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Mosso Ergograph
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<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12489 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>The Mosso Ergograph (1890) was invented by Angelo Mosso to measure the optimum stage of muscular performance in human beings. Mossos's main interest in the instrument was because of its potential to measure fatigue. However, it also enabled the testing of many complex variables and their effects on muscular strength, such as a lack of food, sleep, forced marches, mental fatigue, and the effect of substances such as coffee, sugar, and even emotional affect. The Mosso Ergograph was, however, deemed too problematic and was phased out of physiological research early in the 20th century. The word '''ergograph''' is derived from the Greek ''erg'' meaning a unit of work, and ''graphe'' (writing) from ''graphein'' which is ''to write''.[[Image:PhotographofErgograph.JPG|thumb|right|Early photograph of the ergograph]] <br />
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== Precursors to the Ergograph: The Dynanometer and the Myrograph ==<br />
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* The dynanometer stands as the motor-sensory predecessor to the ergograph in that it was often used to determine the maximum force of a muscle or to compare movements of the same estimated force. James Baldwin describes it in his Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology as a device that can be compressed or pulled apart in the sides and the amount of force exerted in either case is indicated on scales by a pointer to measure the highest point reached. (Baldwin 607) <br />
* Mosso criticizes the use of dynanometers for measuring muscular force by saying they did not produce constant indications, a criticism that also applies to his own research on the subject. The issue Mosso found with the dynanometer was that fatigue could not be isolated in one muscle alone, once one muscle is fatigued other muscles take on a greater role in the movement (Mosso, 83).<br />
The myrograph designed by Hermann von Helmholtz is the direct, mediatic predecessor as it included the graphing of sensory input. The device, created in 1872, addressed the nature of the nervous current by recording the contraction of the muscles extracted from frog's legs (Mosso, 76). This was a device that allowed for the measured recording of muscular work that our senses would be too slow to grasp.<br />
The Mosso Ergograph is remediation of both of these instruments.<br />
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== Picture and Description of the Machine ==<br />
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=== Parts – Mosso’s Ergograph – Description ===<br />
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The introduction of this instrument to study muscular strength attempts to conform to the paradigm modern scientific method and attempted to assimilate many of its aspects , including the laboratory space, an emphasis on applicability, and the standardization of procedure. The parts of the machine are clearly visible to the human eye with a few exceptions. The pictures seen here are included within Angelo Mosso's book Fatigue (1904) along with his description of the parts of the machine (Mosso, 86). The machine is composed of two parts: the supporting and registering platforms. These two parts are fixed atop a large table upon which the subject lies supine, with their arm attached to the machine.<br />
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''The Supporting Platform of the Ergograph'' (Fig. 1) consists of a plate, upon which are two fixtures that conform to the shape of the dorsal aspect of the hand and the forearm (A and B in the diagram respectively). The forearm and the hand face up when placed within the machine, and hold place at the wrist by two metal clamps (C and D) which are then secured tightly to the wrist by turning the screws at the top of each mechanism. When using the right hand, the index finger is placed into tube E, and the ring finger into tube F, while the middle finger is attached to a string by use of a leather strap connected to the registering apparatus. To ensure a comfortable position of the arm, the supporting platform is placed on an 30 degree incline so that the arm is not in full supination. When the left arm is being tested, the supporting base can be adjusted by the triangular support (G) at the base of the platform.<br />
[[Image:ergographB2.jpg|thumb|Figure B from Mosso's ''Fatigue'']]<br />
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''The Registering Runner of the Ergograph'' (Fig. 2) connects to the supporting platform by a piece of iron which is connected at positions I and H. It runs underneath the table and cannot be seen when examining the artifact from above. The string attached to the middle finger contained within the supporting platform is connected to the end of the registering runner, and runs along the structure by the use of hooks. The register consists of an iron platform, with a brass fork column (M) upon which connects two steel rods guided into a metal runner (A,B). The metal runner holds a pencil which marks the amount of contractions in the middle finger, by registering them upon a piece of paper (D). The string also runs through this section of the machine, threaded through the metal runner, connecting to another cord that passes over a pully and is attached to a weight of three or more kilogrammes. Between two intervals of contractions, a button is pressed (C) which moves the paper one milimetre to the right in the transversal platform (F). This way contractions can be measured in succession to respond to the raising of the of the weight by the middle finger. <br />
[[Image:ergographA.jpg|thumb|Figure A from ''Fatigue'']]<br />
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When a hand and arm are placed within the machine, the subject is instructed to contract and flex the middle finger. The height of the contractions, or rather the height of the weight when raised by the contraction, is then represented graphically on the piece of paper placed in the transversal platform. The contractions are done in regularity, through the use of a metronome which strikes every two seconds. The input of the machine is thus literally digitized, the fingers through discrete movements of contraction and release provide the information for the graph. The graph itself however is continuous, an analogue function. The graph resembles a wave, and demonstrates the total amount of finger contraction when pulling the weight (represented by the height of the line) which is then followed by a curvature of the line downward when the finger is relaxed. The curve normally decreases in a relation to the number of contractions made - each length gradually decreasing as the work continues. As the person becomes more fatigued, the movement ceases. <br />
[[Image:ergograph hand.jpg|thumb|Image of hand strapped to apparatus]]<br />
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The apparatus, with its form so specific to the human arm, requires the presence of a human being for the functioning of the machine and the experimental process. The machine, controlled by levers and weights, has no movement aside from the contractions being made by the middle finger of the subject. The subject therefore becomes a variable of the machine, and precautions are taken in ergographic experiments to attempt to ensure replicability in later studies. The human subject is complex, individual differences are apparent in the study of fatigue, and differences are seen in how energy is consumed in producing muscular energy from subject to subject (Mosso 244). The time and amount of food, as well as sleep, physical activity mental activity and the introduction of other substances such as caffeine or alcohol can have profound effects on the experimental process in ergographic research (Rivers and Webber 34).<br />
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Efforts must be made to keep the conditions of these activities as constant and uniform as possible, so as to not compromise the experiment. As well, the condition of training of the muscles must also be taken into account in ergographic research, and some scientists would refuse to test the influence of a drug or other condition on fatigue until the signs of imperfect muscular training (seen through muscular pain and an irregular ergogram) had disappeared. According to Vilém Flusser, the second Industrial Revolution brought on a reversed relationship between human being and tool (Flusser 45). With the change from tool to machine, human beings switch from being the constant to the variable. With the second Industrial Revolution, the human being is the variable and the machine is the constant; a relationship which can be seen very clearly in the case of the ergograph. To conform to the machine and the experimental process, precautions are taken to standardize human activity. Mosso observed that it in order to obtain the same curve of fatigue every day in a succession of trials, it was necessary to maintain the body under identical conditions, "let one digest or sleep badly or indulge in any excess whatever, and immediately the curve changes." (Mosso 1904: 94)<br />
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=== Graph: Assessment ===<br />
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The curve of fatigue represented by the graph is relatively easy to understand, the longer the line, the greater the contraction of the finger attached to the weight. Shorter lines therefore represent that the subject was unable to bend the finger to full contraction. For the average individual not acquainted with the reading of graphs, a scientist would be needed to interpret the graphic representation as information. The interpretation of the data in relation to successive experimental trials would necessitate knowledge only available to the researcher.<br />
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=== Analysis of the Materials Used by Mosso ===<br />
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Perhaps because of its high malleability and affordability, brass was used commonly in making laboratory equipment, and became the standard for weights and measures in England and other European countries. (McCulloch, JR, & Vethake, H, 1852: 161).The four cushions, A, B, C and D are made out of hollowed-out brass. The tubes E and F are also made of brass.<br />
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The register platform is made from iron - also commonly used in laboratory equipment because of its low cost and high strength. The platform holds two little brass columns forked to support cylindrical steel rods. Steel replaces iron, which is considered too soft for some equipment. The other materials needed in order to construct an ergograph would include the leather binding used to tie the finger down to the apparatus, and the string to tie the weight to the apparatus was composed of cat-gut, suggested by Mosso because it was used in violins and cellos for its was durability (Mosso, 88). <br />
The graph is inscribed paper (some models use a kymograph) upon which a stylus moves back up and down to represent and inscribe the changes that gives a graphical representation of spatial position over time.<br />
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The time-frame in which the ergograph was created and active was the ‘brass age’ of psychology, approximately between 1880-1910 (Coons 767), and as one of such numerous psychological ‘laboratory’ media, it embodied the technoscientific ideal because only in the 19th century had the standardization of weights and measures, together with new methods of precision machining, made possible the quantity production of standardized laboratory instruments.<br />
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Standardization itself lends legitimacy to the ‘hardware’ as the launching point for psychological practices, because "it itself was standardized and regulated the production of physical stimuli to which the observer would respond, and it also gave quantified, standardized output to the introspective method. In the manufacture of psychological knowledge, standardization of both process and product now seemed possible” (Coons 770).<br />
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=== The Ergograph as an Extension of the Body: Analysis and Implications ===<br />
Mosso designed the apparatus ergonomically, tilting the machine to make it more comfortable for arm placement. Clamps are put in to constrain the ways in which the muscles and body can move during testing. The objective was to isolate the finger, iin order to create a direct relationship between work performed and an increase in fatigue. The clamps were placed to isolate the muscles as much as possible, as researchers of the time such as Bergstrom and Binet were concerned, and allow for the arm to be as much of an isolated environment as possible, to act and be acted upon in a laboratory setting (Bergstrom, 86-87).<br />
The intention behind it, as John Bergstrom claims, is to study the action of isolated muscles or single muscle groups and ending with that which brings into play many, or nearly as may be, all the muscles of the body” (246). This is a determined, systematic spreading from muscle sites to an entire mapping of the body (Foucault). The individual body parts became, as the core object of study in physiology of the 19th century, what Jonathan Crary would call the 'bio-power' or 'bio-politics' of populations and control over individuals. In his seminal text Techniques of the Observer, he notes that "it is indeed life that emerges as the new object of power", and the "knowledge [conditioned] by the physical and anatomical functioning of the body, and perhaps most importantly, of the eyes" ushers in the appearance of new methods of power" (Crary, 79-80). New optical apparatuses such as the stereoscope operated as mechanical prostheses that began to define the body by its discrete parts. This concept, also known as metonymy, would highlight an individual sense to speak for the body as a whole, where the sensory faculty such as the motor-sensory reflexes for the ergograph, would be considered contiguous with the instrument itself. Equal within a shared plane of operation, and differing only in the extent of their respective capabilities, the machinery long surpasses the human sense faculty and accentuates our capacity to observe changes in motor-sensory experience (Crary,129)<br />
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== Criticisms of the Ergograph: Late 19th and Early 20th Century ==<br />
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* John A. Bergstrom as well as Binet and Vaschide (1897) argue that Mosso does not fulfill the ideal that he himself calls for, which is the complete isolation of an individual muscle in order to measure fatigue in a pure relationship, “as nearly as possible like those in experiments with excised muscles (Bergstrom 1903:247 )<br />
Mosso was incorrect about which muscles were the ones needed for the ergograph: the lumbrical and palmar muscles are involved along with the muscles he had isolated before, the flexor sublimis and flexor profundus (Bergstrom 1903:247)<br />
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* The binding of the apparatus itself is a potential source of error. There are accounts of difficulties in securing the desired isolation and in maintaining the same position because of the rigid supports used to clamp the arm and hand down. Bergstrom notes that when the body is taxed with effort, movements of the entire arm and even the rest of the body will aid in the effort to displace the hand or help in raising the weight, which would affect and throw off the results taken by the ergograph. The sheer materiality of the machinery itself obstructs pure results. <br />
Binet and Vaschide in ''Examen Critique de L'Ergographie de Mosso'' (1897) mention the large and awkward nature of the instrument itself and that it requires constant maintenance. <br />
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* Limitations: The ergographic record is “a test of some general physiological condition” (273), as already mentioned because of the variation of human experience can affect the results. There is also the problem of whether the character of fatigue can be attributed solely to the isolated muscle or to a general state of fatigue (274).Bergstrom concludes by saying that, “With these many factors to obscure the result and with fatigue partly a local phenomenon, we cannot expect to use the ergograph as a measure of exhaustion in the same way as we use a thermometer to measure temperature, but it may do a very important service in aiding us in its field of application to analyze the conditions and effects of work and fatigue” (275).<br />
This does not mean; however, that Mosso, Bergstrom and other physiologists and psychologists experimenting with the ergograph in this time period assumed that the results would lead to a direct and simple correlation between work and fatigue. Bergstrom cautions that one is not to discount the properties of the central nervous system in affecting and stimulating the muscular forces, because the fatigue experienced can certainly be affected by psychic factors (Bergstrom 273).<br />
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* '''Problems with design and possible improvements: spring vs. weight''' Mosso assumes that the total work which a muscle can do before it is fatigued is equivalent to the sum total of the height of the separate contractions represented on the graph (Franz, 351). Binet challenges such an assumption by saying when a muscle can no longer lift the weight specified by the ergograph, it can perform once more at a smaller weight. Also, when a muscle strains against a weight it cannot lift, the physiological work done in the attempt to complete the task is considerable, although the muscle cannot accomplish the mechanical work. This is the main objective that led Binet and others to devise spring ergographs to counteract the perceived weaknesses of the Mosso ergograph. With the spring the subject does not have to work until the subject is completely fatigued, and can continue to work at lower resistances for longer periods of time.(Franz, 351) The spring ergograph supported by Binet and others were devised because they maintained that under 'normal conditions', the muscle never comes to a state which is incapable of work, and a spring ergograph is more representative of this phenomenon. This would increase the generalization of the ergograph to normal working conditions.<br />
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== Socio-Historical Backdrop == <br />
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=== Angelo Mosso ===<br />
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[[Image:Angelo Mosso.jpg|thumb|left|Angelo Mosso with one of his many physiological apparatuses]]<br />
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* The Mosso Ergograph (1890) is named after its founder Angelo Mosso (1846-1910), an experimental physiologist from Turin, Italy.(1946: 880) His experimental interests were were focused in the areas of fatigue, sleep, movements of the intestine, animal behaviour, the brain, fear and education. He died of diabetes on Nov. 24, 1910. <br />
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* Angelo Mosso's interest in research on fatigue began when he arrived at the Leipzig laboratory in 1873, an area known for producing psychologists and physiologists who were interested in the use of instruments to record and measure vital and mental processes. (Drummon vi; Mosso 81)Notable theorists who came out of the University of Leipzig and contributed to this research include Willhelm Wundt, Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner, all known for their early contributions in the field of experimental psychology. Mosso's own work was within the field of physiology, a field which contributed to the development of experimental psychology and later Behaviorism.<br />
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=== History of the Ergograph and Physiological Research ===<br />
* The study of the nervous system in the discipline of physiology began with Johannes Muller and his work on sensory experience. (Mosso 74) In 1850, Hermann von Helmoltz continued research on the sensory stimuli and the nervous system, and is accredited with being the first to shed light on the nature of the nervous current. Helmholtz constructed a machine to record the contractions of the muscles, the myrograph, which was the first graphic method to measure the length of time of the nervous current along the nerves. Mosso argues that the human eye itself is not sufficient to comprehend the speed by which a phenomenon like muscular shock takes place. (Mosso 77) The graphic methods supplied by both he and Helmholtz produce a record which is representative of the "minutist particulars of movement," unveiling an entirety of phenomena that would have remained obscure if left to human observation alone. Jonathan Crary argues the nineteenth century marked the beginning of the creation of a new "objectivity" accorded to subjective phenomena and was indicative of larger changes occuring within modernity. (Crary 10;98) The ergograph attempted to contribute to this mapping of the human sensorium, in an effort to determine a continuum of productivity, specifically for educational practices.<br />
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* Mosso's interest in the complicated process of fatigue was intertwined with his research in education. By using the ergograph, Mosso thought he could find a relation between muscular strength and intellectual work; and it becomes clear that what Mosso was attempting to study was not fatigue, but attention (See section on Attention). Mosso attempts to speak of muscular fatigue and changes which take place in the muscles, only for a better understanding of fatigue in the brain. (Mosso 129)It appears that Mosso attempts to study two types of fatigue by use of ergographic research. In a material sense, he is studying the fatigue in the isolated muscle itself, shown as a function of when it stops responding on the graph, but he is also trying to determine the "feeling of fatigue," the internal sensation of the individual when muscles are strained. In isolating the muscle of the hand, Mosso is attempting to test an economy of attention. In his view attention is the inhibition of other activities, in favor of a single, focused activity.<br />
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== Philosophical Background == <br />
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* The ergograph follows an empirical framework, and is an attempt to use modern scientific methods for a study of muscular strength and fatigue. Like most physiologists, he is grounded in the philosophy of materialism, holding that mental phenomena are a function of the brain. Materialism, the argument that everything is materially constituted including human beings, is in opposition to dualist theories that posit a fundamental difference between the physical realm of the external world and the non-physical realm of the mind. Closely linked with materialism is the concept of mechanism, to which Mosso also ascribes, arguing that all of the phenomena in nature must have a cause. While Mosso does not claim that physiology could comprehend the mysteries pertaining to the nature of the mind and thought; he claimed that physiology did not renounce hope of doing so in the future.<br />
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== Mosso Ergograph and Research into Education == <br />
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* Angelo Mosso states in his chapter "Exhaustion," a machine recognizes no limit to its speed save the weakness of man in performing his part as assistance” (Mosso 172). The sociocultural and historical backdrop of industrialism provides a basis to understand Mosso's development of the ergograph in physiological research. The introduction of the study of psychology in experimental psychology by Wundt, Weber and Fechner introduced many instruments invented to record mental processes. Mosso's ergograph, although within the discipline of physiology, is very similar in nature. His interest in studying muscular strength and its relation to mental fatigue, were used in educational practices during this period. (Drummond vi) For instance, in measuring times of the that schoolchildren were more or less receptive to incoming information, as well as the best divisions of the school day in relation to play and work.<br />
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* In Karin Johannison’s “Modern Fatigue: A Historical Perspective” (2006), fatigue was commonly associated with two factors: industrial work, and intellectual work. With industrial work, the human being was seen as a machine, a metaphor for the body which had arisen from a century prior to the introduction of the ergograph. This logic enabled the rise of physiological and early psychological instruments measured the performance of the body and likened it to the factory machine, where “both represented motors that changed energy into mechanical work; in conditions of imbalance, exhaustion, or overheating their efficiency would be dramatically reduced” (7).<br />
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* The ergograph is one of many of such laboratory devices used on the industrial body, isolated individual parts of the human body in order to determine the productive capabilities of the body as a whole.<br />
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* Johannisson argues that scientists were investigating all manners of work and exhaustion, because they wished to map out the body’s energy system, economy of muscle energy and pinpoint the difference between exhaustion and overstrain (Johannisson 7) . The underlying motivation of this enterprise was the desire to define “the borderline between the normal and the pathological, or between capacity and incapacity, respectively, after recuperation through rest” (Johannison 7-8).<br />
* Fatigue in intellectual work was not to be discounted. The ergograph was used to research fatigue in connection with groups that had a high consumption of mental activity, such as students, scientists, and intellectuals, (i.e., ‘‘brain-workers”) (Johannisson 8) . According to Johannisson, apparatuses such as the ergograph were measuring exhaustion with the need to find the “strategic threshold value for the individual’s adaptive capacity to modern society” (8). She adds, “The fatigue problem was a social problem, the responsibility of which therefore had to be shared by the areas of medicine, technology, education, and politics” (8).<br />
[[Image:Experiment.jpg|thumb|right|Subject Connected to Ergograph.]]<br />
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== Examples of Experimental Research == <br />
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* In Fatigue, Mosso mentions his brother investigating the influence of cocaine on the phenomena of attention. It was already known that certain stimulants, such as alcohol and coffee shorten reaction time. About half an hour after taking from five to ten centigrammes of cocaine, one experiences a sensation of excitement and well-being which lasts about an hour (Mosso 205). <br />
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* Rivers and Webber used a “greatly improved form of Mosso’s ergograph devised by Kraepelin and made by Runne” in a 1907 experiment to study the effect of caffeine on the capacity for muscular work (Rivers and Webber 34). They found the increase is temporary, in the beginning of the set, and falls below normal towards the end. They could thus see the withdrawal effects of caffeine.<br />
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* A report by a Great Britain Liqour Traffic Central Control Board advisory committee (1918: 48) cites a 1904 study by Hellsten using an ergograph that measured movement being executed by both arms to measure the influence of alcohol on an athlete By Great Britain.<br />
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== Controversial Usage of the Ergograph in Research == <br />
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* In 1898, G.C. Ferrari deviated in the use of the ergograph to study gender differences in intelligence as a function of handedness. His study attempted to find differences in fundamental character between women and men that were being reflected by the ergographic tests. The test strives to show that women in the left hemispheres are less coordinated than men. H.C. Warren commented upon seeing this study was flawed from its conception, expressing to see more results done on this study because its claims were too radical in nature. <br />
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* In 1898, 1,400 school children from Chicago were “examined” for three months using a Mosso ergograph referred to as the "child fatigue testing machine", to determine whether “after a certain age is reached should the girls and boys of the public schools be separated in their school work and different tasks be assigned to each ("Medical Matters...", 1899).<br />
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== The Valuation of Types of Labor == <br />
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Johannisson states a marked hierarchy between the fatigue levels obtained by manual labor versus intellectual labor, where the ergograph would supposedly be able to distinguish differences between the two, where researchers tried using the medium to demonstrate that “intense mental strain caused by tasks such as solving a mathematical problem or memorizing Latin or poetry also caused muscle fatigue” (8). Underneath this expectation of distinguished results between different levels of fatigue comes a hierarchical distinction made between the fatigue that the manual worker and the intellectual worker experience, where mental work is thought to be more energy-consuming than heavy industrial work or mechanical office work. The effect of brain stress on the body seems to hold the assumption of seeming greater than direct stress on the body, where the ancient dichotomies of order between soul and body and the work of the elite and the masses come into play.<br />
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In Angelo Mosso’s Fatigue, the ergograph is already thrust into educational settings, where fatigue becomes an important factor within education. Only recently, Mosso notes, has it attained the status of a scientific concern, and “thanks mainly to the impulse given by the wonderful patience and ingenuity of the Leipzig school of psychologists” (Weber, Wundt, Fechner) (Mosso 29) scores of instruments have been invented to record and measure the vital and mental processes. This allows the Mosso ergograph to make observations on school children with the intention of determining the degree of fatigue, the peak periods of educational productivity, and the best division and organization of the school day in regards to play and work. All of this points to the Foucault notion of docile bodies within institutions that strive to obtain an optimal peak of efficiency in order to standardize their subjects into a pool of profitable personnel.<br />
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=== The Mosso Ergograph and an Economy of Attention === <br />
The human faculty of attention became a serious site of exploration around the time the ergograph made an appearance as well. The underlying historical platform houses the division of holistic completeness of the classical body in contrast with the fracturing of the modern body in the 19th century. The modern body is fractured into its discrete parts, accentuated and aggravated to go beyond what it is normally capable of enduring, much in the way the visual faculty of image-retention and after-images is explored by the likes of Jan Purkinje, when "the threshold between the physiological self and the mental became one of the primary objects of scientific practice" (Crary, Pg 102). Goethe before him had established the idea of subjective visual phenomena such as afterimages at the level of a new sensory 'objectivity', because whatever the healthy corporal eye could perceive was in fact optical truth (97-98). This idea of a new objectivity that could be understood and used to master the human body is one of the driving intentions behind the ergograph's built mechanisms. Arthur MacDonald makes such a connection between the visual sensory equipment such as the stereoscope, a medium that Crary notes dominates and trains the viewer to ‘see’, with the ergograph, especially noting the way the modern body reacts to fatigue. When pushed beyond the threshold, the body engages in “a number of phenomena in which fatigue causes a periodicity depending upon the central nervous system. This is probable in the ‘second wind’ of the athlete. The intensity of after-images is due to periodic variation” (Pg. 1178). The periodic variation of the ‘second wind’ with that of the afteimage, as mentioned in Crary, is a reference to the exertion of the body past its optimal performance, where the body is extended beyond the norm, finally dividing the actions of the body from that of the mind out of sheer necessity.<br />
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=== Successors to the Mosso Ergograph === <br />
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After the faults of the ergograph was made clear, it was slowly phased out at the beginning of the 19th century, and the dynanometer was quickly reintegrated. As to a contemporary correlate of the ergograph, this can be seen in ergometers, or in other words, common-day gym equipment, such as rowing machines, stationary bikes, and treadmills. These technologies are used to measure strength and integrate modes of resistance, but do not necessarily produce a graphic record like that of the ergograph.<br />
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[[Image:NASA test ergometer.jpg|thumb|left|Ergometer test taken in Outer Space!]]<br />
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[[Image:Brazil.jpg|thumb|right|Terry Gilliam's creative interpretation of medical ergometers in ''Brazil'']]<br />
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== '''Citations''' ==<br />
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1946. "Angelo Mosso, 1846-1910." in ''The British Medical Journal''1: 880.<br />
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2003. ''The Chambers Dictionary.'' Edinburgh: Chambers.<br />
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Baldwin, James Mark. ''The Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology'', Vol. 3, Part I. MacMillan Company, 1901.<br />
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Bergstrom, John A. "A New Type of Ergograph, with a Discussion of Ergographic Experimentation". ''The American Journal of Psychology'', Vol. 14 No. 3/4. Jul-Oct 1903. University of Illinois Press.<br />
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Binet, A. and Vaschide, N. 1897. "Examen Critique de l'Ergographe de Mosso." in ''L'Année Psychologique''4:253-266.<br />
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Crary, Jonathan. ''Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century''. MIT Press, 1992.<br />
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Drummond, M. and Drummond,W.B. 1904. "Translator's Preface" Pp. v- viii in ''Fatigue.'' New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. <br />
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Flusser, Vilém. ''The Shape of Things''. Reaktion Books, 1999. <br />
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Franz, Shepherd Ivory. "On the Methods of Estimating the Force of Voluntary Muscular Contractions and Fatigue". ''American Journal of Physiology'', Vol. 4, 1887.<br />
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Johannisson, Karin. ''Modern Fatigue: A Historical Perspective. A Multifaceted View of Stress''. Ed. Dr. Bengt B. Arnetz, Prof. Rolf Ekman. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2006.<br />
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Lanska, D. 2000. "William Hammond, The Dynanometer, The Dynanograph" in ''Archives of Neurology'' 37: 1649-1653.<br />
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McCulloch, JR, & Vethake, H,. 1852. ''A dictionary, practical, theoretical, and historical, of commerce and commercial navigation''. A. Hart<br />
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Mosso, A. 1904. ''Fatigue.'' "Translated by M. and W.B. Drummond." New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.<br />
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"Medical Matters in Chicago". September 9, 1899. The Medical news. Henry C. Lea's Son & Co.<br />
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Rivers, W.H.R. and Webber, H.N. 1907. "The Action of Caffeine on the Capacity for Muscular Work." in ''The Journal of Physiology.''XXXVI 3:33-47<br />
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UK Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic) Advisory Committee. 1918. Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism. Longmans, Green and Co. <br />
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Warren, H.C. 1898. "Ricerche ergografiche nella donna." in ''Psychological Literature'':547.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
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[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Notificator&diff=12733
Notificator
2010-11-24T14:55:28Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12490 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[Image:Notificator2.JPG|left|thumb|In use; 1935]]<br />
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On September 9, 1932, The London Times printed an article following up on a “correspondence in The Times proposing that British railway stations might, like those in Japan, provide facilities for messages from one person to another to be displayed.” An electrical engineer had written to the paper, agreeing, and noted a device that he had heard of; an “automatic machine…to be installed at stations and other suitable sites, and on the insertion of two pennies facilities were given for writing a message that remained in view for two hours after writing.” <br />
<br />
[[Image:Notificator.JPG|thumb|right|The Notificator]]<br />
<br />
==Primary Features==<br />
<br />
The notificator consists of a six to seven foot tall, shallow case with a glass face wide enough to display three approximately three by five inch wide columns that extend from the mid section of the machine to the top. Fixed to that mid section is a protruding “small desk or shelf…a glass window in the desk and a roll of paper or thin cardboard beneath.” For two pennies, “the window can be slid aside and a message written, which will then be turned onward, the window be closed ready for the next user. Each time a fresh message is written the shutting of the window will move a ratchet—the only mechanism embodied in the invention—and so place the column of messages one space higher” (Times 09/32). An attendant or owner of the device would only need to replace the roll of paper when needed. The height of the screen allowed a message to ostensibly remain for two hours, but the ratcheting mechanism means that this figure would be affected by how steadily the device was in use. Usage in many sites could relate to a variety of factors such as weather and time of day; a malfunctioning or rarely used notificator would presumably retain the same messages and display them as a constant.<br />
<br />
August 1935 issue of Modern Mechanix & Inventions Magazine: "To aid persons who wish to make or cancel appointments or inform friends of the whereabouts, a robot messenger carrier has been introduced in London, England. Known as the "notificator," the new machine is installed in streets, stores, railroad stations or other public places where individuals may leave messages for friends... The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
===Patent===<br />
<br />
As indicated above, an apparently functioning Japanese train station system of publicly posting personal communications inspired The London Times to call for the institution of a similar system, resulting in their reporting on this device.<br />
<br />
The notificator was provisionally patented in June of 1932 by Govan Gee of Winchmore Hill, London, England. Govan Gee also holds U. S. patents for an “apparatus for delivering change” filed in 1934 and a “means for extinguishing cigarettes, matches, and the like” filed 1938.<br />
<br />
===Messages===<br />
Without the examination of any actual notificator scrolls, it is not possible to speak conclusively on the machine's tensions in practice or the messages' literal content. Did the length of the page or the posture inducing structure of the machine generate certain handwriting tics or abbreviations? Did the machine buck certain graffiti laws? A notificator's optimum placement has been described as high traffic public places; the posting of potentially immoral or politically subversive messages may have upset members of certain classes. How personal could the notes be, if they never have private existence? Were codes ever employed? Cancellation or site change of meetings is mentioned as a potential use; did the notificator serve as a mechanized collection of excuses? What was done with the scrolls or cards after use has special implications in the possibility of answering some of these questions.<br />
<br />
The notificator seems to embody a kind of self consciousness for an author and reader found in similar communications with a public/private tension, such as postcards, certain internet communications (the U.S. government currently treats all email like a postcard), or collections of letters as an biographical document. The New York poet Frank O’Hara writes in his 1959 manifesto for “Personism” that while composing a poem for a companion “I was realizing that if I wanted to I could use the telephone instead of writing the poem…It puts the poem squarely between the poet and the person,” although the poem is actually published and distributed as such. Conversational tones and characters referenced on a first name basis are frequent components of O'Hara's poems; as an outsider begins to make sense of the people and places in the texts, they may feel a growing sense of inclusion and empathy with the text. For the notificator, this may have affected communal relations positively or negatively.<br />
<br />
==Automated Vending==<br />
<br />
[[Hero]] (or Heron), a C1 greek mathematician, describes and depicts "a coin-operated device to be used for vending sacrificial water in Eygptian temples" in his ''Pneumatika'', though none may have been produced (Segrave 3). Vending machines were introduced in the United States as early as 1880 and became a popular means of providing comestibles or services automatically in the mid-1920s stocked with groceries, candy, coffee, and most popularly, cigarettes. Kerry Segrave indicates that from 1929 through the 1931, industries and the media believed strongly in an automated future; that "robots could sell just about everything" (21). <br />
<br />
The notificator does not appear to have been used in the United States.<br />
<br />
==Demise?==<br />
<br />
<br />
It is unclear if a link exists between Govan Gee's notificator and a company called Notificator Development Limited, but a connection may help explain the device's seeming lack of popularity or use by introducing possible legal woes. Court case listings by The London Times document multiple occurrences of Aircraft Patents Ltd. v. Notificator Development Ltd. from late October through December of 1937. On December 21, a Mr. Justice Simonds orders “in the usual form…for the compulsory winding-up of Notificator Development Ltd.” If a company undergoes compulsory winding up, courts have appointed a liquidator to properly deal with all debts and affairs before the company ceases to exist.<br />
==Current Remediations==<br />
Although scrolls have long been a method of presenting documents, the ratcheting mechanism breaks the typically smooth roll into discrete units with a set exchange value of two pennies and a limited time in which it can be in use. The vertical movement of the screen and the short nature of the communications obviously seem to be related to current internet message boards, which many online bloggers have also picked up on. Contemporary airports may have constantly updating digital boards where individuals can post certain information to help their companions find them at their gates in the often massive complexes. Graffiti continues to serve public/private communication purposes on a local level as well. <br />
<br />
===Bloggers' notes===<br />
<br />
The Modern Mechanix blog posts digitalized finds from back issues of Modern Mechanix and Inventions Magazine; on April 30, 2006, the notificator article appeared online. Postings on two separate message boards discussing the notificator article from the Modern Mechanix blog (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/), while being anecdotal sources, make interesting contributions which may eventually provide further information on this concept. <br />
<br />
"Sarah Lipman," posting on the blog Pasta&Vinegar in June 2007, suggests that these types of communication methods were in heavy use among European and Jewish survivors of World War II: "I’ve seen it mentioned in many (10+ books) where when Jewish survivors tried to track down any remaining friends, relatives or neighbors, they would go to their old town or to a Displaced Persons’ Center, where names would be written up on notes all over the walls. They’d add their name, some identifying information, and contact information, and then read every single note trying to find names they recognized. They would also return frequently to check new "listings" (http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/06/25/twitter-like-device-from-1930/ [date]6/27/2007). These message centers also appeared in the period of confusion immediately following the 2001 tragedy in New York City and have been used by nomadic or homeless communities. The public nature of these notices has the potential to activate oral communications among a dispersed community, increasing the chance that a posting would reach an individual member.<br />
<br />
Self described "Tube bore and lover of London's history," "Simon Greenwood's" post at the MobHappy blog (http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2007/07/05/localised-personalised-notes/), July 2007; "Not to say that this doesn't exist but...I have genuinely never heard of this, and it looks like the sort of thing that the Museum of London or the London Transport Museum would have in its stores. My guess is that there might have been one set up as a demo somewhere, perhaps in the West End, but that it wasn’t adopted by the Underground, the railways or whoever wanted to put street furniture out in London." Although the notificator does not seem to have been in wide use, the outdoor setting of the first image of this page, if it is not staged, implies at least some use at a public site.<br />
<br />
The dispersal of the notificator image and description from the Modern Mechanix blog to other web sites and message boards put bloggers in a position to be some of the first to draw connections between this device and some of its modern counterparts such as online community message boards and blogs or new technologies that allow one's mobile device to leave or find digital public notes in physical places.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
*[[Segrave, Kerry]]. “Vending Machines: An American Social History.” McFarland & Co, 2002.<br />
<br />
* "Law Notices." The London TImes. Oct. 29, Nov. 3, Nov. 29, Dec. 20, 1937.<br />
<br />
* "Mr. Justice Simonds." The London Times. Dec. 21, 1937.<br />
<br />
* "Robot Messenger Displays Person-to-Person Notes In Public" Modern Mechanix & Inventions Magazine. Aug, 1935.<br />
<br />
* "Under The Clock: Machine To Show Messages In Public Places." The London Times. Sept. 9, 1932.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
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http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Category:Performance&diff=12732
Category:Performance
2010-11-24T14:55:15Z
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<div></div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Bone_Records&diff=12731
Bone Records
2010-11-24T14:55:05Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12492 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Category: Dossier]]<br />
[[Category: Fall 2010]]<br />
<br />
== What were Bone Records? == <br />
Bone records, or roentgenizdat, were music recordings on an unlikely medium: discarded x-ray plates. <br />
During the Second World War in Eastern Europe, vinyl became an extremely expensive way of producing records. Therefore, during the 1930s and 40s, the lack of available materials caused both labels and individual music enthusiasts to search for new ways of production. <br />
Music became available on all types of wax and film, but most notably photographic film and x-ray plates. The plates were favored because of their thicker density. <br />
<br />
Demand only grew in the USSR in the 1950s when records and tape recorders were in increasingly short supply and music was growing as a necessary escape from political tension. <br />
Young people in Eastern Europe realized that they could duplicate records using a converted phonograph and create an imprint of a record on discarded x-ray plates. <br />
Used x-ray plates could be purchased for next to nothing from hospitals and medical facilities once they were no longer needed. Then they could easily be cut into discs with scissors.<br />
Altered phonograph machines using wax disc cutters and machines like the voice-o-graph could produce grooves in the film that were nearly undetectable. <br />
Soviet society promoted science and technology and search of knowledge. It was often students who were studying engineering who would be the ones creating these records. <br />
<br />
Termed “rock on bones” (rok na kostiakh) or “rock on ribs” (rok na rebrakh), the records became a visual symbol for underground Soviet resistance and rebellion. <br />
The quality of these bone records was not very good at all, but the price was right. They were rather flimsy and would warm and break easily, but they would only cost a ruble or two. <br />
<br />
In 1950s Russia, women usually controlled the family budget. On a day’s lunch or drink allowance, one could purchase an underground pressing. Better quality recordings would require a week or two’s worth of allowance. <br />
<br />
== Music Censorship in the Soviet Union ==<br />
<br />
In the years after World War Two, Stalin tried to get rid of any American influence on Soviet civilization. His first target in the 1950s was American jazz music. Artists like John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk were never to be heard by Soviet ears. <br />
<br />
Jazz music turned to rock-and-roll and Bill Haley’s 1954 “Rock Around the Clock” was deemed a “threat to civilization.” The x-ray press system was discovered by the Soviet government in 1958 and was promptly made illegal. The same was true for the samizdat, which was the self-publishing means for writers. <br />
<br />
In 1962, a Soviet paper in Lithuania said of the Beatles and Elvis’s music: “These ‘pearls’ of Western culture are part of an imperialist state policy corrupting the masses, promoting low animal instincts, and dulling the mind.” <br />
Similarly, in 1961, an East German newspaper said that Chubby Checker’s “Twist” was being used by imperialists in West Germany to rally the young people for war. <br />
<br />
It wasn’t only the records that were censored by the Soviet government – rockbands were disbanded and rock concerts were raided. A task force of “music patrols” was started by the government in 1959 to control illegal music activity and the largest ring of roentgenizdat production was broken up the same year. <br />
<br />
<br />
== Melodiya ==<br />
<br />
Melodiya, the only official record label of the USSR, was founded in 1964. Melodiya produced mainly classical music and recordings of famous actors, as well as records with fairy tales for children. Melodiya had firm policies against “protest rock.” They later produced records of many of the pop and rock artists of the 60s and 70s, but not until years after they were originally released, and at an extremely high mark-up. Melodiya was state-owned until the fall of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. <br />
<br />
== Government Response ==<br />
The Soviet government attempted to flood the market of bone records by creating unplayable records in an effort to kill the demand. <br />
They would either make records that would physically mess with players, or the would include vocal recordings in the middle of the music saying things like, “You like rock and roll? F**k you, anti-Soviet slime!” <br />
There were about 10 individuals who were suspected of distributing bone records who were sent to the gulags (the Soviet labor camps). <br />
<br />
<br />
== The Music ==<br />
<br />
The most popular productions were Western artists – from early jazz to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Soviet rock artists such as Yuri Shevchuk ran into problems with the KGB. Melodiya produced an official record by the band Aquarium that was only approved by the label as a reaction to Western concerns in USSR censorship. <br />
<br />
<br />
== Death ==<br />
<br />
The two main factors in the disappearance of bone records were the government reconciliation and the replacement technologies. As reel-to-reel tape recorders gained in prevalence in the 1970s, they were able to successfully replace the system of x-ray recordings. The x-ray records had an extremely poor sound quality and were produced by select individuals. Tape recorders provided a better quality with easier and neater production. One source called tape recorders the Bit Torrent of the 1970s. <br />
At the end of the Cold War, during the perestroika era of restructuring in the USSR, censorship of music lightened up and the need for underground production of music died. <br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
“X-ray records were metaphors par excellence of imaginary elsewheres – the ingenious experimental cultures that were both internal and external to the body of the Soviet state” <br />
– Alexei Yurchak, Everything was forever, until it was no more: the last Soviet generation<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
<br />
== Sources ==<br />
<br />
http://www.kk.org/streetuse/archives/2006/08/jazz_on_bones_xray_sound_recor_1.php <br />
http://www.fff.org/freedom/1190d.asp<br />
http://www.planetaquarium.com/eng/pub/doc_bf1.html <br />
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=727 <br />
http://www.digibodies.org/hajdu.html <br />
http://www.weirdvibrations.com/2009/10/12/roentgenizdat-sentimental-songs-on-x-ray/ <br />
http://bujhm.livejournal.com/381660.html <br />
Yurchak, Alexei. Everything Was Forever, until It Was No More: the Last Soviet Generation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2006.</div>
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http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Newspaper_via_Radio_Facsimile&diff=12730
Newspaper via Radio Facsimile
2010-11-24T14:54:57Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12493 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Untitled 5.jpg|thumb|left|Children read cartoons as they are being fed out of the facsimile.]]<br />
<br />
'''Newspaper via Radio Facsimile''' although an intriguing and mystifying invention, the newspaper via radio facsimile never took off as a mainstream medium. The basic premise was that a newspaper would be printed via the facsimile during regularly scheduled radio broadcasts so that the audience would have a visual along with the auditory experience of the radio.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==General Information==<br />
Developed by John V L. Hogan on June 16, 1934, the facsimile system, and its utilization in the transmission of newspaper, was intended to broadcast a condensed version of a normal newspaper into the home. At the time there were no national newspapers that could be easily distributed into every household across the country, and it was hoped that the radio facsimile could doctor this issue. The facsimile receiver was similar in size to that of a record player, and it could be attached to any normal household radio. One of the initial demonstrations of the news via radio facsimile technology was conducted on April 17th, 1946, when it successfully printed a four-column newspaper at a rate of about 500 words a minute. The black and white transmission was completed with relative clarity onto a roll of paper at an approximate speed corresponding to a normal reading pace, or slightly faster to make up for illustrations (Hills 14).<br />
<br />
There is some discrepancy as to the commercial cost of the radio facsimile machine and its accessories. In 1936, the necessary rolls of paper were deemed expensive, but according to an article in the New York Times, they only cost $1.00 each by 1946 ("Facsimile Paper 'Printed' By Radio"). Similarly, there are some opposing reports with regards to cost of the facsimile receiver. An article in the May 1939 edition of Radio-Craft Magazine listed the price as approximately $250 a piece. However, the price of a two-column facsimile receiver was listed at $75 a piece before the onset of World War II (Payne 291).<br />
<br />
The FCC regulations established in the field of news transmission via Radio Facsimile stated that the entire facsimile edition of the newspaper was to be printed in completion within a standard 15-minute broadcast window, which would allow its delivery to coincide with regular news radio broadcasts. Such a formula ultimately broke down a typical broadcast into 28 inches a minute for four facsimile pages measuring 11.5 inches long and 8.2 inches wide (Hills 14). It seems likely that this final judgment regarding the most efficient and effective paper size directly influenced what is considered the standard size of paper today.<br />
<br />
==Intended Uses==<br />
[[Image:Untitled 4.jpg|thumb|right|Womand watches as the Miami Herald is printed.]]<br />
<br />
The newspaper via radio facsimile started as a means of relaying charts and information between shore and ships at sea. The army also took interest in it as a means of providing front-line photographs to otherwise inaccessible locations. The newspaper via radio facsimile allowed for a newspaper to be distributed anywhere in the world that could pick up a radio signal. Newspapers were no longer bounded by personal hand delivery and the costs of trucks (which was becoming even more costly with the rising oil prices). According to the New York Times, who first began their delivery of a four page facsimile edition of their paper on February 16th, 1948, made sure to note in their description of this new practice that “it is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for the regular editions. The facsimile edition, for instance, has only four pages, each less than one quarter the size of a regular newspaper page.” In addition to this alteration, their newspaper via radio facsimile made only one copy, as opposed to the thousands that a normal newspaper press can produce. It therefore should be looked at as another means of transmission because the same staff is needed equally to produce the facsimile edition as the normal edition of the newspaper. The newspaper printed from the radio facsimile provided abbreviated stories rather than full text versions. Editors stripped stories to the minimum in order to fit as many stories onto the page as possible. This practice mirrors the early Associated Press(AP) who sent out abbreviated stories over the telegraph.<br />
<br />
==Advertisements of the Facsimile==<br />
<br />
Times Facsimile Corporation was a subsidiary of the New York Times Company that made the multitude of articles tracing the path of this technology making them seem like advertisements. Even though there seem to be no traces of direct advertisements for the newspaper via radio facsimile, there are many articles covering the technology including pictures of people posing next to the devices in their homes. Advertisements were included in the radio facsimile just as a normal print newspaper. The ads ranged from ladies’ coats to bedroom furniture.<br />
<br />
<br />
==How The Radio Facsimile Worked==<br />
[[Image:Untitled.jpg|thumb|left|Inner workings of a facsimile scanner.]]<br />
<br />
The machine responsible for sending (called the “scanner-transmitter”) included a photo-electric cell attached to a drum that spun at a very fast rate in front of a beam of light. The light would scan over the paper, transmitting it into radio waves. At the receiving end-the person’s home- a varying electric signal caused minute metal particles to pass from the printing blade inside the machine to the chemically treated paper on the drum. This process reproduced both the blacks and grays necessary for a clear newspaper to be produced. (NYT, Facsimile Paper ‘Printed’ by Radio)<br />
<br />
<br />
==History of Invention==<br />
<br />
The theory of the facsimile started in 1842 with Alexander Bain, an English physicist when he created the electrochemical recording telegraph. This telegraph employed a wire circuit to mark paper. The early radio facsimile experiments started in the 1920s over AM broadcasting. Radio Corporation of America participated in these experiments. They concentrated on developing commercial short-wave facsimile but stopped this service in 1936. According to their book Facsimile, Hills and Sullivan note how it “was hailed on the one hand as heralding a revolution in the dissemination of news and pictures. It was damned on the other hand as being the ‘fanciest way yet devised to do bad printing’” (6). <br />
<br />
In 1924, The American Telephone and Telegraph Company transmitted photographs between London and New York by wire. However, they were sent as photographic negatives that had to be reprinted as photos. <br />
<br />
In 1926, Austin G. Cooley (who was the eventual chief of Times Facsimile, Inc. in New York) developed the “ray photo”, or radio photograph system that involved a corona discharge that created an image at the recorder. Over 27 broadcasters experimented with this technology and demonstrated it to the public, however, it was ultimately deemed too slow as it took three minutes to record twenty square inches. Cooley Hills notes that Cooley’s “developments gave impetus to facsimile generally” (7). Around 1936, RCA developed an “ultrahigh-frequency receiver, a carbon-paper recorder, and a device for cutting off the facsimile pages as received and stacking them in a tray” (8). The receiver was pre-tuned, automatic, and could be turned on/off from the transmitter with the push of a button. <br />
<br />
John V. L. Hogan’s company Hogans’ Radio Inventions, Inc., worked on research of the facsimile for the government during the war effort. The company developed an electrolytic system of recording. This process consisted of “a varying electric signal caused infinitesimal particles of metal to pass from a printing blade to a chemically treated paper. The electrolytic process reproduced deep charcoal blacks or fine gradations of blacks and grays in photographs” (Hills 13). A group of 25 newspapers and broadcasters worked together to form the Broadcasters Faximile Analysis (trade-name spelling of facsimile by Radio Inventions) who financed the development of a working facsimile broadcast system (13). General Electric Company started building transmitters and receivers only for the BFA. Once, commercial facsimile broadcasting was allowed, the FCC maintained the BFA’s standardization regulations. <br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Untitled 3.jpg|thumb|right|Demonstration of newspaper via radio facsimile.]]<br />
==Initial Drawbacks And Rebirth==<br />
<br />
The newspaper via radio facsimile experienced initial drawbacks because the systems were too slow. Most sheets were too small, measuring only three inches wide, which did not allow for quality images or print. The information passed along the facsimiles was not that intriguing. In addition, broadcasters failed to regularly schedule facsimile programs, making it difficult to know when to expect them. Not to mention the fact that the transmitters and the entire production process was too expensive to be considered practical. All of these factors contributed to the fact that there were only four stations broadcasting via facsimile at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.<br />
<br />
Newspaper unions also halted the initial take off of the radio facsimile because they feared being replaced by these electronic machines. Craven notes in his 1941 article “New Horizons in Radio” that the newspaper industry included millions of dollars in capital and thousands of employed labor (128). It was feared that the newspaper industry would crumble and the economy would suffer.<br />
<br />
However, with the onset of World War II, companies like Hogan’s Radio Inventions, Inc., were hired to do facsimile research for the United States government, and they attacked said issues with full force. The war brought to light the many capabilities of this equipment still unexplored, and revived people’s interest in further developing it into a profitable product for the masses. Improvements such as an increase in the speed of recording, enlarging the size of paper used, and a reduction in the amount of noise produced during transmission were all largely responsible for the ensuing growth of the commercialized radio facsimile.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Radio Facsimile Today==<br />
[[Image:Untitled 2.jpg|thumb|left|A newspaper being sent via radio facsimile.]]<br />
<br />
Although the concept of news via radio facsimile was never fully embraced, there have been continual, yet sporadic attempts to successfully commercialize this means of newspaper transmission. As recent as 1991, the New York Times reported on the existence of a one page fax paper, Fax Today, being distributed in two small towns in Illinois. While aware of its limited commercial success in the past, the creators of Fax Today hoped that free subscriptions of the paper would help to transform this means of newspaper transmission into a more profitable and ubiquitous function of radio facsimile technology (Jones 1). We could say that the radio facsimile is remediated in fax machines or even the internet. However, the radio facsimile utilized FM waves rather than over wire connections. With the entire country and majority of the world connected by wires thanks to the internet and cable television, there seems to be little to no reason for the broadcast of print. The United States especially continues to move away from broadcast communication with the mandate that by 2009 all television with be digital rather than broadcast. The development of television was also a downfall of the radio facsimile as visuals (even moving visuals) were presented at the same time as sound. Perhaps one could even say that the radio facsimile was a precursor to the modern television in the fact that it encouraged the presence of both visuals and sounds in one medium.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Bibliography==<br />
*All images taken from ''Facsimile'' by Lee Hills and Timothy J. Sullivan*<br />
<br />
Craven, T. A. M. "Radio Frontiers." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 213 (1941): 125-129. JStor. NYU. 8 Oct. 2007.<br />
<br />
"Facsimile Paper 'Printed' by Radio." The New York Times 18 Apr. 1946: 1. 10 Oct. 2007. Keyword: Radio Facsimile.<br />
<br />
"Facsimile System" John V. L. Hogan; U.S. Patent 2,149,292; Patented March 7, 1939; Application June 16, 1934; Google Patent Search. <br />
<br />
"First Daily Newspaper by Radio Facsimile." Radio-Craft Magazine Mar. 1939. 1 Oct. 2007.<br />
<br />
Hills, Lee, and Timothy J. Sullivan. ''Facsimile''. First ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1949.<br />
<br />
Hogan, John V. L. "Facsimile and Its Future Uses." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 213 (1941): 162-169. JStor. NYU. 8 Oct. 2007.<br />
<br />
Jones, Alex S. "Small Fax Newspaper Shakes Up Its Press Rivals." The New York Times 12 Aug. 1991, Late ed., sec. D: 8. 9 Oct. 2007. Keyword: news via facsimile.<br />
<br />
Onosko, Tim. "Wasn't the Future Wonderful?" Modern Mechanix May 1938. 1 Oct. 2007.<br />
<br />
Payne, George Henry. "Postwar Radio Facsimile." Journal of Marketing 10 (1946): 290-291. JStor. NYU. 8 Oct. 2007. <br />
<br />
Russell, Nick. "The Impact of Facsimile Transmission." Journalism Quarterly: 406-410. Lexis-Nexis. 10 Oct. 2007. Keyword: Radio Facsimile.<br />
<br />
"The Times Facsimile." The New York Times 17 Feb. 1948: 1. 10 Oct. 2007.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Enigma_machine&diff=12729
Enigma machine
2010-11-24T14:54:49Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12494 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Enigma.jpg|thumb|right|Enigma German Cipher Machine (Stripp). ]]<br />
<br />
==History of the Enigma==<br />
<br />
The Enigma machine was invented by German electrical engineer and inventor Arthur Scherbius in 1918 in the wake of World War I and the newfound need for cipher machines that made encryption faster and more efficient (Newton 99). Originally intended to be sold commercially, Scherbius’s machine found no market for buyers. He then died in a fatal accident in the late 1920s (Winkel, Deavours, Kan, and Kruh 2-3). It was not until 1926, after several remodels by Scherbius and other German inventors, and the recent awareness that “British intelligence had been reading its code and cipher messages for many years” that the German navy aggressively pursued the machine for its enciphering and deciphering use (Newton 250). By 1928 the German army had adopted the Enigma machine and then in 1935 the German Air Force did so as well (Stripp 83). <br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Bletchley.jpg|thumb|left|Bletchley Park, England, home to Britain's codebreakers during World War II (Pincock 98). ]]<br />
<br />
The Enigma machine was the German’s secret force during World War II; however, it was the research performed at Bletchley Park that put an end to the technologies use. Bletchley Park, “a country estate used by the British Government Code & Cypher School during World War II,” was home to many brilliant minds during the 1930s and late 1940s. Project ULTRA was developed with the mission of decoding the impossible. This project was successful largely because of Alan Turing with the result being that by 1943 the codebreakers at the British Government Code & Cypher School could intercept and decipher German messages at about speed of the intended recipients (Newton 34). However, one cannot thank Turing without first acknowledging Hans-Thilo Schmidt first. For a long time Schmidt, a German native, had been a spy for the French although his most fruitful betrayal was the information he passed on to the French about the Enigma machine (Newton 251). After the Polish cryptanalysts got hold of the information, which later ended up at the British Government Code & Cypher School, the mystery of the enigma came to an end by as early as 1940. <br />
<br />
<br />
It was not until 1974 that any of the government knowledge surrounding the enigma machine was released to the general public (Newton 34).<br />
<br />
==Enigma Basics==<br />
<br />
The Enigma machine, patented in 1919, displays a keyboard of the twenty-six letters in the pattern of the normal German typewriter, although without numeral or punctuation keys (Stripp 83). It contains three basic parts: “a typewriterlike keyboard on which the plaintext is typed, an internal electromechanical system that converts plaintext to ciphertext, and a display system in which the ciphertext is displayed (Newton 99). The original 1918 Enigma machine contained three rotors, which is the area in charge of transcribing one letter to another and weighed more than one hundred pounds at fifteen inches high. Later editions adopted a more streamline appearance for simpler use and transportation, only weighing fifteen pounds at four inches in height (Newton 100).<br />
<br />
==Military Necessity==<br />
<br />
Codebreaking and encryption had not been an essential wartime tactic prior to 1914. However, World War I introduced a necessity for cryptology within the military, especially in regards to commands from high generals and other commanders (Kahn 621). <br />
<br />
===Pre-WWI Cryptology===<br />
<br />
During the days of the telegraph and radio, an enemy was capable of intercepting messages sent through the wires or airwaves. When messages were encrypted, breaking the code tended to involve a few brilliant men sitting around a table playing with the cryptogram until a message was configured. The most famous of which occurred during the very beginning of World War I with the Zimmerman Telegraph. The message, from Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, “proposed that Mexico declare war upon the United States, and that, upon victory, she regain the territories of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona that she had lost in the Mexican-American War of 1846”. Delivered and published to America, the United States government was able to handle the situation before the Axis Power gained another Ally (Kahn 620). However, this system for cryptanalysis was not the best way to decrypt messages. There was no system for breaking codes, no rulebook or textbook to study in order to simply crack a code. As a result, not all codes could be broken in a timely fashion to be effective.<br />
<br />
===Post-WWI Cryptology===<br />
<br />
Most codebreaking occurred in such a fashion throughout the Great War. Battles were won and lost at times based solely on intelligence intercepted and decoded in time to be put to use. World War I demonstrated the importance that cryptology would soon serve in times of battle from then on, including present-day warfare. Even during the time of peace that followed the first World War, “many nations…set up permanent agencies for” cryptanalysis. Many nations had some form of an agency, however, not nearly as large as countries, such as Russia, France, and Italy. Germany, Britain, and America, on the other hand, were the only three major countries to not have such an agency before World War I that developed one soon afterwards. World War I also called for fixing the problem of “error-prone” and “time-consuming” cryptology systems done by hand. When the war was over, many cipher machines were invented and came out onto the market. Most were simple, involving pressing letters on a “typewriter-like keyboard, and the machine would automatically encipher the message.” (Winkel, Deavours, Kahn, Kruh 2). Mechanizing the encryption process made encoding messages, as well as decoding them, faster, more accurately, and more efficiently. Going into World War II, a more complicated cipher machine would be found in Arthur Scherbuius’s Enigma machine.<br />
<br />
== Enigma Machine: How it Works==<br />
[[Image:Diagram.png|thumb|left|Basic Enigma wiring diagram (Ratcliff 15). ]]<br />
<br />
What made the Enigma machine so ingenious was, perhaps, its ability to deeply encode messages, almost instantaneously. Encoding a message was no more complicated than simply typing a message on a typewriter (Ratcliff 24). The machine enciphered messages electromagnetically (Ratcliff), and was usually powered by a 4.5 volt battery (Stripp 85). The parts of the machine that were used in the encoding process were the rotors, and a plug board on the front of the machine, called the steckerboard. The steckerboard was a simple plug board which could either be used or unused, or unsteckered. The steckerboard had 26 plugs for each letter, which could be connected by cables to couple certain letters (Stripp 85). Anywhere from 0-13 cables could be used for any given setting, however, usually only 10 cables were used, allowing for the maximum number of permutations for the key (Miller). Additionally, there were three out of five different rotors chosen each day, in a specific order. Each of these five different rotors had a different internal wiring that would move the current in a different manner. Each rotor also had 26 different positions from which the encoded message could begin (Stripp 85). <br />
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<br />
As each of the different letters of a message was pressed, a current would flow first through the steckerboard. Thus for example if ‘a’ was pressed the current would go to ‘a’ on the steckerboard, where, if the letter was not plugged to another, it would remain the same, or if the letter was plugged to another, the current would flow through, to the new letter (Stripp 85). Next, the current would move through the first rotor, where through the rotor’s internal wiring, it would exit at a different point, or letter, from which it entered. The current would do the same six more times, through the additional two rotors, through the reflector rotor (which was differently wired to ensure the letter would always be encoded and decoded the same way), and back through the three rotors again, lighting up a corresponding, coded, letter on the lamp board. Additionally, after any letter was pressed, the first rotor would turn one step to change the path of the current, so that if ‘a’ were pressed multiple times, it would not yield the same encoded letter. After the first rotor made the full trip around, the second rotor would make one turn, and so on (Ratcliff 15).<br />
<br />
[[Image:Block_Diagram.jpg|thumb|right|Block diagram of the Enigma machine (Kittler 252). ]]<br />
<br />
Due to this vastly advanced encoding system, the numerical possibilities for the different codes was “astronomical.” Although it was not completely random, the near-randomness of the machine ensured that the usual manners for deciphering codes would be useless against the Enigma (Ratcliff 14-16). It is said that the number of possible combinations was 3 x 10^114 (Ratcliff 18). This vast number of various combinations had three different components. First, the steckerboard, which had 0-13 possible connections at a time, to connect different sockets, and connect different letters, each time the machine was set up. Second, was the three rotors, which were chosen and in what order. Finally, was the initial rotational position in which each rotor was set. In each of these combinations, with the rotors turning each time the key was pressed, a key must be pressed 16,900 times before the rotors returned to their original position (Stripp 86). For more on the numerical possibilities in code deviation, see Dr. A. Ray Miller’s “Cryptographic Mathematics of Enigma.”<br />
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<br />
Each day, the machine would be set up in a different way, which would change the code. The operator would receive orders containing three different essential pieces of information: Which wheels were used and in which order, the ring setting of each of the three wheels, and the steckering. He would then turn the three wheels randomly to a start point. Next, the operator would type out a randomly selected key of three letters, inputted twice, which would give an ‘indicator’ (the letters, as they appeared on the lamp board). He would then set his wheels to the letters typed to yield the lamp board. Each message transmitted would contain the indicator in the beginning to instruct the operator receiving the message in how to set his machine to decipher the message (Stripp 86-87). The receiving operator had his machine set up the same way, as per the daily orders, but he only knew where to start each rotor as per the indicator (Ratcliff 18). <br />
<br />
<br />
Although the Enigma machine did provide an astronomical number of combinations of codes, there were some limitations. The steckerboard could only connect letters in pairs that denoted the other, thus ‘a’ would be substituted by ‘c’ and vice versa – ‘c’ could not be substituted by anything else in the steckerboard. Additionally, as used by the Nazis, the steckerboard always utilized 10 different connections, not more, and not less. And lastly, the steckers could not link sequential letters, thus ‘a’ could not be linked to ‘b’ and so on. These limitations diminished the number of combinations from 3 x 10^114 to 1 x 10^23.<br />
<br />
== Enigma Machine: How it was Used == <br />
[[Image:Key.jpg|thumb|left|A simple encoding of a message under the standard Kriegsmarine cipher (Mulligan 77). ]]<br />
<br />
The Enigma machine was used by the German Navy to disguise their communications as gibberish to avoid allied spies from retrieving sensitive information. The device required an intensely detailed set of actions to be operated properly. This placed heavy importance on the Enigma machine’s instruction manual (which went through several different editions). Without it, the machine was practically useless. The machine was to be kept locked up and separated from the cipher wheels when not in use. The key to the enigma and wheel boxes were to be held by an officer. The uses of the Enigma Machine can be divided into two main categories: Enciphering and Deciphering.<br />
<br />
===Enciphering===<br />
<br />
Enciphering involves the actions related to scramble the message. The 1940 Instruction manual, Titled: “The Enigma General Procedure”, explained in detail the intricacies involved in properly enciphering a message. The Germans employed a number of strategies to make it harder to figure out what the messages said. These strategies included: using abbreviations and short hand for standard information such as position, course and speed; repeating important words such as “proper names, unusual geographical terms, words from foreign languages, etc;” (“The Enigma General Procedure” 4) using ‘clarifying tag’ words to distinguish between words that possess multiple meanings (“The Enigma General Procedure” 4); repeating letters to distinguish between service stations with similar names; inserting useless ‘dummy’ letters and irrelevant words throughout the message in order to confuse the enemy; dividing long messages into at least two parts and having the word FORT (short for Fortsetzung= continuation) at the end of each part besides the final installment (“The Enigma General Procedure” 8), as well as other techniques. Messages sent by high officials could only be read and deciphered by officers of equal or higher rank. The Enigma machine would handle the rest of the ciphering process. The cipher wheels would systematically scramble each letter of the message through a three-step process.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
===Deciphering===<br />
[[Image:Enigma_in_use.jpg|thumb|right|General Guderian on the Enigma in his general's tank (Kittler 254). ]]<br />
<br />
Deciphering involves the actions related to unscramble the message. The process was essentially the inverse of enciphering. A team of usually two people were involved: a cipherer and a copyist. Both the cipherer and the copyist had to read the message. The cipherer keys, the message into the enigma machine, and the copyist writes down the deciphered message on a piece of paper. It was forbidden to dictate the message aloud (“The Enigma General Procedure” 20). Those who are reading the message would have to take into account all of the tricks that were involved in the process of enciphering the message (see Enciphering). The deciphering team will have to consult a cipher table in order to identify “the cipher of the day” which can be identified by the indicator group (which is represented by a three-letter group within the message). Each day, a different set of indicator groups become available so as to make it difficult to decipher. Once the message has been deciphered, it can then be delivered to its proper destination.<br />
<br />
==Aftermath==<br />
<br />
The Enigma machine, was, at once the greatest strength as well as the greatest weakness for the Nazis. For a long time during the war, they were able to completely conceal their communications from the Allies. Once the Allies cracked the code, however, the machine became a liability, as due to their hubris, the Nazis were unwilling to face the fact that their code was fallible. This can perhaps be seen by this exchange between two German POW’s, recorded by British interrogators:<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Radio operator: We have often cracked the British code, during the Norwegian campaign for example, but they will never crack the code we had in the Navy. It’s absolutely impossible to crack.<br />
<br />
Abwehr commando: Everyone says that of their own code.<br />
<br />
Radio operator: What! They can’t crack it.<br />
<br />
Abwehr commando: There’s only one method that can’t be deciphered and even that can be deciphered by expert mathematicians; I think they can break a code in the course of two years….<br />
<br />
Radio operator: No, they can’t crack it.<br />
<br />
Abwehr commando: Oh, that’s just one of those silly ideas people have.<br />
<br />
Radio operator: No. </i> <br />
<br />
(Mulligan 75)<br />
<br />
[[Image:Codebreakers.jpg|thumb|left|Codebreakers at work in the machine room of hut 6, Bletchley Park, 1943 (Pincock 99). ]]<br />
After the code was broken, the Nazis were unwilling to see the evidence of it as a breaking of the code rather, they assumed that the British simply had exceptional spies who were leaking information. Thus they concentrated their efforts on finding these spies, instead of adapting their code further (Hofstadter 2). <br />
<br />
<br />
Because of the Enigma’s vast number of possible code combinations, the breaking of the code required collaboration between the allies. Most of the efforts were by British and Polish mathematicians at Bletchley Park in England, under the codename Project ULTRA. These mathematicians used both high-speed machine technology as well as hand testing, to crack the code. By the early 1940’s, these mathematicians could already crack the code, however, at first it would take weeks to crack a single message, far too late to be of any help strategically. By 1943, they would be able to decode a message in minutes, and would finally be able to use the information therein. This is essentially the moment that the Enigma machine’s effectiveness was terminated. And in the end, the Nazis insistence on maintaining their use of Enigma may have been what cost them the war. <br />
<br />
<br />
As Ratcliff posits, “Enigma…demonstrates how a new technology can quickly move from startlingly revolutionary to so familiar that its operators fall into complacency” (12).<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
*Burchard, Hank. "Reading Hitler's Mail." The Washington Post 27 Mar. 1981: W5.<br />
<br />
*"Codemaking and Breaking: The Enigma Machine." Planet Science / Out There. Planet <br />
Science. 23 Sept. 2008 <http://www.scienceyear.com/outthere/index.html?page=/outthere/spy/index.html>.<br />
<br />
*"Enigma Exhibit." The Enigma Exhibit. National Security Agency. 23 Sept. 2008 <http://www.nsa.gov/museum/museu00007.cfm>.<br />
<br />
*Hofstadter, Douglas R. "Mind, Body and Machine." The New York Times 13 Nov. 1983.<br />
<br />
*Kahn, David. "Codebreaking in World Wars I and II: The Major Successes and Failures, Their Causes and Their Effects." The Historical Journal 23 (1980): 617-39.<br />
<br />
*Kittler, Friedrich A. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1999.<br />
252-54.<br />
<br />
*Miller, A. Ray. The Cryptographic Mathematics of Enigma. Center for Cryptologic<br />
History, NSA, 2001.<br />
<br />
*Mulligan, Timothy. "The German Navy Evaluates Its Cryptographic Security, October 1941." Military Affairs 49 (1985): 75-79.<br />
<br />
*Newton, David E. "Bletchley Park." Encyclopedia of Cryptology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc, 1997. 34-35.<br />
<br />
*Newton, David E. "Enigma." Encyclopedia of Cryptology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc, 1997. 99-100.<br />
<br />
*Newton, David E. "Scherbius, Arthur." Encyclopedia of Cryptology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc, 1997. 250-251.<br />
<br />
*Newton, David E. "Schmidt, Hans-Thilo." Encyclopedia of Cryptology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc, 1997. 251.<br />
<br />
*Pincock, Stephen. Codebreaker : The History of Codes and Ciphers, from the Ancient Pharaohs to Quantum Cryptography. Boston: Walker & Company, 2006. 98-99.<br />
<br />
*Ratcliff, R. A. Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra, and the End of Secure Ciphers. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 2006. 11-32. <br />
<br />
*Rohwer, Jurgen. "Signal Intelligence and World War II: The Unfolding Story." The Journal of Military History 63 (1999): 939-51.<br />
<br />
*Sale, Tony. "The translated 1940 Enigma General Procedure." The Enigma General <br />
Procedure. 1940. Bletchley Park. 26 Sept. 2008 <br />
<http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/documents/egenproc/eniggnix.htm>.<br />
<br />
*Scherbius, Arthur. Ciphering Machine. Mesne Assignments, assignee. Patent 1657411. 1923.<br />
<br />
*Stripp, Alan. "The Enigma Machine: Its mechanism and use." Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. Ed. F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp. Oxford, England: Oxford UP, 1993. 83-88.<br />
<br />
*Winkel, Brian J., Cipher Deavors, and David Kahn, eds. The German Enigma Cipher Machine. New York: Artech House, Incorporated, 2005.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Shorthand&diff=12728
Shorthand
2010-11-24T14:54:41Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12495 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Scribe.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of an Ancient Egyptian scribe.]]<br />
<br />
==Definition==<br />
Shorthand is a system incorporating the use of symbols or abbreviated words to form a new written language to substitute for a traditional language using full-length words, and by doing so this saves the employer of shorthand time. <br />
<br />
==Overview==<br />
Throughout the years, hundreds of different shorthand systems have been developed, and all have their own unique rules. Many of the modern systems use single letters to represent similar sounding whole words. For example, the letter C would represent the word 'See', when written in shorthand. Other systems use pictures to represent words. For example, a small circle, with a larger circle encompassing it would represent the phrase 'Around the world'. The picture method of shorthand involves much more memorization and practive for the stenographer, whereas the letter substitution system is more intuitive and would be less challenging to master. <br />
<br />
==Ancient History==<br />
<br />
Dating back to the inception the written word, there is archeological evidence of shorthand. From civilizations like the Greeks and Romans scribal texts and artifacts have been recovered that depict their efforts at abbreviated language. In fact, for the Greeks and Romans shorthand became the normal writing style; leaving hieroglyphics for ornamental scrolls and decoration on temple and tomb walls. The term stenography was created to refer to the art of shorthand, therefore a person who employs shorthand may be labeled a stenographer.<br />
The Ancient Egyptians placed of the scribe on an elite level and training to become one was met with extreme rigor. The scribe would, "Begin to study at five years of age. The rigours and harsh training of these young apprentices was well documented. Note the connotation of the egyptian word for teach, seba, which also means to beat." (Kreitzman) The concept of Stenography (not the writing itself) was remediated throughout history in Eastern and Western cultures. Caligraphy has evolved as the formal, correct, way to write letters and words, whereas everyday handwriting is arguably a form of shorthand. Much like the alphabet itself, Stenography can be seen as a digital interpretation of an analog idea. <br />
<br />
During the Han Dynasty (207BCE – 220CE), the Chinese developed two forms of rapid writing known as xingshu (running script) and caoshu (grass script). Still used today, the different strokes in the former are combined and others left out whereas in the latter the entire character is written in one continuous stroke. This has made these forms of stenography incredibly difficult to read without extensive training. Over the years there has been an effort made to standardize these forms of Stenography but they have been met with a deal of opposition. This can be seen as a pop and whistle of this technology. No matter how much training in the writing one can have, every piece transcribed will be inconsistent with the others in the basic structure of the physical construction of the words themselves. Unlike using the Western alphabet (which is standardized) to make a group of manuscripts, using xingshu and caoshu is a lot riskier because the message will fundamentally change from scribe to scribe.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Caoshu.gif|thumb|right|Mandarin Caoshu.]]<br />
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The ancient Romans also used shorthand and Stenographic techniques but in different ways. Vital military messages would be written in shorthand and, combined with Steganography (meaning "covered writing" (Dunbar), they could successfully be transmitted as far as the messenger could travel. The information would be tattooed onto the bald head of the messenger and, after the hair grew back, they would travel with a fake message to their destination. Upon arrival their heads would be shaved and the true message would remain intact.<br />
<br />
=Modern Shorthand: Pitman, Gregg and Teeline=<br />
<br />
[[Image:Gregg.jpg|thumb|right|Gregg Shorthand.]]<br />
<br />
There are many forms of shorthand being used in contemporary Western culture. However, the three most used are Pitman Shorthand, Gregg Shorthand, and Teeline Shorthand.<br />
<br />
==Pitman==<br />
<br />
Sir Isaac Pitman in England developed Pitman Shorthand in 1837. Over the years it has been altered and adapted into over 15 different languages, but is used mostly by secretaries in the UK and America. Acting as a remediation of the Chinese scripts, Pitman Shorthand relies heavily on the thickness, length, and placement of each stroke. This, again, has made it hard to decipher; even among other stenographers because the width of each “letter” can be contested by anyone. Because of this inconsistency, this style began to loose favor after the invention of the mini tape recorder. "It is perhaps the most rapid shorthand system and is favored by many court and convention reporters. The Pitman system makes use of shading (a line heavily drawn has a meaning different from that of the same line lightly drawn) and of differences in slope and position on a given line; it is geometric in outline and is difficult to master but makes possible very great speed." (Colombia Encyclopedia, Glatte)<br />
<br />
==Gregg==<br />
<br />
John Robert Gregg invented Gregg Shorthand in 1888. To this day Gregg is primarily used in the US, although it has been adapted into some other languages. Unlike the Pitman style that has characters assigned to every letter, Gregg is phonetic. For example, form, elephant, and rough would all use the same stroke for the F sound even though they are spelled differently. Gregg "published a popular system of business shorthand that is still in use today. Its outlines are curved and natural, resembling those of ordinary script; need for lifting the pen was eliminated as much as possible, so that a cursive motion is used; there is no shading, but variation in length of line indicates variation in meaning. The outlines were scientifically worked out for simplicity and writing ease." (Colombia Encyclopedia, Leslie)<br />
<br />
==Teeline==<br />
<br />
Developed in 1968, Teeline shorthand was developed by James Hill, who was originally an instructor of Pitman shorthand. This system is mainly employed within the confines of The United Kingdom, and is primarily used by journalists. The Teeline system is similar to its predecessors: Pitman and Greg. (Glatte)<br />
<br />
[[Image:Stenographymachine.jpg|thumb|left|Stenography Machine.]]<br />
<br />
=The Downfall of Shorthand: From Stenography to Phonography= <br />
[[Image:phonautograph.jpg|right|M.L. Scott's Phonautograph]]<br />
After the invention of recorded sound, the use of shorthand went into decline. Stenography was replaced by Phonography, and later its function was replaced by the Phonograph. As the primary function of stenography was to transcribe live testimonial, tools for recording have been able to achieve this with more efficiency, and without human error. Eventually stenography evolved into phonography, which was a more advanced version of the former. It was considered "a natural method of writing all languages by one alphabet, composed of signs which represent the sounds of the human voice;...brieder than any other system, and which speakers can be followed verbatim." (Daily Atlas) As stenography involved mechanical dexterity, and was thought to utilize the intellect, it was taught to students, and used by teachers. (Porcupines Gazette) It attempted to capture and edify aspects of oral expression, and evolved to focus on the vocal element as opposed to the spelling of the word. (Gitelman) This was due to the fact that there was no way at that point to capture certain intonations of the speaker. Although spelling out the word was a way to capture the content of vocal expression, there was no way to capture the manner in which speech was expressed. The logic of capturing oral expression was extended into the subsequent invention of the Phonoautograph. This device was invented by M.L. Scott and purported to visibally fix sound on a tablet. This was a tool to capture the actual vocal expression, and to represent it visually. <br />
<br />
However, the difference between this and stenography lies in the fact that the sound waves were not mediates a symbolic system of letters. At the same time the sounds were able to be read as they were visually distinct, and thus they were represented. Human voice was able to be distinguished from the sound produced by musical instruments. The acoustic vocabulary of tones and frequencies were employed to show how different sounds were represented visually on the tablet. This is a remediation of stenography as it attempted to capture the ephemeral sonic event, and to represent this event visually in a semiotic system. However, stenography employed writing, and the language used was the alphabet. It relied almost exclusively on the human labor of the stenographer. The Phonoautograph relied on the interface between sound and machinery much like the camera did with visual material substrate. There was an attempt to transcribe the graphic representation of sonic waves back into words, thus mimicking the process of stenography, however, this proved to be impossible, as all words looked visually different. “It is difficult to imagine the importance of the discovery, whether in respect it be in respect to the unimpeachable accuracy of the process, the entire absence or trouble and expense in reporting any articulate sounds, or the great saving of time, and exhausting labors of parliamentary reporters.” (Porcupine’s Gazette)The Phonograph extended the notion of converting oral experience into evidence. <br />
<br />
Today we can see how the ancient esteemed profession of the scribe has been recreated into the court reporter. Just like in antiquity, the court reporter has to be extremely skilled with their tools in order to be accurate enough to transcribe every word said while maintaining a high level of ethical pride. Their tools are also designed to copy information as fast as possible making their machine a remediation of the physical motions of the hand.<br />
<br />
We can also see traces of the ancient Roman's strategic techniques in contemporary international espionage and information transferring. Vital data has been transfered hidden in other data streams using encrypted languages and forms of digital shorthand. The Cold War can be seen as an example of the measures governments went through in order to relay a message. The United States invested millions of dollars in Stenographic techniques and technologies in order to counter Soviet transmissions and intercept some information for themselves. In fact, this war can be seen as built upon nothing more than the fear and proper usage of Stenography.<br />
<br />
==Works Cited==<br />
Kreitzman, Anita. History of Shorthand. Kings Park, NY: National Court Reporters Association, 2007.<br />
<br />
Dunbar, Bret. A Detailed Look At Steganographic Techniques and Their Use in an Open-Systems Environment. Washington, DC: SANS Institue, 2002.<br />
<br />
Macanair, John. Stenography Compendized. Glasgow: British Library, 2007.<br />
<br />
shorthand." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (September 26, 2010).<br />
<br />
Glatte, H. Shorthand Systems of the World, 1959.<br />
<br />
Leslie, L. A. Story of Gregg Shorthand, 1964.<br />
<br />
The Daily Atlas, Volume: XII; Issue: 127: Boston, Massachusetts, 1843. <br />
<br />
Porcupine's Gazette:The Marvels of the Nineteenth Century- Sound Recording Itself; Volume: LXII; Issue: 3189;: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1861. <br />
<br />
Winston, James. Stenography Completed. London: London, 1727.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Minitel&diff=12727
Minitel
2010-11-24T14:54:32Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12496 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>Minitel, France's Videotex telecommunication system, was introduced in 1981. It was implemented by France Telecom's Teletel network.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Teletext/Videotex==<br />
[[Image:Minitel1.JPG|thumb|left|Minitel Receiver]]<br />
Minitel falls under an umbrella category of similar systems, which are rather elusive in terms of definition. There are numerous names for these types of technology that came into existence in the very early 1980's including Teletext, Videotex, or Viewdata. These terms are often used interchangeably and can often lead to confusion due to the fact that there were many different types of services offered as well as many different devices for information retrieval. The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) makes a more clear distinction. According to the CCITT, Videotex refers to two-way information services and Teletext refers to one-way services. Michael Tyler defined Teletext/Videotex as "Systems for the widespread dissemination of textual and graphic information by wholly electronic means, for display on low-cost terminals (often suitably equipped television receivers), under the selective control of the recipient, and using control procedures easily understood by untrained users." (Tyler) An analysis of this definition by Tyler's peers points out, "It is significant to note that with the exception of the term "electronic," the definition is medium free." (Tydeman 2) Research proves that indeed there were numerous mediums that all fell under this category. With world wide web as we know it today still in the works, these were attempts to create a network type of communication system. It was possible in some countries for broadcasting companies to create their own teletext networks. For example, in the United States the Corporation for Public Broadcasting even created a guidebook to help broadcasters start up their own transmissions. This clear distinction between message senders and message receivers (except for in chatrooms) is probably one of the main causes of this system's demise. Interestingly, in the guide Carey points out the ability of Teletext to target narrow audiences as a selling point. (Carey 33) In this way Teletext was able to bridge the gap between mass electronic media which had incredible circulation and print periodicals which could already focus their attention on specific audiences.<br />
<br />
==Teletext/Videotex Services==<br />
