Database: An Aesthetics of Dignity by Sharon Daniel

“The problem of the role of the observer in physics and cybernetics is parallel to the problem of authorship and representation in art.”

This proposes a dramatic interfacing of Foucault with the discourse of cybernetics. As a subjective being I have trouble with this collapsing of subjectivity into a unifying environmental condition. This collapse of the individual and the social by means of observing the emergent phenomena depreciates defining self in terms of difference. While the rules that govern each individual autonoma may be identical the environment does not grant identical initial conditions. ie: the autonoma in game of life do not start in an identical positions. One can define self in terms of difference even in a system from which outside observation points to the subject only finding meaning in the context of the interrelations and dependence.

The devaluation of the originator is valid from the point of view of an outside critical observation of the larger system, but one should preference this “observation” by simultaneously validating the subject who feels they are an originator. For these systems operate precisely because we have that subjective validation.

I am not sure that collective collaborative systems really escape all forms of author validation. Is their really that big of a difference between a subject explicitly participating in a collaborative text, and a subject affecting a texts discourse though “usage” of the text and their subjective position? Does this “shift” really promote anything new? Validating marginal viewpoints in some ways loses relevance if the author function is merely a commentary on the interdependent and interrelated subjects. Because the author has been de-privileged, the reader can use an arbitrary text to reclaim most marginal from the most aristocratic and dehumanizing.

That being said, without means to self-represent marginal positions no shifts in humanization or representation can take place. The “marginalized” would continue to be deprivileged and left with only the ability to “reclaim text” in silence without social acknowledgment.

side note: I liked the butterfly engineering site… reminded me of some of the glowing fish sites, although as far as I know they do actually do sell GM florescent fish.

Reading for Plot, Peter Brooks

Peter Brooks addressed narrative function and plots. I was interested in how plot structure can align a narrative to a certain outcome or meaning.

“Plots are not simply organizing structures they are also intentional structures, goal oriented and forward moving” (pg 12)

This goal orientation of plots is visible to me in an article I recently read about the troubles of fitting the US invasion and occupation of Iraq into the subscribed narrative. The article was written by Mark Danner, for the new York review, here is a short excerpt that addresses the conflict of plot being presented in the visual corporate media.

During the more than two years since the Iraq war began Americans have seen on their television screens its four major turning points: the fall of Baghdad, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the "transfer of authority" to the interim Allawi government, and now the Iraq elections. Each has been highly successful as an example of the management of images—the toppling of Saddam's statue, the intrusive examination of the unkempt former dictator's mouth and beard, the handing of documents of sovereignty from coalition leader L. Paul Bremer to Iraqi leader Iyad Allawi, the voters happily waving their purple fingers— and each image has powerfully affirmed the broader story of what American leaders promised citizens the Iraq war would be. They promised a war of liberation to unseat a brutal dictator, rid him of his weapons of mass destruction, and free his imprisoned people, who would respond with gratitude and friendship, allowing American troops to return very quickly home.

"The real problem is the story here can't be shown in images,"

Bellow I have collected some of these images and put them in sequence. So well constructed is the plot of liberation, that criticism becomes irrelevant. At best criticism becomes a side note in the overall goal oriented forward moving narrative. The plot dictates the outcome more than the outcome dictates the outcome. As brooks explains: “Plot is thus the dynamic shaping force of the narrative discourse”. Hence the continual reiteration of the plot supersedes events or actions and becomes the discourse of the narrative.

The Iraq Narrative in Sequence: