GIST

 Class Notes 2/16/2011

Today we began class by Mirealla going around the room and saying everyone’s name.  Then we outlined the prepartions for next class, which included, readings for Monday, video for Wednesday, scheduling writing conferences.

1.     The Science and Technology of Information

Reviewing two articles from Monday’s readings:

            Katherine Rowe (English Prof.)

Today, as we concluded the first section of our course (which highlighted the ways that technology "remakes gender"), Liz asked each of us to share a comment about "where we are." These are the responses I was able to record (I'm missing a few, and may have misrecorded others, so feel free to edit or add).

We are...
embracing confusion
nothing is ever simple
expectant
ambiguity, anonymity
binaries are bad names
lost in transit
processing
impatient
floating
clift diving
educative
learning
observing, evolving
looking for....?

With how busy and stressed I have been this past week, I have not had time to transform my influential technology musings into a paper that I was satisfied with (so I will be doing the last three).  However, here is a brief post of my initial thoughts:

GIST Class Notes from Wednesday, February 9, 2011 by Hillary Godwin: Self-Shaping Technologies
We began by acknowledging that Monday would end the first section of our class, “The Science and Technology of Gender: Making and Re-making Ourselves.” Most of the class was centered on asking provocative questions, rather than necessarily finding definitive answers.

We then began discussing categories:

-       Many students in class agreed that we as human beings are biologically inclined to make and use categories as a way to make sense of the world.

GIST class notes for Monday, February 7

Go around the room, introduce your neighbor, say what portion of your body would you be willing to “put under the knife?”

- most of us say no surgery, specifically no cosmetic
- a few people willing to have LASIK eye surgery
- would only have surgery if medically necessary

“showcasing our diversity” - new avatars

I did a very small project a little while ago in French class on a modern performance artist.

In my Googling, I found ORLAN. 

She is a French performance artist, photographer, sculpter, and--perhaps most notably--used plastic surgery as an artistic medium.

Not only does she alter her own appearance (to take on the features of women in famous paintings), but she also turns the OR into a stage, using props and costumes and other actors to make a theatric show. She also uses local anesthetics in order to stay awake during the surgery, to perform. 

 Historically, women have been considered unsuitable for military combat. Some early involvements of women in the military were nurses who would attend to soldiers during combat.

Female participation in the army differs from country to country; only a few actually allow women to serve in active combat positions while others are restricted to certain positions. In the US, women have assumed male pseudonyms and concealed their gender in order to enlist and fight, as early as the Revolutionary War. Nonetheless, there is general opposition towards the idea of women fighting as equals with men.

Opposers to women in military argue both physical and psychological reasons as why women should not be allowed to fight in combat.

If these "alternative" genders and sexualities in the animal world are so common, then why is it that I've never heard of them before?

After we talked about gender categories in class, I found myself thinking about this interesting speculation on the nature of computer programs used to store information about marriages.