[[Image:BBCTeletext.JPG|thumb|right|BBC's CEEFAX Teletext News]]<br />
[[Image:BdayVideotex.JPG|thumb|right|List of messages available from British Post Office]]<br />
<br />
Users were provided with "more than 17,000 services through Minitel terminals" (Billington and Riis-Hansen 114), including: <br><br />
<br />
*National Telephone Directory <br />
**This feature, which proved to be a crucial factor in encouraging mass Minitel usage, was "searchable nationally or within defined regions by name, address, telephone number or profession" (Jacobs 79). <br><br />
*Chatlines<br><br />
*News Reports [BBC CEEFAX teletext news system PICTURED] (Sigel 24)<br><br />
*24-hour Electronic Mail [for sending personally addressed messages, Courtesy British Post Office, PICTURED] (Sigel 79)<br><br />
*Homework Help: <br />
**Introduced in 1986, this feature gave students the opportunity to get online help from teachers for a specified period of time during the evening (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Medical Assistance: (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Information about Entertainment Events and Television and Radio Programs (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Train Schedules (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Job and Classified Ads (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Interactive Games (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Banking (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Grocery and Teleshopping (Housel 44)<br> <br />
*Comparative Pricing (Housel 44) <br><br />
*Movie showtimes (listed as a service on downloaded emulator from minitel.fr)<br />
*Traffic (listed as a service on downloaded emulator from minitel.fr)<br />
*Weather (listed as a service on downloaded emulator from minitel.fr)<br />
<br />
==The Minitel Terminal==<br />
[[Image:HP Photosmart StudioScreenSnapz001.png|thumb|left|]]<br />
<br />
As has been mentioned before, there were a diverse selection of terminals available. There are some universal features that were required. All terminals need some type of display monitor, often monitors were built into the machines or the machines were meant to be used with separate televisions. All systems also require and interface for user input. Most systems featured a QWERTY keyboard although some broadcast teletext systems used a more simple device resembling a television remote control. In most cases terminals were meant to be low-cost, which is an interesting factor to consider considering the extremely high cost of personal computers.<br />
[[Image:Minitel2.JPG|thumb|right|Minitel Terminal]]<br />
[[Image:Minitel3.JPG|thumb|right|Minitel Terminal]]<br />
There are definitely some interesting physical features of the Sematel model manufactured in France by LA Radiotechnique a sub-division of Philips Electronic Instruments, Inc.<br><br><br />
<br />
-One feature which highlights the overall design of the terminal is the rather odd power button. The button is integrated into the aerodynamic design, which helps to convey the message of modernity. After all the console does not move. Not only is the button well integrated, their is no indication that it is in fact the power button. This is completely counter-intuitive to a user-friendly interface, which the Minitel so vigorously boasted.<br><br><br />
-Another thing to note about the terminal is its color. The color of the terminal alone almost immediately marks it around the time period of 1980. It's interesting to note how the color of what is perceived modern has changed over the years.<br><br><br />
-The same type of observation can be made by the exaggerated lines of the molded plastic incasement, when compared to the popular American cars that would have been driven during the time of the Minitel's invention. This casing exhibits the striving attempts by Philips to make a modern looking product. This is a completely nonfunctional aspect of the terminal, but probably in some ways participated in its success. After all, it can't be the next best thing if it doesn't look the part.<br><br><br />
-Another interesting feature of the console is its use of a number pad. It remediated the qwerty keyboard from the typewrite, a feature which is not necessary to its operation. However, it did not place the numbers across the top of the keyboard in the same manner. In this way the Minitel probably mimicked the telephone due to the necessity of dialing. This type of number pad lives on through most external pc keyboards, but is primarily hung on to, to provide ease in calculations.<br><br><br />
-An important fact to take into consideration is that Minitel consoles were mono-function tools. They were only capable of carrying out one task, which was accessing the Minitel network. This sets them apart from personal computers which are now used to access the internet, and provides for safer information retrieval.<br><br><br />
-The terminal also houses on its right side two dials, one which controls volume and the other which controls contrast. The volume is useful when connecting, however it serves no purpose once your already connected. The contrast dial seems completely useless. At its most efficient setting the dark of the screen contrasts to the white letters. When you turn the dial it makes the black brighter to a more grey color, using more power, and making the characters more difficult to read.<br />
<br />
==User Interface==<br />
<br />
Minitel did not have what would be considered a graphic user interface. The look of the information displayed on the screen was simply a text interface. For Minitel, the font was standard throughout the machine, i.e. it was not an option to change the font style. The typeface was preset into Minitel to appear as the output. The input, e.g. when the user is conducting a search, is comparable to how the screen looks when entering commands into MS-DOS. Similar to other programs that run on the user's input, Minitel runs line by line instead of as a whole screen.<br />
<br />
The "graphics" that did exist were rough and primitive according to today's standards. In fact, they were essentially text manipulated to appear like images. The pixels of a graphic image were often clearly seen as little squares. The lack of smoothness in the images is reminiscent of children coloring out of the lines. The simple images were not detailed either. One reason is the lack of the impression of depth in the images because of the limited colors.<br />
<br />
In addition, the color scheme was limited to two colors: black and white. The colors ran on somewhat of a grayscale since they were not purely black and white. One interesting aspect is that the text is based on a dark on light scheme. This is typically seen when programming computer languages. However, dark on light, e.g. black text on a white background, is more widely used on the Internet.<br />
<br />
==Minitel Must Make Money==<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:PreviewScreenSnapz001.png|thumb|Minitel tarrifs as of 1991]]<br />
<br />
===Kiosk Billing System===<br />
<br />
The kiosk tariffing system took effect in March of 1984, which involved France Telecom taking over the individual billing for different Minitel-based services. France Telecom would collect the users' money once every two months via telephone bills, and then pay out to the service providers for a percentage of the revenue (Rheingold 230). And because the kiosk bill came in the form of a lump sum payment that did not specify the specific services that were accessed, the anonymity of Minitel users remained in tact. <br />
<br />
Under this model, one could access a given service by simply punching in a four digit code that represented a particular tariff band, such as 36 15, plus a corresponding word. “For instance, typing ‘36 15 MARIECLAIR’ would take you to the Minitel site of the magazine ''Marie Claire”'' (Jacobs 78). This tariff system allowed users to browse different services without having to pay a subscription fee to specific service providers, and since France Telecom took care of billing the users, the service providers were able to gain revenues from many short duration users without the expense of billing each user for each call (Housel 48-49).<br />
<br />
Due to the implementation of this kiosk system, Minitel traffic was significantly increased, as demonstrated by the fact that the “total connect time in November and December of 1984 was 198,000 hours and 2.2 million hours for November and December of 1985” (Housel 49).<br />
<br />
===Revenue===<br />
<br />
According to T.J Housel and W.H Davidson (52) in ''The Development of Information Services in France,'' the sources of revenue from the Minitel system include:<br />
<br />
1. Fees from revenue sharing with information providers (through the aforementioned kiosk system)<br><br />
2. Advertising <br><br />
3. Electronic directory usage (that exceeds free time - The Minitel directory was free for the first three minutes of use) <br><br />
4. Rental of advanced terminals <br><br />
5. Savings from printing of directories and staffing directory assistance <br />
operators <br><br><br />
<br />
===Marketing in the U.S.=== <br />
- When videotex systems were to be introduced into the u.s. their was much dialogue about what rates could be charged for information access. A pamphlet on videotex prospects for the 80s is ceratin that business will pay for services which save time and energy. However, they inquire "Household spending, however is a big unknown...Will consumers spend an extra $10 a month for information and other services? Will they spend $20 or more?" The researchers acknowledge the rising popularity in pay-TV (aka cable) and home video games, as possible indicators that people would be willing to pay for these services(Nyhan 12).<br> <br />
- Another interesting charachteristic about the U.S. model, was that advertisement was much more emphasized. Would this have become a key elemant of videotex service if it was still alive today? Or does it's failure in the U.S. indicate that it functioned better when run less Democratically as it was in France?<br />
<br />
==The French Phenomenon==<br />
[[Image:JapaneseVideotex.JPG|thumb|left|Example of Japanese language output on Videotex screen]]<br />
<br />
Minitel was strictly a French innovation because it did not spread throughout the world, or even to the rest of Europe. Its success was due to the culture of the French as well as the actions of France Telecom, which was owned by the government.<br />
<br />
Minitel's input/output functions were carried out in the French language. French and other alphabet-based languages were efficient for use with Videotex systems. However, limits in resolution caused languages with intricate characters such as Japanese input (seen left) to function less efficiently (Sigel 122). This may be one reason why Videotex campaigns were not successful in certain countries, with complex alphabets. However, this doesn't fully explain why these campaigns weren't as successful in countries such as the U.S. and U.K. Regardless, it's certain that due to the fact that the French language was so closely associated with these technologies, Minitel gained a particular identity. The French regarded Minitel highly because it was the embodiment of their language, and to a great degree their culture.<br />
<br />
Minitel's symbolic value lies in the fact that it was a product of France and not an import. This mindset regarding Minitel is influenced by France Telecom's general manager in 1974, Gerard Thery, who was known as "the product champion of Minitel." "Through careful planning, he put into place the resources, personnel, and teamwork to bring the new service to fruition. The results made France Telecom the first to market with the new service, which set standards in the electronics and telecommunication industries" (Billington and Riis-Hansen 124)<br />
<br />
In addition, Minitel's network was implemented by the government. France Telecom, state-owned telecommunication monopoly, invested in test marketing in 1980 to learn about French society's response to the system. For their locations, "France Telecom initiated test markets in Velizy for videotex and in Ille-et-Vilaine for the electronic directory" (Billington and Riis-Hansen 118). The initial success was fueled by the French government's distribution of Minitel terminals for free. In 1982, France Telecom gave the terminals away free to gain acceptance by attracting customers. The terminals were soon expanded to include businesses, because the placement of terminals "in the home, at businesses, and eventually in public places made them familiar to the public and accelerated the acceptance of the system over time" (Billington and Riis-Hansen 123). <br />
<br />
User friendliness was also a major factor in the success of Minitel. In fact, "Thery tried to keep the videotex product concept simple and rugged; it could become more complex over time. He opposed IBM's substantial presence in France in the areas of computers and telecommunication and its traditionally complex approach to data processing" (Billington and Riis-Hansen 117).<br />
<br />
Security is a major concern with the use of networks. So another important aspect of Minitel is that "As a closed network it cannot be attacked by hackers or viruses" (Selignan). Minitel is viewed as a safe, secure medium to use. Many Minitel users do their shopping using Minitels rather than the Internet.<br />
<br />
"Like the inefficient QWERTY keyboard layout created in the nineteenth century that blocked more efficient key placements, Minitel locked users into a relatively inefficient technology that nonetheless still served an extremely valuable function" (Trumbull 61). Interestingly, Minitel's input entries are typically done using a QWERTY keyboard. Does this make the Minitel even more ineffective?<br />
<br />
==Encoding and Decoding Process==<br />
===Primitive Broadcast Medium Gains Full Two-Way Capabilities===<br />
<br />
It was originally believed that an information network like the Minitel would work primarily in the dissemination of just that – information. However, research consistently suggested that “the public might be more interested in specialized services and in communication than in information per se. Videotex trials in the U.S., and the French Minitel system, underscored the centrality of interpersonal and group communication to electronic networks” (Dutton 148). <br />
[[Image:VideotexDiagram.JPG|thumb|Diagram from Tydman 5]]<br />
This seemingly inevitable, yet accidental, path toward Minitel messaging capabilities was captured perfectly as its creation played out in the true story of Gretel, which was one of the first three test-services set up in France. According to Michel Landaret, the man responsible for Gretel: <br />
We were running an experiment with a very small number of users, to determine whether professional <br />
associations and institutions would use data banks. The DGT [(General Telecommunications <br />
Administration)] had not focused on Minitel’s communication functions. <br />
What happened with Gretel altered the users’ relationship to the <br />
service in a crucial way. We had only a few dozen users who called into service. For research <br />
purposes, we monitored their usage. We could see how people new to the system could get confused <br />
and enter a series of ineffective commands. So we designed a system to communicate with those users <br />
by sending a message directly to their screen, and receive messages back from them, to help them <br />
learn how to use the system. One of our users just cracked that part of the system and used it to <br />
talk with friends. As soon as we found out what was happening, we made improvements on the service <br />
and made it a legitimate part of the system. They loved it (as quoted in Rheingold 227-228).<br />
<br />
Based on the reaction from Strasbourg (where the Gretel service was located), one of the former executives for France Telecom, Henri de Maublanc, designed the user interface of system-wide chat service. “According to Maublanc, when he tried to explain to the architects of the Teletel system that their giant distributed database could be best sold as a communications systems, ‘they said I was crazy, it would never work, the entire idea is to deliver good information, not to deliver chat lines’” (as qtd by Rheingold 229-230). Therefore, what was originally imagined as a broadcast medium that limited its users to the position of receiver, was suddenly and undeniably established as a medium of two-way communication where everyone became both a sender and a receiver.<br />
<br />
==Messagerie Rose==<br />
<br />
It is not uncommon for people to develop unexpected functions of a new medium as it develops and emerges into popular use. As in the case of the Minitel, that unforeseen capability or quality often becomes one of the primary functions of that new technology. As soon as the Minitel was established in 1982 as a means of computer mediated communication (CMC) between individuals or groups of people, there was an almost immediate explosion of sex-chat services, or ''messagerie rose'' (pink messaging). “Before long, it had become one of the main forces behind Minitel’s success, especially between about 1983 and 1987, by which year ‘pink sites' were clocking up staggeringly high usage figures” (Jacobs 81). <br />
<br />
But what’s so strange about the popularity of such sex-chats is the fact that it was widely known by participants that the majority of the supposedly young women engaging in lewd conversations with male Minitel users were, in actuality, male actors that were paid to keep users online for as long as possible. In his book ''The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Fronteir,'' Howard Rheingold recounts the story of one such man by the name of Denis, a French actor whose day job was to pretend to be several women at a time via Minitel. Thanks to his first hand experience with ''messagerie rose,'' Denis was able to offer some insight as to why users would continue to participate in sex-chats with people they could assume, with a large degree of certainty, were nothing close to who they claimed to be. Rheingold states that according to Denis, most people “…were in it for nothing but the fantasy. It was a chance to step out of their normal identity and be superman or a beautiful woman and say all the things that they only think about in their most secret fantasies” (232). In other words, the ''minitel rose'' provided a new avenue for people to create another ‘self’ – a different identity than the one they put forth in their day-to-day lives. <br />
<br />
How Denis and the like used the Minitel demonstrates exactly the beliefs of sociologist Erving Goffman, whose theories long predated the age of the telematique. In his ''Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,'' Goffman described people as always being on stage, “always creating a persona that they project to one audience or another. Much of our lives, seen from Goffman’s perspective, consist of constructing responses in public that paint a certain public persona, and taking actions that live up to the image of the persona we present” (Rheingold 233). Therefore, people like Denis acted according to what they deemed appropriate in order to 'embody' a young woman in such a situation, while the person at the other end of the Minitel line was able to carry out a persona that he or she would never otherwise play out(at least not during face to face communication) with a perfect stranger.<br />
<br />
However, despite the fact that ''messagerie rose'' participants were generally aware of the possibility of chatting with "false persons," there were some people who did not treat the ''minitel rose'' simply as a fantasy world. When a Parisian call-girl was brutally murdered after a meeting arranged through a sex chatline, the public was outraged and “several members of the French Parliament made speeches calling for the closure of sites promoting debauchery, bestiality, paedophilia and prostitution” (Jacobs 81). <br />
<br />
[[Image:FirefoxScreenSnapz001.png|thumb|House Vinyl, Artist: Man & Woman, Side A:"Sex on the Minitel'', Side B: "Man and Minitel"]]<br />
<br />
But even with the strong denunciation of the ''minitel rose'' and the development and dissemination of a code of conduct, only Minitel services causing particular offense were disconnected from the system. Other services deemed degrading were simply dealt higher charges, and as late as 1992-1993, sex-chats mixed with ‘personal services’, such as horoscopes and the like, still accounted for nearly a quarter of total Minitel connect time (Jacobs 82). Not surprisingly, the less than stellar success of the French government to restrict the ''minitel rose'' was a result of “conflicting pressures [from] public demand and the maintenance of revenue: France Telecom had certain powers to crack down on sex chatlines but chose not to use them to the full in the face of a lucrative source of income” (Jacobs 85).<br />
<br />
Pictured right is a Vinyl record which grabbed our attention while searching for a Minitel console on Ebay. This record advertised as rare was published in 2001 and incorporates Minitel into both song title. The titles "Sex on the Minitel" and "Man and Minitel" is an obvious reference to the ''messagerie rose'' which caused such controversy. We were able to locate a sample but not able to hear the full recordings, the lyrics we did here did not include references to Minitel. The appropriation of this communication medium in art, immortalizes Minitel as a cite for the battle of individual sexual expression. The reference to dead media object may also serve "the cool" of the record, as an obscure digital reference, which are often commodified by house music.<br />
<br />
==Homosexuality and Expression==<br />
<br />
Minitel was an outlet for individual expression. With access extended beyond inhabitants of cities, particularly Paris, individuals were able to communicate thoughts and feelings they may not have done in-person. "The success of the minitel in the gay community is largely due to the possibility of anonymous communication...The reason for its incredible commercial and social success lies in the urbanisation of sex" (Duyves 194).<br />
<br />
Minitel revealed a realm with options available to the public that were never there before. So when Minitel was introduced "In 1983 the gay world suddenly realised what amazing opportunities the little machine offered for the making of personal and anonymous contacts. A change in sexual partner, the financing of services such as a gay radio station and help for AIDS sufferers, anything was possible" (Duyves 194). With anonymity comes a level of promiscuous behavior: "The French telecom has thus unwillingly give the go-ahead to the exchange of extremely risque messages among its clients, who are not infrequently underage' (Duyves 195). The ability to express personal thoughts also brought about abuse from others. Using the example of homosexual chatrooms, "gay haters" and even the police were involved in them during their various points in their widespread use.<br />
<br />
==French Resistance to the Internet==<br />
<br />
While France was the first country to establish a widely used information network in the form of the Minitel, the existence of such a system actually hindered the ultimate growth of the information revolution surrounding the Internet in France. When the Internet first made its way to France, it was met by a population that was already familiar and comfortable with the technology and functions of the Minitel, which was able to efficiently carry out many valuable services for its users. Because the majority of their needs were already being met, it created a situation in which the French had to be that much more convinced of the benefits of the Internet. <br />
<br />
Similarly, the phenomenon known as ''Creative Destruction'', as described by the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, also worked to impede the emergence of the Internet in France. According to Schumpeter, “true innovation [is] nearly always destructive, because new products or procedures naturally threaten existing lines of business” (Trumbull 61-62). In countries without a previously existing network like the Minitel, the onset of the Internet predominately brought about advantageous opportunities “without challenging existing revenue centers. In France, by contrast, the Internet emerged as a competing technology for companies already earning profits through Minitel” (Trumbull 62). <br />
<br />
Furthermore, the cultural stigma surrounding the Internet throughout the 1990s acted as a deterrent for its adoption in France. Whereas the Minitel embodied a vessel of French culture, the Internet was viewed "as a tool of American cultural imperialism, and accordingly the protection of France’s ‘Frenchness’ was used as sufficient reason for attempts, in the main unsuccessful, to set restrictions on Internet usage” (Jacobs 83).<br />
<br />
==Last Breaths==<br />
<br />
-In 2000, France Telecom "launched "I-Minitel," a service that lets Internet subscribers visit Minitel sites" (Selignan). A year later, in 2001, "Yahoo began test-marketing services that enable Minitel users to go on the Internet and send and receive e-mail messages" (Tagliabue). Yahoo hopes to attract people to their services, so "Through 3615 Yahoo, a Minitel service launched in January for accessing and sending regular e-mail, Yahoo can get an idea of how many people are willing to pay for their e-mail. And thanks to the variable rates throughout the day, the company can theorize about how much customers are willing to pay as well" (Borzo). At roughly the same time, "Et Hop Minitel! (the name translates roughly as "And jump to Minitel"), was launched in early 2001 to provide connections in the opposite direction -- Minitel users can visit Web sites, with the material displayed on their terminals as simple text" (Selignan).<br />
<br />
[[Image:OrangeWebCapture.jpg|thumb|left|http://www.minitelfr.com/Uk/ouvrir/index.html]]<br />
<br><br />
-On a tip from a former employee of French magazine, ''Le Nouvelle Observateur'', who was working on developing an English-language Minitel service our group attempted to connect the afore-mentioned Sematel model Minitel to still active French Minitel lines. http://www.minitelfr.com/Uk/divers/f_autres_info.html A Orange business services website, a subsidiary of France Télécom, offers instructions in English intended for enthusiasts in the U.K. to connect to the French Minitel service. Interestingly, these pages seem to have been updated fairly recently. The web page (shown left) for creating new accounts to access the service, indicate that since May 31, 2006 it is no longer possible to open a new account. Additionally, existing accounts would only be honored through the end of 2006. This incredibly recent abandonment of revenue seeking by Orange indicates that the French Minitel service, may finally be close to its death. The fact that these lines have stayed open for so long may be indicative of just how cheap the actual running of the system is.<br />
<br />
Under the assumption the U.K. instructions would also work for U.S. enthusiasts, and armed with a sample user name and password, we plugged in our Minitel and dialed France. Upon pushing the ON/OFF LINE button, the machine sounded a dial tone, however as we punched in the numbers there were no corresponding tones. This could be a defect in the machine, or it's possible that the system is dial-pulse instead of touch-tone. This could present problems for us dialing from NYU where we need to push several extra numbers, 9 to dial out, the 011 international code, and a five-digit code superseding the number. These numbers most likely require a touch-tone system to function properly. I'm not sure whether the Sematel Terminal uses pulse or touch-tone technology. However, it's certain that for Minitel to be used today touch-tone would be necessary. Touch-tone technology, which assigns arbitrary pitches to each digit, certainly qualifies as functional nonsense. We also ran into several other dialing problems. The number of digits we needed to enter didn't fit in the display on the Minitel which fits 16 digits. This may or may not mean that they were still dialed. Lastly, the system requires a pause before the last five digits, which we were unable to insert because the space bar does not function in dialing mode. When we dialed from a standard telephone we heard fax machine type sounds which indicates that the system is most likely still functioning, provided we were able to dial it from a Minitel. The similarity in sound to the fax machine, indicates that the Minitel uses similar technology to transfer data over phone lines. <br />
<br />
-It should also be mentioned that Minitel emulators, which still exist, may run on personal computers.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
*Benghozi, Pierre-Jean, and Christian Licoppe. "Technological National Learning: From Minitel to Internet." ''The Global Internet Economy.'' Ed. Bruce Kogut. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 153-190.<br />
<br />
*Billington, Thomas K., and Christian Riis-Hansen. "France Telecom: Minitel." ''New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators.'' Ed. Thomas, Robert J. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.<br />
<br />
*Borzo, Jeanette. "Technology (A Special Report) --- Aging Gracefully: France's Minitel is hanging on, much to the surprise of its critics." ''Wall Street Journal.'' [New York]. 15 Oct 2001, Eastern edition: R.22 <br><http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=84453524&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=9269&RQT=309&VName=PQD> <br />
<br />
*Carey, John. Teletext Guidebook: a Report for Office of Policy Development and Planning Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Greystone Communications, 1984.<br />
<br />
*Cats-Baril, Willam, Tawfik Jelassi, and James Teboul. "Establishing a National Information Infrastructure: The Case of the French Videotex system, Minitel". ''Strategic Information Systems: A European Perspective.'' Eds. Ciborra, Claudio, and Tawfik Jelassi. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994. 73-98. <br />
<br />
*Dutton, William H. "Multimedia Visions and Realities." ''The Social Shaping of Information Superhighways: European and American Roads to the Information Society.'' Ed. Herbert Kubicek, William H. Dutton, and Robin Williams. New York: St. Martin's P, 1997. 148.<br />
<br />
*Duyves, Mattias. "The Minitel: The Glittering Future of a New Invention." ''Gay Studies from the French Cultures: Voices from France, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, and The Netherlands.'' Eds. Mendes-Leite, Rommel, and Pierre-Olivier de Busscher. New York: The Haworth Press, Inc., 1993. 193-203. <br />
<br />
*Housel, T. J., and W. H. Davidson. "The Development of Information Services in France: The Case of Public Videotex." ''International Journal of Information Management'' 11.1 (1991): 35-54. ScienceDirect. NYU Bobst, New York. 11 Nov. 2007. <br />
<br />
*Jacobs, Gabriel. "Cyberculture." ''French Popular Culture: an Introduction.'' Ed. Hugh Dauncey. London: Hodder Headline Group, 2003. 77-87.<br />
<br />
*Rheingold, Howard. "Telematique and Messageries Roses: a Tale of Two Virtual Communities." ''The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier.'' Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Company, 1993. 226-235. <br />
<br />
*Selignan, Maite. "France's Precursor to the Internet Lives On; '80s-Vintage Minitel Network Upgraded to 'Complement' the Web." ''The Washington Post.'' [Washington, D.C.]. 25 Sep 2003, Final Edition: E.02 <br><http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=411025071&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=9269&RQT=309&VName=PQD><br />
<br />
*Sigel, Efrem, ed. Videotext: the Coming Revolution in Home/Office Information Retrieval. White Plains, NY.: Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc., 1980.<br />
<br />
*Tagliabue, John. "Online Cohabitation: Internet and Minitel; Videotex System In France Proves Unusually Resilient." ''New York Times''. [New York]. 2 Jun 2001, Late Edition: C.02 <br />
<br />
*Trumbull, Gunnar. "Minitel and the Internet." ''Silicon and the State: French Innovation Policy in the Internet Age.'' Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution P, 2004. 60-82.<br />
<br />
*Tydeman, John, Hubert Lipinksi, Richard P. Adler, Michael Nyhan, and Laurence Zwimpfer. Teletext and VideoTex in the United States: Market Potential Technology Public Policy Issues. New York: McGraw-Hill Publications Company, 1982.<br />
<br />
*Tyler, Michael: “Electronic Publishing: Sketch of the European Experience,” Teletext and Viewdata in the U.S.: A Workshop on Emerging Issues, Background Papers, Institute for the Future, Menlo Park, Calif., 1979.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Experiential_Typewriter&diff=12726
Experiential Typewriter
2010-11-24T14:54:20Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12497 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>==Function==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Mantra.JPG|thumb|left|"For us these neurological numbers take on the meaning of mantras" (Psychedelic Review, 70).]]<br />
<br />
<br />
The "mantra" reprinted to the left corresponds to “astonishing statistics about the nervous system and potentialities of consciousness” (70). The ingestion of psychedelic foods or drugs supposedly allows us to tap into some of these neural activities that are repressed during regular cognitive action. Inability to symbolically convey subjective experiences during inebriation leads to a potential loss of qualitiative research data concerning psychedelic substances. Leary states that “We can think or speak at the rate of three words a second. That means that one – thousand-million-minus-three registrations cannot be communicated” (71). Albert Hofmann synthesized the chemical LSD-25 in 1940s Switzerland “within a systematic research program”; he ends the notes of his first self-experiment:<br />
<br />
Supplement of 4/21 : Home by bicycle. From 18:00 to ca. 20:00 most severe crisis. (See special report)<br />
<br />
and notes that “I was able to write the last words only with great effort” (27).<br />
<br />
In the 1965 paper announcing the experiential typewriter Leary a device capable of recording experience during a roller coaster ride:<br />
<br />
“Lets imagine twenty buttons which the subject will push to record his reactions. One button is for “thrill” and another is for “lights” and another is for “sick” and another is for “dizzy.” Then we train the subject for hours in the code system until he gets to that point of automatic proficiency of the touch typist who can rattle off copy without think of what she is doing…Then we strap the subject’s hands to the dials of the roller-coaster ride. He can now give us perhaps twenty to a hundred codes a second which we pick up on a polygraph (i.e., a multipen recorder attached to the sending keys) (Psychedelic Review 71).”<br />
<br />
==Design==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Esterline angus chart recorder.JPG|thumb|right|Esterline Angus Chart Recorder]]<br />
<br />
<br />
The experiential typewriter’s design is credited to Dr. Ogden Lindsley of the Havard Medical School and William Getzinger, electronic engineer with MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in 1965. The instrument is a direct remediation and synthesis of preexistent machinery. An internally modified Esterline Angus Operational Recorder is rigged with up to twenty pens (one for each key) and attached to a power console. This console also has two ten-key pads connected to it by long wires; when a key is depressed, a single mark is made upon the polygraph paper.<br />
<br />
Why the non-verbal communication is performed with the fingers may be related to our critical concept the "obvious." Leary cites the automatized touch typist as a model; the previous knowledge that fingers can be taught to record information even when not tapped into the active consciousness may have led him to use this method. While contemporary scientists have studied brain activity through MRI scans or eye movements during REM sleep, the finger dependent keyboard design used by Leary may have been chosen for its availability to the public, or for its dichotomy between manual and automatic input. Unlike a lie detector test or seismograpgh machine (which also record onto polygraph paper) the experiential typewriter attempts to record conscious or purposeful strokes as well as automatic. <br />
While there are seemingly arbitrary parts of the design, such as lamps within each key, they may only appear arbitrary because I cannot situate them within the structure of a test. Furthermore, many of these extraneous pieces are actually intended for the future expansion of the machine.<br />
<br />
==Coding==<br />
“The usefulness of the Experiential Typewriter depends upon the meaningfulness of the experiential language to be coded…at this primitive stage of our understanding of the levels of consciousness it is premature to design…a linguistic system…ad hoc languages should be set up for each area of consciousness to be explored, for each session” (75).<br />
<br />
===Levels of Consciousness to Be Expressed===<br />
<br />
It is clear that codes intended for use with the experiential keyboard were always temporary and that new, specific codes may be used for individual experiments. Sources suggest number of coding possiblities that may have been useful for recording the inexpressible during “accelerated-brain experience.” Some states include stuporous, emotional, symbolic, somatic, senosory, cellular, molecular and out-of-body. “Each level needed a vocabulary,” which may have been taught to a subject during initial sessions; necessary to form a (sober) control set of data (156). Sensory, cellular and moleculer vocabularies were generated from overlaid "biology slides and and film strips...enlargements of cellular activity" and tape library with a wide variety of emotionally charged sounds in multiple languages (157).<br />
<br />
[[Image:Ex. type keyboard.JPG|thumb|right|Keyboard Diagram]]<br />
<br />
===Chart Paper===<br />
<br />
Leary notes that the anticipation of a subject's loss of contact with the instrument and subsequent holding down of a key has lead to a notational system with discrete markings; "each time the key is depressed a mark is made on the polygraph, but if the key is held down no further mark is made" (72). The paper could be read by the researchers as the test was in progress, and the narrative could possibly be further explained by the subject after the test's completion.<br />
<br />
===Automatized Actions===<br />
<br />
Although this artifact's physical machinery records or processes information, one of the most crucial steps in usage is the invention of a language or code and the subsequent embedding of that code into a subject's unconscious, automatic reactions. Thus, the experiences under scrutiny must be considered to be dictated by the device itself, first through its tactile intrusion into the space of the experience, secondly through the small movements of the fingers trained to speak its code, and finally cognitively, because the subject has been trained to think in the generated code. Again, the E.T. is not simply a machine, but a formula or form for generating sign systems and the specific language invented for each use. Both the body and the machine are coded, equating the two, making explicit the notion that we communicate through arbitrary sign-systems and that the information produced during daily data-processing is a hybrid-construction of the self and the technology. Varying degrees of active, controlled cognition were described in Hofmann's first test: "In spite of my delirous, bewildered condition, I had brief periods of clear thinking-and chose milk as nonspecific antidote for poisoning" (27).<br />
<br />
The "click" may be normal language itself in this context: the need to extrapolate this code into a vernacular language is not necessary for the machine, code, or system generated from these tests but is highly necessary for the findings of tests to make any sense on the semiotic level outside of the sphere of the subject and researchers.<br />
<br />
==Access==<br />
<br />
It is interesting to note that many doctors, pharmacologists, and scientists interested in psychede lic chemicals first performed tests on themselves like many of their historical counterparts cited by Zielinski in "Deep Time of the Media."<br />
<br />
Practical access to this device was obviously limited to those with access to Leary and the necessary chemicals that it hopes to test, but in theory, the the machine itself is arguably democratized. The fact that any individual who wishes to use it can make up a new code ("There is a small opening at one narrow end of each keyto allow insertion of a symbol or colored strip") means that the instrument functions much more like a piece of paper than a typewriter with exclusive characters (in one language, for example). That it attempts to create codes out of non-verbal emotions and experiences may enable it to move across cultural boundaries. Beyond this, the device could essentially be used by one any person, who could later go back and discover their experiences in written form.<br />
<br />
==Tests==<br />
<br />
Although Psychedelics Encyclopedia (1992) suggests that a prototype for such a machine was attempted but never reached a functioning state,” the original 1966 article features data gathered from tests run: “The first session was run as a control period, without drugs. The set was to meditate in silence. The second recording was made three hours after the ingestion of 250 gamma of LSD. Both sessions were run in a very small room; the subject lay on a mattress on the floot, hands resting easily on the two keyboards of the E.T. The console and recorder were ;in an adjacent room. The room was lit by one candle; actually the subject kept his eyes closed throughout both sessions” (83). Sources suggest that the setting of a psychedelic experience is an important factor in determining the kind of trip to be had; the setting described in this experiment is reminiscent of isolation chambers built by Leary to remove one from any definable place and allow 'time travel.' <br />
<br />
===Recent===<br />
<br />
In an article from 2006, Marko comments that "While insightful as to the timing of the various phases of the experience(e.g. onset, encounter, comedown), the results of these experiments only provide a real-time subjective assessment of the experience. This experimental methodology only provides a more objective understanding to the course of events during DMT inebriation." In other words, while a linear series of discrete emotive states is recorded, data can only be considered in qualitative terms. <br />
<br />
Ben Highmore, speaking about the study of of daily existence in "The Everyday Life Reader," argues for methodologies that cross the line between literature or art and social science. Recent works of contemporary poetry such as "Fidget" and "Soliloquy" by Kenneth Goldsmith attempt to record every movement of his body in a day and every word he has spoken in a week, respectively. Although these tests occur when sober, a similar creeping in of the recording technology (a microphone that turned on when ever he spoke) onto the subject's experience is clear; arguments and conversations about the technology appear and guide some parts of "Soliloquy," while the non-address of the recording actions run through "Fidget" like a spirit. Goldsmith seems to come to similar conclusions about the usefulness of words in extreme situations; during the last chapter of "Fidget," he can no longer handle the self-scrutiny, gets drunk, makes untranslated noises into the tape and records the final chapter as the first backward.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==Sources==<br />
<br />
*Highmore, Ben. "Questioning Everyday Life." The Everyday Life Reader. Routledge: New York, <br />
<br />
*Hofmann, Albert. "LSD-My Problem Child." Psychedelic Reflections. Edited by Lester Grinspoo, M.D. and James B. Bakalar, J.D. Human Sciences Press, New York: 1983.<br />
<br />
*Leary, Timothy. "The Experiential Typewriter." Psychedelic Review 7. 1965.<br />
<br />
*Leary, Timoty. "Flashbacks."Tarcher/Putnam Books: New York, 1983.<br />
<br />
*Rodriguez, Marko A. "A Methodology for Studying Various Interpretations of the<br />
N,N-dimethyltryptamine-Induced Alternate Reality." 2006<br />
<br />
*Stafford, Peter. "Psychedelics Encyclopedia." Ronin: 1999.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer&diff=12725
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
2010-11-24T14:54:10Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12498 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:3DO1.png|thumb|right|alt=3DO|The first model of the 3DO, released in 1993.]]<br />
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was a video game console developed by the 3DO Company and manufactured in the U.S. by Panasonic from 1993 until 1995. The console and the 3DO company are historically known for being a business failure, having sold few 3DO consoles, and subsequently games, due to the console’s $699 price tag. This article will not focus on the failures of the 3DO and will instead look at the technological impacts the console had on the gaming industry. This article will specifically expand on Zielinski’s argument that “…computer-centered media has come to focus on the operation and design of the interface. This boundary between media users and media devices simultaneously divides and connects two different spheres: that of the active users of the machines and that of the active machines and programs” (Zielinski, 259) as well as Alex Galloway’s similar observation that there are “two basic types of action in video games: machine actions and operator actions…acts performed by players” (Galloway, 5). This article will not only focus on 3DO technology as ground-breaking for the home console, but will also examine how the console has continued to survive as a rare pop culture oddity through the efforts of gamers. <br />
<br />
==Design and Technology==<br />
===Physical Design===<br />
[[Image:3DO2.png|thumb|left|alt=3DO|The second model of the 3DO, the FZ-10, released in 1994.]]<br />
Like most computers and home consoles, the 3DO is completely encased in an opaque (black, in this case) plastic box that does not show any of the system’s hardware. The first 3DO model was square and looked similar to a VHS player, while the second model was sleeker and more contemporary looking. The physical design of the 3DO allowed the system’s functions to be masked entirely, creating an environment similar to the “darkened room” or “chamber” of the camera obscura. Much like how the camera obscura allowed for an extraordinary visual experience through “…the representation of an exterior phenomenon [which] occurs within the rectilinear confines of a darkened room, a chamber, or in Locke’s words, an ‘empty cabinet,’” the gaming console exhibits this same sort of magic. The user needs limited working knowledge of how the device operates in order to gain the visual (and audio) experience, and the machine does not necessarily need any user input in order to produce the experience (i.e. menu and load pages), thus allowing the machine and the user to exist independently, making “…the spectator...a more free-floating inhabitant of the darkness, a marginal supplementary presence independent of the machinery of representation” (Crarey, 41).<br />
<br />
===Hardware===<br />
====Core System Architecture====<br />
The 3DO was equipped with a 32-bit central processing unit and had 1MB of video RAM. The 3DO had several “folios” that allowed a relationship between several aspects of hardware and software. For example, the audio folio allowed for the creation and manipulation of sound effects and music. The 3DO was also the first home console that provided a visual display for music, so that when you played CDs a visual moving image would appear and change with the music, similar to older Windows screen savers. A 3-D folio was also developed for the console (but not released) and would have been used to create 3-D effects. The 3DO also had a digital control port, similar to the Mac ADB port, as opposed to an analog control port.<br />
<br />
====Peripherals====<br />
The 3DO had standard gaming peripherals such as controllers and a laser gun, however, one significant difference in the 3DO controllers that was new at the time was there was only one controller port on the console. Other controllers had to be linked to the original controller, creating a “daisy chain” that allowed for 8 controllers to be used on one console. While this may have been uncomfortable, few consoles at the time allowed for such a high number of controllers to be connected to one console. <br />
<br />
Other innovative peripherals were developed for the 3DO but never released. AT&T developed an external modem for the 3DO that would create a network using voice-over-data technology for users to talk to each other. External memory devices were also developed for the 3DO, specifically a memory card that would allow players to store games externally (Terlecki). Additionally, computer plug-in cards were developed to allow users to play 3DO games on computer screens, which extended the life of the console beyond the television. Unfortunately, the 3DO ceased production before any of these peripherals could be popularized.<br />
<br />
===Software===<br />
====CD-ROM====<br />
[[Image:ROMcartridges.png|thumb|right|alt=3DO|Video games on ROM cartridges, now obsolete for the home console.]]<br />
The 3DO was one of the first home gaming consoles to use CD-ROMs, which are a remediation of ROM cartridges (now obsolete for the home console). Initially, CD-ROMs were not seen as a progressive change, because “cartridges were directly connected to the system’s working memory, and could be read instantly” (Therrien, 121). CD-ROMs required a longer loading time and were initially considered an inferior medium by gamers, but they could hold more information, making them appealing to game developers, and were cheaper to produce. Since CDs were originally intended for audio playback, the music accompanying many early CD-ROM games was of superior quality, and several gamers would purchase games for the music accompanying game play (Therrien, 123). Most importantly, having a CD-ROM drive allowed the 3DO to not only play games, but audio CDs and photo CDs as well, allowing it to extend beyond gaming.<br />
<br />
Prior to CD-ROMs being a common medium for games, many home consoles using ROM Cartridges, which were read-only and typically did not have much read/write capability. During the 16-bit generation of home consoles, a SNES ROM cartridge could hold about 6 megabytes of data (it was 4 megabytes for Sega Genesis and less for other consoles); in 1986 a 12-inch CD-ROM could hold up to 550 megabytes of data (Therrien, 121). ROM cartridges also contained less storage space, were expensive to make, more tedious for gamers to store due to their bulkiness, and didn’t have much multi-purpose use. The 3DO established a technological foundation for future consoles by helping to popularize optical media for the home console.<br />
<br />
====Game Structure====<br />
[[Image:3DOplumbers.jpg|thumb|left|alt=3DO|Cover for the 3DO game "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties."]]<br />
Many games for the 3DO followed a standard game genre, i.e. car racing, first person shooters, etc. However, what was unique about 3DO games that intended to show off the console’s advanced technology were the interactive movie games, which were intended to showcase the console’s video capability. Many of the games played like short videos, and required little user activity, making them ideal for adult content. One such game, “Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties,” is an interactive movie game in which you must make decisions regarding the romantic relationships of a young woman. The “game” aspect is a visual remediation of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style book, and the game features a few long strip-tease segments that have nothing to do with game play but are rather used as a way to integrate video content into a game and exhibit the console‘s capabilities.<br />
<br />
==Preservation==<br />
Independent of the 3DO’s mechanic actions, gamers conducted their own actions, which have helped to preserve the console. Since the console was only produced for two years and was incredibly expensive, very few consoles were sold and still remain today. However, some who owned and enjoyed the console in the 90s still play it today, and maintain communities online. One UK blog, which claims that it is just “Some insane ramblings about a games console that died almost 10 years ago,” has documented several of the hundreds of games that were released for the 3DO, creating an archive and a platform for other users to read and discuss their favorite 3DO games. A Google Group also exists, which has archived gamers’ discussions from the early 90s on various ways to hack the console and alter it to meet their interests and needs (i.e. how to attach peripherals developed for other computers or consoles to the 3DO), as well as other 3DO-related topics. The group is still accessible, but is rarely active. There hasn’t been much recent “homebrew” activity for the 3DO, but two new games were released in 2008 for the console, which claims they are “the first new officially licensed releases in over a dozen years” (GDG Publishing, 2008). Although many have forgotten the 3DO as a console that flopped due to an overly ambitious start-up company and mediocre games, fans still strive to remember the console as an innovative machine that extended the capabilities of the home console.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the Observer: on Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1990. Print.<br />
<br />
Galloway, Alexander. Gaming Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota, 2006. Print.<br />
<br />
"ScrewAttack Video Game, Angry Video Game Nerd: Plumbers Don't Wear Ties." Video Game Trailers for Wii, PSP, Xbox, PS3 & More. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. <http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/52921?type=flv>.<br />
<br />
Terlecki, Daniel. "3DO FAQ - Classic Gaming." ClassicGaming - the Home of Classic Gaming on the Net. 1998. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. <http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=ConsoleMuseum.Detail&id=39&game=12>.<br />
<br />
Therrien, Carl. "CD-ROM Games." The Video Game Explosion: a History from PONG to Playstation and beyond. By Mark J. P. Wolf. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2008. 121-25. Print.<br />
<br />
Will. "3DO Interactive Multiplayer: Some Insane Ramblings about a Games Console That Died Almost 10 Years Ago." 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. Nov. 2005. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. <http://fz1-3do.blog.co.uk/>.<br />
<br />
Zielinski, Siegfried. Deep Time of the Media toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2006. Print.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Visuality]]<br />
[[Category:Computation]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Euphonia_Speaking_Machine&diff=12724
Euphonia Speaking Machine
2010-11-24T14:53:57Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12500 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>“The very idea of a ‘Talking Machine’ seemed impossible, the term an oxymoron. It denoted a contradictory combination of biological and mechanical function, a nineteenth-century cyborg.” – Lisa Gitelman[[Image:Faber.jpg|thumb|Faber and the Euphonia]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==Artificial Speech - Re(organ)izing Language and the Body==<br />
<br />
[[Image:HughesTelegraph.jpg|thumb|left|The Hughes Telegraph]]Joseph Faber’s "Euphonia" was both a response to the telegraph and a remediation of it. He imagined a telegraph that could speak, leading him to construct a model of the human speech organs. Faber studied language and human vocal anatomy in order to break them down into parts and then reorganize them mechanically. The Euphonia operated by “By pumping air with the bellows and using different combinations of 16 keys to manipulate a series of plates, chambers, and other apparatus including an artificial tongue (Levy 29).” The false head black boxes and masks the mechanics of the vocal process. Faber created an artificial organ through which artificial speech could be achieved. The artificial organ of speech is doubled by the machine as musical organ and an extension of the silent organ that is Faber’s own vocal tract. <br />
<br />
The Euphonia used keys that correspond to specific consonants and vowels, but unlike the telegraph, this transmission ended with an audible voice. Its digital input produced an ephemeral output and like the telegraph, the transmission began catoptrically and ended dioptrically. Speaking machines free the voice that is trapped in the transmission of messages, allowing the message itself to speak. It is also a remediation of ventriloquism that allows the dummy to speak without the obscured voice of the ventriloquist. Its piano and organ-like structure emphasize Faber not only as creator of this voice but also as master and manipulator. Vilem Flusser writes, “Fingertips are organs of choice, of decision (Flusser 92)” and he goes on say that the selection is already programmed. Choice is therefore limited not only by the design of Faber’s machine with sixteen keys to select from, but the alphabet and language are also a limit. The “cake mix effect” can be seen in the keys and pedals as mechanized and predetermined, but the operator is able to choose the words, the pitch of the words, and can choose from three different speaking modes (normal speaking tone, whisper, or song). The mastery of the machine is limited by the selections already built into the design as it was not for example, designed to scream. It’s possible that a screaming effect could have been achieved by hacking the machine and manipulating the pedals, which control pitch, but no such instance was ever recorded. Its mechanical monotone also limited the capacity for affect and emotion in the speech.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==Externalization of the Voice==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Turk.jpg|thumb|The chess playing Turk was a hoax and not an actual automaton]]The relationship between the artificial speech and the body of the speaker is one of metonymy. The voice is separated from the body and in this externalization it becomes a relationship of parts, which signal other parts. Jonathan Crary writes, “the machine makes use of man by subjecting him to a relation of contiguity, of part to other parts, and of exchangeability. He [Marx] is quite specific about the new metonymic status of the human subject (Crary 131).” The voice becomes a part of the body outside the body, and is made to be externalized, manipulated, separated, rearranged, and exchanged. The voice has a metonymic relationship to the whole body as Hermes or the vessel and carrier of the voice. <br />
<br />
This calling attention to parts is unmistakable in the artificial head detached from a body, which can’t help but signify an absent body. The machine itself becomes the prosthetic of that missing body. The artificial human head is a skeuomorph because the mouth is the only functioning part, leaving the rest of the head as purely aesthetic. The head rather serves to provide an indexical sign of the whole body and to appease the expectation of speech as something that emerges from the human body. The head is also described as resembling Wolfgang Von Kempelen’s popular automaton “The Turk.” The display of the Turk is also a display of the Other and the mechanical Turk as a double Other furthering the externalization of the voice in the voice of the Other. The floating head without a body announces the immortality of speech, the speech that can live on after the body is dead. The externalization of language into text was similarly perceived as immortal text. The detached head coupled with its mechanical voice carried the message of a call from the dead. A first hand account recalled that the head, “produced words which slowly and deliberately in a hoarse sepulchral voice came from the mouth of the figure, as if from the depths of a tomb” and referred to the figure as one of “unmeasurable sorrow (Hankins and Silverman 214).” The crypt is evoked here as encryption of life. The head did not signal immortality but rather called attention to the materiality of death and this physical machine transforms into the spectral ephemerality of speech itself.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==The Machine Strikes Back==<br />
<br />
The Euphonia acts as a physical representation of the dilemma of speaking in which the subject loses the words in the moment they are uttered escaping from the body and the subjects possession. This experience of expression as alienation separates the subject from the speech. The speaking machine is a further alienation of speech as it is produced from a place of distance within the machine. Lacan writes, “Through the effects of speech, the subject always realizes himself more in the Other, but he is already pursuing there more than half of himself. He will simply find his desire ever more divided, pulverized, in the circumscribable metonymy of speech (Lacan, 188).” Speech is about address and addressing the Other, yet it is the machine as Other which addresses the crowd, inverting the relationship between man and machine. This is a machine that strikes back just as the lever strikes back for Flusser. This humanizes the machine and mechanizes the audience. Crary describes the observer as having always been technologized, but so to the speaker is always technologized. The experience of speaking is one of metonymy, not about producing a mimetic copy of reality, but speaking as about slipping away, dividing the subject, and subjectively interpreting the real. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==Death of the Speaker==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Euphoniaface.jpg|thumb|left|The Face of the Euphonia]]While the Euphonia amazed people, there was resistance to it, perhaps because its ability to imitate a human speaker incited fear of replacement by the machine. It is not that the machine promises eternal speech after the speaker’s death, but rather the death of the speaker in favor of the artificial speech. Punch Magazine commented satirically on this sentiment, “A clear saving of 10,000 a year might be effected by setting up a machine […] in the Speaker’s chair of the House of Commons, […] Have a simple apparatus for crying out ‘Order, order’ at intervals of ten minutes, and you have a speaker at the most trifling cost. (Hankins and Silverman, 214).” This fear of human obsolescence in the face of the machine was already being felt in the mid 19th century. This is also the machine striking back, and the artificial shaping the organic, where the human is forced to mimic the efficiency and cheap labor of the machine. Punch magazine points out the mechanical essence of certain jobs, producing a worker who acts like an automaton. Flusser wrote, “Nothing human is natural. That which is natural about us is inhuman (Flusser 95).” The habitual and automatic aspects of human behavior are mechanical and inhuman. Faber ended up revealing along with his speaking machine, the machine within the human and the mechanical construction of human beings, something that would later lead to development in robotics and computers. The Euphonia failed to preserve the human causing it to fall out of favor and to be replaced by the phonograph which records and projects the human and the telephone which transfers and connects the human.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
Crary, Jonathan. "Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century". Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1992<br />
<br />
Flusser, Vilém. "The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design". London, UK: Reaktion Books, 1999<br />
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Gitelman, Lisa. "Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era". Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999<br />
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Hankins, Thomas L. and Robert J. Silverman. "Instruments of the Imagination". Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995<br />
<br />
Lacan, Jacques. "The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis". New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1978<br />
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Levy, David N.L. "Robots Unlimited: Life in a Virtual Age". Wellesley, MA: A K Peters Ltd, 2006<br />
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Ronell, Avital. "The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech." Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1989<br />
<br />
[[Category:Representation]]<br />
[[Category:Sound]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
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[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Hip_Pocket_Records&diff=12723
Hip Pocket Records
2010-11-24T14:53:49Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12501 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>Hip Pocket Records were flexi-discs manufactured by Philco in 1967. They were one of the first forms of portable music, preceding cassette tapes and compact discs. <br />
<br />
[[File:Podihp29.jpg|200px|thumb|Hip Pocket Record Album Sleeve]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Img052.jpg|200px|thumb|Hip Pocket Record]]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Brief History==<br />
The invention of the automobile brought on a wave of excitement and anticipation among the American people. The technological advances of the 1950’s and ‘60’s enabled Americans to embrace their youth. Shortly after the automobile, radio came into the picture, and with radio came a new kind of recorded music. The only problem with the radio was that people were unable to choose exactly what they wanted to listen to. At home, they were able to play their choice of music on any 45 record player, but in the car, their only option was the radio. <br />
<br />
Dr. Peter Goldmark, who worked for the CBS Electronics Lab, decided to put his efforts into developing records that could be played in a moving automobile. He created a disc that was 7 inches in diameter revolving at 16 2/3 rpm, which was half the speed of the LP record (which Goldman developed). The disc also had 55 grooves per inch, which was two times the number of grooves in the LP record. CBS rejected Goldmark’s project because they feared they would lose radio listeners if people had the option of playing records in their cars. Goldmark tested the player and discs in his own car, a Chrysler, and worked out minor kinks. In 1955, Chrysler bought Goldmark’s automobile player and introduced it in their 1956 line of cars. They teamed with Columbia Records, who manufactured the discs to be sold with the car. Columbia, however, did not provide any information on where to buy additional discs for the automobile player. In addition, the discs could only be played in a car with the automobile player installed. Eventually these 7” discs became obsolete with new models of cars. (Dawson)<br />
<br />
====The Flexi-Disc====<br />
<br />
[[File:Floppy.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Flexi-Disc]]<br />
<br />
The 7” discs made way for the flexi-disc, which was only 4 inches in diameter, made of soft, bendable plastic. The flexi-disc was durable and inexpensive to make, and able to be played on a 45 record player. These tiny discs were first marketed to children, as prizes in cereal boxes and samples in magazines. The flexi-disc, however, could only be played about a dozen times before the stylus on the record player ruined the tiny grooves. (Dawson)<br />
<br />
====Philco/Ford====<br />
<br />
[[File:Philco.gif|200px|thumb|Philco Logo]]<br />
<br />
Philco, a division of Ford Motors, produced the most famous flexi-disc series: Hip Pocket Records. These flexi-discs were one sided and played two songs each, including over 50 different Top 40 Songs, as well as children’s songs. Philco/Ford teamed with three major record companies, Atlantic, Mercury and Roulette, to produce popular music on the Hip Pocket Records. They were sold for 69 cents at Woolworth, and also at local Ford Dealers. Hip Pocket Records were only manufactured for two years (between 1967 and 1969), but Philco produced a small phonograph for the Hip Pockets called the Miniature Radio Phonograph (model S-1378WH). The Mini Radio Phono, as it was called, was especially made to play Hip Pocket Records, but played regular sized records as well. (Miller)<br />
<br />
[[File:PhilcoDevice.jpg|200px|thumb|Philco Phonograph]]<br />
<br />
====Competition====<br />
[[File:Pocket.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Pocket Disk of "Hey Jude"]]<br />
<br />
The Americom Company sensed that Hip Pocket Records would be a long-lived fad, and produced their own form of Hip Pocket Records called Pocket Discs. These Pocket Discs were sold only in vending machines, and cost 50 cents. Americom teamed with Apple Records, the record company that backed the most popular band of the 60’s—The Beatles. Americom released Pocket Discs with Beatles songs as well as songs from other artists under the Apple label such as the Iveys and Billy Preston. <br />
<br />
As a result of teaming with the right record company, Americom’s Pocket Discs are worth about $200 today thanks to the popularity of The Beatles. Hip Pocket Records are only worth $5-$15 in mint condition. (Miller)<br />
<br />
==Packaging==<br />
[[File:Podigore.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Lesley Gore Album]]<br />
Hip Pocket Records came in very colorful packaging that was about 6 1/4 inches tall by 5 inches wide and listed the two tracks it played and displayed a photo of the artist or band. In addition, the packaging was a form of advertisement that stressed the Hip Pocket’s portability, durability, and sound quality. The back of the packaging read:<br />
<br />
''Buy the hits you missed''<br />
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''25 to 50 hip pocket records can be carried in pocket or purse''<br />
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''Hip pocket records can be mailed with greeting cards as a gift''<br />
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''They will outlast a regular 45''<br />
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''Drop them or sit on them...they are almost indestructible''<br />
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''Take them to parties or to the beach or picnic...they are the most portable form of music''<br />
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''Don't let the small size fool you...the sound is amazingly big''<br />
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''Start your collection of hip pocket records today.''<br />
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Interestingly, the bit that states Hip Pockets will outlast a regular 45 was written and manufactured before it was discovered that flexi-discs did not last very long. However, the part stating that “the sound is amazingly big” was true.<br />
<br />
==Top 40 Hits==<br />
<br />
HP-1 Tommy James & the Shondells Mirage / I Think We're Alone Now<br />
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HP-2 Tommy James & the Shondells Hanky Panky / Gettin' Together<br />
<br />
HP-3 Sam The Sham Ju Ju Hand / Wooly Bully<br />
<br />
HP-4 Mitch Ryder Jenny Take a Ride / Sock It To Me Baby<br />
<br />
HP-5 Neil Diamond Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon / Cherry Cherry<br />
<br />
HP-6 McCoys Fever / Hang on Sloopy<br />
<br />
HP-7 Happenings Go Away Little Girl / See You in September<br />
<br />
HP-8 Sonny & Cher I Got You Babe / The Beat Goes On<br />
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HP-9 Doors Light My Fire / Break on Through<br />
<br />
HP-10 Five Americans Western Union / Sounds of Love<br />
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HP-11 Wilson Pickett Land of 1000 Dances / Midnight Hour<br />
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HP-12 Percy Sledge When A Man Loves A Woman / Baby Help Me<br />
<br />
HP-13 Otis Redding Shake / Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa<br />
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HP-14 Buckinghams Kind of a Drag / Lawdy Miss Clawdy<br />
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HP-15 Arthur Conley Sweet Soul Music / You Don't Have To See me<br />
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HP-16 Van Morrison Brown-Eyed Girl / Midnight Special<br />
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HP-17 Neil Diamond You Got To Me / Solitary Man<br />
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HP-18 Young Rascals A Girl Like You / I've Been Lonely Too Long<br />
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HP-19 Spanky And Our Gang Making Every Minute Count / Bird Avenue<br />
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HP-20 Keith 98.6 / Ain't Gonna Lie<br />
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HP-21 Lesley Gore You Don't Own Me / That's the Way the Boys Are<br />
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HP-22 Jay and The Techniques Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie / Loving For Money<br />
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HP-23 The Fallen Angels Room At The Top / Most Children Do<br />
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HP-24 Aretha Franklin Respect / Soul Serenade<br />
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HP-25 John Fred and his Playboy Band Judy in Disguise / No Letter Today<br />
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HP-26 The Seeds Pushin' Too Hard / Can't Seem To Make You Mine<br />
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HP-27 Box Tops The Letter / Happy Times<br />
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HP-28 James and Bobby Purify I'm Your Puppet / Goodness Gracious<br />
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HP-29 Syndicate of Sound Little Girl / Rumors<br />
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HP-30 Shirelles Soldier Boy / My Heart Belongs To You<br />
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HP-31 Etta James Tell Mama / Security<br />
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HP-32 The Dells There Is / Show Me<br />
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HP-33 Bo Diddley I'm A Man / Song of Bo Diddley<br />
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HP-34 Chuck Berry Maybelline / Roll Over Beetoven<br />
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HP-35 Country Joe and The Fish Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine / Masked Marauder<br />
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HP-36 Joan Baez There But For Fortune / Pack Up Your Sorrows<br />
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HP-37 Rooftop Singers Walk Right In / Tom Cat<br />
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HP-38 Brenton Wood Gimme Little Sign / Oogum Boogum<br />
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HP-39 Fantastic Johnny "C" Boogaloo Down Broadway / Got What You Need<br />
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HP-40 Brenda and the Tabulations Dry Your Eyes / When You're Gone<br />
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HP-41 Isley Brothers Twist And Shout<br />
<br />
====Children's series====<br />
HP-201 Peter Pan / Tom Thumb<br />
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HP-202 Pinocchio / Pied Piper<br />
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HP-203 Jack and The Beanstalk / Robin Hood<br />
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HP-204 Hansel and Gretel / Little Red Riding Hood<br />
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HP-205 Cinderella / Alice In Wonderland<br />
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HP-206 Snow White / Littlest Ballerina<br />
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HP-207 Gingerbread Man / Bumpy's Bingtown Brass Band<br />
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HP-208 Ugly Ducklings / Three Litle Pigs<br />
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HP-209 Tortoise and The Hare / Puss In Boots<br />
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HP-210 Mary Had A Little Lamb / The Three Little Kittens / Little Bo Peep / Three Blind Mice / One Two Buckle My Shoe / To Market To Market<br />
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HP-211 Tom Tom The Piper's Son / The Muffin Man / Simple Simon / Farmer In The Dell / Little Jack Horner / Humpty Dumpty<br />
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HP-212 Pop Goes The Weasal / Old Woman In The Shoe / Jack and Jill / Hickory Dickory Dock / London Bridge / Diddle Diddle Dumpling<br />
<br />
(Philco/Ford Corporation)<br />
<br />
==Decline==<br />
Hip Pocket Records began fading out in 1969 because of their short playing life as well as the music industry’s abandonment of vinyl records (Dawson). Magnetic tape in the form of a cassette became a more logical choice because it lasted longer and was able to hold more content. <br />
====Cultural Influence====<br />
Hip Pockets are clear evidence of America’s need for comfortable mobility. The emphasis on portability printed on the Hip Pocket packaging is arguably what sold the product. Our culture has always been “on-the-go,” valuing innovation and a fast paced society. Music was and still is representative of youthfulness and soul. It allows us to be expressive and creative while maintaining a sense of order. Hip Pocket Records made it possible for Americans to take music anywhere. Music was easily shared with others; not only among friends, but also from artists to new audiences. Hip Pockets were often given out as samples during their decline because they were inexpensive to produce as well as easily sent through the mail. Hip Pockets propelled the relationship between music and transportation that existed with the automobile and radio. They promoted the freedom to choose your own music. Hip Pockets encouraged Americans to make music their own by carrying it with them. Now, people are able to carry music with them everywhere in their iPods, laptop computers, and cellular phones.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
* Dawson, Jim, and Steve Propes. 45 RPM. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books, 2003. 110-15.<br />
<br />
* Gitelman, Lisa, and Geoffrey B. Pingree, eds. New Media, 1740-1915. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. 157-73.<br />
<br />
* Lee, Morton, Phillip L. Miller, Karline Brown, Jerome B. Wiesner, and R.D. Darrell. "Recording Symposium II." Notes Second Series 7 (1950): 599-608.<br />
<br />
* Miller, Chuck. "Hip Pocket Records: Lighter Than Air." Goldmine 1 Jan. 1999.<br />
<br />
==Links==<br />
There is very little scholarly research on Hip Pocket Records. Most of the information on Hip Pockets comes from the memories of those who used them, posted on personal blogs. People remember receiving Hip Pocket samples in the mail. For many, Hip Pockets are a product of their childhood that died before its time. Here are some links to more pictures and interesting music blogs discussing Hip Pockets: <br />
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* [http://attaboy.tommydoc.net/?p=1079 Attaboy: Remembering Hip Pocket Records]<br />
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* [http://easydreamer.blogspot.com/2008/09/philco-hip-pocket.html Philco Hip Pocket Records]<br />
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* [http://jukeboxmafia.blogspot.com/2008/06/hip-pocket-records.html Jukebox Mafia]<br />
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* [http://www.rarebeatles.com/photospg/flexiad.htm#PHILCO Rare Beatles]<br />
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* [http://rocknrollgraffiti.blogspot.com/2007/07/hip-pocket-discs-failed-to-ignite.html Rock N Roll Graffiti]<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Traveling_Medicine_Show&diff=12722
Traveling Medicine Show
2010-11-24T14:53:38Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12502 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>Medicine Shows, popular primarily between 1850 and 1930 in the United States, were traveling groups that put on performances and entertainment acts interspersed with sales pitches peddling miracle cures, elixirs and other various products of a dubious nature. The traveling medicine show has close links to other trends at the time in America, including the patent-medicine industry and both traveling and static forms of staged entertainment. As a result, the traveling medicine show stands as a truly unique, American practice that existed only for a brief time in history, though whose legacy and influences can be traced through today in a variety of fields, including medicine, popular entertainment, and marketing.<br />
<br />
<br />
''How much is your health worth, Ladies and Gentlemen? It's priceless, isn't it? Well, my friends, one half-dollar is all it takes to put you in the pink. That's right, Ladies and Gents, for fifty pennies, Nature's True Remedy will succeed where doctors have failed. Only Nature can heal and I have Nature right here in this little bottle. My secret formula, from God's own laboratory, the Earth itself, will cure rheumatism, cancer, diabetes, baldness, bad breath, and curvature of the spine.'' (Anderson 1)<br />
<br />
[[File:Wizard_oil.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Advertisement for Hamlin's Wizard Oil [McNamara 63]]]<br />
<br />
== Origins ==<br />
=== The European Mountebank ===<br />
<br />
The predecessor to the traveling American medicine man was the European mountebank, well known throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance for selling their medicinal wares at fairs, street corners, in market squares or wherever they could gather a crow of onlookers (McNamara 3). 17th century London, for example became, in scholar Ann Anderson's terms, "a hotbed of medical malpractice" and a home to many medical "quacks" (Anderson 9). Scholars acknowledge, however, that it was the Italian mountebanks of the 17th century that typify the European medicine men of this era (McNamara 5). <br />
<br />
[[File:Medieval_mountebanks.jpg|320px|thumb|right|A medieval mountebank [McNamara 2]]]<br />
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Every day, Venice's St Marks Square would be packed with half a dozen platforms where various mountebanks would try for the crowd's attention. Music could play and the showman would open up his trunks, displaying his medicinal wares for the audience, while he delivered a long presentation of half an hour or longer (5). <br />
<br />
While the main goal of the European mountebank was to sell their miracle cures, they would utilize various forms of entertainment to attract the crowd. In Italy and France, mountebanks would often draw upon elements of Commedia dell Arte, a popular street theater art form of the time, to amuse the crowd as they pitched their products (6). In fact, the importance of performance in the mountebank's sale becomes quite clear through the various names that the people developed for them: “montimbanca, cantimbanca, or saltimbanca” would refer to the musical and acrobatic feats they performed on their platforms, or “ciarlatano (from ciarlare, to chatter)” the origin of the term "charlatan", which emphasized the verbosity of the mountebank and “ciurmatore (from the Latin carmen, or charm)” referencing their magical feats which the mountebank's displayed to lure in the public (Henke).<br />
<br />
=== Colonial and Early America ===<br />
<br />
While it is not definitively known by scholars when the European mountebank entered the colony, by the early 18th century we begin to see mentions of the presence of medical "quacks" in America (McNamara, 7-8). One of the first written mentions of the colonial medicine man occurs in William Smith's 1757 work ''The History of the Province of New York...to the Year M.DCC. XXXII''. Smith notes that "Quacks abound like Locusts in Egypt and too may have recommended themselves to full Practice and profitable Subsistence. This is the less to be wondered at, as the Profession is under no Kind of Regulation...Any Man at his Pleasure sets up for Physician, Apothecary, and Chirurgeon" (Smith quoted in McNamara, 8).<br />
<br />
The other reason we know about the growing presence of the medicine man in the colonies in the 18th century is the various pieces of legislation passed in response to their deceitful practices. In 1772 in New Jersey, an act regulating medicine in the colony included a piece aimed at the suppression of mountebanks, while in 1773 Connecticut passed the "Act for suppressing of Mountebanks" (McNamara 8). Overall, despite the official opposition, scholar Brooks McNamara argues that "the mountebank remained the delight of the crowd" throughout America (McNamara 10).<br />
<br />
For most of the 19th century, the American mountebanks barely differed from the European ones. Performing in exotic costumes, the American medicine man of the 19th century would draw people in with feats of magic, hypnotism, ventriloquism or exhibitions of trick shootings (11). By the 1850s more local elements began to be integrated into the American mountebank show, including banjo music and blackface, both borrowed from minstrel shows. <br />
<br />
The 1870s, however, represented a shift towards a more Americanized version of the mountebank. The patent medicine industry had begun to take hold of the medical field in America, producing cheap and convenient (although dubious) remedies for all manners of illnesses. This new powerful industry would come to sweep up the figure of the mountebank and transform it to suit their needs (11). In addition to their catalogs and advertisements, the patent medicine industry recruited the mountebank to bring the brand right to the people. <br />
<br />
Consequently, the mountebank became a spokesperson and brand ambassador for the patent medicine industry. This new role, McNamara argues, meant that the mountebank had to alter their simple sales pitch into "a patent medicine extravaganza", complete with theater, dance, music and other forms of entertainment (16). In order to provide this "extravaganza", the American medicine men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries borrowed from countless entertainment forms of the day to appeal to the crowds (see '''Entertainment Influences and Traditions'''). Unlike their European and colonial predecessors, the American medicine men made amusement and performance, not simply exhibitions of medical feats, the core of their show.<br />
<br />
== Structure and Technique ==<br />
=== The Art of the Sell ===<br />
Medicine shows were performed to sell products and turn a profit, not sure cure the unsuspecting victims that bought their remedies. A show was about 45% entertainment, 45% spieling, and a paltry 10% was left for something resembling a “medicine”, cure, elixir, etc.; whether these had any efficacy at all is debatable. And since medicine played a very small part in the medicine shows, technique was paramount. <br />
<br />
To become a proficient medicine showman, one had to first master spieling, which is in art including but not limited to: working the crowd, capturing them with your oratory, and manipulating them to the bitter end. The manipulation was used to shame, trick or coerce people into buying your product by whatever means necessary. A good medicine showman is constantly scanning his audience, and is cognizant of the general tone of the crowd. For instance, if the showman keeps track of who all have given money or purchased something so far, but there might be one lone soul who has continually resisted, so they would begin to single he or she out, saying things like “you don’t want to be the only stingy person in this crowd, now do you?” Or “won’t you be upset when you are the only person who doesn’t get to go home with this fine elixir?” <br />
<br />
Another reason a showman needed to be aware of the general tone of the crowd was so he could time the progression of the show properly. The idea was to build anticipation, desire and curiosity for as long as possible until the audience would start to get restless. Usually a showman would have some sort of stunt he was building up to, whether that be a reveal of something shocking or amazing, or a demonstration of the product he was pushing. So the showman would entice the crowd increasingly until they could not stand it anymore, taunting them with the promise of being able to see something they wouldn’t believe. Whether or not the showman could deliver on his promise of showing the crowd something worthwhile was irrelevant. The money was collected throughout the show and during the buildup, and oftentimes once enough money had been raised, the showman would pretend to go backstage to get something, and then slip away leaving the crowd jilted. This is why medicine shows had to travel, because once a certain territory was worked over, or “burned up” as the showmen called it, the communities would become wise to the trickery of the shows and be unwilling to purchase any more remedies. So the show would move on to the next town, or the next state, and do it all over again (Stratton 29-37).<br />
<br />
=== Ballyhoo: The Entertainment of the Show ===<br />
Although the medicine show's primary purpose was to sell products and make money, the also provided entertainment to the rural masses. The performers' job was to pull in crowds and make them feel indebted to the show, increasing the likelihood for purchases. The medicine show utilized popular entertainment forms of the era, and created a variety show atmosphere, providing a breadth of entertainment interspersed with plugs for medicine and health products.<br />
<br />
Although not as respected or high-brow as the shows of the large cities' theaters, the medicine shows provided pure fun and entertainment to large crowds throughout the country. It should always be kept in mind that medicine shows, unlike vaudeville or minstrelsy, were always intended to sell products. The entertainment was just the Ballyhoo: the way to attract a crowd and boost sales. For a list and description of the types of entertainment utilized by the medicine show, see '''Entertainment Influences and Tradition'''<br />
<br />
=== Stages of the Show ===<br />
(As aforementioned, medicine shows were a widespread phenomenon, and were performed by different people and organizations across the country, so no two were exactly alike. The following is just to illustrate how one type of standard show was conducted and give a general sense of how they were supposed to unfold.)<br />
<br />
=====Stage 1- Draw in your audience=====<br />
The assistants and laborers would start setting up the stage, preparing the props, and setting up lighting. In the meantime a performer, sometimes a banjo or guitar player would begin to play music and sing to attract people walking by. In an elaborate, large scale type of show held in a tent, the person or company putting on the show would advertise in the days and weeks before the show, so attracting the audience off the street was not necessary, but for many smaller shows that was the primary method of audience cultivation. So as passersby would stop to investigate, the medicine man would start some light spieling. He wouldn't announce the product yet, but he might start saying things like "I've come here today to make this a healthy and disease free community, please stick around and let yourself be healed."<br />
<br />
=====Stage 2- Begin your Spiel===== <br />
Once there were a decent number of people gathered round, the showman would really start his spiel. So formulaic it could be read off a script (which it sometimes was), the spiel could be described as a story integrated into a larger, show length speech. The stories were most always fabricated, and possibly based on a grain of truth. But the stories were key, because they would be the first mention of the “medicine” or remedy the showman was peddling. <br />
The following is an excerpt about the stories told by showmen from former showman Owen Stratton’s book: ''Medicine Man''. <br />
''“The tale about the Quaker remedies was a little more complicated than the one about the Mineral Water Salts. In it, Jim spoke of a Botanical Garden, the site of which was a little indefinite. Sometimes it was in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and on other times it was on the outskirts of Cincinnati. Wherever it was it was supervised by ‘Old Dr. Josiah Baker’, a Quaker botanist one hundred and forty years of age, as hale and hearty as the average man of forty. In his marvelous garden, Dr. Baker raised all the herbs, barks, leaves, gums and berries from which the magical remedies were made. The main remedy was Quaker Botanical Herbs, put up in three small cartons, contained in a larger box. By adding the contents of one carton to eight ounces of alcohol, whiskey or Gin in a quart Jar, and then filling the jar with water, the fortunate patient would have a quart of medicine.”''(Stratton 35)<br />
<br />
[[File: Meds.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Medicine Man Owen Tully Stratton's autobiography:"Medicine Man." [Stratton]]]<br />
<br />
=====Stage 3- Bait and Switch followed by an Unceremonious End=====<br />
Undoubtedly the most deceptive aspect of the show was that, a vast majority of the time, the remedy, or elixir, or salve, or piece of equipment was ineffective. When peddling something like an elixir, the medicine man didn’t have to worry about proving efficacy on the spot during the show. But when the product in question was something like an electric belt (an item commonly sold during medicine show days), the medicine man would promise the audience a demonstration of its power. Stringing them along in the hopes that they would finally get to see what the belt could do was how the held the crowd. They would pass the belts around and let audience members handle and examine them. People would buy belts throughout the show without ever seeing the demonstration. And when the time came for the big moment everyone had been waiting for, the medicine man would either flee the scene before the audience had time to realize he was gone, or neglect to actually give a legitimate demonstration.A caveat: if there was any sort of demonstration that seemed to verify that the product worked, it was almost always a pre-planned stunt involving a member of the medicine show team posing as an audience member. So then the show was over, leaving the crowd with plenty of the product, but no actual remedies; And leaving the medicine man with all their money and no shame (Stratton 35-51). <br />
<br />
== Entertainment Influences and Traditions ==<br />
==== Museums ====<br />
Early American museums were meant to be clean, family fun for a respectable crowd of people. Unlike museums of today, these were almost entirely privately owned ventures that housed a variety of interesting exhibits. When these fell out of favor and profitability, showmen of the day took it upon themselves to open their own museums, with the express purpose of appealing to a more base, low-class style of people. These Jacksonian institutions featured freak shows, exoticism, art, magic, wax figures, fossils, and much more. Unlike today's more 'high-class' context of museums, these were very much everyman places of enjoyment. (Anderson 49)<br />
<br />
The history of the museum in America cannot be discussed without mention of America's finest entertainment provider, P.T. Barnum, whose American Museum located in New York City at the corner of Ann Street and Broadway housed several popular exhibits, including the first aquarium in the United States. Places like these led more high-society, types to create more state-sponsered and 'honorable' museums housing fine art, leading to the museum tradition we see today. (Anderson 50)<br />
<br />
The link between these stationary museums and the traveling medicine show was the smaller versions known as Dime Museums. Dime museums were "designed specifically as stationary medicine shows" (Anderson 53). Often times placed in store-fronts in order to draw in visitors, these museums contained penny arcades, curio halls, and various legitimate and illegitimate 'artifacts' of history and the world. This was an early form of entertainment meant to draw in people in order to purchase a product wholly separate from the actually entertainment itself. This concept is what spurred the medicine show movement that reigned for over 50 years. (Anderson 52)<br />
<br />
==== The Circus ====<br />
Already mentioned as the founder of the American Museum, P.T. Barnum is perhaps most associated with the circus, the traveling entertainment that provided thrills and attractions for non-city dwellers who were unaccustomed to the museums found only in large cities. Like these museums, circuses often provided a variety of attractions, not necessarily connected in any way. Performers, acrobats, illusionists were mixed in with stationary exhibits like those seen in the proprietary museums. (Anderson 54)<br />
<br />
Circuses were based on the idea that rural townsfolk were underexposed to the world, and the circus was the medium through which they could experience exotic entertainment and ideas, a concept the medicine show would exploit to equal success. A major draw for the people were the exotic animals of the circus. "At the beginning of the nineteenth century the three primary types of traveling entertainment were the menagerie, the circus, and a combination of the two." (Eckly 2)<br />
<br />
==== Wild West Shows ====<br />
<br />
[[File:Buffalobillcody.jpg|200px|thumb|right|"Buffalo" Bill Cody [Anderson 57]]]<br />
<br />
Similar to the circus, the wild west show contained a variety of acts and exploits, although centered around the idea of the American Cowboy and the Native American. While the circus has unknown and varied origins, the wild west show is clearly the domain and concept of one man, William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody. Originally started from the tradition of exhibiting Native Americans, wild west shows came to valorize the American Cowboy, a conception that was losing practical application. (Anderson 58)<br />
<br />
The wild west shows created an American folklore unto themselves, heroizing the Cowboy, exploiting the exoticism of Native Americans, and producing cheap thrills with gun-shows and animal exhibitions. Traveling medicine shows, besides taking the variety formula, also exploited this newfound American folklore in their entertainment, especially the mysticism surrounding Native Americans, which can be seen in the use of Indian Medicine Shows [see '''The Kickapoo Indian Show'''] (Anderson 61)<br />
<br />
==== Minstrel Shows ====<br />
<br />
[[File:Minstrelshow.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Minstrel Show Performer in blackface [Anderson 80]]]<br />
<br />
Perhaps the most direct influence on the traveling medicine show was the minstrel show, another purely American performance 'art' that dominated American culture in the mid 19th Century. Although a variety act that included both music and acting, the biggest marker of the minstrel show was the blackface characters, the most well-known being the 'Jim Crow' character (or caricature). These minstrel clowns, obviously racist by today's standards, were meant as a sort of reminder to white audiences of the inferiority, class-wise, of the African race, as well as just a source of silly, low-brow entertainment. It is important to note, however, that the shows were not deliberately attacking the African race. Rather, they simply saw the conception of the ignorant Negro as a valuable avenue into comedy. In fact, some minstrel groups were made up entirely of black members, still using blackface as it was the tradition of the show.<br />
<br />
The minstrel shows usually had a host, who besides telling jokes of his own, introduced the various comedic sketches and musical numbers. Comedy and music were the main focuses of the minstrel show, and this carried over into the medicine show format. Comedy usually took the form of humorous monologues, or short sketches featuring two or three actors. The music was often times folk numbers that many of the audience members would be familiar with, creating a stronger bond with the audience.<br />
<br />
The minstrel shows began to lose favor as the Civil War raged on in the late 19th Century. Slavery and the African population was a more loaded topic. However, there was still a desire for the type of variety entertainment minstrel shows provided, especially in the South and rural West. The medicine show took a lot of the traditions of the minstrel show that were no longer in the spotlight, and utilized them for its own purpose. (Anderson 74-82)<br />
<br />
==== Vaudeville ====<br />
Much like minstrel shows were ''the'' form of entertainment in the middle of the 19th Century, the time from 1875-1925 "belonged to vaudeville" (Anderson 83). Next to the minstrel show, vaudeville provided more material and formats for the medicine show than any other popular form. Vaudeville, also a variety show, also established the conception of having a variety of entertainment styles with no need for connection or relation. You could show comedy routines, dances, and plays all together only tied together by a shared stage. Early vaudeville is most often seen as decedent from British music hall shows, providing a theatrical 'revue.' <br />
<br />
Vaudeville is often seen as belonging to the city, and in many ways this is true. Large theaters and music halls in cities like New York and Boston were seen as the premier venues for all acts, especially vaudeville. However, the excess of performers and need for money forced many companies and individual acts to hit the road and tour the country, often times using the growing train network as means of transportation. This is where many of the medicine shows got their performers, aspiring vaudevillians looking to hone their craft and make some money. Future vaudeville and radio stars like Harry Houdini, Al Jolson, and Red Skelton got their starts on medicine shows stages. The medicine show also provided them with a variety of roles and helped teach the art of improvisation. Since the show traveled, their had to be constant changes to the acts and playing to particular towns. Many times, performers would have to have multiple talents and the ability to be incorporated into various acts, as the show needed. (Anderson 83-90)<br />
<br />
==== Temperance Plays ====<br />
Some of the more interesting additions made to the medicine show were the temperance and morality plays. Comedic sketches were always a part of the show, drawing directly from minstrelsy and vaudeville. However, as the temperance movement grew and Southern religious fervor stayed strong, medicine showmen realized they needed to tap into these movements in order to increase sales.<br />
<br />
The temperance movement in America began in the early 19th Century, around 1820, mostly coming from religious groups. Sobriety started being seen as a pathway to God. The movement grew and grew over the years, and by the time medicine shows were gaining in numbers, large sections of the country were awash "blue laws" and general distrust of alcohol. The medicine shows would incorporate this sentiment into their acts and pitches, showing short plays that highlighted the dangers of drinking, or the strength of religion. This would later be incorporated into the pitch of the medicine, stating that it could serve as a replacement for these dangerous liquors. They were right in many ways, most clearly in that alcohol and other narcotics were a major ingredient in most patent medicines. The temperance movement was distrustful of alcoholic beverages, but medicines were not seen as an ail on mankind. Medicine showmen utilized this to great success in the later decades of the 19th Century. (Anderson 92-95)<br />
<br />
== Notable Medicine Shows and Showmen ==<br />
