Tag: Creative Work Session 3

Translating The Work Of Carl Sagan Into Song

Presenter(s): Guthrie Stafford − Philosophy

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbra Mossberg

Creative Work Session 3

Research Area: Science, Philosophy, Performing Arts

Our tiny blue-green jewel of a planet may not be much in the unimaginable vastness of space, but if it matters to us then we’d better show it. At least that’s what Carl Sagan had in mind when he petitioned for the Voyager space probe to turn around and take one final photo of our planet before it left the solar system, traveling on into the dark, never to return. This picture shows the Earth, the totality of our history and the history of life itself, as a single, pale blue pixel suspended like a mote of dust in a sunbeam. For Sagan, this image underscored the painful absurdity of our treatment of each other and of our only home. In translating his words on the subject into song, my hope is to bring this message to my own generation. Our parents set out to save the world and somewhere along the way got distracted by mortgage payments. It now falls on us to sidestep tribalism and partisan myopia, and we are already struggling under the weight of this responsibility. We must step back, way back, and see the world as it really is. No one is coming to save us from ourselves. There’s nowhere we can run to if things don’t work out. We have only one chance, one planet, one home. It is a herculean task. That is why I’ve tried to convey its urgency in one of the most powerful ways I know how: song.

The Body Electronic: Exploring the Permeability of the Self in the Age of Wearable Computing

Presenter(s): Aidan Grealish − Art & Technology, General Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Colin Ives

Creative Work Session 3

Research Area: Art & Technology

Funding: Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) Undergraduate Fellowship

Steve Mann once said that the “goal of wearable computing is to position or contextualize the computer in such a way that the human and computer are inextricably intertwined.” My project will engage with the entanglement of body and technology through the production of a series of wearable computing accessories that explore the permeability of the self and the computer in the age of the internet. Specifically, I will ask 1) How has the development of portable computing and ubiquitous internet softened the borders of self-identity? 2) To what degree must technology interact with the physical body to become a meaningful part of it? 3) Since we use these technologies as extensions of ourselves, how does our engagement with them— both in their design and use—impart agency onto the technology itself? My research and practice contributes to the quickly- growing field of human-computer interaction design. Though rapid innovation in the tech sector has produced incredible breakthroughs in computing, there is a need for alternative perspectives from outside the discipline; as technology becomes part of our very identities we must engage it with a critical and humanitarian eye. Visual arts practice is the ideal methodology for this engagement because the artist participates in every step of the design, execution, and communication of their work, allowing for a self-reflective analysis of the decisions and methodologies that contribute to the production of objects. This project will result in three end products: a collection of wearable computing objects, a production journal documenting my design and fabrication process, and a final manuscript detailing my findings for dissemination. My research-based practice will provide insight into human engagement with technological tools and will inspire discussion about the conception of self and the place of visual arts in the high-tech future.