#criticaltechnicalpractice

[quentinquaadgras]

96 --- CTEC critique

A student from my class recently blogged about the creative technologies studio paper and some of the concerns they have with it [1]. I can relate with many of the points Oscar makes and I would like to share my own point of view which may compliment Oscar’s thoughts.

“What I do not see the value of is spending a majority of our time in studio drawing our feelings on paper, playing with string and making paper boxes to help us understand concepts that are just as easily grasped through verbal communication in far less time” --- Oscar Randle

I think drawing our feelings on paper, playing with string and making paper boxes are all effective methods of exploring concepts (when used appropriately). I don’t feel like these methods have been used in the studio paper appropriately, some of the activities feel forced, these activities are being used in an attempt to engage the students. Unfortunately it is reducing my engagement.

“Sometimes I feel like i’m back in primary school.” --- Oscar Randle

There are some very good aspects of primary school, hands on learning, emphasis on creativity and exploration. The fact that this paper shares these values is not a bad thing. Instead I would point to situations when the class is asked “What did you learn this week?”. At university, learning does not consist of simply knowing that ‘America is a country’. University learning is at a much higher level where understanding and concepts are very important. A response such as “I learnt about Wi-Fi!“ does not capture the spectrum of research, concepts and understanding which should accompany the statement.

“It was my impression that these next three weeks were supposed to be about forming our groups and developing a concept for our project. But what have we done so far?”  --- Oscar Randle

This is a good point. I made comments to one of the lecturers last semester that it would be nice to have more activities where we can get to know other people in the class. There have definitely been more activities this semester but they have not been ideal for getting to know people. I do know quite a few people in the studio but there is still half of the class who could be wanting to work on a project which I would be interested in and I would not even know. I do think it would be healthy in such a studio environment for us to be forced into teams with people we do not know so well.

My main critique of Creative Technologies here is that the lecturers all appear to have different views and visions for the subject. There is a claim that this is good, having people from different fields is good, they have a different set of ideas. I believe having different ideas is only a strength when there is a common goal. It is essential that the field is formalised so that each lecturer can integrate their expertise into a defined subject. Personally, I believe that the subject should transition into a study/application of connections and interactions. If there is no formalisation, I worry for the future of this course.

Footnotes [1] https://synergybct.tumblr.com/post/163941384580/critiquing-this-semesters-studio

[taliabct]

Creative Technologists need to extend beyond and collaborate with others to innovatively respond to social norms supportive of big issues.

“Technical work is performed in and by communities.” – Philip E. Agre (as cited in Agre, 1997)

“…an individual needs to have strength in two dimensions….. a depth of skills that allows for tangible contributions; and also empathy for people and for disciplines beyond one’s own (expressed as openness, curiosity, optimism, a tendency toward learning through doing, and experimentation).” - Brown and Wyatt (as cited in Wilson & Zamberlan, 2015)

“To conduct critical practice, one must always look at their practice in relation to the context and their community, who they are working with, and those in and out of their field. “the maker questions what s/he is making, its aesthetic value, how it fits in the world, how it develops, how one writes about it, debates it, and engages with the rest of one’s community.”” – Rosie Greenlees (as cited in Wilson & Zamberlan, 2015)

Reflection

The first challenge was overcoming my confusion with the brief and how to connect and balance the ideas in Agre’s text with the Boot-camp. I had to re-read and pull apart the brief several times by myself and with others to understand what was required of me.

Although I understood how the Boot-camp was supposed to connect with the text, I personally felt it was a poor practical for us to apply Agre’s theories from the text. However, its lack highlighted to me further how essential Agre’s ideas are to developing a Critical Technical Practice.

I chose to do an infographic because I felt it would best depict the process of collaboration visually. Furthermore, they are attractive, approachable and easy to understand as they combine both text and imagery.