=== The Kickapoo Indian Show ===<br />
<br />
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Show, produced by the Kickapoo Medicine Company is recognized by many scholars to be one of the most popular medicine shows of the late 19th and early 20th century (Schwarcz). <br />
<br />
[[File:Kickapoo.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Advertisement for Kickapoo Medicine Sagwa [McNamara 77]]]<br />
<br />
The Indian Medicine show idea, which would later be picked up by other medicine men of the day, drew its inspiration from Indian performances which had become popular over the years across America. By the 19th century, however, there was little trace of actual aboriginal culture to be found in Indian performances. Instead, Brooke McNamara notes, “Indians had been reduced by showmen to dime museum novelties and the performances developed by museum operators often concentrated on the most sanguinary aspects of Indian life” . For example, a show at Peale’s museum in 1827 introduced a group of Iroquois demonstrating “the manner in which they skulk and lay (sic) in ambush and the manner of scalping an enemy”, designed specifically to produce what McNamara calls “a pleasant tingle of fear” (McNamara 84-5). <br />
<br />
This exoticized images of Indians portrayed in the Indian performances formed the basis for John “Doc” Healy and Charles “Texas Charlie” Bigelow’s Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. Both Healy and Bigelow which were white Americans and had no connection to any actual Kickapoo Indians (Schwarcz). Their goal, like many other medicine men to follow, was to hijack the identity of the Kickapoo Indians in order to harness the widespread believe amongst Americans that the Indian was privy to a slew of natural medicinal secrets unknown to white men, and hence should be considered a “natural physician” and source of medical wisdom (McNamara 79).<br />
<br />
Unlike other Indian medicine shows which featured white men parading in stereotypical Indian garb, The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company took the idea of integrating 'real Indians' seriously, and by 1890, Healy and Bigelow claimed to have almost 800 aboriginals working with them, either making the medicine in their New Haven offices, or touring with the various traveling Kickapoo Medicine shows (85).<br />
<br />
Kickapoo “camps” varied in sizes and level of extravagance. The standard camp was run by ten to twenty individuals and contained “half a dozen tepees, several tents used by the Indian agent, a twenty-foot-wide portable covered stage, and a few Gale’s Patent Beacon lights” (McNamara 88). In the winter, the Kickapoo would perform inside in halls and opera houses (88). <br />
<br />
A Kickapoo show was generally made up of ten to twelve acts, interrupted by about three or four medicine pitches. All shows, however, opened with the same Indian Act entitled: “A Sight of a Life Time! A Group of Indian Men and Women in their Native Songs and Dances” (94). This demonstration was usually followed by Mr and Mrs. Charles Scott displaying fancy rifle shooting, Victor Laicelle performing tumbling and balancing, the Howard Sisters with singing and dancing and a ventriloquist, Henderson, the Man of Many Voices (94).<br />
<br />
The Kickapoo Medicine showmen were known for touting a variety of Kickapoo Medicine Company products including the Kickapoo Indian salve for skin diseases and the Kickapoo Indian Worm killer, which the showman would display emerging from an audience members body (in actuality, a long string wound into a tight ball) (Schwarcz). The product the Kickapoo were most known for, however, was the Kickapoo Indian Sagwa, which they claimed would virtually kill everything (Schwarcz). They even had “Buffalo Bill” Cody (See '''Wild West Shows''') endorse the Sagwa in their ads, with the label: “An Indian would as soon be without his horse, gun or blanket as without Sagwa” (Schwarz). Of course, this statement was completely inaccurate, as Healy and Bigelow had invented the entire idea themselves, with no real basis in Indian tradition(Schwarcz). <br />
<br />
By the mid 1880s, tons of competing medicine shows appeared, many of whom claimed to be tied to the Kickapoo Indian Medicine company, but few who actually were. Scholars generally agree, however, that the Kickapoo Medicine shows, particularly as they featured "real Indians," were the truest example of the Indian Medicine shows, despite all imitations to follow (McNamara 95).<br />
<br />
=== Hamlin's Wizard Oil ===<br />
<br />
[[File:Edited Wizard Oil Patent.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Hamlin's Wizard Oil Patent [Google Patents]]]<br />
<br />
If the Kickapoo Indian Company represented the most successful of the Indian style medicine show, then The Wizard Company, producers of Hamlin’s Wizard Oil represented the epitome of the trend of “pious” medicine men. The movement towards “pious” performances emerged as a result of harsh backlash from the more conversative and religious communities of America (McNamara 64).<br />
<br />
Influenced by Quaker medicine shows where medicine men would adopt the identity of a Quaker, relying on Quaker reputations of goodness and fairness, the Hamlin Wizard Oil medicine men were interested in cultivating a reputation of honesty and “uplifting entertainment” in order to better sell their products (McNamara 68).<br />
<br />
The company was founded in the 1870s by John Hamlin, a former traveling magician, along with his brother Lysander. Wizard oil was a virtual cure-all: it could treat common rheumatic pains and sore muscle, cure pneumonia, cancer and hydrophobia. In addition to containing some bizarre elements: camphor, ammonia, chloroform, sassafras, cloves and turpentine, the Wizard Oil was frequently made up of 55 to 70 percent alcohol (65). While the Hamlins sent representatives to druggists with their other medications, Wizard Oil was generally sold only to spectators through musical and entertaining traveling medicine performances (66).<br />
<br />
The majority of the Hamlin Wizard Oil performances were done outside, although sometimes they performed in opera houses (66). The medicine man would travel around in a special wagon covered in advertisements for “Wizard Oil” that also doubled as a small rolling stage with “built-in parlor organ and lockers under the seats for a week’s wroth of medicine” (66).<br />
<br />
Unlike the Kickapoo, the Wizard Oil troupe was quite simple: just a driver, a lecturer and a vocal quartet that also played brass instruments (67). Overall, music was the most important element of the Wizard Oil show, and the showmen would hand out “songsters”, books of songs that contained illegitimate medical advice, all, of course, curable by Hamlin’s variety of products (67). Titles included “Listen to my Tale of Woe” and “the Old Red Cradle” (67).<br />
<br />
Decorum and morality were the cornerstones of the Hamlin Wizard Oil show. As William Burt, a member of the troupe’s quartet said, they were “the last word in class, dignity and social distinction” (Burt quoted in McNamara 67). The costumes were an essential part of the demonstration of the distinction of the Wizard Oil salesmen, and became a trademark of the troupe; always in frock coats with fine trousers and a vest (67). To emphasize their piety and morality, the managers would volunteer in the church fairs of the towns they visited, and the Wizard Oil singers would help out in local church choirs (68).<br />
<br />
Like the Kickapoo imitators, Hamlin Wizard Oil imitators attempted to ride on the coattails of the 'pious' Hamlins, producing other variations of similarly titled Wizard Oil shows using similar tactics.<br />
<br />
== Downfall of the Traveling Medicine Show ==<br />
=== Legislation ===<br />
Early 19th Century America was resistant to new economic legislation, as the colonial conception of less government and states' rights was still going strong. The first attempt to regulate medicine on a federal level came in 1892, when a law stating a medicine must be up to a "professed standard" passed the Senate; however, the bill failed to pass the House. (Anderson 156)<br />
<br />
[[File:CritiquesofMedicineMen.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Adverisement listing books that speak out against medicine men [McNamara 145]]]<br />
<br />
A major reason for early bill failures at both the Federal and State level was combined efforts of the Proprietary Association and advertising industry. However, by 1905, the Proprietary Association began to divide into various factions. This led to the first piece of Federal legislation to be passed in 1906: The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This bill stated that all addictive drugs be listed on the labels of food and medicine. Many patent medicine manufacturers actually saw this as a victory against a more strict bill, and listed all the laudanum, cocaine, opium, morphine, and alcohol on every medicine with no worry. (Anderson 157)<br />
<br />
The patent medicine industry continued successfully in the early 20th Century until the 1930s brought new legislation and regulation. The most influential of these was the formation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), two regulating bodies meant to curb false advertising and more honest labels. Other organizations that formed at this time that helped lead to the end of the patent medicine industry were the American Medical Association (AMA), American Pharmaceutical Association (APA), and Consumer's Research, a militant consumer advocacy group. (Anderson 158)<br />
<br />
The final nail in the coffin came with the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, that required proprietors to list all ingredients and reveal all relevant facts. This also led to regulating medical devices, a long-time medicine show staple. (Anderson 159)<br />
<br />
=== New Technology ===<br />
<br />
Traveling medicine shows also grew out of favor due to the fact that they no longer became the primary source of entertainment for rural America. Neww technologies such as movies and radio extended beyond the cities to influence the rural areas. The first movie theaters opened in the early 20th Century in major US cities and quickly spread into rural towns and cities through train shows and later new theaters built. Medicine shows thrived upon the fact that small rural towns rarely saw outside entertainment, so movies provided strong competition for the attention of rural audiences.<br />
<br />
The other encroaching medium that challenged the medicine show's dominance over rural entertainment was radio. Once again, entertainment was provided, this time for free (with advertising, of course), but directly into people's homes. Ironically, radio programs often took their formats directly from medicine show tradition, mixing entertainment, music, plays, directly into the advertising. (Anderson 159-161)<br />
<br />
== A Modern Medicine Man: Dr. Oz ==<br />
The recent trend in popular culture of promoting pseudo science and health care as entertainment can be interpreted as a modern continuation or reincarnation of the medicine show and its essence. The health consultant, “Dr. Oz”, featured regularly on the Oprah Winfrey show has been criticized for peddling pseudoscience and trying to glamorize the practice of medicine. He is known for promoting a more holistic approach to health care. He recommends more natural, herbal type remedies and espouses his belief in working on the harmony between mind, body, and spirit as a path to better health. Critics have labeled him as an aspiring celebrity who is seeking fame instead of trying to maintain his credibility as a physician. Dr. Oz now has his own television program, and at the bottom of the show’s website, it clearly states: ''“This website is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.'' (Dr.Oz.com)” That could be interpreted as odd considering the shows promotes itself as a health care and medical advice program. Similarly, in 2008 ABC began airing a show called “The Doctors” that operates under the same premise as Dr. Oz’s show. Apparently the ‘heath care as entertainment’ trend is popular enough to spawn tv programs, then competitor programs. Not so coincidentally, the primary physician featured on the show, Dr. Travis Stork, was once the star of ABC’s hit series “The Bachelor.” But Dr. Stork is charismatic and attractive, hence good entertainment, so it’s no surprise that the network wanted to capitalize on his fleeting popularity. He is the medicine man of the modern age; Instead of working for the Quaker Medicine Company, he works for ABC television (Stelter). People will always crave a miracle cure for their ills, so there will most likely always be remnants of the medicine show to enjoy.<br />
<br />
== Commercial Interruption: Early Marketing on The Medicine Show Stage ==<br />
<br />
<br />
The traveling medicine show follows several traditions in Western thought. On one hand, it operates in the tradition of pseudoscience and the industry of unscientific medicine, while the staged entertainment, on the other hand, follows a tradition of performance art that was prevalent in the mid 19th Century. But these traditions only pertain to particular pieces of the medicine show formula, whereas the total concept of medicine shows themselves highlight a far more influential tradition: marketing and sales.<br />
<br />
In many ways, marketing is anything that helps the sale of the product beyond the product itself. Everything from commercials, branding, promotions, and imagery and lifestyle can be considered tools of the marketer. The medicine showman's primary purpose was to sell product, not to entertain the crowd or help people with their ailments, though these were methods utilized by the medicine man. Medicine shows were not entertainment for entertainment's sake, nor were they doctors with the health of their patrons in mind. Modern marketing does many of the same things the medicine shows of the 19th Century did in order to sell product: entertain people, create interest/demand, and integrate entertainment with the product in order to generate a connection within the audience.<br />
<br />
The traveling medicine show format and conception of marketing is seen all over today in modern advertisement. Television is perhaps the best example of this. Mae Noell, a medicine show performer, writes in her biography, "Modern TV has perpetuated the old format. Just as we did in the old days, TV gives free entertainment sandwiched between sales talks. The difference is that we sold medicine whereas TV sells everything" (Anderson 162). The conception of free entertainment inter-dispersed with sales pitches is very much alive today, and began in America with the traveling medicine.<br />
<br />
Product placement is another way the traveling medicine show tradition exists today. Today companies pay broadcasters to integrate their product into a television program in order to create a seamless brand-entertainment experience. The traveling medicine show put its product as close to the entertainment as it could, limiting the audience's conception of a dichotomy between entertainment and selling. This was a masterstroke of marketing and revolutionary at the time, and the influence is clear in today's world. Infomercials are an example of this notion taken to the extreme as they dedicate entire programs to selling a product under the guise of 'entertainment'. <br />
<br />
The medicine showman is many things. A doctor, an entertainer, but perhaps most totally, a marketer.<br />
<br />
== Traveling Medicine Show Glossary ==<br />
<br />
A lexicon developed around the culture of traveling medicine show. Below is a selection of a few common terms used by medicine men, some of which are common in informal speech today.<br />
<br />
Bally or Bally-Act: Ballyhoo or attraction used to draw a crowd (McNamara 207)<br />
<br />
The Boozer: Licensed doctor with the show who could no longer practice traditionally due to being an alcoholic (Anderson 144)<br />
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Consultation Room: palor where patrons could meet with a 'doctor' one-on-one and receive diagnoses and prescriptions (Anderson 138)<br />
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Gill: Customer; sucker (McNamara 207)<br />
<br />
(the)Give: The show, or spiel (Stratton)<br />
<br />
Grifter: A concessionaire operating various games of change (McNamara 208)<br />
<br />
Grinder: Medical 'lecturer' (McNamara 208)<br />
<br />
Grind Joint: A 'museum' or other place where lectures are given continuously (McNamara 208)<br />
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Jamb: High-pressure tactics, form of illegitimate selling (McNamara 208)<br />
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Leary: Damaged Merchandise (McNamara 208)<br />
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Pitch: Sales talk to the crowd (McNamara 208)<br />
<br />
Shill: Paid audience members who supported the pitchman's claims (Anderson 141)<br />
<br />
Short Con: Brief, aggressive pitch or spiel (McNamara 208)<br />
<br />
Spiel: A pitch (McNamara 208)<br />
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Squawker: Complaining customer (McNamara 208)<br />
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Tip: Prospects; a crowd; especially a small crowd (McNamara 209)<br />
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Trailer: One who trails a show selling refreshments, especially one who does not pay for the priilege (McNamara 209)<br />
<br />
Turn the tip: to activate a crowd to buy (McNamara 209)<br />
<br />
Velvet: Profit<br />
<br />
== Bibliography ==<br />
<br />
Anderson, Ann. ''Snake Oil, Hustlers, and Hambones: The American Medicine Show''. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000<br />
<br />
Eckly, Wilton. ''The American Circus''. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1984.<br />
<br />
Henke, Robert. ''The Italian Mountebank and The Commedia Dell'Arte''. Theatre Survey v38. November '97<br />
<br />
McNamara, Brooks. ''Step Right Up''. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1995.<br />
<br />
Schwarcz, Joe. Travelling medicine shows not far away. Calgary Herald. Calgary, Alberta, Jan 18, 2001. p 20.<br />
<br />
Stelter, Brian. “Grab the Remote, the Doctor’s in”. The New York Times, 2009. <br />
<br />
Stratton, Owen. Medicine Man. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989. <br />
<br />
Wagner, Paul and Steven Zeitlin. ''Free Show Tonight''. http://www.folkstreams.net/film,68<br />
<br />
''The Dr Oz Show'' http://www.doctoroz.com/<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
[[Category:Fall 2010]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Performance]]<br />
[[Category:Advertising]]<br />
[[Category:Medicine]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Architectural_cyanotypes&diff=12721
Architectural cyanotypes
2010-11-24T14:53:30Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12503 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image: boiler seam blueprint.jpg|500 px|right]] <br />
<br />
The role of the blueprint is startlingly simplistic: to copy, reproduce, or duplicate an image that already exists. Given the finite and elementary function of the cyanotype in architecture, it becomes interesting to consider how a medium with such a banal purpose impacts design. Architectural cyanotypes can be seen as a kind of bottleneck in the fabrication of the built environment. The cyanotype process becomes a secondary vernacular to that of design, and as with any language, certain inflections, accents, and idiosyncrasies result in mis-translation. It is interesting to explore the limitations of the cyanotype process in architecture: how it impacted design, what constraints it imposed on design, and the vestigial elements of the cyanotype medium.<br />
<br />
[[Image: sunlight blueprinting frame detail.jpg|500 px|right]]<br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
<br />
The cyanotype process was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, only three years after Daguerre and Talbot had proclaimed the invention of photography. Herschel’s discovery was largely ignored until 1872, one year after his death. Marion and Company of Paris began marketing “Marion’s Ferro-prussiate Paper.” (Marion) Marion and Co. was also based in London’s Soho Square, and their brand of cyanotype paper had evidently made it across the Atlantic: as early as 1875 there is evidence of MIT mechanical engineering students learning the cyanotype process. (Ware) The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 included the first commercial blueprint machine, manufactured by a Swiss company. (Ware)<br />
<br />
[[Image: drawing layout example.jpg|500 px|right]]<br />
<br />
== Betty Crocker Chemistry ==<br />
<br />
The actual process is similar to developing a photograph, the final result is a “print.” Cyanotype paper is coated with a light-sensitive solution of potassium ferricyanide. The final sheet is usually first drawn in pencil, then traced in ink on tracing paper or “tracing cloth.” Then the tracing is laid on top of chemically coated blueprint paper, usually in a frame-like device, and exposed to sufficient light to turn the blueprint paper blue in areas without any ink lines on the tracing paper. Then the paper must be washed in cold water and hung up to dry. This is the final document handed over to the general contractor, responsible for actually fabricating the design.<br />
<br />
== Impact ==<br />
<br />
The application of the cyanotype in architecture can be seen as influencing current design workflows. In the current version of Autodesk’s AutoCAD (the industry standard) there are two workspaces, the model view, and the layout view. One can draw (virtually) in actual scale in the model view, and then create a page layout with boxes acting as “windows” into the model view. This is important because tender documents must always be drawn to scale (i.e. 1”=1’, ¾”=1’), therefore the model view/layout view dichotomy allows for flexibility in the final layout and scale of detail drawings that was impossible with the cyanotype process. Yet the vestiges of the cyanotype medium can be seen today in the conventions of construction document sheet layout necessary for preparing a cyanotype.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Office Environment ==<br />
[[Image: drafting room.jpg|500 px|left]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
== Death ==<br />
<br />
The cyanotype process was prevalent until the mid 1950’s in England, and early 1970’s in America, when it was largely replaced by diazo-type printing machines, which in turn was replaced by “advanced technology” (Bellis) invented by Xerox. Computer aided design (CAD), and specifically the release of AutoCAD by Autodesk in 1982 extinguished the cyanotype process in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. The purported next generation of computer design methods and construction documents is Building Information Modeling (BIM), first released as REVIT in 1997, currently in use in larger corporate design firms and firms with a focus on parametric design.<br />
<br />
[[Image: cad workstation.jpg|500 px|left]]<br />
<br />
== Interesting Tidbits ==<br />
<br />
“In 1918, a 30-foot roll of cyanotype paper a yard wide could be purchased for as little as 1s 6d” (Ware)<br />
<br />
“The plans for a battleship…consumed 11,000 square feet of the material” (Ware)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
Bellis, Herbert and Schmidt, Walter. Blueprint Reading for the Construction Trades. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company; 1978). p4.<br />
<br />
Berg, Edward. Mechanical Drawing. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company; 1958)<br />
<br />
Earle, James H. Drafting Technology. (Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley Publishing Company; 1986)<br />
<br />
Marion and Co., Practical Guide to Photography, (London: Marion and Co., 1887), p215-217<br />
<br />
Ware, Mike. Cyanotype: The history, Science and Art of Photographic Printing in Prussian Blue. London: Science Museum; 1999. p32.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Architecture]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Phonebook&diff=12720
Phonebook
2010-11-24T14:53:21Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12504 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:phonebook.jpg|250px|right|]]<br />
A phonebook is an alphabetic directory of telephone subscribers within a geographic region. This directory can also include a section for commercial organizations, organized by service. This section is commonly referred to as the yellow pages. The general motive of these directories is to give free access to local information paid for by relevant advertisements. With almost 130 years of history since the 1878 birth of the phonebook, this media may be in decline, but is dying a slow death. <br />
<br />
==Timeline==<br />
[[File:timeline2.jpg|650px|left]]<br />
<br />
===Origin & Development===<br />
<br />
The telephone directory was born on February 21, 1878 in New Haven, Connecticut. Printed on a single piece of paper, the first printing included 50 exchange subscribers, 11 of whom were residencies. These early directories did not include numbers since operators were responsible for making connections. <br />
The origin of the term “yellow pages” is the result of running out of white paper in 1883. Since it was easier to read black ink on yellow, rather than white paper, the term and practice stuck. Reuben H. Donnelly constructed the first yellow pages organized by business type in 1886. <br />
In 1909, St. Louis was the first to include coupons in their version in the directory. <br />
[[File:operators.jpg|200px|right]]<br />
<br />
===Market & Fragmentation===<br />
<br />
From 1934 until 1984 AT&T enjoyed a regulated monopoly with the Bell System. Under this system, AT&T was accused of leveraging its monopoly to make moves into other industries, including directories. In 1984 the divestiture of regional operations opened up competition in the telecommunications industry and the boom of private directory publishers made for geographic overlap.<br />
<br />
==Advertising==<br />
<br />
Advertising drives revenues in the directory business where books are given away for free. Correspondingly, higher circulation means higher ad fees and leads to higher overall revenues. Here the incentive is to get the phonebooks to as many subscribers as possible, not those who would make use of it.<br />
<br />
From 2005 data the largest independent distributors are Yellow Book and TransWestern Publishing, but there were estimated to be over 2,300 different directories from over 250 publishers. At that time the advertising sales were amounting to over $14 billion annually. Surprisingly, research has found that directories with more ads have higher usage suggesting a Network Effect where advertisers value consumer usage and consumers value advertising. <br />
<br />
Unlike some other forms of print media, yellow page advertising is a directional, not a creative vehicle. The lifecycle for the placements, typically reprinted yearly, is also the longest in print and finds itself to be the home for small businesses who can realize a high return on investment from a smaller absolute number of leads. <br />
<br />
===For=== <br />
* 43 percent of users had a decision to make, and on average, these consumers considered seven ads. Surprisingly, 45 percent of consumers who already had a name in mind still considered more than four ads.<br />
* 83 percent of consumers who looked in the Yellow Pages contacted an office, and of those, 40 percent indicated contacting one or more places they had not contacted before.<br />
* For services that one needs rather quickly (see plumber and bondsman), yellow page listings are sound investments.<br />
<br />
===Against===<br />
* The internet has made it much easier for small businesses to target consumers directly, rather than spending on advertisements.<br />
* Ad placement in phonebooks doesn't incorporate consumer feedback in relevancy.<br />
<br />
===Strategy===<br />
<br />
[[File:Trucking.jpg|200px|left|alt text]]<br />
The alphabetic organization of the directories has created naming wars over alphabet supremacy. Many companies have changed their names to begin with one or more A's (See AAA, the American Automobile Association) in order to get prime billing in directories. One prime example is the case of an organization simply known as "A". This trucking company took advantage of rule change by the publisher of yellow and white pages in Quebec and Ontario. Under the new approach, a company with more A's would be given a lower listing. In order to prevent charges of misleading advertising, "A" also lists itself as 50% Off Towing and Half-Price Towing, but this is just one example of how a medium can effect both content and naming. <br />
<br />
In crafting advertisement, certain elements have been connected with increased lead generation. <br />
* Sans serif fonts in headlines<br />
<br />
* Dotted line boxes when uses in moderation <br />
<br />
* Caption with photos of the owner or satisfied consumer<br />
<br />
==Types==<br />
[[File:pink.jpg|100px|right|alt text]]<br />
<br />
'''Yellow''' = Commerical Listings<br />
The revenue engine of the industry, this section lists businesses and organizations under section headers such as Electric or Trucking. Within these sections relevant ads are placed among listings. <br />
<br />
'''White''' = Residential Listings<br />
This section is typically organized alphabetically by last name and often includes a street address for a listed number. Subscribers can opt-out of listing, sometimes for a fee. Depending on the country this is regarded as being “unlisted”, “ex-directory” or “private”. This section is being discontinued by many phonebook publishers with the increased move to mobile. <br />
<br />
'''Blue''' = Government Listings <br />
This directory included government offices at the local, state, and federal level, but is no longer supported by the federal government. <br />
<br />
'''Grey''' = Reverse Telephone Directory <br />
This listing organizes by phone number instead of by last name. This was much more popular before the invention of caller ID and *69. <br />
<br />
'''Pink''' = Gay/Lesbian Listings <br />
These are local opt-in listings traditionally geared towards large cities such as Boston or Chicago. <br />
<br />
[[File:paginas.jpg|150px|left|alt text]]<br />
<br />
'''Golden,Rainbow''' = International <br />
Foreign countries sometimes adopt the name yellow pages, as is the case with many Latin American countries where they are known as Paginas Amarillas, but in Sri Lanka the directories go by rainbow pages. Most of Europe translated the book to the Golden Pages.<br />
<br />
==Fun Facts and Myths==<br />
[[File:busters.jpg|200px|right|alt text]]<br />
<br />
Phonebooks don't usually inspire excitement, particularly in younger generations, but a competition has brought the declining media some attention recently. A dutch competition challenged viewers to recreate the MythBusters model. Two dutch students tested the phonebook myth that states if two phonebook's pages are interwoven they will be near impossible to pull apart. Beginning with human force, the students eventually attached the books to two cars driving in opposite directions. At 615 KG/m of force, the material degraded to the point that the books broke apart, but the pages remained intertwined. Beyond this myth, phone book tearing is also a popular party trick. This test was later recreated on the Discovery Channel show and was only busted using an army tank and an armored personnel carrier with over 8000 pounds of force. <br />
<br />
[[File:diorama.jpg|200px|left|alt text]]<br />
<br />
*Approximately 540 million directories are printed in the United States annually. This averages out to about 1.8 directories per person!<br />
<br />
*Loren Berry was one of the foremost telephone directory publishers and became known as "Mr. Yellow Pages" <br />
<br />
==Controversies==<br />
<br />
===Recycling & Waste=== <br />
[[File:waste.jpg|150px|right|Dated Phonebooks are discarded annually]]<br />
<br />
While the number of print Yellow Page users may not be increasing, the tons of phonebooks thrown out each year are growing at an increasing rate. With over 660,000 tons of telephone books thrown out last year, the increased distribution and geographic overlap of competing companies has created a disposal problem. While recycling is an option, it is the taxpayers who are footing the bill as the books utilize natural resources and are a burden to community funds. <br />
<br />
'''Still the Yellow Pages Association maintains:''' <br />
“Phone books produce only 0.3 percent of the household waste stream—while "newspapers, in comparison, represent 4.9%."<br />
<br />
'''In rebuttal to such a claim:'''<br />
Newspapers, many of which are printed 365 times more per year, are bought by choice, rather than pushed upon consumers.<br />
<br />
===Discriminatory Listing===<br />
<br />
In 1967, New York Telephone listed birth control related counseling for the first time, much later than contraception became widely accepted. Along the lines of gender bias, women also had to fight for equal billing in household listings. The Bell System claimed the dual listing would take up limited space and require excess ink. <br />
<br />
Aside from these discriminatory practices was the issue of losing items after storing them in phone books for safekeeping. Bell urged customers to doodle on their phonebook covers in case of such an event. One anecdote cited a Boston jeweler who had to check over 75,000 directories that had been thrown away to find $1,500. <br />
<br />
===Legal Action===<br />
Opt-out has become a legal issue. North Carolina, Minnesota, Maine, and New York have considered making the option to be unlisted a state law. The legislation is obviously opposed by publishers in fear that circulation will fall substantially. Surprisingly, the opt-out law appears to be to the benefit of directory printers. After such legislation was adopted in Norway, only 7% of the population took steps to keep their information private and the printers lost culpability for the byproduct waste. An Opt-In strategy is an alternative that is being explored.<br />
<br />
==Contemporary Obstacles==<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
===411, Caller ID, & Reverse Phonebook===<br />
411 was the first step away from the traditional directory. Now instead of getting the free phonebook out of the cupboard, one was able to call a person to get the information they needed. In recent years, this has displaced the need for pay phones and the yellow pages that service them. <br />
Beyond the Grey Pages (Print editions organized by number rather than last name), the demand for reverse directories has come with services such as caller ID and *69. Previously used by emergency services to locate callers, reverse directories allow you to play detective when you have a missed call. Unknown or unlisted numbers have become available for a price. Some reverse services will give you limited information, such as the city where the number is registered, and then charge a fee for more specific knowledge. <br />
All of these new inventions surrounding telecom information are pushing the print yellow pages further out of reach of most consumers. With the move online, local and national information are equidistant.<br />
<br />
===Online Search Gets Local===<br />
<br />
[[File:sidewalk.jpg|200px|left|alt text]]<br />
Sidewalk was Microsoft’s early attempt into local search. Aimed at listing timely information about specific cities, Sidewalk tried to compete with urban newspapers. The venture ultimately suffered in the transition online with weak content. Full of ads and classifieds, the journalism lacked editorial perspective. The aim of making a city guide to supplement a newspaper and cannibalize the Yellow Pages to a degree was a lofty goal that fell victim to poor timing. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, was quoted in 2007 saying, “Sidewalk was really aimed at what we now call local search... Sidewalk is one we should not have gotten out of." AOL rolled out a similar city guide strategy with Digital Cities to middling success. Following in these footsteps, tech giants Google and Facebook are pushing into local search a decade later.<br />
<br />
===Mobile Directory Solutions===<br />
<br />
Unlisted cellphone numbers have long been an issue, but with comprehensive phonebook functions on mobiles, the next step for phonebook publishers has been apps for smart phones. These best selling digital versions have allowed for more flexibility regarding ad placement and updating. <br />
<br />
[[File:mobile.gif|200px|right|alt text]]<br />
<br />
==Future Outlook==<br />
<br />
The Yellow Pages Association claims its level of reliability makes its services indispensable for even young households when the occasion-for instance a wedding—demands dependable listings. <br />
Beyond this idealistic outlook, there are businesses that have not made the move to digital search. So long as there are situations without internet access or local search online isn't perfected, the telephone directory industry will continue to be of some value. <br />
Much like blockbuster, the phonebook publishers might have foreseen the problems internet adoption would bring, but they weren't quick enough to change their business model in time. Only time will tell, but until then kids can continue using phonebooks for more realistic prank calls.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
<br />
Adams Hudson. (2002, June). Why I love to hate the yellow pages. Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, 216(8), 16 <br />
<br />
Boswell, Randy. (1998, April 10). Making a killing via alphabet scoop: A virtually unknown company hits paydirt by taking advantage of new Yellow Pages rules. The Ottawa Citizen,p. F1.<br />
<br />
Cat Le, Phuong. "Consumer Smarts: Calls Go out to Stop Phone Book Waste." Seattle News, Sports, Events, Entertainment | Seattlepi.com - Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 6 Aug. 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/326530_consumer07.html>.<br />
<br />
Collins, By Paul. "Why Won't Phone Books Die?" Slate Magazine. 21 Mar. 2008. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. <http://www.slate.com/id/2187035/>.<br />
<br />
Gandolf, S., & Hirsch, L.. (2008, February). The Yellow Pages Game: Playing to Win. Dental Economics, 98(2), 94,98. <br />
<br />
Hudson, A.. (2009, July). What The Yellow Pages Don't Want You To Know. Plumbing & Mechanical, 27(5), 61-62. <br />
<br />
Rees, Peter. "Phone Book Friction." MythBusters. Discovery Channel. 2008. Television.<br />
<br />
Shelby Biggs, Brooke. "The Cracks in Microsoft's Sidewalk." Wired News. 10 Oct. 1997. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. <http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/10/7628>.<br />
<br />
Yell and VisitBritain push tourism with added sections in directories. (2007, December). Marketing Week,11<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Fall 2010]]</div>
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Pops and hisses
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The "Break Boundary"
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The Market
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<div>[[Image:Shopping Cart.jpg]]<br />
<br />
In this dossier's engagement with the intersection of the built and mediated environment, we interpret Marshall McLuhan's argument that the remediation process whereby one medium survives as the content of another is the preservation of a distinct ''function'' in the midst of informatic and material transformation. This is not to suggest any predetermined trajectory of cultural obsolescence whereby a pre-existing function is stripped of cultural obstacles in its way, but rather to note that, ''in hindsight, content's transformative mechanism of appropriation enables us to examine behavioral systems, and the environment that housed them, as dead media,'' and that such dead media provide insights into a story of the concentration and distillation of culture into the symbolic content of later media which house cultural remains. <br />
<br />
Within the larger discussion of critical techniques this Archive attempts to employ, this dossier might also best be understood as an attempt to bridge our understanding of the isolation of <br />
medium from message (in the Hermes model) with our understanding of the communicative properties of materials which exhibit no such fragmentation (in the Iris model), as well as the rhizomatic, independent, message function that, in its ubiquitous employabilty, conforms to no specific medium (the Furies model). Far from suggesting an evolutionary hierarchy towards the immaterial, the market may, however, provide deeper insights into our understanding of the remediating processes at work in each of the three. <br />
<br />
We trace the process whereby the concentration of trading behavior and its eventual standardization was enabled by its enclosure in the space of the market, and the processes whereby this concentration separated market activity from a distinct built environment, isolating a function which is non-physical and anticipates the remediation of the market in the scripting content of immaterial spaces. Although we make no attempt to argue that physical market sites no longer exist, we do attempt to expose the informatic and material shifts that have obsolesced such physical environments, rendering the built environments that remain stages which serve a social function that is, in itself, a commodity. We identify the legacy of this fragmentation in the built environment and in the spaces which now bear witness to the market function in unexpected forms, yet we hope that future contributions will enrich and complicate the conceptual and mediatic transformations that accompanied the resurrection of symbolism in architecture.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Colourful shopping carts.jpg|thumb|right| What was once a spatial locality with a distinct form and use is now pure function with no distinct materiality]] [[Image:TUR1491SpiceBazaar.jpg]] <br />
<br />
=The History of Exchange= <br />
<br />
<br />
==The Market in Capitalism==<br />
<br />
===What is a market?===<br />
Is there such thing as a "pre-capitalist" market? To posit a pre-“anything” is to argue an implicit periodization of a concept. And undoubtedly, to suggest that there was a mode of representation or media such as “the market” so entrenched within the cultural values and practices of capitalism that preceded it, would also then require some explaining. Thankfully, in this task, we follow historian Fernand Braudel, who has undertaken massive volumes of study in this area. The trajectory of Braudel’s project, in line with his Annales colleagues more generally, is to provide a historiography of capitalism does not reify the very object of analysis—the ever-expanding, seemingly amoebic process called capitalism, which Marx himself referred to as comparable to “queer things abounding.” The danger would be to overlook how the market embodies the shifting historic-economic transition from merchant to industrial to finance capitalism. <br />
<br />
With respect to Marx and the present study at hand, it could be argued that Marx dealt the strongest blow the concept of the market as a fixed, spatial location of exchange; so why even proceed? Well, indeed, “the market” as a spatial category very much plays a large part in various spheres of life, most pressingly the cultural, social and political. Moreover, many scholars, Frederic Jameson most famously, have even suggested that the economic has fallen to the level of culture (See Jameson). In such arguments, there is an assumed de-differentiation of previously separate spheres. The guiding question in this section will be (roughly): How did the market become differentiated in the first place?<br />
<br />
===Braudel's Typology===<br />
1.All of types of exchange that go beyond self-sufficiency, of all the wheels of trade, large and small, all the categories relating to trading areas (urban market, national market) or to a given product (the market in sugar, precious metals, spices etc.). In this sense the word is the equivalent of exchange, circulation and distribution. <br />
<br />
2.Large broad form of exchange, also known as market economy.<br />
<br />
==The Market as Interface of Digital and Analog==<br />
Braudel makes a distinction between “material life” and “economic life,” suggesting that the market, stalls and shops form a discontinuous contact surface between the two. By “material life” he means the most elementary, autarkic societies and by “economic life” he means commerce, currencies, and exchanges (Braudel, 21). Hence, the market is a medium in the sense that it translates the “non-economy, imprisoned within self-sufficiency” to the level of “exchange-“or “market-value.” The discontinuity, for Braudel, is clearly rooted his positing some sort of non-economy that precedes full-blown capitalism. In other words, Braudel envisions precapitalist market as being discontinuous and spontaneous whereas the “true capitalist” market becomes continuous and permanently reified as “the market.” Is this distinction between discontinuity and continuity also that of digital and analog? Here, it can be argued that Braudel’s point is a bit nostalgic. That is to say, that Braudel’s overarching project to delink what he calls “economic life” from capitalism, which he sometimes refers to as “true capitalism”(Wallerstein, 354) necessitates a level of fixity in what he calls a market (as opposed to anti-market). Immanuel Wallerstein helps us understand this part of Braudel very clearly. According to Wallerstein, economic life moves out of the unconscious routine of the daily life towards a more conscious and active process of the division of labor (Wallerstein, 355). Framed within admittedly fraught distinction between continuous/discontinuous, we can suggest that for Braudel the material life is analog; hence unconscious, though nevertheless full of regularities. Economic life, that is “true capitalist” life, is too then perceivably analog as it is an instrumental, goal-oriented activity of production bounded in the smoothness of consciousness. But indeed, the market is that which interfaces and mediates the economic life into material life. In addition, Wallerstein suggests that Braudel sees that market economy as transparent, whereas material life (below) and economic life (above) are shadowy and opaque, in contrast. However, the zone above, on the other hand, (the economy) the zone of capitalism, was opaque, in this case because capitalists wanted it so. It was a zone in which “certain groups of privileged actors were engaged in circuits and calculations that ordinary people knew nothing of” (Braudel as quoted in Wallerstein, 355). Thus, in this mediation, there is a “blackboxing” of the guts of exchange. The market economy (or the antimarket) does not show the immanent negotiation of the market transaction, and indeed the fixing of the market-price. Price control, which Susan Buck-Morss rightly notes becomes the representational bottom-line of the market (Buck-Morss, 463). <br />
<br />
(The specific definition of the market is rendered even in the layout of the three volumes of Braudel’s Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century.) Against Polanyi, he argues that “the market” as a vital component of the “market economy” is a consolidation, rationalization and even remediation of practices or instruments of exchange, which existed centuries prior to the 15th century, when we see the emergence of the ordinary market (e.g., the farmer’s market). The farmer’s market is characterized by what Braudel labels “immediate exchange,” describing it as such: “goods are sold on the spot, the purchases are taken and paid for there and then. Credit is hardly used…”(Ibid., 29). Immediate exchange had been practiced centuries or millennia before in ancient Greece, classical China, the Americas (Aztecs) and all over Africa.<br />
<br />
==Industrialization/Urbanization and the Marketization of Exchange==<br />
In the 15th century, markets were held twice a week in towns and urban centers in theory only. Especially in cities such as Paris, markets were held daily. The twice-a-week rule was not so much an effect of regulation but of necessity, as the surrounding countryside needed time to supply them. During the 17th century, the shift from being held in between town and countryside to being held at the heart of towns, usually in the town squares. As towns continued to grow in size, so did the markets, to the point where the tiny town squares could no longer accommodate the number of vendors coming to sell their goods. Here are Braudel’s words: “And since they [markets] represented modernity on the march, their growth allowed no obstacle to bar their way: they could with impunity impose on their surroundings their congestion, their rubbish and their obstinate gatherings of people” (Braudel, 31). The solution adopted was that of banishing them to the outskirts of town. However, as a reaction against this measure, markets would appear as open spaces would open up, especially seasonally with the freezing over of rivers, on which goods could be brought back and forth via sled. Braudel recounts two such examples—Moscow’s Moscova river and London’s Thames. The latter is most famously represented in the adjoining engraving. <br />
[[Image:FaironThames.jpg|thumb|left|Fair on Thames 1683. Literally bad weather]]<br />
<br />
===Enclosing and Encoding the Market===<br />
Markets existed in very ancient times within a single village or group of villages—the market being a sort of itinerant village, as the fair was a sort of traveling town. But the decisive step in this long history was taken when the town appropriated these little markets. It absorbed them and inflated them to its own dimensions, in return having to accept the demands they made on it. <br />
<br />
The urban markets may have been invented by the Phoenicians. The Greek city-states had a market on the agora. The proliferation of markets beyond the town squares elicited a response by towns to take regulatory measures, the most significant of which was the construction of covered markets (halls or halles), at times surrounded by open-air markets (Braudel, 33). In the 16th century, the towns and cities of England saw a series of markethalls with different names spring up, often at the experience of a wealthy local merchant disposed to be generous. The word halle could mean several things then, from a simple covered market to the mighty buildings and complicated organizations of the Halles which were from a very early date ‘the belly of Paris.’ What is of note is that these were mostly permanent and specialized. London, for example, by 1660, halls had “full-time employees, and a whole complicated administration” (Braudel, 33). <br />
[[Image:Halle.jpg |thumb|left|Halles in Britanny, late 16th century]]<br />
The Halles was a huge combination of covered spaces and open spaces, its pillars holding up the arcades of neighboring houses, and surrounded by a bustling commercial life on the fringes of the central market, taking advantage of the disorder and sprawl and creating more of both to its own profit. Additionally, it marked the beginning of the usage of the term “market” as associated with a specific good such as “labor market.” Though it seems like a minor detail in the history of commerce, the covering of markets, we would argue, is a major turning-point or "break boundary" as "the system generated by the artifact suddenly changes into another or passes some point of no return in its dynamic processes" (quoted from Critical Techniques page). Once markets were covered and centralized, we see that the political interventions on markets would follow to delimit the contingent and spontaneous nature of markets. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Markettownsinwales.jpg|thumb|right| 800 Market Towns in England/Wales 1500-1640]]<br />
With the springing of markets all over various cities, towns began to intervene, once again, through spatial restrictions. London, again, provides a very enlightening example for Braudel. With the London market came the dislocation of the traditional market (public, nothing could be concealed), producer-vendor and buyer-consumer meet face to face. The distance between the two was becoming too great to be traveled by ordinary people. The merchant, or middleman, had already, from at least the thirteenth century, made his appearance in England, as a go-between for town and country, in particular in the corn trade. Gradually, chains of intermediaries were set up between producer and merchant on one hand, and between merchant and retailer on the other; along these chains passed the bulk of the trade in butter, cheese, poultry produce, fruit, vegetables and milk (Braudel, 42). Moreover, beyond goods of produce and industry (mostly crafts), land also became traded on the market. The market is then, in turn, a coterminous concept with “commodity,” as it becomes a facilitating medium for commodities. It becomes the connection, or encoding interface by which the commodity could be transformed from use-value to exchange-value. By encoding, I mean to suggest that the market becomes part of the grammar of commodities in market capitalism. How this functions I would argue is that the market becomes the system of rationality that is able to bring within a bounded geographical and symbolic system, effectively doing away with the barter system of mercantilism, and instating a mode of representation with its unit of measurement being the commodity. After it is enclosed and encoded, the market becomes the sole means by which to exchange, thus acting as a formal prohibition for all economic activity. Markets become the dominant economic media. <br />
The market then is the condition of possibility for commodities, but “the null point of social community (Buck-Morss, 437). Susan Buck-Morss goes so far as to argue that the market then elicits a certain mode of subjectivity that undergirds the market and commodity—the economic actor that is a, harkening back to the Freudian theory of human as a “bundle of instincts,” a “bounded rationality” (Buck-Morss, 466). Bounded rationality for Buck-Morss, is indicative of the effects of market-encoding or market-modeling that points towards the “depersonalization of exchange” (Buck-Morss, 437).<br />
<br />
=Theatricality in the creation of a consuming subject=<br />
<br />
Although there is much disagreement as to when consumer culture emerged fully formed, it is clear that the social transformation that accompanied its arrival required an unprecedented effort to pursuade individuals to adopt the lifestyles of consumers. As with the adoption of currencies, and the issuing of credit, the transformation of any financial behavior must involve both overcoming fraud and the overcoming of doubt in the stability/necessity of the system itself - both of which might best be understood as hacks which exploit weaknesses in a system that relies so heavily upon a fragile understanding of how markets function and what activity is housed within them.<br />
<br />
With respect to the physical space of the market, it is of crucial importance to note that the rise of consumer culture in the United States was inextricably linked to the pursuasive use of theatricality to embed market activities and commodities themselves with auratic "magical" qualities. consume as a way of life. The combined forces of advertising, branding and strategic exhibition of foreign objects, colluded in an elaborate performance which sought to embed curiosity in consuming subjects eager to witness the magic of a marketplace disrupting traditional social fabric.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Semiotics in the Liberation of Function from Form=<br />
[[Image:Monument.jpg|right|thumb|Robert Venturi's "Recommendation for a monument" from [[Learning From Las Vegas]], 1972]]<br />
<br />
<br />
''... ours is not the environment for heroic communication through pure architecture. Each medium has its day, and the rhetorical environmental statements of our time – civic, commercial, or residential – will come from media more purely symbolic, perhaps less static and more adaptable to the scale of our environment. The iconography and mixed media of roadside commercial architecture will point the way if we will look. Housing for the elderly on the Oak Street Connector, if it had to be a monument, would have been more economical, socially responsible and amenable as a conventional apartment building,lost by the side of the expressway, with a big sign on top blinking, I AM A MONUMENT. Decoration is cheaper. <br />
<br />
- Robert Venturi,"Learning From Las Vegas," 1972''<br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
[[Image:Vegas strip.jpg|thumb|right|The Upper Strip Looking North]]<br />
[[Image:Normal wedding-chapel-las-vegas.jpg|thumb|right|A Vegas chapel: function legitimated through semiotics]]<br />
<br />
When Robert Venturi looked to the vernacular architecture on the Las Vegas strip in the late 1960's, he saw a resurrection of symbolism in the built environment that had seemed destined for extinction in the wake of architectural modernism. Whereas the Bauhaus' legacy in modernism had stripped buildings of ornament in an attempt to unify form with function, Venturi was amazed to find a Las Vegas strip dotted with generic buildings differentiated only by elaborate ornamental signs designating the unique functions and identities of otherwise identical spaces. <br />
<br />
The Vegas strip not only violated a progression away from decoration (which led many to credit Venturi's text as the first postmodern architectural manifesto) but brought more clearly into focus the impact of the automobile upon architecture that needed to be identified from greater distances over shorter durations of time. Whereas the heroic communication of pure architecture had in the past led to forms and facades which - albeit imperfectly - communicated the activities contained within them, Venturi noted that in a land of highways and commercial strips the same system of (road) signs that enabled standardized navigation of an entire continent also enabled a faster recognition of the buildings and spaces one passed by. The vital necessity of introducing semiotic distinctions between buildings exemplified the spatial distortions that accompany accelerated movement and the distribution of communities across expanding territories.<br />
<br />
Whereas the built environment brought countless aspects of human activity into existence by anchoring them in physical space, what Venturi exposed was the cultural appropriation of semiotic systems to designate spaces whose distinctive architecture had not yet been invented. In his iconic “Recommendation for a monument” his sarcastic suggestion that decoration upon generic form was the most ethical and economic method of design, exposed the complete lack of subtlety in designs that managed to serve specific functions in the absence of architectural innovation. Rather than create a home for new human activity, it was clear that one need only name a space in order for it to serve a specific function. Although modular, multipurpose, space had been realized long ago behind the glass curtain walls of modern skyscapers, after 1972, one could not escape the vulgar conclusion that the space itself was a nostalgic theatre enabling the suspension of disbelief which designated the offices of one box from the warehouse or monument of another.<br />
<br />
In essence, symbolism had invaded space rendering residual communicative modalities in architectural form (the steeple, the column, the storefront) which directed activities within them unnecessary. In a traditional town one might recognize a church by a steeple, and civic institutions by classical architecture – but in Las Vegas one needed only to read a sign that read “CHAPEL” and a marriage could be performed. Resistance to the glass curtain and the modernist box need not be overcome by a radical re-education of a public in modernist aesthetics, but by the complete removal of ambiguity through the ultimate abstraction of the sign. Buildings had entered a realm of mediation, and the Las Vegas strip presented an intermediate phenomenon whereby one could could navigate a foreign landscape and locate a desired service or commodity in spite of all unfamiliarity with the landscape itself. <br />
<br />
Venturi's Monument, like a Vegas chapel, anticipates the remediation of spatial phenomena in immaterial spaces and illustrates that function itself is not material, but something performed by actors engaged in a collective fiction. Once it was plainly clear that all the world was a stage, it followed that with the proper, scripting, semiotic device, the market no longer needed to be a specific locality in order to function as a market.<br />
----<br />
<br />
= Market as Stage: A comparison of three Stock Markets=<br />
<br />
NASDAQ [[Image:Nasdaq0952.jpg|thumb|right|NASDAQ's only physical manifestations are purely symbolic, they fully realize Venturi's conception of an alternative medium housing the functions that previously required a complex and unique architecture]]<br />
<br />
On February 8, 1971, a year prior to Venturi's publication of "Learning From Las Vegas," the world witnessed the birth of the first purely electronic stock market, NASDAQ. In contrast to traditional stock markets, NASDAQ's elimination of a trading floor helped to minimize the spread between the bid price and the ask price of a stock through it's computer bulletin board system. Although the market initially did not connect buyers and sellers directly, it presented a successor to over-the-counter finance and introduced a market function that did not depend on person to person trade. NASDAQ initially relied upon the use of telephones to connect buyers, brokers and sellers, yet currently relies upon electronic communication networks. As the world's largest stock market, in terms of companies listed and trades per day, NASDAQ is a functioning market without the spatial enclosure of a market, a product of the information age, and a phenomenon which illuminates the theatrical gestures elsewhere to preserve and exhibit a non-essential spatiality.<br />
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The New York Stock Exchange [[Image:TRADING floor 042007.jpg|thumb|right|Chaos on the NYSE trading floor constitutes genuine trading activity kept alive through the hybrid market's "cake mix effect"]]<br />
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Although the New York Stock exchange no longer engages in over-the-counter trading, its trading floor is a bustling theatre of trading activity. The floor itself might be seen as an obsolescent inefficiency, yet it is worth noting that in dollar volume, the NYSE remains a larger market than the NASDAQ despite having less listings. The NYSE is called a hybrid market because customers are given the choice of whether to send orders for immediate electronic execution or whether to submit an order to the trading floor for trading in the auction market. The preservation of human interaction on the floor itself seems to embody a nostalgia inherent in "the cake mix effect" whereby the efficiency of a sequence is interrupted by redundant steps as a defense from the obsolescence of a sequence understood to have cultural value. The floor is a tradition that is alive and well, yet this phenomenon eludes the mere prerequisite of market function, effectively defending a culture whose continued presence preserves an illusion that the market is still a market.<br />
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The Shanghai Stock Exchange [[Image:Xin 09020401155645001043.jpg|thumb|right|The empty trading floor in Shanghai]]<br />
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In perhaps the most bizarre isolation of medium from message at a time when the space of a trading floor is obsolescent, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, though entirely electronic like NASDAQ, has a trading floor which serves no market function in performance or otherwise. As a relatively new market, the physicality of a trading floor lends authority to the electronic transactions which occur in reference to it, yet it simultaneously sits as the vacant theatre of a performance which never took place. Whereas the NYSE might be understood as a monument to trading which lays claim to cultural capital and ensures continued longevity, the Shanghai Stock Exchange physical existence seems in contrast to be legitimizing a market dependent upon foreign investors that equate the physical market with a "real" market worthy of investment. The market extends Robert Venturi's visual joke into unexpected territory, announcing "I AM A MARKET" in spite of foreign anxieties which might argue otherwise.<br />
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= The Market as an Object of Representation and Modeling=<br />
This section will look at how the market as an object was subsumed by "the economy," following Timothy Mitchell's argument in his article, "Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century". Mitchell argues that the objectification of the market and the economy is accomplished by economic, econometric, and governmental attempts to keep track of monetary exchange. In other words, measurements of the market serve to constitute the object they seek to measure (Mitchell 2005). Following Mitchell's argument and drawing from Randy Martin's book, ''An Empire of Indifference: American War and the Financial Logic of Risk Management'', we propose that the death of the market as a media object was accomplished by the same process that made it; measurements of market activity become the condition of possibility for this activity in such a way that measuring and regulatory acts become immanent to actual commodities. Commodities now no longer need the frame of the market to act as a structure, providing the affordances and prohibitions of exchange. Now these regulatory/technical capacities are embedded in commodities such as derivatives and securities, as Randy Martin demonstrates. Statistical calculations are themselves valuable, regardless of whether there is value in the object of their calculation. (For example, a loan shark can make a profit off of impoverished subjects, even though the subjects themselves have no surplus.)<br />
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== The Market as a Medium ==<br />
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In addition to asking how the market comes to be an object, it is relevant for this project to ask, to what extent can the market be characterized as a medium? And, insofar as it is a medium, to what extent can the market be characterized as a dead medium?<br />
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In order to answer these questions, one must consider different definitions and uses of the word, market.<br />
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1) Fernand Braudel defines the market as that which mediates between material life and economic life. This understanding is obsolete because the possibility of mediation requires a prior separation between the two entities--in this case material and economic life--being mediated. A Marxist reading of capitalism, especially as it was taken up by Michel Foucault in his concept of biopolitics, suggests that material and economic life are no longer separate, that the economy has become a condition of possibility for material life, and is therefore immanent to it. The market as a medium in this regard is dead.<br />
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2) The market can also refer to a physical place where commodities are exchanged, as in a marketplace. This is similar to Mitchell's discussion of the market before the use of the word economy to refer to an object of economic analysis. This market is an inert space where the lives of people and the fruits of the land interact. In this case it is a passive medium through which commodities are exchanged. The message being mediated is the trade between the commodity and money, but the marketplace does not mediate this message. The medium is actually the socially agreed up or legal rules that determine the contract of exchange. It is these rules that construct the space as a market, and it has been proven that exchange can happen without being enclosed in a spatial entity determined to be a marketplace. The market as a spatial entity is dead insofar as merchants and buyers no longer have to go to a physical place to engage in acts of exchange. The contracts determining an act of exchange do not require all parties to be in the same place, and with the internet, parties engaged in an act of exchange to do not have to make contact at the same time. <br />
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It is even necessary to consider the death of exchange, for exchange implies that all parties lose one object (either a commodity or money) and gain another. However, value is now generated from situations of loss and lack, and from the differentials between predicted prices (See section entitled "Investing in Risk" below). Greg Goldberg proposes in his dissertation on digital network technologies, that because digital media are transmitted without being transfered, in other words, because one can replicate a digital file and send it to someone else without losing it, there is no act of exchange in this transaction. Following Goldberg's argument, '''It may be now be possible to talk about a production of value independent of exchange''' (See Goldberg 2008). <br />
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3) The market is also a conceptual category referring to a specific type of commodity that can be bought and sold (i.e., the job market, the stock market). The stipulation is that there has to be more than one seller offering the commodity to at least one buyer. The sellers exist in a market competing for the buyers, who can choose between them. In this case the competitive conditions impact the price. There is argument about whether this type of free market in which prices are determined by supply and demand under conditions of competition is alive or dead. Manuel DeLanda argues that capitalism is an anti-market because price is regulated by factors other than supply and demand in a competitive market; in other words, price is imposed from outside the market (DeLanda, Markets and Antimarkets in the World Economy).<br />
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4) Another meaning for the word market is an aggregate of economic exchange in a given totality, such as "the U.S. market". Mitchell argues that the market in this definition is an object of calculation and analysis, and that therefore the acts of objectification comprise the object we know as the market. According to Mitchell, "the distinction between market and non-market or capitalist and non-capitalist should be considered not as a thin line but as a broad terrain, in fact a frontier region that covers the entire territory of what is called capitalism" (Mitchell 2007, 7). By this logic, capitalism is a sort of matrix or substrate made of the technical enactment of boundaries between inside and outside. The boundary-making itself is the substance of capitalism. This speaks to McCluhan's famous statement that "the medium is message". In this case the analysis of markets become the condition of possibility for markets, and this condition of possibility is the actual medium. <br />
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The question remains, what message is being mediated here. Mitchell's analysis serves to show that the market is not actually a bounded object, and because of this we can presuppose autonomy for any entities between which the market mediates. The market is no longer a medium.<br />
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== The Market as an Organic Body ==<br />
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In Braudel's definition of the market, his use of the term "economic life" implies that economic activity is alive, or that it is a site where life happens. Timothy Mitchell finds that dominant ideas of the market before the 1930s treated it as an aggregate of life forces, or "individual utilities" (Mitchell 2005, 129). The Malthusian relationship between land fertility and population size comprised the object of analysis as "an organic world of human settlement, agriculture, and the movement of populations, goods, and wealth" (Mitchell 2005, 128). <br />
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Towards the end of the 1800s, the idea of the market as a separate surface began, but it was not yet a "self-contained sphere, imagined as machine whose internal mechanisms and exchanges separate it from other social processes (Mitchell 2005, 128). Rather, "The object of analysis was made up of forces, conceived as individual utilities, that were assumed to be in balance. The site of this mechanical equilibrium was 'the market'.... As a neutral, planar surface, the market of neoclassical economics had no depth, no dynamic structure, no forces of its own, no 'macro' dimension that could be described apart from the individual utilities that moved across it. It was an inert, unmoving space" (Mitchell 2005, 129). In this characterization, the market was not seen as a system. It was rather a space that could be filled with individual energy; this is quite different from the current idea of "the economy" as a thermodynamic system in which the whole exerts force onto each of the parts. In this older conception of the market, the equilibrium of individual forces was not imposed by a greater whole, but seemed to arise naturally. <br />
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Mitchell argues that the term, "economy" was not used in its contemporary sense, as an object of economic analysis, until it was actually taken as an object of economic analysis by econometrics in the 1930s. This was around the same time John Maynard Keynes began to refer to "the economic system as a whole" (Mitchell 2005, 130). Mitchell characterizes econometrics as "the attempt to create a mathematical representation of the entire economic process as a self-contained and dynamic mechanism" (Mitchell 2005, 131). At this point the dynamism of the economy incorporates or subsumes a collection of markets into itself. Economic processes are seen as a totality and it is possible to distinguish between that which is internal and that which is external to this totality. External forces impact the economy, causing "reverberations throughout the internal machine" (Mitchell 2005, 133). <br />
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This notion of the economy as a system seems to persist, but perhaps with an important development. It is still understood as a systemic totality, but the external forces that impact it have been subsumed into the economy (partly through the statistical measurements of aggregates and averages such as gross national product and average spending). It is understood more like an organism than a machine requiring a human laborer. Randy Martin describes this organic model: "An economy could become overheated and melt down or explode. The social sciences more generally were predicated on this image of a closed system. The system adapted to internal strains by growth and differentiation. It maintained boundaries, kept out threatening uncertainties, and externalized unintended consequences from its internal decisions" (Martin, 28-29).<br />
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=== The Death of Equilibrium/Equilibrium as Death ===<br />
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Organic models of systems describe systems as thermodynamic, operating like a thermostat that adjusts to external stimuli, or adapts external stimuli to it, in such a way that the system maintains equilibrium. Business cycle models of the market speak the language of thermodynamics because the market returns to the same stages each time it goes through a cycle. However, some contemporary critiques of capitalism argue that capitalism operates more as a ''state'' of instability than a ''system'' at equilibrium (See Clough 2007). <br />
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Randy Martin looks at this problem of equilibrium/disequilibrium in terms of the financial logic of risk that, he argues, has permeated economic thinking and has defined the subject as an investor. Martin traces the U.S.'s switch from a creditor to a debtor nation in the 1980s, when the nation began to operate through consumption without production. During this time risk became a sign of strength and power and the need for stability was a sign of weakness, now associated with the third world (Martin, 28). Being in debt, which used to be a sign of weakness, became a source of value. Debt is repackaged into securities. <br />
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Beginning in the late 1970s after the U.S. dollar was delinked from the gold standard, "monetary movement was being freed to spread the wealth. Equilibrium-- key to Bretton Woods and early monetarist currency controls-- was no longer a condition of exchange. The dollar's spread, the expansion of debt and speculation, fostered disequilibrium and its attendant risks as a new horizon of opportunity. Fixing exchange to a physical standard perpetuated the image of the economy as a closed system. It could grow in proportion to the balance of inputs and outputs" (Martin, 29). According to Martin, money's attachment to the gold standard provided a kind of mystification that had a performative function; it created a "system-based moral and political economy" that was then overtaken by financial reason: in Martin's words, "when the investor who knows no country elbowed out the consumer-citizen of the nation-state, the organic closed system, result of the social sciences' unacknowledged metaphorizing of the social, was morphing into a different kind of beast" (Martin, 29). The a delinking of the subject from the nation-state goes hand-in-hand with the advent of the investor, who is a self-managing risk-taker. <br />
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Within this finance economy, speculation is the only way to thrive economically, and speculation relies on both present and future instability and unpredictability (for more on unpredictability, see Clough). It is the very lack of predictability of capitalism that makes speculation such a profitable game; if the economy were truly predictable, than there would be no competition for correct guesses and measurements, and a securities package would not be a commodity.<br />
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'''Futurity in the Present'''<br />
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Another way to probe this idea of the death of the market as a system at equilibrium is to think about the non-linear time made possible by predictions. As Martin illustrates in his discussion of derivatives, they are a way of turning the unknown future into a value-generating product in the present. Luciana Parisi and Steve Goodman argue that the eruption of branding as a value-generating device is also a way of actualizing the future in the present: "In its infinite differentiation of product ranges, branding plays with a combination of familiarity plus novelty, a ''past-futurity''. New memories installed that you have not phenomenologically experienced in order to produce a certain receptivity to brand triggers" (Parisi and Goodman, Pnemonic Control 2006). This is one way in which Clough et. al argues that capitalism can no longer be described as an enclosed system, because of its openness to different temporalities.<br />
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== New Encodings ==<br />
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A capitalist market needs to have what Timothy Mitchell calls an "apparatus of representation" in order to convert material into abstract capital. He argues that failing capitalist economies differ from their succeeding counterparts because of how their wealth is held, not because of how much wealth they have. It is a matter of coding material into a symbolic system: "Representations of material goods transform their value into abstract forms, which can live an 'invisible, parallel life' alongside their physical existence. The West has invented procedures to create these invisible forms. Individuals in the West can unlock the assets accumulated in physical property, transforming material wealth into abstract capital" (Mitchell 2007, 9). <br />
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Evidence of this claim lies in how markets and nonmarkets are distinguished by economists: "...in describing what this nonmarket world lacks, neoclassical economics tends to diagnose its defects as an absence of techniques of representation. Things are stuck outside the market because they are not properly represented-- by property records, prices, or other systems of reference. What economic analysis does, however, is not to represent what was previously unrepresented, but to try and reorganize the circulation and control of representations" (Mitchell 2007, 7). This circulation of representations is not only happening in the realm of the social sciences, but is an economic circulation. In fact, a derivative can be described as a packaged representation of a fluctuation in price that can be bought and sold as a commodity. This exemplifies the way in which value is generated by coding, not merely by quantities of material wealth. Perhaps this can be seen as a kind of self-coding, or immanent coding. (This discussion is raised in Clough et. al in terms of matter's capacity to self-form and how this is taken up by capitalism.)<br />
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=== Coding of Risk, Instability ===<br />
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How shall we understand market activity after the market is no longer an object, after it ceases to be constituted as a system at equilibrium? Instead of coding material goods as valuable (Mitchell, 2007), Randy Martin argues that capitalism is following a financial logic which extracts value by predicting future price fluctuations, interest rates, and exchange rates, and packages this risk into new kinds of commodities, such as derivatives and securities. According to Martin, "Properly ascertained risk, not growth per se, is what yields rewards. The trade in risk avoidance devolves into a profit on risk itself" (Martin, 33).<br />
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'''Derivatives'''<br />
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A derivative is a contract on "some variation in price" (Martin, 31). Martin gives the following examples: "a firm selling a product overseas that will not be deliverable for several years will create a contract to fix currency exchange rates for the time when the product is finished. The expected difference between current and future exchange rates can then be sold as a separate commodity... A similar contract could hedge against a change in interest rates, or the price of raw materials, or delivery costs" (Martin, 31). In Martin's analysis, "Derivatives remove reference from the commodity. They allow debt to serve as a productive medium from which countless commodities can be spawned" (Martin, 31). This exemplifies the extent to which measurements of the economy have become productive of profit, circulating as commodities themselves. The act of measuring used to be understood as an external act applied to the economy as an object. Now it is clear that this boundary-making activity is itself a valuable form of labor.<br />
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== References ==<br />
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Braudel, Fernand. 1982. The wheels of commerce. New York: Harper & Row.<br />
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Buck-Morss, Susan. Envisioning Capital: Political Economy on Display. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Winter, 1995), pp. 434-467. The University of Chicago Press<br />
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Clough, Patricia, et. al. 2007. Notes Towards a Theory of Affect Itself. ''ephemera: theory and politics in organization''. 7(1):60-77.<br />
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Ewen, Stuart & Ewen, Elizabeth, Channels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1992, pp. 23-52.<br />
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Goldberg, Greg. 2008. Own Nothing, Have Everything: Peer-to-Peer Networks and Economies of Access. Dissertation in Progress, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).<br />
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Jameson Fredric, “Culture and Finance Capital,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 24, No. 1, (1997 ), pp. 246-265. <br />
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Martin, Randy. 2007. An Empire of Indifference: American War and the Financial Logic of Risk Management. Durham and London: Duke University Press.<br />
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Massumi, Brian. The Future Birth of the Affective Fact. DATE JOURNAL<br />
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Mitchell, Timothy. 2005. Economists and the Economy in the Twentieth Century. ''The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and its Epistemological Others'', edited by George Steinmetz.<br />
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Mitchell, Timothy. [From an early version of the following paper.] 2007. The Properties of Markets. ''Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics''. Edited by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa, and Lucia Siu. Princeton: Princeton University Press.<br />
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Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown and Steve Izenour, Learning From Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, Cambridge: MIT Press 1972.<br />
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Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Braudel on Capitalism, or Everything Upside Down” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 63, No. 2, A Special Issue on Modern France (Jun., 1991), pp. 354-361<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Phonodeik&diff=12716
Phonodeik
2010-11-24T14:52:28Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12509 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[Image:Phonodeik diagram.png|thumb|right|alt=Principal of the Phonodeik|Image 1: Principal of the Phonodeik <i>Sound Waves: Their Shape and Speed</i> p.11]]<br />
Dayton Clarence Miller was a professor of Physics at the Case School of Applied Science who had a strong interest in the components of the tonal quality of sound. Miller possessed an extensive flute collection that included instruments made out of several different media. The scientist’s desire to know which medium created the highest quality sound led him in 1908 to develop an early sonograph called the Phonodeik—‘seeing sound.’ Miller claimed that all other contemporary devices were not sensitive enough to vibrations and changes in pressure as well as suffered from noise issues (Miller, 1937, preface). Until the invention of electronic oscillators, the Phonodeik was one of the chief means of converting sound waves into visual images and thus of analyzing all manner of sounds from musical instruments to human speech. The Phonodeik codifies sound into a technical image that can be understood through mathematics. Instead of a gestalt experience of sound that is decoded by the brain through the ear, sound is filtered through the Phonodeik and transferred into light and image. Crary’s (1990) argument that photography helped to change the human consciousness finds weight when considering the Phonodeik. Optical devices were not just instruments of visuality, but rationalizations for changing the human faculty of sight. Therefore the Phonodeik was a development that changed the way that humans perceived sound. The observer is changed by the technique of ‘listening’ through image.<br />
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==Sound Waves==<br />
[[Image:Soundwaves.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Photographs of Sound Waves|Image 2: Photographs of sound waves created by the Phonodeik <i>Sound Waves: Their Shape and Speed</i>]]<br />
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Miller was interested in studying the different parts of a sound wave: amplitude (loudness), frequency (tone), and shape (timber)--which is by far the most subjective of the measurements. ''Image 1'' displays the principals and aspects of a Phonodeik. There was no standardized physical object, but the principals behind the design remained the same. 'H' represents the horn that captures sound and funnels it to a glass diaphragm ('D') that vibrates with the noise. One of the major design flaws comes with the horn. As all physical objects vibrate and therefore make sound, the users of this device would have to make sure that the horn they choose has a deeper fundamental tone than the phenomenon they are studying. The middle of the diaphragm is attached by silk threads to a pulley and a spring ('S'). The spring keeps the silk taunt at all times, and the pulley will move a mirror ('M') that is attached by a steel spindle when the diaphragm vibrates. 'P' represents a pin hole of focused light that is fed through a lens ('L') to hit the mirror. When the mirror would move, it would reflect a moving beam of light onto photo paper or 'film' to capture the sound waves. The only portion of the device that was typically ‘black boxed’ was the area that holds the material substrate, photo paper, due to its sensitivity to light (Miller, pp. 10-11).<br />
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==Changing from Sound to Image==<br />
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The motivations behind embodying sound via the image imply that the resolution of a perceivable difference (Fechner’s law of 'touch difference') is sharper in terms of the eye as compared to the ear. Therefore the conversion of sound waves into an image is an attempt to extend the sense of sight to gain in-depth understanding of how changes in pressure create audible sound. D.C. Miller based his analysis of sound on Ohm’s Law of Tonal quality and Fourier’s Theorem (Miller, p.8). Known as harmonic analysis, a simple tone can be split into a series of sine curves when sound is displayed graphically. Composite tones—sounds that involve multiple tones—are representations of the harmonic elements within each unit or sound wave. Therefore they are not perfect sine curves but rather complex curves. <br />
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Miller believed that mathematics can be applied to assess tonal elements and quality. Flusser’s essays, "Non-Thing 1" and "Non-Thing 2", argue that society places a high priority on information and we will eventually inhabit a bit-like, atomic-like universe. Machines begin to do the work of transforming nature into information. Sound must be objectified before Miller could locate analyzable and quantifiable information. The photo paper as an artifact is secondary to the waves produced. <br />
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Therefore the information captured by the Phonodiek can be segmented in time. While the technology is analogue because it produces a continuous image over time, similar to a film, the output for a Phonodeik can be split up into discrete units: sine curves. The main paradigm of that time period was that media is serial and should be read and consumed in that order. But with the digitization of information, seriality played less of a role. The Phonodeik captured a cacophony of sounds that happened simultaneously. Miller desired to parse out the different tones.<br />
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==Optics==<br />
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[[Image:Fludd's Sun.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Fludd's Sun|Image 3: Fludd's dynamic triangles with the sun in the middle linking harmonics and light <i>Deep Time of Media</i> p.106]]<br />
The interplay between catoptrics and dioptrics as discussed by Zielinski (2006) is extensive and elucidating in the Phonodeik. The artifact translates sound waves from a dioptric medium, the air, and transfers them to a catoptric medium, paper. Because photo paper is catoptric and reflects light it is able to record the sound through chemical properties. But the information captured, waves, are dioptric because they are a 'lens' that allows humans to conceptualize sound.<br />
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Image 1: displays the duel role of light within the device itself. The pinhole of light ('P'), is focused first through a lens, bounces off of the mirror and on to the photographic paper. The source of light is not identified and is reminiscent of an omnipotent power shining light down on the earth, or lumen. This light source is focused through a dioptric lens and then bounces off the dioptric mirror—lumen as a reflection of the source lux. Finally the light does hit the aforementioned catropic material substrate. The mirror’s vibrations and movement in light connects the world of sound and sight.<br />
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The Phonodeik can be seen as a remediation of the ideas of Robert Fludd who “sought cohesion for the strands of natural philosophy... in a single idea that was not overtly articulated in things themselves but constituent their hidden structure and driving force" (Zielinski, p.102). By playing a monochord to create harmonic series, he was able to utilize geometry and arithmetic to examine the mathematical relations of music. Fludd drew a connection between musical intervals, small ratios of whole numbers, to the Pythagorean doctrine. As seen in Image 3, Fludd had a unifying theory of the universe that involved the world being composed of two intersecting triangles--a sign of the holy trinity and therefore the divine--with the sun in the center. These represent the divine and the material in the world. Here light plays a major role in understanding the harmony of life. Also Fludd and later Miller reject Aristotle's notion that understanding music can be done only through intuition because the ear has limited capabilities of discernment. The debate between division of musical tones is still a modern issue with the computerization of sound for musical production (Zielinski, pp. 104-109).<br />
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==References==<br />
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Crary, J. (1990). ''Techniques of the observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century.'' Cambridge: MIT Press.<br />
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Flusser, V. (1999). ''The shape of things: A philosophy of design''. London: Reaktion Books. <br />
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Miller, C. W. (1937). ''Sound waves: Their shape and speed.'' New York: The MacMillan Company.<br />
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Zielinski, S. (2006). ''Deep time of the media: Toward an Archaeology of hearing and seeing by technical means''. Stanford: Standford University Press.<br />
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[[Category:Visuality]]<br />
[[Category:Sound]]<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
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[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Palmer_Method_of_Penmanship&diff=12715
Palmer Method of Penmanship
2010-11-24T14:52:20Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12510 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]<br />
[[Category:Writing]]<br />
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[[File:Palmer method sample new.jpg|left|A demonstrative example of Palmer's style.]]<br />
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Developed by Austin Norman Palmer (1860-1927) in the 1870s, the Palmer method of penmanship was both a style of handwriting and a pedagogical method for teaching the practice of penmanship. The handwriting produced by this method was italic, cursive writing, which curtailed much of the ornamentation which marked earlier penmanship systems in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. Conceived at the same historical moment as the typewriter, Palmer was responding to what he perceived as the need for an efficient handwriting style adapted the quickening pace of business in America. Comparing the process to a "writing machine," his system emphasized four qualities he saw as essential to good writing (Figure above). Palmer’s system largely displaced the earlier Spencerian system by the 1910s, gaining nationwide popularity, which it held until its eclipse by other methods in the 1950s. <br />
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==Penmanship as Mediation==<br />
[[File:Palmer's Admonition.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Palmer's moral example.]]<br />
Tamara Thornton, author of <i>Handwriting in America</i> (1996) argues that handwriting has a "history of its own," yet one shaped by the cultural within socio-historical periods (xi). As a cultural practice, handwriting carries with it cultural messages transmitted through the training of penmanship and through the idealized letterforms to be emulated (xii). Friedrich Kittler argues that "our writing tools also work on our thoughts" (183), and this method can be seen as a result of, as well as a contributor to pragmatic and functionalist approaches to education. The Palmer Method can be analyzed both in terms of individual expression as well as the regulation of expression; as a method by which both the self and the social self were defined and controlled. Individuality was to be expressed within standardized forms, a paradox which is indicative of differing epistemological views existing in America during this period. In this sense, as a response to the changing sociological character of American culture, the Palmer Method functioned as a medium of social control.<br />
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==Precursors and Palmer's Method==<br />
[[File:Spencerian Script.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Fig. 2<br />Spencerian Script]]Palmer's method of penmanship was a remediation of and a reaction to the Spencerian system; the leading method used for the fifty years prior to the Palmer Method's mainstream inclusion. Spencerian script was developed by Platt Rogers Spencer in the 1840s and was an earlier attempt to standardize penmanship. (Thornton 1996: 47) A Victorian writing master, Spencerian script did not represent handwriting elements as simply the formation of letters, choosing instead to model his method on natural forms. (Fig. 2) Spencer's script maintained the ornateness of past American scripts, such as the American Round-Hand system. The elegance of his script was seen by Palmer as being too feminine, and The Palmer Method was in part an attempt to reinsert masculinity into penmanship. (Thornton 1996: 67) The Palmer Method should also be examined in the context of the typewriter, developed concurrently. The Palmer Method maintained the analogue function of cursive writing, occasionally using discrete forms for practice of letters and isolated motions for the training of the muscular system. <br />
<br />
<br />
[[File:Palmer_drill_1.png|200px|thumb|right|Fig. 1<br />Palmer Method simple lines and circles.]]Consisting of a series of lessons, the method begins with the proper positioning of the body, and then a series of exercises designed to strengthen the muscles. The instruction manuals consist of a series of images and text that the student attempts to emulate; Palmer argued against the use of blackboards for models, as they can be "seen at many different angles, and at different distances, and do not give correct mental impressions." (Palmer 1935:4) At the end of the program, students complete an examination which is sent to the A.N. Palmer to be examined and judged. The Palmer method maintained arbitrary functions such as writing left to right, however often used words and forms that were nonsensical in that they provided no semiotic content, simply lines and circles or arbitrary words to reproduce. (Fig. 1) The focus of this program is to train the muscles to lead to an "automatic style embodying legibility, rapidity, ease and endurance." (Palmer 1935: 4) The style of penmanship produced by this program is comparitively minimalist to previous styles which emphasized aesthetics over functionality.<br />
<br />
== Automatic Writing and the Body ==<br />
[[File:Palmer_classroom.png|250px|thumb|left]]The Palmer method was intended to make the act of writing automatic and redefined this as a physiological process. Writing became the result of the "unconscious functioning of the brain and consequent behavior of the human organism." (Thornton 145) Lisa Gitelman argues the term "automatic" in the late nineteenth century was not a function only of the machine, but a resolving of the "organic and mechanical of human forms and functions built into machinery." (Gitelman, 189) Akin to Foucault's conception of the docile body, the Palmer Method put a military-like emphasis on the posture, position, and muscle control of the pupil's body. Exercises and <i>drills</i> were to be taught and practiced regularly, and teachers were instructed to monitor and correct the students' positions. These drills programmed the body by building muscle memory so the mind need no longer think -- the body simply performs mechanically and efficiently, just as would a typewriter. In this sense, Palmer's method embodies a cake-mix effect: after mastering the method on a conscious level, the writing system becomes reflexive and mechanized on an unconscious level. Though the student is the one making the inscription, it is their programmed body, shaped by the instruction, that is performing the task of writing, conjuring up images of Isis. The conscious self becomes secondary to the process, however involved in the production of messages and languages the method always requires the conscious self and others as messengers of Hermes needed to decode what is produced.<br />
<br />
===Regulating Fatigue and Attention in Industrial Education===<br />
[[File:Palmerboy.png|200x|thumb|right|A schoolboy demonstrating correct position of the body for penmanship.]]The Palmer Method made use of existing research in physiology and the emerging industrial view of the body as machine. Palmer's method is an attempt to extend the capabilities of human productivity in the act of writing, to maintain a border between capacity and incapacity in training the muscular activity of the student for both writing and relaxation needed between writing exercises. (Johannisson 7; Palmer 9) The Palmer Method's stringent requirements as to words per minute indicate that The A.N. Palmer Company thought they had found an ideal threshold between fatigue and productivity through seeing the body in terms of its physiological capabilities, while ignoring (although not discounting as in behaviourism) mental qualities which were thought to interfere with the machine. The emphasis placed by Palmer on maintaining a particular visuality in the practice of handwriting can be seen through the relationship he places between the student and the individual text. Denouncing blackboards as a pedagogical tool because they, "are seen at many different angles and at different distances and do not give correct mental impressions," it is clear that Palmer was attempting to promote a uniform objectivity in teaching handwriting while acknowledging models of subjective vision. (Palmer 4)<br />
<br />
===Internalization and Simulation of the Machine=== <br />
