Work

meh-Reading01

4. The Critical Engineer looks beyond the "awe of implementation" to determine methods of influence and their specific effects.

I resonate with this tenet a lot especially because we are in a time when we are surrounded by more and more technology. We often hear about how technology advancement brings positive change to their daily life, but fails to realize the possible negative consequences of our abuse of the technology.

One great example is the rise of big data and machine learning. The rise of extremism recent year could be seen as a direct but highly ignored consequence of such comfort. When AI knows our political preferences and only caters to our preferences, we are pushed more and more to the extreme and thus an invisible wall is created that stop us from hearing different voices. While big data and machine learning brings more personalization to our daily life and create a much more effortless living environment, we are at the same time more and more confined in our comfort zone.

sansal-reading01

I selected tenet number 5, "The Critical Engineer recognizes that each work of engineering engineers its user, proportional to that user's dependency upon it."

This means that engineers and their engineering projects form a sort of symbiotic relationship, both relying on each other and making each other better. The first thing I thought of when I read this tenet was Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, in a way relating to engineers and their work, where both have an equivalent effect on one another. One example of this is machine learning. In machine learning, humans program a machine to perform some tasks, and learn from each of those tasks so that is builds a basic form of AI and is able to accomplish much more difficult tasks independently. Eventually, the machine will be able to teach the human (the creator) how to do those tasks, which illustrates this dependent relationship.

meh-lookingoutwards01

Sword Experience is an art installation piece by Red Paper Heart studio, inspired by the HBO series, Game of Thrones. They were asked to convey Arya Stark's journey in becoming an assassin. To create the piece they created custom graphics engine, written in the C++ framework Cinder, blends both 2d and 3d visual elements which are then masked by the user's own photo. The final artwork is then uploaded to a server and available for sharing the moment a user steps off stage.

This interactive game really inspires me because it not only maintain a high artistic craftsmanship but also creates a world that remains true to the original story. As commercial interactive ins is becoming more and more popular, the criteria in the field should be more about what quality can we achieve from and what meaning can we assign to the interactive technology. This piece successfully tells a very poetic story through very simple interaction.

Link: https://redpaperheart.com/work/swordexperience

sansal-lookingoutwards01

One major project that inspired me to take this class was the teamLab lecture and presentation last year. Their BORDERLESS installation in the MORI building in Tokyo was incredible (though I have not had the chance to visit in person, I am referencing the images presented during the lecture and on their website). TeamLab specializes in large-scale installations, incorporating both art and computer science into an interactive experience that is different for each viewer, as it relies heavily on user movement and actions. As a student interested in both art and computer science, and pursuing a degree in BCSA, this project seemed like a perfect harmony of the two disciplines, combining them in a way I never thought of before. I do not know the exact number of people involved in making it, but it must be a few hundred people involved in the entire process. To my knowledge, all of the computer graphics, artwork, and sound are created by teamLab, using custom scripts to program the entire installation. The project's creators might have been inspired by Japanese folk stories and cultural tales, as well as cultural objects of Japan. The project points to more connections and collaboration between computer scientists and artists, and the coming up of a more technological and interactive world.

https://borderless.teamlab.art/ , BORDERLESS, teamLab.

gray-Reading1

Critical Engineering Manifesto, Tenet 4: "The Critical Engineer looks beyond the 'awe of implementation' to determine methods of influence and their specific effects."

I take this tenet to mean basically "Don't believe the hype." Especially in the tech industry, there's an almost religious obsession with new products and new systems (blockchain, cryptocurrency, machine learning, VR, quantum computing, etc.). Often, despite the novelty of these inventions, the applications they are used for quickly become cliche, and the tech becomes much more important than the project.

I'm glad that I found this advice, and I hope to follow it. I want to be sure that each creative project that I do has a purpose beyond trying out a new piece of technology. I'm also interested in the second half of this tenet; they emphasize influence strongly as if it is the most important aspect of a project. I definitely want to consider influence more, but I don't know if I feel like it should be the top priority.

Zapra – Critical Engineering Manifesto

"2: The Critical Engineer raises awareness that with each technological advance our techno-political literacy is challenged."

As expressed in this tenet, it is the role of the Critical Engineer to consider how new technology inevitably influences society in relation to law and politics. As advancing technology continues to expand our capabilities, the methods in which we handle data collection, privacy, and personal information must be repeatedly reevaluated. The progression of geolocation tech, for example, advances us towards a world in which anyone can be located and identified at any time. Subsequently, it's our responsibility to assert that our code of conduct relating to privacy and PII change accordingly. By our further advancement of technology, we must look beyond the scope of the project to consider the sociopolitical effects.