Wednesday, April 27. 2016And now Google enters the textile business: Project Jacquard | #textile #electronics #monitoring
Note: we blogged last week about automation and funilly, the Jacquard process was mentioned as one of the early stage of automation and computing during an exhibition in Wien. The "Métiers Jacquard" were an inspiration to Ch. Babbage when he started to design his Difference Engine, one of the early mechanic autonomous and programmable computer (in the sense of a calculator). We should also not forget that in reality, "computers" were real persons doing calculations -- often women (in particular during last world wars), which then became the first operators of automatic computers (see the ENIAC girls) -- until back in the middle of 20th century. So to say, digital computers have already replaced "person computers" and automated, as well as by far quickened their activities... The first purpose of the computer as we know it was automation. It is part of its DNA. Now, as a wink to this history but also as a possible "return of the repressed", Google literally enters the textile business and brings computing (back) to fabrics! So it is not by chance that they've picked up this name obviously, "Jacquard".
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More about it on MIT Technology Review.
Related Links:Thursday, April 21. 2016The Promise of Total Automation | #automated #substitution
Note: the idea of automation is very present again recently. And it is more and more put together with the related idea of a society without work, or insufficient work for everyone --which is already the case in the liberal way of thinking btw--, as most of it would be taken by autonomous machines, AIs, etc. Many people are warning about this (Bill Gates among them, talking precisely about "software substitution"), some think about a "universal income" as a possible response, some say we shouldn't accept this and use our consumer power to reject such products (we spoke passionatey about it with my good old friend Eric Sadin last week during a meal at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, while drinking --almost automatically as well-- some good wine), some say it is almost too late and we should plan and have visions for what is coming upon us... Now comes also an exhibition about the same subject at Kunsthalle Wien that tries to articulate the questions: "Technical devices that were originally designed to serve and assist us and are now getting smarter and harder to control and comprehend. Does their growing autonomy mean that the machines will one day overpower us? Or will they remain our subservient little helpers, our gateway to greater knowledge and sovereignty?"
Via WMMNA -----
Installation view The Promise of Total Automation. Image Kunsthalle Wien
Cécile B. Evans, How happy a Thing Can Be, 2014. Image Kunsthalle Wien
The word ‘automation’ is appearing in places that would have seemed unlikely to most people less than a decade ago: journalism, art, design or law. Robots and algorithms are being increasingly convincing at doing things just like humans. And sometimes even better than humans. The Promise of Total Automation, an exhibition recently opened at Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, looks at our troubled relationship with machines. Technical devices that were originally designed to serve and assist us and are now getting smarter and harder to control and comprehend. Does their growing autonomy mean that the machines will one day overpower us? Or will they remain our subservient little helpers, our gateway to greater knowledge and sovereignty?
The Promise of Total Automation is an intelligent, inquisitive and engrossing exhibition. Its investigation into the tensions and dilemmas of human/machines relationship explore themes that go from artificial intelligence to industrial aesthetics, from bio-politics to theories of conspiracy, from e-waste to resistance to innovation, from archaeology of digital communication to utopias that won’t die. The show is dense in information and invitations to ponder so don’t forget to pick up one of the free information booklet at the entrance of the show. You’re going to need it!
A not-so-quick walk around the show:
James Benning, Stemple Pass, 2012
James Benning‘s film Stemple Pass is made of four static shots, each from the same angle and each 30 minutes long, showing a cabin in the middle of a forest in spring, fall, winter and summer. The modest building is a replica of the hideout of anti-technology terrorist Ted Kaczynski. The soundtrack alternates between the ambient sound of the forest and Benning reading from the Unabomber’s journals, encrypted documents and manifesto. Kaczynski’s texts hover between his love for nature and his intention to destroy and murder. Between his daily life in the woods and his fears that technology is going to turn into an instrument that enables the powerful elite to take control over society. What is shocking is not so much the violence of his words because you expect them. It’s when he gets it right that you get upset. When he expresses his distrust of the merciless rise of technology, his doubts regarding the promises of innovation and it somehow makes sense to you.
Konrad Klapheck, Der Chef, 1965. Photo: © Museum Kunstpalast – ARTOTHEK
Konrad Klapheck’s paintings ‘portray’ devices that were becoming mainstream in 1960s households: vacuum cleaner, typewriters, sewing machines, telephones, etc. In his works, the objects are abstracted from any context, glorified and personified. In the typewriter series, he even assigns roles to the objects. They are Herrscher (ruler), Diktator, Gesetzgeber (lawgiver) or Chef (boss.) These titles allude to the important role that the instruments have taken in administrative and economic systems.
Tyler Coburn, Sabots, 2016, courtesy of the artist, photo: David Avazzadeh
This unassuming small pair of 3D-printed clogs alludes to the workers struggles of the Industrial Revolution. The title of the piece, Sabots, means clogs in french. The word sabotage allegedly comes from it. The story says that when French farmers left the countryside to come and work in factories they kept on wearing their peasant clogs. These shoes were not suited for factory works and as a consequence, the word ‘saboter’ came to mean ‘to work clumsily or incompetently’ or ‘to make a mess of things.’ Another apocryphal story says that disgruntled workers blamed the clogs when they damaged or tampered machinery. Another version saw the workers throwing their clogs at the machine to destroy it. In the early 20th century, labor unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) advocated withdrawal of efficiency as a means of self-defense against unfair working conditions. They called it sabotage.
Tyler Coburn, Waste Management, 2013-15
Tyler Coburn contributed another work to the show. Waste Management looks like a pair of natural stones but the rocks are actually made out of electronic waste, more precisely the glass from old computer monitors and fiber powder from printed circuit boards that were mixed with epoxy and then molded in an electronic recycling factory in Taiwan. The country is not only a leader in the export of electronics, but also in the development of e-waste processing technologies that turn electronic trash into architectural bricks, gold potassium cyanide, precious metals—and even artworks such as these rocks. Coburn bought them there as a ready made. They evoke the Chinese scholar’s rocks. By the early Song dynasty (960–1279), the Chinese started collecting small ornamental rocks, especially the rocks that had been sculpted naturally by processes of erosion. Accompanying these objects is a printed broadsheet which narrates the circulation and transformation of a CRT monitor into the stone artworks. The story follows from the “it-narrative” or novel of circulation, a sub-genre of 18th Century literature, in which currencies and commodities narrated their circulation within a then-emerging global economy.
Osborne & Felsenstein, Personal Computer Osborne 1a and Monitor NEC, 1981, Loan Vienna Technical Museum, photo: David Avazzadeh
Adam Osborne and Lee Felsenstein, Personal Computer Osborne 1a, 1981, Courtesy Technisches Museum, Wien
Several artifacts ground the exhibition into the technological and cultural history of automation: A mechanical Jacquard loom, often regarded as a key step in the history of computing hardware because of the way it used punched cards to control operations. A mysterious-looking arithmometer, the first digital mechanical calculator reliable enough to be used at the office to automate mathematical calculations. A Morse code telegraph, the first invention to effectively exploit electromagnetism for long-distance communication and thus a pioneer of digital communication. A cybernetic model from 1956 (see further below) and the first ‘portable’ computer. Released in 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation, the Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer. It weighed 10.7 kg (23.5 lb), cost $1,795 USD, had a tiny screen (5-inch/13 cm) and no battery. At the peak of demand, Osborne was shipping over 10,000 units a month. However, Osborne Computer Corporation shot itself in the foot when they prematurely announced the release of their next generation models. The news put a stop to the sales of the current unit, contributing to throwing the company into bankruptcy. This has comes to be known as the Osborne effect.
Kybernetisches Modell Eier: Die Maus im Labyrinth (Cybernetics Model Eier: The Mouse in the Maze), 1956. Image Kunsthalle Wien
Around 1960, scientists started to build cybernetic machines in order to study artificial intelligence. One of these machines was a maze-solving mouse built by Claude E. Shannon to study the labyrinthian path that a call made using telephone switching systems should take to reach its destination. The device contained a maze that could be arranged to create various paths. The system followed the idea of Ariadne’s thread, the mouse marking each field with the path information, like the Greek mythological figure did when she helped Theseus find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. Richard Eier later re-built the maze-solving mouse and improved Shannon’s method by replacing the thread with two two-bits memory units.
Régis Mayot, JEANNE & CIE, 2015. Image Kunsthalle Wien
In 2011, the CIAV (the international center for studio glass in Meisenthal, France) invited Régis Mayot to work in their studios. The designer decided to explore the moulds themselves, rather than the objects that were produced using them. By a process of sand moulding, the designer revealed the mechanical beauty of some of these historical tools, producing prints of a selection of moulds that were then blown by craftsmen in glass. Jeanne et Cie (named after one of the moulds chosen by the designer) highlights how the aesthetics of objects are the result of the industrial instruments and processes that enter into their manufacturing.
Bureau d’études, ME, 2013, © Léonore Bonaccini and Xavier Fourt
Bureau d’Etudes, Electromagnetic Propaganda, 2010
The exhibition also presented a selection of Bureau d´Études‘ intricate and compelling cartographies that visualize covert connections between actors and interests in contemporary political, social and economic systems. Because knowledge is power, the maps are meant as instruments that can be used as part of social movements. The ones displayed at Kunsthalle Wien included the maps of Electro-Magnetic Propaganda, Government of the Agro-Industrial System and the 8th Sphere.
Mark Leckey, Pearl Vision, 2012
I fell in love with Mark Leckey‘s video. So much that i’ll have to dedicate another post to his work. One day.