My infographic can be categorised into 4 sections which I think encapsulates the basic process of collaboration in a Critical Technical Practice: 1) Identify problem and approach, 2) Collaboration to broaden lens, 3) Context: how does my response relate to my community of discipline and the world? 4) Outcome: paradigm shift to social norms overtime.

Creating the infographic was a learning curve because I had to reflect about its content and display, and pull on my previous knowledge of design and Sangeeta’s Visual Communication lecture to aid me.

Because the topic is so rich, it was hard to be selective about what ideas to include and I had to cull it down to the essentials. I struggled with how much text to include in the infographic. I decided to put less text because I felt the imagery could depict the message simplistically and effectively. Upon reflection, this may narrow my audience as the ideas presented are quite complex and unless you’ve read Agre’s text, the visual depiction may be too subtle.

Main Authoritative Reference:

Wilson, S., & Zamberlan, L. (2015). Design for an Unknown Future: Amplified Roles for Collaboration, New Design Knowledge and Creativity. Design Issues, 31(2), 3-15.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c57dfb19-ee0b-4204-a4c7-6d2e0a2e094a%40sessionmgr4008&vid=2&hid=4102

Others References:

Core Text

Agre, P. 1997. Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI. In Bowker et al (Eds.); Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work. Erlbaum

Social Norms Approach

World Health Organisation (2009). Changing Cultural and Social Norms that Support Violence. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/norms.pdf

Paradigm Shift

Harrington, J. L. (2009), Technology and Society, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, USA, Chapter 1: Generating Change, pg 6-8

[mel-bct]

Critical Technical Practice

Explanation of poster: My poster towards violence specifically in the Auckland region is to identify not only the victims that are being verbally and physically abused, but to acknowledge the idea that people today have in their minds, that all problems are solved once the government acts upon it; Or creates a law to have consequences upon people who are violent towards others. Violence is still happening with laws in place. Having the governments influence is important, but shouldn’t be the only solution to this issue. People must WANT to make the change for themselves if they know their behavior is illegal. In my opinion, I think that social groups today should be targeting more specifically on helping others be aware of their actions, and taking accountability for their actions. Throwing a person in jail isn’t helping the individual for their crime. Communicating, and showing them the impact their actions cause allows them to be more aware and respectful towards other human beings in future. Building compassion to respect people is key, not locking them in a cell and hoping for the best.

Reflection: 

After reading Philip E Agre’s reflection toward Critical Technical Practice about ten times, I managed to interpret his writings and write detailed notes about each of his paragraphs. The main idea’s I gathered were:  

-        Technology is everywhere and continuously aiming to reinvent what has come before it. We must understand what has already been done so that we can be successful when creating in the future.

-        Technology will always be contributing to the growth of knowledge and evolution within practice.

-        Technology can be a way to solve issues we currently face in the world today. But it can’t be done without dedication and hard work towards the creative practice itself. Repetition of reflection and prototyping methods aid creating successful work.

-        Critical technical practice is made up of design + innovation of work AND original ideas/plans + purpose/intentions/outcomes + critique/reflection.  They both play a part.

From reading this, I used his ideas to help draft a procedure for myself for working not only on the boot-camp work during ICT, but also for the procedure we used for creating our final studio submission.

In relation to our theme within the boot-camp exercise, (Violence within Auckland), I began to identify the issue. Researching what violent issues/events have actually happened within Auckland, New Zealand and in general. Agre’s text has taught me that to solve issues, we must first understand what the issue is, what or who it is made up of, and what or who it is impacting. For example, with violence within Auckland, I researched what type of violence specifically is more common, and what type of victims are being impacted. I found that the most common type of violence was physical abuse against women and children within the Auckland South region.

From here I went onto researching what was causing the violence in the first place. Was it alcohol or drug use Or did it have something to do with a mental illness or behaviour disorder? Agre’s text has allowed me to think differently towards new issues that we face in general and with technology. I have learned to pick apart situations in a more in-depth way, by breaking down the issue in a process where I can create a way to make a solid solution.

