Exappropriation

By sarah | Published: May 26, 2011

Ce qui est absolument singulier chez chacun de nous, ce qui est absolument idiomatique, la signature disons, c’est paradoxalement ce que je ne peux pas me réapproprier. Ça m’est absolument propre, mais je ne peux pas me le réapproprier, c’est ça le paradoxe, et c’est ce qu’un film nous donne à penser. Le film me dit: tu ne peux pas te réapproprier cette chose-là. L’idiome, ton idiome absolu, ce que tu es, ce que tu penses, ce que tu dis depuis la première circoncision, tout cela qui est ton idiome, qui est ton propre absolu, eh bien c’est un propre qui n’apparaît qu’à l’autre et donc qui n’est pas réappropriable, tu ne peux pas te réapproprier ton propre, ton propre appartient à l’autre. Et le film, l’expérience du film, c’est ça, ça n’est pas à moi, non seulement ce n’est pas moi, mais ça n’est pas à moi et je ne peux pas posséder ça, je ne le veux pas et je ne le dois pas. Et je crois que cela a un rapport avec ce qui est dit de la coupure, de la circoncision, du sublime, etc., c’est que le plus propre ne se laisse pas réapproprier. C’est ce que j’appelle quelque part l’«exappropriation»

Jacques Derrida, livrant ses impressions sur le film D’ailleurs Derrida (de Saafa Fathy) suite à sa projection au Collège iconique de l’Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA, France), le 25 juin 2002. via Derrida en castellano – Trace et archive, image et art.

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“Trace et archive”

By sarah | Published: May 25, 2011

Le concept de trace est si général que je ne lui vois pas de limite, en vérité. Pour dire les choses très vite, il y a très longtemps, j’avais essayé d’élaborer un concept de trace qui fût justement sans limite, c’est-à-dire bien au-delà de ce qu’on appelle l’écriture ou l’inscription sur un support connu. Pour moi, il y a trace dès qu’il y a expérience, c’est-à-dire renvoi à de l’autre, différance, renvoi à autre chose, etc. Donc partout où il y a de l’expérience, il y a de la trace, et il n’y a pas d’expérience sans trace. Donc tout est trace, non seulement ce que j’écris sur le papier ou ce que j’enregistre dans une machine, mais quand je fais ça, tel geste, il y a de la trace. Il y a du sillage, de la rétention, de la protention et donc du rapport à de l’autre, à l’autre, ou à un autre moment, un autre lieu, du renvoi à l’autre, il y a de la trace. Le concept de trace, je le dis d’un mot parce que ça demanderait de longs développements, n’a pas de limite, il est coextensif à l’expérience du vivant en général. Non seulement du vivant humain, mais du vivant en général. Les animaux tracent, tout vivant trace. Sur ce fond général et sans limite, ce qu’on appelle l’archive, si ce mot doit avoir un sens dé limitable, strict, suppose naturellement de la trace, il n’y a pas d’archive sans trace, mais toute trace n’est pas une archive dans la mesure où l’archive suppose non seulement une trace, mais que la trace soit appropriée, contrôlée, organisée, politiquement sous contrôle. Il n’y a pas d’archives sans un pouvoir de capitalisation ou de monopole, de quasimonopole, de rassemblement de traces statutaires et reconnues comme traces. Autrement dit, il n’y a pas d’archives sans pouvoir politique.

Jacques Derrida, interrogé sur la différence entre la trace et l’archive lors d’un dialogue au Collège iconique de l’Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA, France), le 25 juin 2002. Via Derrida en castellano – Trace et archive, image et art.

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Interview with Ben Fry (Where 2.0 2011)

By sarah | Published: May 25, 2011

I found this on Nathan Yau’s excellent blog, Flowing Data. The video link comes from Ben Fry’s firm Fathom Design, and features a talk on data visualization with Mac Slocum, O’Reilly Radar’s editor. One of Fry’s answers will get anyone into media history, media ecology or mediology to watch the whole interview:

Q: A point that’s often raised…These tools put in in the hands of the wrong people will spreads misinformation. What’s your take on that?

A: I think it’s kind of funny… The same argument has been made with any technological leap since the beginning of time. Books printed in mass had a similar reaction. The internet came along and everybody could post things on the internet and wouldn’t that be the end of the world… The important thing is to focus on the literacy aspect of it. The more that people are doing the work—it all kind of goes to improve the conversation of what’s good, bad useful and what’s not.

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Excerpt from “Transhumanism Meets Design”, an Interview with Natasha Vita-More

By sarah | Published: May 23, 2011

What do you think are interesting nascent signals of biology extended through technology taking shape in current apps/services/products?

Usually a signal is a flashing red light, or a sharp sound. The nascent signals my brainwaves are picking up are somewhat invisible, but exceedingly active.  For example, it is as if the human body’s cells have formed a grassroots effort to merge with computer codes.  Moreover, to add to this narrative, it is fascinating that this morphosis is occurring at the very same time a large percentage of society is rejecting life extension, cryonics, and uploads.

