10: Lè Tour of Latour

In his article, Bruno Latour sets out to determine exactly what a network is. He explains that the term ‘network’ is misunderstood, that the network does not describe an infrastructural setup like a telephone network or subway.

He defines the characteristics of a network as distant, having compulsory paths and having strategically positioned nodes – quite different from the  previously outlined understanding of the network through the metaphor of a telephone network.

Whilst the Actor-Network Theory does not subscribe to ‘vague all encompassing sociological terms’, it is aimed at describing the very nature of societies.

Latour goes on to describe the network as a live entity. That the nodes of the networks have an infinite number of dimensions and connections – that they are versatile and are not restricted to interacting in a certain way.

After about the 3rd page, my brain started to hurt and I felt like I was trying to comprehend the 4th dimension… Cheers Latour

Nice try, Shifty McGee.

Well, well, well. It would appear that merely posting about not going to the symposium will satisfy the participation requirements, eh?

Then surely, re-inception-ating such a post and posting about a post about not going will more than gratify the checklist, if not…geh.

08 Reading: Potts//Murphie

Culture and Technology, where do we begin?

The main points I took from the Potts, Murphie reading were:
– Technologies play a prominent role in defining a society and determining where that society goes in the future.
– For technology to remain relevant, it must adapt to changing social conditions.
–  Technology does not simply refer to the evolution of gadgetry that is always present in society, but more so to the technological age, in which everything around us (the entire developed world) is a form of technology and we are forever entwined with this technology.
–  Our technology is our culture and our culture is our technology; as the world moves in this never-ending technological vortex, it is likely that technology will now forever be a part of who we are, and we will seek to create technologies that we are as much a part of.

That part of YouTube…

So… last night I was perusing through YouTube and I ended up in THAT WEIRD PART.

I don’t know when exactly I strayed from ‘normal’ and reached ‘downright strange’ but all I know is that I became truly lost.

I’m sure everyone has experienced this before. You start with a video you intended to watch and after viewing a couple of seemingly harmless ‘related’ videos you end up fatigued, thirsty and without a damned clue where you are.

Becoming lost on YouTube is a lot like being lost in a forest. At night. With creepy noises. Quite often you’ll be scared, whether it is because of the sheer irrelevance of what you’re watching or whether is it the fact that you honestly have no idea where the last hour(s) of your life went.

Below is one of ‘those’ videos that made me realise I seriously need to sort my shit out…