David Jourdan’s poster alludes to an ad in which newspaper Der Standard announced that its digital format was ‘almost as good as paper.’ More images from the exhibition:
Magali Reus, Leaves, 2015
Thomas Bayrle, Kleiner koreanischer Wiper
Juan Downey, Nostalgic Item, 1967, Estate of Joan Downey courtesy of Marilys B. Downey, photo: David Avazzadeh
Judith Fegerl, still, 2013, © Judith Fegerl, Courtesy Galerie Hubert Winter, Wien
Wesley Meuris, Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, 2014. Image Kunsthalle Wien
Installation view The Promise of Total Automation. Image Kunsthalle Wien
Installation view. Image Kunsthalle Wien
Installation view. Image Kunsthalle Wien
More images on my flickr album. Also in the exhibition: Prototype II (after US patent no 6545444 B2) or the quest for free energy.
The Promise of Total Automation was curated by Anne Faucheret. The exhibition is open until 29 May at Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna. Don’t miss it if you’re in the area.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Art, Culture & society, Interaction design, Science & technology
at
14:35
Defined tags for this entry: art, artificial reality, artists, automation, culture & society, exhibitions, interaction design, science & technology
Wednesday, April 06. 2016If not "algorithmic communism" then "algorithmic liberalism"? > At Uber, the Algorithm Is More Controlling Than the Real Boss 7 #algorithms #politics #economy
Note: to pursue fueling this resource and reflection about what kind of social, political and economic rules are implemented within algorithms that will then become the foundation layer of the so called "world without work"... (and to get how far current political parties seem not to address these stakes), here comes an interesting study to exemplify what algorithmic rules can be(come) and how they implement a "way of thinking", in this case at Uber. By extension, think of course about Amazon's automated or crowdsourced services, AirBn'B, etc. Obviously, these algorithms are already being written right "under our noses" (think about algorithmic trading, smart cities, smart "things" & "stuff", autonomous cars and drones, etc.), certainly under the radar but not not under an "algorithmic communism" basis. Not that we know about ...
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Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal
In defending his company against assertions that Uber drivers should be classified as employees, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick often wields the algorithm. Uber isn’t a boss, he argues. It’s a software platform that balances supply and demand to connect entrepreneurs with customers. A new academic paper pokes holes in that argument. Researchers Alex Rosenblat and Luke Stark at the Data and Society Research Institute and New York University point out that Uber uses software to exert similar control over workers that a human manager would. The company’s algorithm uses performance metrics, scheduling prompts, behavioral suggestions, dynamic prices, and information asymmetry “as a substitute for direct managerial power and control,” they wrote. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The researchers, who conducted in-depth interviews with Uber drivers and studied posts in drivers-only online forums, situate Uber and similar sharing-economy platforms in a wider conversation about the trend toward employee management and so-called on demand or predictive scheduling software. Starbucks, for instance, hasn’t replaced traditional managers, but it’s among a growing group of companies that increasingly rely on software to manage worker schedules and behavior. Bottom line: Robots aren’t stealing your job – at least in this instance – but they’re becoming your boss. And the level of control and surveillance they exert is often far greater than human management would, the authors found. Rather than undertaking a human-driven performance review process, Uber evaluates employees according to an automated rating system. Riders enter scores into the Uber app to rate drivers with one to five stars. Back-end software tallies the scores and sends drivers regular summaries of their performance and how they stack up to their peers. The system, the researchers wrote, empowers Uber customers to serve as “middle managers,” essentially outsourcing management. It lets Uber “achieve an organization where the workforce behaves relatively homogeneously” without needing a manager to bark orders. Uber’s software also exerts control over when and where drivers work, the researchers noted. The company never orders workers to drive, but its software does prod them. It alerts them when the software predicts that surge pricing is due to kick in, boosting the fare by up to four times and increasing the driver’s fee. But drivers reported that it was difficult to tell the difference between the company’s predictions and an actual surge. They often showed up at a surge location to find the area saturated with drivers and the company no longer offering to reward them with higher payments. Thus Uber’s software is not passive but manipulates the supply of labor and shapes the marketplace as a whole, the authors argued. Drivers told the researchers they resisted Uber by failing to reply to company emails inquiring about their whereabouts and by posting on message boards to advise other drivers to “resist the surge.” They said they didn’t want Uber to know where they planned to be for fear the company would trick them into driving elsewhere without delivering the benefit of higher fees. Essentially, the authors said, Uber drivers resist the algorithm-boss by trying to trick him – perhaps not unlike the decisions traditional employees make about what information to share with a human boss. Despite Uber’s depiction of drivers as entrepreneurs who control their own labor, an environment in which Uber has all the information makes it harder for drivers to make decisions that are in their interest, the authors said. Uber drivers are discouraged from turning down a fare – in some cities, drivers are prodded to pick up 90% of passengers who request a pickup – and they aren’t given fare information in advance. Drivers complained that this asymmetry resulted in sometimes losing money, since some rides are too short to be worthwhile, and they have no way to know how much they could expect to earn. Of course, many of the practices that benefit Uber and annoy its drivers also benefit customers. And like Starbucks employees and other workers whose lives are made unpredictable by such predictive scheduling software, Uber drivers are free to quit. In that sense, they are the self-determined entrepreneurs that Uber describes. But in other ways, they clearly aren’t.
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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