Design Year 3

P.23. ‘Very nearly nothing we do, artistic, creatively, or obviously scientific, could exist without technology underpinning it.’ Technology being a broad term. But the reliance on it is mega.

P.23. ‘We are animal whose entire culture and existence is completely dependent upon tools’

P.32. ‘Generally we don’t have to invent the same technology over and over again’

P.32. ‘We are witnessing an ability to deliberately manipulate external objects for specific purpose.’

P.39. ‘A tool is an external object manipulated as a purposeful extension of the user’s body’

P.21. ‘Humans and creatures are imbued with technology. That is a word that has taken on a specific meaning in the modern age. I write these words on a computer, with an internet browser on in the background connected via Wi-Fi. We tend to think of these electrical gadgets and services as being the embodiment of technology today.’ Same as my starting point, reference this.

P.77. ‘We excel at the use of tools to extend our reach beyond the limitations of our physical forms.’ Technology!

P.87. ‘With tools, with weapons, even with fashion, we have extended our abilities far beyond those of other animals. While we see some tool use, flashes of the violence that we indulge in, and the merest glimpse of aesthetic choices, the differences are stark. Our cognition and dexterity have given us the wherewithal to manufacture objects of such sophistication that we became obligate tool users, creatures who have been manipulating our environment for so long that we have been utterly dependent on technology for hundreds of thousands of years.’ Good for technology again.

This article has been very helpful in specifically examining the role that technology plays in the lives of those who use it for medical needs. Through reading this I have learned some of the limitations that technology possesses and how the organisations that make the pieces of technology can sometimes fail to understand how the technology will be used on a personal level, where they focus on how the technology can be used commercially.

P.79. ‘Now there is widespread interest in the perceived benefits of emerging technology for improving the lives of people with disabilities.‘

P.79. ‘Yet a central stumbling block in technology and disability has been the lack of interest in or resistance to accounts that offer alternative, transformative accounts of disability.‘ There has been insight into the effects on technology for disabilities in a medical sense, but there are far less accounts of people who have served to delve from the other side of the story, aka the accounts of those affected. 

P.79. ‘Yet the most common way of understanding technology as something technical’, ‘hi- tech’, ‘modern’, and, especially, ‘futuristic’.‘

P.79. ‘Especially in relation to disability, we encounter many preconceived notions, myths, and stereotypes associated with technology.’

P.79. ‘Some kinds of technology are explicitly predicated on doing away with particular kinds of
impairments and conditions, and in doing so, threaten particular life forms, and the life, and life prospect, of some people with disabilities.’ Basically, in aiding those with a disability, you are helping part of their life, but taking away another part.

P.80. ‘Many technologies assume and inscribe particular notions and power relations of disability, without this being apparent, explicit, or contested.’

P.80. ‘In short, if we are concerned with the future of critical disability studies, then technology is key.’

P.80. ‘Technology is not only something that underpins daily life, it is key to how we imagine and arrange society’

P.82. ‘Second, feeding into and often critiquing assistive technology and the various design approaches is the ‘social model’ of disability.’ This is important to note. It is not the medical issue that is making the individual disabled. It is the society in which the person lives. This might be worth noting in the introduction ‘ this piece of writing looks at disability using the social model of disability’ – which it will be.

P.82. ‘At the heart of the model is the tenet that while people might have impairments, there are structures and oppressive power relations that underpin the kinds of inaccessible environments and barriers to participation in society that ‘disable’ people.’ Clear definition of social model of disability

P.83. ‘Too often still, technology is shaped in ways that do not acknowledge and reflect the diversities of uses of people with disabilities, and the dynamic complexities of engaging with questions of access’ There is still a problem! Technology does not always think about the different wants and needs of people with the disability.

P.83. ‘Creative, critical work allied to this endeavour is also required to open up and reimagine disability for the different, diverse, rich worlds that people actually do and wish to inhabit’ We need to re imagine how these technologies can be used. 

