Playing Politics Workshop Response

No doubt, there are more and more political simulation games coming out in the internet, which aim to inspire players’ critical thinking towards current political issues. However, as games used to provide entertainment for players, what if political issues are involved? Will the players still enjoy the games and have fun? After examining the game September 12 and New York Defender, the answer is quite sure, at least to me. Ostensibly, both games do entertain the players, as the traditional aesthetic is adopted. However, I wonder if anyone will be interested in a game that you can’t win? Although the messages of both games are clear that players understand it is about 911 attacks at the first glance, since it is obviously talking about the incident. The message is more explicit in September 12, while “This is not a game. You can’t win, and you can’t lose. This is a simulation. It has no ending. It has already begun. The rules are deadly simple. You can shoot. Or not” is indicated at the beginning. When you shot to the terrorists, it will destroy the building and innocence will die, which causes more terrorists. Thus, it is clear to indicate the message the violence makes more violence. But, if players tend to avoid shooting, the situation that a few terrorists will still appears in the town. Interestingly, it is found that if you’ve shot certain times, then stop generating further violence, the number of terrorists will decrease automatically. But, it seems no really no way to make terrorists disappear. On the other hand, New York Defender is a simple game, compared to the September 12. You shot the flight to prevent it collapse, or you don’t shot just let the flights make it collapse. Both options will lead to the collapse anyway. Thus, the messages of both games are clear that violence is not an intelligent way, as it can’t make terrorism disappear.

However, I will claim that the games fail to communicate with players in an effective way, even the message is clear. As a player, usually we have no patient to keep playing a game which cannot win. If I can’t win, what do you expecting me to do? Evidences have shown that players lose interest to play these games, as the goal of the game is implicit. The terrorists will still exist in September 12. And the tower will collapse. If the result is unchangeable, it gives players no reason to explore the game.

If I had to write a political simulation game, I intend to talk about the demonstration of WTO. While the media portrayed the demonstration as riot, I will like to invite players to think about the issue in a critical way. Since the anger of demonstrators is due to the exploitation. They are the victims who try to speak out and stand for their right. However, mainstream media tend to neglect the fact, but view them as mob.

Reflective Post

Indeed, I am appreciated with the outcomes of the blogging exercise, as we all have a chance to actively participant in the online discussion. Sometimes, we do not have enough time to discuss all the issues during the tutorial class, the blog provides a platform for us to discuss. Besides, it allows us to learn more about blog since some of us have never keep their own blog before. And it allows us to practice what we've learn from the course.

Throughout the course, the topic I found most interesting is cyborg, which means a hybrid of machine and organism. In this era, I think most of us are cyborg as we rely so much on the technologies on a daily basis. And Donna Haraway points out that the boundaries between human and animal, organism and machine, physical and non-physical will breakdown. And people can freely construct themselves. According to the definition, it seems that I have to admit myself as a cyborg.

However, I want to point out some questions here. How can a poor spend so much on technologies? Do you think the women in developing countries have equal opportunity to access the new technologies as us? Moreover, it seems that the new technologies is kind of male’s patent. How often do you see a female holding a PDA on the street? (I do not mean there are none, but male seems to be more enthusiastic with the new technologies) Thus, I wonder if it is too idealistic to say cyborg allows us to create ourselves.

Overall, I am satisfied with the course.

Blogged Response to Gattaca clip

With current technology, I don't believe the genetic selection technology in the movie Gattaca is advanced enough to extract all the genetic defectiveness in a non-born child. Of course each parent would want to give their offspring the best start into society as possible. But its not realistic. As mentioned in the movie children born through natural mean (human copulation) is shunned upon, and when the birth of Vincent played by Ethan Hawke, is born, the movie portrays him as a defective child and one that will not last long in life.

Perhaps in the future, science could advance to a point where the genetic screening is possible. And would people take this choice or will they shy away from it as it is a counter-religious action where in our society, birth is ingrain into her life as it is suppose to be a natural process with minimal science intervention as possible.

