The elemental root of my Digital Artefact and the ideology I want to convey is that at our most basic level of technological endeavours there is always a degree of chaotic application to the invention process.
Because my Digital artefact revolves around more of a reoccurring ideology than a documented phenomenon, I have been researching more into the instances of Chaotic Neutral enterprising within existing cybernetic instances and properties rather than treat it as its own categorical place in Cyberculture.
To connect further with my argument of the chaotic neutral and its influences towards experimental technology, I decided to start by approaching it week by week using the BCM modules as a launch pad. During this experimental stage, It intrigued me that without fail I could pull apart and analyse the eras and ideologies shown during our lectures each week and still attribute it back to an element of chaotic rule- one that emphasised humanities urge to tear apart the structures of technological equilibrium we live in and innovate further despite the terms and conditions applied to our usage. It was as though humanity had an innate urge to create a whole new space of invention to stave off the encroach of stagnancy at any cost. Between week 2-7, I found a reoccurring motif in the abuse of intention.
The Cyberpunk Genre week especially set the part of my brain that contributes to university projects synapses firing, a whole genre dedicated to working outside the structure of an oppressive authority using its own technology against it? Count me in.
The idea of mass production coming back to the corporate and the act of settling for what we have currently being unsustainable, and that we must create our own individualistic oasis to circumnavigate this unsustainable production and stagnation with innovation. Therein the cyberpunk lays out a lot of the themes that I want to further highlight in my digital artefact, but it isn’t just limited to the cyberpunk, innovation that breaks away from the fold exists today even without the a dystopian backdrop to herald its approach.
(Arguments about our timeline ALREADY being a dystopia… well they’re not totally wrong. But for the sake of this part of the research component we will address this later within innovation within the third world and survivalist mindframe).
In saying this, Cybernetics in week 2 shows us The CONCEPT of the future expanding away from past examples of the perceived future from the endeavours of the then present is constant. It doesn’t end because our perception of the future will always be different than how we imagined it in the past, the past will always seem outdated because of the context we have in the now. But the element of implication to influence how we shape the future is the most important factor we can draw upon in the current to create the future- it’s a feedback loop,
In terms of texts, online sources and thesis’s available that hint towards my theory of Chaotic enterprising that I want to cover in my presentation, not many emphasised my point in an academic sense; rather alluded to features in technology that could be utilised in the now. That was, until our week 8 lecture;
‘Cunning Plans, talks by Warren Ellis’, W. Ellis, is a fairly expansive cover for the type of approach I will be taking when further researching into technologies for my Digital Artefact. ‘Cunning Plans’ struck me especially because of its use of mystical language, and that technology (as a whole before the industrial revolution) WAS treated like an unreachable or forbidden territory that humanity should not cross in the ongoing march of innovation. But the whole revolving point of the chaotic neutral mindset is to ACT, to do something not because its topical, morally right or repugnant, but rather to do it regardless of societies standpoint on it. We DO because we CAN and if we DON’T then we don’t progress and we do not GROW.
“Act like you live in the Science Fiction Condition. Act like you can do magic and hold séances for the future and build a brightness control for the sky. Act like you live in a place where you can walk into space if you wanted. Think big. And then make it BETTER.”
– Warren Ellis, ‘Cunning Plans: Talks by Warren Ellis’, 2016.
For my Digital artefact, I want to evenly split both the history and researching component towards existing instances of Chaotic neutral enterprising as well as practice what I preach and actually implicate this theory myself with common hardware and mainstream technology.
And, well, we’re not too good at following industry standards…
who reads the terms and conditions anyway???
(As a fun side note, while researching I came across a technology from 2016 that has almost endless possibilities going for it which I am quite excited to see. The ‘Pneumatic Octopus’ is the first functional and self contained soft robotics model to work individually through chemical reactions rather than external power source or battery and without support or rigging. The implications of a robotic system that can manoeuvre fluidly and squeeze through obstacles is astronomical in the world of engineering and mechanics. The concept of a fluidic logic circuit opens up so many doors to new technological endeavours, so regardless of whether this particular model of technology continues forward, the advancements towards soft robotics has been allowed to take a monumental step forward as a result of its initiation and creation.)
REFERENCES:
Ellis, 2016, ‘Cunning Plans: Talks by Warren Ellis’, Ed Zitron, Summon Books.
J. Webb, 2016, BBC.com, ‘Pneumatic Octopus is the first soft, solo robot’,24.04.18, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37169109
Moodle, lecture slides. https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/course/view.php?id=14580
Goodreads.com, 23.04.18, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/45523592-cunning-plans-talks-by-warren-ellis
HeyAlexa, 2016, ‘Alexa is quite the chef!’, Youtube, MP4, 25.12, 25.04.18, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-0AXCZEhDM>
Angiesocial 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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