From here my research led to the conclusion that physical and verbal violence specifically was mostly alcohol related, which then in turn affected the persons behaviour. Some individuals do have emotional disorders that affect their behaviour which can lead to abuse of some kind against others without alcohol consumption at all, but most commonly alcohol is the key factor towards physical abuse.

Now that I had identified my issue, who it impacts and what the cause is of the issue, I can now begin to craft a way to create a solution. I went on to researching ways to help prevent the violence with all this knowledge in mind. I found some online such as panic alarm buttons, and impenetrable clothing items. But I also came up with some solutions of my own that I could aid society in protection against violence, such as having violence protection imbedded in the school curriculum. Giving younger generations knowledge of how to protect themselves and how to prevent violence in the future. Or child friendly games as a physical approach to teaching children about violence. Also games directed at people who have already committed violence to help change their approach to people in the future.

In conclusion, the text we read after I could understand it, allowed me to think more critically towards issues we face in today’s society. Rather than focusing on making a pretty garment to solve all world problems, I picked a part one step at a time starting very basic by researching violence in general and in Auckland, and figure out what exactly the factors were that was allowing the violence to take place, and then coming up with a tactful solution to the issue with that knowledge in mind.

References that impacted my critical views: 

- http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/90617751/police-organisers-investigate-violence-at-aucklands-polyfest

- https://www.nzfvc.org.nz/node/2741

- https://nzfvc.org.nz/family-violence-statistics#data-summaries INCLUDING:

      1 https://nzfvc.org.nz/data-summaries/violence-against-women

       2 https://nzfvc.org.nz/data-summaries/family-violence-deaths

- http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/family-violence/help

- http://www.awrefuge.org.nz/dvinfo.htm

IMAGES: of note taking and ideas/research

[tong-yu-blog1]

Critical technical practice

Crimes in Auckland and the way to reduce it—or even make it worse

—Intro—

When we say something “critical”, it means we must both accept its good side and negative side. We have exactly no choice.

—Crimes in Auckland—

  Everyday 180 burglaries become unsolved in Auckland, and will stay unsolved ever [8].   The clear up rate of Auckland City is only 7.3%, which is the second worst in NZ [8].   A tenth of the police stations in the country never solved a case in half a year [8].   Residents are, however, used to it.   Is there anyway to stop crimes forever?   Well, no. Whatever you do, what measures you take, crime just happens. Strict laws or enhanced police forces could help, but no that much—they are limited by the government budget and human’s nature to conflict with each other—which is taken as a easy way to solve “problems”. Technical ways, however creative they are, are not able to solve the problems forever.   But if the question is, could technologies do help reduce crimes, such as car accidence or robberies?   The answer is: yes.   And many ways to do so.   Such as, perhaps the most handsome one, surveillance cameras.

—What is a surveillance camera?—

  Fixed permanently for monitoring important places, like cross roads, highways or home, no salary needed, work 24 a day, and always in good condition. They are surveillance cameras.   New technology allows advanced software programs run automatically, which frees people from the surveillance work and are able to recognize the suspect from crowd in seconds. An advanced camera surveillance system technically reduce severe crimes and increase the police clear-up rates, which leads to less violence or human accidents.   That is what do help reduce violence in Auckland.   And that is what the Chinese government do.

—Supporting data: What government does in China—

  No country holds more road surveillance cameras than China, which makes almost every accident, no matter car crash, robbery or murder soon to be noticed and dealt by the police force.   People also found cameras every corner of their office building or community gardens, might happen to face to someone’s window. Which also sounds, a little creepy.

—In Auckland—

  Auckland are guarded by, perhaps, a few dozens of safety cameras [4], if didn’t misunderstand. It may do help the insurance industry develop, but not quite a funny thing to the resident’s safety [5].   The police may take “no evidence” as a excuse, even you know that it was your neighbor came into your house stealthily yesterday, or the same drunk man robbed you last week, and you just met him at the bar.   Also no privacy problems, if not do private things on crossroads.