So, on the one hand we are already extended and intertwined with our apps, and on the other hand, our old world thinking is reminding us that we simply do not like change. Most do not well understand life extension, cryonics, and human-computer integration, but a growing number are coming to understand and embrace living longer, these ideas.

What do you feel will be the important human questions for designers to consider as they architect services and devices for better living?

Rather than becoming a homogenized civilization, humans are becoming more diversified, cross-specialized and multi-dimensional.  We are no longer one person, one village, one profession, one gender. Each person is a mosaic of characteristics, styles and behaviors.  For better living, health comes first. All services and devices must stem from the objective of fostering a sense of well-being.  Sustaining life comes second.  “How does this service and/or product protect life?”

But this is just the beginning. Designers need to consider that people will want to live longer, and with vitality.  They may also want to co-exist in real time and virtuality, with sub-personas in either state. Important questions to ask pertain to identity, substrate and platform.

via Transhumanism Meets Design: Ethically Expanding Human Potential – PSFK. Interview with Natasha Vita-More conducted by Kyle Studstill, published May 3, 2011 on PSFK.

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Imagination, the Self and Mathematical Reasoning, according to Peirce

By sarah | Published: May 23, 2011

§1. Ground, Object, and Interpretant†1

227. Logic, in its general sense, is, as I believe I have shown, only another name for semiotic ({sémeiötiké}), the quasi-necessary, or formal, doctrine of signs. By describing the doctrine as “quasi-necessary,” or formal, I mean that we observe the characters of such signs as we know, and from such an observation, by a process which I will not object to naming Abstraction, we are led to statements, eminently fallible, and therefore in one sense by no means necessary, as to what must be the characters of all signs used by a “scientific” intelligence, that is to say, by an intelligence capable of learning by experience. As to that process of abstraction, it is itself a sort of observation. The faculty which I call abstractive observation is one which ordinary people perfectly recognize, but for which the theories of philosophers sometimes hardly leave room. It is a familiar experience to every human being to wish for something quite beyond his present means, and to follow that wish by the question, “Should I wish for that thing just the same, if I had ample means to gratify it?” To answer that question, he searches his heart, and in doing so makes what I term an abstractive observation. He makes in his imagination a sort of skeleton diagram, or outline sketch, of himself, considers what modifications the hypothetical state of things would require to be made in that picture, and then examines it, that is, observes what he has imagined, to see whether the same ardent desire is there to be discerned. By such a process, which is at bottom very much like mathematical reasoning, we can reach conclusions as to what would be true of signs in all cases, so long as the intelligence using them was scientific. The modes of thought of a God, who should possess an intuitive omniscience superseding reason, are put out of the question. Now the whole process of development among the community of students of those formulations by abstractive observation and reasoning of the truths which must hold good of all signs used by a scientific intelligence is an observational science, like any other positive science, notwithstanding its strong contrast to all the special sciences which arises from its aiming to find out what must be and not merely what is in the actual world.

via The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Electronic edition. :: Volume 2: Elements of Logic :: 2: Elements of Logic..

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Parallel Processing and Open Science

By sarah | Published: May 23, 2011

“As a society, we dont understand biology yet,” says Melanie Swan, a genomics researcher and principle at MS Futures Group in Palo Alto, California. As she sees it, there are all sorts of problems with the way we conduct biological research en masse. Individuals can gain huge amounts of information about their own genetic makeup, yet new drugs and treatments are developed very slowly because, in part, they have to be adapted for general use.

As a non-traditional scientist — she studied French, economics and finance before heading into the world of genes — Swan has decided to take a non-traditional approach. The answer, she suggests, is to push forward with studies where self-elected individuals who have already got their genomic data join in, acting as both subjects and participants. It allows those taking part, including Swan herself, to understand and monitor exactly what is happening, and massively reduces time and cost.

Swan’s projects have started small, with a seven-person pilot to explore the effects of vitamin B on the MTHFR gene, which has been linked to cancer and vascular diseases. But she has more than 40 possible studies outlined. “The traditional model is very slow: every different private research organisation builds its own data store of samples and its painstaking and expensive. It takes years and they dont share it with each other or with the public. How can we move forward in a 2.0 kind of way?”

via Open science: a future shaped by shared experience | Education | The Observer.

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Transparence

By sarah | Published: May 6, 2011

De tous les idéaux dont nous avons hérité des Lumières, la transparence est peut-être le seul à ne pas avoir été profondément remis en cause à l’époque contemporaine. Tout au contraire, là où d’autres notions utopiques ont prouvé leur incapacité à résister à la récupération totalitaire, l’idéal de la transparence n’en est ressorti que renforcé, devenant ainsi une sorte de valeur suprême, consensuelle et incontestée d’une époque qui se voudrait post-idéologique. En effet, jamais en avait-on autant appelé à un « devoir » de transparence, jamais n’avait-on autant invoqué un « droit » à la transparence. Jamais – tout à la fois – n’aura-t-on moins su ce que recouvre au juste ce terme qui rassemble sous sa bannière les revendications les plus contradictoires. Le cas WikiLeaks aura montré comment les propagateurs d’une idéologie de la transparence totale peuvent recevoir, dans leur contestation des médias traditionnels, un soutien massif de la part de dirigeants autocratiques.