If, as Kittler suggests (198), the typewriter "tears writing from the essential realm of the hand," and the hand is the "essence of man," Palmer's mechanical method can be interpreted as an attempt to reunite the two without losing the desireable aspects of the typewriter (ie. speed, legibility, efficiency). Alternatively, this metaphorical reunion might appear to be an internalization of the typewriter technology into the body. To take the analogy of the human typewriter further, consider Flusser's essay entitled The Lever Strikes Back, in which he says, "we have been moving our arms as though they were levers since we have had levers. We simulate what we have simulated" (Flusser, 53). Not only did the Palmer method train the body to simmulate the typewriter in speed and legibility, the method also instructed students to use their left arm to cover other drills and push the paper up as one progresses. Thus, once again, the simulator is simulated and the classroom suddenly becomes a factory, a "place in which human beings become less and less natural and more artificial" (Flusser, 44).<br />
<br />
===The Unavoidable Traces of the Self===<br />
Kittler argues that at the end of the nineteenth century, "something ceases not to write itself." (Kittler 1999:3) In this he is speaking of the modest mechanical apparatuses which were developed at/for the period which shattered the unity of the hand-driven form of writing, replacing it with an extension of the body in terms of a machine. The Palmer Method attempts to make the body into a "writing machine" through physiological training designed to promote automaticity. (Palmer 1935:*) The body becomes a machine, internalizing the habit of writing so that the person is fully occupied by the machine, ceasing to write one's self and beginning to write something else. (Kittler 1999: 14) "But once a hand took hold of a pen," Kittler notes, "something miraculous occured: the body which did not cease to not write itself, left strangely unavoidable traces." The traces Kittler speaks about are the pops and hisses of the writing system--the individual character of one's penmanship. Despite the best efforts of the Palmer Method to teach a standardized script, the characteristics of each person's unique handwriting were inevitable.<br />
<br />
===Encoding/Decoding: Grading, Classifying and Comparison through Writing===<br />
[[File:Penmanship_and_occupation.png|400px|thumb|right|Fig. 3<br />Table comparing penmanship of 8th graders and office workers.]]Penmanship and its connection to the self can be seen through an examination of signatures and the practice of graphology. Gitelman argues the term "automatic," which is used frequently by Palmer in his manuals, highlighting prevailing cultural assumptions "regarding the act of insciption and the relation that inscribing bears to authorial agency and textual evidence." (Palmer 1935: 3; Gitelman 1999: 186) Experiments carried out by Gertrude Stein attempted to explore the relation between the her test subject's character and the markings they would create through automatic writing. Stein maintained that her experiment resolved the "organic and mechanical - of human forms and functions built into machinery and of mechanical repsonses by human beings." (Gitelman 1999:189). Palmer's method of penmanship analysis treated the subject's automatic writing in the same vein by advocating practice drills to be evaluated by a teacher or a designate of the Palmer Company itself. <br />
<br />
[[File:Palmercertificate.jpeg|thumb|left|Fig.4<br/>Certificate of Completion.]]<br />
<br />
<br />
Writing for drills divorces words on a page from any potential narrative, presenting itself as storage for data regarding a student's aptitude toward the mechanical project of penmanship. In bulletins for grading penmanship issued by each city's board of education, teachers were advised to regard penmanship as a skill needed to find employment after graduation of the eight grade. Through this method, the functional nonsense of texts written for drills allow for handwriting to become an object for scientific study, and a graphology emerges from the text. (Fig. 3) Teachers evaluated handwriting samples based on speed, consistency, and adhearance to the aesthetic standard, and scored the sample on a scale of 0 to 100-- cumulatively, and in each category. Teachers could then compare a student's results to the median scores for practitioners of a number of occupations (NY Dept of Education: 1920, 45). The direct link between penmanship and aptitude for business is made explicit, just as Gertrude Stein's experiments with automatic writing had attempted to draw corellations between the hand and the subject's character. In this sense, discrete analysis of writing as scientific object enabled teachers to decode the examinations in an effort to encode them into a particular areas of aptitude. Such drills were exemplary of a specific trend in psychology of the late 19th century, where the goal was to employ new physiological methods to decode the narrative of the subject's psyche. (Gitelman 1999: 195)<br />
<br />
== Technology, Standardization, Modernism ==<br />
<br />
Palmer was a follower of the philosophy and psychology of William James (1842-1910), who cherished individuality and autonomy while emphasizing universality and constraint.(Embridge 327; Bredo 4) Likewise, Palmer in his writing system argued that "within certain well-defined boundaries I would not only permit, but would encourage pupils in catering to their individual tastes." (Embridge 2007: 327; Thornton 1996: 116) The expression of individuality within a common norm was a quandry representative of American social life at the period, and the Palmer Method was characteristic of this dynamic.<br />
<br />
The Palmer Method is especially representative of ideals of the progressive era of education at the turn of the century. In its design, Palmer set standards of uniformity to which all students were expected to adhere in order to succeed. This belief in unity through uniformity, while on one level providing an equal standard for all to meet according to their ability, on another level forced others into adopting a foreign identity. In many cases, this was the aim: to impose a disciplining order on populations not well understood. The closeness of graphology to personal identity made a handwriting system particularly effective in this exercise of control. <br />
<br />
In setting a standard which the individual must conform to, Palmer's system imposes a kind of violence onto the individual. Similar to the typewriter's uniformly legible type, the individual was expected to develop a consistent penmanship style. In professional contexts in which the individual writes not for herself, a style legible for others, if not interchangeable, was increasingly important. Indeed, student writing was assessed based on its correspondence with that of professionals in particular fields. Pushing the individual towards this idealized standard is fundamentally to force her to siphon the index of her identity through what Lacan calls the regime of the symbolic, or what Kittler calls "the bottleneck of the signifier." (4) When the subject is the one to deploy discrete letterforms in analog continuity, the letterforms then become primary, the subject secondary. As Flusser writes, “in the case of the machine, it is the constant and the human being is the variable” (45).<br />
<br />
<br />
==The Problem of the Other: Women, Writing and Left-Handedness==<br />
<br />
[[File:Type-writer-girl.jpg|thumb|right|<br/>Typists were most typically women.]]Gitelman argues this new found automaticity in writing was a site for "feminized labor." (Gitelman 1999: 193) In Palmer's system which attempts to automatize and standardize writing, the connections between authorship and writing become increasingly obscure; made more evident by his increasingly gendered view of the form of writing. Arguing that the Spencerian script was too feminized, Palmer sought to re-masculinize writing, doing away with the ornamentation resulting from the natural forms which Spencer attempts to emulate. Previous to this program handwriting and gender was distinctly intertwined; being excluded from mercantile activity, female penmanship focused upon embroidery and needlework whereas boys learned writing through the making of receipts and other commerce-related acts. However, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, economic and social changes began to take place in the world of business; emerging corporate and bureaucratic structures were found to be hostile to masculine autonomy in terms of the male clerk who was placed at the bottom of a hierarchical structure of labor. (Thronton 1996: 69-70) Women began entering into the office in large numbers, as scribes, secretaries and bookeepers and took the role that male clerks previously had held. Their task was to take words as input - whether from speech or other documents - and to produce words as output on paper, that is, to become a passive linguistic conduit, a witness to the inscription executed by their bodies. Previously handwriting had been defined as a male activity connnected with the mercantile world, and with the inclusion of women handwriting became less exclusive. Palmer's emphasis on masculine scripts was an attempt to reclaim the pen as a male object; this new penmanship reasserted masculinity even though it was being done by women as well as men. (Thornton 1996: 70) It also had the effect of increasing the invisibility of the author as the writer's gender identity could no longer be determined through an examination of handwriting alone. <br />
<br />
<br />
[[File:Arm_positions.png|300px|thumb|left|Palmer Hand Positions]]Palmer viewed the entire Spencerian script as being too feminine in form, despite the fact that separate categories of writing existed to differentiate men and women in terms of both the form and function of writing. These distinctions are lost in Palmer, however, his attempt to re-masculinize writing through a loss of ornamentation also had the result of increasing the invisibility of the author as the writer's gender identity could no longer be determined through an examination of handwriting alone. By adopting this masculine script, females who employed a pen were simultaneously written out of the act of penmanship. Similarly Palmer advocated to make left-handers conform and adopt a right-handed method, as he says in the Teachers' Guide to Palmer Method Penmanship in 1929, "it is a right handed world," although since left-handedness has long been associated in Christianity with evil, it was probably more indicative of cultural assumptions during the period. (Ramsey 1988: 504)<br />
<br />
<br />
== The End of the Palmer Era ==<br />
<br />
Although alternative methods of handwriting existed concurrently, the Palmer Method enjoyed a large market share in both the business world and in the pedagogical method of primary schools. The method was eventually supplanted by the D'Nealiean method and the Zaner-Bloser method (which was an original competitor of the Palmer method, but remains a key player in handwriting pedagogy). It is admittedly hard to pinpoint exactly when and how the Palmer Method disappeared as a mode of mediation; its demise is inferred by the fact that Palmer ceased publishing textbooks in the early 1980's, and the methods of learning advocated by both the D'Nealiean and Zaner-Bloser systems differ greatly than those endorsed by Palmer. Modern penmanship systems such as D'Nealiean and Zaner-Bloser differ from Palmer in two distinct ways: they privilege manuscript over cursive, and they further digitize the writing system by atomizing each letter into combinations of six basic strokes. (Alston, 56) The Palmer method as a mode of mediation exposed the 19th century preoccupation with economies of attention in psychology. As this trend gave way to behaviorism, the Palmer method was no longer suitable as a mode of mediation. The 1960s, 70s, and 80s saw the emergence of a brand of child psychology where individuality was encouraged&mdash; less emphasis was placed on enforcing discipline, and a comparative laxity and permissiveness in child-rearing became the norm. Concurrently, teaching penmanship began with the mastery of manuscript, with the rationale that children should learn to write the characters they encounter in print. Cursive emerges later as an extension of the writing project: the new cursive is modeled after the already-mastered manuscript. "[M]anuscript that has been learned is not unlearned but, rather, built upon." (Alston, 57)<br />
<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
* Alston, Jean and Jane Taylor. ''Handwriting: Theory, Research and Practice.'' Nichols Publishing Company, New York, 1987.<br />
* Bredo, E. "The Darwinian Center to the Vision of William James" in ''William James and Education.'' (ed) Garrison, Podeschi and Bredo. Columbia University: New York. 2002. <br />
* City of New York Board of Education. Grade Standards: New York Penmanship Scale. Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics, 1920.<br />
* Crary, Jonathan. ''Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century.'' The MIT Press. 1990.<br />
* Embridge, D. 2007. “The Palmer Method: Penmanship and the Tenor of Our Time” in Southwest Review. Platinum Periodicals: 92 (3): 327 - <br />
* Flusser, Vilém. The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design. Reaction Books. 1999.<br />
* Freeman, F. “Current Methods of Teaching Handwriting” in ''The Elementary School Teacher.'' University of Chicago Press: 13(1) 25-40.Freeman, F. 1912. “Current Methods of Teaching Handwriting” in The Elementary School Teacher. University of Chicago Press: 13(1) 25-40. <br />
* Gitelman, Lisa. ''Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines.'' Stanford University Press, 1999.<br />
* Henning, William and Melzer, Paul. An Elegant Hand: The Golden Age of American Penmanship and Calligraphy. Oak Knoll Press, 2002<br />
* Johannisson, Karin. Modern Fatigue: A Historical Perspective. A Multifaceted View of Stress. Ed. Dr. Bengt B. Arnetz, Prof. Rolf Ekman. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2006<br />
* Kittler, Fredrich. ''Gramophone, Film, Typewriter.'' Stanford University Press, 1999.<br />
* Palmer, A.N. ''The Palmer Method of Business Writing.'' The A.N. Palmer Company: New York. 1935.<br />
* Thornton, Tamara. ''Handwriting in America: A Cultural History.'' Yale University Press. 1996.<br />
* Vismann, Cornelia. Files: Law and Media Technology. Stanford University Press. 2008.<br />
* Wajda, S.T. 1999. “Inscribing the Self” in ''American Quarterly.'' The Johns Hopkins University Press: 51(2) 461-471.</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Secretarial_Letter_Dictation&diff=12714
Secretarial Letter Dictation
2010-11-24T14:52:05Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12511 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>== Basics of secretarial positions ==<br />
<br />
Secretarial work, in one form or another, has existed since writing has existed; scribes were the first incarnation, followed by clerks. With the commercialization of the typewriter in the late 1800s and their adoption in the 1900s, record-keeping and composition became increasingly integral to modern businesess and organizations. Originally, most outgoing business correspondence was handled by business owners and a hired clerk, and was usually handwritten (Yates 25). This was an incredibly time consuming, laborious process, and made record keeping confusing, as all incoming and outgoing communication was hand copied so it was impractical to keep more than one comprehensive book of correspondence (Yates 38). Speedwriting and stenography along with typing skills sped up the process of bureaucracy and were delegated to women, particularly young women, in the 1900s. <br />
<br />
The origins of the word secretary are generally agreed to be related to secret-keeping and trust. According to Edward Jones Kilduff, the word secretary "has its origin in common with the word secret, for both are derived from the Latin word secretus, which means private, secret, or pertaining to private or secret matters. Hence came the general definition of secretary as a person who is intrusted with private or secret matters; a confidential officer or attendant; a confidant" (Kilduff 3).<br />
<br />
== Secretaries as mediums ==<br />
<br />
In a sense, secretarial work is a kind of 'medium' in and of itself. Secretaries receive communications from all types of sources; it is up to the secretary to determine which communications are the most pressing, and which do not deserve attention, and forward the important communications to the boss. Communications between businesses, especially letters, were not usually written by the businesspeople themselves--rather, the businessperson would speak (dictate) what was in the letter while the secretary/stenographer would write in shorthand what her supervisor dictated, and then type the letter on a typewriter with correct 'form,' meaning correcting any grammatical errors, formatting, spelling, detail work, etc. Essentially mail communications would go from a businessman to his secretary to another secretary to the businessman she represented. This was also true of phone calls and visitors: all communications had to pass through the secretary before reaching the intended recipient.<br />
<br />
Secretaries themselves still exist, but their duties have changed drastically due to email communications, word processing, and various other technologies. Letter dictation in particular is now incredibly rare, perhaps because of the common use of word processing technologies which drastically reduce the time needed to compose documents. Like the demise of the scribe due to increased literacy and printing, the stenographic duties of the secretary have diminished due to computing technologies. However, stenographers (using stenographic typewriters) are still in use in the legal system alongside voice-to-speech technology in case of computer failure.<br />
<br />
== Stenography in secretarial duties ==<br />
<br />
Stenography, or the practice of transcribing spoken word, was essential to the duties of a secretary, and a fast speed (usually of 100 words per minute), was desirable. "Except in the instances of college graduates, of persons who have received a specialized training in secretarial work, and of those who posess some exceptional qualification (a knowledge of financial matters or the ability to write well, for example), it is very difficult to obtain a position as a real private secretary without first having served an apprenticeship as a stenographer" (Kilduff 358).<br />
[[Image:gregg.jpg|thumb|left]]<br />
The importance of stenography, and particularly accurate stenography, for the secretary was expressed by George E. Roberts, vice president of National City Bank of New York City, "If my stenographer is not wholly accurate and dependable in transcribing her notes--her share of this mutual work--the effectiveness of my letter suffers. Through carelessness she has made me appear to say things I did not say, she has inclined my reader to the belief that I am ungrammatical, and by her inaccuracies in typing she has caused my letter to make an unfavorable impression. [...] Letter writing is an important function in business, and is becoming of greater importance because of the fact that transactions carried on by means of letters are rapidly increasing in number. The personal contact between a business house and its customers that existed in former years is being supplanted by a contact by letters. And all of this means that we must today make our letters more efficient. To do so we must enlist the coöperation of our stenographers to perform efficiently their share of the work of getting out good letters--letters that are accurate in transcription, correct in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and pleasing in appearance" (Kilduff 13). This excerpt suggests that secretaries only copied exactly what was written, but frequently part of their duty was to correct wording, phrasing, and grammar, and know all of the correct formats, sort of like what Microsoft Word does with its Paperclip helper.<br />
<br />
Many different types of speedwriting and [[shorthand]] exist, including the Pitman and Graham styles. College courses on shorthand were a popular choice for young women, and considered to be very practical. An example of this is in Sylvia Plath's novel ''The Bell Jar'', in which the Plath-based protagonist Esther's mother encourages Esther to take shorthand instead of trying to be a poet. Esther rejects this, seeing shorthand as a sure way into a subservient lifestyle.<br />
<br />
Typically pens were utilized more by secretaries than pencils, because the pen required less muscular exertion, allowed for faster movements, preserved better than pencil marks, and were generally more legible (Gregg 46). Other tools involved in the dictation process include the steno notebook.<br />
<br />
== The typewriter's role in the growth of the secretary ==<br />
[[Image:typist.jpg|thumb|right|Female typist, 1926 (Yates 40)]]<br />
In 1890, the U.S. Census reported 33,000 people employed as stenographers/typists, and by 1900, there were 134,000 people employed as stenographers, typists, and secretaries. In 1910, that number doubled; and in 1920 doubled again--786,000 secretaries (Yates 43). The typewriter allowed for a massive boom in the amount of women in the workforce: in 1871, only four percent of total commercial (business skills) school was female, and by 1900, that number leaped to 36 percent (Yates 44).<br />
<br />
Before the typewriter, letters were usually drafted and finalized by the composer of the letter--that is to say, the writer (the one who thought up the source of the material) and the writer (the one who performed the physical act of writing) were one in the same. With the advent of the typewriter, the two acts were separated entirely. According to Yates, the typewriter allowed "increasing subdivision of tasks and specialization of jobs, with the techniques of systematic management to coordinate the various specialized elements" in order to maximize efficiency. The typewriter further reduced the amount of time spent by highly paid executives on letter-writing, instead moving that task to lesser-paid secretarial workers (44). <br />
<br />
With the popularization of personal computers and word processing, this separation of composing and typing has again merged, as executives can easily write their own letters and internal communication is done increasingly through e-mail.<br />
<br />
== Secretary as extension of self ==<br />
<br />
What is particularly interesting about the secretary as a medium was the focus on her appearances, or 'poise.' While secretarial handbooks emphasize fast typing and shorthand skills along with organizational skills, each book has lengthly sections on the presentation of a secretary. As is expected, secretaries had dress requirements like we do today in offices, but even more requests on the attributes of secretaries were made. For example, a desired quality among secretaries was a pleasing voice, and to smile. Becker encourages secretaries to be 'phonogeninc' while on the telephone, at least until "television becomes a practical commercial reality" for telecommunications (73). Particular posture was requested--"Draping yourself about furniture, or leaning against files or doors as if they were lampposts is similarly condemned" (Becker 106)--and only pale nailpolish acceptable. One secretary recommends wearing blue frequently, as "[m]en almost universally like blue" (103). <br />
<br />
Manners were also essential, and women were thought to be much better at mannered speech and behavior than men, and more adept at being 'channels.' Edward Kilduff explains, "In so far as any general statement can be true, male secretaries are more likely not to possess suitable manners than are female secretaries; perhaps because it is man's nature to be more unrestrained and more independent than women, perhaps because men are not so sensitive to the effects of manners as women are and hence do not appreciate their value." Men, essentially, made bad mediums because they are too independent, more productive, and more creative than women.<br />
<br />
The work a secretary did, particularly letters, were not signed by secretaries but rather bosses, and it was important that they and their work was reflective of their employers. The secretary, ideally, was to be involved, but not necessarily thought of as a 'producer' of content--only visible as an extension rather than authority: "Letters are an expression of an executive's personality. Don't you, as a secretary, quickly spot any flaws that come to your employer's desk? Don't you judge other secretaries and their employers by the kind of letters they mail from their offices?" (Becker 11)<br />
<br />
The ideal secretary was one who was trustworthy with private data, efficient, reliable, and attractive. She, as one employer describes in ''Secretaries Who Succeed'', served as "an extension of my own brain" (37). This sentiment has been echoed in the present with new technologies such as the iPhone, Blackberries, and laptops--all of which similarly serve as both status symbols, secret-keepers, transmitters of data, and as extensions of one's consciousness.<br />
<br />
== Letter dictation in pop culture ==<br />
<br />
In ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' episode 33 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf0FFAFqle8) letter dictation is parodied. Biggles dictates a letter to his secretary, who is confused as to exactly what words to transcribe in this exchange:<br />
[[Image:biggles.jpg|thumb|right|Biggles puts on antlers to indicate he is not dictating]]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Biggles.''' Just put down what I say.<br />
<br />
'''Secretary.''' Do I put that down?<br />
<br />
'''Biggles.''' Of course you don't put that down.<br />
<br />
'''Secretary.''' Well what about that?<br />
<br />
'''Biggles.''' Look. Don't put that down. Just put down - wait a mo - wait a mo. (puts on his antlers) Now, when I've got these antlers on - when I've got these antlers on I am dictating and when I take them off (takes antlers off) I am not dictating.<br />
<br />
'''Secretary.''' (types) I am not dictating.<br />
<br />
'''Biggles.''' What? (puts the antlers on) Read that back.<br />
<br />
'''Secretary.''' Dear King Haakon, I am not dictating what?<br />
<br />
'''Biggles.''' No, no, no, you loopy brothel inmate.<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
Becker, Esther R. ''Secretaries Who Succeed''. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947.<br />
<br />
Charters, W. W. and Isadore B. Whitley. ''Summary of Report on Analysis of Secretarial Duties and Traits.'' New York: The National Junior Personell Service, Inc., 1924.<br />
<br />
Doutt, Howard M. ''Secretarial Science''. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1944.<br />
<br />
"Episode 33." ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' BBC. 30 Nov 1972.<br />
<br />
Kilduff, Edward Jones. ''The Private Secretary''. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1924.<br />
<br />
Pitman, Isaac. ''New Standard Dictation Course.'' New York: Pittman & Sons, 1933.<br />
<br />
Yates, JoAnne. ''Control Through Communication.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
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http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Underground_Missile_Silo&diff=12713
Underground Missile Silo
2010-11-24T14:51:54Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12512 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div><blockquote><br />
"Because waste is the secret history, the underhistory, the way archaeologists dig out the history of early cultures, every sort of bone heap, and broken tool, literally from under the ground."<br />
-Don DeLillo, ''Underworld''<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
<blockquote><br />
“Will the underground complex, with its beautifully efficient machinery so painstakingly mounted on springs, be the Stonehenge of America?” <br />
-Joseph Gies' response to a Titan Missile Site, ''Wonders of the Modern World'' <br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
<blockquote><br />
“The main fascination of military architecture lies in its honesty”<br />
-Quentin Hughes, ''The Art of Defense from the Earliest Times to the Atlantic Wall'' <br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Drawing underground silo complex.png|400px|thumb|right|Drawing of an Underground Titan Missile Silo Complex]]<br />
<br />
<br />
== Background and Description ==<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Titan_missile_museum_silo_view.jpg|thumb|left|Detailed Image of Titan Missile Silo]]<br />
<br />
<br />
* The '''underground missile silo''' is a relic from the Cold War that serves as a storage media for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), materialized defense tactic, and architecture-as-machinery. It records the actual past as a topographical legacy on one hand, on the other, prepares and testifies for an event that never took place.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Background History === <br />
<br />
<br />
* The underground silo was one of a series of missile storage technologies that continued to evolve with changing improvements on the design and function of nuclear war missiles dating from the Atlas F missile, Titan and Minuteman missiles. <br />
* The missiles were originally stored above ground, but the technical and military specialists involved found it cheaper and more strategic to protect the missile from attack by digging a hole in the ground and lining it with concrete, factoring out “all but a direct hit from another ICBM” (ft Neal, 86). <br />
Prior to the underground silo’s conception in 1957, it was not considered that it would be near impossible to gauge when the enemy would attack until it was too late. For preemptive defense, the Minuteman had a silo with a 12-ft. diameter, and required high accuracy for a direct hit (Neal, 146). <br />
* Tom Vanderbilt observes that the missile silos were literally taking shape around the machines: “the airforce’s policy of ‘concurrence’ dedicated that launch facilities be built simultaneously with weapons” (161). This complicated the missile construction and installation process so that even important dimensions for housing the missile 160 feet underground were undeterminable until the shape and the size of the missile was known (161). <br />
* There are no clear-cut precursors to the underground silo except for claiming obvious ancestry, the grain silo as storage for surplus. One may connect other military apparatuses to the silo in a transfer of roles: the submarine housed the torpedo, and fighter-plane carried the earlier missiles and bombs. <br />
* The last of the Minuteman III missiles was lowered into the ground in 1975 and from thereon marked the obsolescence of the underground missile silo (NPS/GOV).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Description and Layout ===<br />
<br />
<br />
* The underground missile silo, or ‘ace in the ground’, was 80 feet deep, reinforced with concrete. A metal liner was installed; then the missile lowered in. Each silo had its own underground support ring for electric generators and environmental control. The support building was an insulated metal structure atop concrete foundations within the tube. A horizontal concrete and steel sliding cover topped the silo, with concrete roadbeds for transporter-erectors to directly access the opening for rocket handling (Neal, 169). <br />
* An account of an abandoned Minuteman silo reveals the internal architecture resembled a ‘terrestrial submarine’, with naval infrastructure and metaphors: the hatch, the metal catwalks, the ‘lanyards’ fastened to the silo door by which men would descend into the ‘hole’ (Vanderbilt, 160). Indeed, large-scale missiles had first been launched from ships above and submarines under seas before the ICBM appeared. This delineates the tendency to remediate similar design appearances and features from a prior media or technology, perhaps in this case for familiarity or legitimacy’s sake. <br />
* Missile Silo location sites act as topography physically mapping out a geographic, techno-military superstructure. Roy Neal documents at Malmstrom, MT at the peak of its popularity, there were 150 missiles and 15 control centers, and each center at least six miles from the ten missiles allocated (ft Neal, 169). <br />
The military apparatus wields a cartographic network: the ordering of silos is an exercise of maximum missile efficiency, also a series of coordinated defense tactics housed in architecture.<br />
<br />
== Semiotic Promiscuity of the Underground Missile Silo== <br />
<br />
<br />
=== The Underground Missile Silo and Rhetoric of Space ===<br />
<br />
[[Image:Missile-base-home-main-imag.jpg|thumb|right|Fancy Living in a Silo?]]<br />
<br />
[[Image:Silo_11b1.jpg|thumb|right|Renovated Silo as House]]<br />
<br />
In equal parts dwelling, machine and symbol, the discourse embedded in the silo falls also into rhetorics of space. <br />
* The ''twentieth-century castle'':<br />
Vanderbilt observes, “The silo as house is a sign that architecture does not discriminate”, after all, a “blast door is still [just] a door” (166). The silo as house is akin to the “old school of brutalism, with its rough concrete surfaces and shamelessly exposed ductwork”, a series of ‘twentieth-century castles’, where “instead of ramparts and bulwarks we have launch tubes and bundles of electrical conduits” (166). <br />
* Indeed, it seems that the silo is a utilitarian ideal of architecture, “the modernist dictum that buildings were machines”, and the missile silos, disposable—“once the missiles were fired, the structure was useless” (161). Here, the space does not only offer a place for storage or gathering but an intention of fulfilling a mechanical purpose, disposing itself once shed of both intention and item. <br />
* Athanasius Kircher, a 17th century Jesuit scholar and scientist, approached architecture viewed space with a similar rhetoric in mind. From his plans for eavesdropping devices and projections of sound from unseen sources, one can see that for Kircher, technology “stood for the spectrum of artificial constructions where ‘the operative force or agent was not obvious to the eye’” (Zielinski, 125). What made his approach towards space and media akin to the silo’s is visual secrecy. The mechanisms that made such inventions and architecture work were not visible to the eyes—as such, the ‘guts’ were safely concealed within other pockets of space, whereas other spaces would resonate with the promise of power.<br />
<br />
=== The Silo as a Relic of the Cold War Ur-Past ===<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* Part of the power dormant in the silo is mythical. The silo is both pinnacle of human achievement and “the means for altering the world so dramatically that this same shining symbol of the space age would be transformed into the ruin of a lost civilization” (Vanderbilt, 172). Built under pressure, meant to respond with speed to a situation that never arose, the silos “turned into ruins that were not of a lost civilization, but were lost in civilization (172). <br />
* The anticipated event that we plan, dig, and draw store for has never occurred itself; it is Derrida’s non-event, the “terrifying reality of the nuclear conflict can only be the signified referent, never the real referent” (Derrida, 23). <br />
* The media as a promise of the void: The silo contains all the latent power that can carve man off the board and render history ‘remainderless’ and ‘a-symbolic’ (Derrida, 28). This is as close to ellipsis as we can court.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Detonating Culture: Vilém Flusser === <br />
<br />
<br />
* A connection is made between button-pressing and digitality: “For some years, science fiction has used push-button war as a theme… for better or for worse” (Neal, 7). Here, the fingertips, as Flusser has noted, are the “organs of choice”, but the power of such decision-making reaches its limits when the power to select a ‘programmed freedom’ chooses to open the silo and releases in its stead eradication—one freedom in favor of an ultimate other (Flusser, 92-93). <br />
* The dialectic of the nest and cave introduced in “Carpets” represents the crux of underground missile silo—the desire to both nest and shelter the missile underground—where its origins can be traced back to the tomb, natural dwelling of the dead. ‘Buildings’ of surplus and weaponry can be followed to the original tomb, resting place and storage. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Janus-Face: Double-Pronged Inscriptive Power ===<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Missilesilorenovationtunnels.jpg|400px|thumb|left|Missile Silo Renovation Tunnels]]<br />
<br />
Here, the inscriptive power is of “double character” (Gitelman, 10). At the “double-sided boundary” (10), the underground missile silo inscribes from its materiality, hiding the missile in its interior, a sort of ‘blotting out’ of the page, or the attempted erasure of the imprint found with Freud’s Mystic Writing Pad. It also imprints the space around it with psychological violation, the possibility of detonation. This psychological violence is a ‘second historicity’ behind the underground missile silo, enriching it with semiotic and cultural meaning beyond its technological intent (22).<br />
<br />
== The Aftermath == <br />
<br />
<br />
=== Pop Culture Legacy: Silo Culture === <br />
<br />
[[Image:2207571832 39eaccd9fe.jpg|thumb|right|Scene from ''La Jetée'']]<br />
<br />
[[Image:Jetee2.jpg|thumb|right|''La Jetée'']]<br />
<br />
[[Image:La jetee L.jpg|thumb|right|''La Jetée'']]<br />
<br />
<br />
* Former Atlas F missile silo in Wamego, KS discovered as site of an LSD laboratory “said to supply one-third of the nation’s traffic” (Vanderbilt, 165); <br />
* A company called ‘20th Century Castles’ advertises a variety of former silos as ‘historic, collectible underground properties’. That “one should now seek shelter in a space whose missiles were the cause of so much shelter-building elsewhere” is rather ironic (166). <br />
* Silo-like life in Chris Marker’s film La Jetée, haunts “these former installations, [reverting] to a primitive, almost cavelike existence.... their myth-filled histories and subterranean mysteries have lent themselves to conspiracies—even the underworld” (164-165).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
== Citations ==<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Derrida, Jacques. ''No Apocalypse, Not Now (Full Speed Ahead: Seven Missiles, Seven Missives)''. Diacritics, 14:2 (Summer, 1984)<br />
<br />
Flusser, Vilém. ''The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design''. London, UK: Reaktion Books, 1999.<br />
<br />
Gitelman, Lisa. ''Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. <br />
<br />
National Park Service Website. ''History of Minuteman Missile Sites''. National Park Service, U.S. Dept of Interior. Accessed 03/29/2010: <br />
http://www.nps.gov/archive/mimi/history/srs/history.htm<br />
<br />
Neal, Roy. ''Ace in the Hole''. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962. <br />
<br />
Vanderbilt, Tom. ''Survival City: Adventures among the Ruins of Atomic America''. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. <br />
<br />
Row, ''Wonders of the Modern World''. <br />
Zielinski, Siegfried. ''Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means''. MA: MIT Press, 2006.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Architecture]]<br />
[[Category:Spatiality]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Political_Effigies&diff=12712
Political Effigies
2010-11-24T14:51:46Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12513 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Leviathan.png|thumb|right|1651 Edition Cover of ''The Leviathan'']]<br />
[[Image:Edward_II.png|thumb|right|The vandalized effigy of Edward II]]<br />
[[Image:Louis_XIV.png|thumb|right|A satiric comic of Louis XIV, noting the regalia that makes an otherwise feeble man a monarch]]<br />
[[Image:Elizabeth_I.png|thumb|right|The procession for Elizabeth I, featuring her effigy]]<br />
[[Image:Elizabeth_I_Effigy.png|thumb|right|The effigy of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey]]<br />
[[Image:Disputacione_betwyx_the_Body_and_Wormes.png|thumb|right|A folio depicting the separation of the mortal body and enduring effigy]]<br />
== Simulacra and Interregna: Medieval Royal Effigies ==<br />
The emergence and assumed significance of the royal effigy is a matter of peculiar happenstance, particularly in England where the practice was first popularized. Early English medieval royal funerals obeyed the common religious traditions of the day: as Woodward dryly notes, “the corpse itself was exhibited” (65). This display was rather simple and held no obvious or uniquely political symbolic value. For instance, Edward I (otherwise knowb as Edward the Confessor), who died in first days of 1066, and William I (otherwise know as William the Conqueror), who passed away in 1087, were both “carried to their graves unembalmed and covered on a bier” (65). The concealed bodies were subject to no special post-mortem preservative treatment; little attention was paid to attire. As Chamberlain and Pearson argue, these funerals had been "low-key and even shambolic affairs. Far from venerating the royal corpse, the court appeared to treat it as an unpleasant problem: William I's corpse was left unattended for rather too long and then disintegrated when it was being stuffed into its coffin. The burial service for this great king was conducted as quickly as possible because he smelt so bad" (26). The unadorned body, though the object of a spectacular procession, remained hidden away. This was a limited form of publicity: the dead king was not showcased by way of direct exposure, bur rather through the physical circulation of the covered body. Evidentiary and commemorative circulation did not require line-of-sight verification. The ritualistic value of the procession was not yet tied to any spectacular display of the exposed body. This tradition persisted even in the event of embalming: “[t]he corpse of Henry I, who died in France in 1135, was rudely embalmed to facilitate its transport back to England but it was still borne covered upon a bier” (66).<br />
<br />
This changed with the 1189 death of Henry II. His was the first royal body to be openly displayed and arrayed in the coronation ornaments. The first use of a funeral effigy, however, dates to either the 1272 death of Henry III or 1327 death of Edward II. Woodward speculates that a wax effigy appeared in the funeral procession for Henry III, although no material record of the effigy exists. The wood effigy of Edward II, on the other hand, is still on display in Gloucester Cathedral, the original location of his burial. What accounts for this shift in royal funeral rituals? The open display of the body was consistent with the religious currents at the time of Henry II’s death; effigies, likewise, have a longer religious history. But what accounts for the adoption of effigy practices at this precise moment? As Woodward notes: “[t]he reasons for [the effigy’s] introduction are unclear but probably relate to the three-month delay in organsing [Edward II’s] funeral. Edward died at Berkeley Castle on 21 September but was not buried in Gloucester Cathedral until 20 December. Medieval embalming techniques were insufficiently skilled to keep the body fresh for that length of time” (66). To be clear, a funeral effigy and a tomb effigy could have been, but were not always, one and the same. Whereas the tombs of many royals and notable religious figures had long included an effigy, the use of an effigy in the funeral procession was indeed something new. Unlike the tomb effigy which, like the busts of antiquity, aspired to partial and commemorative verisimilitude, the funeral effigy served as a complete simulacrum. The funeral effigy was not a representation, but a copy. The funeral procession, from this point on, no longer showcased the unconcealed or concealed body, but instead the effigy. The effigy became the central object of the procession, with scant attention paid the body proper. Indeed, most procession increasingly lead with a highly adorned effigy and concluded with the unembellished coffin that housed the bare body. The unusual use of an effigy in the funeral procession of Edward II, which seemed more a matter of happenstance and a function of necessity, nonetheless established a new and long-lasting tradition. As Woodward again points out, “Edward III was buried within two weeks of his death and thus public display of his corpse was possible but nevertheless an effigy was made” (66). This practice would persist until the time of James I. <br />
<br />
=== The King's Two Bodies: The Paradox of the Monarch's Body and the Body Politic ===<br />
<br />
Although Kantorowicz believes this practice would only make sense in the context of a pre-existing juridial concept of the so-called 'King's Two Bodies,' it may well be that this discourse on sovereignty was thrust upon the effigy. Kantorowicz's genealogy of embodied sovereignty, wherein the king is the unification of the sovereign royal body and sovereign body politic...<br />
<br />
“No matter how we may wish to explain the introduction of the effigy in 1327, with the funeral of Edward II there begins, to our knowledge, the custom of placing on top of the coffin the ‘roiall representation’ or ‘personage,’ a figure or image ad similitudinem regis, which—made of wood or of leather padded with bombast and covered with plaster—was dressed in the coronation garments or, later on, in the parliamentary robe. The effigy displayed the insignia of sovereignty: on the head of the image (worked apparently since Henry VII after the death mask) there was the crown, while the artificial hand held orb and scepter. Wherever the circumstances were not to the contrary, the effigies were henceforth used at the burials of royalty: enclosed in the coffin of lead, which itself was encased in a casket of wood, there rested the corpse of the king, his mortal and normally visible—though now invisible—body natural; whereas his normally invisible body politic was on this occasion visibly displayed by the effigy in its pompous regalia: a persona ficta—the effigy—impersonating a persona ficta—the Dignitas” (Kantorowicz, 420-421)<br />
<br />
The King is dead! Long live the King!<br />
<br />
“We should not forget that the uncanny juxtapostion of a decaying corpse and an immortal Dignity as diplayed by the sepulchral monuments, or the sharp dichotomy of the lugubrious funeral train surrouding the corpse and the triumphant float of an effigy-dummy wrapped in regalia, was fostered, after all, in the same ground, came from the same world of thought and sentiment, evolved in the same intellectual climate, in which the juridical tenets concerning the ‘King’s two Bodies’ achieved their final formulation. In both instances, there was a body mortal, God-made and therefore ‘subject to all Infirmities that come by Nature or Accident,’ set against another body, man-made and therefore immortal, which is ‘utterly void of Infancy and old Age and other Defects and Imbecilities’” (436).<br />
<br />
=== The Politics and Performance of Ascension ===<br />
<br />
"[I]n the Middle Ages the king was buried with his crown and regalia, or copies thereof; now, however, he was naked or in his winding sheet, and he came to heaven as a poor wretch, whereas the regalia were reserved for the effigy, the true beater of royal glory and the symbol of a Dignity 'which never dies'" (424).<br />
<br />
=== From Embodied Sovereignty to Constitutionalism ===<br />
<br />
1625—Constitutional Monarchy: The decoupling of the head of state and the head of government<br />
<br />
== Better Dead: Communist Embalming ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Bring out your dead!.jpg|thumb|left|People wait in line in the cold for the chance to see Lenin's corpse.]]<br />
<br />
Although the creation of effigies to materially hold the "body politic" of the deceased monarch fell from active practice with the rise of Constitutionalism in Western Europe, this mode of representation found new life in the attempts of the young Bolshevik government to establish a firm basis for legitimate sovereignty. Although historical materialism would seem to be fundamentally at odds with the fetishization intrinsic to the creation of royal effigies- especially since the two institutions which necessitated and explained the practice, monarchy and the Christian concept of transubstantiation, were violently rejected by the Communists (quite literally, as the corpses of the Romanovs and countless Orthodox churches attest). Armed with cutting edge scientific techniques, however, the Bolsheviks did not create likenesses of their fallen leaders in order to preserve the continuity of the body politic- instead, they preserved the leader's body as an undying vessel for sovereign power. The embalming and display of particularly important party members in Mausoleums was a procedure unique to Communist countries in the 20th century, and even within these countries was typically not repeated following the preservation of the founding leader (the exception being Stalin, who was nonetheless rather unceremoniously removed from the Red Square Mausoleum in the aftermath of Nikita Khrushchev's speech denouncing his rule).<br />
<br />
=== Goodbye Lenin? ===<br />
<br />
[[Image:Lenin.png|thumb|right|Lenin's embalmed body]]<br />
<br />
''On January 20, 1924 Vladimir Illich Lenin died. He was already dead but not yet alive.''<br />
<br />
Lenin's death is generally agreed to have been caused by calluses formed around the remnants of a would-be assassin's bullet (fired by Revolutionary Socialist Fanya Kaplan), which did not immediately kill him on August 30th, 1918 when the shot was fired (as Kaplan surely had hoped)but rather caused a slow demise from advanced atherosclerosis.<br />
<br />
''On August 30th, 1918 Vladimir Illich Lenin was shot to death. He just didn't know it yet.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Crazy Lenin.jpg|thumb|left|Enjoying Every Sunset]]<br />
<br />
By 1921, Lenin was suffering from debilitating migraines, and in 1922 he suffered his first stroke. Later that year, suffering daily attacks, Lenin removed himself from the political scene despite the festering power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. In 1923 he attempted to weigh in on the side of Trotsky, but had been outmaneuvered by Stalin who forbid Lenin outside visitors or communication. <br />
<br />
''In December of 1920, Lenin died politically. He took Trotsky and millions of Russians with him.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Lenin and Stalin.jpg|thumb|right|If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...]]<br />
<br />
This political excommunication was quickly followed by another stroke, which robbed Lenin the facilities of speech as well as a great deal of his memory and bodily control. <br />
<br />
''In December of 1920, half of Lenin's brain died. His body survived, but did he?''<br />
<br />
On October 19th, 1923 members of the Politburo meet in the Kremlin to discuss possible funeral plans- it was at this meeting that Stalin is purported to have first raised the possibility of preserving Lenin's body, an idea to which Trotsky raised strong objections. <br />
<br />
''On October 19th, 1923 the Kremlin had declared Lenin dead. They also made plans for his life.''<br />
<br />
On the 20th of January in 1924, his condition having thoroughly deteriorated, Lenin suffered his third and final stroke- he appeared to complain of not being able to see, his temperature raised to a high of 42.3 degrees Celsius, he convulsed with violent seizures, his face turned red and for a minute he seemed like he was trying to sit up. He the suddenly stopped breathing, and his face became a deathly pale. <br />
<br />
''On January 20th, 1924 Vladimir Illich Lenin died. He quickly became livelier than he had been in years.''<br />
<br />
=== More Alive Than the Living ===<br />
<br />
Against Lenin's wishes (he had wanted to be buried next to his mother), and under the watchful eye of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (who would found the Cheka, forerunner of the KGB) Lenin's body was preserved using standard embalming techniques (his veins were flushed with a chemical compound) and placed in a temporary Mausoleum. This was done, officially, at the request of the workers and peasants who did not want to part with Lenin. The rudimentary technology would not hold his body for long, and when freezing became unfeasible due to electricity shortages scientists Vladimir Voribiov and Boris Zbarsky successfully created a new method of embalming that involved soaking Lenin's body in a particular chemical bath on a regular basis. It was a baptism that literally gave Lenin's body new life. <br />
<br />
First, however, Lenin's brain was removed and taken to St. Petersburg, false eyes were inserted under the eyelids and sewn shut, his mouth was sewn shut, and dark spots on the skin were removed with abrasive chemicals. Lenin's body was made to look as if he were sleeping, not dead. Through science- science!- the Soviets achieved what the Europeans had only dreamed, for the material frailty of the beloved leader was replaced not with a wax simulacrum but with the leader's own body, perfected and immortalized. <br />
<br />
[[Image:building.jpg|thumb|left|Making room for all that soveriegnty]]<br />
<br />
A giant hole was blasted into the frozen soil of the Red Square and a giant underground facility was put in place, topped by a pyramid-like granite Mausoleum that bore the simple epigraph: LENIN. The Red Square, like Lenin's head, was hollowed out and refilled with the preservative power of science and enduring power of the state. <br />
<br />
The tradition started with Stalin and continued through Gorbachev's rule that spectacles of patriotism (such as military processions) took place upon the Red Square, with the important political figures watching from atop the Mausoleum. <br />
<br />
''In the performance of Soviet sovereignty, Lenin's corpse became the ultimate prop.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Siberia.jpg|thumb|right|Lenin's temporary home in Siberia.]]<br />
<br />
Shortly after the Mausoleum opened to the public, the peasant Mitrofan Nikitin, who was viewing Lenin's body, took out a pistol, shot at Lenin's corpse and then turned the gun on himself. A letter was found on his body decrying the path he saw Russia taking. Fortunately, Lenin was not hurt (although the same could not be said of the peasant, nor- in all probability- his family, friends and acquaintances).<br />
<br />
Following a similar instance in which a peasant spat upon and then threw a rock at the glass holding both Lenin and Stalin, measures were taken to protect the corpses from attacks from not only rocks, but guns and explosives as well (it is quite certain that inmates in the Gulags took comfort knowing that Lenin was safe). <br />
<br />
During the Second World War, in the face of the oncoming Panzer divisions, Lenin's body was taken by train along with his team of scientists to a facility in Siberia. There his body was maintained with the greatest of care, and those who attended his needs were treated quite well. Fortunately, the war ended and Lenin was able to return to the comfort of his Mausoleum (sadly, the same could not be said of those left behind to defend the city who died of cold, starvation, or German bullets).<br />
<br />
''There was a saying in Russia that Lenin was more alive than the living. The Politburo ensured that this was true''<br />
<br />
=== Death Becomes Them ===<br />
<br />
Lenin was just the first of many Communist heads of state to be embalmed. Party leaders who were embalmed include:<br />
<br />
[[Image:Check HoS.JPG|thumb|right|Klement Gottwald]]<br />
[[Image:Anoglan HOS.JPG|thumb|right|Agostinho Neto]]<br />
<br />
*Georgi Dimitrov, head of the Bulgarian Communist Party<br />
*Horloogiyn Choybalsan, leader of Mongolia<br />
*Klement Gottwald, leader of the Czech CP<br />
*Agostinho Neto, leader of the People’s Republic of Angola<br />
*Lindon Forbers Burnham, President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana<br />
*Kim Il Sung, leader of North Korea<br />
*Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam<br />
*Mao Zedong, leader of the People’s Republic of China<br />
*Joseph Stalin, leader of Soviet Russia<br />
<br />
Most of these corpses have been at this time cremated or buried, albeit for differing reasons. Horllogiyn Choybalsan was in fact murdered by Stalin’s regime, and was only afforded short-term embalming in order to send his corpse back to Mongolia. Georgi Dimitrov and Klement Gottwald were both interred after the fall of Stalinism. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Together Again.JPG|thumb|left|A short-live reunion]]<br />
<br />
Even Joseph Stalin, who was placed on display next to Lenin and had his name added to the face of the Mausoleum, was quietly removed and buried following Khrushchev’s speech decrying his crimes.<br />
<br />
Ho Chi Minh was embalmed under the worst of circumstances, deep in the jungle and under constant fear of American attack or discovery. One North Vietnamese official is quoted as saying that had Minh’s body been captured, they would have exchanged all of the American POWs in exchange for his safe return. He was not discovered, and his body still lies in its Mausoleum.<br />
<br />
Mao Zedong was the only leader on this list not to have been embalmed by Russian specialists. By the time Mao died, Sino-Soviet relations had soured and it was out of the question to share such prized technology. The Chinese had to turn instead to the Vietnamese for assistance, and created a crystal sarcophagus to house his bodily remains. There is speculation, however, that the Vietnamese were not able to correctly impart the expertise of the Russians, and that Mao’s waxy hue is due not to his chemical bath but rather to his artificial composition.<br />
<br />
=== Its Not Easy Being Green ===<br />
<br />
There are no cameras allowed in the Mausoleum. Even cell phones must be checked. One is not allowed to stand still while viewing the body, one must continually move. The honor guard armed with automatic rifles ensures these rules are strictly followed. Lenin's body is to be seen, not inspected.<br />
<br />
Lenin's face is waxy, his eyes closed. You can only see his torso, in a simple suit, with his arms laid to his sides- the rest of the body is covered in a black sheet. But if you look closely, you can see the rims of his fingers are green. But you must keep moving, you cannot inspect, you cannot look closely at the mossy decay that defies the pinnacle of Soviet science.<br />
<br />
The decay that creeps up Lenin's cuticles is the subtle hiss of the natural process of death that has not stopped despite the years of chemical baths and tender care. It is the traces of Lenin's actual body that were never fully exorcised from the national symbol of strength and unity. In a very literal sense, the rot that remains the constant threat hovering on the edges of Lenin's corpse is the Real hiding in, under and behind the Symbolic. Lenin's body, literally transformed into a Bakhtinian sign, is rigorously contextualized in an attempt to retain control of its meaning, yet the noisy decomposition continually interrupts, evades and creeps into the semiotic process.<br />
<br />
Ironically, the green tinge of Lenin's cuticles gives his body an aura of authenticity reportedly lacking in Mao's sallow corpse. As in the funeral processions of the European Royalty that begrudgingly dragged the body of the deceased monarch along with the resplendent and regaled wax effigy, the grotesque materiality of the leader's body in the Soviet Union and its satellites was simultaneously necessary for legitimacy and necessarily fought/marginalized/denied. The pops of organs rupturing and hisses of gases escaping can be chemically paused, but to remove them entirely would be to remove the materiality of the corpse/sign, rendering it ephemeral and inauthentic. The wax effigy was quickly stripped of its regalia once the actual body was interned, and the Mausoleum would quickly disappear if it were discovered that Lenin's body was fake.<br />
<br />
=== Body Doubles and Second Life Lenin ===<br />
<br />
In the complex that is used to dunk Lenin's body in its rejuvenating chemical bath was also an exact replica of the inside of the Mausoleum, along with a number of "biological doubles"- corpses that had similar features as Lenin's. The reason for these complex simulations was the need to test new methods of preservation and to troubleshoot possible developing problems- both procedures too risky to attempt on Lenin’s actual body.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Dancing on the Grave.jpg|thumb|left|Party members (Including Stalin, second from left) stand atop the Mausoleum. One member of this group had already fallen from grace, as can be seen by his unceremonious removal from the photograph]]<br />
<br />
These “body doubles”, often with beards trimmed to match Lenin’s trademark goatee, serve as a standing reserve of corporeal ephemerality upon which the skirmishes against the real are fought before traversing the battlefield of the symbolic that infuses Lenin’s body. Yet these copies of the copy (for Lenin’s body, it must be admitted, is a simulacrum of its former self- one that has significantly improved upon the original) use as their subjectile actual bodies- in life they may have been Ivan Ivanovich, Dmitri Gregorovich or Bob Jones- in death they are Vladimir Illich Lenin, complete with Mausoleum and private chemical bath.<br />
<br />
The fight against Lenin’s material decomposition requires his replication, but the power of his legitimacy requires that he remain unique. This paradox haunted not only the bodies of those doomed to be test-Lenins, but also his political successors. Unlike the wax effigies that were mere “way-stations” between sovereigns, Lenin’s body was intended to be an eternal vessel of Soviet power. It was not possible to share this power without diminishing it- a lesson Stalin learned too late. Soviet heads of state could stand on Lenin’s Mausoleum, but they could never truly enter it. This held true in other Communist countries- Mausoleums were solitary affairs.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Virtual M.JPG|thumb|right|The Virtual Mausoleum]]<br />
<br />
At the website www.lenin.ru, it is possible (after downloading the requisite add-ons) a virtual tour of Lenin’s Mausoleum. Unlike the actual Mausoleum, there is no long line to wait in, no restrictions on cameras, and no heavily armed soldiers ensuring that you linger too long. In fact, you can linger for as long as you wish, rotating the camera to most conceivable angles (from the perspective of a spectator), and zoom in and out. Lenin’s body is also there digitally reproduced in his eternal slumber.<br />
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His cuticles, however, are flesh-colored.<br />
<br />
This virtual Lenin has shifted from the symbolic to the imaginary- fully detached from the material subjectile that decays, that holds and holds onto the real, the digital body of Lenin is nothing but simulacrum. The digital Mausoleum is a mirror image of the Mausoleum on Red Square, albeit in a manner diametrically opposed to the test Mausoleum with its fake Lenins. The digital Mausoleum is a replica of the idealized form, devoid of material substance and the decay that accompanies it. The test Mausoleum is present only in and for its dirty, infecting materiality- it takes on the decay and rot of the Red Square Mausoleum without laying claim to any of its symbolic power.<br />
<br />
== Live and Let Die ==<br />
=== Dead Presidents ===<br />
When important political figures die, there is usually a public ceremony, followed by a private burial of the bodies in the hometown of the family. Examples of this are shown in the cases of Nixon, Reagan, Princess Diana, and Saddam Hussein. Photos of the dead bodies of the presidents were not in the news, nor were they dispersed throughout the internet with exception of Saddam. The photos of princess Diana only show the car crash, but not the actual body. However the case of Saddam Hussein, is quite different. Although both Nixon and Diana’s funerals, did not reveal the dead bodies to the media, Saddam Hussein’s dead and mangled body was seen on TV, newspapers, and on the internet. The images of Saddam’s body showed the “real” deterioration and decay of the corpse. The reason why his body was shown, and not other political figures, is that the political climate was such that if he no longer existed, then his regime was gone as well. The difference between Saddam’s case, and that of other world leaders, is that Saddam’s death was seen as having severe political significance. The image of Saddam’s dead body, is similar to the image of the head on a stake. At the time of his death, there was a proliferation of images that circulated the media of his dead body. This was to prove how dead he was, and that his presence, aura, and mystique were gone. This is similar to the image of the head on a stake, where the body is shown in its rawest form in order to prove how dead a person is. The dead body of Saddam Hussein was turned into a political symbol. <br />
<br />
The importance of Saddam’s body can be seen in the events surrounding his death. At first, officials did not want to bury him for fear of the violence towards the body, and surrounding the burial sight. It was only under American pressure that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Iraq's new ruler, agreed to surrender the body for burial after his aides insisted for much of Saturday that it would be held in a secret location until the risks of violence or turmoil at the burial site receded. But a political adviser to Prime Minister Maliki, Bassam al-Saddami, said there were no plans to hand over the body until the risk of violence over Saddam's hanging subsided, a period that he said could run for weeks or months. In the meantime, he said, the body would be kept in "a secret place," where it would be secure against desecration by his enemies. "If we bury him in Tikrit, people will dig him up and tear the body apart," he said. (Saddam buried; videos grip, Iraq, By John F. Burns, Published: December 31, 2006) Saddam’s death was highly publicized, and circulated throughout the media. “This nation of 27 million people spent the 36 hours after the hanging crowding around television sets to watch mesmerizing replays of a government-made videotape…” (Saddam buried; videos grip, Iraq, By John F. Burns, Published: December 31, 2006) One reason why the bodies of both Saddam and Lenin were seen as significant, was that both had a single-party autocratic dictatorship. Their symbols were used in order to centralize power in an autocratic form. There was a faith in the immortality of the leaders and what they were to represent.<br />
<br />
=== Long Live the (youtube video of the ) King! ===<br />
As we are constantly saturated with virtual images of our leaders, it can be argued that the motivation to see them in person has been lost. The images, recordings, and videos of political leaders are present, even while their body is absent. When the material body of the leader dies, it can be said that as long as their virtual image survives, their legitimacy is still present. In our media environment, death is not an end, as everything is recorded and dispersed throughout the media, and nothing disappears. “Our bodies know fatigue and finitude, but our effigies once recorded, can circulate through media systems indefinitely, across the wastes of space and time.” (Speaking Into Thin Air, Peters, 140) As opposed to royal effigies, one could say that presently we have media effigies. If one were to look at the invention of the Phonograph, it is possible to see that the original intention of this technology was to preserve the voices and the messages of the political leaders, and to transmit them to posterity. This has resulted in the presence of media effigies, and technologies that preserve traces of subjectivity. “But death (knowledge of mortality) is the ultimate condition of cultural creativity as such. It makes permanence into a task, into an urgent task, into a paramount task – and so it makes culture, that huge and never stopping factory of permanence.” (Mortality, Immortality, and Other Life Strategies, Bauman, p. 4) As Lenin’s body was embalmed for propaganda purposes in order to gain populist support for communism, images and videos of Reagan that circulated throughout the media can be seen serving a similar purpose.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Gore.png|thumb|left|Al Gore: Creator of the internet, First Emperor of the Moon]]<br />
<br />
=== Live and Let Live ===<br />
Chryonics is strategy of literally avoiding the deterioration of the individual. It is a strategy of avoiding death by preserving organs in a non frozen vitrious state. (patent, 4559298) A Baumen says that the first activity of culture is survival, and expansion of the boundaries of space and time in order to push back the moment of death, Chryonics is a method that brings this notion from the realm of the virtual to the actual. The purpose of chryonics is to suspend the moment of death to a point in the future, where the solution for whatever caused the body to die would be known. As a method for preserving organs, chryonics differs from embalming because its purpose is not to preserve the exterior body for the purpose of representation. "Cryonics leaves a person at least some chance. The only alternative is decay and decomposition, just a corpse and no hope," says a person who opted to be chryonically preserved. (The Guardian (London) - Final Edition, February 14, 2008 Thursday, Guardian Technology Pages; Pg. 1)While the embalmed body exists as a representation, what has died is subjectivity. “For a few centuries now, death stopped being the entry into another phase of being which it once was; death has been reduced to an exit pure and simple, a moment of cessation, an end to all purpose and planning. Death is now the thoroughly private ending of that thoroughly private affair we call life.” (Bauman, 130) People who opt to use chryonics are concerned with suspending the death of their subjectivity and identity. Chryonics is an attempt to preserve the vital organs, and in many cases, people opt to only preserve the brain. “For this money a client's head will be separated from the body, bled, filled with antifreeze, and placed into a thermos where it will wait until it can be revived and reconnected with a cloned body, a cyborg or a donor. No one knows the resurrection date, and this is why cryonics has been banned in Japan and the EU. Russians have more freedom in choosing an interment option.” (New York Times 2006: Russians Search for Eternal Life) Moscow News (Russia), June 30, 2006, SOCIETY; No. 24, 1822 words, By Yelena Komarova The Moscow News) “Many cryonicists opt to preserve only their heads, hoping for revival technology good enough to give them new, younger bodies. However, there are not even animal experiments to bolster the idea. Nobody has yet frozen and revived any mammal.” (Guardian: The Guardian (London) - Final Edition, February 14, 2008 Thursday, Guardian Technology Pages; Pg. 1)<br />
[[Image:krang.gif|thumb|right|Krang]]<br />
<br />
=== Science will Save Us! ===<br />
Embalming has Christian origins, where the spirit remains in the corpse. The new religion is a faith in technology and a “cult of the individual.” One obvious shift that has taken place is the notion of what it means to be dead. Although this varies from culture to culture, after the enlightenment, people began to see death in a secular light. For the first time, death was seen as an absolute absence. They did not fear the punishment of what would happen to them after death, rather the nothingness that constitutes death. In Christianity, death was looked at as a different state of being. Here a person would pass from the state of beingIn Sheskin’s book “Chryonics” there is a case study of one of the first people who opted to be chryonically frozen. The discussion of the Nelson case shows that the intention was for the body to be kept in s frozen state for centuries until medical science evolved techniques to repair the body and bring it back to life. The mother of Nelson saw no religious or moral problem as religion dealt with “issues of the soul and not with the flesh.” ( 10) “My son had a great vision of what science would do in the future, and he wanted to be a part of it. He had a great belief in the future of science, and if there is even the slightest chance that it might help him or someone else, hen we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.” (11) (Sheskin, Chryonics) As people used to look to religion for answers about what happens to the soul after death, people who opt to be preserved, have placed their faith in technology and science, as that which will save them. Chryonics is an example of Durkheim’s concept of the “cult of the individual.” “In modern society, as other beliefs and practices become less and less religions in character, the idea of the worth and dignity of the individual emerges as a religion object or ideal.” Durkheim's "Cult of the Individual" and the Moral Reconstitution of Society, by Charles E. MarskeSociological Theory © 1987 John Wiley & Sons. Chryonics can also be seen as a privatized view of the “immortality of the nation.” Instead of the nation living on, the individual can now be immortal.yeh<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
Binski, Paul. ''Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation.'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.<br />
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Buck-Morss, Susan. 2000. Dreamworld and catastrophe : the passing of mass utopia in East and West. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.<br />
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Chamberlain, Andrew T. and Michael Parker Pearson. ''Earthly Remains: The History and Science of Preserved Human Bodies.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.<br />
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Daniell, Christopher. ''Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550.'' London: Routledge, 1997.<br />
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Kantorowicz, Ernst H. ''The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.<br />
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Villetard, Xavier, Simon Chilvers, and First Run/Icarus Films. 2006. Forever Lenin. Brooklyn, NY: First Run/Icarus Films,. videorecording.<br />
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Woodward, Jennifer. ''The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance England 1570-1625.'' Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997.<br />
<br />
Zbarski*i, I. B., and Samuel Hutchinson. 1998. Lenin's embalmers. London: The Harvill Press.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=3D_Television&diff=12711
3D Television
2010-11-24T14:51:37Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12514 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[Image:how5c.jpg|thumb|right|House of Wax.]]<br />
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'''3-D television''' has had a long history starting from the roots of the 3-D craze in the 19th century and its reemergence today.<br />
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==Precursors==<br />
===Stereoscope===<br />
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[[Image:Stereograph.jpg|thumb|left|Stereograph of US Patent Building c. 1890.]]<br />
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Invented in 1838 by Charles Wheatstone, the stereoscope provides viewers with a still 3-D image. Two images are designed side-by-side separated by the same distance as the eyes to form a stereograph. This stereograph is then placed inside a stereoscope with magnifying lenses about two and a half inches apart. The stereoscope “employed prismatic lenses that enlarge and shift paired pictorial images to aid their fusion” (Holbrook). An article from 1859, describes “a stereoscope is an instrument which makes surfaces look solid” (Stereoscope). The stereoscope marks the beginning of 3-D imaging. 3-D television follows long after.<br />
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===1950s===<br />
[[Image:3d1950.JPG|thumb|right|1950s 3-D Novelties.]]<br />
The 1950s served as a period of great interest in 3-D material. The View-Master is a good example of this phenomenon. The film industry started to feel a decline during the 1950s as the result of the introduction of television. Therefore, the industry looked to bring the audience back through a new medium, the 3-D movie. Arch Obler’s Bwana Devil was known as “The First Feature Length Motion Picture in 3-Dimension Natural Vision.” There were 46 3-D films produced between 1952 and 1955. But the poor quality of the movies turned off the audience and by 1956 the 3-D movie craze was over (Speer).<br />
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==Types==<br />
===Anaglyph===<br />
[[Image:Glassesani.gif|thumb|left|Anaglyph 3-D Glasses.]]<br />
Anaglyph images are made up of two color coded images. Each image is designated for either the right eye which is usually green/blue or the left eye which is red. The two images form one 3-D image when viewed through special anaglyph glasses. The Dimension 3 Company employs cyan/red as they believe that this combination produces the least amount of blur or ghost images (Dimension 3). These blurred images are a constant problem with 3-D imaging. The proper colors must be identified in order to make the images clear.<br />
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===Spatial Vision===<br />
Spatial Vision was developed by experiments by German astronomer Carl Pulfrich in 1922. Pulfrich discovered that “the rods of the eye – the receptors that work in dim light- take longer to perceive light than do the eye’s cones, which work in brighter light. Using special glasses that have one clear lens and one lens dark enough that only rod-sensitive light will pass through, the two eyes will see the same object a split-second apart. The brain will perceive that object to be closer than stationary one” (Taub). Spatial Vision requires the movement of an image back and forth in order to produce a 3-D image. Either the camera or the viewer has to be constantly moving. The viewer must wear glasses with one clear lens and one dark lens. However, unlike anaglyph, the image remains clear 2-D without the glasses. Anaglyph images when viewed without glasses appear blurry with colored outlines surrounding each image. <br />
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==Recent 3-D TV==<br />
===1980s to Today===<br />
[[Image:spin2.jpg|thumb|right|Image from Spin City 3-D Episode.]]<br />
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The first 3-D TV broadcast was on December 19, 1980. It was a 1953 3D feature film, Miss Sadie Thompson, along with a comedy short starring the Three Stooges also from 1953. SelecTV, a pay TV channel from Los Angeles aired the shows. In 1997, ABC worked with the Dimension 3 Company to produce nine of its shows in 3-D, Family Matters, Coach, The Drew Carey Show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Step By Step, Home Improvement, Ellen, Spin City, and America’s Funniest Home Videos (Dimension). However, these shows were not entirely shot in 3-D. They usually had segments at the end or beginning of the program in 3-D. Home Improvement shot the “Tool Time” segment of their show in 3-D. NBC also worked with D3 to produce 15 minutes of a dream segment for their program 3rd Rock From the Sun. The problem that faced these programs was that two different types of glasses were on the market. ABC was using anaglyph glasses which they attached to Wendy’s Hamburgers and NBC was using the Pulfrich method and attached their glasses to Barq’s Root Beer and Little Caesar’s Pizza. The public was confused by which pair to wear for each program which led to some disgruntled consumers.<br />
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Literally today, October 31, 2007, ABC’s Regis and Kelly broadcasted their Halloween show in anaglyph 3-D using glasses distributed through Walgreens. This link leads you to a video from their site<br />
[[http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/special/halloween3D/video.html]]<br />
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==VISIDEP==<br />
In the early 1980s, Dr. Edwin Jones, specialist in optics, Dr. LeConte Cathey, specialist in electronics, and Dr. Porter McLaurin, specialist in media production created a 3-D process that does not involved special glasses or viewing equipment. Visual Image Depth Enhancement Process (VISIDEP) “produces images which have realistic depth and fullness, rather than exaggerated images which seem to leap outward” (Dead). The creators came up with this process after studying how visually impaired people perceive depth. VISIDEP basically follows the process of a one-eyed person by processing images presented at different angles at a rapid speed in order to produce a 3-D image. It was believed that VISIDEP would most immediately be used to televise sporting events and commercials. VISIDEP did not take off as a result of lack of interest and investors. The process did not impress enough people to be used as a marketing tool.<br />
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==Future of 3-D TV==<br />
A new technology is expected to hit the market in as little as three years. This 3-D television will not require special glasses. Rather, the television itself will produce the 3-D image. A recent article in the Guardian describes “the technology works by throwing a different image to each eye and angling them so that one eye picks up one and the other picks up the other (Clapperton). Eight different images are used in an effort to reduce nausea and dizziness which were reported during the early stages of the technology. These complaints have followed 3-D television from the beginning as the eye is too strained in previous uses. Two 3-D films are supposed to be released in 2009, one by Steven Spielberg and one by James Cameron. However, a lot more content will be necessary in order to spur the purchase of these seemingly expensive devices. Orange, the early leader of this market, claims that 3-D television will become the primary television within ten years replacing conventional television. The television is predicted to cost about 20% more than a High Definition TV today.<br />
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==References==<br />
Clapperton, Guy. "Technology: Inside IT: You won't believe your eyes when 3D TV becomes reality: Perfect 3D television and movies without those horrible glasses? They're closer than you think. " The Guardian [London (UK)] 19 Jul 2007,6. National Newspapers (27). ProQuest. NYU. 31 Oct. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/> <br />
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Davis, Stuart. "In Stereo." Eye Level. 2007. Smithsonian American Art Museum. 29 Oct. 2007 <www.eyelevel.si.edu/2005/11/in_stereo.html>. <br />
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"Dimension 3." D3. 2007. Natural Vision Corporation. 27 Oct. 2007 <http://www.d3.com>.<br />
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"GV Films starts production of 3D TV serial Paramapadam. " Businessline 1 Sep. 2005: 1. ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. ProQuest. NYU. 30 Oct. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/><br />
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Hawkins, Richard C. "Perspective on "3-D"" The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television 7 (1953): 325-334. JStor. NYU. 27 Oct. 2007. <br />
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Holbrook, Morris B. "Stereographic Visual Displays and the Three-Dimensional Communication of Findings in Marketing Research." Journal of Marketing Research 34 (1997): 526-536. JStor. NYU. 23 Oct. 2007. <br />
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Jennings, Tom, comp. The Dead Media Project. 17 Oct. 2007 <http://www.deadmedia.org>. <br />
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Speer, Lance. "Before Holography: a Call for Visual Literacy." Holography as an Art Medium: Special Double Issue 22 (1989): 299-306. JStor. NYU. 26 Oct. 2007. <br />
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Taub, Eric A. "Still Thinking Outside the Box :A New Technique Jettisons the Silly Glasses, But Even So, Will 3-D TV Ever Catch On? Still Thinking Outside the Box. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 18 Jul 2002,G1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004). ProQuest. NYU. 31 Oct. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/> <br />
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"The Stereoscope. " Circular (1851-1870) [Brooklyn] 16 Jun 1859,84. APS Online. ProQuest. NYU. 31 Oct. 2007 <http://www.proquest.com/> <br />
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William, Paul. "The Aesthetics of Emergence." ''Film History''. Indiana UP, 1993. 26 Oct. 2007 <JStor>.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Absorption&diff=12710
Absorption
2010-11-24T14:51:29Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12515 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[Image: 36_50047~_jean-baptiste-simeon-chardin_boy-building-a-castle-of-cards.jpg |350px|thumb| Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, The Card Castle, 1737]]<br />
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Published in 1980, Michael Fried’s ''Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot'' describes an affective relation present in early-to-mid 1750s painting in France known as absorption. Figures in paintings by the likes of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, Carle Van Loo, and others intentionally ignore the viewer, instead, they focus intently on an object in the painting. This, Fried argues, produces an effect of absorption, wherein the artwork seems deliberately unaware of the beholder, in order to produce a “perfect trance of involvement” or enthrallment that draws the beholder in, allowing them to view the artwork with prolonged concentration. (Fried, 103) He draws from Denis Diderot, who wrote during this period, stating that Diderot’s ideal for painting “rested ultimately upon the supreme fiction that the beholder did not exist, that he was not really there, standing before the canvas; and that the dramatic representation of action and passion, and the causal and instantaneous mode of unity that came with it, provided the best available medium for establishing that fiction in the painting itself.” (Fried, 103) The move towards absorption is read by Fried as a response to the “theatricality” of Rococo, a style that dominated painting prior to this era. (Fried, 35) “Theatricality” is opposed to absorption, and it gives the semblance that the figures are on stage, open to view. This creates a distance between the artwork and the viewer; an issue Fried revisits in his essay on theatricality in minimalism “Art and Objecthood.” This dossier will examine absorption as a mode of mediation, elaborating how the experience of concentration has changed significantly since the period discussed in Fried’s text on absorption and theatricality, primarily with the advent of shock found in the modern urban experience. <br />
<br />
== How Absorption Is Achieved ==<br />
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[[Image: Bible.jpg|350px|thumb| Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Un Père de famille qui lit la Bible à ses enfants, 1755]]<br />
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In the first chapter of ''Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot'', “The Primacy of Absorption,” Fried discusses in great detail the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, especially their representation of the everyday and their use of facial expressions. The subject matter for the paintings of Greuze and Chardin were often more prosaic in nature, depicting scenes of children playing cards, or families reading the bible. One reason these domestic, everyday subjects became popular during this period is due to the emergence of a large middle class public, who craved paintings that “told a story, pointed a moral, and assaulted the tenderest emotions of the viewer.” (Fried, 10) The figures in all the examples Fried provide do not look directly at the viewer; instead they are preoccupied by books, the activity of blowing bubbles, tending to children, etc. Fried detects a more sentimental, emotional thread in Greuze, one that even, in some cases, possesses a degree of sexual longing. (Fried, 61) The centrality of the emotional expressions depicted on the faces of the figures in Greuze’s paintings signal their envelopment within their scene. Chardin’s style was a degree softer than Greuze, with the emphasis placed more on comfort and delight in the details of the everyday. For both, the primary method by which absorption is achieved is via an expression of emotion not directed at the viewer, and the portrayal of a typical scene, generally within the home. This produces the illusion that the viewer is sealed off from the scene, which invites the viewer to remain rapt in concentration.<br />
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== Weaknesses in Fried’s Argument ==<br />
<br />
[[Image: Rembrandt philosopher in meditation.jpg|350px|thumb| Rembrandt van Rijn, Philosopher in Meditation,1632]]<br />
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While Fried’s argument is specific to the cultural, social, and historical situation of France in the early-to-mid 1700s, he does gloss over the fact that, for centuries, figures have been depicted in absorptive states and activities that seem to ignore the beholder. (Fried, 43) Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Poussin are but a few examples of artists, prior to this period, who have used this approach in their work. Fried, in positioning absorption as a response to Rococo in this era, signals an undercurrent of nostalgia driving artists to depict figures in various concentrated poses. But this nostalgia is not for something that has actually occurred in the past, but rather for an ideal reception. That ideal reception is never fully problematized as solely an ideal in ''Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot'', but rather defended as fact, a flaw to the book. <br />
<br />
Fried’s sources for gauging the reception of these paintings are also limited. Fried bases his assumptions about the effect these paintings had on the viewer through writing produced around them primarily through Diderot but also through the Salons. Diderot’s work on aesthetics is central to Fried’s elaboration of absorption, and this is the main means by which Fried gauges the reception of these paintings. In that sense, his read on how these paintings should and do engage the viewer is restricted by Diderot’s perception and stance. Thus, it seems absorption is first and foremost a production of Diderot’s thought. Fried’s narrow focus on Diderot, and his understanding of reception at this time based on Diderot’s ideas, obscures certain important questions that may help to explain the interest in paintings of domestic scenes in the early-to-mid 1700s. If France did see a rise in the middle class, this may have affected family life and the private sphere. There may be cultural and social reasons as to why paintings of typically interior, everyday domestic scenes rose in popularity, beyond their ability to potentially produce an absorptive state for the viewer. Fried does not discuss this, but if, as he argues, a variance of voyeurism is at play in absorption, it seems an investigation into the status of the private domestic space during this period could be fruitful in understanding why these subjects were so popular. <br />
<br />
== The Beholder as Subject ==<br />
<br />
[[Image: Piete.jpg|350px|thumb| Jean-Baptiste Greuze, La Piété filiale, 1763]]<br />
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Despite certain weaknesses within Fried’s argument, he does present the valuable and compelling point that a certain mode of heightened and centered concentration existed within France in the early-to-mid 1700’s. This concentration centered on mental activity, one that would “above all…reach the beholder’s soul by way of his eyes.” (Fried, 92) Further, the viewer participating in this concentration is presented as a beholder – or, following the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of behold, one that is held by, kept hold of, or retained. The beholder is taken hold of by the artwork, and his or her attention becomes fully engrossed. This type of viewer differs from Crary’s description in ''Techniques of the Observer'' of an observer, as “one who sees within prescribed set of possibilities” or a spectator, as “one who is a passive onlooker at a spectacle.” (Crary, 5-6) The beholder is not a passive onlooker, as she is engaged mentally by the object, nor is she bound by a technology relaying a “prescribed set of possibilities.” Absorption dissolves the object/subject relation set up by theatricality’s distancing effect, by seeking “the creation of a new sort of object – the fully realized tableau – and the construction of a new sort of beholder – a new ‘subject’ – whose innermost nature would consist precisely in the conviction of his absence from the scene of representation.” (Fried, 104) Thus, the object creates an illusion of totality based on its disregard of the viewer, drawing the beholder into an intense focus on the work. <br />
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== Absorption as a Dead Mode of Mediation ==<br />
<br />
One could argue that absorption is now a dead mode of mediation, as the viewer is no longer capable of achieving such a powerful mental concentration due to the push and pull of shock and distraction. Walter Benjamin’s “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” elaborates how the experience of modern urban space, specifically on the body, drastically altered attention in the 1800’s. The movement of the street, traffic signals, and the funneling of the masses through a crowded urban environment opened up the human sensorium to a “complex kind of training.” (Benjamin, 175) This training corresponds in many respects to that of the observer, as detailed in Crary’s ''Techniques of the Observer''. Benjamin reads the shock experience of the city as the main theme binding Baudelaire’s lyric poetry, whose work was directed primarily at this urban reader. The interruptions and disturbances of one’s movement through the city becomes the norm, shifting consciousness and barring prolonged attention. If, after Freud, consciousness is the protection against stimuli, it adapts to this scenario, making it more difficult for experience to register on a deeper level. As Benjamin explains, “The greater the share of the shock factor in particular impressions, the more constantly consciousness has to be alert as a screen against stimuli; the more efficiently it does so, the less do these impressions enter experience (''Erfahrung''), tending to remain in the sphere of a certain hour in one’s life (''Erlebnis'').” (Benjamin, 163) The subject, therefore, exists in a constant state of distraction, and it is this reader that Baudelaire attempts to reach in his poetry. <br />
<br />
The bodily experience of the city is aligned with this new consciousness, creating a solid link between a physical, embodied experience and consciousness. Benjamin’s account of the urban environment in “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” signals a fundamental change in experience, especially in the physical, tactile realm. Fried’s writing on absorption does not discuss the physical experience of the artwork on beholder, or how this could impact the degree of absorption in the work. It seems that vision is the only sense for the beholder, and that it is this sensory faculty that delivers absorption. It appears that the total concentration brought on by absorption would be impossible to uphold under the shocks and interruption of a new urban environment. In this respect, Benjamin’s essay illuminates how the viewing subject changed within the 1800s, fundamentally shifting the terrain for a prolonged, mental concentration on a single object. <br />
<br />
[[Image: Morrissculpture.png|350px|thumb| Robert Morris, Untitled (Permutable Floor Slab), 1966]]<br />
<br />
Despite radical changes to experience on multiple fronts – social, cultural, technological, etc. – Fried calls for a return to absorption in his celebrated essay “Art and Objecthood.” Here, he argues that that literalist, or minimalist art, produces a distance between the object and the viewer that can be termed theatrical, a negative turn for Fried, in that he believes “art degenerates as it approaches the condition of theater.” (Fried, 164) Instead of enveloping the viewer into the artwork, minimalist art, through it’s sheer size and abstraction, “confronts” the beholder by being “placed not just in his space but in his ''way''.” (Fried, 154) The encounter with the artwork puts the viewer into an “indeterminate, open-ended – and unexacting – relation ''as subject'' to the impassive object on the wall or floor.” (Fried, 155) This distancing between subject and object creates alienation; one he feels should be bridged. If anything, the mode of interaction produced by minimalist art correlates with the interruption of the modern urban experience, and it could be read as evidence of the kind of experience described by Benjamin. Moreover, Fried’s analysis of the theatricality of minimalism rests on the spatial and physical relation between the artwork and the viewer. For minimalism, “everything counts – not as part of the object, but as part of the situation in which its objecthood is established and on which that objecthood at least partly depends.” (Fried, 155) The viewer encounters entire situation of the artwork – light, space, body, and object – creating a type of stage presence. Thus, the body plays a crucial role in minimalism and within its theatricality. This is in contrast from the centrality of vision within early-to-mid 1700 French painting, where absorption is allied as exclusively with the visual under Fried’s rubric. <br />
<br />
Crary states in ''Techniques of the Observer'' that, “…what determines vision at any given historical moment is not some deep structure, economic base, or world view, but rather the functioning of a collective assemblage of disparate parts on a single social surface.” (Crary, 6) If imagined as disparate parts, it seems that the body and embodied experience takes more of a front seat within this collective assemblage from industrialism in the early 1800’s onward. Benjamin’s “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” expands on these developments, and their effect on experience and consciousness. One could argue that Benjamin’s distracted subject is still with us in various forms, while Fried’s fully absorbed subject has been displaced by these changes. <br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
Benjamin, Walter. “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” Illuminations. Translated by Harry Zohn, 155-200. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1969. <br />
<br />
Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.<br />
<br />
Fried, Michael. “Art and Objecthood” Art and Objecthood. 148-172. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. <br />
<br />
Fried, Michael. Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]] <br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Wire_Recording&diff=12709
Wire Recording
2010-11-24T14:51:19Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12516 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Wire recording''' refers to a method of recording audio by magnetizing a very thin steel or stainless steel wire.<br />
[[image: Webster80ad.jpg|thumb|right|200px|An ad for the Webster 80 Wire Recording and Playback device in a 1948 Montgomery Ward catalog]]<br />
<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
===Invention===<br />
The concept of magnetic recording and playback was first published in 1888 by American engineer Oberlin Smith in an article entitled "Some Possible Forms of the Phonograph" in the September 8th edition of ''The Electrical World'' (Marvin, 7). In the article, Smith complained of other business ventures that prevented of pursuing his ideas and expressed his wish that others would carry them out (Smith). Ten years later, the wire recorder, or magnetic recorder, was invented by Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish telephone technician. Poulsen began developing the wire recorder as a way for telephone users to leave messages for one another when the person they tried to call was unavailable. He studied the mechanism of the telephone and eventually discovered that sound could be recorded using the telephone microphone. Sound could then be played back using an electromagnet. Poulsen applied for a U.S. patent on December 1, 1898 and named the wire recorder the “telegraphone.”<br />
<br />
Poulsen eventually teamed up with Peder O. Pederson, an engineer, to further develop the telegraphone. Not long after, they worked closely with Sren Lemvig Fog, who established Aktieselskabet-Telegrafonen, a Danish corporation formed to speed up the development of the telegraphone in which all three men dedicated their time. When the time came to commercialize their product, they turned to Germany for help and partnered with Mix & Genest, manufacturers of telephone equipment in Germany. With their help, they began to develop machines for the Paris World Exhibition in June of 1900. At the Paris Exhibition, Poulsen and his associates showed off the telegraphone and what it was capable of which piqued the interest of technology writers, who were most interested in its use in relation to the telephone and more generally, to record and play back conversations.<br />
<br />
Poulsen and his associates originally saw the telegraphone as a basic extension of the telephone, much like we see answering machines today. However, at that time, Bell Telephone companies would not permit the attachment of private equipment to their phone lines. This obstacle prevented Poulsen and his associates from selling their telegraphones as telephone answering machines. As a result, they were sold as dictating machines. Dictating machines were used to record conversations that needed to be referred to in the future, such as in the courtroom or office meetings.<br />
<br />
===Europe===<br />
<br />
After the Paris Exhibition, Aktieselskabet-Telegrafonen and Mix & Genest tried to focus on developing a commercialized, mass-produced form of the telegraphone. The two corporations, however, began to disagree on crucial topics. Aktieselskabet-Telegrafonen felt that the telegraphone needed to be further developed into a product that could be used by the public, while Mix & Genest felt that the telegraphone should be sold as soon as possible. Mix & Genest were not willing to fund any further development of the product that would not speed up the manufacturing process. It was not long before the two corporations had to split up. In 1903, Poulsen and Pederson left the development of the telegraphone to Fog and his associates so that they could pursue other inventions. After all of Poulsen’s time and effort into the telegraphone, he never made a profit from it.<br />
<br />
After Poulsen's abandonment of the telegraphone, A German man named Herr Stille "worked hard and made great strides" on the technical aspects of wire recording. A fellow German named Louis Blattner brought Stille's machine to England, where it became known as the Blattnerphone. The British Broadcasting Company noticed the Blattnerphone and contracted the Marconi company to manufacture them under the moniker "Marconi-Stille Recorder." When World War II began Britain needed to conserve steel, and wartime broadcasting required better and better recorders, which forced the BBC to move from wire to disc recording.<br />
<br />
===America===<br />
