Nichols, B. (1988). The Work of Culture in the Age of
Cybernetic Systems. The New Media Reader.
The computer can act as a a metaphor and suggests new ways
of thinking about ourselves and our environment.
Cybernetic – Self regulating mechanisms or systems with
predefined tasks.
How do cybernetic systems, as symbolized by the comber
resonate with the transformations that were symbolized by the camera.
Mechanical Reproduction and film Culture.
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The industrial society has the assembly line and
mass production. It changes:
o
Economic mode of production
o
The nature of art
o
Categories of perception.
It strips art of its aura or authenticity. An association of essence with authenticity.
The aura of an object compels attention.
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Use value is determined at the location.
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Uniqueness is part of contemplation.
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Mechanical reproduction cannot produce authenticity.
Ojbects without aura substitute mystique.
Author asks the question is photography art. But:
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He also asks if societies view of art has
changed, or
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If how we see the world has changed.
The ubiquitous copy reflects industrialization and
capitalism.
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Montages rip things from their environment.
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Collages juxtapose multiple scenes.
Film can expose man to his own environment.
To shoot is to record the original.
To cut is to edit.
The camera reframes reality and provides enhanced details
and added perspectives.
Montage – Collecting dissimilar is important to Benjamin.
Seeing new way s is ideological but transformative.
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They are new skills.
New ways of seeing presuppose new ways of social
organization.
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Based on culture of mechanical reproduction.
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Is our sense of reality being adjusted by means of
electronic computation and digital communication.
It’s determined by the relationships we form.
Economics has changed from producing to processing
information.
Digital media replaces the individual encounter.
Have cybernetic systems brought about changes in our
perception of the world that hold liberating potential.
Do images, or representations control sensory image.
Capitalism – Human c&c against animals.
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Monopoly Capitalism – Human C&C against
machines.
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Post industrial capitalism – Against computers,
biogenetically engineered organisms.
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Reflections of human identity.
Digital tends to be interactive rather than static like
text.
The camera could see more than the eye.
The computer can render what is palpable.
Cybernetic communication simulates and alters our relation
to our environment and our mind.
The photograph comes from somewhere, the computer comes from
nowhere.
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the photograph comes from the experience of the
photographer.
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The computer comes from the imagination of
another.
Cybernetic systems give form, external expression to the
mind.
The computer not only simulates the exterior world, but also
the interior world of consciousness by experience.
The copy reproduces the world, the chip simulates it.
The interactiveness and desire for control replaces the
object and desire for possession.
The cybernetic metaphor – transformation of self and
reality.
Metaphor – Humans as automated intelligent systems, but automated
intelligent systemsas humn, not just the simulation of reality, but reality of
the simulation.
Hyper reality – Being more real destroys reality.
Does life exist in artificial support systems.
Do artificial systems obscure life in the same way
mechanical reproductions are questioned as art.
The embodiment of cybernetic imagination where abstract
concepts become embedded in material form.
U.S. Supreme Court more amenable to patents for new life
forms over software.
Starts to question free will and dependence.
