“...encountering intelligent machines from this perspective enables me to see that they are neither objects to dominate nor subjects threatening to dominate me. Rather, they are embodied entities instantiating processes that interact with the processes that I instantiate as an embodied human subject. The experience of interacting with them changes me incrementally, so the person who emerges from the encounter is not exactly the same person who began it.” –Katherine Hayles
I am not a computer.
But I’m not not a computer...
I’m a person.
Which means I’m kind of a computer, too?
I’m a cyborg!
So R U!
Am I not the same person?
I’m not really the same person. I feel like I’m changing constantly which is both a disorienting and beautiful experience. I think all people feel that sometimes. But I can only really know what I feel. Would it be better 2 be a computer?
We’re all already cyborgs!
Sometimes, I think that the rapid proliferation of digital technologies was pretty scary. In a lot of aspects it is pretty scary. Rejecting digital technologies may indeed become (or already be) a more potent form of criticality. Personally, my ideal life would be to own a small organic farm and not to own a smartphone. I do not enjoy spending so much time on my computer, even while researching this project, designing the platform for these words to sit on, and writing this right now. When plugged into a computer, time seems to move at warp speed. I do not find it an embodying experience. It does feel quite alienating.
Maybe one of the most fruitful things that glitch offers is a window into the destruction of digital technologies. And I think a lot of people might agree that it sounds pretty good.
That being said, in my interaction with different digital platforms (both in terms of website curation and music production) throughout this project, I’ve felt myself developing a greater intimacy with my machine (computer). In curating this digital experience, my interaction with machine has felt improvisational, even collaborative, as I learn from, and find myself surprised by, different digital outputs throughout the creative process. While I’m upset that being online often feels disembodied, and I don’t think it needs to be that way. Rather, the digital experience I’ve had throughout this project has been a lens onto which I have been able to view different aspects of myself, embodiment, and creativity. There is something new to see when gazing into the black mirror.
While I am not this website (I’m just a person typing on my keyboard which I will copy and paste onto this website), I can tell you that this site aspires to contribute to a more critical, self-aware, and embodied internet (and academic) experience. I believe (I hope) we can return ourselves, our bodies, our physical human(!) bodies, to our use of digital technologies. As a “digital native,” (a member of a generation declared indigenous to digital place, if one can even be so?), I do hope we can become more empowered to engage meaningfully in this digital space we’ve rooted ourselves to. First, we need to draw greater awareness to all the complexities of doing so. This is my attempt. And if I fail... :O I intend to fully embrace this failure and incorporate all the wonderful lessons promised by failure, too. Woof!
I also believe that what glitch offers in terms of thinking about constructions, and destructions, of gender identities is especially pertinent to the social and political climate we find ourselves in today. The fight against the gender binary continues to be fought on and off line. Despite the progress that’s been made since the 1990s in accepting LGTBQ+ expression IRL, people are murdered for their gender identities and sexualities every day.
Despite the complexities of glitch enduring as a radical and critical aesthetic, I believe there’s still something very fruitful to be gained from engaging with productive failure.
Will glitch die? Is it already dead? Can it evolve?
A glitch in one platform is not the same as a glitch in another. As technology evolves, I believe the aesthetics of glitch and potentials for productive use of glitch will, too. Of course, I also believe in the relentless spirit of capital which hopes to commodify radical aesthetics at every turn. Not every use of glitch can or will be critical of oppressive structures of capital.
I am not a computer.
But I’m not not a computer...
I’m a person.
Which means I’m kind of a computer, too?
I’m a cyborg!
So R U!
Am I not the same person?
I’m not really the same person. I feel like I’m changing constantly which is both a disorienting and beautiful experience. I think all people feel that sometimes. But I can only really know what I feel. Would it be better 2 be a computer?
We’re all already cyborgs!
Sometimes, I think that the rapid proliferation of digital technologies was pretty scary. In a lot of aspects it is pretty scary. Rejecting digital technologies may indeed become (or already be) a more potent form of criticality. Personally, my ideal life would be to own a small organic farm and not to own a smartphone. I do not enjoy spending so much time on my computer, even while researching this project, designing the platform for these words to sit on, and writing this right now. When plugged into a computer, time seems to move at warp speed. I do not find it an embodying experience. It does feel quite alienating.
Maybe one of the most fruitful things that glitch offers is a window into the destruction of digital technologies. And I think a lot of people might agree that it sounds pretty good.
That being said, in my interaction with different digital platforms (both in terms of website curation and music production) throughout this project, I’ve felt myself developing a greater intimacy with my machine (computer). In curating this digital experience, my interaction with machine has felt improvisational, even collaborative, as I learn from, and find myself surprised by, different digital outputs throughout the creative process. While I’m upset that being online often feels disembodied, and I don’t think it needs to be that way. Rather, the digital experience I’ve had throughout this project has been a lens onto which I have been able to view different aspects of myself, embodiment, and creativity. There is something new to see when gazing into the black mirror.
While I am not this website (I’m just a person typing on my keyboard which I will copy and paste onto this website), I can tell you that this site aspires to contribute to a more critical, self-aware, and embodied internet (and academic) experience. I believe (I hope) we can return ourselves, our bodies, our physical human(!) bodies, to our use of digital technologies. As a “digital native,” (a member of a generation declared indigenous to digital place, if one can even be so?), I do hope we can become more empowered to engage meaningfully in this digital space we’ve rooted ourselves to. First, we need to draw greater awareness to all the complexities of doing so. This is my attempt. And if I fail... :O I intend to fully embrace this failure and incorporate all the wonderful lessons promised by failure, too. Woof!
I also believe that what glitch offers in terms of thinking about constructions, and destructions, of gender identities is especially pertinent to the social and political climate we find ourselves in today. The fight against the gender binary continues to be fought on and off line. Despite the progress that’s been made since the 1990s in accepting LGTBQ+ expression IRL, people are murdered for their gender identities and sexualities every day.
Despite the complexities of glitch enduring as a radical and critical aesthetic, I believe there’s still something very fruitful to be gained from engaging with productive failure.
Will glitch die? Is it already dead? Can it evolve?
A glitch in one platform is not the same as a glitch in another. As technology evolves, I believe the aesthetics of glitch and potentials for productive use of glitch will, too. Of course, I also believe in the relentless spirit of capital which hopes to commodify radical aesthetics at every turn. Not every use of glitch can or will be critical of oppressive structures of capital.