The movie definitely evokes a sense of security for married couples to have children if they can screen out the bad genes to ensure there is minimal sufferings for their children as it grows up.

Over time, people might come to accept this eugenics because the pros outweighs the cons to having a better, healthier, more intelligent child.

I find it somewhat true to what the movie reference as to class, race, and gender. In our current society, class is something that is determined by your family wealth or once monetary value. Race is definitely one issue in our present society that is segregating who has access to what. Its a Caucasian-English speaking society that evoke in the education and sociological psyche that prioritized this world as a 'White Man' society.
Gender is also a touchy subject, as in our society, at least the urban society, Men are seen as the bread-winner and women are the one who is submissive to the men.

Gattaca shows with genetic screen, those issues of class, race, and gender are wiped out, and the DNA is the only factor that remains that determines your class in society. It will not matter if you are White/Black/Asian/Hispanic, or Man or Woman, if you have the right genes, the superior genes you can do what ever you chose. Your DNA will be your identity card, and its ultimate factor in determining your access to the world. And how the world might accept you or deny you.

Let's talk about the film I, Robot (2004)

It is obvious that the technophobia exist in the film, as it is about the revolution of robots who want to control the world. Regardless of the entire film, The Three Laws of Robotics show the fear of human towards new technologies in the clips, for example, robots have to protect the human, and should not hurt them. They are allowed to protect themselves on the condition that not hurting any humankind. This kind of regulation shows the potential threat of the robot.

Interestingly, the robots are somehow radicalized as the third world people in the reality. The robots take the jobs that are inferior, such as dustmen and couriers. In certain extent, they seem to be the slaves in ancient period, for example, people can win a robot from buying lottery, which is about getting a slave by consumption. Apart from the inferior portrayal, the robots are stereotype as something evil. The scene that the detective thinks the robot is a criminal, and chases the robot on the street. The only evidence he gives is the robot is running with a purse. Obviously, the image of robot is being stereotyped here. It somehow reflects the reality of how the white think about the blacks.

Self. Gov II Week 9 Tutorial Presentation

This week topic is Self. Gov II: Resistance is Fertile, and I’ve chosen the reading written by Matthew Soar, “The First things First Manifesto and the politics of culture jamming: towards a cultural economy of graphic design and advertising” to present this week topic.


We are living in world considered to be soaked in massive advertisements and media graphic images. It has been long claimed that ‘advertising and design are readily distinguishable from other economic institutions because of their declared expertise in creating specially cultural forms of communication.’ Graphic designers, however, are act as cultural intermediaries and play an important role in ‘lending traction to the contemporary routines of capital accumulation by articulating values and tastes to the promotion, in particular, selling of ideas and events, services and products’. However, It’s all becomes way consumer capitalism and commercialism. In Matthew Soar’s article, he investigates the “The First Things First Manifesto” as ‘a call for social responsibility’ of the graphic design professionals in creating media images as well as identifying their professional as ‘potent agents of positive social change’, and “Culture Jamming” as the act of transforming existing mass media to produce political, and most likely negative commentary about itself.


In respect to the dominant of media images becomes overwhelming and people are becoming less aware of the mechanism and manipulation of advertising, ‘The First Thing First Manifesto’ is something of a mission statement signed by famous designers, art directors first conceived in 1964 and updated version re-released in 1999, which recognizes the power of graphic design and argues for a politically responsible use of certain graphic design talents not just for selling things. Culture Jamming, indeed, is a resistance movement (to the perceived hegemony of popular culture) or subversion of dominant visual media (which already exist) through parody. Matthew Soar mentions about “Ad-busting” in his article which is considered to emerge from culture jamming to look at in terms of the ethical practice of graphic designers in 21st century and rather than just having advertising as a means of selling something to people. Since advertising is recognized as a really powerful tool to convey messages and influence people making decision, and thus it is thought in the ‘First Thing First‘, graphic designers may also use that tool to affect some sort of political change.


