Author: s.dsouza

All Races Cant Be Any Class

 

In the game Everquest, just like in any other video game, the player has to pick an avatar to play the game. In  the  below video, at time marker  1:05s you can hear the youtube user say “ All races cant be any class” The following video shows  the professional gamer explain the setup and use of this game.

Depending on which avatar you pick, your powers and function within the game are preset. In Everquest, the first two options you get while building your avatar is Race and Class. Now, they might not have races in the game that exactly mimic the real world, but they do have barbarians, trolls, warriors and princes in the game. Depending on which race you pick, y our class is determined. In other words if the user uses a warrior of a certain race, he or she cannot be a member of a certain class. This concept is seen in the real world where in order for us to be a part of a certain group, you have to be born in and raised in a certain class. Being a part of these classes will give you or deny you access to certain jobs, social and political roles. Another similarity between video games and real life is that gender roles have begun to be more fluid. men now stay at home and watch kids and women can be the breadwinner. Videogames can be similar, because a man or woman in the real world can choose opposite or neutral genders in the realm of video games.

You can witness this shift as described by Nakamura “Chosen identities enabled by technology, such as online avatars, cosmetic and transgender surgery and body modifications, and other cyberprostheses are not breaking the mold of unitary identity but rather shifting identity into the realm of the “virtual,” a place not without its own laws and hierarchies. Supposedly “fluid” selves are no less subject to cultural hegen1onies, rules of conduct, and regulating cultural norms than are “solid. ”

  1. Have you played an online game? If yes, have you picked a gender that is different from your real life gender and why?

Hit Enter at your own risk

 

I wasn’t surprised about a lot of information in the documentary because i just assume that whatever I’m doing is being monitored. However, learning about the devices, tools and the laws that the government uses to enforce our own safety?  made it a lot real than expected. Over the years, I would get into extensive conversations about lobbyists with my friends. It is no longer a secret that companies want to aggressively sell their products to us and it is evident in the documentary that they will do whatever it takes to learn more about you, and sell something so specific that you didn’t know you wanted. Power in the digital economies is shared amongst the government ( including the NSA, CIA and FBI) , social media companies and surveillance vendors. Information about individuals is collected to be used for security, to prevent crime ( so the authorities say)  or to sell something to you. The implications of this is that it would be very easy for someone to see bit of information about you and totally misinterpret your intent, if they just look at a search or a comment that we post and take it completely out of context, an example of this is the Irish national who made a comment about destroying America on his tweet.

There was definitely more than 3 parts in the documentary that were interesting to learn the 3 I learned was:

  1. The 4th amendment can be surpassed if the information gathered about a person is from a third party.
  2. Surveillance vendors can sell surveillance tools to whoever can pay the price.
  3. Carrier IQ can track every single keystroke on our cellular devices and the information can be retrieved fairly easily.

As i post this blog, i am aware that anything said on here could be misconstrued out of context and become a nightmare for me at some point in time. Good night. 🙂

Do you think the government should control the sale of surveillance tools?

Should there be a limit to the influence ( tracking of payment and gifts to lawmakers)  of tech lobbyists in congress?

Old Corps,New Corps

 

Sgt. Chesty XIII, official mascot of the U.S. Marine Corps, right, stares down his successor Recruit Chesty, left, during training at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., March 20, 2013. Photo by Sgt.Dengrier Baez, U.S.M.C

 

As a new immigrant to the U.S. I had the privilege of serving in the U.S Marines from 1999-2004. This was a time when mobile phones were just starting to become the new standard for communication and most mobile phones were very primitive versions of their modern counterparts. Although the Marine Corps is known to be one of the most prestigious branches of military and prescribes values of honor, courage and commitment, there are a lot of events and everyday rituals that occur behind the scenes which people in the civilian world would not be able to handle. One could possibly attribute the aforementioned everyday rituals to deployment boredom and a warrior ethos where a subculture promotes brute savagery as a characteristic of masculinity. The difference between that time and current Marines is that now service members have easy access to social media by having a cell phone and the ability to post a picture video or comments  of questionable behavior in real time. As a result of this access, questionable behavior is heavily surveilled by people on the internet.

 

Take for example a recent scandal where a former Marine and purple heart recipient reveled that there were Marines posting images of women on a Facebook site. You can read that article Here. There is an ongoing investigation by NCIS uncovering the scope of this scandal. With this said, i want to point out that the only reason these Marines were caught was because they were being surveilled by someone who  pointed it out. This doesn’t mean that this behavior didn’t exist when i was in, merely the digital realm has replaced an analogous version of behavior where in those cases physical pictures were the medium. The price of being surveilled could be literal punishment. In the case of the military, if one is caught violating the U.C.M.J ( Uniformed code of military justice) the person could loose rank, pay and even be court marshalled. Therefore there is a direct correlation between being surveilled and punished as Foucoult mentions in page 212, as “The primary mechanism for the rise of self discipline of this kind is not the old medieval regime of torture and confinement, but rather a new set of techniques that are essentially intangible and visual.

  1. Does the idea of surveillance deter you from doing things you really want to do?
  2. If you were sure that you weren’t being watched how would you behave differently?