By March 1903, Fog and his associates had made an agreement with American investors to form the Telegraphone Company of Maine in September 1903, which became the American Telegraphone Company in October 1903. John Lindlay and Charles Fankhauser, started out trying to make the telegraphone more practical for production. Harry S. Sands was then brought on as the head of production, to help the product get put on the market faster. However, by May 1908, American Telegraphone was nearing bankruptcy, and had to allow the company to be taken over by Edwin Rood, the president of Hamilton Watch Company. Although it seemed that Rood was an experienced professional, his management style was what ultimately lead to the decline of the telegraphone. Rood made executive decisions without consulting the rest of the board of American Telegraphone, and applied the same management style he had used in the watch-making industry, which was not appropriate for the development of the telegraphone as a new product on the market. Rood had talent in dealing with customers wanting to purchase watches, but he lacked technical skill needed to sell the telegraphone.<br />
(Clark)<br />
<br />
==Technical Details==<br />
Although the technical aspects of wire recording date back to the work of Michael Faraday with electromagnetism in the early 19th century, the medium's development did little to complicate these fundamental principles. G.R. Judge puts the concepts into the easiest terms to understand in his ''Wire Recording Manual'' by explaining "hysteresis": "Just as a man, or woman, will assume some characters associated with an environment in which they have lived for a period, so too will some metals assume magnetic properties when permeated by a magnetic field" (10). He goes on to explain that these properties store the data and allow for devices to play them back. While entire manuals and books have been written about the very scientific processes at play in wire recording, society's interaction with the technical details of the machine actually involved a ''lack'' of understanding in the science. As seen in the photograph of a certain wire recorder above, the device hides its internal structure. It does not expose where the metal wire meets the recording head or how the microphone is channeled through the recording head and onto the wire. The device hides this seemingly essential element because much of the public's consumption of the medium rested upon the mysterious and even magical properties of the wire recorder. Many wire recorder demonstrations were reported in historical newspaper articles simply because the public was amused by the simplicity of the device: a person speaks into one part and almost immediately after, the recorded data is played back. Because this was some of the first occurrences of data storage being shown to an unsuspecting public, the manufacturers of the devices did not display the "rube goldberg" machines inside because the end product was much more interesting than the science. That is, people would have been much less impressed if they had completely understood the way the machine worked. And so in studying the "moment of crisis" of the wire recorder, we can suffice it to explain the science of the medium simply. The metal wire was magnetized to retain certain properties, which in effect stored data and could be used for the many purposes described below.<br />
<br />
==Uses==<br />
Although the wire recording technology is often cited synonymously with the telegraphone, it is important to note that the telegraphone is only one of the ways that the technology was harnessed, albeit the most well-known one. One of the greatest technological merits of wire recording in general was its broad applications. While almost all of the technology's uses never truly took root, the storage of audio data nevertheless ranged from the personal to the professional.<br />
<br />
===Telegraphone===<br />
As noted earlier, the advent of the wire recording technology was a means of profit; wire recording was initially thought to be the way to record telephone messages when a call was not answered (Clark). The machine that was able to accomplish this was called the telegraphone. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the telegraphone is "an electromagnetic phonograph capable of registering human speech by the alternating magnetization of a wire." At its most efficient stage, it "recorded continuously for 30 minutes on a length of steel piano-wire moving at a speed of 84 inches (213 cm) per second" ("Poulsen, Valdemar").<br />
<br />
===Dictation===<br />
Dictation was the most popular use for wire recording and it accounts for much of recorded data that still exists today (Moscoso Interview). The ability to erase and re-record was what made wire recording so convenient for dictation. There were many machines made specifically for dictation, but most of them used metal in the form of tape or discs instead of wire. By the time dictation machines were being designed and built with features like instant playback and foot pedal controls, companies had already realized the advantages of using tape and discs over wire recording, since they are smaller and more easily managed (Camras 430-431). But nonetheless, companies did use wire for recording their meetings and often secretaries would simply insert the spools of wire into a playback device to transcribe the spoken word into written word.<br />
<br />
===World War I===<br />
C. Dexter Rood, the colorful industrialist who purchased the American Telegraphone Company in 1908, involved the company in a number of questionable deals, some of which led to civil and criminal lawsuits. During World War I (1914-1918), he was accused of discouraging the sale of telegraphones to American military and agencies and of sending them defective devices. At the same time, he sold working machines freely to German interests. The Germans installed telegraphones in submarines and used them to code messages transmitted to receiver stations on land by means of a superpower wireless transmitter in Sayville, Long Island (Camras 8).<br />
<br />
===Science & Medicine===<br />
As soon Einstein began his groundbreaking work regarding relativity and quantum physics in the beginning of the 20th century, physicists realized the necessity for a large-scale improvements to the tools they used to conduct experiments. Specifically, when Heisenberg introduced his Uncertainty Principle in 1925, they needed a way to detect two distinct particles simultaneously using one machine to record certain physical properties. The scientific community devised several ways of doing this, beginning about the same time that Oberlin Smith theoretically envisioned the wire recorder with Thomas Young's famous double-slit experiment. But the medical community began incorporating principles of simultaneous particle tracing a little bit later and they cleverly used the wire recorder to do so. In 1950, William B. Miller, Jr. published a paper in the journal ''Science'' entitled "Use of a Wire Recorder for Recording Geiger-Müller Pulses." In it, Miller states that the medical research community needed a way to study two radioisotopes simultaneously (Geiger-Müller pulses). According to Miller, "the simplest and most inexpensive method of solving this problem [was] through the use of the commercial wire recorder" (626). Put simply, the output of the power supply running from the Geiger-Müller tube in the apparatus can be fed to the low gain input of any commercially available wire recorder (627). The interesting contextual situation in this usage of the wire recorder is that the very scientific discoveries that gave rise to wire recording technology (i.e. electromagnetism) was being harnessed to help test and apply new scientific models that were initially discovered by studying electromagnetism in the first place.<br />
<br />
===Special Occasions===<br />
Despite the wire recorder's failure to commercialize (discussed above), it still made notable appearances in everyday life as a medium for documenting important milestones and special events. There is little tangible evidence today for the in-home use of the wire recorder, but in the late 1940s there were numerous newspaper articles about its use. For example, on July 6th, 1947, the Chicago Daily Tribune published a story with the heading "80 Friends Make Wire Recording at 50th Wedding Fete." According to the article, Mr. and Mrs. George Lang and their guests were recorded on the device at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. The recording was presented to them as a gift. Also in the Chicago Daily Tribune in the month of July, 1947, a heading read "Wire Recording of Methodist Baptism Made." Five year-old James O. G. Stingily's baptism at St. Paul's Methodist Church was recorded, beginning with the processional hymn, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." Two years prior, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported that the "Austin Optimist club will witness a demonstration of the wire recorder at a luncheon Tuesday in Austin Y.M.C.A." These examples capture the excitement of the time about being able to record and therefore immortalize, in a way, life's important occurrences. It's almost impossible for those of us who were born and raised in the late 20th century to imagine that this was the beginning of the society that we know so well to constantly be recording us.<br />
<br />
===American Political Documentation===<br />
The wire recorder was used, for the first time in American history, to record the entire Republican National Convention in 1944 held in Chicago, IL. Although some states had adopted primary election processes, most of them decided the allocation of their share of delegates at the party conventions. Unlike the conventions of today, the Republican National Convention in 1944 was hot with active political decisions. Chicago radio station and wire recorder manufacturer WGN recorded all of the convention's happenings, including then California Governor Earl Warren's announcement that he would not accept the Vice Presidency. The sound clip was made available to radio stations via wire recording and was broadcast to the general public ("Wire Recorder Proves Success at Convention"). This began the long and complicated history of the relationship between government and the media. It gave the media more power to document, track, and challenge political discourse by closely following leaders, therefore strengthening its role as the "fourth branch of the government." But it is also interesting to note that even at the time, people were well-aware that the audio documentation of political events could help to preserve politics or destroy it. The Chicago Daily Tribune article covering the wire recorder's role at the convention states, "The wire recordings are permanent but they can be instantly erased," eerily foreshadowing large-scale government cover ups that would later take place, like the Watergate Scandal. The wire recordings became especially important for politics because they offered a tangible means to immortalize the statements of public leaders, much more than writings or speeches could.<br />
<br />
===Library Services===<br />
Of all the various uses for the wire recording, its role in library services is particularly interesting. When wire recording came to be used widely enough for libraries to be interested in acquiring it for their storage, they needed to make several changes in their operations to accommodate it. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, libraries had to purchase machines to read and play the wire recording and the machines had to be simple enough to be operable by the public. Not surprisingly, this meant that the library had to hire specialists to handle the recording. These employees had to be trained in the treatment of the media to "safeguard their content from accidental erasure." And since wire recording "[does] not readily yield information about [its] contents," they "require particular care in labeling and indexing as well as equipment and programming to permit retrieval" ("Library"). Not only does this touch upon on idea that information that could be easily relied upon to reference can actually be destroyed quite simply, it also marks the beginning of libraries' expansion into new media forms. Indeed, these early specialists are the intellectual ancestors of the modern library preservationists who specialize in storing media. And since this means libraries began adapting to the new technologies, it also means that they started archiving those technologies that died. In a sense, this is an important milestone for the ways that media archaeology has become its own academic field.<br />
<br />
===Evidence & The Courts===<br />
The Federal Rules of Evidence are what governs the procedure of trials in the American judicial system. The rules are extremely broad in their application so that arguments about courtroom procedure can take place by interpreting these rules in different ways. A good portion of the rules describe the use of physical evidence in trial (i.e., not the examinations of witnesses, but the introduction of documents). The rules seek to maintain several underlying principles that govern the use of evidence in trial, which can often apply to several technological forms. For example, regardless of whether a type of evidence is on paper or on a wire recording, the Court must make sure that the document is what it is purported to be. With the advent of wire recording, court evidence became more and more difficult to introduce because of the nature of the medium. Since the data is gathered and recorded outside of the courtroom and because our judicial system acts of the fundamental principle that opposing parties should have an equal opportunity to examine the evidence, wire recording posed several problems. Attorneys needed a way to verify that the recording was not fabricated or rehearsed. As Nicole de Sario writes in her article, "Merging Technology with Justice," this "[left] the future treatment of courtroom technology largely to the discretion of the judge" (1). But these obstacles stand in stark contrast to the public interest in using the medium in courtrooms. But the sociological effects of the wire recording were that, for the first time, we could objectively record spontaneous happenings and actions at any point in time. This means that if a confession is made outisde of a courtroom, it could potentially be used to bring criminals to justice since they are held to a higher standard of potentially adverse evidence during their trial. Obviously, this raises privacy concerns, but it doesn't mean that people became less interested in using the wire recording to "catch" a culprit. In fact, there is an argument to be made that the very fascination of the public with the idea that truth can be recorded objectively and spontaneously has led to the "surveillance society" and obsession with an almost voyeuristic culture we find today. Even though the wire recording is not well documented within court proceedings because the standard to prove its authenticity is very high, it still could have very possibly changed the societal attitudes about justice and truth.<br />
<br />
==Intellectual Property Issues==<br />
Wire recording is part of the first series of technological advancements to truly test the intellectual property system of the United States and other nations. Even the phrase "intellectual property" points to its contradictions: ideas and thoughts cannot necessarily be "property" because they are intangible and therefore incapable of being owned, but they do arise within the mind of an individual and can give rise to tangible, profitable assets. Intellectual property, as is outlined in our Constitution, is protected with certain limits and parameters to ensure a balance. On one hand, a person has the right to profit from, for example, a song or book. But on the other hand, this right cannot be exclusive forever because that would mean people would be able to claim ownership of ideas that many people have come up with. The balance ensures that an artist can make money off his/her song, but that the public ultimately has the right to use and learn from it when it falls into the "public" domain. Now, for each type of intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets), there are different ways of maintaining this balance. But since wire recording was a way to store audio data, we are mainly concerned with copyrights (i.e., the exclusive right of an artist to copy, reproduce, or distribute his/her work, which is expressed in a tangible means, for a limited time). Wire recording is so important to copyright issues because it was the first time that a song, lecture, or performance could be encoded into a tangible means. Consider this situation: a man goes to hear a concert with his rather clunky wire recorder. He discreetly sets up his device to record the concert. Once he has it recorded, he copies the concert and sells the wire recording. The man does not have the right to copy and distribute the work because he does not own the copyrights, and yet the technology has allowed him to unknowingly violate the artist's rights and has also devalued the artist's market value (i.e., if the artist then went to try to sell a copy of the song himself, people would be less likely to buy it because the man has already sold it to them). Since the time of the wire recording, technological advances have given way to much more complicated issues, perhaps culminating in the peer-to-peer file sharing and illegal downloading issues of today. As today's Courts and legislatures struggle to find a way to reconcile the law with the technology, we can plainly see that the very beginning of these issues was with media like the wire recording.<br />
<br />
==Decline==<br />
[[image: wire manual 1.jpg|thumb|right|400px|"Rube Goldberg" insides]]<br />
Why is it that the telegraphone and wire recording in general did not development into a profitable business? Could it be the inherent technical problems of the twisting wire, the “Rube Goldberg like insides,” the prohibitively expensive price , or just a general lack of popular interest or purpose in recording sound? The technical problems were well documented and lamented about, however subsequent patents and modifications were invented to combat such defects, as previously noted. The complex electronics (for the time) were unknown to the general public, only engineers and hobby enthusiasts knew how to fix one if the wire recorder ever malfunctioned. Even the price, at $149.50 in 1948 ($1239.88 adjusted for inflation in 2006) would guarantee that only the extremely wealthy would have bought a wire recorder. From accounts of using the wire recorder for medical dictation, it becomes apparent that doctors, notorious for being wealthy – bought wire recorders. Even if these clearly drastic factors had not existed, that is, assuming that wire recorders worked flawlessly, enjoyed immense popular demand, and their price was within reach of the average middle class citizen, there is still an important reason for the death of the wire recorder, and it has to do with Thomas Edison.<br />
<br />
A 1923 article illuminates the cold hard facts of business in an age of mass standardization. There are numerous hurdles for a machine such as the telegraphone to overcome to gain any kind of critical mass. For starters, the engineers in large corporate laboratories had probably conceived of, tested, and rejected the concept already. Even if they hadn’t, there was still the problem of the current infrastructure in place that would have to be retrofitted to accommodate the wire recorder. Every phone mouthpiece would have had to been wired to the wire recorder. This becomes impossible because of the standardization of the industrial processes used to manufacture every component of the telephone communication network. As if this wasn’t enough, the large corporations have ample money and lawyers on retainer to fiscally and legally stamp out any competition. Therefore, not only was the concept of wire recording ill-fated because of inherent flaws, but also because of the cultural context and powerful capitalist economy of the time period.<br />
<br />
===Historical precursors and futuristic musings===<br />
[[image: wire_manual_3.jpg|thumb|right|150px|The original "wire tap"]]<br />
How is a Danish telephone company employee related to Richard Nixon and Watergate?<br />
<br />
What is the value of a live Woody Guthrie performance? The only surviving live recording of Woody Guthrie was recorded on a wire recorder, and after being transferred to modern media, remixed, and remastered, won a 2008 Grammy award, __ years after the performance itself. <br />
<br />
Can wire recording be attributed to our current obsession with endlessly documenting ourselves without specific purpose?<br />
<br />
How did wire recording influence politics, now that an aural artifact could be broadcasted to the masses for political propaganda?<br />
<br />
Could the origin of the phrase "wire tap" have come from the wire recorder? Meaning that the wire refers not to the phone wire being monitered, but instead to the medium used to record the phone conversation? A diagram shows a technical drawing for use in telephone handsets to record telephone conversations.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
"80 Friends Make Wire Recording at 50th Wedding Fete." ''Chicago Daily Tribune''. 6 Jul. 1947.<br />
<br />
Camras, Marvin. ''Magnetic Recording Handbook''. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988.<br />
<br />
Clark, Mark and Henry Nielsen. "Crossed wires and missing connections: Valdemar Poulsen, The American Telegraphone Company, and the failure to commercialize magnetic recording." ''Business History Review'' 69 (1995): 1-41.<br />
<br />
de Sario, Nicole J. "Merging Technology with Justice: How Electronic Courtrooms Shape Evidentiary Concerns." ''Cleveland State University Law Review''. 2002-2003.<br />
<br />
Judge, G.R. ''Wire Recording Manual''. Bernards Radio Manuals No. 88. London: Bernards Publishers, 1950.<br />
<br />
Kaempffert, Waldemar. "Invention by Wholesale." ''Forum'' (1886-1930); Nov 1923; Vol LXX, No. 5; APS Online. pg 216.<br />
<br />
Miller Jr., William B. "Use of a Wire Recorder for Recording Geiger-Müller Pulses." pp. 626-627. ''Science'' vol. 111. 9 June 1950.<br />
<br />
Moscoso, Alice and Ben Moskowitz. Personal Interview. 1 Oct. 2008.<br />
<br />
"Poulsen, Valdemar." ''The Encyclopedia Britannica''. Online Edition. 2008<br />
<br />
Smith, Oberlin. "Some Possible Forms of the Phonograph." ''The Electrical World''. 8 Sept. 1888.<br />
<br />
Stanford University. (July 28,2008). Wire Players. Message posted to http://arsc-aaa.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php.<br />
<br />
"Wire Recorder Proves Success at Convention." ''Chicago Daily Tribune''. 9 Jul. 1944.<br />
<br />
"Wire Recording of Methodist Baptism Made." ''Chicago Daily Tribune''. 13 Jul. 1947.<br />
<br />
==Media==<br />
[[Media: TrumanShort.mp3| Audio from a wire recording criticizing President Truman, April 1952]]<br />
<br />
==Links==<br />
* [http://www.videointerchange.com/wire_recorder1.htm Description and photos of a wire recorder and recording media]<br />
* [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/themes/recordplayers//minifon.html A Minifon portable wire recorder from the 1950s held at the British Library]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Panorama&diff=12708
Panorama
2010-11-24T14:51:10Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12518 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''panorama,''' Greek for "all-sight," was "a large painting arranged in a circle that produced the illusion of an actual landscape surrounding the viewer" (Avery 53). Immensely popular in the nineteenth century, “[i]t was a vast circular representation of objects, where the eye reached to a horizon, and there being no limit, the illusion was complete” (Foucand 94).<br />
<br />
Bottom-Right Image: The diagram of a panorama (Grau 367).<br />
<br />
[[Image:Panorama_Diagram.jpg|right|Diagram of a panorama (Grau 367).]] <br />
<br />
==Patent==<br />
<br />
A patent dated June 19th, 1787 is granted to Irish “portrait-painter” Robert Barker of the city of Edinburgh for an invention “called by him La Nature à Coup ď Œil, for the purpose of displaying Views of Nature at large, by Oil-painting, Fresco, Water-colours, Crayons, or any other Mode of painting or drawing.” Literally “The Nature of the Blow of the Eye,” the patent notes that “this invention has been since called the Panorama” (Barker 165). That Barker’s technique is not merely a new, page-bound perspective for two-dimensional markings but an interdisciplinary experience necessitating particular reception is apparent in his introductory sentence: “my invention…is intended, by drawing and painting, ''and a proper disposition of the whole'', to perfect an entire view of any country or situation, as it appears to an observer turning quite round” (emphasis added; 165). The remainder of the document describes the proper construction of the building in which a panorama painting may be displayed, discussed in depth below.<br />
<br />
==Synthesis of Artistic Disciplines==<br />
<br />
Although the head painter or designer would be heralded in print for each individual work, the panorama effect, as hinted above, cannot be achieved through pictures alone. Teams of artisans working in a variety of fields are required to coerce depictions into the three dimensional world and complete the illusion through the careful construction of visio-spatial syntax. <br />
===Architecture===<br />
<br />
The panorama essentially consisted of a large, circular building approximately sixty feet high and one hundred feet across. A gated observation platform stood at center of the room (at the intersection of the room’s x and y axis); the floor and false terrain worked to together to cover the bottom frame of the presented scene while a conical or umbrella shaped roof extended beyond the deck below, effectively shielding both the light sources and the painting’s top edge from view. Barker describes this “shade or roof” functioning to “prevent an observer from feeling above the drawing or painting , when looking up” and the bottom parts as preventing the observer “from feeling below;” through this duality of “interception nothing can be seen on the outer circle, but the drawing or painting intended to represent nature” (Barker 167). The platform can only be reached from below by a staircase "or in the 1830s at Reghent's Colosseum, in London's first hydraulic lift" after navigating a series of dimly lit corridors functioning like those of contemporary theaters, to let one’s eyes “adjust to the low level of light inside the rotunda” ( Wood 102, Oettermann 49). These corridors were entered after obtaining entrance in the building’s front, and many sources have mentioned them as being disorientating and thus adding to sensory shock that occurs upon entrance into the rotunda.<br />
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The platform's gate and floor, along with the ceiling, can be considered some of the entire devices tics or "pops and hisses." It would be here that the viewer, no matter how engrossed in the exhibit, would be recalled from complete immersion. It also should be noted that although particular architectural constructions attempted to frame one’s vision to only see the distant painting, this effect occurs naturally for one who looks out at a panoramic view due to the physical limits of the human sensory receptors, what Uexküll call a subject’s “umwelt;” even boundless space retains the umwelt’s fringe. Though I have encountered no proof as such, the overhead roof which vertically narrows one's viewpoint may also be examined as an extension of the ever-present hat-brim for both men and women of C19. Many cross section views of panoramas include visitors moving through them with hats on their head—in this instance, the over-hang would only serve as disguise of light sources.<br />
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===Sketching and Painting===<br />
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[[Image:PAN.JPG|thumb|right|(Oettermann 49)]] <br />
Encoding techniques of panorama painting differ from those used in pictures viewed in more traditional, gallery environments. An 1863 guide to visual arts explains that “These pictures are intended to be viewed at from a distance, and consequently the lines must be bold, and the contrasts of light and shade very apparent. . .the pupil will notice that those parts which look harsh and coarse when closely examined, are the very portions which give character to the picture when viewed from an appropriate distance” (Urbino 65). Furthermore, instead of a single focus point which eyes could be led towards, the panorama required a multitude of interacting points that led vision around, back and forth, and up or down. The canvas itself could weigh four tons, covering six thousand square feet.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Egan_Panorama.jpg|thumb|left|(Avery 66)]] <br />
<br />
A variety of dead and remediated devices used in eC19 by artists to capture accurate preliminary sketches were employed by panorama artists as well, including the grid based “Alberti’s veil,” or the more expensive camera obscuras and lucidas. To sketch the full 360 degree viewpoint, these devices were rotated and modified; 1803 saw the invention of a panoramagraph, while a curved ruler added to a camera lucida “made it possible to correct in advance the distortions in perspective that would occur when the sketches made on a flat surface were connected and bent into a cylinder” (Oettermann 52). Daguerreotypes and magic lanterns were also used for sketches and their subsequent projection onto a gridded panorama canvas for tracing. Other developments included sheer ingenuity on the team of artists’ part, such as rolling scaffolding around the room to make grids or attaching pencils to “a bamboo pole about fifteen feet long” so that an artist could sketch from the viewing platform; “Anyone standing in front of the canvas. . .cannot tell whether a line is straight or not. . .The curvature. . .means that all lines have to be drawn curved if they are to appear straight” (54).<br />
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In spite of this, Oettermann notes that advertisements for panorama "would mention that the creator had used no mechanical aids whatsoever in his work. This made the final illusion achieved seem all the more impressive and also represented a bow towards the prevailing aesthetic theories of the day, which condemned paintings made with mechanical aids as "inartistic"" (52).<br />
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===Sculpture and 'False Terrain'===<br />
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Historical accuracy and realism of battles or other scenes were of utmost importance because the panorama’s goal was to present an actual viewpoint that existed in the world. Painted and built verisimilitude was achieved through detailed, on site analysis of light and shadow during the time of day depicted reconstruction of plant life, geological formations, and co-temporary clothing and buildings. Oetterman says that “It would be demanded by the public. . .visitors would be military history buffs, and some might have taken part in the battles. . .aristocracy and landed gentry would know all the breeds of horses shown, ladies would note details of clothing, and sailors would point out errors in the masts and rigging of ships” (52). Stage and theater setting techniques and illusions were employed, covering the floor below the observation deck and extending into the painting. Certain sculpted representations that met the wall required existence in both the two dimensional and three dimensional world; half-sculptures and wooden silhouettes would emerge from the painting, and appear as a whole from the viewing platform.<br />
<br />
==The Experience==<br />
<br />
==="Seasickness" & Perception===<br />
<br />
[[Image:Panorama_Mesdag.jpg|thumb|right|The "Panorama Mesdag" in the Hague (Sillevis 767).]]<br />
<br />
Walking into a panorama meant more than just standing in front of a painting, even though the panorama’s focus was placed upon a large circular painting. Panoramas were created with the intentions of illusion and deception, meant to cut off spectators from the outside world and fully engulf them in the scene before their eyes. Whereas, with typical paintings, the viewer would still be wholly aware of his or her immediate surroundings, such was not the case with the panorama. The spectator was intentionally faced with and surrounded by the unfamiliar. In most cases, viewers were first led through a dark or dimly lit corridor before entering the panorama. Whether this was meant to situate viewers’ eyes to new lighting (like in movie theaters), ease them into a new “world,” cut them off from reality, or prepare them for impending shock is unclear (perhaps all of these were intended). <br />
<br />
One thing that is clear, however, is the mental and physical shock that overcame viewers upon entering the panorama. From the initial corridor, the viewer would ascend a spiral staircase and enter the panorama from the center of the room. Immediately, the spectators were literally encompassed by the medium. In addition to the massive painting surrounding them, viewers were also met by intense lighting and occasionally sounds and/or music, depending on the scene that was being depicted (Sternberger 5). The “real” disappears beyond the panorama – all that’s left is reality depicted upon a circular canvas, and the effects were mentally and physically taxing:<br />
<br />
"I am swaying between reality and unreality…between truth and pretense. My thoughts, my whole being are given a movement which has the same effect as spinning or the rocking of a boat. Thus I explain the dizziness and sickness which overcomes the concentrated onlooker in the panorama” (Eberhard 175).<br />
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For most viewers, the effect described above was compared to seasickness – the nausea and dizziness that arises from the “rocking of a boat.” Here, we can see the mental effects of the medium (“swaying between reality and unreality”) lead to physical effects (“dizziness and sickness”). This overall disorientation can be attributed to a number of things: the initial corridor, the spiral staircase, the sudden illumination and circular sensation of the panorama, the separation from reality and immersion into hyper-“reality.” In many ways, these effects are the “pops and hisses” of the panorama: the material qualities of the object (corridor, staircase, circular encasement) unintentionally enter into the medium’s system of representation, and somehow enhance its semiotic meaning. Because of these material qualities, the onlooker becomes physically dizzy, but simultaneously falls into the trap of illusion that is intended by the panorama. Even though the panorama’s “pops and hisses” are not enjoyable, they would ultimately lend to the optical tricks leading into overall illusion.<br />
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These effects were not blindly accepted, however: “the panorama was criticized mainly for psychological reasons. It was argued that the illusion could result in an inability to perceive reality” (Grau 367).<br />
<br />
===Theatrics of the Panorama===<br />
<br />
As noted in the previous section, after traveling through a dark winding hallway, the patron ascends to the middle of the floor of the panorama. The process of entering in the center of the room seems to add to the theatrical effect of the panorama. By entering at the center of the room, one is completely immersed at once by the scene painted upon the wall. But is it truly necessary to come into the scene from the middle? Why is it that a spectator can not enter from a trap door on the side of the panorama that melts back into the landscape? What is it about this middle of the floor opening that makes it so unique? <br />
The entire notion of the panorama seems to center on the idea of entertainment from the suspenseful walk through the mysterious corridor to the elevation to the middle of a seemingly “new world.” These characteristics build on the idea of the panorama as a means of escape and entertainment. It seems as if these aspects are functional nonsense and yet vital to the viewing of the panorama. In order to be completely immersed in the image one has to enter from the center of the room. But one could also still experience the panorama by entering it from the side of the room just in a different way.<br />
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Perhaps these traits of entertainment lead to why the building of the panorama would also hold trinket shows. One advertisement from 1797 describes the other items on display at the panorama including “a grand automaton bird-cage clock for 500 dollars (contains the Canary and Bulfinch bird that sing as perfect as living birds show all the motions of life), fine paintings, a large collection of American butterflies and other insects in frames, and elegant pair of chandelier with burnished gold arms and candle sockets for 100 dollars” (Advertisement 2).<br />
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<br />
==Bourgeois Eyeball? Structuralist Precedent?==<br />
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[[Image:PAN2.JPG|right|(Oettermann 51).]] <br />
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Examining the etymology of the word “panorama,” Oettermann notes the almost instantaneous movement of the word from its technical origins around 1787 to a broad and metaphorical term indicating “a kind of pattern for organizing visual experience” introduced (sometimes before the technical term) into all European languages by 1800 (7). In opposition to a dissertation by Sune Lundwall that argues for the understanding of panorama in terms of earlier epochs, Oettermann is interested in situating the panorama in its actual historical context to frame the apparatus as as an aid “for teaching and glorifying the bourgeois view of the world” (7). Contrary to modern dictionaries and the almost immediate appropriation of the word into other discourses which suggest that the style of painting occurred as a natural extension of a pre-existent consciousness and vision, Oettermann argues that “the panorama is instead the pictorial expression or “symbolic form” of a specifically modern, bourgeois view of nature and the world” (7). This argument is poignant in face of period and more contemporary usage, in which actually occurring landscapes are described as stretching out before one ‘like a panorama,’ effectively exchanging the real for the symbolic and framing a discursively constructed mode of vision as objective. <br />
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The panorama’s “thrilling novelty”, however, was rejected by most European cultural elites (Wood 104). In his 1845 memoirs, Englishman John Constable Esq. says that in 1803, “Panorama painting is all the rage” but “great principles are neither expected nor looked for in this mode of describing nature, also noting art patron Sir George Beaumont’s remarks that “Panorama painting has been injurious to the taste, both of the artists and the public, in landscape” (Leslie 18). Gillen D’Arcy Wood explains some of this elite rejection of the medium and certain mimetic art through close readings of Wordsworth (who had encountered a panorama and speaks of generally panoramic viewpoints at length), Milton (and thus Satan’s biblical instantaneous panoramic revelation of kingdoms to Jesus in the desert), and various others; their hesitance is perhaps generalized best as “class anxiety surrounding the rise of modern visual culture,” “a culture dominated by popular taste for technologically engineered documentation of the visible world—a culture we currently inhabit— was clearly evident at the panorama. . .the lyric poet permanently marginalized” (Wood 120, 119). Wood further sees “a pictorial subject of even greater fascination for the bourgeoisie: themselves” (not noting the elite culture’s similar fascination), for in cityscapes, one may locate one’s home or workplace, known places—“As a popular destination of for curiosity seekers from all social levels, the panorama was a place not only to see and be seen, but to see oneself” (119). <br />
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Writing about the Eiffel tower in 1964, Roland Barthes also argues that the “panoramic vision” afforded is a “new perception, of an intellectualist mode” in which “the Tower. . .gives us the world to read and not only to perceive. . .to see things in their structure. . .concrete abstraction. . .a corpus of intelligent forms.” A visitor “spontaneously distinguishes separate—because known—points—and yet does not stop linking them, perceiving them within a great functional space…we try to recognize known sites. . .knowledge. . .struggles with your perception, and in a sense, that is what intelligence is: to reconstitute, to make memory and sensation cooperate so as to produce in your mind a simulacrum” (242-43). The smooth continuity of the picture engages us in a struggle to distinguish signs within it, something described by Oettermann’s panoramic visitors critiquing the accuracy of a painting. His conclusion about the Tower speaks to the true duality of C19 panorama, that while observing a plethora of sights and circumstances, one is actually totally surrounded by walls, encircled by a gated platform: “one can feel oneself cut off from the world and yet the owner of a world” (250).<br />
<br />
==The Moving Panorama & "The Obvious" in Both Forms==<br />
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[[Image:Panorama_Ad.jpg|thumb|left|Moving Panorama Advertisement for ''Purrington & Russell's Original Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the World''. Exhibition at Amory Hall, Boston, 1849 (Avery 54).]]<br />
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The moving panorama was a remediation of the original panorama that, in many ways, served as a sort of “bridge” in between the panorama and cinema. Like the cinema, it displayed images on a "reel" that was rotated across a screen and hidden behind a curtain, but these images were panoramic, painted in the tradition of those displayed in circular panoramas at the same time. But while the moving panorama came after the panorama and before cinema, it did not last longer than either; its short lifespan was between 1846 and 1870 (Avery 52). <br />
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Avery describes how the moving panorama functioned:<br />
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"The continuously rendered topography was painted usually in distemper, a water-based paint, on long strips of linen or cotton that ran to hundreds or even thousands of feet and were stored on large cylinders. The painting was exhibited by drawing the cloth from one cylinder to another via a hand-operated crank which also turned a pulley with hooks that supported the cloth being displayed. With the cylinders, machinery, and hooks concealed behind a proscenium-like frame , only the painted image was visible; occasionally, stage props, such as the tuming wheel of a steamboat, were attached to the frame to enhance the illusion that the viewer, not the painting,was in transit. Invariably, a lecturer was on stage to describe the scenery as it passed, and often the performance, frequently lasting for two hours, was accompanied by music keyed to the dramatic character of each scene, played on a pianoforte or harp, sometimes punctuated by vocal passages performed by a local singer" (Avery 52-53).<br />
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The very first moving panorama originated in Britain in 1820, and “this art form typically illustrated landscape scenery as though perceived from a moving vehicle, such as a boat or a train” (Avery 52). Immediately, the “obvious” of the panorama and moving panorama reveals itself. The panorama reached its peak during the Industrial Revolution, when the popular taste for travel had been rapidly expanding. The idea of a large painting encircling the viewer, creating the illusion of an actual landscape, caters to this fondness for travel – this thirst to see and be in new places. The moving panorama in particular responded to the increasing availability of rapid transportation – the notion of looking at an illusionary landscape as though sitting in a moving vehicle speaks to this very clearly.<br />
<br />
==Analog vs. Digital==<br />
<br />
Although the panorama can be thought of as an attempt to make representations of nature truly visually analog, framing one's sensorium, the artist still must make a single discrete selection from the continuum of human experience.<br />
<br />
==Formal Prohibitions==<br />
<br />
While the people who can "write" this medium are limited to males who could paint, sculpt, and build, what's interesting to note is the democratic nature of viewing a panorama. There's no "front-row-center" or "VIP" seating - in a circular panorama, where everyone is at equal distance from the "text" on all sides, everyone gets a fair viewing. Two spectators can stand back to back and see the same piece of art.<br />
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==Advertisements==<br />
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Early advertisements for the panorama refer to it as new type of entertainment. It is typically listed under the classified/ news blurb sections of the newspaper. The advertisements note being able to escape and learn about a place that may be foreign. One advertisement from 1797 notes that a pamphlet would be handed out while viewing the panorama so that one could pick up bits of information and history of the area that they are viewing in the image (Advertisement). This advertisement in particular was for the panorama of Charleston accredited to Mr. Winstanly. Another means of marketing these panoramas was through editorial reviews. A review from 1805 analyzes the work of panorama artist R. K. Porter who specialized in battle scene images (Fine Arts).<br />
<br />
==Remediations==<br />
<br />
===Digital Camera Settings===<br />
<br />
Digital cameras often enable a photographer to take multiple, successive snapshots of a landscape that may then be "stitched" together with computer software. While this language may come from any number of textile based synthesis procedures, Oettermann notes that weaving mills could not produce single canvases large enough for panorama painting, making it necessary "to sew together a number of strips approximately nine feet wide" (54). The cinematic term and technique of horizontally “panning” has also been linked to the experience and etymology of panorama. <br />
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===Virtual Reality===<br />
<br />
Most real estate websites now advertise 360 degree interior views of homes. These images are essentially panoramas as a camera is placed in the middle of the room and pans around the area depicting every angle. The real estate shopper is therefore placed in a similar position as the visitor to the 19th century panorama. This technique is also used for marketing of hotels, schools, nursing homes, and other attractions that benefit from making an online visitor feel like they are actually on location. <br />
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Virtual reality rooms and headsets also attempt to “transport” a player into another world. The player’s vision is all encompassed by the headset or room leaving them no choice but to assume allusions as reality. The spherical or total allusion transports one’s vision to another setting. Modern virtual reality gamers report many of the same complaints as viewers at the panorama. They complain on nausea and dizziness, which is now referred to as simulator sickness.<br />
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==The Panorama's Demise: Destroying a Medium==<br />
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Today, the panorama is seen as “belonging to the world of odd nineteenth-century amusements, prepared for a public in search for optical illusions and sensations” (Sillevis 766). It is not surprising, then, that the panorama fell into utter obscurity in light of the cinema; the panorama’s intentions were “so much better realized in the era of the cinema” than they had been on their own (Sillevis 766). Once film rolled around, the decline in appreciation for panoramas was “sudden and in most cases final” (Sillevis 769). Sillevis also addresses the fact that “research on panoramas has become rather difficult,” since there are only an estimated twenty panoramas left in the world (769). But what’s interesting to note is the process by which panoramas were shelved as a dead medium: “Most panoramas went bankrupt, they were sold and cut to pieces, or simply destroyed” (Sillevis 769). Panoramas, therefore, were made dead in the most literal sense of the word – they were “killed,” chopped up, with no hope for resuscitation. This, of course, could be attributed to the sheer scale of panoramas. Unlike many dead media, the panorama relied on its architecture: a large, circular room, a floor and a ceiling, with enough space between the viewer and the painting to make the illusion most believable. Without the structure, the panorama was useless, and without money, the structure wasn’t possible. Cinema audiences abandoned the panorama almost immediately, which must mean that the drop in profit for panoramas was equally as sudden and steep. It is no wonder, then, that bankrupt panorama owners destroyed the media in such a drastic manner.<br />
<br />
==Modern Remnants==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Brown.JPG|thumb|left|Moving Panorama. The Garibaldi Panorama being digitized by Brown University. (Brown).]]<br />
<br />
Brown University announced in September that their Library and Department of Italian Studies are working together to digitize the Garibaldi Panorama (a moving panorama) and make it a part of Brown’s Digital Library. Dr. James Walter Smith donated the moving panorama that depicts Giuseppe Garibaldi’s life story to Brown in 2005. Librarian Harriette Hemmasi notes that the panorama is “an important and largely ignored part of our cultural heritage in a vital way” (Garibaldi). This specific moving panorama was a doubled sided watercolor. Brown intends to take the numerous digital photographs and put them together to present it as one continuous image online. The University will also provide a text version as well as a recording of the original manuscript narration in either Italian or English.[http://http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2007-08/07-038.html]<br />
<br />
A more well-known panorama exists at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art: ''The Vanderlyn Panorama of the Palace and Garden of Versailles,'' which opened on October 11, 1956. The Museum's Bulletin, "Other Museum Activities," from October 1957 cites it as "the oldest American panorama painting known to have survived in its entirety." But while this is the closest remnant of the original panorama, a key difference is that the spectator enters from the sides, not the center, making the separation between either "end" of the panorama obvious. It is not a full circle; the same effect is not achieved.<br />
<br />
==Citations==<br />
<br />
*"Advertisement 2 -- No Title. " Weekly Museum (1791-1805)8 Apr. 1797: 0_004. APS Online. ProQuest. NYU.<br />
<br />
*Avery, Kevin J. "'Whaling Voyage Round the World': Russell and Purrington's Moving Panorama and Herman Melville's 'Mighty Book.'" ''American Art Journal,'' Vol.22, No. 1. Spring 1990, pp. 50-78.<br />
<br />
*Barker, Robert, “Specification of the Patent granted to Mr. Robert Barker…Called by Him ‘La Nature à Coup ď Œil,’” in The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures: Consisting of Original Communications, Specifications of Patent Inventions, and Selections of Useful Practical Papers from the Transactions of the Philosophical Societies of All Nations, &c . &c. Vol. 4. London: 1776, pp.165-167.<br />
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*Eberhard, J.A. ''Handbuch der Ästhetik.'' Translated by Oliver Grau. Halle, Germany: Hemmerde and Schwetschke, 1805. Part 1, Letter 28, p. 175.<br />
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*Foucaud, Edward. “The Book of Illustrious Mechanics of Europe and America.” translated by John Frost. D. Appleton & Co., New York: 1847.<br />
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*Grau, Oliver. "Into the Belly of the Image: Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality." ''Leonardo,'' Vol. 32, No. 5, Seventh New York Digital Salon. 1999. pp. 365-371.<br />
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*Leslie, C. R. “Memoirs of the Life of John Constable Esq. R.A.: Composed chiefly of His Letters.” Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London: 1845.<br />
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*Oettermann, Stephan. “The Panorama.” Zone Books, New York: 1997.<br />
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*"Other Museum Activities." ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', New Series, Vol. 16, No. 2, Eighty-Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1956-1957. (Oct., 1957), pp. 71-74.<br />
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*Sillevis, John. "The Hague. Panorama Mesdag, 1881-1981." ''The Burlington Magazine,'' Vol. 123, No. 945. Dec., 1981. pp. 766-767, 769.<br />
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*Sternberger, Dolf. "Panorama of the 19th Century." Translated by Joachim Neugroschel. ''October,'' Vol. 4. Autumn, 1977. pp. 3-20.<br />
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*THE FINE ARTS. Review. (1805, May). The Port - Folio (1801-1827), 5(20), 156. ProQuest. NYU.<br />
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*"The Garibaldi Panorama: Brown to Digitize 19th-Century Relic." Brown University. 24 Sept. 2007. 10 Nov. 2007 <http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2007-08/07-038.html>. <br />
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*Uexküll, J. von. “An Introduction to Umwelt.” tr. Gösta Brunow. “Niegeschaute Welten.” Berlin, 1936.<br />
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*Urbino, L. B. and Henry Day. “Art Recreations: Being a Complete Guide to Pencil Drawing, Oil Painting. . .” J. E. Tilton and company, Boston: 1863.<br />
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*Wood, Gillen D’Arcy. “The Shock of the Real: Romanticism and Visual Culture, 1760-1860.” Palgrave, NY:2001.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Electric_Pen&diff=12707
Electric Pen
2010-11-24T14:51:01Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12519 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Electric Pen Sketch.png|thumb|left|Sketch by Edison of Electric Pen]]<br />
[[Image:GreenfieldPen_s.jpg|thumb|right|Electric Pen image from electricpen.org]]<br />
==History==<br />
The patent for Edison's Electric Pen, entitled ''Improvement in Autographic Printing'' was filed on March 13, 1876. The Electric Pen was Edison's "first experimental work in document copying and multiple duplication" (Baldwin 69). The device was invented for the niche market of business men needing to multiple copies of legal documents. The pen, however, was more versatile than for just business purposes and was popular and sold well. Beginning at the bargain price of just 35 dollars the Edison Electric Pen was marketed for any use from personal letters, music, contracts, manifestos, and artistic drawings. The pen was first sold exclusively to the east coast but quickly exanded to the midwest and to British Columbia and England. Eventually, Edison sold the rights to the Western Electric company, but the rights and patent finally ended up in the hands A.B. Dick of Chicago who developed the next reduplication invention: the mimeograph.<br />
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An advertisement described the Electric Pen as "Like Kissing- Every Succeeding Impression is as Good as the First- Endorsed By Every One Who Has Tried It!- Only A Gentle Pressure Used" (Baldwin 71). The illustration is of a couple embracing in a kiss while the words float around them romantically. The Pen was advertised as being easy to use, cheap, versatile, and all around incredible. The use and need of the electric pen extended to everyone from railroad officials to anyone needing private copies of private documents. "The Pen is capable of producing the finest line, or closest written matter, and the heaviest solid or shaded letter and writing" (Wheeler). If the stencil was perfect all impressions were as well. The Electric Pen was a was a success for Edison that sold well and was liked. Any post prepared by the electric pen qualified as third class mail at one cent per ounce. <br />
[[Image:Autographic_Print_2.png|thumb|right| "London, Printed for Private Circulation on the Edison Electrical Autographic Press 1876" from ''A question of authorship, involving a case of literary larceny'' by John Thomas Dexter]]<br />
<br />
==How the Electric Pen Works==<br />
[[Image:Edison_Sketch_2.png|thumb|left|Early Sketches of different models for Electric Pen by Edison ]]<br />
===Mechanics===<br />
The patent by Edison, describes the writing of the pen as, "patterns for embroidery and for fresco painters... made of paper" (patent). By having a sharp needle at the end of a stylus that moves rapidly up and down, small perforations can be made into paper or wax paper to make stencils. To break it down, the pen consisted of a metal tube or stylus resembling a pen or writing device. At the end would be the needle connecting to wires inside the tube that connected to a small electromagnetic engine on the top of the stylus to power the movement of the needle. The engine was then connected to a voltaic battery of two glass jars were held up by a metal stand. The most favorable liquids used are bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid(patent). The connection between the pen and the battery can be disconnected by removing metal plates inside the jars to prevent ''consumption of materials'' when the pen was not in use (Wheeler).<br />
The most important aspect of the pen is speed of the needle and movement of the needle. If the needle was not quick enough to match the speed of the hand, the paper would either tear or the stencils were not complete or legible. Although the devise is more like a sewing machine or knife than a pen, the machine had to be able to work and survive while being treated like one. The slender shape of the stylus to resemble an actual pen was arbitrary and more difficult than it needed to be since the motor surely made the whole thing unbalanced. Since it is a writing tool it makes sense to structure it like a pen but in reality it might have been easier and less awkward if the shape was unique. Perhaps it would not have sold as well but the positioning of the pen would have been less unnatural.<br />
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Another problem was if the needle moved in any way other than up or down. Edison solved this problem in his ''Papers: from workshop to labratory'' where he notes, "We made a great improvement in the pen by...putting a guide above cam A (one of the wheels of the motor) so that it could only move the wheel up and down and not at all sideways" (755). Another problem was if the needle became loose, the script would be messy and unreadable. The length of the wire from the battery to the pen had to be loose enough and long enough to not effect the movements of the hand. The electric pen was an overall awkward device especially since the pen had to be perfectly perpendicular to the paper, balance a rotating electromagnetic motor on top, and move smoothly despite vibrations moving a needle up and down at 8,000 perforations every minute(Iams). The electric pen was also a dangerous machine: an open motor, batteries in glass jars in which the connecting metal plates can and are suppose to be removed when not in use, and a sharp vibrating needle sold on a mass market level and advertised as easy to use (Wheeler).<br />
<br />
===Printing===<br />
The stencil was made usually on wax paper or bond paper which could yield 5,000 to 15,000 copies and 20,000 on tracing cloth (Wheeler). According to Edison parchment did not work well as a stencil, although regular paper seems to be able to work fine for just a few copies. Once the stencil was made, the pen tracing into the paper over a thick blotter so as to not damage any suface of the tables or the point of the needle, the stencil would be laid over paper on a press that came with the pen. The press was a separate platform where the paper would be laid down and the stencil on top. Clamps were attached to hold the stencil in place to ensure legibility and neatness. The clamps that held the stencil could be lifted from the paper without moving either of the pieces for examination. The stencil could then be placed back down on the paper in the exact same spot in case more ink was needed. The stencil was lifted on a pivot on the hinges on the long side of the press just like a book. Convienent for beginners who have no idea how much ink to use and need to be constantly checking the impression made, this tool allows for second chances and second guesses. Using an inked felt rolling and diluted ink with oil or semi-fluid ink, the roller would run over the stencil to make one copy (Patent). One roll of ink could make numerous copies (Wheeler).<br />
<br />
==Autographic Print==<br />
[[Image:Autographic_Print_1.png |thumb|left|Example of Autographic Print from ''A question of authorship, involving a case of literary larceny'' by John Thomas Dexter]]<br />
The actual script made of the electric pen is different from script from a regular pen despite Edison's aggressive campaigns that the pen and his electric one are virtually the same. They are not. The unavoidable and obtrusive material qualities of the pen– the vibrations of the motor, the weight of the motor ontop of the stylus, the leash connecting from the pen to the battery, the position of the pen on the paper- were all difficulties that translated into the writing. The awkwardness and complications of the machine that juxtapose the simplicity of the pen, all contribute to the way the stencil will be cut and also the way the ink fill the stencil onto the paper. Not considering the ink roller and paper press just yet, the print and cutting of the paper was not as easy as Edison advertised. Although versatile, Baldwin describes using the pen as "you held the 'pen' perpendicular to the surface of the paper, as you would any conventional writing implement." In reality writing instruments are rarely held perfectly vertical, Edison eventually acknowledges this with the Woodbury Holder. Print was also affected by the speed in which someone wrote, although the vibrations and motor of the pen would cause a writer to naturally write slower, if someone was particularly skilled the centers of letters could fall out. Mistakes and typos on the stencil would have to be ingnored and remembered to be crossed out later or else large ink spots would dominate and bleed over the paper. As mentioned earlier, the ink used was diluted and semi-fluid, but like all stencils the ink cannot be completely contained. As seen in the Autographic print example taken from text actually printed using an electric pen their is bleeding. That is not coming from the back of the page, but caused from either over using the stencil, the ink being too fluid, or just the regular imperfections or difficulties of using ink rollers.<br />
<br />
==Electric Pen Improved and Remediated==<br />
===The Woodbury Holder===<br />
[[Image:Woodbury_Holder.png|thumb|right|The Woodbury Holder]]<br />
Since writing with the electric pen was so unnatural, because no one can write at a perfect perpendicular angle, the Woodbury Holder was sold to make the writing easier. The Woodbury Holder literally held the electric pen so it was always at a 90 degree angle. "The weight of the Electric Pen rests upon the point of the tube and the small leg which projects to the right of the holder" (Wheeler). The holder or handle extends outwards from the pen and looks like and is in the position of an actual pen. By moving the pen-like handle and exerting a little pressure the Electric Pen will move as you move the handle. The displacement of the writing is similar to that of cameras in which the lens and the view finder are at different angles and must be rectified before shooting the picture. The Woodbury Holder displaces the point of writing to make it easier for beginners to use the pen and also lessen the "jar" of the pens vibrations. The Woodbury Holder was sold at 5 dollars (Wheeler).<br />
<br />
===Reed Pen===<br />
Although the Electric Pen is a writing instrument is doesn't connect words or make lines. The tiny perforations are not connected but instead made small enough so the ink will fill in the minuscule spaces. The obvious thing about the Electric Pen is that it is really more like a sewing machine and the words cannot connect or else the centers of the letter o's and a's and cursive letter s's will all fall out. Perforations are the obvious solutions to lines so the writer does not have to pay attention to where words connect or be prohibited from writing cursive or very quickly. The Reed Pen is the solution for those who write too quickly for the Electric Pen. Developed by Edison, the Reed Pen is for the expert autographic printer. "It is not recommended, except to very fast, skillful penmen, as the speed of the pen is so great that the centres of the letters are liable to cut out" (Wheeler). The Reed Pen could be bought for 25 dollars.<br />
<br />
===Music Ruling Pen===<br />
The Music Ruling Pen came with five needles to draw measures for writing music. Similar to chalk holders that can carry five pieces of chalk with equal distance and for the same purpose but much less dangerous. The stencil paper must be places on thick cloth and two batteries are needed to make good impressions. The complete Ruling Pen was sold at 30 dollars and just the attachment, which could be used on any Eletric Pen was only 5 dollars.<br />
<br />
===Crayola Cutter===<br />
[[Image:PTRU1-3378227dt.jpg|thumb|right|The Electric Pen remediated as the Crayola Cutter]]<br />
The [http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1OMQCF4DMWUNW Crayola Cutter] is the newest form of the Electric Pen but for kids and safe. The Crayola Cutter works in exactly the same way by perforating the paper, but used mainly for arts and crafts projects. Completely made of plastic, however the main parts to the Electric Pen are still there. The stylus resembling an actual pen is still used connected by a wire in which it is battery powered. The wire or string also serves the purpose of not losing the pen from the rest of the machine. The batteries are not separate and are held inside the press which serves mostly as a blotter, since the Crayola Cutter, although it can make stencils, is mainly for cutting things out. So the pen, wire, press, and batteries are still intact from Edison's original design but remediated for children. It can be assumed the speed of the needle (or cutting tool probably not a needle) moves up and down at a much lower speed. And although the function of the perforating pen-like device is exactly the same, the purpose in which it is used is completely different. The Crayola Cuter is not a reproduction machine but a safe and sophisticated alternative to scissors.<br />
<br />
==A Letter from a Baptist Missionary==<br />
Mrs. C.B. Thomas while traveling abroad in Burma for missionary purposes found a difficulty in keeping in touch with her many friends and acquaintances back home. She, however, did find a solution. "One can have some courage to write a letter if it can be made to answer for fifty or a hundred people. But how can such a thing be? This is the explanation. I have lately recieved from Boston one of Edison's electric pens and press which belongs with it. I do the writing; and, from the stencil which I thus make, two girls print off as many copies as I wish" (Thomas). Similar to sending one e-mail to many or "reply all," Mrs. Thomas printed off her own newsletters and without neglecting the larger purposes of her trip. Her letters, although mass produced, still resembles and was writtten in her own hand keeping true to the personality and intimacy that personal letters convey. She is no longer prohibited from communicating on a person to person level but now can afford person to many communication as long as she has the machine, its supplies, and the ability to write.<br />
<br />
==Works Cited==<br />
Baldwin, Neil. ''Edison; Inventing the Century'', Hyperion New York, New York, 1995.<br />
<br />
Edison, Thomas A. ''Improvement in Autographic Printing'' United States Patent Office. Patent No. 180,857. May 13, 1876.<br />
<br />
''The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: From Workshop to Labratory, June 1873 to March 1876'' editors, Robert Rosenberu, Paul Israel, Keith Nier, Melodie Andrews. Johns Hopkins University Press, London, 1991. <br />
<br />
''The Electric Pen''The Phrenological Journal of Science and Health (1870- 1911); Dec 1877; 65, 6; APS Online pg. 428.<br />
<br />
Thomas, C.B. ''A Letter to Many Friends.'' Baptist Missionary Magazine (1873-1909); Jan 1879;59,1; APS Online pg 7.<br />
<br />
Wheeler, W.F. ''Edison's Electric Pen and Press. 5000 Copies from a cingle writing...'', New York General Eastern Agents, 1876.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Player_Piano&diff=12706
Player Piano
2010-11-24T14:50:49Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12520 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>==Pianistas, Pianolas, Piano Players– Oh My!==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Historyjpgs_plabrochure.jpg|thumb|right| Cover of the first Aeolian Company Pianola Catalog, New York, 1898.]]According to Player Piano Treasury by Harvey Roehl, the first man to construct a piano to play itself through mechanical means was, Fourneaux, a Frenchman who patented the player in 1863. The first player was constructed on pneumatic principles by pumping a hand crank in which a vacuum powered a set of metal fingers to play the keyboard of an ordinary piano. This device was called the Pianista and was literally a piano playing another piano (Roehl 2). <br />
In 1897 a man named Edwin Votey perfected the Pianola piano-player, which like the Pianista was a separate player that could "make any piano into an automatically-played instrument. It was, in fact, a completely separate appliance which was used in conjunction with an ordinary piano(Ord-Hume 33). It was known as a cabinet-style player and consisted of pedals or "exhausters" in which the performer would work with their feet, "a paper-roll transporting device which fed the perforated music over a tracker board containing small wind ways leading to a set of pneumatic valves, and a row of small fingers at the back of the player which rested on the piano keyboard" (Ord-Hume 33). The Pianola was fiercely marketed by the Aeolian Company and it was because of this aggressive campaign that the Pianola had a short lived but large popularity. The machines, however, were large and clumsy and one would have to be careful the metal fingers didn't damage the piano keys, which were always at risk (Ord-Hume 33). The Pianola also only played 65 notes of the 88 note piano scale so original compositions had to be rearranged, "in many cases mutilated" to fit the range(Roehl 8). And although the Pianola was a piano player, an actual player was still necessary and had to learn how to use the instrument properly by feeding the music into the machine and pumping the pedals at the right tempo. But by 1908 the Pianola profits completely halted and the popularity for automated musical instrument gave way to the 'inner piano.' <br />
<br />
By 1901, Melville Clark invented the first player piano in which the piano and the player were a complete unit. His piano could also play all 88 notes of the piano, however the popularity didn't catch on until 1908 due to the different sizes of music rolls and the different scales. At a convention in Buffalo, New York, a standardization of sizes and the ability to use music rolls between different pianos was set and agreed upon. The Aeolian Company marketed the 'Pianola Piano' and two and half million player pianos were sold between 1900 and 1930 (Ord-Hume 34).<br />
<br />
==The Ad of Liszt and the Gypsies==<br />
"The poor tinsel, the gaudy clothes, the dark passionate faces seemed to rise again from the keys. Mystery, lament, glad, mad, gaiety became crystallized in one imperishable beauty of music-in the soul of immemorial gypsies enshrined upon the keys."<br />
[[Image:Pianola.png|thumb|left| Woman sitting at Pianola player]]<br />
<br />
In a document titled, "The Spirit of an Age-old Race that Lives in Melody" that was featured in McClure's Magazine in 1915, retells a creation story for the second Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt, a famous pianist. In beautiful descriptive and romantic language, the story describes how Liszt, after once hearing a Gypsy song, became haunted by the melody and set out to find it again. "Always had it been in his mind, thrilling him with its strange beauty. It had drawn him to that lonely spot…–to learn the magic secrets of their songs." Liszt as a receptive vessel takes the gypsy song back to the city and three years later plays for the first time in front of a "great audience." "That music lived again infinitely beautified– infinitely adorned. All the pathos of that homeless, wandering race leaped like witcheries from beneath his hands." Liszt brought the gypsies back to life upon his piano keys and after the song was finished the audience was in a frenzy bowing to the musical genius and tearing at his handkerchief. And after that first concert the song was a classic favorite, bringing men and women to tears, but the question the article is really asking is 'can you play this song yourself?' and more importantly, can you listen to this ''whenever you like''? "If the Piano in your home is the Pianola– the most modern pianoforte– then music is the "available art" to you." This song is too great to live without with its "savage fascination." Just imagine being able to listen to this music everyday or whenever you like, unless you don't have a Pianola. "Can you not realize what you are losing? What you are denying yourself and your family and perhaps your children?" The article concludes the infinitely superior ability of playing a piano two ways instead of one and warns of ghastly imitators. The ad is aggressively arguing that the Pianola is a once in a lifetime instrument bringing the mystery and magic from the Romanian mountains into your home and under your control-in an aggressively beautiful way. Because of the Pianola, music now can be transported and can transcend time and space, traveling from the mountains to reappear in one's living room. The Hungarian rhapsody can move and be duplicated, no longer just in print but now in perfect replication- in sound (McClure).<br />
<br />
==The Reproducing Piano==<br />
[[Image:Votey.png|thumb|right| Edwin S. Votey with his first Player Piano, also to be called the Pianola. From ''Player Piano'']]<br />
By 1910, the popularity of the player piano had been well established and the technical developments reached a plateau. From here on the player piano received only minor adjustments and refinements. The major difference between player pianos were whether or not an operator was needed. The reproducing piano was developed through several inventors including, the German firm of Welte who named the device– the Keyless Welte in 1904, Hupfeld who created an electrical reproducing piano in 1906, and just before the first World War the Duo-Art reproducing action was perfected in America. The Reproducing Piano worked independently "as the roll of music be provided with some extra perforations to control special action pneumatics directly." The ordinary player piano would only replay the notes in the right order but all freedom and expression of volume, pitch, and tempo was given to the operator. The performer could control these through levers on the piano that controlled pneumatic bellows that affected the actions of the piano. With the Reproducing piano, pianists and artists could construct their reproduced performances, as they liked. "So absolutely perfect were these instruments and the interpretations which they could give, that each roll was specifically recorded by an artist who would add his name to the roll" (Ord-Hume 34). Rather than just a mechanically played piano, the reproducing piano became more of a music player, without any skill or operation, than ever.<br />
<br />
The reproducing piano and player pianos were very vulnerable machines and had to be taken very well care off. Player pianos worked by means of a partial vacuum and if air was allowed to enter in places it shouldn't then it would stop working properly. Equalizing air pressure would make the pedals harder to push and would require more foot pedaling for a sound of less quality. "The player-piano has one unfortunate secondary characteristic in that it works in exactly the same way as a vacuum cleaner" (Ord-Hume 175). Dust and dirt are the main enemies to the player-piano which, if sucked in, can wear down the delicate machinery and affects the pianos performance.(Ord-Hume)<br />
<br />
==Through the Looking Glass==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Picture 3.png|thumb|left| "It is safe to predict that the composer of the future will use a shotgun" from Notes on Pianos]]<br />
Raymond Pearl, taking a piece of unornamented music, ''Ave Maria'', for the player piano and feeds it through the player but instead of right side up, turns it upside down in what he entitles, "Looking Glass" music. "The effect produced was so vastly superior to that rather trite and hackneyed melody, as to give great joy to all who heard. This led to further experiments until now a number of rolls in the collection are permanently reversed." The only thing that remains in looking glass music from the original piece is the rhythm. Otherwise scales that went down now go up. Lighthearted melodies turn into twisted verse and crash down to deep depths of bass. The reversal of player piano music does not create noise or chaos but something coherent just inside out. The perforated sheets of player pianos allowed musicians or just music lovers to see and study music in different visual and physical ways. The Aeolian Company engineered annotated music rolls with, "considerable explanatory text and a wealth of detailed information– including the musical score– was actually printed on the roll to 'educate whilst playing'" (Ord-Hume 40). The perforations were visually stimulating and held a unique aesthetic value. These rolls displayed outwardly the mechanics and complications of music that revealed music to not be just a beautiful art but digital technology as well.<br />
<br />
==A Note from St. Peter's on Player Pianos==<br />
<br />
A Note from St. Peter's on Heavenly Music<br />
<br />
"'Come right in,' quoth St. Peter to the newly arrived Shade. 'When you have got your wings step right over and receive your player-piano.'<br />
The new arrival looked puzzled.<br />
'My player-piano?' he ejaculated incredulously. 'I thought you gave out harps here.'<br />
'We did until recently,' said the kindly Saint. 'But there were so many complaints– new-comers from earth said it would take them so long to learn to play on them– that we decided to give out player-pianos instead.'"<br />
¬–The Heavenly Music from Puck Dec. 31 1913.<br />
<br />
==Conclusion==<br />
The player piano imitated great works of famous pianists but the player piano does just that-it imitates. Although the player piano is a suberb and complicated instrument working by intricate systems of pneumatics, the player piano is not a ''real'' player it is only an instrument. "The mechanical piano can never take the place of a living pianist, for however mechanically perfect the piano may be, it does not possess, it only imitates, the human spirit" (Abbott). The player piano is cool but soulless and the "music that came out of the player pianos was just as mechanical as the instruments workings" (Page). The player piano was however, fun, easy to play, and eventually affordable, but it was not replaceable for a human player no matter how many advertisements declared it did, instead it was the precedent for other mechanical players such as the phonograph and the c.d. player to come.<br />
<br />
==Bibliography==<br />
*Abbott, Lyman. ''Knoll Papers: What's the Use?'' Outlook (1893-1924);Feb 18, 1920; APS Pnline pg. 274.<br />
<br />
*Ord-Hume, Arthur W. J. G., ''Player Piano: The History of The Mechanical Piano and How to Repair it.'' George Allen & Unwim Ltd, 1970, Great Britain. First American Edition published 1970 A.S. Barnes & Co., Inc. Cranbery, N.J. <br />
<br />
*Page, Tim, ''Ghostly Grand Piano: Technical Marcel Plays like an Old Pro.'' The Washington Post (March 10, 2007) Final Edition. Style; C01.<br />
<br />
*Pearl, Raymond (1914, June). ''LOOKING GLASS MUSIC.'' The Independent ... Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts (1848-1921), 78(3418), 457. Retrieved October 31, 2007, from APS Online database. (Document ID: 822217382).<br />
<br />
*Roehl, Harvey. ''Player Piano Treasury,'' 2nd Edition, The Vestal Press. 1970, U.S.A.<br />
<br />
*''The Heavenly Music,'' Puck (1877-1918); Dec 31, 1913;74, 1922; APS Online. pg.4<br />
<br />
*''Notes on Pianos,'' Puck (1877-1918); June 13, 1914; 75, 1945; APS Online. pg.6<br />
<br />
*''The Spirit of an Age-old Race that Lives in Melody.'' McClure's Magazine (1893-1926). New York:Nov 1915. Vol. Volume XLVI, Iss. Number 1, p. 48 (2 pp.)<br />
<br />
*First two photos taken from The Pianola Institute, www.pianola.org.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Silent_Film&diff=12705
Silent Film
2010-11-24T14:50:40Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12521 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[File:Jazz singer.jpg|200px|thumb|right|''The Jazz Singer'' (1927)]]Edison claimed that motion pictures would do for the eye “what phonograph does for the ear” (Gitelman, 1999, p.87). And the inventor's kinescope did “locate the common dominator of vision and hearing" (p.87). ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927) was the first commercially successful 'talkie', or film that has synchronized sound. By 1930, films that were produced without accompanying sound were becoming more uncommon. While films are occasionally made without a soundtrack as an aesthetic choice, the technology and conventions that were utilized to make silent films are no longer in use. The main features of the medium, though, display a self awareness that silent film was a transitional mode of mediation that would be quickly supplanted once standardization occurred and solutions were found to synchronize sound and amplify it for public display. During the silent film era, inventors looked towards a horizon where “orality, aurality, and visuality would huddle together under one potential umbrella of marvelous future technology” (Gitelman, p.87).<br />
<br />
==Pantomime==<br />
<br />
Silent films were spectacles that arouse from the "pervasive 'separation of the senses' and industrial remapping of the body in the nineteenth century" (Crary, 1990, p.19). But the separation of vision from hearing lead to an abstraction from 'natural behavior' that would be resolved once diegetic sound was coupled with the action. Due to the lack of sound, the expression of emotion and action was acted out very stylistically and dramatically. Charlie Chaplin was famous for his Tramp character that utilized mime and slapstick to create visual comedy that did not require codified verbal symbols to understand. There was a push for realism in the acting that could have no been made possible without the addition of sound and another layer of code to move the story forward beyond the intertitles that were already utilized in film.<br />
<br />
==Intertitles==<br />
<br />
Intertitles were title cards that were placed in a scene in a silent film usually to express dialogue or occasionally to provide some kind of exposition. While earlier films did not have standardized placement of intertitles, the convention that was utilized most frequently mimics the timing of speech in a scene in a Skeuomorphic fasion. A character would begin to 'speak,' or move their mouths, and an intertitle would come on screen, then the actor would be shown moving their mouth and finishing there 'speech.' <br />
<br />
Speech and the action were therefore two distinct parts of a film. So much so that there were 'scenario writers' and there were 'title writers' during the silent film era. The language and action composed were by two different people. But the dialogue or narrative taking center stage during a film is remediated in the modern industry. Modern film is a vococentric medium that privileges the voice over other sounds that are reduced to the background. Just as the intertitles gave the observer necessary information for understanding the story in addition to the visuals on the screen, the dialogue gives added value to the story. The "principle of synchresis...[is] the forging of an immediate necessary relationship between something one sees and something one hears" (Chion, 1994, p.5). The additional layer of codified expression helps the user quickly understand situations in motion pictures be it in textual and aural. <br />
<br />
Textual information was provided in silent film to help frame the action, just as live music did in early films.<br />
<br />
==Music and Sound==<br />
<br />
Auguste and Louis Lumiére had one of the first public exhibition of motion pictures that were filmed and projected by their Cinématographe in 1895 (Wierzbicki, 2009). The brothers employed a piano player at their first exhibition and eventually hired full orchestras to accompany their films. Different projection technologies were used throughout the silent film period, but the projector noise, the 'pops and hisses,' were drowned out by musical accompaniment that added to the spectacle. The earliest films had similar to the content of chronographic studies that included a focus on recording and utilizing movements and bodies (Zielinski, 2002, p.245). Georges Demeny--a contemporary of the Lumiére brothers--stated that cinema apparatuses were "reversible chronophotgraphs" (Kittler, 1999, p. 136). Out of the 1,424 films the Lumiére brothers created between 1895 and 1907, approximately 100 were staged while the majority were documenting occurrences. Films were shown in Vaudeville theaters before the rise of the Nickelodeon beginning in 1905. With the release of feature length films, larger theaters were built and the Nickelodeons went into decline. Each of these stages had an impact on the relationship of sound and the silent film. As time progressed the improvisational liveness of a performance began to be more standardized until sound was a mechanized part of the film going process.<br />
<br />
===Vaudeville===<br />
<br />
Edison remarked that with rise of story lines in motion pictures commonly marked by the release of ''The Great Train Robbery'' (1903), "like most films offered to the public after the turn of the century the venue...was the vaudeville theater" (Wierzbicki, p.26). Films were often included within a larger show of disparate acts. Vaudevillian audiences were accustomed to musical support for the myriad of acts performed on stage, and films were no different. While the music was not standardized for these films, but rather left up to the proprietors and musicians, it was constant accompaniment and not framing the action. By 1908, 96 percent of American Films had a narrative and the industry was becoming more standardized in technology, content and presentation which lead to the rise of venues just for movie display, but music was still an integral part of the display (p.27).<br />
<br />
===Nickelodeons===<br />
<br />
The price of admission was a nickel for these theaters and made the movies an affordable diversion for lower classes of society. Nickelodeons played mainly the short form films that were contained on one reel, and most theaters had at least a piano to play in conjunction with the films. Therefore the demand for new films led to a quick production timeline. In 'talkies' not only is the sound is played simultaneously with the film, but it was also usually recorded during production or added in the editing process before the film was released. The sound was typically an after thought in silent films because they were a performative aspect that was individualized at each theater. During this time, trade publications began to publish notes to suggest what type of music be played with specific films to standardize the experience. Usually the suggestions were popular songs or familiar tunes. Also the magazines tended to stress music continuality as an important part of the movie going experience (Wierzbicki, p.34-35).<br />
<br />
The practice of "funning" was an industry wide concern during the Nickelodeon era. Musicians often saw the films multiple times and would occasionally use music to purposely make fun of an aspect of the film (i.e. a jovial song when a hero dies). The viewing experience was fractured due to funning as well as other inappropriate music choices and inconstant music (p.35). As feature length films became more popular more standardization happened within the film industry in relation to the specific music played with each movie.<br />
<br />
===Cue Sheets and Scoring===<br />
[[File:CueSheet.gif|200px|thumb|right|''The Thief of Baghdad'' (1924) Cue Sheet]]<br />
As early as 1908, because of the inconsistencies in Nickelodeon music, films were finished and then the cue sheets were created by a third party hired by the studio and distributed to theaters before the release dates. Star studded feature films began to replace the one-reel Nickelodeon fair. The music in these films was subordinated to the dramatic plot, and large city theaters tended to use huge orchestras. Cue sheets were included several pages of cues, tempo, and timing for music and sound effects. Larger theaters with orchestra pits were becoming more popular and compiled scores were utilized more due to the larger nature of the musicians. Therefore providing a more standardized and professional movie going experience for the audience. The music played with films was becoming more mechanized. <br />
<br />
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded in 1914, and sought to get the copyright owners of music royalties for the performances of their works. Studios made business relationships with musicians and composers who were not part of ASCAP when they began to produce scores for their films (Weirzbicki, p.46).<br />
<br />
==Remediation==<br />
<br />
Professional silent films were remediated in the home movies before the 1980s when camcorders began to be able to capture sound. Home screenings of films though, are not typically accompanied by music, but rather conversation (Weirzbicki, p.19).<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
#Chion, M. (1994). ''Audio-vision: Sound on screen''. Columbia University: New York.<br />
#Crary, J. (1990). ''Techniques of the observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century." The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.<br />
#Gitelman, L. (1999). ''Scripts, grooves, and writing machines: Representing technology in the Edison era. Stanford University: Stanford.<br />
#Kittler, F. A. (1999). ''Gramophone, Film, Typewriter." Stanford University: Stanford.<br />
#Wierzbicki, J.E. (2009). ''Film music: A history''. Routledge: New York.<br />
#Zielinski, S. (2002). ''Deep time of the media: Toward an archaeology of hearing and seeing by technical means''. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]<br />
[[Category:Visuality]]<br />
[[Category:Representation]]<br />
[[Category:Cinema]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Bootleg_Video&diff=12704
Bootleg Video
2010-11-24T14:50:33Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12522 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]<br />
[[File:agrippa.jpg|303px|thumb|right|A bootleg video cassette [http://blip.tv/file/3536593]]]<br />
Bootleg video is a practice. It is not the physical tapes that are distributed, created, copied, consumed, and sought-after. It is not the mechanism of adhering video signal to magnetic tape in a sealed plastic cartridge. It is not the television itself, the VCR, or the camcorder. Nor is it the adventure of creating a tangible document from what would have otherwise remained unknown to others. Bootleg video is not any of these things, yet its practice necessitates all of these things.<br />
<br />
In brief, bootleg video is the practice of seeing what one is not meant to see, through eyes enabled by the aforementioned technologies.<br />
<br />
==A Brief History of Magnetic Tape==<br />
[[File:Magnetophone.gif|200px|thumb|left|German Magnetophon, the spoils of WWII]]Magnetic tape technology was first developed in Germany in 1934 as a method of recording audio. It was introduced to the US by means of espionage&mdash; it was not until the end of World War II that a German Magnetophon tape deck was discovered by army specialists and reverse-engineered. (Hilderbrand 38) Over the next few decades, once fully introduced into the market, magnetic tape succeeded phonoraphy and film in both the militaristic and broadcast sphere because the medium privileges verisimilitude and speed. It is worth noting that unlike the phonograph, which was originally designed for the business class, magnetic tape as a method of inscription is of militaristic origin.<br />
<br />
Video's passage from the military complex, to its eventual adaptation by national radio and television industries, unmasks the medium as a method of controlling unidirectional flows of content from a central hub to its various nodes. Bootlegging video then represents an attempt to overturn this method of control: creating, viewing, or distributing a bootleg video implicitly puts the viewing context in the hands of the viewer. Since the relation between the intended consumer of content and the producer/disseminator of content has been established by the hierarchical relation between networks and the viewing public, the very existence of a bootleg video signifies, on a basic, phenomenological level, that a trespass has taken place.<br />
<br />
==Visuality and the Technical Exigencies of Bootleg Video==<br />
===This Film Contains No Images===<br />
Unlike other visual media, the video image is comprised of an unbroken electronic flow that is scanned onto the screen. Where film consists of filmed images being projected at rapid speed, video requires that an image be generated on-the-fly from a pattern in the magnetized substrate that is analogous to the video signal originated by the image. This means that there is no actual image at any point on the video tape, only patterns attempting to represent an image. A monitor such as the television screen receives this unbroken stream of data, and passes the signal across the screen from left to right, top to bottom. Note that due to the unbroken stream of data into the apparatus, the signal must be gated in order for the human eye to discern an image: video "frames" consist of a fixed number of half-lines that interlock on the screen. (Spielmann 47) The uninterrupted rush of the real must be throttled in order to be understood; this puts video in an interesting position between the real and the imaginary. Friedrich Kittler's paradox of film is reversed here. In film, the material provides a cut-up representation of the real&mdash; human optical faculty must rely upon the afterimage to create the imaginary. (122) The video medium is bursting with the real, the imaginary can only be achieved by reduction.<br />
<br />
[[File:tracking_error.jpg|300px|thumb|Video tracking error]]Video streams are always in motion. This attributes to the peculiar pops and hisses of the medium that lend to its notorious aesthetic. Even to pause video requires the apparatus to generate and regenerate a signal for as long as required. As a result, horizontal scanlines are seen to flicker impatiently across a paused video image. Every time a video cassette is inserted into a VCR and the play button is pressed, the VCR, television, and tape engage in a process of negotiation called "tracking," evidenced by a blank bright blue screen followed by flashing as all signals are calibrated. (Hilderbrand 65)<br />
<br />
Dubbing exacerbates signal errors, and in bootleg video culture, a visual vocabulary is generated to describe the trajectory a video cassette must have taken to get to the viewer. Popular underground videos circulate through social networks in a ritual of viewing, replicating, and exchanging with others. A bootlegged video's genealogy is thus materially encoded onto itself; a pornography video might reach a node in the network displaying tracking errors at a particularly "juicy" part of the narrative&mdash; evidence that this particular sequence was watched, rewound, and watched again before being copied and distributed. (Hilderbrand 175)<br />
<br />
===America, This is You===<br />
Bootleg video, as a mode of mediation, is an incredibly easy-to-understand system comprised of several black-boxed technologies. The technology governing the recording of data onto magnetic tape emerged onto the world stage as <i>literally</i> a black box, the spoils of World War II. As far as dubbing (or duplicating video) is concerned, this act requires equipment coupled with a semi-specialized knowledge of a relatively complicated technology. One is inevitably reminded of how "difficult" it is to program a VCR to record a television show at a certain time, or the frustration of seeing a flashing LED display reading 00:00 where the actual time is supposed to be. However, Lisa Gitelman explains that as a technology gains acceptance in the home through commercialization, they become ubiquitous, blending into the home environment, "modern machinery evinces its own accepance and familiarity, the accomplishment of its transformation from invention to commodity." (209) The technologies attached to video (the television, VCR, and camcorder) became quickly mundane, as evidenced by their constant appearance in popular culture and entertainment: it was not until video culture became a part of the quotidian that projects like America's Funniest Home Videos became the model for entertainment based on user-generated content.<br />
<br />
===Two Infinities===<br />
Any mechanically produced object (film, video, or any other) attempts, as Walter Benjamin has so infamously established, to satisfy the modern compulsion to bring one's self closer and closer to the original. Both film and bootleg video imply the existence of an <i>ur-event</i>, the original that must be approached; the impossibility of capturing the original is best described in terms of either medium's futile relation to eternity. Bootleg video's relationship to film can be described in terms of Hegel's bad infinity and true infinity, which attempts to reconcile the simultaneous possibility of eternity existing as a perfect unit of time, and as an incomplete and unattainable horizon. (Zizek 1996:91) Film consists of serial images, each frame a complete image representing a closed expression of eternity (Kittler 117), and orients itself on the side of true infinity. Bootleg video is more aligned with bad infinity: the pops and hisses in each video signal exactly how far removed the copy is from the original. The viewer is thus always positioned within an asymptotal distance to the ur-event; bootleg video inscribes its distance from the original onto the material substrate.<br />
<br />
==Publics United through Timeshifting==<br />
The history of bootleg video begins not with television, but with radio. Magnetic tape's acoustic fidelity and ease of reproduction compelled radio stations to pre-record their programming for later broadcast. According to legend, Bing Crosby was one of the first advocates for pre-recording radio shows onto magnetic tape: his radio show's time slot was in direct competition with his regularly-scheduled golf game. (Hilderbrand 38) Thus networks were introduced, via magnetic tape, to the concept of timeshifting. The practice of timeshifting did more than appease the sensibilities of big-ring performers: it allows for viewers from different timezones to experience a televised event at the same time, thus synchronizing viewership. It is from network timeshifting of televised programing that the notion of "Prime Time" broadcasting arises. Thus timeshifting created the temporal possibility for a new mode of relation between networks and the television viewing public, forever changing the topology of the home, the private sphere, by linking it to the network and synchronizing its flows. As Vilém Flusser points out, this type of unidirectional communication is "'fascistic' rather than 'dialogic'." (83) Once the commercially-viable VCR democratized timeshifting, bootleg video emerged as the negative image of prime time television. Where the national viewing public was enabled and maintained by timeshifting televised programing at a centralized level controlled by the networks, bootleg video fan cultures were equally enabled by the timeshifting power wielded by each individual. Bootleg video as a practice is characterized by the democratization of the timeshifting process. Thus, it remediates the broadcast model propagated by the television networks, yet provides a way of multiplexing the vectors of transmission. Bootleg video tapes themselves are indeed "projectors of alternative worlds accessible to all human beings." (Flusser, 84)<br />
<br />
==Camcorder, VCR, Television, and the Repositioning of the Viewing Subject==<br />
As the old adage goes, a visual medium's success is measured by how readily the medium can be used to make, distribute, and experience pornography. This saying, however glib, does contain some truth as it pertains to video&mdash; video radically redefined and redeployed the viewing subject in several key ways that acted on the libido directly. Bootleg video practice is a fecund site where modes of viewership, modes of distribution, relations between viewers, and even the content itself are reoriented around libidinal impulses.<br />
[[File:pamela_lee.png|300px|thumb|right|"Stories from the friends next door they never told..."<br />Still from the infamous Pamela &amp; Tommy Lee video]]<br />
Bootleg video also hinges upon a tension between desire and restraint; one desires to consume media, but not so much as to render it unwatchable. There is an almost causal relationship between the quality of a bootleg video and the amount of circulation it has enjoyed. As circulation entails the ritual of viewing, replicating, and exchanging, the process enters directly into dialog with Walter Benjamin's position on the aura of reproduced media. Whereas Benjamin posits that the aura of the original deteriorates with reproduction, media scholar Lucas Hilderbrand suggests that the aura of the original is strengthened with every copy of a bootlegged video. As described before, a bootlegged video's position in time and space is materially encoded onto the substrate in the form of deteriorated signal. To encounter a bootleg is to question where it came from, how far it traveled to reach your VCR, and who loved it so much as to partly destroy it. These mysteries create "a new kind of aura that references the indexicality of the original's aura" (176) and in so doing, call the bootleg video into dialog with the viewer-as-subject and the viewer-as-object. The video cassette as palimpsest of viewership reveals itself to be a method of <i>watching one's self watching another</i>: the viewer is aware of his position as peeping tom, and the video signal confirms this very position. The compulsion to "see one's self looking" is the drive towards death (Zizek 1996:94); in that manner bootleg video always finds itself locked in careful flirtation with Thanatos while remaining safely couched in Eros. A modern twist on the doppelganger effect in film, bootleg video is a mirrored site where the viewer can revel in a libidinal relation to the body. Wielding a camcorder as a proxy for the self, the videographer can externalize the most immediate and personal of sensations. Conversely, the VCR can stand in for the viewer to consume content. (Zizek 1998) This relation can be meditated from all positions in the bootlegging process: from behind the camcorder, at the dubbing station, or in front of the television, remote control in hand, scrubbing through the video track as one's whims may carry him.<br />
<br />
