03 Design for Discomfort

Challenge #3: Use surveillance techniques for unconventional ends

General observation: The data collected from Instagram is a reflection of “witness”. The need to be “noticed” becomes a way to monetize human capital (e.g. likes and followers becomes quantifiable). The more validation from followers; the more the user is inclined to share snippets of life; whether the attention is a positive or negative reinforcement to presentations of the quotidian every days — the affect show dependency on social valuation.

Direct observation: I showed my findings during class, albeit incomplete closing of the magic circle, Krizia and I displayed much discomfort toward the assignment, in which Jason commented on how comedic the interaction was. I reflected on what I did and didn’t do — and potentially can do. Krizia mentioned that she didn’t think her life was interesting enough to warrant posting on instagram stories. And she only used the story feature (this feature allows the public into her privacy of what she chooses to share) for this particular assignment. I analyzed Krizia’s instagram account: she has 791 posts, 279 followers, 1,138 following. I surmise she is an active instagram user. I am inclined to improve her confidence or attempt to since this is a platform she uses frequently. I decided to make another instagram account to showcase how her photos inspired poetic words. Surely, poetry can be words of admiration. Ergo, I created an instagram account as follows: instagram.com/sublimepoets

Instagram is a part of surveillance culture. If users are displaying their life, it is because the preservation of the moment of beauty is the arresting of time is death. And that reminds me….

As well as this: “We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness’.”

Therefore if you look at the photos Krizia posted on the very above, every screenshot from her ‘stories’ inspired a poem to encourage a positive feedback loop.

Reading response #3:

“Twin Peaks to point toward a grander existence of which our known universe and our accepted truths are only a tiny, insignificant, and very poorly understood fragment. It does this primarily by evoking feelings of awkwardness or discomfort in its audience, using the techniques of melodrama/cringe comedy; ambiguously diegetic music; and the juxtaposition of the horrific with the banal.”

I enjoyed reading Richard Rosenbaum article at the mention of “bathos”. I looked up uncanny valley, a term I was unfamiliar with prior to this article and class discussions. I have appreciation for movies such as HER and exMachina; exploring philosophical questions about machine and human similar to uncanny valley, that is if my understanding of the word is accurate. And I have yet to watch Twin Peaks which is revealing the art of uncanny. The show, deconstructed, presents the sublimity of awkwardness and the director’s utmost intrigues of discomfort. In consequence, the “interstice at the convergence between a few different technical, dramatic, and genre boundaries, and employs a mandate of creating intense audience discomfort to make its point about the limitations on human understanding and the blurriness between areas we prefer to consider distinct” made me think about the absurdity of life, and how little humans understand humans. After all, every person seems to be their own island. The frailty of the human psyche, a case presented by Rosenbaum is heightened through the presentation of human beings — inhabiting a kind of behavioral uncanny valley, where humans don’t act quite like humans, but take on the physical form of humans. I suppose, I don’t find this strange because humans create art that imitates themselves. Perhaps, the discomfort comes from a need to remain on the top of the pyramid, such that humans can create and destroy ecosystems — and the scare is that the deception or disillusionment of what humans create can ultimately destroy themselves, such that machines can manipulate perceptions which makes humans unease. We are then, put in a disorienting haze when uncertainty of what we know isn’t so.

• Reducing conflict and uncertainty by matching appearance, behavior, and ability. In terms of performance, if a robot looks too appliance-like, people expect little from it; if it looks too human, people expect too much from it. A highly human-like appearance leads to an expectation that certain behaviors are present, such as humanlike motion dynamics. This likely operates at a sub-conscious level and may have a biological basis. Neuroscientists have noted “when the brain’s expectations are not met, the brain…generates a ‘prediction error’. As human-like artificial agents become more commonplace, perhaps our perceptual systems will be re-tuned to accommodate these new social partners. Or perhaps, we will decide “it is not a good idea to make [robots] so clearly in our image after all.”
• Human facial proportions and photorealistic texture should only be used together. A photorealistic human texture demands human facial proportions, or the computer generated character can fall into the uncanny valley. Abnormal facial proportions, including those typically used by artists to enhance attractiveness (e.g., larger eyes), can look eerie with a photorealistic human texture. Avoiding a photorealistic texture can permit more leeway.

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