P.84. ‘Consider, for instance, the recurrent sense in which the promotion, advocacy, and shaping of new technologies is heavily freighted towards commercial enterprises, medical, caring, and other professionals, technologists, governmental and welfare interests, and disability service providers, rather than those intended as the recipients, consumers, and end-users of such technologies or others, including citizens, with a stake in them.’ you don’t really see a lot of accessories or help for technology by the companies. E.g. ‘hid in’ is made by someone on facebook. Its only the people that suffer with the specific disability that seek to make it more comfortable and easier to live with on a day to day basis. 

P.84. ‘The problem has been, especially with the advent of the signal changes with digital technologies that such specialized, demarcated technologies and their providers can be cut-off from the wider operations of markets in technology,’ They are cut off from  the users.

P.85. ‘So there is a very important debate continuing about the relationship between specialized and general technologies that people with disabilities might use, and also between design for specific uses, groups, and populations and larger, even mass markets (e.g. the ‘universal design’ movement;’ The technologies have been made universally. Not taking into account the wants and needs of the specific users

P.85. ‘Add to which, much technology specifically designed for, and customized for, users with disabilities can be expensive (compared to other similar technology) and not affordablE’ Here, there is another problem. Needles are being used by people who may not have the means to pumps for example. Pumps are of course more expensive. So it costs to live partly problem-free. Is there a fair balance between people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes?

P.85. ‘Around the world, the needs of people with disabilities to affordable accessible, and appropriately designed technology are not being met.’ striking quote.

P.85. ‘Also that some groups of users, those with higher levels of income, can be better placed to find consumer information and support in order to purchase or obtain technology they require.’ People of higher affluence may also be likely to be better educated in dealing with diabetes and where to find the means technology. What about for those who are less well off? What does the NHS provide in the UK? This might be something to look in to

P.86. ‘girls, boys, women and men with any kind of impairment, and in need of assistive technologies for other purposes than personal mobility, are discriminated against unless technologies that meet their needs are made available at affordable cost.’ striking again.

P.86. ‘Thus far, however, there is a long way to go to meet the promise of radical participation and innovation, driven by, incorporating, genuinely involving, people with disabilities as inventors, designers, users, purchasers, policy makers, and so on.’ this is important! Those who are affected must be the designers or play a big role in the design process.

P.86. ‘GDI Hub brings people together from very different backgrounds giving fresh perspectives on existing problems. Hackathons give everyone an equal voice and disabled people always play a pivotal role.’ Inclusive design is important. Do people with diabetes feel excluded? What could be imported in everyday life to make them feel more included?

P.87. ‘Just as we lack histories of disability and technology, so too we lack studies of how people with disabilities use technology in their lives, in their cultural and social settings.’

P.87. ‘This would be helped by encouraging a wide variety of studies that explore uses, meanings, and cultures of disability technology in the many settings that have not been the prime focus of the mainstream work in disability and technology.’ This is exactly what i want to do. Look at a very specific disability and rethink how the technology is designed by firstly listening to those who are affected.

P.87. ‘For instance, we surely need more research on disability and technology across many kinds of households, varied locations in social and political and public life, cultural activities, intimate life and relationships.’

P.87. ‘What is often obscured, however, are the real, material stakes for people with disabilities, and others, the emergent socio-technical terrains of disability and technology. So critical work is crucial to opening up the shaping of new technology systems, values, and imaginaries.’ The conclusion.

This is just a few quotes from this article, mainly about dehumanisation and what it means to dehumanise. Its related to the effect that this has on humour but it’s also relevant as a concept – I will be looking at the part technology plays in dehumanising people.

Olson, E. N.D. The Horror of Humour: Tension, Dehumanisation and Related Observations [Online] Available at <https://gustavus.edu/philosophy/files/theses/horrorofhumor.doc&gt; [Accessed 09 April 2015]

P.8. ‘Before I step further into this analysis, it is important to discuss dehumanization. In order
to “humanize” an object or animal under my definition, one must apply human standards or human
conditions to said object or animal.’

P.8. ‘The desire to wear clothing is a uniquely human characteristic. It comes not only from a societal requirement, but from the necessity to remain warm in inclement weather’

P.9. ‘In the opposite process, dehumanization, the original subject is a human being. The object of one who dehumanizes another is to decrease that person’s humanity, thus negatively moving the person.‘

P.9. ‘To humanize, one applies human conditions or standards; to dehumanize, one removes some of what are generally known as intrinsic human traits, such as dignity or liberty.’