I Like Likes

For this blog I interviewed my friend Anna. Following is the transcript:

S: Hi Anna, can you share with me a bit about the social media platforms and apps you’ve used in the past?

A: Sure, I started using social media when MySpace was around, so I’d say somewhere around 2002. That didn’t last long. Then I switched over to Facebook and created accounts on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.I also have apps like Shazam, FX and Netflix which I use to watch movies and TV shows on my long commute to and from home.

S: So.. on these platforms, do you use your real name or do you use aliases? And if you do, tell me why?

A: Yes, I did have an alias. The reason being I was too young and my parents didn’t want us to use our real names for safety reasons. Now I have my real name on some accounts and keep some accounts unidentifiable. I also disable the function which allows people to Google me.

S: Can you elaborate how you use each of these platforms? Do you portray the same persona or are they different?

A: I use Facebook for sharing articles I think are interesting. Share some of my thoughts but nothing too personal on there. Although I have a twitter account I don’t like using it because I haven’t found it to be an effective way to communicate for me. I use Instagram as a platform for creativity, to share pictures of art that I like and some of my music. Typically I’m more shy in real life but on Instagram I feel like I can express my personality. You wouldn’t see that side of me in real life. I don’t like talking about me.

S: Do the digital personas they construct help them cope with the problems they face or do they create new problems? In what ways?

A: For me, I don’t see social media as a way to cope with problems. As far as the issue of creating problems goes. In some ways it’s disconcerting to know that people are looking into my life. On one hand you may seem fine but you may be far from fine. Everyone seems fake and it seems like everybody’s lying.

 “You can’t hug a like and a like won’t  put its arm around you when the cold wind blows”

The above video had nothing to do with the topic, its sole purpose was to entertain you.

I really do like likes.. and as funny as it may seem, i think it’s pretty sad that a lot of us are so sucked into the web version of ourselves that we don’t know how to be in the present anymore. Our interactions with people right in front of us has become a virtual interaction where the body is present but the mind is elsewhere. Conducting the interview gave me a different perspective of how people reveal different facets of their personalities. The person we may meet in real life could be a totally different person than expected.

Hearing Anna talk about her online presence made me think of an idea mentioned in Athique’s Chapter 7 ” We continuously adopt different roles to adopt different social contexts during our social lives” (Goffman,pg 99)

Anna’s interaction over Facebook was merely from a thought sharing platform, whereas her instagram feed was a more intimate part of who she is. Another friend of mine is a world class texter but in real life, his experience is a lot stressful. In his case the phone acts as an extension of self, kind of like a cocoon that protects our vulnerability.

Over the years I’ve been really amazed by the interactions on Facebook. People that you barely know might pop up and try to give you unsolicited advise. Anna briefly shares how vulnerable she feels knowing that a random person could be viewing her without her knowledge.  As shared by Athique in Chapter 7, “In the context of SnS private individuals seeking to serve both audiences simultaneously must take great care of their self presentation of their public figures” ( Pg,104) Its evident that nobody likes their lives to be on public display.

My question to you is:

1)How much of yourself, your ideas and thoughts are you open to reveal on social media?

2) When have you felt the most connected to another human, was it online or in person?

Digital Technology and Creativity

 

Photo Credit: Imran Ahmed

Ralph Lauren | Photo Credit: Imran Ahmed

The article I chose highlights a new application of digital technology and how it can be used in a creative manner to engage audiences and give them a unique experience. The authors announce an event hosted by the retailer, Ralph Lauren to demonstrate the cutting edge persona of the brand by merging the events, lighting and film industries. In order for this post to make sense, please see the video that covers the event here  and then the article posted by the authors from business of fashion (which includes the behind the scenes video production) here

The problem trying to be solved in this article is the barrier of the 4th dimension which has always restricted designers and engineers. The new technology described in the video , along with the scents, audio, visual elements definitely pushes that barrier into a new realm. The authors make the argument that the event was open to industry people and not the end consumer, causing them lost opportunity in sales. Ralph Lauren could argue that their mission of wowing their industry friends with the 4d experience was enough buzz  to carry on the brand image of RL, and thus indirectly reaching their audience.

The evidence used was the behind the scenes videos which depict the technical aspects of the production where lighting, media and live events were merged to create an immersive  experience, illustrating the modular nature of the technology as described by Lev Manovich as being the “fractal structure of new media. Media elements, be it images, sounds, shapes or behaviours, are represented as collections of discrete samples(pixels, polygons, voxels, characters, scripts) These elements are assembled into larger – scale objects but they continue to maintain their separate identity”  the technology also includes  transcoding where the analog nature of the photo  shoots and building models were transcoded into information that a software could synthesize and create a vibrant performance.

I think the authors did a detailed job at analyzing the technology and event and had their own opinions about how the technology used at the event had not enough of an impact on sales but from a creative directors point of view the story telling aspect of the event made a positive brand image impression on the minds of the influential attendees which was a good enough accomplishment for the Ralph Lauren team.

Questions

  1. Where else do you see this technology being used?
  2. Have you experienced a production similar to this and how did the performance/ installation affect you?