Extrait de la présentation sur le thème de la transparence, telle qu’explorée par le plus récent numéro de la revue Appareil. Le concept me semble difficile à séparer d’une réflexion sur ce qui se voit et ce qui se dit. Comment alors discerner le couple «transparence/opacité» de «visible/invisible» ?

L’article d’Alexandre Klein dans la revue est peut-être un point de départ pour une réflexion sur l’imagerie du corps en et son histoire en médecine.

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Biotic Games

By sarah | Published: May 6, 2011

One of Riedel-Kruse’s recent article abstract states:

Games are a significant and defining part of human culture, and their utility beyond pure entertainment has been demonstrated with so-called ‘serious games’. Biotechnology – despite its recent advancements – has had no impact on gaming yet. Here we propose the concept of ‘biotic games’, i.e., games that operate on biological processes. Utilizing a variety of biological processes we designed and tested a collection of games: ‘Enlightenment’, ‘Ciliaball’, ‘PAC-mecium’, ‘Microbash’, ‘Biotic Pinball’, ‘POND PONG’, ‘PolymerRace’, and ‘The Prisoner’s Smellemma’. We found that biotic games exhibit unique features compared to existing game modalities, such as utilizing biological noise, providing a real-life experience rather than virtual reality, and integrating the chemical senses into play. Analogous to video games, biotic games could have significant conceptual and cost-reducing effects on biotechnology and eventually healthcare; enable volunteers to participate in crowd-sourcing to support medical research; and educate society at large to support personal medical decisions and the public discourse on bio-related issues.

from:

Riedel-Kruse, I. H., Chung, A. M., Dura, B., Hamilton, A. L., & Lee, B. C. (2011). Design, engineering and utility of biotic games. Lab on a Chip, 11(1), 14. doi:10.1039/c0lc00399a
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La monnaie vivante – Pierre Klossowki

By sarah | Published: April 30, 2011

L’objet fabriqué, contrairement au bien d’usage (naturel), quoiqu’il se conforme encore à quelque signification coutumière (p. ex. selon l’emploi de métaux ayant un sens emblématique), perd ce caractère à mesure que l’acte de fabriquer se diversifie. Diversifié selon sa complexité progressive, l’acte de fabriquer substitue à l’usage des biens (naturels ou cultivés) l’utilisation efficace des objets. Dès que l’efficacité fabricable l’emporte au niveau du profit, l’usage des biens naturels ou cultivés, qui définit ces biens par une interprétation coutumière, se révèle stérile; l’usage, c’est-à-dire la jouissance, en est stérile pour autant que ces biens sont jugés improductifs dans le circuit de l’efficacité fabricable. Ainsi l’usage du corps propre d’autrui dans le trafic d’esclaves s’est révélé improductif. À l’époque industrielle, la fabrication ustensilaire rompt définitivement avec le monde des usages stériles et installe le monde de l’efficacité fabricable en fonction de laquelle tout bien naturel ou cultivé – le corps humain autant que la terre – est à son tour évaluable.

Un extrait de La monnaie vivante (1970/1997) de Pierre Klossowki, publié aux éditions Payot et Rivages (p. 13-14). Le livre n’a pas été traduit en anglais, tâche qui me semble considérable à la pensée d’une plaquette dont les propos sont si courts et pourtant si denses. L’ouvrage est remarquable et très mémorable, même à la lecture de passages difficiles à comprendre.

Il serait très facile d’étendre la critique de Klossowski (envers «l’époque industrielle ») aux conséquences qu’impliquent toute instrumentalisation (des corps autant que des idées). Des possibilités d’analyse se dégageraient de beaucoup de contextes sans nécessairement les soumettre à un cadre d’interprétation inspiré de Marx. Le dénouement de The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) serait particulièrement intéressant à revoir de ce point de vue. Des schémas entiers pourraient se dessiner sur ces questions: qui ou qu’est-ce qui sert quoi (ou qui) ? Qui ou qu’est-ce qui résiste à quoi (ou qui) ? Où les deux questions convergent-elle en une seule ?

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DNA Sequencing Cost Falls

By sarah | Published: March 6, 2011

I found the news first on Slashdot to realize they’re  a little everywhere. Although they misleadingly tend to depict the contemporary cost of sequencing a genome as a cheap affair compared to what it was, the graphs, coming from the National Human Genome Research Institute, look surprising.

 

from NHGRI

From NHGRI

Details available on the NHGRI’s website.

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