Hot Spots

Today's assignment was a bit of a surprise, truth be told. But I do appreciate the chance of putting my mind to something practical-aestetical inbetween the lessons. So when I got Mauri's mail, I quickly tried to reorient myself towards the Mustamee area. I knew next to nothing about it, but a bit of research found the name to mean something like "Black Mountain"? Though it's hard to imagine a mountain - at least in the norwegian sense - in pancake-flat Estonia, (no offense intended). But what to do with such a place? It really does not invite one's creativity to blossom. There is, however, a forresty area nearby. Could Mauri imply that we should look for mushrooms to provide a little hallocinogenic stimulous?

For a second, I played with the idea to make site for a group of New Age/New Media witches from the Black Mountain, but left it there. Appearently, whiches are in short supply in Estonia.

Anyroad, I found the hotspot, more thanks to my GPS than to my sense of direction, and soon realized the area to be a center for higher education, with several colleges within range. What had motivated Mauri to choose this particular place? Was there some hidden message that we must decode and deconstruct? How? Where? I pride myself in thinking on my feet, but this Hot Spot was dead cold to me, metaphorically speaking. Still, as Freud reluctantly admitted, sometimes a sigar is just a sigar. Could it be so straightforward? And where were the rest of you?

Admittedly, I was bit bewildered, but soon decieded to go for a safe middle way: a mock-up of a site for the nearby business-college. I took some shots of the houses, and especially of the semi-figurative sculpture outside it. I tried my best to discover the name of the creator, but apart from the fact that she was a woman, nobody could tell me her name. That's how much we appreciate art.

Tomorrow's plan, then, is to use Wix, a free flash based editor, to create the site. I haven't had time to think of a real strategy yet, so I'll just have to wing it. The basic idea is to promote the college, but so far I know too little about it and that's breaking rule numero uno: learn the client's nature and needs.

So, don't expect to see much of me tomorrow; I need a Mac to get this half right and will take refuge in the new media lab. Also I need to take some additional photos. Anyone know a model that will work without a fee? Job desription: pretend to be a happy student at the Business College of Mustamee. No broom-sticks need apply!

Animal conciousness?

Today's introduction to the theoretical foundation of the new media left me with many thoughts and mixed feelings. Mixed, in the sense that it became clear that I will have to venture deep into a obscure landscape that is unfamiliar and even intimidating. The grand theories of Semiotics, Structuralism, of Knowledge and Conciousness; of Ontology and cousin Epistomology and so forth, are certainly not the easiest of subjects. Ask a group of average academicians about these questions and you throw them into contemplative silence, or possibly a fistfight. So how can little I and I make sense of this Gordian knot of intertwined theoretical snakes? Maybe I'm too dense to understand all this? To create a coherent roadmap out of this maze seems like one big Mission Impossible.

Still, one thing springs to mind, a peg to hang something on: I feel familiar with the question of animal conciouness. Anyone who ever had close contact with an animal will readily testify that they certainly have feelings, memory, and that they can and do suffer. Only the most insensitive will deny animals a conciousness, a sense of self. Perhaps not in the way we think about ourselves, but surely more than many credit them. To deny animals conciousness or soul, and implicitly a moral standing, serves us well. After all, we have a long tradition of claiming a God-given right to use and exploit animals as we please, no question asked. Descartes, the french philosopher, is said to have viewed animals from a purely mechanical perspective; animals had no feelings, far less any observable conciousness: he spoke of birds as small "clockworks" and curiosly recorded their reactions as he pulled off a wing or a foot. When we know the meaningless and cruel experiments performed on animals by the cosmetics industry (to name but one), we can only regret that we have not developed far from Descartes mechanical empiricism in our inter-specious relationship. From that, animals suffer, and ethically, we suffer too.

Levi-Strauss, the french structuralist proposed an interesting observation in the way we think about animals, as a direct reflection of how we categorize social groups around us: we speak of friends, neighbours, strangers, criminals and so on; indeed exactly in the way we cat(!)egorize animals as pets, livestock, wild animals or vermins to name one group. In Norway, many speak of wolves as "criminal" when they wish to morally defend their extermination, for example by poisoning them. Levi-Strauss, to a large degree inspired by de Sausurre and even the linguist Whorf, concludes that we create meaning of our surroundings by organising phenomena as contrasts and differences in our mind, in dialectic oppositions, if you will. That's why we tend to order our experiences in oppositions, like black/white or day/night or hot/cold. Old Levi-strauss had a point. Makes a lot of sense, if you ask me.