P.9. ‘I contend, for the purpose of this paper, that all humans possess dignity through their self-determination.‘

Gray, Caroline. “Narratives of Disability and the Movement from Deficiency to Difference.” Cultural Sociology 3.2 (2009): 317-32. Web.

P.317. ‘redefines disability as a difference rather than a deficiency. Instead In the last several decades, disabled people, disability rights activists, and their supporters have introduced an alternative way of thinking about disability, one that redefines disability as a difference rather than a deficiency. Instead of assuming that disabilities need to be cured, ‘fixed’, or eliminated, this relatively new discourse suggests that having a disability may invoke a sense of pride rather than shame.’

P.317. ‘In fact, if anything, disability should be, according to this discourse, evaluated as a positive difference.’

P.318. ‘Most often, disability is defined in medical, supposedly pre-social terms, described as
the ‘non-functioning’ of a particular capacity of the human body.’

P.318. ‘any physical incapacity that also results in discrimination.’

P.318 ‘A sociological definition of disability would assume that it is, like any other marker or identity, socially constructed.’

P.319. ‘One would be hard pressed to deny that disability remains a stigmatized category or to likewise deny that interactions between disabled and non-disabled people are often ‘flawed’ and plagued by ambiguities.’ On people with diabetes; because it can be partly hidden, I guess the stigma is less prominent than say for example someone who uses a more visible piece of technology that comes with a specific disability like for example a wheelchair, a hearing aid, or a walking stick. Because you cant always see an insulin pump, a person who uses an insulin pump lies in the middle; would they count themselves as ‘disabled’ (be that medically or socially)? What does having the piece of technology that is sometimes hidden, sometimes not, do to the person’s identity?

P.319. ‘disabled people as interactional deviants to thinking about them as a marginalized ‘minority group’ who, despite the differences in their disabilities, have in common the shared experience of
social exclusion and systematic discrimination.’

P.319. ‘‘the social model of disability’, and assumes that the problem resides not in disabled persons’ bodies but in the social environment that fails to support them (Shakespeare, 2008).’

p.320. ‘cultural sociology would suggest that we understand disability
as a system of symbolic classification. Doing so allows us to deconstruct the very
category of disability itself.’

P.320. ‘Once interpreted, the disabled body becomes culturally inscribed as a ‘polluted’, ‘contaminated’ body, one that stands in sharp contrast to the idealized, sacred, ‘normal’ and non-disabled representation of the human body (Douglas, 1966; Durkheim, 1995 [1912])‘

P.321. ‘At the opposite extreme, disability represents the complete failure of the physical body to meet any of these standards, and in this way, acts as a potentially polluting element.’

P.321. ‘The first is the form of the body, which encompasses a binary of beauty and ugliness.’ beauty vs ugliness; interesting. Again, I think its different for different disabilities. e.g. Aimee Mullins is deemed beautiful and incredible fashion designers have used her to model their work. She is beautiful in the eyes of the mainstream media, and afterall, she is a model. But, is this deemed so because her specific disability isn’t ‘ugly’, I think it maybe the piece of medical equipment used may play a part in this. For example, have you ever seen a model in mainstream media with a catheter bag?

P.321. ‘To demonstrate ‘ability’ suggests that an individual possesses a capacity to manipulate and move his or her body in ways considered acceptable and appropriate in a particular cultural context.’

P.323. ‘Assimilation, as I described earlier, is a process of incorporation that requires
that stigmatized groups disassociate themselves from their stigmatizing qualities and adopt those of the core group.’

P.323. ‘For example, prosthetic body parts and hearing aids may not change the actual physical body itself but may give the appearance of a body reinstated to its ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ state.’

P.324. ‘The grand narrative of assimilation always rests on this desire to find ‘the cure’, as it appears to offer the only suitable societal response to supposedly deficient disabled bodies.‘ Interesting… This shouldn’t be the only suitable societal response to supposedly deficient disabled bodies. 

P.325. However, they remain only conditionally; the disabled person must attempt to heroically overcome his or her disability by adopting a positive attitude. So, if you’re positive you can be included? Very harsh.