—What we call good side of camera surveillance—

  Insurance companies may refund your computer, but your program data gone forever. That is it. You may ask: why can’t we prevent the kind of crimes before that take place?   Easy, a system of 390,000 safety cameras, which built to make sure every thousand people guarded by 20 cameras will do so [2]. That was the data provided to describe camera systems in the city of Beijing, in the year of 2009 which was eight years ago. Most crossroads, public places, shops and communities are also monitored by plenty of cameras. Police and the road measuring department even developed different cameras for different reasons: electro policemen, traffic surveillance, snapshots, and for the “skynet”—The Chinese police surveillance system (yes it is the name). Nearly all the cameras are equipped with high resolution cams that are able to catch passerby faces at a distance; plus, most of the cameras are with LED lights for night surveillance [7].   It needs to be very brave to commit crimes in China cities most of the time. The camera is watching you.   It is hard for police to avoid the trouble to catch a burglar, as long as you show them the cameras next to your doorway. Well, thieves do survive even with the camera system. Not very happily, though.   Perfect, isn’t it?   Then the only problem left is just one—

—Do the surveillance cameras also harm something when against crime, such as, human rights?—

  The straight answer is: yes.   Italian citizens fight against the police building the camera surveillance system and see it as an invasion of privacy (2014) [9]. It is.   Cameras or drones without permission may enter private places and video others secrets. You have a chance to win the case by suing the annoying guys, but what if it was the government videoing you?   Well, you may also…have a chance, literately.

—End—

  The cameras, equipped with newest technologies and enough budget, is considered as a capable opponent to the criminals; but, however, also a dreadful tool for the government to monitor nearly everything of the residents. The satellites are now dominating the high sky and can see everything at the open ground on earth; and newest researches even tell there is a possibility ultrasonic waves could be used to detect the accurate image of the human activities inside confined space. People in 19 century could not imagine live under thousands of cameras being monitored by strangers; and few decades later, we may lose our home as the final private space.   Will that happen?   Is it deserve to pay the price?   Might be a little distant to us.   So just think about the surveillance cameras. We are now controlling them, but without awareness, things may go worse than worst expects.

—Reference— [1] http://blog.renren.com/share/325914232/14957472224 [2] http://security.zol.com.cn/359/3591466.html  “Distribution density of cameras in China (2009)” [3] https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5076383465 [4] http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/driving-and-road-safety/speed-limits-cameras-and-enforcement/safety-cameras/safety-camera locations “safety camera locations in Auckland, updating” [5] http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/76745138/Police-slammed-for-not-doing-enough-to-solve-burglaries “Police slammed for not doing enough to solve burglaries” [6] https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5076383465 [7] http://jingyan.baidu.com/article/d7130635d7125313fdf4758c.html “different kinds of road cameras” [8] http://www.skykiwi.com/e/wap/show.php?classid=5&id=230987 “180 burglaries unsolved in Auckland everyday (up to 25 Nov 2016)” [9] https://www.zhihu.com/question/23722073 “How do you see police spend money on surveillance cameras”

[matthewblandnz]

ICT: Visual Essay

Visual Essay Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUsYAcsTSI&feature=youtu.be

Caption:

The above video covers aspect of using creative technologies and a short reading by Philip E Agre to solve real world problems such as alcohol fueled violence.

Reflection:

Throughout this assignment I initially struggled to understand the short reading by Philip E Agre. 

Once I had finally dissected and understood the text, I could properly start building my visual essay. 

Despite having little trouble writing a script around my idea, it quickly dawned on me how one can learn about and from a project simply by attempting it as talked about in the short reading, it put the text into context and made me more aware of this fascinating perspective.

I also greatly underestimated the amount of different visuals required in my method of building a visual essay. A vast amount of images and visuals were needed simply to accompany my audio, let alone express or convey the point being made.