And if you ask my dear old aunt Annie if her beloved (and weight-challenged) Dachs-hound Frederic has a conciousness, she will swear on the Bible that he is not only clearly aware of himself and his "umwelt", but indeed gifted with psychic powers: Frederic can - among a range of impressive feats - predict with great accuracy when she plans to make his dinner. "- Could have had his own TV-show, that dog..", she says. In my conciousness, my aunt Annie and Descartes are organised as dialectic opposites. But who to trust?

-- Posted from my iPhone

Survival, Social Life or Entertainment?

One of the most important factor in any undertaking is motivation. Without the right motivation we will never be able to be successful students or to learn something new. 

In spite of countless attempts, I have never successfully been able to explain to my wife why I have spend most on my life working on non-profit projects. (A black-belt holder in sarcastic wit, she refers to all such undertakings as "Non-brainer"-projects). And indeed, as the years has gone by with little or less financial gain to show for my enthusiastic efforts, the doubts have often overtaken myself; and, to some degree, the mind of my patient but sometimes less-than-enthusiastic bank-manager. Yes, why indeed? Why spend night after sleepless night on projects that has little reward to show, other than the personal satisfaction of creating a realistic 3D landscape or editing a documentary about child-soldiers in central Africa? What motivates us to such efforts? The question is not only relevant to myself and large number of people who spend their best years knitting dolls for their puppet-theater or recording experimental jazz in their garage. Birdwatchers, to name one but group, will gladly travel around the globe (and spend a fortune in doing so) and show deep satisfaction on catching even the smallest glimpse of their favorite Spotted Arctic Owl (or whatever). If such behavior is a mystery to you, then you fail to understand the passion of doing things the right way. 

Linus Torvalds, the Linux-initiator, proposes in the book "The Hacker Ethic", that our motivation can be divided into three basic categories: "Survival", "Social Life" and "Entertainment". Survival, is a self-evident category, of course, but more interesting perhaps, are the others; the second, Social Life, is fairly comprehensible too: we do things in order to gain approval from our social environment. To be understood, appreciated or even respected, is a basic - if not always readily admitted - motivation for most of us. We are social animals that to a large degree are bound by and to the social groups we belong. How others see us; our status and prestige is critically important when searching for a spouse, competing for a promotion or in simply playing the role of "good neighbor". It makes sense to be liked and to be respected by our peers. 

The next level, however, that of Entertainment, is more difficult to grasp. That we should do things simply for our own pleasure and entertainment, and not simply to maximize profit, is a concept that is harder to appreciate. But the fact is, that many of us put a lot of effort in our hobbies or  p a s s i o n s  which is a more accurate description. Yes, many of us sees values and meaning in creating art, music or computer programs, even without any financial reward what-so-ever. A teacher-colleague of mine spends most of her free time struggling with her brushes and colours, in a life-long ambition to master a certain sfumato-technique (introduced by da Vinci). So far, to my best knowledge, she has never sold a single canvas. And that excactly, is Linus Torvald's point: She does this for her own entertainment. In a very wide sense, mind you. Pekka Himanen, Torvald's co-author prefers the word "Passion". Such Passion can be a very strong motivational force. The american anthropologist Clifford Gertz would coin the phrase "Deep Play", in his classic monograph on Balinese Cockfights. And it is Deep Play indeed, when we do not care for anything but the outcome of our efforts; we do not look to the right or left, we simply care about the result.  (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Geertz)    

With the right motivation, we can learn a new language, we can climb a mountain or write a good Master's thesis. Himanen writes about how early computer Hackers like Steve Wozniak could work tirelessly with "...a sense of joy, of excitement", simply because they had the right kind of motivation. It was not about money or short term-profit. It was for the Love of doing things right. For the Love of doing it Great. 

Starting out on this Master, I think we should ask this very basic question: why are we doing this? What is our motivation? From where shall we find our inspiration when the going gets tough? I can honestly say for my part that IMKE represents a place where I can play, where I can entertain myself; a place where I can be passionate about really understanding Knowledge Communities and maybe create an elegant web-based learning program to booth. I don't really care about the financial gains or getting the best grades. I just care about getting it  r i g h t.  

Now, I just have to explain this to my wife.  

Welcome

Welcome to my New Media course blog.