However, some of the designers like Glaser and Helfand do feel that ‘the degree that (the manifesto) has any impact on culture at large is not so certain’ and ‘designer per se are usually in a very weak position in regard to what they do’ since they ‘don’t make the determinations’ and ‘decides what is to be sold or the strategy’ and it’s hard to define about 'the potential harm or good’ they can effect through their work practice.


So here raise an important question: Isn’t it the case that culture jamming like Adbusting is reactive rather than proactive? That means it they don’t initiate things, they don’t make a statement at the beginning but rather they wait for something to happen and react to it. They do on things already are exist. Does it matter that they don’t have the power to be proactive or to make a statement on their own?


Reference:
Soar, Matthew. “The First things First Manifesto and the politics of culture jamming: towards a cultural economy of graphic design and advertising.”Cultural Studies 16.4 (2002): 570-92

Leaver, Tama. “Self. Gov II: Resistance is Fertile.” Self.Net Lecture 9. University of Western Australia. Apr. 20, 2006

Please come in and discuss “Let's Love Hong Kong”

I think one of the differences between pornography in cyberspace and in reality is the human interaction. In the film, Nicole does not know Chan Kwok Chan, although she rely her sexual desire on Chan’s image. They have no conversation at all. On the other hand, Chan talks about her dream and family with the prostitutions. They have interaction and somehow establish a real human relationship. Also, I think there may have more people consuming Chan’s body at the same time in cyberspace. And Chan will not know who they are, as they have no interaction. At this point, I wonder if Chan is a passive object of desire. From the clip, Chan seems acting as something simulate others desire…

Critical Annotated Webliography

Topic: Critically assess the ways in which constructions of identity have been extended and/ or altered by information and communication technologies.

Identity Construction within Cyberspace
Do new technologies extend or alter the way of identity construction? Some people believe that Internet, the newest and rapidly developing information and communication technology, will offer us a utopian, democratic, and liberating world, where we can freely construct our identities and redefine ourselves. However, with evidence of increasing cybercrime and sexual harassment in cyberspace, the notion is proved to be too idealistic. Scholars even criticize the virtual reality is taken over by the dominant group. In this paper, some scholars ‘opinions on gender and racial identity constructions will examined in order to explore whether technologies extend or alter the constructions of identity.

Pulling the Old Stereotypes into Cyberspcae?
In Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet written by Lisa Nakamura, she argues the oriental discourse is being brought into the context of cyberspace. Nakamura point out, for those who describe themselves as Asian, most of them are accessing the “identity tourism”. “Passing” as an Asian male or female is mainly used by white men. The identity-prosthesis associates with sex, the exotic, passivity when “passing” Asian female. It signifies with anachronistic dreams of samurai warrior when “passing” Asian male. She claims that the risk of identity tourism to repeat the stereotype people learn from the mainstream media may reinforce the stereotype of reality. Furthermore, in the article Language, Gender and Cyberspace: Pulling the Old Stereotypes into New Territory, authors claim that “Cyberspace is not a gender neutral space”. People participating in the cyber world where still male dominated; social construction of gender is brought along as well. Many women have experience of being harassed and intimidated from the internet. It seems that we are repeating the stereotype in the cyberspace, and the dominant ideologies are going to take over the identity constructions, rather than people re-define themselves. In fact, that’s the truth for some people to have cyber passing. However, who will engage in cyber passing to destabilize the racism? And how many are there? In fact, it is believed there are only few people will take such kind of identity tour Also, one should not neglect the fact that the number of non-white and female internet users is growing which may evoke a new politics in cyberspace. In 2006, there are many figures state that the users of computer are increasing rapidly. It is no longer a white male dominated cyberspace, but many newcomers come to struggle for the power in order to establish their own identities. Although the cyberspace is more likely to be claimed as white male dominant virtual world at this moment, it is possible to reach the gender and racial balance in the future. Cyberspace is believed as a virtual platform for gender and class politics. Thus, once the wars still keep going, we should not make the conclusion.

