CART 351: Week 5

After a session of PHP we had to create a database search engine. I grouped up with Sophie to do this project. Simple yet effective, our project consists of a simple box where the person visiting the site can enter anything that passes through their heads. This will link the person to Flickr images. 100 images then appear under the search box.

We had many ideas for this project, but due to technical difficulties we kept a simple search tool engine. Our primary idea was to create a kaleidoscope but we struggled with some aspects so we decided to change. To people who don't exactly know what a kaleidoscope means, here is a picture:


We still plan on keeping this original idea for our next project. For now we are pretty happy with what we have accomplished with little knowledge about PHP.

Here is the link to our search engine:
Link

The readings for this week

Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism

Discipline & Punish under the french name Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison was translated in 1977. To summarize this reading quickly and effectively, It is about the philosopher Michel Foucault who further examines social and theoretical mechanisms behind the massive changes that occurred in western penal systems during the modern age. The text specifically documents historical passages in France. Foucault contradicts the commonly accepted idea that the prison became the consistent form of punishment. To do so he brings the idea of power over the mind/body. "Discipline" was then considered a new technological source of power. It was introduced anywhere from schools, hospitals, military barracks. Four recurrent and major themes can be seen in 'Discipline & Punish': torture, punishment, discipline and prison.

The most important feature in his discussion of the panopticism, is when Foucault introduces the public to Jeremy Bentham. He is the creator/philosopher behind the idea of the panopticon. He explains it to be a building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner is in. The prisoners cannot communicate to one another but can be seen from every angle. The prisoners then have a sensation of being permanently watched (permanent visibility). Thus where the sensation of 'power' comes into play, which is of course the goal of the panopticism theory. The panopticon was destined to spread all throughout society. It was designed to install a society of control and improve public morality. Overall, for Foucault, the panopticon represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society.

The database as a genre of new media by Lev Manovich

Lev Manovich introduces 'The database as a genre of new media' with an introductory piece called "New Media from Borges to HTML" in which he addresses the question: What is new media? He starts off by giving brief definitions on the issue, introducing the viewers to the topic. Manovich explains the different types of digital storage medias and how the Internet constantly grows in today's modern society. He also states quite abruptly that database and narrative do not have the same status in computer culture. In summary he concludes that regardless of the medium, "as linear narratives, interactive narratives, databases, or something else, underneath, on the level of material organization", in the end they all are databases. All to display sources of information. Databases are everywhere and are used by almost everyone. They are constantly growing and evolving, thus, "it is not surprising, then, that databases occupy a significant, if not the largest, territory of the new media landscape."

The Next Big Thing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing: Cultural Analytics

To summarize this article it takes about the close disappearance of books, libraries and any form of analog methods that we still use. This of course, is a theory rather than a fact. This why this has caused such debate and overall controversy. As it states "part of the debate resides in the historical separation that began with Erasmus and the Renaissance", thus the separation of science and art. Professor Lev Manovich, of Visual Arts at UCSD, and Director of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology "is well versed in the revolutionary possibilities that lie at the intersection of the arts, humanities, social science and digital technologies." Thus the question that arises, what is meant by 'big humanities'? Manovich responds by stating, "is one of the ways I use to characterize a new approach for the study of culture made possible by a convergence of a number of forces. Other terms that can be also used are "Cultural Datamining," "Culture as Data," or (my preferred term) "Cultural Analytics.""