Culture,
complexity, computers and community:
Or, what happens when cultural artifacts are given their own agency through
computer mediation.
Ethan Kaplan
Media Arts & Technology / Art Studio
University of California, Santa Barbara
Date:
Friday, January 30, 2004
Place: CS Conference Room
_____ Engineering 1, Rm. 2114
Time: 4:00 pm — 5:00 pm (Refreshments
served at 3:30 pm)
Abstract:
Online communities by their nature present problems related to
both the taxonomy of discourse and the effect of taxonomy upon the community
as a whole. As online communities endeavor to solidify a criticality around
a specific commonality, the enabling infrastructure must provide a means
of organizing discussion, and also needs to be transparent enough so as
not to hinder said discussion. As the owner of a large online community
with a database exceeding three gigabytes in size, I was presented with
a problem in which the only autonomy granted within the infrastructure
was on the users end. Information needed to conform to strict categorization,
and was not given any reflexive ability itself. The people dictated the
data, while the data remains passive outside of metonymical triggers.
Complicating this in the case of my online community is the fact that
this community is a form of cultural discourse around the fanaticism of
a popular band. The study of this cultural discourse is hence hindered
by the unidirectional influence of people upon data, without the data
having autonomous interactions outside of human input. My endeavor is
to change this approach. The crux of my method is thus: using data-mining
and computer science models, methods and systems as a way to objectify
cultural discourse to the point where the artifacts of discourse are given
their own agency. Hence, by having their own agency, the emergence of
different facets of the cultural study is not dictated by subjective involvement
or observation. I am not putting my own subjectivity on the discourse,
but instead allowing the discourse to find its own meaning in relation
to other artifacts. To do so, I am developing a system based on the combination
of humanities research and computer science research called pStruct. In
this presentation, I will present what pStruct is, how it works and how
the combination of philosophical foundations with science aids the fields
of cultural studies and art theory by giving the objects of study their
own pseudo-intelligence in a virtual environment.
Biography:
Ethan Kaplan is a media artist focusing in the areas of online communities
and fan subcultures on the Internet. Currently he is a Master of Fine
Arts student in the Department of Art Studio, and a Master of Arts student
in the Media Arts and Technology Program at UC Santa Barbara, as well
as a fellow in the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
(IGERT) Program. Kaplan has a Bachelors of Arts from the University of
California, San Diego in Visual Media. His work can be described as performance,
in that it plays out with thousands of participants, or systemic in that
the performance is dictated by software. His interest is focused on how
identity, and perceptions of reality are mutated through algorithmically
"objective" computer processes. As well, he does research into
how the collapsing of media representation effects agents of popular culture
and their fans, such as with the band R.E.M., whom Kaplan collaborates
with. His website Murmurs.com has 14,000 members, with 50,000 visitors
per week. He and the site have been covered in various media over the
past seven years, including: VH1, MTV, CNN, Associated Press, National
Public Radio, BBC TV and Radio, Entertainment Weekly, Spin Magazine and
E! Entertainment Television. His work is chronicled at ethankaplan.com.>