P.325. Eliminating disability does not lose its appeal. Rather, ‘overcoming’ disability becomes the next best alternative. It is not necessarily about cure but rather control. This is the next best thing to finding the ‘cure’. But again, this seems harsh.

P.325. ‘The positive attitude in a sense enables people with disabilities.’

P.325. ‘Often these narratives include specific examples of the various ways that disabled individuals lead ‘normal’ lives, examples that seem to make them appear even more amazing.’

P.327. ‘Instead of thinking of deafness as a disability, we think of it as an enhancement of vision’ interesting. An extension of vision? What could diabetes be an extension of Its a replacement pancreas but is it an extension? I suppose so

P.327. ‘But even more revealing and significant are attempts to assert not just disability as a different kind of ability, but disability as a superior kind of ability. This perspective assumes that having a disability allows persons to find new and inventive ways of performing tasks and ways of ‘seeing’ and interpreting the world around them.’

P.327. I don’t need to be fixed’ I don’t need to be fixed. Very powerful.

Explaining the methodology: ‘Because social media tends to strip images of their original metadata, including time and location, FA had to piece together this information by studying elements within the image, such as shadows and the shape of bomb clouds, to locate each image in time and space and compose a narrative of the day.‘

‘Before’ and ‘after’ images were used to assess changes in site condition at attack sites under analysis. The ‘before’ satellite image served as a baseline from which any disturbance to the natural or built-up environment may be identified in the ‘after’ image.‘

‘Three satellite images were used in this project, dated 30 July, 1 August and 14 August. Each image extends westward from the Gaza-Egypt border to encompass central Rafah and was captured around 11.39am. The 1 August image, in particular, captures a moment only two and a half hours after the ceasefire collapsed, during the peak of the Israeli bombardment.’

This next book is one I have read before in preparation for writing about the imposition of technology on human identity in the form of mobile phones and insulin pumps. I thoroughly enjoyed writing that essay and this book made it really easy for me to understand McLuhan’s work and apply it to my own. I’m sure that this book will also help me in writing my context report about similar effects of technology on humanity.

P.5. (On ‘Understanding Media by McLuhan): ‘His key theme: how technology affects the forms and scale of social organisation and individual lives.’ Something important to remember when analysing ‘Understanding Media’ as a whole book and set of theories.

P.33. ‘In a nutshell, McLuhan’s idea is that there have been three ages of man: I. The Preliterate or Tribal Era – when the spoken word was king and the ear was the queen – II. The Gutenberg Age – when the printed word was king and the eye was queen – III. The Electronic Age of Retribalized Man – when FULL sensory involvement (especially touching) is believing – when all senses are jesters at the royal court and there is no king or queen.’ Johannes Gutenberg introduced printing / the printing press to Europe. I think the last point is the most interesting, that there is no king or queen – it’s a free for all of all senses

P.42. ‘McLuhan saw media as make-happen rather than make-aware agents, as systems more similar in nature to roads and canals than objects of art or models of behaviour.’ Maybe this speaks to gate-keeping in the media, most notorious in the news. We only see / hear what the media moguls want us to. We’re only really ‘aware’ of so much. However, in controlling what we see on television, the medium of TV itself does in fact become a ‘make happen agent’ as we base our actions around it’s teachings, which changes the dynamic of society.

P.43. ‘Most of us think as media (one “medium;” two or more “media:) as sources that bring us news or information – namely the press, radio, and television. But McLuhan had his own ingeniously original definition of media. To him, a medium – while it may often be a new technology is any extension of our bodies, minds or beings…’ Great definition.

P.43. ‘Clothing is an extension of our skin.’ ‘The stirrup, the bicycle, and the car extend the human foot.’ ‘The computer extends our central nervous system’.

P.44. (On medium = message.) ‘If we define “message” simply as the idea of “content” or “information”, McLuhan believes, we miss one of the most important features of media; their power to change the course and functioning of human relations and activities’. ‘So … the “message” of a medium is as any change in scale, pace or pattern that a medium causes in societies or cultures.

P.57. ‘The transition from mechanical to electronic media led to a relentless acceleration – a virtual explosion – of all human activity.’

