Mediated Body and Embodied Technologies
Issue #4 Workshop | If (Decomposing TCP/IP): Recomposing Digital Bodies
Facilitator: fito_segrera
Time: 2016.9.3 10:00-18:00;2016.9.4 13:00-18:00
Venue: Chronus Art Center (Building 18, No 50 Moganshan Road, Shanghai)
Language: English
Price: 50 Yuan per person
Only 10-12 seats are available, please register in advance.
1.Introduction:
In this workshop, we will investigate wearable technology, focusing on haptic feedback systems, as a subject of the dynamics of data transmission over the internet and how the conscious act of pealing layers of protocols alters the information being transmitted, in ways which reveal a deeper understanding on how digital artifacts constantly generated by our biological bodies are mediated and reconstituted in post-digital art practices.
2.Conceptual Framework:
Various layers of rules, implemented over the internet protocol, enable the illusory experience of a constant and smooth stream of information, while in reality, the data transmission that moves through the intertwined net of nodes which embodies the web, flows rather like eruptions of packets. One could refer to the transceiving movement of information over the net as a process in which a digital object is fragmented, streamed as individual packets of data and finally reconstructed on its final destination. During the totality of this dynamics, each packet is subject to a number of micro-decisions and interruptions in the process; these micro-events exert a form of power over each fragment of the digital object being transmitted, influencing directly on its trajectory and arrival time.
Wearable computing devices are increasingly being embraced by today's societies. We connect layers of our biological features, social dynamics and other daily activities to the cloud, holding to the idea that our data is kept and processed in ways that will enhance our lives for the better. Living immersed in a mesh of devices, both wearable and stationary, results in the redefinition of the human body as an object in space; becoming something like a node in an information network. Our names are replaced by MAC and IP addresses, our health and social behaviors become sets of data, our entire experience is subjected to a network of communications, an infrastructure which in its own presents a series of problems both on the physical and virtual layers.
3. Technical Skills to Teach:
This workshop is more of a conceptual inquiry on some of the media-archaeological problems exposed earlier on this document, nonetheless a few set of programming skills will be taught in order to further understand the framework proposed.
3.1 Basic terminal commands for network inspection.
3.2 Programming with Python: basic packet transmission and system tools for networking purposes. 2.3 Demoing network tools: wireshark
4.General Requirements:
The workshop will be instructed entirely in English. If you don't feel comfortable with English its recommended to come with someone who helps you translate.
4.1 System Requirements:
The technical portion of workshop will be given using a UNIX based platform (LINUX or OSX) – Windows users are encouraged to install a partition with either UBUNTU LINUX. If you are comfortable with windows and can handle any software and dependencies installation processes by your own, then it is totally fine.
Python will be used for the network experiments we will be doing. OSX and LINUX machines are already equipped with python. If you use windows please make sure you download and install python if you don't have it:
https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
4.2 Required Basic Programming skills:
No previous programming skills are required for this workshop.
5.Course Program
DAY-1
10:00 – 12:00 Workshop Introduction, presentation and conceptual framework.
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break.
13:00 – 16:00 Network programming experiments and demos / python.
16:00 – 16:30 Short Break.
16:30 – 18:00 Group conformation. Brain storming of ideas and concept follow-up.
DAY-2
13:00 – 14:40 Group work on developed ideas for presentation.
14:45 – 15:00 Short Break.
15:00 – 18:00 Group presentations.
6. Socialization:
The participants will present their project ideas to the rest of the groups on the final day of the workshop. The groups are encouraged to do some testing and/or simple prototypes with the programming skills given, but in any case a presentation is more than enough.
7.Suggested Readings and Other Media:
SPRENGER FLORIAN, The Politics of Micro-Decisions: Edward Snowden, Net Neutrality, and the Architectures of the Internet:http://meson.press/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/9783957960412-Sprenger-The_Politics_of_Micro- Descisions.pdf
Facilitator's Bio
fito_segrera is an artist, technologist and Head of Research/Creation at Chronus Art Center, Shanghai. He studied fine arts and audiovisual / Multimedia production at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogotá, Colombia and completed a MFA in Design and Technology with honors at Parsons, The New School, New York, while being a Fulbright Scholar from 2013 until 2015. His current research and creative practice appropriates elements from digital philosophy, artificial intelligence, monism and modern physics while using physical computing, software programming and information/telecommunication technologies to inquiry in fundamental ontological questions regarding the nature of reality and the physicality of the universe. His main exhibitions are: West Bund Art Center Shanghai 2015, SIGGRAPH 2014 Canada, Collision 20 & 21 at Boston Ciberarts Gallery 2014, Huston International Performance Biennale 2014, SXSW Austin TX 2014, EYEBEAM New York 2013, Agora Collective Center Berlin 2013, Dorkbot NYC 2013, Harvestworks New York 2013, Salon Regional de Artistas del Caribe, Web 2.0 Espacios alternativos 2012, Ripping mix, burn, rip 2010, Bogotá Biennale 2009.
About < cac_lab >
< cac_lab > is a pace dedicated to the inquiry of present-day matters regarding art,design, science, technology and their impact on global contemporary culture an society. Through artistic practice, technological tools and research methods, we enable creative processes that result in works of art of high production and academic value. < cac_lab > is a space of flux which encourages artistic practice as a generator of new knowledge, a territory where art and science converge into a contemporary and experimental field of academic research; free from main stream cultural thought, technological stress and economical diversions.
http://lab.chronusartcenter.org
About Mediated Body and Embodied Technologies
“Mediated Body and Embodied Technologies (M.B.E.T.)” is an open-source practice repository and research process addressing the various mechanisms and possibilities of human future mediated by technologies. Started by reflecting and speculating on the relation between the enacted and the represented as well as the virtual and the real (a contingent production rather than a natural inevitability), M.B.E.T. brings back embodiment into the picture to investigate if/how the forms/media of embodiment are relevant in the production of identity and subjectivity as well as the circulation and communication of information. In the spirit of open source, it tries to create a fluid and evolving space in which practitioners and researchers from different areas can come together and contribute in this creative exploration.
Mediated Body and Embodied Technologies(M.B.E.T.) is organized by Bruce Bo Ding, Public Programs, CAC.
