run, people, don’t walk, to your nearest DVD outlet and buy a box set of SAC and possibly the two movies, if you still haven’t got it yet.

Sorry, I was a little bit rush at the end. I’m hungry…

Till next time!