P.64. ‘McLuhan’s strategy is this: before we can save ourselves from drowning in the media of our own creation, we must first observe and then understand them.’ This goes back to what I believe McLuhan is writing all of this for; to make us aware of how we can go forward with cohabiting with technology. As long as we know the effects the media has on us, we can learn to cope.

P.66 ‘ In a nutshell; -When media combine, both their form and use change – So do the scale, speed, and intensity of the human endeavours affected, as well as the ratios of senses involved – So do the environments where the media and their users are found.’ We must be at a pretty high speed today. There’s so many combinations of technology now. It’s impossible to avoid technology / switch it off, we’ve invited it in in so many different forms and now it’s here to stay.

P.123 ‘The Laws of Media. What does it extend? What does it make obsolete? What does it retrieve? What does it reverse into?’ ‘These laws are not limited to media of communication; they apply to any artifact, anything of human construction, including language and systems of thought.’ The 4 laws of media are a great way to analyse the effects they have. I especially love ‘reversal’ as it’s become quite the case for many mediums now. The one I like to look at of course is moving image. As it was once a tool to look into the natural world and enquire about the world around us, it is now the opposite, we use it as a tool for entertainment and watch programmes about the natural world instead of acknowledging it for ourselves.

P.124. ‘For “extend”, in the phrasing of the first law, we may substitute “enhance,” “intensify” “make possible” or “accelerate” depending on the case.’

P.125. ‘Obsolescence is a consequence of extension. When a medium fulfills it’s function of extending the body or replacing another medium, parts of the environment of whatever was extended become obsolete.’

P.126. (Retrieval) ‘Older structures and environments or older forms of action, human organisation, and thought are revived by the introduction of a new medium’

P.127. (Reversal) ‘When a technology is pushed to it’s limit, as when media are overheated or overextended, it can either take on the opposite of it’s original features or create the opposite of it’s intended function.’

I thought it might be a good idea to start writing about books that are informing my practice. The one that i’ve been reading most recently and has informed my practice for quite some time is Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. In previous years however, I have read only books that give descriptions about what McLuhan writes about, i’ve never actually sat down to read one of McLuhan’s books myself. In this post I will quote McLuhan where I think his work is either striking or relevant to the things i’m interested in or have become interested in as a result. Here we go.

P.3. ‘We have extended our central nervous system … abolishing both space and time’ Here Mcluhan is talking about the use of electric technology to connect with people across the world, I think this is what he later calls ‘the Global Village’ where Earth is now merely a village, where people cohabit so closely due to the connectedness that ‘electric technology’ provides.

P.3. ‘Rapidly we approach the final phase of the extensions of man – the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society.’ I’m still unsure of exactly what he is saying here but from what I can gather, it seems as though McLuhan is saying that technology will inevitably end human consciousness? What i’m more concerned about here is how he says ‘rapidly we approach’ because this was written in 1964! Does that mean we’re already past human consciousness? When looking at the newest developments in AI I think the question becomes most relevant. But what the hell even is human consciousness?

P.4. ‘Any extension, whether of skin, hand or foot, affects the whole psychic and social complex’ He does go into a lot of detail around the subject matter later on in this book and it does become more and more clear how this is so incredibly accurate. Any technology we bring into the world imposes itself on our body, mind, and social understanding. We shape the tool and the tool shapes us!

P.4. ‘The need to understand the effects of the extensions of man becomes more urgent by the hour’. This seems like the reason for why McLuhan has written this book; to study the effects of media on humans. That’s the reason why the book exists. Maybe that’s the reason why I will write what I will write; to understand the effects the subject matter has on people / society.

P.5. ‘The aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a natural adjunct of electric technology.’ But why is this? Maybe it’s because with technology becoming so predominant in our lives, it makes us think we have to catch up with it, to overrule it but we can’t do that so maybe we turn to to what is most organic in the world and what makes us most human to feel exactly that, more human in a world of endless technology.

P.6. Robert Theobald on economic depression – ‘There’s one good thing … a better understanding to help control for the future’ This I think is very important and can help me structure my context report; the need for control and in order to achieve this, it is important to understand the effects, just as McLuhan does with a variety of media forms. By looking at where things have gone wrong in the past and where they might be headed is so valuable when writing about the effects of technology on a human identity, and you can do this, as Theobald points out, by understanding the problem as well as the solution to prepare for the future.