Other factors also came into play however when selecting visuals. I had to think about ideas such as, ‘Does this picture actually represent this dialog?’ and ‘Can I re-use this image later?’ As I did this I found that I wasn’t being very critical of myself, despite attempts to be so, I attempted to seek out other examples of visual essays online and guides on the use of effective and appropriate imagery.

Through such examples and guides, I realized that my problem wasn’t ‘Am I asking questions’ but more ‘Am I asking the right questions?’ and when I realized this, I found that although those questions are relevant, they are not nearly as useful as others, such as: ’How would the viewer interpret this?’ or ‘Is this too confusing’.

My learning outcomes from the visual essay are that I understand more about being critical, more about how visual interactions can be used to convey a point with far more clarity, and more about learning from your own work.

Authoritative Reference:

*du Preez, K. P., Landon, J., Bellringer, M., Garrett, N., & Abbott, M. (2016).  

The Effects of Pop-up Harm Minimisation Messages on Electronic Gaming Machine Gambling Behaviour in New Zealand. Journal of gambling studies, 32(4), 1115-1126.

[ic3mprs]

Never the Answer (Violence).

My visual essay is a poster highlighting the consequences of violence and most notably domestic violence. Each image represent different outcomes of violence. From getting arrested to family separations, these are the main parts focused on within my poster.

Doing this assignment, I’ve learned that I needed a lot of research in order to have an understanding of what violence is. But aside from research, a better understanding would come from different experiences and point of views from people who’s experienced this certain crisis. Growing up, I’ve always known about violence (and most commonly domestic violence). This knowledge led me to think about what kind of things I can input into my visual essay in order to not only have an impact the youth, but also our community as well. Growing up, the police wasn’t (and still isn’t) the most liked people in the world; that is why I had red and blue as the main colors for my poster. Next, I examined different fears and or negativity that us as humans have. What I’ve come upon was the fear of death, losing those you loved and being alone. That is why I have images that represent each of those aspects within my poster.

My poster is not only meant to impact teenagers and adults but also children as well. I do assure you that my intentions are good and not meant to scare, but to me that is the harsh reality of it. I’ve learned that this generation is more vulnerable and exposed to technology as well as the media and all its ugly truths. That is why my poster is bluntly exposing the truth about violence. Hopefully the people of not only New Zealand, but the world would see this and come to a realisation that we need to change for the future.

[1] Agre, P. 1997 Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI.

[2] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11634543

[3] http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/05/nzs-most-violent-city-spots-revealed.html

[ic3mprs]

Critical Technical Practice (Boot Camp)

Quick understanding of “Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI” by Philip E. Agre (1997)

My comprehension (simple summary)

Technology has become a norm within different societies used and integrated into day-to-day activities. Computers being the most common, those who design them give them the main functions of virtually recreating everything we do in our daily lives (well at least the hassles). Of course not everyone has the same mentalities (causing confrontations and arguments), in which some people prefer manual labor and or different methods. So in order for societies to advance, people must come to an understanding of having a mixture of both technological and physical work. One must also be accepting of change (AI most likely) for it will create future conveniences, opportunities and advancements.

Violence in Auckland

violence

1. behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something."violence erupted in protest marches"synonyms:brutality, brute force, roughness, ferocity, fierceness, savagery, cruelty, sadism, barbarity, barbarousness, brutishness, murderousness, bloodthirstiness, ruthlessness, inhumanity, heartlessness, pitilessness, mercilessness;

Statistics New Zealand has mapped 2015 police crime data, released to Newshub under the Official Information Act, to show the areas with the highest number of assaults, sexual assaults and robberies in public places.

The crimes include anything from rape to being beaten up or being robbed of your cellphone at knife-point.

Three of the five most violent city areas (precincts where there are more than 3000 residents) are in Auckland's CBD.