Cyber Hierarchy
As a contrast, some scholars state that the constructions of identity are being altered, or will be altered. In Internet Subcultures and Oppositional Politics, Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner point out political subcultures have used the internet for political activism. Internet provides a way for subcultural groups to voice out. With the development of internet, people can freely experience the subcultures, and re-define themselves. The rapid development of internet allows the linkage of labor, feminist, ecological, peace, and various anti-capitalist groups with users. The technologies enable users to share secret information which may be forbidden in some regions. They suggest Cyberspace is a new platform for political struggle. Both dominate cultures and subcultures promote their agenda and interests in the cyberspace. Also, the blogging culture offers bloggers to share their idea with others and have linked up more and more people together. This all will enable subcultures together for cyber politics. It is agreed that cyberspace offers an alternative way for minorities to voice out. And it allows the spread of information faster than any technologies we ever had. For example, many blogs are used as political functions in the worldwide. Some of them even call for demonstration for certain human rights and social equality. Moreover, cyberspace is believed to offers people a new way to establish their identities.

In Tim Jordan's article, he tries to examine the cyberpower within the cyberspace. He argues that people are determined by their clothes in the real life, while users are determined by written text and style in cyberspace. However, he believes that gender is not absent within the internet, as the written text will reveal. Due to the social construction of gender identity, boys and girls are taught differently in linguistic. Thus, the way of their speaking will be different. Nevertheless, he claims another form of hierarchy take place in cyberspace, as people are more likely to determine by written text. He raises an example that in cyber sex, if you are able to type fast, it means you have great legs, or a tight butt. In other words, written text becomes a weapon for cyberpower in virtual reality. Also, he concludes that the cyber battle is still going. It seems that if you are good at typing, you will be more able to construct your own identity in cyberspace. Although some clues may reveal one's gender, or even race in cyberspace, people have autonomy to establish their identity and fight under the new hierarchy system. Similarly, Mark Warschauer also raises some similar ideas with Jordan, but he focus on the racial identity. In his article Language, Identity and Internet, he claims language and dialect will reveal who you are in the virtual reality. The unequal access also causes people from the third world behind to establish their identity. Thus, who will speak for them? It is agreed to say that some people from poor regions are less likely to gain internet access, but the identity construction is still can be claimed as altered, at least for some regions, like China. With the economic development, Chinese are able to get in touch with this new technology and re-define themselves, rather than constructed by others. In Mark Poster's article, he also agrees that relationship between mind and body, subject and machine have changed. There will be a new political relationship within the cyberspace. Internet is the new platform for social politics, since subordinate group have a way to speak out, rather than determinate by the dominate group. Yet, it is not a utopian where everyone is placed in equal position, but at least it offers some people used to position as inferior, an opportunity to struggle for a new hierarchy system.

Conclusion
To conclude, the constructions of identity have not yet altered by information and communication technologies, but it is expected to do so in the future. While there are more subordinate groups gain accesses, the cyberpolitic is going to rewritten. A new hierarchy is going to form, since we are more likely to define by written text, but not the appearance. We gain more autonomy to define ourselves, and it certainly will alter the way of identity construction.

Reference:
Jordan,Tim. Cyberpower: The Culture and Politics in Cyberspace. Retrieved April 4, 2006, from http://www.isoc.org/inet99/proceedings/3i/3i_1.htm

Kahn, Richard and Douglas Kellner. Internet Subcultures and Oppositional Politics. Retrieved April 2, 2006, from http://richardkahn.org/writings/tep/internetsubculturesoppositionalpolitics.pdf

Mahoney,Judy E. and Nancy Nelson Knupfer. (1997). Language, Gender and Cyberspace: Pulling the Old Stereotypes into New Territory. Retrieved April 7, 2006, from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/26/fb/2c.pdf

Nakamura, Lisa. Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet. Retrieved April 3, 2006, from http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/nakamura.html

Poster, Mark. (1995). CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere. Retrieved April 3, 2006, from http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/democ.html


Warschauer, Mark. (2001, October). Language, identity and internet. Retrieved April 2, 2006, from http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/Motspluriels/MP1901mw.html