Journal/Machinic Modernity

I begin by citing the last sentence of the preface, which is an essential problem Escobar will talk about. It moves me I lot that it brings up the possibility that human being may find other purposes, other than merely pursuing economic development; and design may find its way to be purer. The sentences ended with "the Earth", which led to the tiny, pale blue dot in the middle of the frame. That is all we have on the vast cosmic stage. We are all here together. We need to pursuit a better path together.

On the other hand, however small the Earth is compared to the universe, the human history itself is already beyond the understanding of the human today (the eye at the bottom right). Then here's another topic we discussed: our history we have to face with respect. As designers in Silicon Valley, we always look forward into the techno-future (see the cone of future on the right of the eye,) yet we still need to look back to into the long history of human, into the wisdom in humanities. Without that, many decision-making will be dangerous (think about scientific/technological ethics, the intention to operationally define immeasurable concepts).

The final thought is about perspectives of thinking that I wish to develop macro-thinking skills through this class. Because of my undergrad education in psychology and also the concentration user-centered design, I usually approach a problem from the individual level. Consequently, my practice often deals with concepts about an individual, or interaction between individuals. I found this class to be a great chance to learn ideas from higher levels of perspectives. I'm not sure if I can comprehend them in the end—so the vertical line turns to dashed lines and disappear, which means that may beyond my cognitive function—and how I will understand Machinic Modernity in the end.

From historical churches to modern regimes, iconoclasts destroy images, to control people's mind and display their power. To break an image (or object, sculpture, "thinage", etc.), is to eradicate what it presents (i.e. what people believe), to rewrite memories of the history and change the direction to the future. Iconoclasm shows the assertiveness of believing absolute correctness in the iconoclasts themselves. As divinity loses its power and images proliferate in different media, iconoclasm emerges in its new guise of censorship—the tool that embodies how political powers control the thoughts today.

The nowadays idea and the geist of Bauhaus are much more influential than what it originally was. As time goes by, Bauhaus and other radical, subversive, but short-lived movements, institutions, or schools of thought (e.g., Archigram) become mythical symbols. Time gives these either renowned or controversial entities the space for nostalgic imagination.

This is not a negation of Bauhaus and other historical elements, but a concern for the mystification phenomenon.

Capitalism has brought the humankind with the great industrial revolutions, but also imprinted the idea of development, progress, efficiency, and other forward-looking, profit-oriented concepts in our mind. Modernism is one of its offsprings. It sees function as the essence and gave birth to another genre of form and the fetish of clean, modern “good design,” which successfully in return stimulates the consumer market and even more progress. Unilateral globlization was another result: even though more powerful capitalist countries don’t exploit the “inferior” in "the era of peace,” the latter still needs to catch up in the competition of national strength—the consequence of "relative deprivation” between countries.

Machines are built to be like human beings. Human beings are educated to be like machines. The dichotomy between “nature” and “artefact” collapses—perhaps there has no division between what is natural and what is artificial. The earth will document all the beauty and ignominy in this gloris Anthropocene.

From modernity, postmodernity, to hypermodernity, the social reality is structured, restructured, and transcended, yet in the same grid that will not fade away. It is the grid of rationalization, the instrument that has been disenchanting the same nature we admired in European and non-European cultures before the advent of “modernity.” It is also the grid of standard and power that frames the everyday and the ideal.

It was perhaps in the first Industrial Revolution that people started to use machine as the metaphor for any intricated system. Consequently, “mechanism,” “dynamics,” “well-oiled,” and other machine-related words are anywhere. They are the results of art/technology/design that conceal Plato’s “idea” with finest craft.

Through language it (social subjection) creates a signifying and representational web from which no one escapes. (p.24)

(By machinic enslavement,) the component parts of subjectivity (intelligence, affects, sensations, cognition, memory, physical force) are no longer unified in an "I," they no longer have an individuated subject as referent. (p.27)

It is never an individual who thinks, never an individual who creates. (p.44)

What does the word/symbol “I” try to make us think? What does it try to hide from us?

Simulation games as a projection of the capitalist society: primitive accumulation by dispossession; rationalizing private property with religion, laws, and morality; asthetics controlled by the monopolies.

“中学为体，西学为用 (Chinese thought as substance, Western knowledge as utility)” was a slogan of the Chinese “Westernization Group” in the late 19c when the Qing Dynasty was facing the oppression by imperialist countries. Since then, the modernization of China involves the use of Western technology without understanding its concept and a mind of keeping traditional thoughts without face the hidden conflicts between the two. This results in the bizarre scenery of modern, developing China.

Technologies reserve the externalization of human’s memory, helping us explore secrets of the universe. Individuals either becomes part of the whole human that heavily relies on the technologies, or be isloated and left behind.