===Haptic Vision===<br />
Bootleg video reveals vision to be haptic. Its emergence onto the scene consequently redefines the eye in relation to its perceived agency and abilities vis-a-vis a visual medium. As Jonathan Crary suggests, the eye was once a considered to be a passive or "neutral receiver" in the face of painting. The advent of psychophysical analysis and film forced this model to be reevaluated. (72) In establishing that the same ocular faculty responsible for rendering the "imaginary" cohesive sequence of film from the "real" cut-up sequence of still images is the same faculty responsible for creating afterimages, the eye was upgraded to a more participatory or cooperative status during the film-viewing process. Bootleg video forces an upgrade of the mechanism once again: methods of tape viewership (pausing, rewinding, playing, dubbing, enjoying) necessarily involve the destruction of the medium. The eye is now an active, even aggressive, partner in the consumption of media.<br />
<br />
==Amorous Media/Promiscuous Media==<br />
[[File:Fake_timeshifting.png|200px|thumb|left|YouTube inherits the triangular "play" symbol from the VCR]]We automatically, and mistakenly, tend to place technologies on a Cartesian plane of progress where the gradient from analog to digital is seen as a linear function of time. Video as a medium defies this tendency. Despite its arrival nearly a century after film, and its obvious remediation of the medium, video is a purely analog medium consisting of continuous flows of electric signal affixed to a material substrate. As if analog video were an aberration on the timeline of viewing technologies, its successors (digital video, for example) take after film directly by reintroducing individual frames of singular images, and thus seriality returns to the experience of the moving image. Seriality is enhanced in digital video because each frame, a bitmap of pixels with corresponding color values, can be perfectly replicated. Whereas the allure of analog video was the manner in which the history of a tape's transmission was embedded in the content itself, digital video achieved the perfect copy, and obliterates this extra layer. Digital video also introduces the possibility of random access to any point on the timeline, which spells the end of the destructive physical process of scrubbing through video. Gaining random access, the act of viewing is no longer destructive. Although this can be seen as an improvement from the media preservationist point of view, the loss of one's power to destroy downgrades the status of the eye to that which it had occupied during the era of film.<br />
<br />
Bootleg video is remediated in several popular forms: the DVD (and the various forms it inspires) exudes the same materiality of a video cassette in that they are tangible storage for audiovisual content. TiVo, and other consumer-grade digital video recording devices, mimic the VCR. Such devices are familiar because they occupy the same physical space in the home as the VCR. (Using a computer to timeshift televised broadcast can be achieved using some cables and a computer with good image capturing software; the design of the TiVo is replete with functional nonsense to materially replicate the experience of using the VCR and its form factor only manifests popular nostalgia for the original object.) Although these technologies are used in pirating media, neither of these products can reproduce the actual bootlegging experience. DVDs can be "ripped" and distributed, but since digital copies are indistinguishable from the original, the object's personal history is never expressed. TiVo's are designed to hold a limited amount of media on an on-board hard drive that cannot be switched. This limitation (definitely an intentional deterrent against the bootlegger's instinct to hoard beloved media) forces the viewer to periodically choose what to keep and what to delete forever&mdash; this practice encourages a new view of media as transient objects to be taken up promiscuously, as opposed to video which demands a certain degree of monogamy. You Tube is a slightly more accurate remediation of bootleg video as a mode of mediation, despite its lack of a physical or material form. As a video "goes viral," its trajectory can be traced and reflected upon. On You Tube, one's position as viewer is always seen in context of who else has seen the video, and how the video has circulated through networks of thousands/millions/billions of similarly-positioned viewers, or lovers.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
* Crary, Jonathan. <i>Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century</i>. The MIT Press. 1990.<br />
* Flusser, Vilém. <i>The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design</i>. Reaction Books. 1999.<br />
* Gitelman, Lisa. <i>Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines</i>. Stanford University Press, 1999. <br />
* Hilderbrand, Lucas. <i>Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright</i>. Duke University Press. 2009.<br />
* Kittler, Fredrich. <i>Gramophone, Film, Typewriter</i>. Stanford University Press, 1999.<br />
* Spielmann, Yvonne. <i>Video: The Reflexive Medium</i>. The MIT Press. 2008.<br />
* Zizek, Slavoj. "'I Hear You with My Eyes'; or, The Invisible Master" in <i>Gaze and Voice as Love Objects</i>. Duke University Press. 1996.<br />
* Zizek, Slavoj. "The Interpassive Subject" in <i>Traveses</i>. Centre Georges Pompidou. 1998. [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/slavoj-zizek/articles/the-interpassive-subject/]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Peruvian_Quipu&diff=12703
Peruvian Quipu
2010-11-24T14:50:20Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12523 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>The Inca ''quipu'' still remains somewhat of a mystery to today's scholars, and while there are many plausible and likely hypotheses as to the true functions this device served, a specific and definite answer has yet, and may never, be uncovered. Some believe the quipu represents a form of proto-writing, while others feel it embodies a system of writing all on its own. But regardless of the different magnitudes of functionality that are thought to have been applied to the ''quipu'' by the Incas, it is unanimously agreed that it was an extraordinarily intricate system in which to store information.<br />
[[Image:FirefoxScreenSnapz004.png|thumb| ]]<br />
<br />
==Brief Description==<br />
A typical ''quipu'' consisted of a number of pendent and often subsidiary pendent strings made from cotton and sometimes wool, that were suspended from a main horizontal cord. Knots representing numbers were tied into the pendent strings and occasionally into the main cord, and the strings were dyed various colors in order to define the different subjects to which the numbers referred.<br />
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==Encoding: The Symbolic Systems of the Quipu==<br />
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''Quipus'' were assigned both a vertical and horizontal direction, causing both the encoding and decoding of a ''quipu'' to be a multi-directional, or nonlinear experience. "The establishment of the points where the strings were attached did not have to follow any set left-to-right or right-to-left sequence" (Ascher 33). The positions of the strings were set by their points of attachment, and it is the relative position, along with the colors and the knots, that rendered the recording meaningful. Essentially then, to be a quipumaker, one had to grasp the concept of transcribing data into a three dimensional, nonlinear medium. Similarly, the direct construction involved in recording information on a ''quipu'' depended to a large degree on the maker's tactile sensitivity and familiarity with the medium. "In fact, the overall aesthetic of the ''quipu'' was related to the tactile: the manner of recording and the recording itself [were] decidedly rhythmic; first in the activity, second in the effect" (32). Therefore, a lot of the skill required to efficiently manipulate a ''quipu'' stemmed from practicing the same motions again and again, until the motions came naturally and automatically.<br />
[[Image:PreviewScreenSnapz001.png|thumb|''Quipu'' Diagram]]<br />
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As mentioned, the overall function of a ''quipu'' was to record and store information, although exactly what kind and to what level of sophistication is still debated. The process of encoding was very intricate and consisted of very specific and intentional manipulations of the string to create symbols that would correspond to any number of things, ideas, dates etc. However, there did not exist a universal book of codes in which to follow; each ''quipu'' constructed was very personal to the ''quipucomayac'' to which it belonged. Therefore, in order to formulate a better idea of the information stored in a given ''quipu'', one can explore its individual components, but must always keep in mind its relation to the ''quipu'' as a whole. <br />
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*'''Strings/Cords''' <br />
Unlike media such as clay and paper in which symbols are applied to the surface, the strings of a ''quipu'' functioned as both the surface and the writing tool itself. In addition to being knotted and dyed, the ''quipucomayac'' had the option of positioning the cords on different levels, in different directions, and in relative positions ( Archer 31). <br />
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*'''Knots'''<br />
There were several different type of knots used in the making of a ''quipu'', most of which have been determined to correspond to numbers. However, its believed that such numbers were used to represent both quantities, and labels.<br />
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[[Image:HP Photosmart StudioScreenSnapz002.png|thumb|Samples of Quipu Knots]]<br />
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*'''Space'''<br />
Its not simply the knot, length, color and number of subsidiary pendents employed that must be taken into account when recording data using a ''quipu''. A ''quipucomayac'' must also attend closely to the necessary spacial arrangement that must be created for accurate evaluations, specifically in terms ease and efficiency of entering and then recalling information. <br />
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*'''Colors'''<br />
The number of colors used on a particular ''quipu'' is dictated by the number of categories it encompasses.<br />
"So, too, a color system increases in complexity as the number of contexts it describes increases and as statements of relationship become involved" (Archer 31). Generally, the clarification of such relationships are encoded via the overall patterning used through out the ''quipu''(Ascher 31).<br />
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-Candy-Cane Effect: two solid colors twisted together <br />
<br />
-Mottled Fffect: two of candy-cane strings twisted together using the opposite twist direction <br />
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-Joining Effect: two solid colors that are joined so part of the cord is one color and the rest of it is another color.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, the color coding of cords also functions to unite the largely tactile nature of the ''quipu'' with the visual. This is accomplished as color coded cords that are closely connected become intertwined with the resistor color system.<br />
<br />
==Was It Writing?==<br />
<br />
===Mnemonic Knot-Records===<br />
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There are many scholars that firmly believe the quipu to be an extremely advanced and detailed mnemonic device; a function that is reported as working both very efficiently and successfully. In noting how precisely traditions and records were preserved, Sir Clements Markham describes the passing down of the Paccari-tampu myth. "It is told by Garcilasso de la Vega, Cieza de Leon, Betanzos, Balboa, Morua, Montesinos, Salcamayhua and Sarmiento, all agreeing sufficiently closely to prove that precisely the same tradition had been handed down, with the same details, to their various informants" ( Markham 140). Similarly, according to Cyrus Day, the ''quipucamayas'' in charge of a ''quipu'' served as the official historians of the empire evidently relied on the usual psychological expedients-association, interest, concentrations, and repetition-in order to fix the facts in their memories (39-40)<br />
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===Binary Coding===<br />
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Perhaps the most interesting hypothesis for the potential meaning of these bundles of knotted cords is a theory proposed by Dr. Gary Urton, author of ''Signs Of The Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records''. In his book, Urton suggests that the Inca ''quipu''encoded more than just the previously thought commercial transactions, including the preservation of literature, poetry, science and any other information that could be documented via a system of writing. Urton describes "the beginnings of sketching out a theory of interpreting the hierarchical and asymmetrical signs of, especially, non-decimal khipus as the architecture for canonical literatures whose essential components would have been noted by the khipukamayuq and used as the framework for constructing narrative recitation" (Urton 164). <br />
<br />
Urton argues that the systems of patterned differences in spinning, plying, knotting, numbers, and colors in the ''quipu'' are all binary in nature and interact with each other to form an information system with seven-piece sequences that function in a similar fashion to the binary language employed by computers. (Urton 140)<br />
Therefore, he concludes that we must continue the analysis of the ''quipu'' with the understanding that all structural and physical features interacted on a semiotic level.<br />
[[Image:PreviewScreenSnapz002.png|thumb|Marcia Archer holding a ''quipu'']]<br />
<br />
==A Decoding Nightmare==<br />
<br />
For anyone aside from the original makers of ''quipus'', the information encoded remains, at least to some degree, uncertain. Spanish chroniclers mentioned both cultural ''quipus'', which "'recorded' laws, rites, treaties, speeches, and history" (Day 39), in addition to statistical ''quipus'', which included a catalog of crops and agricultural produce, herds of domestic and wild animals, stores of wool and cotton, weapons and other military supplies - everything in the empire, in fact, that could be counted (Day 39). However, both cultural and statistical ''quipus'' employed many of the same manipulations to encode different data. Therefore, the question continuously arises as to how one can accurately asses the meaning of, say, a yellow string on one ''quipu'' versus that of a yellow string from another.<br />
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===Pops and Hisses===<br />
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Systems that employ color coding, or any type of representational signs and symbols, must remain relatively fixed and inflexible for it to flourish among a group of people. The meanings assigned to each color must be defined and agreed upon by everyone utilizing the system, and the amount of signs must remain reasonable to meet efficiency needs. Individual users can not alter the meaning signified by a particular color or length of a string without extending that change to be accepted unanimously. However, such crucial traits of a successful coding system are largely lost with the ''quipu''. Of course, for the purposes of keeping information confidential, the random and flexible nature employed by the ''quipucomayacs'' prevented any sort of overarching associations to be made between the sign and the signifier and signified,<br />
<br />
Furthermore, there are so many slight variations in the shape and style of the knots and colors used in ''quipus'', with each slight alteration supposedly holding a different meaning. This raises questions as to what can be interpreted as what kind of knot; the encoding system of the ''quipucomayacs'' doesn't appear to leave room for differences that may result from variations in "hand writings" so to speak. While it is meant to be a very controlled and stylized process of recording, at least in terms of form, its signs and symbols overlap to the point where possible differences among its users are ignored. As noted by Ascher and Ascher, "Quipumakers differ from each other in the way that no two people write alike. Quipumakers also differ in the way that some people write more legibly then others (70)."<br />
<br />
===Formal Prohibitions===<br />
<br />
The ''quipu'' as a communicative device was highly selective; only the privileged, important men of the Inca community were taught how to create and interpret this system of recording. As aforementioned, these men were known as ''Quipucamayacs'', or quipu-makers. <br />
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The Inca civilization functioned as a bureaucracy, which, according to Max Weber, is a type of administration that fundamentally means: "the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge" (Ascher 33). Therefore, for the Incas, knowledge truly did equal power, and that knowledge was measured in large part by the amount of records they had stored. Furthermore, Ascher and Ascher note the characteristic nature of a bureaucracy as one where its records are peculiar to itself, and remain that way. So to be a ''quipucamayac'' signified specialized knowledge, power and status, but also the responsibility of being an official historian for the Inca empire.<br />
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For this reason, it's understandable that ''quipucamayacs'' "never let their ''quipus'' out of their hands, and they kept passing their cords and knots through their fingers as to not forget the tradition which it was their function to remember" (Day 39-40). Perhaps one of the few times the ''quipucamayacs'' would separated from their ''quipus'' was for the purpose of sending a messgae. According to Cyrus Lawrence Day, "Trained runners called chasquis were stationed in pairs at intervals of about a mile along the imperial highways. Running at top speed and handing their ''quipus'' on, one chasqui to another, as in a relay race, they could transmit a message to Cuzco from two or three hundred miles away in twenty-four hours" (39).<br />
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The only addition to ''quipucamayas'' were Amautas, or learned men and councilors, who were also knowledgeable about the techniques necessary to understand the information stored by a ''quipu''. While they didn't have a hand in composing them, the Amautas, along with the ''quipucamayas'', played an integral role in the maintenance of Inca culture as traditions were passed down from generation to generation.<br />
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==Works Cited==<br />
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* Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. "Civilization Without Writing - the Incas and the Quipu." ''The Media of Early Civilization.'' 28-33. <br />
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* Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. ''Code of the Quipu.'' Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan P, 1981. <br />
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* Bingham, Hiram. "The Incas and Their Civilization." ''Lost City of the Incas.'' New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1948. 4-10.<br />
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* Day, Cyrus L. "Mnemonic Knots." ''Quipus and Witches' Knots.'' Lawrence: The University of Kansas P, 1967. 14-40. <br />
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* Markham, Sir Clemets. "Language and Literature of the Incas." ''The Incas of Peru.'' New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1910. 137-140.<br />
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* Urton, Gary. ''Signs Of The Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records.'' Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. 140-164.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Duplicating_Polygraph&diff=12702
Duplicating Polygraph
2010-11-24T14:50:12Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12524 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image: polygraph.jpg|400px|thumb|Hawkins & Peale Patent Polygraph No. 37.]]<br />
<br />
The duplicating polygraph is a mechanical device used for reproducing images and handwriting. The device was most popular in the early 19th century, particularly in the hands of various American statesman. The mechanical logics for the device were based on the pantograph, a 17th century tool created for drafting and image reproduction. <br />
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The duplicating polygraph is not to be confused with the contemporary electric polygraph, or "lie detector". <br />
<br />
== Etymology ==<br />
<br />
From the Greek, polygraph literally means “many hands” or “many writings” (the suffix ''-graph'' implies not simply the hand, but that which is written with or by the hand). According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the earliest form of the word is adjectival and dates to the early 18th century, referring to a prolific individual or voluminous book. Instances of the word in the late 18th century refer to “a person who imitates or very closely resembles another; an imitator, an imitation.” Thus, the word (as both a noun, ''polygraph'', and an adjective, ''polygraphic'') initially implied a form of personal mimesis in which one individual adopts the social significations of another. Its usage as a noun in reference to the mechanical device is not recorded in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' until 1803.<br />
<br />
== "Frame" and "Origins" of the Polygraph ==<br />
<br />
The polygraph emerged in the late 18th century as merely one of a score of instruments designed and patented for the mechanical reproduction of handwriting. It burgeoned from a emerging anxiety regarding the ephemerality of print, as well an increasing socio-political desire to compile information for the benefit of posterity. <br />
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Late eighteenth and early nineteenth century inventors employed two methods for overcoming the singularity of handwriting: <br />
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1. transferring ink to another sheet of paper or tissue via applied pressure, as seen with James Watts' copying press patented in 1780<br />
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2. constructing a device to copy movement of the hand by using the hand itself as a motor, as seen with the pantograph and the polygraph<br />
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The copying press was wildly popular in the late 18th and 19th century, and was used by figures such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson (Bedini 10-3). The difficulty of the copying press, however, was that the inks used could only be transferred to tissues; it could not produce instantly duplicated letters, only referents of the original letter. The handwriting could be duplicated, but not the material letter itself. <br />
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===Pantographic Reproduction===<br />
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[[Image:pantograph.jpg|300px|thumb|The pantograph documented by Christoph Scheiner in 1631.]]The pantograph offered a means to reproduce the act and moment of inscription itself. The first known accounted pantograph was published by the German Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner in 1631. Composed of four light, sturdy rods jointed to form a parallelogram, with pencils attached at two opposing joints, the pantograph allowed for an image to be traced and reproduced at larger, smaller or exact sizes (Bedini 31). <br />
<br />
Devices based on the geometry of the pantograph were initially used for the production and reproduction of drawings, landscapes and miniatures (Bedini 35). Pantographic mechanisms were employed in the service of writing as early as 1648 and throughout the 18th century, but these efforts were cumbersome and impractical. The French artist Cotteneuve produced a pantographic device in 1763, presenting it at the Royal Academy of Sciences, and called it a “polygraphe” or “copiste habile” (skillful copyist) (Bedini 38).<br />
<br />
===Polygraphs Proper===<br />
<br />
[[Image:brunel.jpg|350px|thumb|Patent for Brunel's "Writing and Drawing Machine".]]<br />
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The first popularly used polygraph was developed by Marc Isambard Brunel, an architect and civil engineer from France who escaped to the United States and then settled in England. He was first granted an American patent in January 1799 for a “machine for writing with two pens” (the American patent was lost in the Great Patent Fire of 1836). Brunel's polygraph was a framework device that remediated the pantograph's parallelogram; the writer wields the pen on one side of the device and whatever is inscribed is reproduced by a jointed pen on the other side of the frame. On April 11, 1799, Brunel was granted a patent for the device in England, where it enjoyed some popularity. The patent abstract reads as follows:<br />
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'''''Brunel 11th April 1799''' 2305. A grant unto MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL, of the parish of St. Mary, Newington, in the county of Surry, gent, for his new invented writing and drawing machine, by which two or more writings or drawings resembling each other may be made by the same person at the same time; to hold to him, his exors, admors, and assigns, within England, Wales, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed for the term of fourteen years pursuant to the statute; with a clause to inroll the same within one calendar month from the date thereof. W.H.M. at Westm, the 11th day of April, in the year above'' (Woodcroft 424). <br />
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The significance of this invention is located in the notion of "by the same person at the same time." In the case of the polygraph, the moment of composition and the moment of reproduction are temporally condensed into the singular act of an ''individual's handwriting''. The duplicating polygraph should be understood as symptomatic of a particular crisis of the sign in early modernity. As suggested by Jean Baudrillard, modernity is marked by a fracture between social signifiers and their signifieds (Crary 12). In the medieval period, the sign referred specifically to a particular position within a social order: "An interdiction protects the sign and assures them a total clarity; each sign refers unequivocally to a status" (qtd. in Crary 11-2). Alternatively, the mechanical and industrial reproduction inaugurated in early modernity divorces the signifier from the realm of handcraft, and in turn, from its discrete relationship to its signified. The mechanical duplication of signs allows for endless mimetic possibilities, and eventually renders an end to mimesis itself. The crisis of the signs in modernity is that signs, even reproduced, are no longer imitations, but duplications, marked by “equivalence and indifference” (qtd. in Crary 12). <br />
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The presence of the ''hand'' "at hand" in the polygraph is thus significant. The reproduction of the handwritten at the very moment of the writing itself provides an assurance against Baudrillard's signifiers of "indifference." The temporal suturing of writing, writer and reproduction guarantees a remainder of "essence" attached to the letter itself. In an early modernity under the thrust of a “proliferation of signs on demand”, the presence of ''hand''writing becomes the last vestige of ''hand''craft. Heidegger makes such a relationship explicit in his Parmenides lectures, in which he argues that the hand holds the “essence of man”:<br />
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''"Man himself acts through the hand; for the hand is, together with the word, the essential distinction of man. Only a being which, like man, 'has' the word, can and must 'have' 'the hand.' Through the hand occur both prayer and murder, greeting and thanks, oath and signal, and also the 'work' of the hand, the 'hand-work,' and the tool. The handshake seals the covenant. The hand brings about the 'work' of destruction. The hand exists as hand only where there is disclosure and concealment. No animal has a hand, and hand never originates from a paw or a claw or a talon. [...] Man does not 'have' hands, but the hand holds the essence of man, because the word as the essential realm of the hand is the ground of the essence of man."'' (qtd. in Kittler 198)<br />
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For Heidegger, it is the typewriter that will later tear writing, and thus the essence of the human, from "the essential realm of the hand" (qtd. in Kittler 198). As an instrument that preserves the presence of the hand at the moment of reproduction, the polygraph assures equivalence ''without'' indifference, to turn Baudrillard's phrase back on himself. In this critical and historical context, the polygraph emerges as a medium straddling an anxious historical chasm between free-floating, mechanically-identical signifiers of sameness, and a socio-political desire to guarantee human presence at the moment of writing and reproduction.<br />
<br />
===Hawkins' Polygraph===<br />
<br />
Four years later, Brunel's polygraph received challenge from a similar device produced by Philadelphia inventor John Isaac Hawkins. Hawkins' machine was in principle similar to Brunel's machine, with the primary distinction being that the duplication occurred side-by-side in Hawkins device rather than across the frame of the polygraph. The production of the polygraph with done in collaboration with fellow Philadelphia inventor, Charles Willson Peale. Peale offered to prepare a preliminary patent application. At first uncertain about the originality of the invention, they finally determined that Hawkins invention differed significantly from Brunel's. <br />
<br />
An American patent was granted May 17, 1803 for the “Improvement in the pentagraph and parallel ruler”. A British patent was granted in September 1803:<br />
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'''''Hawkins 24th Sept. 1803''' 2735 A grant unto ISAAC HAWKINS, of Bordenton, in the Unites States of America, now residing in King Street, Clerkenwell, in the county of Middx, merchant, for his new invented machinery & methods for writing, painting, drawing, ruling lines, & other things, and for applying parts of the aforesaid machinery to other purposes; to hold to him, his exors, admors, and assigns, within England, Wales, & the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed for the term of fourteen years pursuant to the statute; with a clause to inroll the same within one calendar month from the date thereof. W.H.M. at Westminster, the 24th day of September, in the year above'' (Woodcroft 493). <br />
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An anonymous article published in Philadelphia's Salem Gazette in 1803 describes Hawkins' polygraph as a device which "multiplies copies of writing, or rather makes originals." Again, the significance of the device lies in its ability to make multiple originals, rather than imitations or referents of the original.<br />
<br />
== Thomas Jefferson and the Polygraph ==<br />
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''On five months full tryal of the Polygraph with two pens, I can now conscientiously declare it a most precious invention. Its superiority over the copying press is so decided that I have entirely laid that aside; I only regret that it had not been invented 30 years sooner, as it would have enabled me to preserve copies of my letters during the war, which to me would have been a consoling possession.''<br />
<br />
- Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, August 19, 1804. Later republished as an endorsement in an advertisement for the Polygraph in Poulson’s Daily American Advertiser on December 6, 1804.<br />
[[Image: jeffersons polygraph.jpg|300px|left|thumb|One of Jefferson's polygraphs, "Hawkins & Peale Patent Polygraph No. 57".]]<br />
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Thomas Jefferson is perhaps the polygraph’s most famed user and his advice to Charles Willson Peale, the developer of the device in the United States, had a direct impact on the refinement and advancement of the polygraph. This section will elaborate why Jefferson found the polygraph so appealing in his work, the implications of duplication for the maintenance of a government record, and his correspondence with Peale regarding improvements to the machine. <br />
[[Image: jefferson filing table.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Filing table used by Jefferson to store his correspondence.]]<br />
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Writing letters was an intense preoccupation for Jefferson, an activity that took up half his day and culminated into the production of close to 20,000 letters. [http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/dayinlife/cabinet/home.html 1] He kept the duplicates of these letters, produced by the polygraph, in filing presses, which were organized alphabetically and chronologically in his personal archive in Monticello. [http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/dayinlife/cabinet/home.html 2] His meticulous attention to record keeping has been accredited by some to two experiences in which all of his books and papers were lost. The first was an incident on February 1, 1770, where his family home in Shadwell was burnt to the ground with all of possessions. The second, in 1780, when Benedict Arnold’s raid on Richmond destroyed much of Virginia’s records, which included Jefferson’s personal and public papers (Bedini 1). <br />
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Jefferson also had less personal reasons to maintain records of his correspondence. Involved with the creation of the United States during its early, formative period, records were also a means to establish a heritage for a nation with an emerging identity. Jay Fliegelman, in his book ''Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Natural Language, and the Culture of Performance'', argues that the importance of persuasive rhetoric in the United States was especially key in this period, where the orator was to convince the listener not only through coherence but through the usage of expressive emotion. Fliegelman sees this as the origin of a distinct form of independent selfhood, where all expression is a form of self-expression, and takes Jefferson as a primary figure within this rhetorical shift (Fliegelman 2). <br />
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One could perhaps extrapolate from this argument that Jefferson was also interested in giving an expressive voice to the new republic through the formation of a record. Cornelia Vismann in ''Files: Law and Media Technology'' would not doubt concur: in her discussion of the modernization of Prussia in the early 1800s, she argues that, “By anticipating how it will be viewed by future history, the state becomes a subject of history. Archiving its files amounts to the administration of an estate on a state level...Administrative acts reveal themselves to be historical anticipations” (Vismann 120). Similarly, the United States was developing its identity in Jefferson’s time with an attention towards future historical importance, thus the formation of an archive was closely aligned with the United States as a “subject of history” in Vismann’s terms. The production of documentation and correspondence increased as part of this project, necessitating copy devices. For statesmen, such as Jefferson, the polygraph in particular facilitated copied letters which maintained the imprint of handwriting and the paper weight of the original letter, yielding an air of authority and authenticity. (Stakes that were especially crucial during this period, see Polygraphs Proper [http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Duplicating_Polygraph#Polygraphs_Proper 3]) Under these circumstances, Jefferson recommended the polygraph heartily to many of his colleagues in government and to governmental representatives from other nations. In the year 1804, chief clerk of the Department of State Jacob Wagner and professional surveyor Isaac Briggs purchased polygraphs on the recommendation of Jefferson (Bedini 87), and Jefferson gave the polygraph as a gift to the Tunisian ambassador Siddi Suliman Mella Menni (Bedini 134) as well as Commodore Edward Preble of Sicily (Bedini 117).<br />
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[[Image: parts.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Jefferson's collection of polygraph parts.]]<br />
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Jefferson first encountered the polygraph through friend, engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe demonstrated the device to him in 1804 and Jefferson asked to borrow it. Latrobe then ordered one for Jefferson, and Peale decided to present the polygraph as a gift to the president. Peale was to continue to develop customized polygraphs after this initial gift, according to Jefferson’s requests, recommendations and feedback. Jefferson took on an almost informal advisory role in the development of the device, addressing some of the design flaws of the original. Jefferson’s first observation was that the wooden writing surface would become warped over time, and suggested an alternate placement of the wood akin to that of parquet floors (which he had recently installed in his house) that would prevent movement of the wood slab (Bedini 71). Peale considered his idea, until he realized that the warping of the wood was the result of inaccurately drilled holes, which he remedied by improving the drills. <br />
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In April, May and August of 1804, Peale was to produce three additional customized polygraphs for the president, according to his specifications. The first, a portable version, had a removable cover, instead of folding up into the appliance, and ink holders at each end, to provide for more ink, both Jefferson’s ideas (Bedini 73). The second was a stationary model, which doubled as a writing desk. Jefferson suggested an extra screw be added to the copying pen, so that it could be adjusted. Peale also added new alterations on his own, providing a lighter pen bar as well as a stay for the pen bar, which was a new modification recently introduced by Hawkins (Bedini 77). The third version was to be a replica of the second, intended for use in Monticello. Jefferson also requested that the inkholders be moved higher and placed in a tray, and the desk portion was to be shallower in this third model (Bedini 80). Both the portable and stationary models were elaborated through an ongoing discussion about the instrument between Peale and Jefferson. Jefferson, in later correspondence with Peale, was also responsible for introducing new inkpots, which were more convenient in shape and size (Bedini 81). Jefferson also complained about the fragility of the pens, an observation that lead Peale to modify their design, making them wider above the point and increasing their concavity to hold more ink. (Bedini, 83)<br />
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If Jefferson built up his archive to create a record for the United States as a nation, he succeeded in doing so in large part due to the polygraph. The copies of his correspondence produced through the copying press, from 1785 to the beginning of 1804, used less durable paper and ink, and his letters preserved through this method are now, to a great extent, illegible. (Bedini 204) Letters produced via the polygraph, however, have held up to the pressures of wear and time, and still remain legible today. (Bedini 204) In its ability to produce a longstanding record, Jefferson's "most precious invention", the polygraph, was indeed superior to the copying press.<br />
<br />
== Advertisement and Reception in America ==<br />
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Despite the enthusiasm of Jefferson and Latrobe, and Peale’s citation of their praises in a host of printed advertisements from 1804 to 1806, the polygraph largely failed to capture the American imagination. While Hawkins sold all of the 150 polygraphs manufactured in England, Peale sold approximately 60 of the 80 polygraphs he produced in the U.S. (Bedini 187). In 1807, advertisements for two-pen polygraphs patented by P.A. Meiser and E. Seargeant appeared in newspapers along the Eastern seaboard. Meiser and Seargeant also advertised "A Polygraphic Book Machine," or a mechanism which allows letters to be copied into a book through carbon copy: the less-expensive method that would surpass the polygraph in popularity, especially when combined with the typewriter. Peale retired in 1810, and by 1809, polygraphs are mentioned in print only as items for sale at auction or in estate sales.<br />
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Looking at newspapers from the Early Republic, this section will address the problem of selling the polygraph to the American public. While the polygraph failed to become a technology of litigation, administration or mercantile operation, it spoke to fundamental issues of authenticity and authorship that arose in the 19th Century when, as Jonathan Crary describes (evoking Heidegger), “new technologies and forms of exchange put in question notions of the ‘hand’” (Crary 22). <br />
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=== The hands of good men ===<br />
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As he readied his first polygraphs for sale in America, Peale expressed anxiety over the masses getting a hold of his meticulously constructed machines. “Write to me whether you think anything more is necessary to be done, before we send this the Polygraph into the world amongst fools & knaves,” he asked Latrobe in 1803, “yet I most certainly prefer their falling into the hands of good men as I wish to work only for such” (Bedini 56). While a major selling point of the polygraph was that it saved labor, its manufacture was relatively labor-intensive. As Peale outlines in his first advertisement, published in ''Poulson's American Daily Advertiser'' on October 3, 1803:<br />
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''Every invention that saves labour and time merits attention and approbation of the inhabitants of America [...] My desire to promote the manufactory of an invention which promises to become to generally useful, prompts me to superintend a work of machinery to perform several similar movements, which I know must be executed with great accuracy, otherwise the best of intentions might be destroyed or lost to the public, wherefore I have spared neither labour or expense to simplify the machinery'' (qtd. in Bedini 52-53).<br />
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Peale employed two cabinet makers to build the machines. While the well-built, carefully tested polygraph was easy to use, because of its meticulous construction, it was not so easy to fix. Heavily invested in their performance, Peale was often on call to fix and improve the machines. The reputation of a burgeoning technology was at stake, and, akin to the signature or the spoken guarantee, Peale's commitment to servicing the machines attached a certain ethos to commerce: "I most certainly prefer their falling into the hands of ''good'' men as I wish to work only for such". <br />
[[Image: peale ad.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Advertisement printed in ''Poulson's American Daily Advertiser'', Jul. 10, 1805.]]<br />
It is no surprise, therefore, that Peale "signed" all of his advertisements by printing his name in italicized letters above or below. It is also telling that signature machines - which conserve both labor and authenticity - are the primary remediation of the polygraph (Bedini 199).<br />
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In addition to values accorded to labor and authenticity, price also shaped the polygraph market. Polygraphs were a considerable investment: Peale asked $50 for the two pen model, and $60 for three pens - approximately $955 and $1145 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp] The machine was thus lodged in an elite network shaped by literacy and affluence, a network it reinforced by preserving rather disseminating information. The polygraph "is used only by a few litterary [sic] men, who will take pains to save themselves troubles," Latrobe observed in a letter to Jefferson in 1817 (qtd. in Bedini 173). Of the sixty polygraphs sold in the U.S., Latrobe reported, close to forty were sold by his personal recommendation.<br />
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As the revenue necessary to support the production of polygraphs failed to materialize, Peale endeavored to extend his business based on the model of handwritten correspondence to a more public market through print ads and demonstrations - to little avail. An advertisement placed by Peale's son Rembrant in the ''Baltimore Federal Gazette'' on June 15, 1804 presages Latrobe's observation of polygraphs and "litterary men" (qtd. in Bedini 81-82):<br />
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''On Writing With Messrs. Peales’ Polygraphs''<br />
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''Twin offspring of th’inventive mind,'' /<br />
''Of Hawkins and Peale combin’d,'' /<br />
''The first conceiv’d th’ingenious thought,'' /<br />
''The last the high perfection wrought;'' /<br />
''Pois’d by the spiral chord above,'' /<br />
''The obedient pens in concert move.'' /<br />
''Triumph of art! amaz’d I view,'' /<br />
''A transcript fair of all I drew:'' /<br />
''So morning show’rs, and ev’ning dews,'' /<br />
''In swelling germs new life infuse,'' /<br />
''but if no genial warmth supply,'' /<br />
''The verdant buds, inert they lie,'' /<br />
''Till rous’d by Sol, and zephyr bland,'' /<br />
''The leaves unfold and flowers expand.'' /<br />
''Cowper''.<br />
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Here Rembrant writes in the characteristic lyrical style of the then recently deceased English poet William Cowper, and "signs" the advertisement with the poet's name. It is striking (and indicative of the polygraph's historical moment) that while Rembrant sings the praises of mechanically duplicating hand wrought expression - "The obedient pens in concert move. / Triumph of art! amaz'd I view" - his tactical mimicry hinges on the catoptric, generic nature of type.<br />
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Despite his son's poetic enterprise and his own sustained efforts to utilize print advertisement, Peale wrote to Hawkins in 1807, “I cannot make an impression on the public mind to produce a demand for Polygraphs, yet those who look at them always speak with admiration of the ingenious contrivance” (qtd. in Bedini 152). The need to "look at" the polygraph - to see it in person - highlights the difficulty of generating public appeal. Newspapers represented a convenient public forum, but, at this time, had no images. In print, the "ingenious contrivance" was typographically flattened beside ads for salt, the Albion Benevolent Society, a runaway slave named Jim, and patent antiseptic (''American Citizen'', New York, July 14, 1804).<br />
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=== Actions and words ===<br />
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The polygraph is a machine that shows its user how it works. As an article announcing the sale of polygraphs in 1803 describes, the polygraph “is so simple in the construction of its machinery that the movement is perfectly easy; not liable to get out of order; and the knowledge of using it obtained in one minute” (''Salem Gazette'', Massachusetts, Sept. 5, 1803). Though it has many parts and, as the back and forth between Peale and Jefferson suggests, could be endlessly tinkered with, the polygraph’s general mechanism is relatively obvious and simple to operate. Sitting down to write, the two pens, aligned side by side, are the immediate focus: grip one and begin to write, and the other moves right beside one’s original inscription. The device that joins the two pens moves visibly behind the guillotine, connected with the action of writing. Unlike print duplication, the hand plugs directly into and participates as a part of the copying machine. In ''Techniques of the Observer'', Crary observes that “[b]eginning in the nineteenth century, the relation between eye and optical apparatus becomes one of metonymy: both were now operating on the same plane of operation” (Crary 129). As a mechanical extension of handwriting (occupying the interval between the copying press and the typewriter), the polygraph engendered a similarly metonymic relationship between the hand, the inscription, and the copy.<br />
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Demonstration was thus an ideal way to introduce the polygraph. The machines were permanently on view at Peale’s museum in Philadelphia (in a room that also housed a mastodon skeleton), and he periodically distributed handbills to the public to come and take a look. Vice President Aaron Burr visited the museum in January of 1804 and purchased a polygraph on the spot (Bedini 59). To prospective buyers further a field, Peale sent copies of letters, noting that they had been written with the polygraph (Bedini 59). These letters were the “hello world” communiqués of handwritten duplications.<br />
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[[Image: tontine announcement.jpg|500px|thumb|left|Peale's invitation to "the citizens of New York" printed in the American Citizen, New York, Jul. 6, 1804.]]<br />
In July 1804, Peale traveled to New York City to demonstrate the polygraph at the Tontine Coffee House for two weeks. He was sure to place announcements in several New York papers, that, as David Henkin writes in his book ''City Reading: Written Words and Public Spaces in Antebellum New York'', “functioned as sites of public opinion and critical discussion of public affairs” at the turn of the nineteenth century. These papers “evoked broad networks of international shipping and commerce and reproduced a mode of discourse associated with the salon,” and the Tontine was “the symbolic center of this world” (Henkin 123). Thus the public space in which Peale chose to demonstrate the polygraph was more accurately a public sphere: an imagined community that corresponded to a certain vision of the polygraph’s market (Henkin 123).<br />
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The polygraph caught the attention of Tontine patrons, who, in the spirit of public debate, by turns marveled at the machine and dismissed it, contesting that they had seen the same technology in France - most likely referring to Brunel's earlier model (Bedini 85-86). When the crowd became too loud, Peale expressed himself by scribbling away with the polygraph. “I very frequently wrote answers to what they were saying—that had no bad effect I could rub those kind of grumbling geniuses pretty hardly without seeming to pay attention to what was said," Peale remarked in his diary, "and all the by standers were continually reading what I wrote” (qtd. in Bedini 86). Peale thus answered the skeptical crowd by performing the functionality of the medium: producing a handwritten copy simultaneously with the original.<br />
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Peale sold one polygraph during his week-long demonstration at the Tontine, to the diplomat John Armstrong (Bedini 86). This sale, along with continued support from the recently re-elected Jefferson, encouraged Peale to promote polygraphs to government offices. Peale traveled to Washington in December of 1804, and demonstrated the machine to members of Congress. While the statesmen admired the contrivance, Peale sold no polygraphs during his two-week stay (Bedini 101).<br />
<br />
[[Image: duel-hamilton-burr.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The duel between Hamilton and Burr, Jul. 11, 1804, Weehawken, New Jersey.]]<br />
Interestingly, Peale’s final announcement for his demonstration at the Tontine Coffee House on July 14th was printed next to death notice for the statesman Alexander Hamilton on the front pages of the ''New-York Gazette'' and the ''Republican Watch-Tower''. Hamilton had been shot two days prior, in a duel with Aaron Burr - the former vice president who bought a polygraph in early 1804. Burr had recently campaigned for governor of New York. During Burr’s unsuccessful run, Hamilton – a political rival – had joined the chorus of insults published in Federalist papers. What ultimately sparked Burr's challenge to Hamilton was a letter written by Charles D. Cooper published in the ''Albany Evening-Post'', which described Hamilton calling Burr "despicable" at a dinner party (Fleming 231).<br />
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Several days after Hamilton’s death, the ''Republican Watch-Tower'' publicized the controversy between the two statesmen by printing their private correspondence. This posthumous exposé was not surprising: the publication of Cooper's letter had sparked the duel, and the prospect of publicity strained the communication leading up to it. As historian Thomas Fleming writes, Hamilton "had no doubt that if he wrote a humble apology to Burr, it would appear in the ''Morning Chronicle'' the next day" (Fleming 288).<br />
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The following was printed in the ''Republican Watch-Tower'' on July 16, 1804:<br />
''TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC: The authenticity of the documents and the accuracy of the information which we have at last obtained, are beyond any question; and must put an end to all mistake or misrepresentation…The following is the correspondence that passed between General Hamilton and Colonel Burr, together with the conduct, motives and views of General Hamilton, written in his own hand.''<br />
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The ''Watch-Tower'' even reproduced Hamilton’s will: “In testimony whereof, I have hereto subscribed my hand.” <br />
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The anxieties of libel and slander and the discourse of authenticity that surround the duel is marked by the specter of “the hand” - crucial to this spectacle of man-to-man confrontation, but necessarily excluded from print. As the shared space of the July 14th front page suggests, this discourse also surrounds the polygraph: a technology that, for a moment, established an equivalence between "the essential realm of the hand," to recall Heidegger's words, and mechanical reproduction.<br />
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<br />
;References<br />
<br />
''American Citizen'', New York, July 6 and July 14, 1804.<br />
<br />
Bedini, Silvio A. ''Thomas Jefferson and His Copying Machines.'' Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1984.<br />
<br />
Crary, Jonathan. ''Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.<br />
<br />
''Federal Gazette'', Baltimore, June 15, 1804.<br />
<br />
Fleming, Thomas. ''Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America''. New York: Basic Books, 1999.<br />
<br />
Fliegelman, Jay. ''Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Natural Language, and the Culture of Performance''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.<br />
<br />
Henkin, David M. ''City Reading: Written Words and Public Spaces in Antebellum New York''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.<br />
<br />
Kittler, Friedrich. ''Gramophone, Film, Typewriter''. Trans. Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey and Michael Wutz. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1992.<br />
<br />
''Poulson's American Daily Advertiser'', Philadelphia, October 3, 1803 and July 10, 1805.<br />
<br />
''Republican Watch-Tower'', New York, July 16, 1804.<br />
<br />
''Salem Gazette'', Massachusetts, September 5, 1803.<br />
<br />
Vismann, Cornelia. ''Files: Law and Media Technology''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.<br />
<br />
Woodcroft, Bennet. ''Titles of Patents of Invention: Chronologically Arranged From March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoria)''. London: 1854.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
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[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Nickelodeon&diff=12701
Nickelodeon
2010-11-24T14:50:03Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12525 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:Outside.jpg|thumb|right|The outside of a Nickelodeon.]]<br />
<br />
The Nickelodeon theatre was an early motion-picture theatre named after the fact that admission generally cost one nickel. Developed during the early twentieth century, Nickelodeons provided spaces for longer, story films to be shown in lieu of the short films that were popular during that time. As a result, longer films became increasingly popular. This transition enhanced the movie-going experience because the longer a film's duration, the more emotionally involved an audience can become. Though originally associated with working-class audiences, the appeal of Nickelodeons extended into the upper classes as the years progressed. Nickelodeons also proved helpful in connecting members of immigrant communities, specifically in New York City.<br />
<br />
==The Rise of the Nickelodeon==<br />
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The first Nickelodeon theatre was opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905 by John P. Harris and Harry Davis, a local socialite with vaudeville interests. Within the year, a crop of Nickelodeon theatres sprang up around the city, and eventually spread to other places, including Manhattan. By 1908, between 8,000 and 10,000 Nickelodeon theatres existed in the United States, and by 1910, approximately 26 million Americans attended Nickelodeon theatres each week. This expansion marked a pivotal transition in the film industry and revolutionized American mass entertainment. For the first time, films had permanent homes and were able to be distributed nation-wide. In addition to entertainment value, this stability also created opportunities for interested parties to become involved in theatre and film distribution, ultimately bringing together various populations with the same interest: movies. This ability to find and widely distribute cheap movies on a large scale served to attract both the illiterate, as well as non-English speakers. Thus the Nickelodeon theatre become increasingly popular among the low income and immigrant populations, prompting intellectuals to describe the medium as a storytelling device for “naïve customers whose emotions were easily stimulated and whose pocketbooks were congenial to the 5-cent price” (Crowther). This rather critical portrayal of the Nickelodeon theatre and its customer base reflects the tension existing between different social classes at the time, as well as the idea that films were not considered "valued" art. In addition to films, the theatre offered live entertainment, often adding a comedian, animal act, or illustrated lecture before or immediately following the movie. "Scenic tours” were also of popular interest. Theatres would play rolls of travel pictures, which allowed the audience to feel that they were passing by the scenes on a railroad car.<br />
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===The Nickelodeon Theatre===<br />
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[[Image:Inside.jpg|thumb|left|The interior of a Nickelodeon.]]<br />
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Nickelodeon theatres were typically all the same design: rectangular and approximately twenty feet wide by eighty feet long, with the wall on the far side painted white, and a projector above the door. One scholar described the Nickelodeon as a "small, uncomfortable, makeshift theatre, usually a converted dance hall, restaurant, pawn shop, or cigar store, made over to look like a vaudeville emporium" (Schatz). In the theatre itself, a hand-cranked projector displayed the film along the back wall. Permanent seating, if there was any, existed on either side of the center aisle in the form of wooden benches or plywood chairs. The floor of the theatre was slanted and at the front, a small area housed a piano player, who provided musical accompaniment to the silent film being presented. The entrance to the Nickelodeon theatre was almost always an arch, with a ticket booth at the front. Above the box office, there was often a small window through which the projectionist might escape in the event of a fire. Because of the highly flammable properties of nitrate film, fires were a very real danger. Despite basic setups, some Nickelodeon theatres evoked a grandiose feeling, especially those that were designed in a Gothic style (Morrison).<br />
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===Longer Films & Storytelling===<br />
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Prior to the Nickelodeon theatre, films were comprised of single shots and displayed either short fiction or non-fiction scenes. The Pathé Freres Company, a French film company, was the first to experiment with longer story films. When they opened offices in New York City in 1903, American film producers took notice - especially The Edison Manufacturing Company. Such American companies began to imitate the new, longer style and consequently, Nickelodeons began to show longer films (i.e. Edison’s "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903).<br />
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[[Image:GreatTrainRobbery.jpg|thumb|right|Poster for "The Great Train Robbery," the first movie played by Harris & Davis at their Nickelodeon.]]<br />
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Although the Nickelodeons started with simpler, shorter films, the producers came to favor longer films because they allowed the producers to raise prices when selling film to exhibitors. Longer films also allowed for deeper, more complex story lines and stronger bonds between audiences and films. These films were excellent at “drawing spectators into the story and engaging them in the unfolding events, thus combining a form of entertainment which powerfully combined attractions with the pleasure of narrative” (Grieveson 78). These longer films, similar to the "scenic tour" films, allowed viewers to interact with the movie, becoming a part of its plotline and overall story.<br />
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===New York City and the Nickelodeon===<br />
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In the early 20th century, the Lower East Side of Manhattan was a large immigrant area - and also the location of the majority of New York City Nickelodeon theatres, which were strewn along the Bowery (Allen 4). These films were so popular that in New York City in 1910 alone, "between 1.2 and 1.6 million people (or more than 25 percent of the city's population) attended movies weekly" (Schatz). Because of the nature of silent films and the specific area in which they became prevalent in New York City, Nickelodeon theatres provided a sense of community to multiple levels of the social sphere, from the immigrant populations to blue-collar workers. In the theatre, a person's background and differences faded in light of the fact that they, and everyone else around them, were enjoying the same exact thing: the film.<br />
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==The Death of Silent Film==<br />
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===Thomas Edison and Film===<br />
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[[Image:FredOtto.jpg|thumb|left|Fred Ott's Sneeze.]]<br />
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Inventor Thomas Edison was an influential figure within both the silent and sound film industries. In 1891, he created and debuted the kinetograph, for taking silent film footage, and the kinetoscope, a small, silent film viewer. It was while working in his “motion picture studio” that he also produced "Fred Ott’s Sneeze" - a few seconds of footage with a stream of pictures depicting his worker, Fred Ott (Cohen 33). <br />
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It was then that Edison became interested in merging both sound and film, thereby bringing together the kinetoscope with his previous 1877 invention, the phonograph. He thought that combining the motion picture with sound “would provide delightful entertainment for millions of people" (Manchel 2). In 1894 while collaborating with another inventor, William Dickson, Edison was able to successfully create one of the first sound films. Dickson and Edison worked in his laboratory in New Jersey, and eventually created a short clip viewed on a small screen that a person could watch while using listening tubes from a phonograph. The screen showed Dickson tipping his hat and waving to Edison, while the phonograph played a greeting wishing Edison good morning and expressing Dickson’s hope that he would enjoy the “kinetophone.” Despite their success, Edison felt the need to delve further into movie projection and motion picture production, while Dickson decided to pursue sound film productions, effectively ending their 6 year professional relationship in 1895.<br />
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===A New Approach===<br />
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A significant problem with Edison’s sound films involved use of the phonograph itself. Because the recording quality of the machines was poor, actors had to stand extremely close to the phonograph for any sound to be recorded at all. This limited the filmmaking process greatly because it required that either the phonograph be shown in the clip, or that the audio be recorded separately and then synchronized with the picture. Although Edison believed the second approach to be easier, it proved largely unsuccessful, as sound quality in the theatres was still poor and synchronization was difficult. Other attempts at sound film were also pursued. Actors sometimes hid behind screens to recite lines and sound machines were employed to create special effects sounds. Ultimately, however, neither these nor Edison’s efforts were commercially successful. <br />
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Eventually, the invention of Lee De Forest’s audio amplifier in 1908 allowed sound films to become a reality. De Forest invented a vacuum tube that converted sound into rhythmic light. Unfortunately, the process of converting the light back into sound was not perfected until the end of World War I. By then, the Western Electric Company had taken over the execution of De Forest's idea, and in 1925 teamed up with Warner Brothers to improve and produce sound films (Manchel 4).<br />
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==References==<br />
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Allen, Robert C. "Motion Picture Exhibition in Manhattan 1906-1912: Beyond the Nickelodeon." Cinema Journal (1979): 2-15.<br />
<br />
Cohen, Paula Marantz. Silent Film & the Triumph of the American Myth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.<br />
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Crowther, Bosley. When Movies Were Young. New York: New York Times, 1955.<br />
<br />
Grieveson, Lee and Peter Kramer. The Silent Cinema Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.<br />
<br />
"history of the motion picture." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Sep. 2010.<br />
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/394161/history-of-the-motion-picture>.<br />
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Manchel, Frank. When Movies Began to Speak. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969.<br />
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Mezias, Stephen J. and Jerome C. Kuperman. "The community dynamics of entrepreneurship: The birth of the American film industry, 1895–1929." Journal of Business Venturing (2001): 209-233.<br />
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Morrison, Craig. "From Nickelodeon to Picture Palace and Back." Design Quarterly (1974): 6-17.<br />
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Schatz, Thomas. Hollywood: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge, 2004.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Jacquard_Loom&diff=12700
Jacquard Loom
2010-11-24T14:49:56Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12526 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div>[[File:Punchedcardloom.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Jacquard Loom]]<br />
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[[File:Jacquard-cards-cu.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Punched Cards]]<br />
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Jacquard's mechanical additions to the handloom gave rise to new, concrete media and sensory-specific effects that reflected changing stages in perception at the eve of the 18th century and the introduction into the 19th. The mechanized mediation of the self is also reflected through the fruit of this mechanized loom, where instead of two or three human operators, it reduced human agency down to one operator per machine, reducing the time and human presence necessary to complete the same quantity and quality of weaving. The diminishing of human agency and the increase of mechanized forms of labor paralleled the dismantling of the 18th century conception of the 'human sensorium', only to find that the mechanical jacquard loom devoured this mode of sensory mediation to reveal a new one: weaving as a mediatic skin interface. The mechanized weave altered the skeleton and structure of the woven product, setting it apart from its hand woven precursors by introducing the weave as a threaded matrix as opposed to a solid piece of block colors. The woven skin-as-interface captured both the rise of the physiological division of sensory faculties in the 19th century, and the violent erasure of human agency in the craft and production of mechanized weaving, channeling the idea that McLuhan first introduced that media are ever extensions of ourselves (McLuhan, 7). <br />
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== Joseph-Marie Jacquard and His Weaving Automaton ==<br />
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[[File:Silk-jacquard-memoire.jpg|200px|thumb|left|A Tapestry Portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard]]<br />
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In 1801, Joseph-Marie Jacquard exhibited a machine that mechanized the labor of weaving colored patterns in textiles. Promptly in 1806, France claimed it as property of the state and it soon afterward became the primary method of commercial weaving. <br />
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Joseph-Marie Jacquard came up with the idea of putting a pattern into holes on a card to produce a fabric design mechanically. He housed this punch card system in his mechanized loom, and produced a two-part machine consisting of the loom and the Jacquard frame, often just called the 'Jacquard'. The loom stood fastened to the floor, with the Jacquard frame suspended from the ceiling, resting on heavy beams. The loom incorporated the punch cards lined in order with each punch card pertaining to a row on the tapestry design, and a lifting mechanism, which the weaver himself operated with a treadle, eradicating the need for a draw boy or an assistant to orchestrate the shedding action. The Jacquard was responsible for housing the shedding mechanism away from the loom itself, and consisted of a series of vertical hooks from the bottom of which drew the harness cords together to operate them, connecting the loom and Jacquard together in mechanistic synchronicity. <br />
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The weaving action in both hand and mechanized looms utilized the warp and weft threads as coordinates. The warp threads ran parallel to the length of the weave, and the weft threads ran parallel to the width of the weave. The Jacquard performed the shedding mechanism by lifting each individual warp thread independently of the others, and reading the perforated cards. Each perforation corresponded to a single warp thread, and each weft was interlaced either over or under the warp threads depending on the presence or absence of a perforated hole. It was noted that unlike traditional hand weaving, the weft threads covered the entire span of the tapestry, so that the image was “composed of a matrix of warp and weft” (Stone, 1). The loom could be 'programmed', and patterns could be modified or switched by rearranging or replacing the card deck, creating a feedback loop between weaver, cards and loom (Keats, 88). The Jacquard cards provided a selecting medium for pattern-weaving that was applicable to both hand and power looms, and while the loom mechanism did eliminate the need for extra hands to be present and man the machine, it required a whole new level of pre-production and design planning to create the cards that would correspond to the desired pattern. At the time, there were perhaps fewer "[types] of mechanism where more accuracy was required than in the various machines which are employed for the preparation of Jacquard cards for the loom” (Woodhouse, 1), whether they be human or mechanical in nature.<br />
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== Weave as Skin Interface ==<br />
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“Adam and Eve were undoubtedly our first customers for textiles. The moment they discarded their fig leaf, there was created an immediate market for textile garments” (Blum, 4) <br />
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Nakedness requires an acknowledgment of discarded shields or skins, to cover the original skin. Textiles, in both in their artificial mimesis of skin as well as the necessary negation of skin in the act of covering it, provide an interesting point of reflection in which the body itself is mediated as a site of both visuality and touch. The further the mechanized process goes to cover the originary skin, the greater the art of deception, and correspondingly, the violence of inscription. As seen in the Oxford English Dictionary definition of 'skin', it is both "the natural external covering or integument of an animal removed from the body" and "the substance, esp. as a material for clothing"; this skin can also be "dressed and prepared as a surface for writing" (OED, "skin"). The weave coming out of the Jacquard loom tells a story about the medium much in the same way that "blueprints and diagrams, regardless of whether they control printing presses or mainframe computers, may yield historical traces of the unknown called the body" (Kittler, xl). The weave as a skin product here extends strongly beyond commerce or function, but carry what “remains of people… what media can store and communicate. What counts are not the messages or the content with which they equip so-called souls for the duration of a technological era, but rather… their circuits, the very schematism of perceptibility” (Kittler, xl-xli). In search of the traces of a missing body, then, one may find in the inscriptions of the mechanized matrix of warp and weft the lingering remains of a skin interface. <br />
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The associative trend for explaining the importance of the Jacquard loom in media history has been to relate it to early computer history, as seen in various accounts of various inventors remediated the Jacquard loom punch card in order to conceive of computational devices such as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and the Hollerith Punch Card. To flip the focus here, the loom may be viewed as a manifestation of a computer-based concept, the interface. Interfaces have multiple dimensions, and they "are the means through which we take clues and signals in a given culture. Learning new interface systems changes our behavior” (Flanagan, 306). The Jacquard loom set up an interface of mechanical and symbolically potent significance in the mediation of weaving: through the mechanization of hand-weaving, it changed the way the weave itself was fabricated, even if the way we perceive it as a whole appears unruptured. The weave produced by the Jacquard loom is likened to both a matrix and an epidermis, a skin interface “to describe an underlying topology of the self” (Flanagan, 312). This synthetic epidermis produces a weave of colors like skin pigmentation in its complexity. The texture is much like scar tissue, and indeed, the Jacquard punch cards are riddled with puncture holes, which must be sutured with thread much like bodily fiber and sinew to close the wound—the violence of the human agent, wiped out. <br />
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The human operator mechanism is reduced to one, and in its stead the loom spits out a mechanized weave, a skin to recall those eliminated. Through this assimilative act, the art of weaving itself changes in its sensory manifestation as well. The act of weaving on handlooms typically translated the original design through a process that resembled paint-by-numbers, in which "the cartoon is divided into regions, each of which is assigned a solid color based on a standard palette" (Stone, 2). Jacquard weaving differs in that the "repeating series of multicolored warp and weft threads can be used to create colors that are optically blended" (2). The eye apprehended the threads' combination of colors as a single color, which is a method that has been likened to pointillism. Pointillism itself originated from the discoveries madeby Eugène Chevreul a French chemist working at the time for Les Gobelins tapestry works in Paris. Chevreul, who was responsible also for developing the color wheel of primary and intermediary hues, noticed from his work at Les Gobelins that the perceived color of a particular thread was influenced by its surrounding threads, a phenomenon he called 'simultaneous contrast'" (2). The effect of constructing the tapestry with the weft threads spanning the entire width of the piece, the image composed is a pointillist matrix of warp and weft interlaced so that the colors that comprise the image no longer are contained but are interspersed to give the illusion of a solid block of color. The gradients of the piece created a pigmented, interwoven image instead of the categorical division of colors, and channeled a complicated texture of reality not unlike the surface texture and pigmentation of human skin itself. The texture of the weave itself undergoes a change; the visual illusion of ‘seamless’ imagery made in a reality of a concentrated matrix of pointillist coordinates. That something so aesthetically pleasing as a whole may look so grotesque up-close reveals the telling nature of the mechanized weave as uncanny product that causes one to distrust the senses, the danger always being that our mediatic systems may produce an “interface effect, to the point where people take leave of their senses” (Kittler, 2). <br />
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[[File:Magnoliaweave.png]]<br />
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[[File:CloseColorSelfPortraitTapestryDetail.JPG|300px|thumb|right|Chuck Close Self Portrait on Tapestry]]<br />
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== Refuted Touch == <br />
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The mechanized weave manifested itself first, then its observer, after. With its appearance, the jacquard loom fulfilled the priming action to prepare history for a new kind of sensory mediation where “these sense perceptions had to be fabricated first” (Kittler, 3). The Jacquard loom was a site of simultaneous separation of tasks in both technological and sensorial aspects. On one hand, the weaver moved from the immediate interaction of creating the tapestry only to relegate the tasks to the machine itself. On the other, the loom presented a site-specific body of a medium in history that housed the separation of the senses, where touch divorced vision as a holistic informant of the 18th century 'unified human sensorium' (Crary, 60). The chorus of hands diminished to one pair; human touch reduced, yet the weaving continued. The touch of hands used to mediate an understanding, or as the Oxford English Dictionary terms it, “To put the hand or finger, or some other part of the body, upon, or into contact with (something) so as to feel it; ‘to exercise the sense of feeling upon’”, “to bring (two things) into mutual contact to examine by touch or feeling” and “to bring by touching into some condition” (OED, “touch”). The knowledge of making one’s way around the world through tactile skill was overcome by mechanized performance, shifting sensory mediations from touch to sight. <br />
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Touch, and whatever 'conditions' and knowledge its 'mutual contact' brought along with it (OED, "touch"), was shunted out of critical thought from the decline of the 18th century into the rise of the 19th, which focused on the visual with the rising occupation with physiology. Jonathan Crary argues that the sense of touch, integral in the classical theories of vision in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gives way to a "subsequent dissociation of touch from sight", a "pervasive ‘separation of the senses’ and industrial remapping of the body in the nineteenth century" (Crary, 19). The product of the loom, as if to foreshadow the division of such perceptual thought, produced a tapestry made not of concrete components for an image-as-whole, but a latticed, sinuous weave that rejected the 18th century perception of vision and the senses as blocks categorically placed to create a holistic and cohesive whole in favor of a matrix or grid that threaded discrete and independent coordinates into a woven product. Bell’s account of Jacquard weaving and design works simultaneously with this shift in sensory attention by observing all the ways in which shade, lighting, and Chevreul’s concept of simultaneous contrast may bring about the greatest effect for “showing up the pattern on the damask”, where “it is the business of the designer to regulate what form it is to partake of” (Bell, 4-5). The product here is meant primarily now for a vision severed from the human sensorium that works parallel reflexivity with the woven matrix. Crary notes that the "loss of touch as a conceptual component of vision meant the unloosening of the eye from the network of referentiality incarnated in tactility and its subjective relation to perceived space” (19). The human touch loses sense of itself and surrenders it to the Jacquard loom: "[It] is uncanny in its precision. In its coordinated movements, it appears to have the selective powers of the human brain and the dexterity of living fingers” (Blum, 34). The human operative power over the Jacquard loom seems to merely be the supervision of sight to confirm the design and the operation work in tandem; the human weaver here is merely an eye. <br />
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The introduction of the jacquard loom thus symbolizes the violent erasure of two agents—the human operator, and a sensory mode of mediation in history. The "orderly accumulation and cross-referencing of perceptions on a plane independent of the viewer" (Crary, 59) contained the senses in a manifest, discrete network of 'reciprocal assistance' (60), an eighteenth-century thought that "could know nothing of the ideas of pure visibility to arise in the nineteenth century” (59). Instead of allowing such a sensually logical system to 'transcend its mere physical mode of functioning' (60), the Jacquard loom pointed to the human inadequacy to perceive and supervise all aspects of the loom's mechanisms at once. The woven product in turn, this matrix of warp and weft threads, pointed to the surpassing of the 18th century concept of an ‘overriding of the immediate subjective evidence of the body’ (60) in favor of the unexpected: the material resemblance to a skin interface to channel in the 19th century’s specific visuality-as-physiology. Once the perceived whole was eliminated, the complete sensorium dismantled from the human, what was left in his stead was the metonymic operator. Where did the missing pieces of human sensory agency go? The 19th century moves towards the “fabrication of so-called Man", whose "essence escapes into apparatuses” (Kittler, 16). The jacquard loom assumed some of the human tasks and produced in its place the missing skin that spoke for the eliminated sense of touch, a replacement for the fractured human sensorium.<br />
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== Works Cited ==<br />
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Bell, T.F. ''Jacquard Weaving and Designing''. UK: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. <br />
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Blum, Herman. ''The Loom Has a Brain: The Story of the Jacquard Weaver’s Art''. PA: Craftex Mills, Inc., 1958. <br />
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Crary, Jonathan. ''Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century''. MA: MIT Press, 1992. <br />
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Flanagan, Mary. ''Reskinning the Everyday''. Ed. Flanagan and Booth. re:skin. MA: MIT Press, 2006. <br />
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Keats, Jonathan. “Origins: The Mechanical Loom”. ''Scientific America'', No. 301, Issue 3, 2009. Pg. 88. <br />
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Kittler, Friedrich A. ''Gramophone, Film, Typewriter''. CA: Stanford University Press, 1986. <br />
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McLuhan, Marshall. ''Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man''. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994. <br />
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"Skin." ''Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989. Online. <br />
<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/><br />
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Stone, Nick. “Jacquard Weaving and the Magnolia Tapestry Project”. ''Magnolia Editions'', 2007. Web. April 18, 2010.<br />
<http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/Content/PressRelease/Magnolia_Tapestry_Proj.pdf><br />
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"Touch." ''Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989. Online. <br />
<http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/><br />
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Woodhouse, Thomas. ''Jacquards and Harnesses''. MacMillan and Co., 1923. <br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
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[[Category:Spring 2010]]<br />
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[[Category:Body]]<br />
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[[Category:Visuality]]<br />
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[[Category:Touch]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Grand_Guignol&diff=12699
Grand Guignol
2010-11-24T14:49:47Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12527 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
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<div> <br />
[[Image:GrandGuignol-Couverture.jpg|thumb|right|Les Crucifies]]<br />
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol was a theatre in Paris popular between World War I and World War II known for its naturalist horror shows with explicit violence. The 293-seat venue, the smallest in Paris, opened in 1897 as a naturalist theater staging taboo performances involving prostitutes and criminals. But the theater soon became a house of terror, featuring insane characters engaged in explicit acts of rape, brutal murders, disembowelment, and dismemberment. But the audience dwindled after World War II as real-life violence overshadowed that of the Grand Guignol, and the theatre closed down in 1962.<br />
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== Stageness and the Horror Machine ==<br />
=== Stageness ===<br />
[[Image:gg003.jpg|thumb|right|Les Crucifies]]<br />
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Essentially functioning as a circuit of horror, the primary mediatic dimension of Grand Guignol can usefully illustrated in terms of a sense of "stageness", that is, a reciprocal connection established between audience and actor through mutually corresponding vectors of attention. Although the actors possess the primary role of performatory output, the audience takes on a similarly active role of reception and response. Arguably the relation between actor and audience can be seen as that of two stages, related in varying degrees of primacy. Although the actor traditionally occupies the 'primary stage' and the audience as the 'secondary stage' relational politics of Grand Guignol imbues the audience with a high degree of agency, creating an active communicative circuit between the violent spectacle of the actor and visceral reaction of the audience. Casting the audience as "meaning-makers" Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson argue that "the audience is irrefutably implicated in the creative process and an equal partner in the audience-performer dynamic" (77). As observed by Hand and Wilson, the stageness of Grand Guignol is characterized by this equal partnership, a circuit embedded in the larger conceptual apparatus-of-horror; a machine constructed from flesh, seats, darkness and illusion. These cogs work in synchrony, producing and consuming fear, disgust and sexual arousal in a complex web of input and output, in which "form and meaning are negotiated and created" (Hand and Wilson, 77) in the synaptic space between actor and audience and powered by electric viscerality.<br />
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=== Apparatus of Horror ===<br />
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[[Image:gg001.jpg|thumb|left|Les Nuits D'un Damne]] <br />
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The functioning of this conceptual horror-machine is dependent upon specific interaction between structure and flesh, the makings of the machine. The small stage and cramped seating further conflates the audience/actor bodies through tecnics of claustrophobic closeness; illusion of dismemberment literally spray in the face of the audience. In the spirit of Donna Haraway's examination of the cyborg, Grand Guignol brings together the tripartite of man, animal and machine (Haraway, 151). Using animal organs to mimic human flesh, man and animal unite as a mechanical cog in the horror-machine. This cyborgian conflation is extended through the scientific dissection of the staged body. Opened bodies leak past the confines of the stage, splayed and surgically disassembled, revealing their organs as mechanical parts. In his study of optics, Johannes Müller similarly describes the body as "a multifarious factory-like enterprise. . . the organism becomes equivalent to an amalgamation of adjacent apparatuses" (Crary 89). Conversely, Vilém Flusser identifies machines as "simulating organs of the human body" (Flusser, 51); the body and machine cry out to each other in their mirrored likenesses. Beyond the obvious illusion of theatrical effect masquerading as corporeal violation, viewing Grand Guignol as this apparatus-of-horror uncovers the hidden illusions that lie in the proposed divisions between audience/performer and man/machine.<br />
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== Violation of the Staged Body ==<br />
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[[Image:gg002.jpg|thumb|right|Le Jardin Des Supplices]] <br />
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The crux of the horror-machine that is Grand Guignol is surely the performatory stage upon which the body of actress Paula Maxa "the most assassinated woman in the world", among many others have been "'cut into ninety-three pieces by an invisible Spanish dagger, stitched back together in two seconds by a Samaritan; flattened by a steamroller; disemboweled by a slaughterman who steals her intestines; shot by a firing squad, quartered, burned alive, devoured by a puma, crucified, shot with a pistol, stabbed, raped and still she stays happy and smiling'" (Hand and Wilson, 19). Though illusory, these acts are the loci of fear, creating the message that is delivered through the circuit of attention and connection between the actor-body and audience-body. Philip Brophy describes this connection in terms of textuality, coining "Horrality" as "the construction, employment and manipulation of horror--in all its various guises--as a textual mode" (Hand and Wilson, 70). Horrality then, casts the body-as-paper to be inscribed upon by the slice of the knife-as-pen, creating a text to be read and deciphered as raw fear. Here the message embodies in the spirit of Iris in the most literal of ways, the violated body as message. Though horror as text is surely an act of writing, the inscription of the knife functions only to establish the actor/audience connection through nonsensical viscerality, a call returned through a jerk of the hand over ones eyes, a flinch, or a scream; these call back to the stage, writing of the horror just witnessed. <br />
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===Don't Cut My Döppelganger: Fluctuating Divisions of the Audience/Actor Self===<br />
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In the moments of theatrical engagement the audience/actor body is only precariously divided, merging in horrified empathy, as two sides of one self. The audience flinches as it's döppleganger is battered and cut, the exhilarating fear possible only in a transposition of the audience-self onto the actor-self, confronting the audience with its own mortal corporeality through the illusory acts on stage. <br />
[[Image:gg006.jpg|thumb|left|From Le Baiser De Sang (The Kiss of Blood) Jean Aragny and Francis Neilson, 1937]] <br />
The cutting of the actor-body represents an opening up of the audience-self, guts literally displayed, making one's inner world outer and demystifying the black box of the body. Jonathan Crary identifies a corresponding intellectual move as a shift in the mid-nineteenth century towards an awareness of the "corporeal subjectivity of the observer" (69) and an increasing understanding of "the empirical immediacy of the body" as "belonging to time, to flux and to death" (24). Through this confluence of identities, the audience-body becomes aware of itself as vulnerable, disassembleable, and ultimately meat. The division of bodies must be thinly maintained, however, because in this separation lies the possibility for entertainment rather than a submission to complete debilitating terror. Grand Guignol carefully negotiates the terror/entertainment line by straddling past and future, familiar and fanciful. One one hand, fascination with the violated and dissembled body can be attributed to a remediation of the horrality of both public torture and surgical theatre, examples of fear and fascination respectively that have historically drawn people toward displays of violence. On the other hand the acts depicted are illusions, on some level known to be fake and many thought to be pure fanciful imagination. It is only when the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II become public that spectacular violence is no longer viewed as imaginative or impossible that Grand Guignol breaks down, no longer able to entertain.<br />
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== Producing the Horrifiable Subject: How to Be Scared ==<br />
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Much in the same way that Crary (1992) sets out to question the ways in which techniques of observing are constructed and learned, Grand Guignol requires an examination of the ways in which the audience is trained to experience fear through creating the conditions of possibility for "automatic" reactions of horror, in a sense, setting the dials of the horror-machine. Hand and Wilson illustrate the processes as, "Not unlike a death-defying carnival rise: the subject is a willing target that both constructs the terror and is terrorized by its construction'" (70), a comparison which highlights the subject as both acting and being acted upon. [change/more here] The assemblage of physical space as well as the shaping of the audience-psyche contribute to the creation of a 'horrify-able' subject, creating a space for the experience of horror. <br />
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=== Carving out a Space for Horror ===<br />
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[[Image:gg007.jpg|thumb|right|Louis Perdoux and Remy Clary in Le Viol (The Rape) 1959]] <br />
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Even before entering a theater-du-nord the audience has begun to engage with mechanisms of the horror-machine. Often situated in something like, "a narrow dead-end alley... culminating in the barely lit facade of the theater” (Degaine 1998, 196), the theater internalizes the very message it is set to convey – terror. Even the act of arriving serves to tenderize the subject, creating an expectation of fear. Upon arrival a medical staff evaluates the audience's health, pre-emanating a sense of threat to the body and legitimizing fear through scientific queues (Hand and Wilson, 72). The proposed danger lie in being 'overcome' by the horror witnessed, granting fear a level of power usually reserved for direct corporeal violence. As a machine which produces fear, this internal perpetuation and legitimization is self sustaining, creating a twin fear of the fear experienced in the theater. The presence of doctors in the theater creates an expectation space for a medically classified physical reaction, one which could indeed set the stage for an 'automatic' fear reaction by suggesting a pathological connection between stage-act and audience reaction as well as between audience reaction and audience health. The audience-body visually consumes the simulated violence of the stage, ingesting the constructed pathogenic force of the experience and transforming it into a real violence against the body in the form of sickness from fear. The ill audience-body, thankful for the medical assistance, fails to recognize the white coat as the origin and exacerbator of the nausea, revealing the audience-body as shaped by the Weberian cage that is the horror-machine.<br />
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=== Come Closer, I Won't Hurt You: The Active and Passive Positioning of the Audience-Body ===<br />
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The horrify-able subject is uniquely defined by the act of witnessing the stage. Crary's analysis of the phenakistiscope raises the issue of positioning, "the very physical position required of the observer by the phenakistiscope bespeaks a confounding of three modes: an individual body that is at once a spectator, a subject of empirical research and observation, and an element of machine production" (112). <br />
[[Image:ggcap1.jpg|thumb|right|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av1GeuxVV4E&feature=player_embedded Click here to watch the video]]]<br />
<br />
Though the connection between actor and audience has been already identified in terms of 'stageness', to further examine the production of the horrify-able subject constructed through its interaction with the greater apparatus of Grand Guignol a discussion of the spatial particulars is in order. Crary suggestions that the positioning of a subject in relation to the apparatus shapes the role and identity of that subject. Within the apparatus-of-horror the positioning of the audience-body in relation to the actor-body largely determines the conditions of possibility for action, interaction and reaction. Crary identifies this positioning of the subject as coinciding with "procedures of discipline and regulation," illustrated through the structure of seating (112). The audience-body is confined to a regulated direction and distance from the stage through seats designed to ensure that “no member of the audience felt far from the performers and vice versa” (Hand and Wilson, 31). This positioning lends greater freedom of movement and attention to the actors, defining the audience as the subordinate receiver. The stage commands the optical field as the main source of light, directing the audience's gaze by illuminating the 'right' object of attention. In this way, the theater acts as an optical device of the 19th century, which according to Crary (1992) “involved arrangements of bodies in space, regulations of activity, and the deployment of individual bodies, which codified and normalized the observer within rigidly defined systems of visual consumption. They were techniques for the management of attention" (18). In this arrangement, then, members of the audience become examples of Foucault's (1977) docile bodies, subject to the manipulation of body and attention. Even among this structured discipline of arranged bodies, there is also a degree of freedom in the disorder and chaos.<br />
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Even as it controls and shapes audience attention, the structure of the horror-machine can also be seen as creating a space for a messy and chaotic actor-audience interaction, pulling the audience-body into the performance through through a clash roles. The scream of the victim rooted merely in a theatrical representation of fear is challenged by the authenticity of the audience, shrieking out in sincere horror thereby upsetting traditional role of active stage and passive seat. Within the performative act itself, there is an interplay of light and darkness, where disorientation and visual obstruction collide with the stage as the principal source of light and information, rendering the audience-body docile in its ignorance of what to expect next, but active in it's visceral reactions and bodily excitement. The uncontrolled reactions of the audience-body, together with the violent chaos of the stage create a vicious orchestration of a collective, "carnivalesque body" (Bakhtin, 219), a disordered and leaking circuit of fear, excitement and arousal.<br />
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== The Reception of Violence: Visceral Output and the Eroticization of Horror ==<br />
[[image:Grand.jpg|thumb|left]]<br />
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Viewing Grand Guignol as a cyborgian apparatus of human, animal and machine highlights not only the mechanical components analyzed thus far but also the various outputs produced by the 'running' of the machine. The circuits of attention between actor and audience, flesh and object are viscerally electrified, creating automatic reactions which feed back into the stage and drive the machine forward in it's production of horror. The primary input in this apparatus can be seen as the performative act on stage. Defined much more by the depiction of spectacular violence, madness, disease and corporeal dismemberment than any given arbitrary narrative of the plot, most intellectual interaction is passed over. Film maker David Cronenber describes the exchange of horror as going "right into the viscera, before it gets to the brain" (Hand and Wilson, 71). The analytical mind plays little role in these automatic reactions to the stage, muscles get tense, heartbeat quickens and nerves jangle, even if the story has been seen before (Brophy, 279). There is a guttural dialogic of reactions spoken out through shreirks, grunts, moans, flailing of limbs and fainting;these actions are not controlled, but arise in the particular situation of the constructed horrifiable subject. As automated cathartic responses of a horrifiable body, these actions are, despite their semiotic meaningless, a performative act that runs willy nilly on and off stage, through plot and atmosphere, actor and audience. <br />