P.6. ‘Examination of the origin and development of the individual extensions of man should be preceded by a look at some general aspects of the media … beginning with the never-explained numbness that each extension brings about in the individual and society’ Numbness. That’s a good word. What do these forms of media make numb? How do we get the sensation back? Maybe that’s something to look at in my practice. Retrieving the sensation?!

P.8. ‘The message of any medium / technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs’ So any form of technology that is introduced to humans changes the discourse of society?

Basketball / brain surgery is the content of electric light therefore the medium = message.

Our visual response to all media is that it’s how it’s used that counts – stupid thing to say

‘The effect of the medium is made strong and intense just because it is given another medium as ‘content’. The content of a movie is a novel / play / opera. The effect of the movie form is not related to it’s program content. the ‘content’ of writing or print is speech but the reader is almost entirely unaware either of print or of speech’

Washing machines aren’t labour saving, they just mean we all do our own work now instead of getting others to do it.

P.46. ‘Psychologically there are abundant reasons for an extension of ourselves involving us in a state of numbness. All extensions of ourselves in sickness and in health are attempts to maintain equilibrium.’

The nervous system. Body = protector of the nervous system. If we feel shame / embarrassment, we move ourselves out of the situation to protect our nervous system.

Therapy = counter irritant. Pleasure (alcohol) – counter irritant. Comfort = Removal of irritant. Pleasure + comfort = strategies of equilibrium for the central nervous system.

P.47. ‘With the arrival of electric technology, man extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system.’ E.g. when at the dentist, listening to loud violent noises distracts from the pain of the drill. Do we live through our technology? I guess this makes sense when thinking about our online identity… who we are online vs offline, are we different people completely? Does an attack on our online personality affect our organic identity? I’d say it does as it’s still an extension, meaning it’s still a part of ourselves and our bodies.

P.48. ‘The selection of a single sense for intense stimulus, or of a single extended isolated or ‘amputated’ sense in technology, is in part the reason for the numbing effect that technology as such has on it’s makers and users’

P.51. ‘Man in the normal use of technology (or his variously extended body) is perpetually modified by it and in turn finds new ways of modifying his technology’ Again, we shape the tool and the tool shapes us.

P.117. ‘Our mechanical technologies for extending and separating the functions of our physical beings have bought us near to a state of disintegration by putting us out of touch with ourselves.’ I LOVE this quote. Probably the most out of all of the ones I’ve listed so far. Because it’s so relevant probably – we have become out of touch with ourselves because we extend so far. What actually matters to us as humans? Why do people look to religion and astrology to tell them who they are? How do we become one whole being again – unextended and pure -? The question remains, how do we feel more human in a world surrounded by technology?

P.183. Al Capps comic strip: ‘He put in his strip just exactly what he saw around him. But our trained incapacity to relate one situation to another enabled his sardonic realism to be mistaken for humour‘ E.g. real life situations / sound bytes for creature comforts.

P.198. ‘By enormous speed-up of assembly line segments, the movie camera rolls up the real-world on a spool, to be unrolled and translated later onto the screen.’ However, it’s become less about using real things and real situations and more about what we can use instead. Animation, cartoons, even ‘reality’ TV shows aren’t really reality. It’s because , I think, were always on the hunt for something bigger and better, the natural and organic isn’t enough for us anymore.

P.310. ‘In England, the movie theatre was originally called the ‘bioscope’ because of it’s visual presentation of the actual movements of the forms of life’ Maybe we have receded? Animation is just drawings and sounds. Like a comic book with no noise. Drawings and words made cartoons and words which made animations with sounds.

P.310. ‘To set a series of cameras to study animal movement is to merge the mechanical and the organic in a special way’. I also LOVE this quote.

P.310. ‘The movie is the total realisation of the medieval idea of change in the form of an entertaining illusion.’

P.310. ‘On film, the mechanical appears as organic’. Animation isn’t real and does not have to pretend to be. TV does. It has to be authentic and factual.