[liamcreativetech]

Critical Technical Practice

The concept from Agre’s text that I will be focusing on is the role of technology as a means of interacting with others, and how social media and networks act as an extension of human interaction.  “[Some] technologies are so ubiquitous - found contributing to the evolution of the activities and relationship of so many distinct site of practice - that we have no idea how to begin reckoning their effects upon society. Computers fall into the category of ubiquitous technologies. Computers are representational artifacts, and the people who design them often by construction representations of the activities that are found in the sites where they will be used. In this sense computing has been constituted as a kind imperialism; it aims to reinvent virtually every other site of practice in its own image.”

Facebook is the largest social media network, in New Zealand more than half of the population checks Facebook every single day. [1] It serves as an extension of how we interact with other people. Humans are innately social, our evolution into social creatures is widely regarded as being tied to an increase in intelligence[3]. As our consciousness became more sophisticated, so too did the risks others posed to us. Motives and deception had to be sense for survival, and like all instincts that protect us, there are massive natural selection pressures. This means that they have a huge effect on us, in life or death situations we experience the same instincts as early proto-humans. [5][7] Because our social cognition was so tied to survival, it is a huge part of our life. Your social standing informs your daily experience, and can be the difference between enjoying life and not. We are hardwired to maintain social relationships through rituals like gossiping about others [6].

Globally a 1.94 billion people use Facebook. Its influence has reached every corner of the globe, and growth has been increasing exponentially since it was created. [2] This is because it has created a new frontier of social interaction, Facebook is its own landscape for interpersonal relationships. It adds new dimensions to one of the core human experiences, and as soon as one person in a social circle joins, there is instant evolutionary incentive for everyone else to join as well. This connects to the passage of Agre’s writing “Computers are representational artifacts, and the people who design them often by construction representations of the activities that are found in the sites where they will be used. In this sense computing has been constituted as a kind imperialism; it aims to reinvent virtually every other site of practice in its own image.”

Facebook is a representational application, our brains see it like interacting with others because it has boiled down the premise of interaction, it represents communication with others and the maintenance of social circles. Beyond that, it has even added to our perception of these social structures. It has taken away some ambiguity of social structures, it gives us insight into the people around us, something that we all secretly wanted (hence the addictive pull of social media), but maybe didn’t need. Has Facebook improved the way we socialise, or just given our cavemen brains a hit of dopamine that was intended for a mammoth hunt.

Facebook has become a part of standard social interaction between people, it has integrated and now has control over these social instincts. The cocktail of brain chemicals that we would get from talking to someone for the first time and becoming friends is now triggered by a Facebook notification - a representation of an interaction. Wishing someone happy birthday on Facebook is not only common, but a social obligation.

Because Facebook is a representation, its mechanisms and experience does differ from that of traditional human relationship. The obvious distance from another human being means that there is no threat of immediate physical violence, another of our key instincts. There is an inherent disconnection from other people.

The representations of these social interactions have become abstractions. This opens the door for the negative side of social interaction to thrive: Facebook has made bullying easier than ever. This is violence in Auckland that goes almost unnoticed, and New Zealand has alarmingly high rates; three in five women in their late teens have been harassed or bullied online [8].

Regarding the role of technology in place of traditional practice in new sites, Agre writes that “[Some] technologies are so ubiquitous - found contributing to the evolution of the activities and relationship of so many distinct site of practice - that we have no idea how to begin reckoning their effects upon society.” This is definitely true for Facebook, designed to be a useful and engaging representation and tool for social interaction, it has had unforeseen effects on human societies and interpersonal relationship conventions.

[1]: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/90005751/how-many-kiwis-are-on-Facebook

[2]: http://www.benphoster.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Facebook-User-Growth-Chart.png

[3]:https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/SchallerParkKenrick2007.doc&gws_rd=cr&ei=TvxGWYDuF8T88gWZsZ-oDg

[5]:https://hbr.org/1998/07/how-hardwired-is-human-behavior

[6]:http://nca.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0363775032000133782

[7]:http://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5843/1360.full

[8]: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11612551