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The audience, prepped to experience fear, receives the violent images, processes them vicerally and produces not only gutteral jerk responses as immediate calls back to the stage but also, at times, a more subtle output of erotic arousal. The intimacy of the space, both in closeness of audience to stage and between viewers canoodling in the dark, is rife with opportunity for impropriety. The performers would engage the audience in suggestive eye contact, implicating them in their violent acts and providing a conduit for voyeurism, "the relationship becomes almost one of pornographer and consumer of pornography"(Hand and Wilson, 44). The sexualization of fear feeds back into the apparatus-of-horror, further implicating the audience-body, as a subject who both consumes and produces arousal as a cogs integrated into the working machine. The output of this particular reception of fear is physical in it's nature, According to Agnés Pierron (cited in Hand and Wilson, 74) "cleaning ladies would find traces of sexual pleasure from the audience". In her own study of the form, she comments: "It was well-known that during the notorious Monday matinees, that women would prepare for adultery by snuggling, half-dead with fear, into the arms of the man in the next seat" (ibid). In these situations, the reactions that were claimed to be involuntary and visceral, are hacked to be used for a completely different purpose - clandestine sexual pleasure. This deviant use of the norms did not depend not on a malfunction, but was made possible through the proper functioning of the stage as the primary director of attention, creating a space of secrecy in the seats.<br />
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== Suspension of Disbelief: The Audience as the True Actor ==<br />
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The final component, critical to the functioning of Grand Guignol as an apparatus-of-horror, lies in the audience's suspension of disbelief. Although violent murders enacted using animal parts and fake weapons are likely enough to elicit a reaction, the true terror it sought out to evoke depends on the conditioning of the psych of the audience-mind, achieved through the willing entrance into a state of known falsehood. The willing participation of the subject in this horror machine speaks to a desire for 'safe' entertainment which is achieved only through a conscious forgetting of that very fact, that this is all a big bloody show. Indeed "Grand-Guignol offered a chance to be scared in complete safety. Most people are vicarious lovers of violence and danger, and the majority of people find the theatrical depiction of violence to be cathartic...to release their own sadism and/or masochism." (Hand and Wilson, 68). Only by suspending one's awareness of the pops and hisses of production, the visual cues that the heroine is actually still breathing after being sliced and garroted, the mismatch of the bang of the revolver and the blood fountain from one's chest, or the vague sound of the cast member who, instead of being burned alive is instead smoking a cigaret backstage, which is, incidentally a place which acts as a black box primarily in the audiences desire to wish it away. The logistics of live theater intrude upon the illusion, requiring mechanisms of denial in the audience to function properly. Bad weather of cynicism, distraction or disengagement shatter this illusion and cut the circuit of reciprocal horror production. The knowing suspension of disbelief speaks to the subject's self awareness of the manipulation of perception, understanding the visual experience as a subjective and imperfect mechanism of the flesh, manipulatable by oneself in pursuit of reactions of fear, arousal, entertainment and catharsis. This truly non-automatic action, a prerequisite for membership as part of the functioning apparatus-of-horror, that is Grand Guignol, shows the audience as the true performer, the causa sui of the machine itself, without which there would be no one to horrify.<br />
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==References==<br />
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Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. SH Butcher. ReadHowYouWant.com, 2006. Web.<br />
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Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich. Rabelais and his world. Indiana University Press, 1984. Print. <br />
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Brophy, Philip. "Horrality - the Textuality of Contemporary Horror Films." Ed. Ken Gelder. London: Routledge, 2000. 276-84. Print.<br />
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Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the observer: on vision and modernity in the nineteenth century. MIT Press, 1992. Print.<br />
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Hand, Richard J., and Michael Wilson. Grand-Guignol: the French Theatre of Horror. Exeter: University of Exeter, 2006. Print.<br />
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Haraway, D. “A Cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980's.” Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge (1991): n. pag. Print. <br />
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Gitelman, Lisa. Scripts, grooves, and writing machines. Stanford University Press, 1999. Print. <br />
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Flusser, V. The shape of things: a philosophy of design. Reaktion Books, 1999. Print. <br />
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Foucault, Michel. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Trans. A Sheridan. Penguin Harmondsworth, 1977. Print. <br />
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Pierron, A., & Treisman, D. "The House of Horrors". Grand Street No 57 (Summer 1996). 87-100. Print. <br />
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[[Category:Dossier]] <br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Old_Color_Spaces&diff=12698
Old Color Spaces
2010-11-24T14:49:37Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12528 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>The color space is a graphic and numerical representation of colors and their relationship to one another. The purpose of the chart is to standardize and quantify what is frequently a subjective experience. Detailed color standards are commonly used in product development and design arenas; standards become outdated rapidly as new products are developed. Color spaces and standards assist in "express[ing] a given color [of an object] accurately, describ[ing] that color to another person, and hav[ing] that person correctly reproduce the color we perceive" (Konica Minolta 1). <br />
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==COLOR BASICS==<br />
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'''HSB or The “Three Dimensions” of Color'''<br />
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(Gerritsen/Microsoft)<br />
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HSB stands for Hue-Saturation-Brightness and is a color model dependent upon a color wheel and the percentage of the amount of white present in a designated hue. <br />
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===Hue===<br />
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Hue is color itself as it is placed on a color wheel where each color has a percentage. Red is at 0o, yellow is 60o, green is 120o, etc. This percentage coincides with the frequency of light waves reflected of any given object for that color in respects to the color spectrum. Each tone group (red, green, etc) can than be affected by saturation and brightness in order to vary its shade and intensity. <br />
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===Saturation===<br />
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Often given as a percentage, saturation is the intensity of color for a specific hue. It can also be described as how different a color is from grey at any lightness. Colors that are more vivid are considered more saturated while colors that are more muddled and closer to grey are less saturated. <br />
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===Brightness===<br />
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Brightness of an object is a difficult thing to measure because it is perceived. While looking at a computer screen in a dark room, colors appear brighter than if the room was well lit. But generally, brightness measures the luminosity of a color. <br />
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===Additive Color Mixing===<br />
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[[Image:additive.jpg|thumb|left|Additive Color Mixing]]<br />
Additive color systems, such as RGB, mix the three primary colors together as a way to produce more colors. The secondary colors of cyan, magenta and yellow are results of mixing two of the three primary colors together. White is created when all three of the primary colors are mixed together proportionately. The additive color theory was discovered by James Clerk Maxwell in conjunction with a photographer, Thomas Sutton. Maxwell had Sutton photograph a piece of ribbon three times, each with a different filter over the lens (one red, one blue, one green). He then projected each image from a different projector onto a common screen. The three separate images then formed a complete one with full coloring. <br />
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===Subtractive Color Mixing===<br />
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[[Image:subtractive.jpg|thumb|right|Subtractive Color Mixing]]<br />
Louis Ducos du Hauron was responsible for the discovery of the subtractive color theory. Subtractive color mixing removes some colors from white light while allowing others to pass. The CYMK model is an example of a subtractive color space. It uses cyan, yellow, magenta and black to create colors. When white light is passed through one of these secondary and subtractive color filters, two of the primary colors which form the secondary color are transmitted through the filter and the third one is absorbed. When equal amounts of all the subtractive colors overlap, all primary colors are blocked and black is produced. Subtractive color mixing is more advantageous than additive because of its ability to create more colors. When the proportion of overlapping filters is changed, almost any color can be created. Viewing equipment for subtractive coloring is also cheaper (Kirsch 28-35).<br />
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==The Munsell System==<br />
===Brief Bio===<br />
Albert H. Munsell lived from 1858-1918 in Boston, MA. He attended Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art), where he later became a member of the faculty. Although the color system he began developing is widely used by scientists and artists alike, Munsell did not consider himself a scientist. He was a trained painter frustrated with the lack of color descriptions and a systematic color scheme. Munsell began developing his color system when he was a teaching aid for color composition students. As the system became more advanced, Munsell was able to share his color distinction system with well-respected scientists and engineers around Boston. He published “A Color Notation” in 1905, which described his system so far. Munsell wanted his system to be used in a broad sense, rather than only in science and art. His goal was to use it to teach concepts of color to primary school students. Unfortunately, Munsell’s health began to decline in 1914 and he passed away in Boston in 1918 at the age of 60. After his death, Dorothy Nickerson (who first worked as secretary to Munsell’s son) worked to adapt the Munsell Color System. The charts could finally be put to widespread use 30 years after Munsell died. (Landa)<br />
===The System===<br />
The Munsell system is now the most widely used and accepted color system. All other color systems that arise are compared to the Munsell System, which has come to be known as the standard color system. The system builds on the guiding principle of equal visual perception. This is the idea that we all perceive colors differently, but the system accounts for any small discrepancies based on comparison to a grayscale, assuming the eyes seek the balance of grayscale (Evans). The system is able to describe all possible colors in terms of three coordinates:<br />
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1. Munsell Hue: the quality of a color described at red, yellow, blue and so on<br />
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2. Munsell Value: the place where a color falls in terms of lightness when compared to a scale of grays from white to black<br />
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3. Munsell Chroma: the degree of difference between a color and a gray of the same value.<br />
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The Munsell Book of Color is a compilation of color samples, usually arranged in pages of a book, or on a color “tree.” The Munsell Value is vertical in a display and the Munsell Chroma is horizontal. The scale of grays can be considered the “trunk” of the color tree, going from white on top to black on the bottom. <br />
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[[image: Munsell_tree.jpg|thumb|center|200px|Munsell Tree]], [[image: Munsell_tree_pages.jpg|thumb|center|200px|Munsell Book]], [[image: Munsell_tree_round.jpg|thumb|center|200px|Munsell Tree]]<br />
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Each sample has a Munsell Notation, which tells us its position on the tree. The notation consists of three symbols that represent Munsell Hue, Munsell Value, and Munsell Chroma. <br />
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[[image: Munsell_notation.jpg|thumb|left|300px|An example of Munsell Notation]]<br />
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The Munsell System is the most accepted color system because colors are not limited to the samples shown, whereas other color systems are. Any color that can be conceived will fit into the Munsell System. (Billmeyer and Saltzman)<br />
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==Natural Color System & Color Opponency==<br />
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===Color Opponency===<br />
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[[Image:coloropponent.jpg|thumb|left|Color Opponency]]<br />
The Natural Color System is based upon the color opponent theory. The color opponent theory focuses on the uniqueness of four hues and their inability to be described simultaneously. R.W.G. Hunt describes color opponency:<br />
“The hues red, yellow, green and blue are said to be unique because they cannot be described in terms of any combinations of other color names. Thus, for instance, although orange can be described as a yellowish red or reddish yellow, red cannot be described as a yellowish blue or a bluish yellow. In fact the four unique hues comprise two pairs, red and green, and yellow and blue; the colors in each of these pairs are opponent, in the sense that they cannot both be perceived simultaneously as component parts of any one color. That is, it is impossible to have a reddish green, or a greenish red, or a yellowish blue, or a bluish yellow. But yellowish reds… greenish yellows… bluish reds are all possible (140-141).”<br />
Black and white are also used in the color opponent theory to determine variations of light and dark.<br />
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===NCS===<br />
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[[Image:NCSNotation.jpg|thumb|right|NCS Notation]]<br />
The Natural Color System was developed by the Scandinavian Color Institute. Using NCS a color is measured based upon its percentage in comparison to a color opponent pair. A color therefore that is purely red and has no green is at 100% red. Darkness of a color and saturation are also taken into consideration when measuring the color being presented. A sample notation taken from the NCS website is shown to the right. The letter S in front simply means that the NCS is responsible for measuring a specific color.[[Image:NCSWheel.jpg|thumb|left|NCS Color Wheel]] The nuance describes the “degree of resemblance to whiteness and blackness.” Chromaticness puts the color at a grey. The ten percent blackness thus mean that there is 40 percent whiteness in the color. The Y90R describes the hue of the color. This example shows a yellowish color with 90 percent red. The ten percent yellow is than inferred (Hunt 141-143/The NCS System). <br />
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==The CIE Color Spaces==<br />
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[[Image:cielab.jpg|thumb|left|CIE Yxy]]<br />
In 1931, the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) devised the Yxy color space, and in 1976 created the L*a*b* to "provide more uniform color differences in relation to visual differences" (Konica Minolta 14). The CIE systems are used in conjunction with a colorimeter.<br />
===CIE Yxy===<br />
The Yxy color space is based on the three-component theory of color vision, which places red, green, and blue as the primary color receptors in the eye. All other colors are combinations of those three primary colors. Because lightness and darkness cannot be taken into consideration with RGB values, a third variable, Y lightness, makes up the Yxy system. Moving towards the center of the graph increases lightness; moving toward the edges increases chromaticity (another word for saturation). (Konica Minolta 16)<br />
===CIE L*a*b*===<br />
[[Image:Yxy.jpg|thumb|right|CIE Lab showing the variables]]The CIE L*a*b* color space was invented because the original Yxy color space had a problem: "equal distances on the x, y chromaticity diagram did not correspond to equal perceived color differences" (Konica Minolta 18). L* indicates lightness and a* and b* are the hue coordinates. +a* is the red direction, -a is the green, +b is the yellow, and -b is the blue direction. In the center lies achromatism (grayness). (Konica Minolta 18)<br />
[[Image:cie.jpg|thumb|left|CIE Lab sphere]]<br />
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===Colorimeters===<br />
A colorimeter is the device that measures the color coordinates of an object. Colorimeters can detect even minute differences in color and are commonly used in production so that the color of the product can be standardized. Companies determine how much tolerance--how much color variation is acceptable--in a product. The colorimeter is very fast, producing coordinates in less than a minute, and can be utilized on assembly lines. It features a built in light source so that the light remains uniform, data memory and display, and constant viewing and illumination angles. It eliminates area effect (when an object appears to be a different color due to size, paint chips vs. a painted wall for example) and contrast effect (when an object appears to be a different color when viewed with other objects). Colorimeters measure colors with three photocells calibrated to match the CIE 1931 standards, so that the observer is constant for all measurements. Essentially, with the colorimeter, almost all of the variables that make an object appear to be a different color--observer differences, light source differences, and angle differences--are eliminated. There are other types of colorimeters for the purpose of measuring objects of varying texture, including spectroradiometers, which measure emitted, transmitted, and reflected light; spectrophotometers, which measure reflected and transmitted light; glossmeters, which measure gloss; and goniospectrophotometers, which measure reflected color as function of angle. (Konica Minolta 26).<br />
[[Image:color.jpg|thumb|right|Colorimeter]]<br />
One problem with the standard colorimeter is that it cannot detect '''metamerism''', a phenomenon in which two objects appear to be the same color under certain illuminants but under different circumstances are revealed to be different colors--for example, picking out two black socks in the morning and then realizing under fluorescent light that one is actually navy. Since the colorimeter's light source mimics only daylight, a spectrophotometer is required to make sure that two objects will look the same color under different types of light, or "illuminants" (Kinoca Minolta 42).<br />
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==Common Color Spaces==<br />
A color space is a three-dimensional concept, in that it considers hue, value, and chroma. The most commonly used color spaces are hue based. These include RGB (red, green, blue), RYB (red, yellow, blue), and CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow). <br />
[[image: Color_circles.png|thumb|right|400px|]]<br />
The left circle was developed by Johannes Itten; it is a circle of the primary colors. The primary colors are still taught in art schools and classes today using this circle. The circle on the right is used today in computer graphics. The additive primary colors of this circle (red, green, and blue) produce white light when added together on a computer. The subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are the complementary colors on the circle. When they’re added on the computer, they produce black, or the absence of color. When comparing the two circles, we can see that they contradict each other. The circle on the left suggests that red and green are complementary to each other, but in the circle on the right, they are both primary. This example shows that color can be subjective, “the perception of color is inexact, culturally influenced, and personal” (Evans).<br />
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==Obsolete Color Space: RG & Early Film==<br />
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Both Kinemacolor in England and Technicolor used red and green primary colors to produce images in film until blue was introduced as an easier means to produce a fuller image. Early motion pictures in England used this two -color process. Edwin Slosson describes the Kinemacolor system as “red and green being taken and projected alternately by means of a rotating disk of tinted filters. Because an image on the retina persists for about a sixteenth of a second before it fades away, each color fused with the succeeding one, except when movement was too fast (62).” <br />
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Technicolor exposes two strips of black and white film to two different filters simultaneously. One was behind a red filter and the other a green. It had much the same problems as Kinemacolor because of the issue of speed. But since this was an additive method of color mixing, a subtractive method was tried. <br />
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A successor the Gaumont Process used glass plates in an attempt to rectify the RG system. It “employed three pictures taken in the three primary colors by three lenses on the same film and projected through three objectives.” Dots, ruled lines or starch grains were used on the glass plates in the three colors. However, when enlarged, picture quality is diminished so although color is improved overall picture is not.<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
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Billmeyer, Fred W., and Max Saltzman. Principles of Color Technology. Second Edition ed. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1981. 25-66.<br />
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Evans, Brian. "Foundations of a Visual Music." Computer Music Journal 29 (2005): 17-18.<br />
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Gerritsen, Franz. Evolution in Color. Grand Rapids: Schiffer, Limited, 1988.<br />
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Hirsch, Robert. Exploring Colour Photography: A Complete Guide. London: Laurence King, 2004.<br />
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Hunt, R. W., and R. W. Hunt. Measuring Colour : A Photographer's Paradise. New York: Fountain P, Limited, 1996.<br />
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Kindem, Gorham. "The Demise of Kinemacolor: Technological, Legal, Economic, and Aesthetic Problems in Early Color Cinema History." Cinema Journal 20 (1981): 3-14.<br />
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Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc. "Precise Color Communication." Osaka, Japan: Konica Minolta, 1998.<br />
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Landa, Edward R. "Albert H. Munsell: A Sense of Color at the Interface of Art and Science." Soil Science 169 (2004): 83-89.<br />
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Microsoft Computer Dictionary. New York: Microsoft P, 2002.<br />
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"The NCS System." The Natural Color System. Scandinavian Color Institute. <http://www.ncscolour.com/webbizz/mainpage/main.asp.><br />
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Slosson, Edwin E. "How New Color Movie Camera Works." The Science News-letter 14 (1928): 61-62.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Mechanical_Television&diff=12697
Mechanical Television
2010-11-24T14:49:28Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12529 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>==History==<br />
[[Image:charles_jenkins.jpg|thumb|left|Advertisement for Radiovision.]] <br />
[[Image:jenkr_s.jpg|thumb|right|Early Radiovision]] <br />
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In June of 1923 Charles Jenkins, an inventor from Dayton, Ohio, invented and transmitted the earliest moving images through a mechanical television system called Radiovision. He publicly performed his first transmission, from Anacosta, Virginia to Washington, D.C. in June of 1925. Jenkins Laboratories constructed a Radiovision transmitter, W3XK, in Washington D.C. The short-wave station began transmitting radiomovies across the Eastern U.S. on a regular basis by July 2, 1928. As far back as 1894, Jenkins had been promoting mechanical television when he published an article in the "Electrical Engineer” describing a method of electrically transmitting pictures. In 1920, at a meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Jenkins introduced his prismatic rings, a device that replaced the shutter on a film projector and an important invention that Charles Jenkins would later use in his Radiovision system.<br />
<br />
===How It Works===<br />
[[Image:jenkdru7.gif|thumb|right|]] <br />
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The transmitter had to be set in a studio in total darkness. Holes would be punched in a spiral disc would allow only light to be passed through these selective regions. The spinning disk would emit light bounced off of the subjects face from a light source within the transmitter onto a photoelectric cell that would convert the light image into electric signals. These would, in turn, be amplified and sent via radio waves to a receiver on the other end. <br />
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The receiver on the other end would convert these electric impulses into a sequence of bright flashes in a neon tube located within the receiver. A disc would rotate very rapidly in front of this tube and converted every small flash into a part of the overall image. The speed of the disc would make “persistence of vision” (when the brain retains an image for one tenth of a second after the eye perceives it) possible for the viewer. Originally the image was very scratchy and the picture had to be constantly adjusted. This made some technical knowledge a necessity thus shrinking the prospective demographic to a select few (mostly men) who knew how to operate these machines. There was also originally no audio to accompany the pictures. Sepreate radios had to be purchased, or used if the viewer already had one, and tuned into a seperate station that would supplement the noises and music for the show they were watching.<br />
[[Image:jenkdru2.gif|thumb|right|]] <br />
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===Programming===<br />
Despite the limitations that the early, crude mechanical televisions presented, producers began to experiment with storytelling and programming. In 1928, the first television drama was produced. “The Queen’s Messenger”, shot on three cameras, was received on a General Electric Octagon set in Shenectady, New York. The play had two characters, with only the heads or the hands of the four actors visible at any one time. Two actors spoke the lines, while the other two acted as hand models. In 1931 The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) broadcast signals from The Empire State Building featuring the first television star, Felix The Cat.<br />
[[Image:jenkpix1.gif|thumb|right|Images like these would be broadcast as the first programming attempting to tell a story]] <br />
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===Demise===<br />
The main problem with the mechanical television was that there was no set standard for production of the actual sets as well as transmission and reception of signals. This being the case, signal strength ws always very weak and the unit itself required constant tuning to keep the picture relatively clear. The invention of the glass vacuum tube television both expanded the audience demographic because it required little to no picture fine tuning and made the mechanical television obsolete.<br />
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===Works Cited===<br />
*Jenkins, Charles F. Animated Pictures. New York: Arno P, 1898.<br />
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*Jenkins, Charles F. Vision by Radio, Radio, Photographs, Radio Phonograms. Washington, D.C.: National Capital P, 1925.<br />
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*N/A. "New Color Television". Science Newsletter, 1948.<br />
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*Monfort, Ray A. A Brief History of Television for the Layman. Los Angeles: University of California P, 1949.<br />
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*Reily, John W., and Frank V. Cantwell. Some Observations on the Social Effects of Television. Oxford UP, 1949.<br />
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*All pictures taken from www.televisionexperimenters.com<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dance_Card&diff=12696
Dance Card
2010-11-24T14:49:20Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12530 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image: dancecard.jpg|400px|thumb| A variety of dance cards from the Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary.]]<br />
In its most basic form, the dance card is a pre-printed program distributed to women (and to a lesser degree, men) attending a ballroom dance. Sized comfortably for a woman's palm, the dance card is printed with a list of the evening's dances on the left side of the booklet or page; the right side of the card is typically printed with lines or space for gentlemen to "sign up" or "pencil in" their names, so to declared their engagement for a specific dance with an available woman. Ralph G. Giordano, author of Social Dancing in America, writes that “the Dance Card was a convenient way for the lady to keep track of whom she had promised dances to during the course of the evening” (204). The dance card commonly had a braided cord attached down the spine, for the purpose of being attached to a lady's wrist or dress. Sometimes this cord was used to attach a pencil, but it was considered more reasonable for a gentleman to carry his own pencil. <br />
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The dance card was primarily a late 18th and 19th century medium, implemented at balls in both Europe and America. Ballroom dancing spiked in popularity in the U.S. during the mid-19th century, roused by increasing interest in gendered etiquette and division of male and female domestic space, as well as its application as a recreational and diversionary activity during the Civil War. Use of the dance card faded in the 20th century as dance became less gender regimented and no longer relied on the highly etiquette-based practices of traditional Victorian balls. <br />
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== Dance Card as File, Etiquette as Law ==<br />
[[Image: dancecard_opt.jpg|400px|thumb|Interior layout of a dance card, as depicted in Thomas Hillgrove's ''A Complete Practical Guide to Dancing'' (12).]]<br />
Giordano, as well as many 19th century ballroom dancing manuals, read the dance card as an object of a woman's “convenience”, disencumbering her from the no doubt dizzying demand of memory. However, the dance card was the central mechanism in the continual calibration of gender and etiquette in the space of the 19th century ballroom. The bureaucracy of the matter by precisely described in Giordano's use of the phrase “keeping track”. The dance card primarily operated as a prevention protocol—a mechanism for blocking a woman ''from engaging with more than one man at a time'', as each dance only provided one line of engagement. The lines of the dance card function ideally as a record of compulsory monogamous heterosexual exchange—spaces waiting to be filled, surfaces existing to be etched. <br />
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These surfaces of card stock and gaps of white space sculpt the law of gendered etiquette around which the ballroom dance functioned. Etiquette, in such a setting, takes the form of a strict but manipulable set of laws, in the sense that Cornelia Vismann details the law as “a repository of forms of authoritarian and administrative acts that assume concrete shape in files. Based on this reconstruction of the concurrence, law and files mutually determine each other. A given recording technology entails specific forms and instances of the law” (xiii). Etiquette is the law, the dance card the file of its administration. Vismann writes: "[Files] lay the groundwork for the validity of the law, they work toward the law, they establish an order that they themselves do not keep" (13). The list of engagements is an order bound by the law of gendered etiquette. Thus, the dance card does not “create” the situation of gender exchange that it administers, but this economy of sex most certainly assumes a patent material existence on the palm-sized surface of the 19th century dance card. <br />
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In the high stakes game of Victorian ballroom etiquette, the woman was ''never'' expected to manage her own dance card. As Thomas Hillgrove alludes to this in his 1863 manual ''A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing'': “As ladies have not assumed the privilege of asking gentlemen to dance, it is the duty of gentlemen to see that their ladies do not long wait for partners. It is one of the greatest breaches of good manners of which a gentleman can be guilty in the ball-room, to stand idling while his ladies are waiting to dance” (32). Women were not permitted to ask a man to dance, nor were they entitled to approach a man with whom they were “engaged” to dance. If a man missed his engagement, the woman had little recourse. It was uncommon for men to be given dance cards—a man's engagement with his female dance partner was expected to be kept solidly in mind. Indeed, it was so improbable that a man would double-book himself that no mention of it is given in any dance manual of the period. Thus, the dance card was not a tool for women to “keep track” of their engagements but for men to arbitrate relationships of availability and exclusion on a metaphoric waltz of complex social and class networking. Likewise, the singular line of engagement and the etiquette of the dance card afforded little opportunity for a woman to discriminate between men who requested dances. It was understood that a woman should assent to the request of any man who properly asked and was properly introduced; the only alternative was to beg her absence and sit the dance out. Once a man's name was placed within her dance card, she was bound to the mark. Attached by braided cord to the wrist or dress, the very presence of the dance card tagged all women “available” for selection in some manner—the question, ultimately, was not ''if'' a woman was available, but ''when''. This concern with temporal availability at play in the dance card is uniquely appropriate in a social setting organized according to the formalize beats of ballroom dance.<br />
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== The Problem of Pencils ==<br />
If the question of the law may be reduced, as Vismann suggests, to one of access, then we might rightly ask how the dance card, as a file to be written, manages the access of gendered bodies within the space and time of the ballroom. In the dance manuals of the 19th century, one of the most oft-noted concerns with the dance card was the problem of “where to put the pencil.” Giordano notes: “Various methods were employed to attach a pencil to the dance card, such as attaching a ribbon to the card, threading a cord through a small pinhole in the pencil, or even providing a paper sleeve within the card itself. However, the attachment of a pencil proved unreliable” (204). Because the dance card was typically worn, and fast-paced dancing and pocket-less female fashions made wearing a pencil improbable at best, it became customary for a gentleman to carry his own pencil in his inner jacket pocket. We do not need a Cixousian reading of ''Écriture féminine'' to capture the profound irony of removing the pencil—an instrument of inscription, language and mastery, a most certain phallus—from the body of the woman and re-distributing the tool to the gentleman. In that moment of assent when the female—gladly or obligingly—unfolds her dance card for the insertion of pencil and inscription of name, the entire dynamic of a mediated ritual of male to female access is made transparent. The touch of the pencil to paper preordains the touch of hand to hand--it determines, and in writing guarantees, a moment of bodily partnership authorized under the auspices of etiquette. The ballroom was one of the few spaces in Victorian civil society in which the erotics of touch between social equals were allowed public enunciation, but an enunciation that was nonetheless bound to writing. The pencil, in this scenario, is the master of choice, the discriminating tool of male desire; it was not that woman had ''no choice'', but that her choice was always ''after the fact'', before the law. Whether or not a woman desired for a man to be "written in" (or "upon") her dance card was a matter that could only be arbitrated through the dance card itself--either by using it to claiming prior engagement or relegating herself to the emptiness of non-engagement.<br />
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== Works Cited and Consulted ==<br />
<br />
Aldrich, Elizabeth. ''From the Ballroom to Hell: Grace and Folly in Nineteenth-Century Dance." Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1991.<br />
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''Beadle's Dime Ball-room Companion and Guide to Dancing, Comprising Rules of Etiquette, Hints on Private Parties, Toilettes for the Ball-room, etc. Also a Synopsis of Round and Square Dances, Dictionary of French Terms, etc.'' New York, Beadle and Company, 1868.<br />
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Durang, Charles. ''The Fashionable Dancer's Casket, or the Ballroom Instructor. A New and Splendid Work on Dancing, Deportment, Etiquette and the Toilet.'' New York: Fisher and Brothers, 1856.<br />
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Giordano, Ralph G. ''Social Dancing in America: A History and Reference.'' Vol 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.<br />
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Hillgrove, Thomas. ''A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing. Containing Descriptions of All Fashionable and Approved Dances, Full Directions for Calling the Figures, the Amount of Music Required; Hints on etiquette, the Toilet, etc.'' New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1863. <br />
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Vismann, Cornelia. ''Files: Law and Media Technology.'' Stanford: Stanford UP, 2008.<br />
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[[Category:Law]]<br />
[[Category:Sexuality]]<br />
[[Category:Dance]]<br />
[[Category:Writing]]<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Roentgen_Ray_Tube&diff=12695
Roentgen Ray Tube
2010-11-24T14:49:10Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12531 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>The early development of x-ray technology, beginning with the Roentgen Ray Tube in 1895, can be seen as a new way of engaging with problematic boundaries between materiality and its representations, as well as between the inside and the outside of an enclosed body. The ability to project the inside of the patient's body out onto a screen was made possible by a tube called a Crookes Tube that emitted radiation as a side effect. In fact the tube was designed precisely to do the opposite, to contain experiments with electricity within the tube's glass walls. The externalization of electromagnetic radiation from a Crookes Tube would become central to subsequent technical developments of the tube, which turned into a Roentgen Ray, or X-Ray Tube, the new name characterizing an emphasis on the projected image rather than on the electrical lighting effects internal to the tube. <br />
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While experimenting with a Crookes Tube, a partially evacuated gas tube used to study the passage of electrical currents through gases[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDwk5s-QrLY&feature=related], a German professor named Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen saw a luminescence in the darkened room outside of the tube. This despite the fact that he had surrounded the glass tube in cardboard that had been painted black (presumably to prevent light from entering the tube). He realized that this effect was caused by an unknown form of radiation (hence the denotation he gave it, "X") emitted by an electrical current passing through the tube and hitting the anode, or the positive electrode. The radiation had created a luminescent shimmer on a piece of paper painted with a chemical that made it act like photo paper, something Röntgen had been using in his photography experiments. <br />
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Röntgen and the people for whom he demonstrated his discovery were amazed not only that the rays could pass through glass, but also that they had passed through the cardboard, an object opaque to light, while glass is impermeable to air molecules. The x rays had traversed the boundaries of the tube, and soon proved able to pass through various solid substances, including flesh and blood. This mode of representation materially impinges on the matter of its objects, as well as the matter that makes it possible: the atoms of gas inside the tube. The difficulty of regulating gas pressure got in the way of the clarity of the image, which compromised the human ability to read it. The partially evacuated gas tube thus became obsolete when it was replaced by a vacuum tube. The death of the gas tube can be seen as the birth of free energy, or energy that does not not need a material substrate in order to occur.<br />
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[[Image:Handxray.jpg|thumb|An x ray of Bertha Röntgen's hand.]]<br />
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[[Image:Rontgen_Demo_2.JPG|thumb|Picture taken during the demonstration of the Röntgen Rays at the meeting of the American Philosophical Society held February 7, 1896. The picture is of a key and coins inside a pocketbook. (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1896)]]<br />
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== A Material Act of Representation ==<br />
From a critical perspective, the entrance of x rays into medical history can be read as an intrusion of the scientific gaze into the body, or, alternatively, as an impingement of technology onto the body that functions to bring the body's interior, hidden space, to an external space exposed to vision. To view it in this second way, as a technical externalization of the body's insides, is to address the materiality of the act of representation. This is a useful way to think of x-ray technology in which electromagnetic radiation (a form of energy) goes through solid matter in order to produce a picture. Unlike in photography, which is based on the reflection of light off a solid object, skin subjected to an x ray transducts the radiation. The materiality of the act of representation becomes clearer when one considers radiation's effects on the body. While these effects were first viewed as an unfortunate side effect, the power of radiation to affect the body (for better or worse) was harnessed by both medicine and technologies of war and security. <br />
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===The Side Effect===<br />
Radiation was at first an accidental effect of the technical act of representation, but its ability to materially affect the body branched off into its own field. Diagnostic X rays are still used in medicine, but radiation has also become detached from representation and diagnosis and moved into the realm of treatment. Its known ability to kill cells has been turned against cancer cells that are trying to kill the organism as a whole. In other words the deadly radiation is used as a weapon against death on the side of life. This exemplifies part of Michel Foucault's argument in ''Birth of the Clinic'', about the undermining of the duality between life and death that takes place during the rise of modern medicine's examination of the body (Foucault). Foucault argues that before this the organism was seen merely as the "seat" of a disease; the disease's essence had nothing to do with its occurrence in a body. Modern medicine, in contrast to this, "maps" the disease onto the body, such that the life of the disease is understood to be made possible by the life of the organism in which it grows. Therefore life and death are sometimes conflated, or mapped onto each other.<br />
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Additionally, the link between life and death is seen in the reading of x rays, which required knowledge of the skeleton that must have been gleaned from actual skeletons and corpses. The knowledge of the dead provided a norm against which to compare the aberration. When Wilhelm Rontgen x-rayed his wife, Bertha's, hand, she said that she had glimpsed her death. Popular jokes and cartoon references to Rontgen Rays also spoke to the association between x rays and death.<br />
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[[Image:Roentgen_Photography.JPG|thumb|Life Magazine, 1896]]<br />
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===The Bullet V. the Gun===<br />
Roentgen Ray Tubes were used in World War I to locate bullets and shrapnel in the bodies of wounded soldiers. Now x-ray technology as a mode of representation seems to be developing more in the field of national security than in medicine. Instead of x-raying a wounded body in search of a bullet, we are x-raying luggage in search of weapons. This follows from the relationship between x rays and the blurred boundary between the outside and the inside of a body; a bullet coming from outside penetrates the body and an x ray locates it in order to remove it, to bring it back to the outside of the body from whence it came. X-raying luggage also represents a search for an external enemy in what is supposed to be an interior, private space (i.e. a suitcase of personal belongings). The suitcase is not the body, but an extension of the body, a collection of things necessary enough to be brought with the body wherever it goes. On another register, the terrorist is understood to be an external enemy who has slipped into an interior space. X rays used for securitization serve the end of removing the enemy from the internal space of the country or the liminal space of travel between national/state borders.<br />
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== Technical Concerns: The Development of the High Vacuum Tube ==<br />
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The technical development of the Roentgen Ray Tube aimed for higher predictability in x ray images, which would result in the removal of gas as the material matrix of x-ray production. Eventually, the partially evacuated gas tube was replaced by a high vacuum tube developed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. The significance of the high vacuum tube is that "It enabled the tube to... make x-ray production and x-ray energy independent of gas pressure" (Arns, 864). This can be framed as a detachment of energy from concrete matter in the sense that atoms of gas can be understood as material things. The vacuum tube isolates electrical energy in that affectations of electrons are separated from atoms. It seems to be a first capture of pure excitation, already bridging the gap between the material of the body and its representation on a piece of film. <br />
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===The Temperamental Tube===<br />
While the gas inside the tube made the x rays possible, it was an enemy of predictability because of the difficulty in quantifying and measuring the movement of its atoms. Much discussion of gas tubes focuses on their unreliability. The clarity of the images they produced was erratic because their efficiency depended on a delicate balance between gas pressure and electrical voltage, not to mention that the production of the glass tubes was not yet standardized (Arns, 861). "Because the early tubes were highly erratic in their production of x-rays, research became centered upon their improvement. With these gas tubes there was a constant tendency for the gas to be absorbed into the solid parts of the tube; the tube might leak; it required as much art to produce x-rays as to read the resulting x-ray films. Some method was needed to make a stable tube whose output could be relied upon and would permit standardization in exposure technique" (Bleich, 19). The unreliability of the tubes justified the need for skilled readers who were trained in radiography. It also presented the need for a tube that did not wear out as quickly. Repeated excitation of the gas inside the tube caused a clouding or staining of the glass near the anode (towards which the electrons were fired). This cloudiness blocked "soft" or weaker x rays, so that only "hard" x rays could make it through the tube. This limited the effectiveness of the x rays to substances that were not at all permeable to x rays, thus limiting the range of possibilities.<br />
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===Maxwell's Demon=== <br />
In addition to its "temperamental" ability to represent clear images, the gas tube easily ran out of gas (Arns, 861). This can be seen as part of the effort to keep generating energy without running out of fuel, or, in this case, using up all of the free floating atoms of gas in the tube. As always, technical difficulties relate to economic convenience, and in the case of the gas tube, there was an effort to find a way for the tube to automatically regenerate its gas supply. The first solution to this was to attach a side tube containing a chemical that, when heated with a match, would spread into the main chamber to replenish the gas supply (Arns, 861). Then this process became automatic so that low gas pressure sent a spark into the side tube that heated the gas, so that the labor of the attendant was no longer necessary. Eventually, this problem was solved by more completely freeing energy from the material matrix of gas in the form of the vacuum tube.<br />
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===The High Vacuum Tube===<br />
The difficulties of managing gas pressure and loss of gas slowed down medical and radiological interest in x rays, which seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. This problem was solved by Arthur Wehnelt's 1904 discovery of "thermionic emission," which means "the freeing of electrons from the surface of a heated solid" (Arns, 862). Lilienfeld employed a Wehnelt cathode in his early version of the high vacuum tube, eventually developed into a true vacuum tube (containing no gas at all) by William David Coolidge (Arns, 868). The Coolidge tube no longer needed any gas in order to conduct a current; instead a solid piece of metal was excited until electrons began to escape it and move through the vacuum tube. There was literally no material matrix for the electric current to move through. Electrons detached from atoms moved through empty space.<br />
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[[Image:Side_Tube.JPG|thumb|A gas x-ray tube with a side tube for regenerating gas. "The regeneration mechanism ''D'' was activated when the gas pressure in the tube became so low that a spark jumped between ''E'' and ''F''" (Arns, 862).]]<br />
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== Enframing ==<br />
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Taking an x ray picture is an act of enframing. Not only does it zero in on and frame a specific part of the skeleton, but it also brings forth the skeletal frame from the rest of the body. In other words, it is an observation that engages in analysis. Even before a human radiologist interprets and analyzes the picture, the actual x-ray machine performs an act of analysis by capturing only the bones in the picture, thereby extracting the skin, blood, and muscle from the image. In a paper presented at the 2008 Eastern Sociology Society Meeting, Sam Han discussed Heidegger's understanding of enframing “But for Heidegger specifically, to call something a ‘world’ is to identify a process of binding and cohesion; thus it is a normative claim” (Han 2008).<br />
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X-ray technology is still used in medicine, but many medical sociologists cite a shift in focus in medical technology from representational images to statistical modeling. "The digital image is obviously a computer-generated image, which Stiegler often calls the 'calculated image,' in that it models the real, yet imitates it quasi-perfectly" (Han 2008). The calculated image might alternatively be understood to imitate the real "hyper-perfectly," or, in other words, to create a representation that better resembles the statistical norm. In recent years some aspects of the role of x-ray reader have been passed over to technology. The job of interpreting the image became subsumed by computer imaging technologies, which are able to sharpen images and increase contrasts, thereby removing some of the vagueness that requires a skilled human reader to decipher. For aspects of physical health that are difficult to x-ray, models are used to predict a patient's chance of having a certain abnormality. The digital model does not impinge on the body like radiation does. As Han writes, "By suggesting that the discrete image serves an an epokhe, Stiegler is arguing that what is produced in an image by digital technologies is not necessarily "captured" (Han 2008). This idea that the digital image does not "capture" the object gives us terms to discuss the relationship between the internal, private(?) space, and its representation.<br />
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== The Technical Invasion of Privacy ==<br />
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The technical invasion of the body led to associations between x rays and sexual impropriety. It is interesting to note that technology was not viewed as neutral, or purely scientific, even though there was mass support for it. On another level of the cultural imagination, perhaps mostly in humor, the device triggered a sense of exposure: “The apparel of a well-to-do Victorian lady seems to us today to have been used to deny the reality of flesh and blood. The idea that it might be made transparent by the use of x-rays may have been the first intimation of what we now consider the sexual revolution of the 20th century. The established social order, as well as public morality, had come under technological “threat” (Lentle, 513) <br />
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Many cultural references to Roentgen Rays demonstrated an understanding of Roentgen Rays as an invasion of privacy, such as advertisements for "x-ray proof underclothing" (Bleich, 6). The following poem from the magazine, ''Photography'', playfully refers to the inappropriate gaze of the x ray:<br />
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"The Roentgen Rays, the Roentgen Rays,/ <br />
What is this craze:/<br />
The town's ablaze/<br />
With the new phase/<br />
Of x-ray's ways./<br />
I'm full of daze,/<br />
Shock and amaze,/<br />
For now-a-days/<br />
I hear they'll gaze/<br />
Thro' cloak and gown-- and even stays,/<br />
These naughty, naughty Roentgen Rays."/<br />
(Bleich, 6).<br />
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This poem equates Roentgen Rays with a voyeuristic, lascivious gaze. The idea that the Rays could see through clothes seemed to be a source of titillation, perhaps associated with anxiety about female sexuality. The following poem by Lawrence K. Russel, published in Life Magazine, March 12, 1896, comically describes a woman's skeleton as beautiful and sexually appealing:<br />
<br />
She is so tall, so slender; and her bones--<br />
Those frail phosphates, those carbonates of lime--<br />
Are well produced by cathode rays sublime;<br />
By oscillations, amperes and by ohms,<br />
Her dorsal vertebrae are no concealed<br />
By epidermis, but are well revealed.<br />
<br />
Around her ribs, those beauteous twenty-four,<br />
Her flesh a halo makes, misty in lime,<br />
Her noseless, eyeless face looks into mine,<br />
And I but whisper, "Sweetheart, je t'adore."<br />
Her white and gleaming teeth at me do laugh,<br />
Ah! lovely, cruel, sweet cathodagraph!<br />
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While these references seem relatively light-hearted, from the perspective of today when x rays are not only used on patients (who consent) to look at the physiology of the body, but are also used on potential suspects (who are required to submit their belongings and clothing to x-ray scrutiny), this early fear takes on a more ominous tone. It seems to be a premonition of x rays used for surveillance.<br />
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[[Image:Perfect_dress.jpg|thumb|Advertisement of "the perfect dress interlining" from The Globe, Toronto, Feb. 27, 1896 (Lentle, 513).]]<br />
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== References ==<br />
<br />
Arns, Robert G. The High-Vacuum X-Ray Tube: Technological Change in Social Context. ''Technology and Culture'' vol. 38, no. 4: 852-890.<br />
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Bleich, Alan R. 1960. ''The Story of X-Rays from Röntgen to Isotopes''. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.<br />
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Golan, Tal. 2004. The Emergence of the Silent Witness: The Legal and Medical Reception of X-rays in the USA. ''Social Studies of Science'' vol. 34, no. 4: 469-499.<br />
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Foucault, Michel. 1994. ''The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception''. Trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Vintage Books.<br />
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Han, Sam. 2008. Is the Global Really Glo-bile? Image-ing the 'World Picture' in an Age of Mobile Onto-Aesthetics. Paper presented at Eastern Sociological Society Meeting, February 24th, in New York.<br />
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Lentle, Brian. 2000. X-rays and technology as metaphor. ''Canadian Medical Association Journal'' 162 (4): 512-514.<br />
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Pasveer, Bernike. 1989. Knowledge of shadows: the introduction of X-ray images in medicine. ''Sociology of Health & Illness'' 11(4): 360-383.<br />
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"Remarks Made at the Demonstration of the Rontgen Ray, at Stated Meeting, February 21, 1896." ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 35 (150): 17-36.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Virtual_boy&diff=12694
Virtual boy
2010-11-24T14:49:01Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12532 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:VirtualBoyJapan.jpg|right|Japanese advertisement for the Virtual Boy]]<br />
<br />
The Virtual Boy was a virtual reality, 3-dimensional gaming device made by Nintendo and was in retail between 1995 and 1996. It is widely believed to be Nintendo’s only glaring failure in its history as a video game hardware manufacturer. But the story of the Virtual Boy is the tale of one visionary who tried to alter the course of an entire industry. He failed due to the conservative nature of the games industry, as well as the American (and Japanese) public’s reluctance to take a risk accepting a radically different (though flawed) new technology. It also exposed how perfection driven the Japanese business model is (in terms of how the backlash of the Virtual Boy’s failure affected its creator). And finally, the Virtual Boy stands as a great example of a ‘what if?’ moment in history, where we were presented with a potential new lineage of entertainment enjoyed through true virtual space instead of just staring at a flat, distant screen.<br />
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==The Virtual Boy: Conception:==<br />
In the mid 1990’s, the US console market was in transition between 2-dimensional, sprite based graphics and 3-dimensional, polygonal graphics. At the same time the portable gaming market was still based on monochromatic displays popularized by the dominant portable gaming device, the Game Boy (Kent 513). There had been little variety outside of the traditional flat, depthless display. But that was about to change with the partnership of Reflections Technology, a company from Massachusetts that invented mirror scanning stereoscopic displays (capable of creating the illusion of 3 dimensions) and an innovative hardware designer, Nintendo’s Gunpei Yokoi (Kent 513).<br />
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[[Image:Egm gunpei yokoi.jpg|thumb|left|Gunpei Yokoi, inventor of both Nintendo's greatest success, Game Boy, and its greatest flop, Virtual Boy.(EGM)]]<br />
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===Gunpei Yokoi: The Godfather of Portable Video Games===<br />
Starting off as an overseer for the assembly line machines at Nintendo, which in 1965 was still just in the playing card business, Yokoi eventually began designing toys in 1970. His first invention was a wooden device that could grasp things at a distance, it was called the ‘Ultra Hand’. (Pollack) . He eventually moved on to design electronic games for the company, specializing in portable games. His milestones included: Game & Watch (1980), a calculator sized liquid crystal display portable video game system with a built in clock, & Game Boy (1989), the most successful game system of all time (100 million units sold), which was capable of reading different games off of cartridges instead of having a predetermined amount of content stored on an internal hard drive (Kent 330). By the mid 1990’s Yokoi had developed an excellent reputation at Nintendo. It seemed like he could do no wrong.<br />
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In many ways, his newest project, The Virtual Boy, was more of a successor to the Game Boy (a portable gaming device with simple, monochrome graphics on a Liquid Crystal Display screen) than to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) or the Super Nintendo (both of which were home gaming console devices that required a television, instead of coming with its own monitor.) In some ways the Virtual Boy could be seen as a hybrid of the two models. It was self sufficient (battery operated and came with its own screen) like the Game Boy, but it also had a physical seperation between the screen and the controller as well as being a fully immersive audiovisual experience like the Super Nintendo. And yet the Virtual Boy was still unlike either in that its ambition was to alter the traditional conventions of how to view the video game being played.<br />
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===Market Saturation===<br />
By the mid 1990’s, Yokoi was dissatisfied with the lack of creativity in the market:<br />
“I saw that the market had become was so saturated with video games that it became nearly impossible to create anything new. There were a lot of creative ideas for games for the NES and for Game Boy. But there were not so many new ideas for games for the Super Nintendo. I think game companies ran out of new ideas. I wanted to create a new kind of game that was not a video game, so that designers could come up with new ideas” (Kent 514). <br />
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[[Image:Stereoscope.jpg|thumb|right| Stereoscope,an early precedent of the Virtual Boy (Resumbrae)]]<br />
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This dissatisfaction was the impetus that caused one of the video game industry’s most successful and innovative developers to take a huge professional risk by putting his faith in a new form of perception that had not been utilized for mainstream gaming before, stereoscopic vision.<br />
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Stereoscopic vision was not a new concept, and had actually existed before the digital era. It was however more static and did not deal with moving objects.<br />
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==The Virtual Boy: In Utero==<br />
The Virtual Boy was both a technological leap and a step backwards. <br />
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===The Tech of the Virtual Boy: 2 becomes 1 ===<br />
The principle of the Virtual Boy’s display relied on a human being’s ability to see "2 pictures with parallax separately with left and right eyes and fuse the two pictures in the brain to sense depth” (Patent 53). On one level there are background images and on the other there are objects like characters and items. When looking at these two together, there appears to be depth and a larger sense of the picture becomes clear.<br />
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[[Image:Eye diagram.jpg|thumb|right| A diagram demonstrating how the eyes combined the two separate images and saw one (Patent)]]<br />
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The layers that were produced by using the two mirrors inside the Virtual Boy's viewfinder and the angles at which the light of the LED lights hit the eyes produced a 3-D effect without being truly 3-D. The use of multiple moving and overlapping planes created the illusion of a Z-axis even if the individual objects on each plain are still just 2-dimensional (Wolf 18). This kind of optical illusion builds off of earlier stereoscopic 3-D devices, including analogue devices. Although the machine produces the two separate images, it is up to the user's brain to convert those two images into a cohesive 3 dimensional perspective of the game.<br />
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===The Setbacks of the Virtual Boy: Seeing Red=== <br />
Although Yokoi had wanted to create a system that used a whole spectrum of colors, it proved unrealistic because of the potential cost to the consumer as well as hampering the system’s ability to produce the illusion of 3 dimensions (Kent 514). <br />
“In the beginning of the development, we experimented with a color LCD screen, but the users did not see depth, they just saw double. Color graphics give people the impression that a game is high tech. But just because a game has a beautiful display does not mean that the game is fun to play.<br />
[[Image:Mariotennis.jpg|thumb|left|A screenshot from Mario Tennis for the Virtual Boy. With the proper perspective, this would appear 3-D (Resumbrae)]]<br />
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LEDs come in red, yellow, blue, and green. Red uses less battery and red is easier to recognize. That is why red is used for traffic lights.” (Kent 514). Yokoi’s desire to keep the display limited to red and black would end up coming back to haunt him. It is important to note that Yokoi was simultaneously striving for a revolutionary product while still trying to remaining realistic in terms of pricing. Unfortunately he ended up making too many compromises.<br />
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===Other Aspects of the Development of the Virtual Boy===<br />
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What was once supposed to be a sophisticated melding of cutting edge technology with casual entertainment soon became more and more 'neutered' of its appeal. Instead of creating a device on par with some of the contemporary virtual reality headsets that could sell for $599 (Arthur), it became a bit of a joke in comparison. The more Yokoi tinkered with the device, the less high tech it became (in fact, upon its release it was compared more to a Viewmaster than to a true virtual reality head mounted display) (Kent 514). Yokoi avoided using head tracking technology (where presumably the image in the display would be affected by the user's physical movement), he made the unit on a stand (because he felt the device would be too heavy to wear) and instead of using a visor to block out outside light, the console had a rubberized seal similar to that of a diver's mask (Kent 514). The Virtual Boy also featured stereophonic audio to help in the attempt of creating the illusion of total immersion. All of these changes, in addition to the limits of a monochromatic LED display, helped to undermine Yokoi's genuine desire to revolutionize the video game market and bring virtual reality to the masses.<br />
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[[Image:Virtual.jpg|thumb|left|Diagram of the Virtual Boy in Use (Patent)]]<br />
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One of the other main attempts at innovation was the controller. Unlike the rectangle/oval shaped controllers of previous Nintendo consoles or the large, cumbersome joysticks that came with computers, the Virtual Boy controller had a dual grip with two sets of directional buttons (patent 2). Of course this was very similar to the shape that future consoles had for their controllers (Sony's Playstation Dualshock controller could be seen as the epitome of this design model, replacing the extra directional buttons with symbolic (triangle, circle, square and X) and adding two analog control sticks). But the main focus for the Virtual boy remained the audio-visual illusion of virtual space. The controller was possibly the least problematic part of the Virtual Boy.<br />
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==The Virtual Boy: Miscarriage==<br />
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Nintendo announced the development of the Virtual boy in the summer of 1994 and was ready to display for the public that winter at a Tokyo trade show (Kent 515). The Virtual Boy was rushed to the market to compensate for the delay of the launch of what would become the Nintendo 64. This meant that the system did not get the chance to fully live up to Yokoi's vision due to lack of development time. This would prove to have dire consequences on the system's chances for success. <br />
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===Early Response: Japan===<br />
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Despite the high hopes of Nintendo, and especially Yokoi, the Virtual Boy was met with a dismal response. One reporter at the event went on to call the Virtual Boy "Virtual Dog" and proceeded to berate it: <br />
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"The November unveiling of Virtual Boy in Japan signifies an important change in direction for Nintendo. Either it has gone completely mad or it deems the future of videogaming to be crude, red, and likely to induce headaches" (Kent 515).<br />
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This comment demonstrated the general dismissal of the Virtual Boy by the Japanese market. Was it because of a technologically conservative outlook towards gaming? Or was it only focused on the lack of a Killer-App, a system-selling game that is held with high regard by gamers and critics? The negative attention toward the Virtual Boy did not end there.<br />
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===Fatal Combo=== <br />
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The Virtual Boy was originally slated to be 19,800 yen (about $207) (Kent 515). The people who attended the show were unimpressed by the actual hardware and software that the Virtual Boy had to offer. And one physical reaction to the Virtual Boy that was common was headaches and dizziness that was induced by prolonged usage of the device. Apparently, the combination of staring at red light against a black background, as well as improper focusing of the mirrors inside the device (which produced the 3-D effect) were responsible. The reaction was so strong that the Virtual Boy was shipped with a warning that it may cause headaches. (Kent 515). Soon it would be time for the Virtual Boy to have its shot in the United States. <br />
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The Virtual Boy software instruction manuals came with detailed instructions of preventing such adverse reactions. First there was a warning that only children above 7 could use this product because of the risk of eyesight and/or hearing damage (Nintendo 2). Then it gave detailed instructions as to how to focus the mirrors. The process ended somewhat similar to an optometrist's vision test for prescribing glasses (the user had to fine tune the device until the images came into focus in both eyes) (Nintendo 4,5). The device even had a built in timer that would pause every 15 (or 30) minutes in order to force the user to rest their eyes (Nintendo 7). This feature showed that the creator was concerned about the user's health and made an effort to protect it. It is fascinating that a similar feature is not included in other harmful electronic products (like cell phones for example). <br />
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=== The Year of the Virtual Boy===<br />
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The Virtual Boy, despite its early misfortunes in Japan, was poised to be (or marketed to be) a revolution in electronic entertainment. <br />
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Commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKK6FH1vGw ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZCmd5mWYxU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJAJteeefw&feature=related promised that the Virtual Boy could deliver a unique, revolutionary experience. In fact, in an unusual cross-promotional twist, Nintendo, Blockbuster and NBC joined forces to not only to build hype for the virtual boy but also to promote the fall line up for NBC as well as increase rental profits for Blockbuster. The fall promo deal was worth $5 million and was expected to be a massive boom for all three parties (Lefton). It was understandable why the three were so sure of success. After all, Nintendo was dominating the video game market since 1985. No one foresaw that the Virtual Boy would be a flop, especially not Yokoi. One of the problems with the promotion for the Virtual Boy however was that its 3-D image could not be appreciated unless the person were actually using the Virtual Boy. Sales were estimated to reach 3 million units by spring 1996 (Gillen).<br />
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The Virtual Boy was released in the United States in August of 1995 to mixed reviews. (Kent 518). It was universally panned by video game based publications, however, thus showing that Yokoi's device had alienated its target audience. It sold less than a million units in its lifespan (which was considered a major failure) and was discontinued a year later.<br />
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==The Virtual Boy: Afterlife== <br />
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Nobody could have foreseen the failure of the Virtual Boy, especially not Yokoi. It was the Industry's equivalent of the Soviet Union collapsing (a once strong, idealistic, seemingly unstoppable entity that imploded under its own misguidance and bad decisions). Nintendo's executives, following Japanese corporate structure, made an example out of Yokoi, despite all of the success he had brought o the company in the past. His final Nintendo project was now going for half of its initial retail value and still failing. (Kent 524) <br />
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===The Fall of Gunpei Yokoi===<br />
As a form of punishment, Yokoi was forced to man a booth for the Virtual Boy at a gaming exposition in 1996. The booth was neglected for the most part (the main excitement at the event was for the new Nintendo 64 home console that promised rich, colorful 3-D Graphics but without actually having any of the spatial depth that the Virtual Boy attempted to have), but those who visited got a personal demonstration of the device by it creator. (Kent 524)This form of solitary confinement was his 'reward' for thirty ears of excellence and only one of disaster(despite the fact that the Game Boy was still selling extremely well, pretty much dominating the portable games market)) . He left the company the following august. Although he did create his own business, his life was tragically cut short on October 4th 1997 in a car accident. The man who was one of the principal reasons for Nintendo's success died in corporate exile over one mistake.<br />
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===Why did it fail?===<br />
Were people not ready for a shift into virtual reality? Was the overly simplified design of the device and lack of quality software not compelling enough to boost sales? Was the harmful nature of the visual aspect of the device's LED lights being reflected by mirrors too much for people to overcome? Or was it Nintendo's refusal to support it enough to give it time to find an audience? It was most likely a combination of all these that doomed the red-eyed device.<br />
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The Virtual Boy's failure demonstrates the sheer difficulty one faces when trying to stray from the current media paradigm. Unless it was a perfect success, no one besides its creator would defend the need for something that was so different from its more mainstream or 'high tech' contemporaries. Perhaps if a less perfection driven company had sponsored Yokoi, he could have been able to find a way to improve the Virtual Boy instead of letting it fall into the annals of history as his Scarlet Letter of shame.<br />
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===Legacy?===<br />
Besides being the subject of ridicule by video gaming enthusiasts, The Virtual Boy demonstrated one of Nintendo's earliest avant-garde experiments in hardware manufacturing. There have been several indirect successors to the Virtual Boy in terms of challenging the paradigm of gaming. In the portable gaming sphere, there is the Nintendo Dual Screen (DS) which is a foldable gaming device that has two screens: (one normal display on the upper half and the other half is an interactive touch screen that can be manipulated with a stylus). The DS also features an interactive microphone for additional feedback possibilities. In terms of consoles, The Nintendo Wii is considered very unconventional compared to other mainstream consoles. It uses a wireless remote (wiimote)that tracks the user's movement and thus allows for a more kinesthetic style of gameplay (as opposed to the tradition of just using the thumbs and occasionally the other finger). This kind of motion tracking had been removed from the Virtual Boy during its development. <br />
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[[Image:Solid_eye2.jpg|thumb|right| The Solid Eye, a Virtual Boy-esque add-on for the PSP. It has only been used for one game. ]]<br />
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There has even been a somewhat direct follow up to the Virtual Boy: The TOBIDACID (also known as the Solid Eye) that came bundled with Metal Gear Acid 2 for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) portable gaming console. It wasn't a full successor (in that it was more of a niche add-on rather than a full fledged console). The attachment caused the full color polygonal graphics to appear 3-D through a similar stereoscopic viewing technology as the Virtual Boy. But even though it is technically an improvement over the simplistic monochrome display of the Virtual Boy, the Solid Eye is still prone to causing similar negative responses, like headaches. The main difference is that the peripheral is not necessary in order to play the game. It is meant as an enhancement.<br />
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==Bibliography== <br />
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*Arthur,Charles. Virtual reality headsets to be given the hard sell. The Independent. London (UK): Jan 14, 1996. pg. 10<br />
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*Electronic Gaming Monthly<br />
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*Gillen, Marilyn A. Nintendo Readies Virtual Reality Game. Billboard; Nov 26, 1994. Pg. 102 <br />
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*Japanese advertisement for Virtual Boy http://www.pockett.net/jeu_video/Virtual%20Boy/Dossier/Virtual%20Boy%20Jap. jpg<br />
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*Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Three Rivers press. New York, 2001 <br />
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*Lefton, Terry. NBC, Nintendo set fall blockbuster. Brandweek. New York: May 22, 1995. Vol. 36, Iss. 21; p. 6 (1 page)<br />
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*Mario Tennis screen shot. //resumbrae.com/ub/dms423_f06/10/virtualboy.jpg<br />
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*Nintendo. 'Mario Clash' Instruction Manual. 1995 <br />
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*Pollack, Andrew. “Gunpei Yokoi, Chief Designer Of Game Boy, Is Dead at 56;Obituary (Obit)” New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Oct 9, 1997. pg. D.22<br />
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*Stereoscope picture. http://resumbrae.com/ub/dms423_f06/10/<br />
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*Tobidacid picture. http://videogamerx.gamedonga.co.kr/zbxe/?mid=gameforum&category=80131&page=3&document_srl=100315 <br />
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*Yokoi et al. Controller for Game Machine. Nintendo Co., Ltd., assignee. Patent 375,326. 1996<br />
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*Yokoi et al. STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE AND STORAGE DEVICE USED THEREWITH. Nintendo Co., Ltd., assignee. Patent 5,682,171. 1997<br />
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*Wolf, Mark J. P. "Inventing Space: Toward a Taxonomy of On- and Off-Screen Space in Video Games." Film Quarterly Vol. 51 (1997): 11-23.<br />
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[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Dime_Museums&diff=12693
Dime Museums
2010-11-24T14:48:51Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12533 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]<br />
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Dime museums, a nineteenth century urban American phenomena, were large-scale venues dedicated to the exposition of human curiotisites, or 'freak shows,' under the guise of being an educational bourgeois form of entertainment. <br />
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==Historical and Political Context==<br />
The display of non-normative human bodies, or 'freak shows', have their modern roots in 16th century English fairs. But dime museums, which emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century, are the more immediate remediation of the private museums that emerged after the Revolutionary War. These private museums were operated by individuals hoping to earn a living in the unstable economy by opening their private collections to the public. Unlike most museums, which were based in the ideals of the Enlightenment and did not rely on the income from ticket sales, private museums had to display more sensational artifacts and spectacles to stay competitive. <br />
[[File:Dimemuseumad.JPG|thumb|left|]]<br />
With the rise of urbanization and industrialization, antebellum America faced major social and economic turmoil. Immigration and alienation aggravated the problems of city life, particularly in New York city, the dime museum capital of the world. "Demographic growth and industrialization destroyed local communities, produced slums, and threatened to change the structure of the nuclear family" (Dennett, 2). As Craton points out, Gramsci and other Marxist theorists explain that "states require a shared, culturally determined matrix of thought and values through which the capitalist power structure gain the consent of those it governs: hegemonic ideas seep into every aspect of human culture to create an intellectual framework that supports the values and power of the dominant class" (6). Thus, in the chaos of mid-19th century New York, the dime museums emerges to fill this void and build a unified mass culture. <br />
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==Human Curiosities in Victorian America==<br />
P.T. Barnum, one of the pioneers in mass culture, opened the American Museum in New York City in 1842. It is perhaps the first and certainly the most emblematic dime museum. Like all dime museums, the American Museum positioned itself as educational, family-friendly entertainment in the hopes of attracting patrons from a wide range of social class. So, in addition to featuring "siamese twins, fat boys, bearded ladies, rubber men, legless wonders and an array of midgets," the American Museum also skeuomorphically housed traditional museum artifacts and produced religious tableax and patriotic displays to cater to the Victorian cultural emphasis on temperance and the capitalist morality of of hard work (Dennett, 26). But dime museums were not only a New York phenomenon. By the late 19th century, dime museums were entertainment staples across the United States. <br />
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Building on the work of Foucault, Crary explores the role of the newly developed human sciences in the creation of "'realism' of mass visual culture" in the nineteenth century. The development of statistics and the subsequent "assessment of 'normality' in medicine, psychology and other fields" he says, "became and essential part of the shaping of the individual to the requirements of institutional power in the nineteenth century, and it was through these disciplines that the subject in a sense became visible" (16). Dime museums, which aimed to walk the fine line between science and spectacle, positioned freaks as the subject of the audience's newly developed "subjective vision."<br />
[[File:whatisit1.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for Barnum's "What is It?".]] <br />
===The 'What is It?': Racism and Science===<br />
The role of science in Victorian America can be further understood by examining the marketing of exhibitions at dime museums. It is at this time that science begins to enter the realm of the masses and comes to be seen as a sophisticated and necessary venture for the middle class. It is also at this time that teratology, the study of monsters, emerges, focused on classifying rather than understanding natural abnormalities. Barnum's "What is It?," for example, which came out just months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, plays with this notion of scientific classification. The "What is It?," which premired in 1859 was touted as 'the missing link'. This so called 'missing link' was William Henry 'Zip' Johnson, a young African-American man probably afflicted with microcephaly. Freakery, thus "became reasonable and even enlightening when wrapped in Darwinistic rhetoric, which please the sensibilities of the Victorians" (Chemers & Ferris, 69). The "What is It?" and exhibitions of "tribal" people from exotic lands highlights the racism and xenophobia of 19th century America. The spike in immigration and end of slavery forced Americans to grapple with their biases and fears of the other. Dime museum exhibitions provided a public space for this negotiation, and provided mass audiences with the opportunity to confront the other up close yet at a distance. <br />
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===The Bearded Lady: Gender and Chaos===<br />
[[File:beardedlady.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Photograph by Matthew Brady.]]<br />
As Dinnett points out, the subtext of the dime museum freak show was "the fear of a world gone mad" (76). Freak shows blur the lines of what is normal and act as a visual representation of the chaos of a country mired in a civil war, turned upsidedown by indistrialization and a city flooded with the immigrant 'other'. The presence of the 'bearded lady' (a mainstay at Barnum's American Museum and dime museums accross the country) in popular culture "both calls into question the natural basis of gender roles and asserts the importance of these roles to Victorian spectators. Like other forms of bodily exposition, the bearded lady is deeply embroiled in the cultural expectations she defies" (Craton, 122). In this way, freak shows calm fears of chaos by blurring and reaffirming social norms. In this sense, the dime museum is both catoptric and dioptric. Catoptric, because the performers at the freak show obfuscate and reflect back to the observer the chaos of the world in which they live; and dioptric because through the performers, the observer sees the boundaries and restrictions of society.<br />
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==Freak Shows and Modern Visuality==<br />
Dime museums simultaneously produced and were a product of a very specific kind of visuality, a visuality of modernization. "Modernization," says Dennett in her analysis of the freak show, "taught that the unimaginable was possible, and technology made material reality of ideas that had existed only in the real of the imagination" (29). Crary notes that the concept of modernization in visuality is useful only when it "encompasses not only structural changes in political and economic formations but also the immense reorganization of knowledge, languages, networks of spaces and communications, and subjectivity itself" (10). The observer, argues Crary, is central to this process. In this way, the dime museum embodies the "1900 moment" in that the visual experience of the freak show begins to store more than itself in the creation of the American cultural imagination.<br />
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The seeing and beeing seen of dime museums can also be interpreted using Flusser's essay on masks. The person, argues Flusser, is a "nodal intersection in the mutually intersecting social feilds" that is given meaning and becomes visible by the wearing of masks. The design of these masks is inter-subjective, says Flusser. "The 'I' is not only the wearer of a mask but also a designer of masks for others. Thus I 'realize' myself not only whenever I dance in masks, but equally whenever I, together with others, design masks for others" (106). The dime museum then, can be identified as a place where masks are both danced in an designed for others. Victorian Americans realized and affirmed their own masks by collectively designing freak masks for the performers. Simmilarly, the dime museum freak shows can be considered very black boxed in the sense that the 'mask' of the freak entirely conceals the humanity of the performer and the construction of a human curiosity. <br />
[[File:cartedevisite.jpg|thumb|right|Carte de Visite. Photograph by Charles Eisenmann.]]<br />
===Freak Shows and Photography===<br />
Photography played an important role in dime museums and several men, most notably Matthew Brady and Charles Eisenmann, made fortunes photographing freaks. Freak carte de visites were sold as sourveneirs, giving the opportunity for patrons to take home and recreate the titillation of freak shows in the privacy of their own home, essentially hacking the dime museum. As Wolf notes in her analysis of the story of Leonitus in Plato's Republic, "the ethical ban on looking and the erotic need to look (scopophilia) are presented as conflicting, but by giving in to his desire to look Leontius is no longer the perpetrator but the victim, no longer the looker but the looked at. In Plato’s tale the corpses arouse the voyeurism of the viewer...and are thus themselves to blame for being looked at. Simmilarly, Dime museum freak shows reversed the blame from looker to looked at and were thus a venue of socially sanctioned scopophilia.<br />
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==Death of the Dime Museum==<br />
Dime museums, as cheap but respectable forms of entertainment, began to fall out of favor and disappear in the early twentieth century with the rise of film and vaudeville. Thus the freak shows were remediated and went to die in more low-brow forms of entertainment, specifically as sideshow acts in carnivals.<br />
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==References==<br />
* Bogdan, Robert. ''Freak Show: Presenting human oddities for amusement and profit''. University of Chicago Press, 1988.<br />
* Chemers, Michael M. ''Staging Stigma: A critical examination of the American freak show''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.<br />
* Crary, Johnathan. ''Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century''. MIT Press, 1992.<br />
* Craton, Lilian. ''The VIctorian Freak Show: The significance of disability and physical differences in 19th century fiction''. Cambria Press 2009. <br />
* Dennett, Andrea Stulman. ''Weird and Wonderful: The dime museum in America''. New York University Press, 1997.<br />
* Flusser, Vilem. ''The Shape of Things: A philosophy of design''. Reaktion Books Ltd., 1999.<br />
* Stillman, Johnathan. "An American Showman: P.T. Barnum: Promoter of 'freak shows' for all the family". ''Historian''; Autumn 2007; 95; Platinum Periodicals pg. 16.<br />
* Thompson, Rosemary Garland. ''Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring disability in American culture and literature''. Columbia University Press, 1997.</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Hollerith_Punch_Card&diff=12692
Hollerith Punch Card
2010-11-24T14:48:42Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12534 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>The Hollerith Punch Card system has been widely used since the late 19th Century as a means for data-storage and tabulation. It was created out of a need to speed up the 1890 census at a time when machines were rapidly replacing manual labor. The need for the Hollerith system seemed pressing because the U.S. government required more information from the population, and therefore more advanced techniques for tabulation required for statistical analysis. The Punch Card technology was a remediation of card catalogues, short hand writing systems, and the Jacquard Loom. Although in recent years the Punch Cards have fallen out of favor, traces of the original cards are still seen today. The influence of the Punch Card system can be seen in the computer, bureaucratic record keeping, scan-trons, and voting machines. <br />
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[[Image:punchcards2.jpg|right|Hollerith Punch Card]]<br />
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__TOC__<br />
<br />
== The Precursors to the Punch Cards ==<br />
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[[Image:jloom.jpg|thumb|right|Jacquard Loom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom]]<br />
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The Hollerith Punch Card system was formed out of a need for a more accurate, rapid census and as a labor-saving device. The idea for the punch cards had first been introduced in the 18th century by Jacques de Vaucanson, who invented a card-controlled automatic loom. Here patterns were coded on a sequence of cards, and were then said patterns were executed on silk. (George Dyson, "The little secret that haunts corporate America ... A technology that won't go away." Wired magazine, Issue 7.03, 1999) In 1804, the card technology was used by Jacques Jacquard as an improvement on the Jacquard loom. These cards were used to control needles to produce the woven product. The desired pattern was encoded on cards to be reproduced. Charles Babbage, in 1848, envisioned a Punch Card system, but did not have the technological knowledge for the invention. The lithograph, although not a direct precursor, was a technology that also reproduced visual patterns in the 19th century, with the prospect of graphical reproduction. This shows a trend of the shift towards mechanical reproduction, and the use of machines to streamline the reproduction process. Another device that used a similar logic to the Hollerith system was the Piano Roll. Although there is no evidence that shows a connection between the Punch Card system and the Piano roll, there is a similar logic that exists between the linearity of the Piano Roll, and the earliest version of the Punch Card in its roll form. <br />
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Another direct precursor to the Punch Card system was the Automatic Telegraph. In the patent for the Automatic Telegraph, the description is as follows: "the transmission is effected by the means of an automatic controller consisting of a pattern strip having predetermined characteristics...which characters are telegraphically reproduced at the receiving station." (Patent 255332) This mimics the punch card system in its representation of information by the use of patterns. Another form of the Automatic Telegraph utilized the idea of perforating paper, that was rolled over an electronic drum. Wherever the holes appeared, a connection was made, and a signal was sent directly to the telegraph. (Patent 561547) These inventions paved the way for the technology used in the design of Hollerith's Punch Card system.<br />
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== Socio-Historical Context ==<br />
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The historical context of the Punch Card system shows a paradigm shift in the proliferation of knowledge pertaining to the general population, and the shift in the use of human to machine labor. Technological innovations of the time, showed an increase in the use of machines that were intended to encode information. Machines were created to streamline processes, as well as improve accuracy. The sentiment regarding the use of machines is shown in this quote taken from a journalist in 1890, in his description of the Punch Cards "(Hollerith) simply made it possible to do a certain work with astonishing rapidity and absolute infallibility." (Headline: A Boon to Tabulators Doing the Work of the Census Department by the Hollerith System; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: Inter Ocean, published as The Weekly Inter Ocean; Date: 04-15-1890; Volume: XVII; Issue: 4; Page: [9]; Location: Chicago, Illinois) The work that this journalist was referring to was the American census.<br />
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===The role of the Punch Cards in the American Census===<br />
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The first American Census took place in 1790 and was carried out through the sheriffs and deputies of the colonial governments. The said purpose of the census was to provide a “thorough enumeration of the population,” to count the number of people for tax and voting purposes( How A Census is Taken-The North American Review- Carrol Wright U.S. Commisioner of Labor (1889)). The census, which was pursued knowledge of the nation's population, was done in order for governments to keep track of the number of people that existed, and was not originally intended for knowledge of detailed statistics. The first census only required a minimal amount of information compared to the 1870 census. It did not require the exact age of the person, rather whether or not said person was above or below the age of 16. White men were counted as people in this respect, while they age range of women was unnecessary. The reason for this was that women could not vote at the time. The number of families were counted, and finally the number of slaves. There were only 6 boxes that had to be filled in at this point. Carroll Wright, the U.S. Commissioner of Labor believed that the results of the census were faulty, as there was a large margin for human error.<br />
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The census in 1880 was vastly more detailed then then its predecessors. It required a more intricate and intimate knowledge of facts about the relationship of members in a household, their mental condition, (insane, idiotic), the products that they bought, etc. Under the Garfield Bill, the organization of the census changed such that there was now a Superintendent of the Census with an agency of stenographers, statistical experts, clerks etc that consisted of “at least 1500” persons. The cities were divided up into districts, where a large number of people were hired, so that there was a better ratio of enumerators households. At the time there were 35,000 enumerators working for the government. These people collected the facts by going from door to door and hand writing the data. The enumerator would count all of the people, and then would forward the numbers to the superintendent. At this point, data collected for the census was hand tabulated information marked on cards, and then sorted by hand in various ways. The cards were subsequently counted by hand. The method of writing on cards was then replaced by the Hollerith system which automated the census. Hollerith’s Art of Compiling Statistics: (1989) (Patent 395782) Idea for automation of the census. Machines could not read hand writing, but could read cards with holes in them. The system seemed necessary because it could count combined facts, collate the data, and speed up tabulation for the 1890 census.<br />
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== Hollerith in the Age of Biopolitics ==<br />
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Alexander Galloway ventures to say that the birth of biopolitics in the United States could very well be pinpointed to the 1890 census, which was the first to implement the tabulation system of Herman Hollerith (Galloway, 80). To be sure, the tabulation of information about individuals, not simply a count, was a move away from the romantic aura of the individual as free-standing, stable agent. As Walter Benjamin suggested about art some decades after 1890, the individual as an ideological remnant of Enlightenment, would soon be reconstituted by the statistical tabulation of its supposed properties—race, health, sex, etc. Indeed, in the years leading up to the turn of the 20th century, in which modernity would crystallize into its late, “full blown” form, the socio-historical “diagram” of biopolitics that Foucault outlines in Society Must Be Defended and the first volume of History of Sexuality (among other places) can be readily discerned. <br />
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As has already been commented upon by many scholars, Foucault coins the term to identify the process by which governance begins to work below the level of the individual (i.e., subjectivity) to the level of life (i.e., the biological). More specifically, he argues that the 18th century is when the problem of technical knowledge emerged. The State launched a political economic struggle aimed at reigning in various subordinated knowledges of this period, in order to select, normalize, hierarchicalize, and centralize it under the banner of a dominant (read: State), yet multiplicitous knowledge (Foucault, 180). <br />
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(1) Selection: The elimination and disqualification of economically expensive knowledges. <br />
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(2) Normalization: Making various knowledges communicate with one another and to break down the geographical and technological boundaries between them, effectively making them interchangeable. <br />
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(3) Hierarchicalization: The hierarchical classification of knowledges, thus interlocking them. <br />
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(4) Centralization: Centralization allows for knowledges to be controlled pyramidally, that is, knowledges can be transmitted upward from the bottom, and also downward from the top. <br />
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[[Image:Census Data 1790-1890.JPG|thumb|left|U.S. population 1780-1890; By state 1890. by Rand McNally and Company from 1897]]<br />
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How this happens, Foucault suggests, is through the production of populations through databasing, one in which the individual is transformed into a “dividual,” (Deleuze) signaling a new era of power, in which the masses are made into statistics, what in today’s world of the health care industry, for example, with its attentive administrative record-keeping would be considered a cruder, less sophisticated version of bioinformatics. As he says, “The disciplinarization of knowledges, and its polymorphous singularity, now leads to the emergence of a phenomenon and a constraint that is now an integral part of our society. We call it ‘science’(Foucault, 182).” In Hollerith’s system, each card represents one person, with the various punch holes representing “some particular value or meaning is assigned; a hole in one place meaning, [for example,] a white person, in another black. . . In this way, we not only recorded the answers to the twenty-six inquiries of the population schedule, but we also recorded the particular [s]tate, county, city, and enumeration-district in which the given person resided” (Hollerith, 679). As Foucault describes, the individual in the age of biopolitics is neither the individual of social contract theory nor that of the theory of rights but something quite different, inextricably tied to a “population.” “What we are dealing with in this new technology of power is not exactly society (or at least not the social body, as defined by the jurists),” Foucault writes, “nor is it the individual-as-body. It is a new body, a multiple body, a body with so many heads that, while they might not be infinite in number, cannot necessarily be counted. Biopolitics deals with the population, with the population as political problem, as a problem that is at once scientific and political, as a biological problem and as power’s problem (Foucault, 245).”<br />
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=== The Problem of Demographic (Read: Politico-scientific) Identification in the late-19th to early-20th century ===<br />
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The problem of social identification was an issue that came to a boiling point during Reconstruction, after the so-called emancipation of enslaved descendants of Africans at the end of the Civil War (1861-1865). If there was any doubt before, race had become the primary “trope” (Henry Louis Gates 1993) of American life. Though slavery would be outlawed, the equally pernicious system of Jim Crow would maintain racial separation as one of the primary functions of the American political apparatus. But even prior, in the 18th century, when the institution of slavery was not debated, the status of enslaved Africans in America was a sticking point of discussion for reasons pertaining to political representation. The 3/5 clause of 1789, for example, counted slaves as 3/5 of a human (that is, a white) in determining the allotment of representatives per congressional district, not to mention the well-known “one drop rule” that pronounced anyone with any African ancestry to be considered “black,” that is, as slave. Hence, the states that would later make up the Confederacy would hold greater congressional power, based on their slave population. Moreover, it is worth noting that the racist fractional consideration of enslaved Africans did provoke a necessity of a governmental tabulation of populations in order to calculate congressional representation. Thus, Foucault’s assertion that the State would be interested in accumulating a dominant, technical knowledge would be latent until the demographic revolution, for which Hollerith’s Electrical Tabulating System would be responsible. The political quanta of citizenship would at this moment be elided with one’s status as “human.” The political and biological would from here on be interimplicated ontologically. <br />
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By the period of Reconstruction, it became necessary for the State to keep track of its populations as the Union struggled to heal its wounds while tarrying with the fundamental contradiction of Jim Crow. Black Americans were no longer slaves (hence, theoretically citizens), yet not fully human in the eyes of the law (and the majority of whites) since they were not yet given suffrage. So the maintaining of Jim Crow and later de jure segregation during Reconstruction, as W.E.B. Du Bois suggests, was a matter of reconstituting identities and identifications into fundamentally mutually exclusive categories, like that of black and white(not to mention the always already present oppositional categories of man and woman)(See Du Bois 1998[1935]). Through the eyes of the gaze of governance, a standardized method of obtaining information about individuals was not only necessary but pressing. <br />
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The Hollerith system worked so well for the United States in the 1890 census that other countries, notably Britain, adopted it for its tenth census of 1891 (NY Times, 1891). In fact, the New York Times coverage of the discussions for the adoption of the Hollerith system is quite favorable, at numerous points describing the previous census as containing many “blunders” and “shortcomings,” which, it implies, can be avoided with the adoption of the new American system. But more interestingly, the article goes on to explain why it is compulsory for Britain to have a robust system like the Americans: “But will the same blunders and shortcomings not be repeated in England in April[when the census was scheduled to take place]? That is the question which is troubling the average Briton when census matters are being discussed. America has been teaching England many useful things in the past twenty years, and it is thought probable that some at least of Mr. Porter’s crude ideas and slipshod methods may be imitated. After the thorough manner in which these have been exposed and ridiculed such a calamity is hardly to be expected, but the idea of London, like New York, waddling along for ten years under the stigma of a ridiculously incorrect statement of its population is enough to make the most stolid Englishman feel anxious and depressed (Ibid.).” As the article suggests, having an accurate census is important not just for accuracy but for nationalist pride and mental health. Therefore, to throw off the gathering and tabulation of accurate data is not simply undesirable but also unpatriotic. As the article says of the particular status of women in census data, they are possibly “the worst offenders against the requirements of the census, or at least against that particular requirement which requires them to tell their ages,” noting that no woman has yet to be put in prison for resisting to report her proper age (Ibid.). <br />
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[[Image:Dehomag.JPG|thumb|right|Advertisement for the German IBM subsidiary, Dehomag published in 1933. Translation: "Oversight with Hollerith Punch Cards"]]<br />
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The Times article also enlightens some of the key biopolitical aspects of the Hollerith system as it describes the stated intentions of the British Census Office for its use. One of them is the regulation of the poor, which some contemporary authors have suggested is precisely the function the public welfare system that used to exist in the United States (pre-Clinton), and which still exists across the European Union in divergent forms (See Piven and Cloward 1993). Prior to the census, statistics on the British poor were shoddily implemented by the Overseers of the Poor, whose positions were part of the Poor Laws of the early-17th century that provided food and clothing on a superficial level but were mostly means to discipline the lowest social strata. Specifically, the article states that one of the most important pieces of information is on the number family members living in a single apartment. Interestingly enough, it interprets this statistic as beneficial for the poor, as it will aid officials to go after real estate brokers and tenement owners who falsely advertise a space the size of a closet as a room, and tackle the “evils of overcrowding.” In light of this, along with governance reaching the level of life, we would also suggest that the Hollerith system contributes to the birth of the “social problem,” which a great deal of contemporary social science research is based on. One of sociology’s well-respected academic journals is aptly titled Social Problems [http://ucpressjournals.com/journal.asp?j=sp].<br />
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One such instance of the production of a population as social problem was the Third Reich’s use of Hollerith’s system. As Gotz Aly and Karl Roth suggest, the statisticians that oversaw the project of tabulating populational statistics for the Third Reich were considered “soldiers of science,” that is, they were deemed to be just as valiant as those who were fighting on the front lines (Aly and Roth, 85-98). And indeed, as the British census had, the Nazi census of 1933 was perceived to be a response to security concerns and estimates for future food production, but was in fact the most modern and efficient means of social engineering and control, specifically targeting those of “non-German ethnic backgrounds,” which was nothing more than a coded label for Jews. As the adjoining image of an advertisement from 1933 shows, the Hollerith was seen as an all-seeing, panoptic eye, watching over the German peoples.<br />
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== Marketing the Hollerith Electrical Tabulation System ==<br />
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=== Hollerith on Hollerith ===<br />
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[[Image:hstfig15.gif|thumb|left|Caricature of Herman Hollerith by Clive "Max" Maxfield and Alvin Brown]]<br />
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Therefore it is unsurprising that Hollerith, in a presentation to the Royal Statistical Society in England on 4 December 1894 regarding the success of this tabulation system, often refers to one distinguishing feature of his system from past systems of tabulating census data—data compilation (as opposed to collection). He writes, “[W]hile we classed our population as native white, foreign white, and coloured [in the 1880 census, on which he also worked], this was extremely unsatisfactory. . . Again it was apparent that if we wished to consider the progress of the negro[for example] in regard to illiteracy, we should know the number of illiterates at each age-period” (Hollerith, 678). In contemporary statistical language, Hollerith is suggesting that his system provided cross tabulations—a joint distribution of two or more variables, an all but impossibility with the older system used by the census. In this instance, he suggests that one could track literacy through the combination of race, age-period and literacy, which in contemporary social scientific research is called “intersectional” analysis. None of this could be possible without the quantification of the collected data. Additionally, the two operations of sorting and counting could be done simultaneously, or independently of the other (Hollerith, 680). <br />
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Moreover, the particular categories of identification (of which there was a total of twenty six) that Hollerith uses throughout his address to the RSS are as random as the usage of his system for the 1890 census. He consistently goes back to several “variables,” as it were, to make his point about the efficiency and superiority of his system of data tabulation. These are age; sex; birthplace of mother; “conjugal condition” [marital status], under which the option of “divorce” is so conspicuously left off; race; citizenship status; and occupation. One of Hollerith’s major selling points for his system is the degree of specificity that it could sustain thanks to its efficiency and sophistication. As he writes, “[f]or the foreign, in addition to the above, whether a citizen or alien, and whether the person could speak English. For the coloured, a distinction as to Black, Mulatto, Quadroon, Octoroon, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian” (Hollerith, 680). One does not have to venture far to see where these categories are remediated today. They can be found in the contemporary categories of the current census as well as the General Social Survey, on which a significant amount of quantitative social science training and research is done. Though this is most clearly what Foucault calls the statistical production of populations, how this process bears on identification and identity are significant as reflected in the raciology of American public discourse. For example, with “Black” and “Mulatto” as separate categories, Hollerith (and by extension the census at large) reproduces the fundamental tension of the American conception of race. It is at the same time reproducing the contemporaneous understanding of races as biologically separable, while also conceding to the possibility of race-mixing. For if one were to suggest that an individual could be both “black” and “white,” then it could be concluded that one should give up on the category entirely. But, in actuality, Hollerith’s example of the specificity achieved by his system(which he intended to be a sign of its superiority), quite simply demonstrates in its barest form, the way in which statistical calculation of populations produces the hegemonic epistemological infrastructure of society’s understanding of itself—the Foucaultian episteme.<br />
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=== Popular and Trade Press on Hollerith ===<br />
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If one were to be wary or even downright skeptical of Hollerith’s self-representation of the tabulation system, we could investigate the way in which popular weeklies and journals such as Harper’s and Scientific American portrayed the Hollerith system to see how it was portrayed not to a scientific community, as his address to Royal Statistical Society had been, but to a business community and also the reading public. <br />
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[[Image:hollerith.SA.gif|thumb|right|A day in the life of a Hollerith punch card]]<br />
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A pictorial advertisement in an August issue of Scientific American shows five images that are “slice of life” snapshots (figuratively, they are actually drawings) organized in continuous fashion. A mustached man—conceivably a “statistics clerk”—at a desk tabulating data; that is, punching in collected data into individual punch cards using the hand-puncher. A few pictures later, you see another image with a woman in the foreground seated at a desk among other people (men and women) also tabulating data. Next to her desk are stacks of paper, assumed to be already punched cards. Below that is an image of a group of men huddled around a table of punched cards that are being thrown at a pile of stacks on the floor, with a young man struggling to stack them properly. One imagines that this is supposed to signify the level of overwhelming efficiency of the electric tabulating system that overtakes even the ability for the young man to stack the books of punched cards. <br />
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The enthusiasm for the Hollerith system is spelled in greater detail in an article published in an issue of Harper’s Weekly published on 19 August 1899. It highlights the greater efficiency and accuracy of the system in conducting the census, boasting that it will allow the census to “embrace a greater area; for the first time the inhabitants of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico are to be included in the count” (Harper's Weekly, 821). Additionally, it congratulates the decrease in labor that the Hollerith system provides, stating that “the improvement effected by the substitution of an automatic process in this work can be judged by the fact that one machine does the labor of twenty clerks under the old system” (Ibid.). And lastly, the article highlights the accuracy of the mechanical computation, which gives the census a level of trustworthiness that is not afforded to humans, who are capable of such things as error. For example, “if one of the details—say that of sex—is not punched, the electric plunger will not register, and the automatic bell at the side of the machine which announces the completion of the record will not ring. It is, then, a comparatively easy matter to go back and supply the missing information” (Ibid.). Lastly, it is worth noting a small detail in light of the suggestion in Foucault’s argument that biopolitics is characterized by the State’s intervention and interest in producing knowledge. The article reports that “the publisher will be the government; the publication will be designated as the Twelfth Census of the United States" (Ibid.).<br />
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The success of Hollerith’s electric tabulation system for the 1890 census paved the way for businesses to become interested in Hollerith’s Electric Tabulating Machine. One such industry was the burgeoning railroad companies. An article which appeared on 19 April 1895 in the Railroad Gazette, a trade journal, is indicative of the wave of interest in Hollerith’s system after the 1890: “A number of prominent railroad accounting officers have recently examined, with much interest, an invention for doing the great mass of the figuring in a freight auditor’s office by machinery, at a considerable saving in time and expense, and with perfect accuracy; and as the devices are exceedingly ingenious, and of interest to all accounting officers, whether they are likely to use them or not” (Railroad Gazette 1895). As is the case for many of the articles in trade journals, this article on Hollerith’s system reads almost like an advertisement, though with key points highlighting the way in which the system would be beneficial for railroad accounting officers in particular. What is useful to understand about the Hollerith system in this instance is the presentation to an industrial readership as a model of record-keeping and number crunching, which is in line with Hollerith’s own rendering of the benefits of his tabulation system in his address to the Royal Statistical Society. Moreover, record-keeping is one of the fundamental characteristics of Max Weber’s ideal-type of bureaucracy, which he argues is the dominant mode of social organization in modernity (See Weber 1914). Hence, the Hollerith system is the key turning point in not only the biopolitics of demographics but the rationalization of everyday life.<br />
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== Initial Design ==<br />
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[[Image:hh-tabulator.gif|right|Hollerith Punch, Tabulator and Sorter]]<br />
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Herman Hollerith did not in fact file a patent for the punch cards that would bear his name, but rather for the machines used to inscribe, read and sort them. This section will describe the initial design of each of these technologies and their importance.<br />
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=== Punch Cards ===<br />
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[[Image:Hollerith First Patent.JPG|thumb|left|Hollerith's Initial Patent from 1889 "Art of Compiling Statistics" which still relied upon rolls of paper]]<br />
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Hollerith punch cards were typically pieces of thin cardboard (although different forms of paper were utilized, with varying levels of success, throughout its history) cut to be 3.25 inches by 7.375 inches- the same size as the US currency in 1887, so that the cards could be stored in treasury bins. Hollerith cards initially had 24 columns, although later versions as many as 90. A corner of the punch cards was typically cut in order to ensure that they maintained the same orientation when stacked or tabulated, but held no further meaning.<br />
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These punch cards were, by admission of their inventor, conceptually based on several pre-existing technologies: the [[Jacquard Loom]], the [[automatic telegraph]], and train tickets punched by the conductor in holes used for description. The idea for the punch card tabulator was initially suggested by Dr. John S. Billings to Hollerith while both were working on the 1880 US census, stating that there “ought to be a machine for doing the purely mechanical work of tabulating population and similar statistics”, thinking that such a machine would create cards with the description of the individual notched into the side (Austrian). Hollerith’s first attempts at creating a tabulating machine involved punching holes into a roll of paper, with the relative position of the holes representing different aspects of the individuals recorded (i.e. sex, race, number of members of the household, etc). This role of paper could then be run over an electrified drum, which made electrical contact through the punched holes and activated the counters in a manner similar to the automatic telegraph. Yet the use of the roll of paper was ultimately unsatisfactory to Hollerith, for “the trouble was that if, for example, you wanted any statistics regarding Chinamen, you would have to run miles of paper to count a few Chinamen.” (Austrian, 14). Drawing on his knowledge of the train tickets- so-called “punch photographs”- Hollerith abandoned the linear roll of paper for sets of punch cards- pieces of paper or cardboard cut into standardized shape, typically a rectangle- each of which could stand for an individual. Initially, Hollerith actually used a train conductor’s punch to create his cards, but the strain incurred from the repetitive exercise proved to be inhibitive. <br />
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[[Image:original punch card.jpg|thumb|left|Original Hollerith Punch Card]]<br />
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The move from the strip of paper to the individualized punch card enabled the unit of information- for the census, the individual- to be “processed once, rearranged in new combinations, and processed again, until every bit of useful information was extracted” (Austrian, 16). This shift away from the remediation of both the Jacquard Loom and automatic telegraph is of the utmost importance, for it not only eased the extraction of specific information (Hollerith’s Chinamen”), it fundamentally reconstituted the relationship between the data recorded and the statistician. While the rolls of paper could be read and counted, punch cards constituted a malleable assemblage that could be dismantled and reconstructed into all possible permutations. Remembering that the information that this invention was created to record was individual data- that each card represented an individual- one can see that the technology of the punch card allowed for an understanding of the US population as an infinitely divisible and rearrangeable mass. Although the input of information into the rolls of paper were not meant to be serial in order, the linear nature of the medium nonetheless created a form of order unintended and unwanted by Hollerith- to find a few Chinamen it was necessary to scan the entire population, for the Chinamen were literally inseparable from the cohesive whole. With the punch cards, it was possible to create relationships that did not necessarily exist amongst the individuals represented. All married female octoroons whose mothers were born outside of the country could be melded into a demographic group (quite literally by extracting and compiling their cards), regardless of whether or not these individuals were even aware of each other’s existence. They were, to reiterate Deleuze's term, "dividuals."<br />
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[[Image:IBM1130CopyCard.agr.jpg|thumb|right|Binary Punch Card]]<br />
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Cards were encoded by the placement of the holes punched into them. For this reason, the information written on the cards themselves (typically numbers, and often lines indicating column and row) were unnecessary to the technology, used only for quick correction or, for those well versed in the process, reading individual cards by sight (Austrian). To this purpose, a metal sheet cut the same size as the cards with the meaning of the individual holes could also be used to decipher the information held within (Austrian, 63). Tellingly, during the 1890 census when Hollerith Punch Cards were first introduced, most of the cards were blank (Austrian). The data encoded into the punch cards at the dawn of its use can be thought of as being both digital and analogue. In a very basic sense, the presence or lack of holes is a binary system- the coded information is either “on” or “off”. Yet in its initial use, each position on the card stood for a single piece of information- one space was designated for male, another for married individuals, etc. As such, the coding was a process of spatializing analogue data. Actual binary cards were later produced (used primarily for computer programming) in which the holes represented zeroes and ones, and on these cards the relative position of the holes was of significantly less importance. Despite the increased sophistication of systems of encoding (the 80 column card with twelve punch positions, which came to be the dominant format known generally as the “IBM card”, used the eleventh and twelfth position as a “zone punch” which symbolized plus or negative signs, or other coded information which changed the interpretation of the other ten punch positions), most punch cards were used to store information in a spatialized analogue format. The transformation of information into a spatialized data enabled its decoding to be simultaneous- all information on a card could be read at once.<br />
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[[Image:CardRear-reg.jpg|thumb|left|"Do Not Bend or Mutilate This Card"]]<br />
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[[Image:Fold spindle mutilate.jpg|thumb|right|"Human Punchcard" by Jesse Drew]]<br />
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The material necessities of the punch card- that it be cheaply reproduced and easily punctured- resulted in an object that was, like other paper products, quite fragile. The phrase “do not fold, bend, spindle or mutilate” was a common phrase that accompanied punch cards that warned against abuse of the material which would render it illegible to the tabulating machines. This saying gained cultural currency in the 1960’s and 1970’s as representative of the alienation and dehumanization that accompanied the rise of computers, inspiring both a movie and a novel of the same title (Disney). The phrase invoked the irony of the situation in which people were forbidden to violate material objects that were the very tools by which they were integrated into technocratic bureaucracies. Such prohibitions were not meant to be taken lightly, for the material disfigurement or destruction of the punch card meant potential disruptions of Kafkaesque proportions- taking the example of the 1890 census, since each individual was represented by a punch card, a card’s misuse or alteration fundamentally changed the way in which an individual counted, or if they counted at all. Once the use of punch cards spread throughout various institutional contexts, following the census in military and health care systems and then rapidly expanding through both the public and private sector, the physical integrity of the punch card often had a direct effect on the physical integrity of the individual.<br />
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[[Image:chads.jpg|thumb|left|Uncanny Jar of Chads]]<br />
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The Hollerith punch card, along with similar technologies such as the Jacquard Loom, challenges the relationship of paper with the idea of "surface", what Jacques Derrida calls the "paper principle" (Derrida,48). Information is stored in the punch cards not through the inscription of traces on its surface, but rather in the alteration of its shape. Despite the admonishment not to "fold, spindle or mutilate" the punch card, the act of inscription is a permanent mutilation of the paper's surface. This puncture causes the two sides of the paper to meet, creating new edges and boundaries that are held internally, creating a lack that holds meaning. Unlike a surface that can be erased or wiped clean, the punch card becomes the information punched into it. The chad, the leftover piece of surface that has been removed by the puncture, is immediately discarded as refuse. Since meaning is held within absence, the presence of the chad is an unwelcome impediment that recalls residual possibility.<br />
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=== Key Punch ===<br />
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[[Image:keyboard punch.jpg|thumb|right|Hollerith Keyboard Punch (Patent Number 487,737)]]<br />
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The "pantograph" or "Keyboard punch" was the artifact used to inscribe information into the Hollerith punch cards. The first iteration of the pantograph consisted of "a suitable frame carrying a card holder, a punch adapted to engage and punch a card held by said holder, mechanism for operating the punch, a keyboard supported on the frame, an index finger movable over the face of the keyboard" which controlled the punch (Patent #487,737). The keyboard on this machine was not what one would today typically imagine when hearing the term, but was rather a metal strip with holes that corresponded to the relative positions on the punch card. This keyboard could be replaced to create a new positioning system, and could also be removed and held up against any punch card to reveal its meaning. The meaning of "key" in this context should therefore be understood as an encoding and decoding mechanism rather than a button. During the 1890 census, specially trained clerks (the majority of whom were young women)would convert the data collected on handwritten forms into punch cards using this technology.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Census_worker_using_Hollerith_Pantograph.jpg|thumb|right|Census worker using the Hollerith Pantograph]]<br />
<br />
Of particular interest is the distance created by the pantograph between the operator and the punch card. Instead of directly punching holes into the card, the clerk instead pushes an index finger into holes in the metal keyboard which then causes a parallel action by the punching mechanism that then "engages" the card. On a purely practical level, it is possible to gain greater accuracy using the larger metal keyboard as opposed to punching the smaller punch card directly. Further, by punching the card close to the joint of the machine instead of at the edge grants the user greater leverage and thereby lesser strain from repeated use. More importantly, the "doubling" of action in the pantograph keeps the operator from directly interacting with the punch card- while the train conductor's punch was merely a tool, the pantograph was a nascent machine. Raw material (slips of paper) were inserted into the back of the machine, its "finger" was moved in pre-set motions, and the final product (punched card) was removed for further processing. Although the next iteration of the pantograph eliminated this divide, the estrangement of user and product presaged further developments of the technology in which the punching mechanisms were covered in a literal "black box", and only the user interface (which came to resemble modern keyboards) was visible.<br />
<br />
[[Image:punchcards1.jpg|thumb|left|The keyboard, which was used to code the punch card and precursor to the modern interface]]<br />
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Although often located in the same room, the technologies used to imprint punch cards and those used to read, sort and analyze them remained separate until the introduction of the IBM 604 in 1948 (Bell). It is important to note that the sole purpose of the keyboard punch was to take data legible to humans and to transform it into data legible by a machine. Handwritten forms from which the data was transcribed could be counted and arranged in the same manner as the punch card- for each form also represented a singe person- but such a process was intensely consumptive of both time and resources (the 1880 census actually ran out of funds before finalizing its analysis of the population). Hollerith tabulating and sorting machines drastically cut the effort needed to conduct such an analysis, but in order to achieve this ends the from had to be transformed into the card. Since the pantograph is itself a machine of transcription that meditates and produces punched cards, it can be argued that the punch card is a medium of communication between machines. The pantograph receives input from the handwritten forms and internalizes this data in the form of the punch card, which is then read by the tabulator which then produces statistics. While this suggests that the keyboard punch is a form of rudimentary interface, because the two machines remained separate for the majority of the mediums' institutional dominance (punch cards were, for the most part, obsolesced in the 1970s) punch cards should be seen as an inherently machine-centric (as opposed to anthropocentric) medium.<br />
<br />
[[Image:duplicating key punch.jpg|thumb|left|IBM Type 016 motor-driven Duplicating Key Punch]]<br />
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[[Image:Office_Military_Keypunch_Machines.jpg|thumb|right|Women using the IBM Type 31 Duplicating Key Punch, all of which have been "black boxed"]]<br />
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An important turning point in the technology of the pantograph is the invention of the IBM Type 016 motor-driven Duplicating Key Punch in 1929. This machine enabled the duplication onto multiple cards the information held on one pre-punched "master" card. This development can arguably be seen as having effects on punch cards similar to those that print had on writing. The potential for what Elizabeth Eisenstein has dubbed "textual drift", i.e. inevitable errors or changes made in transcribing older copies, can be "fixed" through the production of multiple exact copies (Eisenstein, 88). This enabled the encoding and reproduction of complex computer programs on punch cards, for if a mistake was found the card could be duplicated up to the erroneous column, corrected by hand, then further duplicated. Although the invention of the duplicating key punch helped to assuage the problem of operator mistakes, incorrectly punched cards would plague the system from its inception through its current iterations. Several methods were developed to verify the proper coding of the cards, from Hollerith's system of two operators duplicating each other's work and a third party check to actual machines designed specifically for the purpose of correction. As was seen in the 2000 US presidential election, incorrectly punched holes and chads that refuse to accept their absencing continue to haunt the use of punch cards.<br />
<br />
=== Tabulator and Sorter ===<br />
[[Image:hollerith3.jpg|thumb|left|Hollerith tabulator and sorter both controlled by electric tabulator press]]<br />
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{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:23em; max-width: 25%;" cellspacing="5"<br />
| style="text-align: left;" |<br />
<br />
"Hear the Census with its bells<br />
<br />
Electric bells!<br />
<br />
What a world of work<br />
<br />
Their wild confusion tells,<br />
<br />
How they klingle, klangle, klingle<br />
<br />
In that Inter-Ocean room<br />
<br />
Till your tympanums all tingle<br />
<br />
At the jingle, jangle, jingle<br />
<br />
And you wish you were at home<br />
<br />
Keeping time, time, time,<br />
<br />
To some other sort of rhyme<br />
<br />
Than the tin, tin tabulation of those bells!"<br />
<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align: left;" | ''The Bells'', Edgar Allen Poe<br />
|}<br />
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The Hollerith tabulating and storage machines were two separate, yet connected machines that were ultimately integrated into a single device. The central piece of technology was a pin punch, which was a set of electrified pins that were pressed down onto the punch card. Where there was no hole, the pins would telescope back into the device, and where there were holes the pin would pass through the card into a small vial of mercury which would complete the electric current. Each pin corresponded to a counter held in the tabulator’s frame, which would advance by one unit every time an electric current was completed. At the same time, particular combinations of holes (determined prior to tabulating) would open different compartments on top of the sorter. In this manner, a clerk could simultaneously tabulate punch cards as well as sort them by different categories (such as by state, gender, or a mixture of the two) to be then rearranged and tabulated again (Patent 526,130). Developments in this technology led first to the integration of the two devices, then to the automation of sorting.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Office_Military_Tabulating_Machines.jpg|thumb|right|Group of men working with tabulating machines, in the same room as the women working with the IBM Duplicating Key Punches]]<br />
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<br />
One aspect of the tabulating machine that stood out to all those who used it were the bells that were attached to the pin punch. Whenever an electrical current was successfully made, a bell would ring to let the individual know that they had properly read the card. In the offices in which the 1890 census workers had their headquarters, this resulted in a cacophony of sound that Edgar Allen Poe captured in his poem “The Bells” (Austrian, 60). For Poe, the bells were an unnatural rhythm filled with “wild confusion” that made one “want to go home”. This horrific music was an alien and alienating clamor that kept its own, mechanic beat to which the clerks were necessitated to maintain. While the bells could be seen as a “reward” for properly completing the task, the actual result was a dehumanizing song that worked towards its own purposes.<br />
<br />
[[Image:1942_War_Dept_card_punching_section_WP_DCPL.jpg|thumb|left|All African American female war department office with white female supervisor in 1942]]<br />
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It further must be noted that tabulating work was almost from its inception gendered. One visitor to the 1890 census office stated that “it is a very tidy and airy machineshop, however, where nice-looking girls in cool white dresses are at work at the long rows of counting machines… At first glace the machines remind one of upright pianos” (Austrain, 60). Like secretarial work, the tedious machine-like work of punching cards and tabulating their results quickly became associated with women. While men were detached from the machine and were the ones to analyze the results, women were- to quote Donna Haraway- “cyborgs” that operated as one with the devices, both in leisure (the piano) and in labor (the Hollerith machine) (Haraway). When WWII brought African Americans into the workforce, this binary continued with black women placed on key punches transforming human language into that of the machine.<br />
<br />
== Multiple Uses of the Punch Card Technology ==<br />
The technology of Hollerith's Punch Cards were not limited to the collection of statistical data in the census. In fact, the technology was used for a multiplicity of purposes. In 1896 the Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Company. This was the first company dedicated to tabulating and accounting. (IBM Official Website,http://www.ibm.com/sandbox/homepage/version-b/) ) The company lent out the Punch Card machines to other companies, that needed to tabulate a large amount of data. The punch card equipment began to be used by the NY Central Railroad. The company was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. Some significant technological transformations took place in this period. IBM created The Multiplying Punch Machine in 1931. This machine could read digits from a card, add, subtract, and multiply. (Patent 2178950) In 1937, IBM produced the first test scoring machine. The machine now has taken the form of the scan-tron that is still widely used in schools today. In 1954, the Electronic Data Translating System was invented. This was a system was an improvement upon the Punch Card system. It transformed intelligence on the datacards through photoelectric sensors. These sensors allowed for transference from punch cards to computing machines, quickly. In 1966, the Punch Cards were being used for Medicare identification, for the Social Securities Administration. In 1974 the Punch Cards were used for recording and Collecting data intended for betting and similar contests. (Patent 3906192)<br />
<br />
=== Punch Cards used as Voting Machines ===<br />
<br />
[[Image:magnifyingglass.gif|thumb|right|The Elusive Chad: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://evoting.jmls.edu/Images/vote01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://evoting.jmls.edu/&h=298&w=210&sz=16&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=MVV71YRz3dsSKM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvoting%2Bchad%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN]]<br />
<br />
The Punch Card system has been used for tabulating votes because the equipment is portable, inexpensive, simple, and mechanical. The results gathered from the punch cards can be tallied quickly. In the 2000 election, 1/3 of all voters used the punch cards. The significance of the Punch Cards can be seen by the failure in the technology to adequately represent the votes in the 2000 election. Here voters left incompletely punched holes producing invalidated ballots. The argument was that people who were democrats and minorities, tended to live in districts that had the outdated punch-card system of voting, as opposed to republicans who had the newer more streamlined voting machines. (Who Uses Inferior Voting Technology?, by Stephen Knack; Martha Kropf<br />
PS: Political Science and Politics © 2002 American Political Science Association,541)<br />
<br />
== From Punch Cards to Magnetic Tape ==<br />
In the 1940s there was a general trend in businesses to invest in machines that would save human labor. (The Impact of Automation on the Field of Accounting, by C. L. Keenoy<br />
The Accounting Review © 1958 American Accounting Association, 2) The problem was solved through extending the punch card concept of integrated data processing where machines could be linked together, through a common language, an an automatic chain, automating different processes and operations. The integrated data processing concept resulted in the "sales-tronic" system. This system was first employed in retail, as there was a need for multi-variable flexible medium for recording information. There were factors that changed from transaction to transaction, such as mark-ups or discounts. This required a more flexible recording medium. (ibid, 4) This was done with a punch paper tape recorder. All the information from the register is punched into paper tape. The data was then fed into electronic processing machines that had a tape reader. This notion of a strip of paper, was later improved upon by the magnetic tape recorder.<br />
<br />
The most significant technological shift, was from the Punch Card, to the use of magnetic tape as a means of storing data. The Punch Card system anticipated the shift to the magnetic strip as a means of storing data. The development of cards as a means of storing data, was to ensure a more advanced system of collection and storage. It was more technologically advanced because it saved labor in the coding of information, transforming information into a pattern. The design of the Punch Cards was also labor saving in the retrieval of data. However the problem was that it was difficult to retrieve data, and every card was a unique instance of information. This produced massive stacks of cards, which was problematic for storage space. The system anticipated the storage of data by use of magnetic strips, because it eliminated the need for storage space. The transition to tape storage occured in 1952. The immediate reason for this technological change was because the Social Security System needed to solve their storage issues. The technology for the tape recorder was developed around the time that Punch Cards were invented. It was developed as a means of recording time, so that the hours of factory men, from the time and that they began work, to the time that they left, could be recorded. (Patent 400283) The magnetic tape was first adopted in the form of a reel. This was read linearly so that the access to the medium is sequential. This is in contradistinction to the Punch Card system, where a person could randomly retrieve data from any point. (Mullin, Jack, "Discovering Magnetic Tape," Broadcast Engineering, Intertec Publishing, Overland Park, KS, May 1979.) Thus it would seem that the Punch Card system was more advantageous in this respect. However, data-storage shifted from tape to disc. (IBM Official Website) With the disc it was possible to retrieve data from any point, thus invoking the logic of the Punch Cards.<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
<br />
Aly, Gotz, and Karl Roth. 2004. The Nazi census : identification and control in the Third Reich. Philadelphia, Pa. : Temple University Press. <br />
<br />
Austrian, Geoffrey. 1982. Herman Hollerith, forgotten giant of information processing. New York: Columbia University Press.<br />
<br />
Bell, William D., "The 'DUZ' General-Purpose Control Panel for the IBM Type 604 Electronic Calculator", IBM Technical Newsletter, No.1, IBM, New York (Jun 1950), pp.9-11 (also see Grosch, pp.107-108, about Bill Bell).<br />
<br />
Derrida, Jacques. 2005. Paper machine, Cultural memory in the present. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.<br />
<br />
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1998. Black reconstruction : an essay toward a history of the part which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. New York : Harcourt, Brace and Co<br />
<br />
Disney, Doris Miles. 1970. Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate. [1st ed. Garden City, N.Y.,: Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday.<br />
<br />
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. 2005. The printing revolution in early modern Europe. 2nd ed. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.<br />
<br />
Foucault, Michel. 2003. Society must be defended : lectures at the College de France, 1975-76. New York : Picador. <br />
<br />
Galloway, Alexander. 2005. Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. <br />
<br />
Gates, Henry Louis Gates. 1998. "'Race' as Trope of the World" Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings. ed. Charles Lemert. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press.<br />
<br />
Haraway, Donna Jeanne. 1991. Simians, cyborgs, and women : the reinvention of nature. London: Free Association.<br />
<br />
Harper's Weekly. "The Plans for the Twelfth Census." 19 August 1899. <br />
<br />
Hollerith, Herman. 1894. "The Electrical Tabulating Machine" Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 57, No. 4. (Dec., 1894), pp. 678-689. <br />
<br />
New York Times. "Great Britain's Census." 22 February 1891. <br />
<br />
Piven, Frances Fox and Cloward, Richard. 1971. Regulating the poor: the functions of public welfare. New York, Pantheon Books.<br />
<br />
Railroad Gazette. "Hollerith's Electric Tabulating Machine." 19 April 1895.<br />
<br />
Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. New York, Bedminster Press.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Indus_Valley_Seal&diff=12691
Indus Valley Seal
2010-11-24T14:48:32Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12535 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:ivs1.jpg|thumb|right|An Indus Valley Seal from the Mature Harappan Period]] <br />
<br />
Square soapstone seals account for the majority of inscribed materials found in the remains of the Indus Valley Civilization. This Bronze Age civilization began crystallizing in the Neolithic period and matured in 2600 BCE, and covered the western part of India, mostly what is now Pakistan. The seals, each bearing a picture and an accompanying short inscription, have been found from along the main roads, in workshops and houses, but never in burials or places of safety, and from as far West as Sumerian and Mesopotamian cities (McIntosh, 2008). <br />
What these seals really said is a matter of of great speculation because the Indus Valley script is as yet undeciphered. But the distribution of the seals and the coherence in the inscriptions (Wright, 2010) shows that their role was not narrative but official. Whether they were used by accountants tracking production, storage and trade of goods; or by bureaucrats recording census data for humans, plants and animals; or priests bestowing amulets to acknowledge tributes to deities, or by businessmen impressing brand names – the seals were essentially lists, representing what Cornelia Vismann (2008) calls “the emergence of writing from administration”. <br />
<br />
<br />
== The Bronze Age of mechanical reproduction ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:ivs2.jpg|thumb|right|Urbanization in the Indus Valley town of Harappa - ca 2500 BCE]] <br />
As civilizations grow, administration becomes more demanding, and writing needs to be mechanized. As an innovation in the mature period of the Indus Valley Civilization, the seals provided a cake-mix solution - solid rock carved in a way that it could be used to print the same information over and over again, on perishable storage media. “Economy and durability informed new modes of descriptive duplication...” just like they did in the 19th century according to Lisa Gitelman (1999), “which allowed bureaucrats to have their copy and send one too.” <br />
Some scholars (eg Hirst, 2010) believe the seals bear names and titles of officials and allowed face-to-face authorization more often than distant communication. But the majority of population was illiterate and may not have been able to read the inscriptions, especially because being on a seal, they must have been inscribed in the opposite direction. In that sense, the the improvised use of the seal, originally meant to create impressions on perishable storage media, for personal identification – would only be considered a hack. <br />
<br />
<br />
== Chief, because he writes ==<br />
<br />
Mechanization comes simultaneously with standardization – thus as media reach out to people, so do linguistic, cultural and economic standards. Power and authority lie not in what is written on the seal, but in the very capacity to bear a standard – to participate as a bureaucrat in the standardization project, “the drama of suppression by the power of writing” (Vismann, 2008). <br />
The formal prohibition in the medium and its use is that it is uni-directional. Only the official can write using the seal, and the citizens and subordinate officials can only receive and comply. The power remains with those who write – “He writes because he is the chief,” in the words of Vismann (2008), “and he is the chief because he writes.” <br />
The functioning of the medium is visible and obvious (it has no 'guts' per se), but how it was produced was not and this is how the medium is fetishized. A research by Rissman (1989) shows that the seals were produced in only certain parts of the town by certain workers under “rigid bureaucratic control”. <br />
The seals were therefore not mere business cards, but predecessors to government documents, records and databases that implement standards. They are comparable to the printing press not only in terms of how they work, but also in how the printing press led to “print capitalism” that enabled the linguistic standardization in Europe that became basis of the nation state (Anderson, 1991).<br />
<br />
<br />
== How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? ==<br />
<br />
[[Image:ivs3.jpg|thumb|right|More seals from Harappa]] <br />
Mechanization and standardization lead to quantization and digitization – standardization because it requires something to be this and not that, mechanization because “clicking is more easily mechanized than sliding” (Flusser, 1999). <br />
Encoding on the Indus seal is dual - a combination of digital and analogue. It bears a picture that represents a real or imaginary animal or scene, but in addition could also stand for a concept that the animal would symbolize. It also bears the script that goes from right to left. Attempts at 'interpretation' have been in vain. The script and the image may or may not provide a context for a meaningful reading of each other. The script may be phonographic or logographic. The number of symbols and if they occur in patterns is debatable (McIntosh, 2008). The same symbol could be written in different ways by different scribes – both ways being considered acceptable. Since the seals occur over thousands of years, the same symbol could change its meaning over time. <br />
What needs to considered is that the overall the system of inscription is in any case arbitrary – its meaning is agreed upon by those who use it to communicate, and beyond that it means nothing. The seals are almost-exclusive bearers of the Indus script, and therefore the meaning of the script is limited to its function. In that way, for us it is functional nonsense. Like the wavy horizontal lines drawn by the Brazilian native chief in his encounter with Levi Strauss (cited in Vissman, 2008). In a comment on the encounter, Lacan (ibid) explains that a symbol only points towards a “contract”. Its “function consists solely in delayed transfer” (Goody, 1986).<br />
<br />
<br />
== Bad weather, bad climate, bad luck ==<br />
<br />
The geographic boundaries of any sense that the seal makes will depend on the area under the influence of those who exercise the power to implement the standards – through trades and through raids. But the very core of this influence began to be eroded by around 1800 BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization began to decline, either because of a supposed Aryan invasion, or because of eventual migration as the river Indus changed course and the river Saraswati got spent in the desert of Thar because of tectonic movement and global climate changes (Wright, 2010). The decline in the civilization's influence left the seals less and less functional. <br />
While stealite was soft enough to carve but hard enough to survive boring and rigorous use, the script on the seals all but became meaningless because of changes in external factors. So much so that it does not seem to connect to any known scripts that emerged in India later. After 80 years of thankless attempts by many to decipher the script or connect it to a linguistic family, some scholars (Farmer et al, 2004) were frustrated enough to declare that it was not a language at all. <br />
The meaning that appears to be just behind the surface inscriptions of the Indus seal, is perhaps only in the physicality of the medium. The medium itself is the message.<br />
<br />
== Remediating itself ==<br />
<br />
<br />
One surviving writing medium from the Indus Valley Civilization is Takhti - a rectangular wooden writing board on which schoolchildren practice writing. It is covered with wet clay, which is written on when dry. For each new lesson, the previous one is erased as the clay is washed off. Like a magic writing pad, it is permanently perishable. <br />
But with mechanization and standardization comes permanence. It makes the Indus seals capable of being dug up and thought about five millenniums later - seen in retrospect as part of a bigger picture of history. They simulate their own historical existence, but also modify their own meaning. They essentially remediate themselves. The old form conveyed meaning only through being witnessed, the new one needs highly specialized interpretation. Because in the new forms, the symbols do not imply a contract. They were, being lists, intended for “the sole task of controlling transactions” (Vismann, 2008). “Beyond the administrative usage, there is no need to preserve them for the future.” <br />
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<br />
<br />
== Citations ==<br />
<br />
<br />
Anderson, B. (1991).'' Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism.'' Verso.<br />
<br />
Farmer, S. et al. (2004) ''The collapse of the Indus-script thesis: The myth of a literate Harappan Civilization.'' EJVS, vol. 11 (2004), issue 2. <br />
<br />
Flusser, V. (1999). ''The shape of things: a philosophy of design.'' Reaktion Books. <br />
<br />
Gitelman, L. (1999). ''Scripts, grooves, and writing machines.'' Stanford University Press.<br />
<br />
Goody, J. (1986). ''The logic of writing and the organization of society.'' Cambridge University Press.<br />
<br />
Hirst, K. K. (2010). ''Indus seals and the Indus Civilization script.'' Retrieved March 20, 2010 from http://archaeology.about.com/od/indusrivercivilizations/ss/indus_seals.htm<br />
<br />
McIntosh, J. (2008). ''The ancient Indus Valley.'' ABC-CLIO. <br />
<br />
Rissman, P. C. (1989). The Organization of Seal Production in the Harappan Civilization. ''Old problems and new perspectives in the archeology of South Asia.'' pp. 159-70, no. 2, Wisconsin Archeological Reports, Madison. <br />
<br />
Vismann, C. (2008). ''Files''. Stanford University Press. <br />
<br />
Wright, R. P. (2009). ''The Ancient Indus.'' Cambridge University Press.<br />
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[[Category:Writing]]<br />
[[Category:Representation]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Spring 2010]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Erasure&diff=12690
Erasure
2010-11-24T14:48:23Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12536 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>== Erasure ==<br />
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/742/72762.JPG<br />
<br />
The concept of erasure appears in many different aspects of our culture. Mistakes are part of human nature, and the ability to erase, undo, delete or unsend something allows us to accept that we make mistakes. From pictograms on clay tablets to pencils with erasers, erasure has always been a key factor in our choice of medium.<br />
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<br />
== Memory Erasure ==<br />
http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/0006783F-2CFE-1FE2-ACFE83414B7FFE9F_1.jpg<br />
<br />
Human nature’s yearning to reverse what has been done can be seen in the wide use of terms such as “take it back”, “forget it”, “[this] never happened”, “[I was] never here” etc. Memory erasure is a popular cultural trope. This popularity reflects our cultural yearning for such a technology. It is the ultimate act of erasure. Often times a character will willingly have his/her memory erased. Some examples of such willfull erasure can be seen in the films Total Recall, Men in Black II and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the books The Hitchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy and Glasshouse, as well as the television shows Heroes and The Simpsons. <br />
<br />
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<br />
== Erasure in Contemporary Art ==<br />
The concept of erasure is also an important theme in the works of many contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Nayland Blake and Tom Friedman. <br />
<br />
http://www.pathetica.net/images/372t.jpg<br />
<br />
"Erased De Kooning Drawing" by Robert Rauschenberg (1953)<br />
<br />
http://artintelligence.net/review/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/friedmantomut90erasershavin.jpg<br />
<br />
"untitled" (eraser debris) by Tom Friedman (1990)<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
== The Irrevocable Message ==<br />
The irrevcable message trope can be traced as far back as the Ancient Greek play Antigone written by Sophocles in 442 B.C.E. In Antigone, Creon, the villain, tries to recall his order to have his niece burried alive, but he is too late because she has comitted suicide. The trope also appears in two Shakespeare plays; Richard III, and King Lear. <br />
<br />
Today, the irrevocable message is a widely used trope in entertainment. We are often faced with a character who, either accidentally or out of anger, sends a message. This is then followed by a sequence of challenges which the character must venture through in order to retrieve the message. There are three possible endings:<br />
<br />
1. the character is successful in retrieving the message.<br />
<br />
example:<br />
The film Road Trip is centered around the retrieval of a video of the main character cheating on his girlfriend which he has accidentally mailed to her. He is successful in retrieving the video. <br />
<br />
2. the character fails and must face the circumstances (which are usually life altering)<br />
<br />
Example:<br />
In an episode of the Simpsons, Homer is fired due to an insulting letter, which Bart sent to Mr. Burns, and which homer was unable to retrieve.<br />
<br />
3. the character fails but he faces no circumstances because the person who has received the message does not react negatively. <br />
<br />
Example:<br />
In a Seinfeld episode titled “The Phone Message”, George tries to switch the tape in his girlfriends answering message in order to retrieve a message he left her before she can listen to it. Although George fails, his girlfriend does not get upset because she thinks it was a joke.<br />
<br />
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<br />
== Snafus and Flame-o-grams ==<br />
<br />
http://www.marketingprofs.com/news/email-marketing/files/Unsend119x146.jpg<br />
<br />
<br />
A “Snafu” is defined as “the dreaded mistake of sending an e-mail to the wrong person.” <br />
<br />
A “flame-o-gram” is a term that was coined in the early 1980’s and is in refernce to “any kind of memo shot iff in a spit of anger.” <br />
<br />
It is evident that some companies decided to capitalize on helping people avoid snafus and flame-o-grams. AOL’s “unsend” feature is the most widely known example. The unsend feature is specifically for AOL to AOL email, and only functions if the email has not yet been read by the recipient. Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Outlook allow their users to unsend a message, as long as the message was sent within the company to another user of that same software and hasn’t yet been read. Novell officials call this option the “save your job feature”. Eduora is another example. Eudora ranks as the second most popular e-mail server, preceded by Microsoft Outlook. The Eudora 5 software has a feature titled “mood watch” which tracks incoming and outgoing messages for offensive text, and rates each email on a scale of 1-3. <br />
<br />
Other similar software developers such as Lotus do not support the unsend capability. This is because they disagree on the point at which the possession of an e-mail message transfers from a sender to a recipient. Also, Lotus does not want to risk the potential for user abuse of such a tool. <br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
== Erasure and Romance ==<br />
Our interest in erasure seems to come up more often in the context of a romantic relationship than any other category. Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman stated that “The unsend button is popular with AOL users, particularly those using the Internet ot establish new relationships. They can ask someone for a date, for example, then quickly delete the message if they get cold feet…this is a very popular feature with the single members, as you can imagine.”Most of the cultural tropes mentioned earlier also take place in the context of a romantic relationship. The Seinfeld episode, the film Roadtrip, as well as the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are examples. Why does such a high level of hesitation and impulsivity only exist in a romantic context?<br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
== The Death of Erasure ==<br />
<br />
The AOL unsend button has been removed and returned several times by AOL due to software issues. Although the unsend feature may still exist on some versions of AOL, it is dead in the sense that AOL is no longer a widely used email service, thus an AOL user will most probably not be able to use the unsend feature due to the fact that the recipient will most likely not have an AOL account. Another important change that has made our ability to unsend messages obsolete is the large increase in the number of times we check our messages. This is due in large part to the advent of cell phones that are capable of accessing email. This speed in message receiving no longer gives us the time to unsend a message. <br />
<br />
The death of unsend corresponds with the death of erasure on the internet. There are a growing number of requests on internet forums by people who would like to “ungoogle” themselves. Search engines like Google have made erasure an almost impossible task as most things are cashed by Google and continue to come up during a search even if the information has been removed from the web.<br />
<br />
Our solution to this problem seems to lie in a preemptive approach. Similar to the Eudora 5 software mentioned earlier, which assigns a mood rating to all incoming and outgoing email, Google has recently introduced a Gmail feature called Mail Goggles. When Mail Goggles is active, it will only allow you to send emails if you can complete 5 arithmetic problems in 60 seconds. This solution seems to simply discourage the use of email. Preemptive applications take away our right to decide for ourselves. This is the opposite of the concept of erasure, which was always a personal decision and furthered our freedom of speech.<br />
<br />
----<br />
<br />
== Sources ==<br />
<br />
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IrrevocableMessage<br />
<br />
Scher, Rod. Smart Computing in Plain English. Lincoln: Mar 2001. Vol. 12, Iss. 3; pg.88<br />
<br />
Crossman, Craig. The Augusta Chronicle. Augusta, GA.: Mar 7, 2000. pg. B.04<br />
<br />
Gates, Niesha. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News. Washington: Jul 29, 2002. pg. 1<br />
<br />
McNamara, Paul. Network World. Southborough: Nov 2, 1998. Vol. 15, Iss. 44; pg. 35<br />
<br />
Suddath, Claire. Time. "Testing Google's 'Drunk Email' Protector". Oct 15, 2008.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Incan_Quipu&diff=12689
Incan Quipu
2010-11-24T14:46:41Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12537 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>==Brief Overview==<br />
<br />
The Inca ''quipu'' still remains somewhat of a mystery to today's scholars, and while there are many plausible and likely hypotheses as to the true functions this device served, a specific and definite answer has yet, and may never, be uncovered. Some believe the ''quipu'' represents a form of proto-writing, while others feel it embodies a system of writing all on its own. But regardless of the different magnitudes of functionality that are thought to have been applied to the ''quipu'' by the Incas, it is wholly agreed that it was an extraordinarily intricate system in which to store information. <br />
<br />
A typical ''quipu'' consisted of a number of pendent and often subsidiary pendent strings that were suspended from a main horizontal cord. Knots representing numbers were tied into the pendent strings and occasionally into the main cord. The strings used in the creation of a ''quipu'' were made from cotton, and sometimes from alpaca or llama wool, and were dyed various colors, which explained the subjects to which the numbers referred. <br />
<br />
==Encoding: The Symbolic System of the Quipu==<br />
What symbolic system is used in the medium to encode and decode messages? <br />
<br />
<br />
*'''Strings/Cords'''<br />
-"Chords can be easily be moved until the last step in their attachment when they are fixed into position. Therefore, larger or smaller spaces between cords are an intentional part of the overall construction"<br />
-"The importance of these properties is that cords can be associated with different meanings depending on their vertical direction, on their level, on their relative positions along the main cord, and, if they are subsidiaries, on their relative positions within the same level." (29)<br />
<br />
*'''Color'''<br />
- "As well as having particular placement, each cord has a color. Color is fundamental to the symbolic system of the quipu. Color coding, that is, using colors, to represent something other than themselves, is a familiar idea. But color systems are used in different ways." (29). "As useful as they are, these systems are inflexible. Some group, not the individual users, defines the system and, therefore, sets its limits" (30). "So, too, a color system increases in complexity as the number of contexts it describes increases and as statements of relationship become involved" (31). <br />
- "the number of colors on a particular quipu depends on the number of distinctions that are being made" (31). <br />
-"The overall patterning of the colors exhibits the relationships that are being represented" (31)<br />
-"…meanings for color and meanings for positions are used in combination with each other" (31). <br />
<br />
Pg 31<br />
- Candy can effect: two solid colors twisted together<br />
-mottled effect: two of these twisted together using the opposite twist direction <br />
-joining effect: two solid colors can be joined so that part of the cord is one color and the rest of it is another color. <br />
<br />
Quipus can be assigned horizontal direction, allowing the terms before and after to be applied, and vertical direction, allowing the terms above and below to be applied.<br />
Learning to use a ''quipu'' required entirely different skills than the act of writing, as we know it today. Unlike media such as clay and paper in which writing is applied to the surface, the strings of a ''quipu'' functioned as both the surface and the writing tool itself; absolutely no stylus aside from the ''quipu'' was needed. <br />
<br />
Furthermore, modern writing is done in linear composition as we move continuously in only one direction. However, 'writing' with a ''quipu'' was a nonlinear process. Due to the soft material being used<br />
<br />
According to Ascher and Ascher "A group of strings occupy a space that has no definite orientation; as the [''quipucomayoc''] connected strings to each other, the space became defined by the points where the strings were attached. The establishment of these points did not have to follow any set left-to-right or right-to-left sequence. The relative positions of the strings are set by their points of attachment, and it is the relative position, along with the colors and the knots, that renders the recording meaningful. Essentially then, the quipumaker had to have the ability to conceive and execute a recording in three dimensions with color" (33). <br />
-composed his recording by tracing fingers in space as when, for example, he turned a string in an ever changing direction in the process of tying a knot. All of this was not preparatory to making a record; it was part of the very process of recording.<br />
-"The quipumaker's way of recording-direct construction-required tactile sensitivity to a much greater degree. In fact, the overall aesthetic of the quipu is related to the tactile: the manner of recording and the recording itself are decidedly rhythmic; the first in the activity, the second in the effect" (32).<br />
<br />
<br />
*'''Knots'''<br />
<br />
<br />
===Binary Coding===<br />
<br />
In Signs of the Inka Khipu, Gary Urton takes the analysis of the khipu to a new level by arguing that these bundles of knotted cords may very well be a kind of orthography. His theory suggests that the khipu encode more than commercial transactions, censuses, and tax roles. Indeed, it is now within the realm of possibility to imagine that the khipu may be a kind of writing and, in principle, may encode histories, genealogies, literature, poetry, science, or anything else that could be preserved in a writing system. Urton describes "the beginnings of sketching out a theory of interpreting the hierarchical and asymmetrical signs of, especially, non-decimal khipu as the architecture for canonical literatures whose essential components would have been noted by khipukamayuq3 and used as the framework for constructing narrative recitation."4<br />
These oppositions include the direction of knot-tying, the direction of the twisting of the cords, and binary classes of color. Urton concludes, "A long knot of four can no longer simply be that quantitative value alone; rather, any given long knot of four henceforth has become an S- or Z-tied long knot of four on a Z/S- or S/Z- spun/plied dyed cotton or wool string attached to the primary cord in either recto or verso direction."5 Therefore, "we must begin to approach the study of khipu with the understanding that all structural and physical features interacted in the semiotic - that is, 'sign-using'processes of the people who looked at and in various ways consulted these objects."6<br />
<br />
"I argue in this book that the systems of patterned differences in spinning, plying, knotting, numbers, and colors in the khipu are all binary in nature. These various components of the khipu recording system interact with eachother to constitue what we may call the ASCII of the khipu information system." (Urton 40)<br />
<br />
-relied on seven-bit sequences - NOT ARBITRARY, BASED ON NATURE<br />
<br />
- "In order to actually read a message in the khipu, we need something like a table, or a 'code book,' that gives the translation values for the particular binary-coded sequences for each unit of information encoded into a khipu.<br />
<br />
==Decoding: That's the Problem==<br />
talk about how there are a lot of kinds, statistical, cultural, knot calendars, mneumonic devices<br />
<br />
The cultural ''quipus'' mentioned by the Spanish chroniclers "'recorded' laws, rites, treaties, speeches, and history" (Day 39), while the statistical ''quipus'' included a catalogue of "crops and agricultural produce, herds of domestic and wild animals, stores of wool and cotton, weapons and other military supplies - everything in the empire, in fact, that could be counted" (Day 39)<br />
<br />
===Mnemonic Knot-Records===<br />
<br />
There are many scholars that firmly believe the ''quipu'' to be an extremely advanced and detailed mnemonic device; a function that is reported as working both very efficiently and successfully. In noting how precisely traditions and records were preserved, Sir Clements Markham describes the passing down of the Paccari-tampu myth. "It is told by Garcilasso de la Vega, Cieza de Leon, Betanzos, Balboa, Morua, Montesinos, Salcamayhua and Sarmiento, all agreeing sufficiently closely to prove that precisely the same tradition had been handed down, with the same details, to their various informants" ( Markham 140).<br />
-"The quipucamayas who had charge of them and served as the official historians of the empire evidently relied on the usual psychological expedients-association, interest, concentrations, and repition-in order to fix the facts in their memories" (Day 39-40)<br />
<br />
===Knot-Calendars===<br />
<br />
==Formal Prohibitions==<br />
<br />
<br />
The ''quipu'' as a communicative device was highly selective; only the privileged, important men of the Inca community were taught how to create and interpret this system of recording. These were the ''Quipucamayacs'', or quipu-makers. As aforementioned, the Inca civilization functioned as a bureaucracy, which, according to Max Weber, is a type of administration that fundamentally means: "the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge" (Ascher 33). Therefore, for the Incas, knowledge truly did equal power, and that knowledge was measured in large part by the amount of records they had stored.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, Ascher and Ascher notes the characteristic nature of a bureaucracy as one where its records are peculiar to itself, and remain that way. So to be a ''quipucamayac'' signified specialized knowledge, power and status, but also the responsibility of being an official historian for the Inca empire. <br />
<br />
Understandably, ''quipucamayacs'' "never 'let their ''quipus'' out of their hands,' says Garcilaso, 'and they kept passing their cords and knots through their fingers as to not forget the tradition' which it was their function to remember" (Day 39-40). Perhaps one of the few times the ''quipucamayacs'' would separated from their ''quipus'' was for the purpose of sending a messgae. According to Cyrus Lawrence Day, "Trained runners called ''chasquis'' were stationed in pairs at intervals of about a mile along the imperial highways. Running at top speed and handing their ''quipus'' on, one ''chasqui'' to another, as in a relay race, they could transmit a message to Cuzco from two or three hundred miles away in twenty-four hours" (39). <br />
<br />
The only addition to ''quipucamayas'' were ''Amautas'', or learned men and councilors, who were also knowledgeable about the techniques necessary to understand the information stored by a ''quipu''. While they didn't have a hand in composing them, the ''Amautas'', along with the ''quipucamayas'', played an integral role in the maintenance of Inca culture as traditions were passed down from generation to generation.<br />
<br />
---add: this would cause a problem, as it has indeed done today, with allowing the medium to be used on a more common level--<br />
<br />
==Pops and Hisses==<br />
<br />
-no hand book to determine the possibile meanings of the sign system used<br />
<br />
-There are so many slight variations to what can be interpreted as what kind of knot, doesn't leave room for people with different "hand writings" so to speak. While it is meant to be a very controlled and stylized process of recording, its doesn't allow any room for difference among its users. "Quipumakers differ from each other in the way that no two people write alike. <br />
Quipumakers also differ in the way that some people write more legibly then others. (Ascher Ascher70)<br />
<br />
==Remediation==<br />
-Binary code with the computer<br />
==Works Cited==<br />
<br />
*Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. "Civilization Without Writing - the Incas and the Quipu." ''The Media of Early Civilization''. 28-33.<br />
<br />
*Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. ''Code of the Quipu''. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan P, 1981.<br />
<br />
*Day, Cyrus L. "Mnemonic Knots." ''Quipus and Witches' Knots''. Lawrence: The University of Kansas P, 1967. 14-40.<br />
<br />
*Markham, Sir Clemets. "Language and Literature of the Incas." ''The Incas of Peru''. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1910. 137-140.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Spirit_Duplicator&diff=12688
Spirit Duplicator
2010-11-24T14:46:33Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12538 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Spirit Duplicator''', or direct fluid duplicator, is a form of hectography that evolved from the gelatin hectograph, which uses a gelatin pad. A spirit duplicator is called a fluid hectograph because it uses ''spirits'', or alcohol, to make its duplications: "Spirit duplicators (so-called because of the alcohol) were in use by the late 1920s" (Rhodes 144). The maximum practical number of copies is 500 with the maximum size of 11 in x 17 in. (Doss 2). "The usual run on these machines is up to 300 copies, but may vary according to the amount of solvent used and the transfer capacity of the master" (Fisher 34).[[Image:gelatinduplicator.jpg|thumb|right|(Fisher 33)]] <br />
<br />
<br />
=Hectograph=<br />
[[Image:Beck.jpg|thumb|right]]<br />
The spirit duplicator was an improvement to the gelatin hectograph process: "the gelatin pad was replaced by a waxed- paper master sheet, and the liquid ink was replaced by a form of carbon paper, which made distinctively purple impressions "on the master" (Owen 47).<br />
<br />
<br />
=Process of Duplication=<br />
"The fluid process of hectography is employed when up to about 500 copes are needed. In this process the master is prepared in reverse by placing the hectograph carbon face up on the back of the master. To make copies, the master is placed on the drum or cylinder with the inked side up. Rotation of the drum causes a sheet of paper to be moistened with alcohol it is the pressed against the master, thus transferring a small amount of the dye to the paper" (Doss 17).<br />
<br />
Unlike the gelatin hectograph, the "fluid or "spirit" process of duplicating omits use of the gelatin blanket. Copy is typed with the hectograph carbon sheet behind the master, and the aniline dye- treated carbon appears in mirror image on the reverse side of the master. This master is placed on a drum of the rotary duplicating machine. The blank copy paper is slightly moistened by spirit solvent as it is fed through the machine and picks up enough of the aniline dye as it presses against the revolving master to form a sharp image of the typed characters." (Fisher 33-34).<br />
<br />
[[Image:RapidCopying.jpg|thumb|left|"This machine printed from a "master" created in the same manner in which hectographic master sheets for spirit duplicators were made, but considerably before their introduction" (Rhodes and Streeter 109).]]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Spirit Masters==<br />
"In principle spirit duplicating (or hectography) is a process whereby the text is typed or written with the aid of an alcohol soluble dye-carbon which is transferred to the paper in a number of copies" (Gardiner 77). In order to duplicate documents, it was necessary to first copy them onto the appropriate spirit master. "A master is any original from which copies may be physically duplicated" (Fisher 33). "Masters should be made on hectograph master paper, and copies should be made on hectograph paper stock to get the best results" (Doss 16). Masters can be made by typing, printing, writing, drawing, or stamping" (Fisher 33).<br />
<br />
<br />
==Machine Types==<br />
The spirit duplicator is essentially divided into three types: <br />
* hand operated portable machines<br />
* electrically operated machines<br />
* electrically operated systems or line selecting machines<br />
<br />
<br />
==Brands== <br />
[[Image:ABDick.jpg|thumb|right]]<br />
Some manufacturers of spirit duplicators include:<br />
*A. B. Dick<br />
*Banda<br />
*Ditto<br />
*Standard<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Ditto.jpg|thumb|left]]<br />
===Costs===<br />
The cost of the machine was relatively high in price. "Their main drawback was a substantially higher initial cost" (Rhodes 145). The Ditto Liquid Duplicator went for $200 for a hand- cranked model and $265 for an electric machine (in today's prices $2,256 to $2989) (Rhodes 145).<br />
<br />
<br />
=Ditto=<br />
Ditto: The trademark name of a line of hectographic duplicators and supplies manufactured by Ditto, Inc." (Doss 29).<br />
<br />
The spirit duplicator is sometimes referred to as a Ditto machine because for "rotary spirit duplicators, the best known of which were produced by the Ditto Co." (Owen 47). <br />
<br />
The term Ditto evokes the memory to the saying "Ditto" meaning copy. Furthermore, there is the Ditto marks, which are still used today.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Spirit=<br />
"The "spirit" in that name refers to methyl alcohol, a small amount of which was applied to each sheet of copy paper as it entered the machine, dampening it just enough to dissolve a bit of the waxy purple ink from the master, which was attached to a rotating drum" (Owen). The spirit was used because "instead of water to dissolve a small part of the ink, a special "spirit" solvent is used to accomplish the transfer of an aniline dye" (Fisher 33).<br />
<br />
<br />
==Smell==<br />
The spirit duplicator posesses a distinctive scent that lingers a bit even when the ink is dried. "Duplicating fluids often contain very high menthanol concentrations. Given the lack of sufficient ventilation typically found in schools, spirit duplicator use can be a significant source of indoor air pollution. Because of the toxicity of methanol, it is of value to asses the extent of exposure among school workers" (Susi). One author commented that "the alcohol gave the copies a characteristically terrible smell, adored by schoolchildren of my generation" (Owen 47).<br />
<br />
<br />
==Color==<br />
Most copies were typically purple. Although for the gelatin process "At least eight colors are available but purple is generally used because of its density and contrast" (Doss 15), the direct fluid method had less options since "dye colors may be red, blue, green, black or purple; longest runs are generally achieved by using the purple" (Fisher 34).<br />
There is possibility for multicolored copies: "all five colors may be reproduced on the same run, since different carbons may be used for different parts of the master" (Fisher 34).<br />
<br />
"In general, [the spirit duplicator] produces a darker copy than the [gelatin hectograph] because the moistened fibers of the paper are dyed by the transfer of the ink in the fluid process, whereas in the gelatin process the dye is deposited on the surface of the paper. This factor increases the legibility and permanence of the reproduced material when the fluid process is used" (Fisher 34).<br />
<br />
<br />
=Settings=<br />
The spirit duplicator was typical equipment in offices and schools. They were appropriate for producing a relatively small number of copies. Rhodes writes "they are still in use, especially in academic and school settings, for newsletters, memoranda, and other communications requiring a small- to- medium number of copies" (Rhodes 145). "Spirit duplicators are commonly used by teachers and teaching assistants for school copying needs" (Susi). Spirit duplicated copies were used in universities as well. At King's College, Cambridge "David Wilcock's famous carol arrangements first made their appearance on purple spirit- duplicator sheets in 1959" (Harper). <br />
<br />
<br />
=Notion of ''Spirit''=<br />
The spirit is the essence of the duplication process. In early photography, it was believed that one's spirit was captured by the flash. <br />
<br />
But in philosophical and theological debates, Spirit is always discussed with a specificity of impersonality, whereas the notion of "soul" is seen as the individualized, "eternal" form of the human individual. Undoubtedly, the mystique of the duplicator's chemical process rendered a specific philosophical/theological tension surrounding the very Western, modern view of essence. Though today the debates around essentialism are hackneyed, especially in the wake of queer studies in particular, which has launched the concept of performativity (rightfully so) as a proper corrective to the whole essence/existence separation that was most visibly propagated by Sartre. However, whereas Butler's famous dictum that all sexualities are "copies without originals" suggests that there is no spirit to duplicate, the motif of "duplication of spirit" seems to leave us still within a quandary of original vs. copy or essence vs. existence, as it seems to suggest a metaphysical or immaterial transmission of an essence, in this case the "content" of the hectograph, and subsequently the copies. So is the "essence" spirit or soul? If so, is it, or can it be, material, must it be immaterial?<br />
<br />
By the writings of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, the “soul” was understood in Aristotelian-Platonic terms. As Aquinas writes in the first volume of the Summa Theologiae, “Now a living body is not alive simply in virtue of being a body (otherwise all bodies would be living); it is alive because of some other principle, in our case, the soul” (Aquinas, 73). Now this clearly seems like, and also has been interpreted throughout the history of philosophy and theology as, the continuation of a separation between body and soul, even though Aquinas explains that they are constitutively linked in the nature of the human. But it seems that this is not necessarily the case throughout his master work. In Aquinas, there are portions which would suggest that there is in fact not a the soul is not delinked from the corporeal. "Knowledge of things that exist in the first way," he writes, "is connatural to us, for the human soul, through which we know, is itself the form of some matter" (Ibid., 175). Though he goes on to describe another form of knowledge that is "not in matter," nevertheless, in the typology of knowledge that Aquinas provides, there is room for a bringing-together conceptually of matter and soul.<br />
<br />
In fact, the notion of Spirit, in a Christian theological context, is often paired with that of matter. One interesting articulator of this precise problem is Teilhard de Chardin, who in The Phenomenon of Man attempts a line of solution. Primarily, he uses a different language than Aquinas. It is not so much informed by Plato and Aristotle but by Bergson and evolutionary paleontology. He uses such words as "Omega Point," "The Within of Things," "The Without of Things," and "Stuff of the Universe." To avoid a dualism of matter and spirit, he posits what he calls "spiritual energy" which can be broken down into two different energies--tangential and radial, both of which he insists is physical (Teilhard, 64).Spiritual energy is often paired with what Teilhard refers to as the "consciousness of particles in the universe" (Ibid., 89), that is to say, that particles that can act in accordance with one another for greater complexity, thus the reorganization of matter. He writes: "The increase of the synthetic state of matter involves, we said, an increase of consciousness for the milieu synthesized. To which we should now add: critical change in the intimate arrangement of the elements induces ipso facto a change in the nature of the state of consciousness of the particles of the universe" (Teilhard, 89). Hence in this schema, though perhaps too far reaching in breadth, spirit and matter are co-constitutive and interimplicated.<br />
<br />
=Xerox=<br />
The spirit duplicator is eventually replaced by the Xerox machine. In 1959, Chester Carlson developed xerography with the Xerox 914. It was the first paper photocopier. This copying process was less troublesome to complete than the spirit duplicator because it did not need the extra step of creating a spirit master.<br />
<br />
<br />
=Works Cited=<br />
*Curwen, Harold. ''Processes of Graphic Reproduction in Printing''. London: Faber and Faber, 1963.<br />
*Doss, Milburn P. (Ed). ''Information Processing Equipment''. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1955.<br />
*Fisher, Harrison M. ''Today's Business Machines''. Chicago: American Technical Society, 1959<br />
*Gardiner, A. W. ''Typewriting and Office Duplicating Processes''. New York: Focal Press, 1968.<br />
*hectograph. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 30, 2007 from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9039781<br />
*Owen, David. ''Copies in seconds : how a lone inventor and an unknown company created the biggest communication breakthrough since Gutenberg: Chester Carlson and the birth of the Xerox machine''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.<br />
*Rhodes, Barbara J. and Streeter, William W. ''Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938: A book in two parts''. New Castle and Northampton: Oak Knoll Press and Heraldry Bindery, 1999.<br />
*Schwartz, Hillel. ''The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles''. New York: Zone Books, 1996.<br />
*Susi, P., Flynn, M., and Curran, P. Methanol exposure among school workers during spirit duplicator use. ''Applied Occupational & Environmental Hygiene'' [APPL. OCCUP. ENVIRON. MED.]. Vol. 11, no. 11, pp. 1340-1345. Nov 1996<br />
<br />
[[Category:Dossier]]</div>
Finnb
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php?title=Civil_Defense_Siren&diff=12687
Civil Defense Siren
2010-11-24T14:46:20Z
<p>Finnb: Undo revision 12539 by Egugecuge (Talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>==Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren==<br />
[[Image:NoiseMaking.jpg|thumb|left|Chrysler's Air-Raid Siren Hits New High In Sustained Mechanical Noise Making]]<br />
<br />
The Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren was conceived by the Chrysler Motor Company and Bell Telephone Laboratories and began being distributed in 1942. This is an interestingly antiquated idea due to the fact that a communication company is literally collaborating with manufacturer of high power engines to create a high-reach communication system. According to the company's own specifications the siren weighs 5,543 pounds, uses a v-8 engine and costs $5,500. According to The Washington Post the siren registered a high of 138 decibels, 200 decibels will break your eardrums.(1) Although during certain tests the claims that the siren could be heard up to 25 miles away fell short, there is no doubt that this behemoth machine epitomizes the qualities and intentions of the civil defense siren. The main objectives of the civil defense siren is to alert, grab attention in a jarring way, to express the immediacy of danger, and to span the reach of this message as far as possible. While the Victory Siren is quite capable of fulfilling these objectives, especially in comparison to other models, it falls short in its ability to convey its message in a truly widespread manner. In this sense, television and radio far outdo the Victory siren. However, an interesting observation to make is that while the government is currently able to reach every household with a television or radio using the Emergency Broadcast system, the ability to reach those not ‘tuned in’ has died along with the civil defense siren.<br />
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Video Links:<br />
<br>Robbie Coltrane and Don Garlits demonstrate a Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren in their Garage; June 5, 2007<br />
<br>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfYnByuTQ0<br />
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From Universal Newsreel; Produced from 1929 - 1967; Presented twice a week in local movie theaters; September 23, 1956; (Civil Defense Coverage Starts at 1:17)<br />
<br>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHack1-ays<br />
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==The Audile Mayor La Guardia==<br />
[[Image:MayorLaGuardia.jpg|thumb|right|New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia]]<br />
<br>At the beginning of his time in office it might seem ironic that Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia of New York City would become such an advocate for the use and regular testing of civil defense sirens. During 1935, his first year as mayor, LaGuardia championed the passing of a noise abatement ordinance.(2) Not only would this ordinance prohibit unnecessary noise making between the hours of 11 P.M. and 7 A.M., according to The Times he was also planning to schedule noiseless days, during which anyone creating unnecessary noise would be ticketed. This seems a bit drastic but the noise that can be generated in a densely populated area can clearly become overwhelming at times. This may have especially been the case for the vast immigrant population, and new arrivals to the city, having grown up in rural environments. The fact that noise wasn’t traditionally such a large part of people’s lives may have contributed to the elevated hype that surrounded civil defense sirens. <br />
<br><br>Not much later, in 1941, a controversy would begin involving the installation and rituals surrounding a civil defense project. Civil defense wardens were publicly defended by Mayor LaGuardia, despite the fact that, according to The New York Times, night time protection caused great problems because wardens were not residing over the districts in which they lived.(3) In the same article The Times quotes La Guardia “Modern warfare means that every man, woman and child is exposed to the attacks of the enemy in undefended cities." The growing fear of atomic attacks on the United States were undoubtedly factors on such wide spread popularity of adopting civil defense systems. New York States defense system included the employment of air raid wardens by the police department, additional fire fighters, and civilian volunteer units which would function as everything from nurses, to emergency water/gas shut off attendants, to motorcycle couriers. The call for volunteers quickly returned 60,000 applicants.(4) These kind of numbers indicate the immediacy of the nuclear threat in the minds of the general public.<br />
<br><br>However, despite the obvious immediacy that people felt for the need of civil defense systems, people would soon become annoyed by regularly held siren drills. After a friendly aircraft had been sited but could not be identified, in the early hours of the morning on September 9, 1942 the sirens were sounded, only to be cleared a minute later. According to The Washington Post, “In one apartment building where the warden went pounding on doors, crying, ‘Enemy planes overhead!’ somebody else shouted, ‘Take it easy; it’s only LaGuardia showing off again.’”(5) This really brings to attention the actual noise that the medium creates and the annoyance it could generate in an urban setting. Especially when regular drills were held, the medium lost its ability to communicate its message, which was intended to be ‘emergency’. It had to rely on radio and television stations to broadcast that the alarm was in fact, not a test. This inherent flaw in the medium is another key factors of why it is no longer in widespread use.<br />
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==The Civil Defense Siren in Cold War Culture==<br />
[[Image:BrochureSiren.jpg|thumb|left|This Prevents This; From Federal Electric Company Brochure; 1942]]<br />
The Civil Defense Siren was born in the days of World War II, however it would really flourish, so to speak, in the subsequent Cold War. Civil Defense Sirens became part of peoples daily lives. Regular newspaper coverage on what to do in case of an alert as well as federally distributed pamphlets were quite common. For example an article from The New York Times gives the following instructions for a scheduled siren drill, “Remain calm; walk to the nearest shelter area; obey instructions of police, auxiliary police, air-raid wardens and other civil defense personnel. If driving park your cars, remove keys and take shelter; if on a bus take shelter as soon as it stops; if in a building, obey building defense regulations. Remain calmly in the shelter until the “all clear” –a series of three one-minute blasts, two minutes apart—about fifteen minutes later.”(6) Brochures containing images with captions like “This Prevents This” were sensational and often seemed to promote the sale of sirens more than safety. This is an interesting fact to consider, that despite the programs being government run, these machines were still built by outside companies with the intention to make money. So although the civil defense siren, often wants to appear to be part of the governments system to protect, it essentially is an outside medium, which is not inherent to the system. <br><br />
[[:Media:Attkwarn.mp3]]<br />
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==The Air Raid Siren in Contemporary Popular Music==<br />
[[Image:RingTheAlarm.jpg|thumb|right|Still from: Beyonce - Ring The Alarm; Music Video SONY BMG Music Entertainment; Released August 16, 2006]]<br />
Although, I know of many pieces of Contemporary Popular music which use the Air Raid Siren sound, I found it quite difficult to find any scholarly research on this phenomenon. This is probably due to its rather recent nature. For this reason I have chose to focus exclusively on the 2006 single released by American recording artist Beyonce, title ‘Ring The Alarm.’ What’s interesting about “Ring the Alarm” is the fact that the song takes the trend of using the air raid effect (usually only found in the begging of such songs) and increases the sounds prominence ten-fold. The sound not only appears solo in the introduction, it also recurs for the chorus’ and provides lyrical inspiration. So what about Beyonce makes one desire to sound a Civil Defense Siren? Why would this sound which was so frightful to most and such an annoyance to some, now get a starring role in a Top 20 single? There is nothing new about reapropriation of sounds in music. Sounds are often imitated or copied from musicians in other genres and other eras. I think what’s interesting is the service that the sound provides the song. It's ‘loudness’ embodies the message of female empowerment which the lyrics and artists persona drive home. What was initially created for the very practical purpose of delivering sound a far distance is now being used in an unintended way, to convey an ideal.<br />
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==Citations==<br />
The Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren:<br><br />
(1)"Little Fuss Results From Blast Of 4-Ton Siren at Fort Belvoir. " The Washington Post (1877-1954) [Washington, D.C.] 6 Sep. 1952,23. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post<br> (1877 - 1991). ProQuest.<br />
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The Audile Mayor La Guardia:<br><br />
(2)"'Noiseless Nights' Decreed Here By La Guardia During October :Auto Horn Tooters and Other Offenders Will Be Reprimanded by Police -- Series of 'Noiseless Days,' Then a Drastic Ordinance Against<br> Nuisance Will Follow.. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 11 Aug. 1935,1-2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004). ProQuest.<br><br />
(3)"Mayor Defends Air Raid Wardens, Orders Complaints Investigated :LA GUARDIA BACKS AIR RAID WARDENS . " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 31 Dec. 1941,1-2. ProQuest Historical<br> Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004). ProQuest.<br><br />
(4)"New York's Program. " Wall Street Journal (1889-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 29 Jul 1941,3-3. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1990). ProQuest.<br><br />
(5)"On False Alarms. " The Washington Post (1877-1954) [Washington, D.C.] 9 Sep. 1942,8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877 - 1991). ProQuest.<br><br />
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The Civil Defense Siren in Cold War Culture:<br><br />
(6)"What to Do in Raid Test Set for 8:30 A. M. Today. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 13 Dec. 1952,23-23. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004).<br> ProQuest.<br />
(7)Federal Electric Company Brochure; 1942.<br />
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