V - 1 Instructional Text - Group Instructional Feedback

Our group agreed that the instruction is helpful, yet there were several things that would need improvement to turn this into a good instruction sheet. First of all, there should be a short explanation on what a camera lucida actually is and what it can be used for. At the top, a list of all the materials needed to build the camera would be useful, otherwise people who start reading the text before having a close look at the pictures might encounter problems. Moreover, the units of length are illegible, therefore it is hard to find out if the author meant centimeters, millimeters, or a completely different unit. Another thing our group would change is the structure of the two paragraphs as we would rather use bullet points to describe the building process. While we think that the pictures are very helpful and that the author obviously put a lot of effort into these instructions, we are convinced that the individual steps could be structured better.

Biohacking and Sixth Sense

Cyborgs.

As already mentioned in a previous post, cyborgs are not too far away as some may think. 
As more and more people use smartphones and other portable electric devices several people dared to a step further. "Biohackers" or biohacking activists search to improve themselves by implanting machines, computerchips or even magnets under their skin. Shawn Sarver, an almost celebrity in the biohacking scene was one of the first to get a magnet implanted in his fingertips so that he could feel electromagnetic fields. As one of the leading biohackers he explains that the goal of this group is to make the human being evolve faster than nature would. 
Personally, I find this to be a very interesting thought, as evolution takes ages to significantly change certain properties. Moreover, with the trend over the last couple of hundreds of years, more and more people survive, and the survival of the fittest is no longer true. Thus, humans will evolve even slower than they already did. Humans no longer have the same immune system people had 50, 100, or even 1000 years ago. 
The modern medicine and the careless use of antibiotics for any little disease or little complaint destroys the body's defenses to a point, where the body can no longer fight on its own against nature. 

But this is already too far away from my topic. 

Biohackers just do what years, centuries or millennia of evolution could have done. They add new senses to their bodies by implanting, as said before, computer chips or magnets under their skin. 

Implanting a magnet under the skin in one or more fingertips is under biohackers already more or less common. The feeling of having another sense appeals to many activists. 
And to be honest: wouldn't it be awesome to feel the electromagnetic shape of an object? 
It is even hard to imagine, and after seeing footage of how the magnets or circuit boards are implanted I am pretty sure I will not do it. 
However, having a sixth sense must be really awesome.

More informations coming up in the following days. 

As always, 
Thanks for reading!

Ciao,Fabio

The Napalm Girl

Photo description 

The photograph shows a flat scenery where only grass and small shrubs and bushes grow. Right through this flat wasteland runs a broad street and a small house can be seen in the background. The background is filled by an enormous wall of smoke, like the ones caused by huge explosions. In the foreground you can see 5 children, of which three seem to be crying, one completely naked, one dressed in a shirt and underpants, one dressed in what seems to be pyjamas, one dressed in a shirt and what seems to be either long, airy pants or a skirt and one smaller child apparently in just a shirt. Behind them, there are five American soldiers in full Vietnam war gear, seemingly completely unfazed by the suffering children as they do not seem to have any intention of intervening or helping them. The soldiers also do not expect any attacks as three of them carry their weapons at least partly concealed.

History of photography

Peer feedback:

Overall, the idea was thought of as not bad, but also not as especially good. The big problem was that I did have neither a conflict, nor an initiation point, nor a solution. For a narrative text this is necessary, and so I had to completely revise the text and make up a completely new story. I was also told that there was no need an extensive description of the cost of the camera, but I liked this aspect so I included at least a part of it into the new text.

Slowly fading away

When I think back to the beginning of my life, I surely can remember the first time someone took a photo with my fragile parts. Well fragile may be the wrong word to describe it. I have to admit, my components are a little bit bulky and bit rusty as well, but I know that I delivered solid results and the artists and amateurs of photography loved the flair my pictures emitted.

And what now? I am sitting here in a box, not been used for several years, reminiscent of a glorious past. From my first day on as a camera obscura in the early 1830s, I served my owners loyally, and yes, I say owners, because at the time, people passed me on from generation to generation due to my value. What added to my importance was the fact that my first owner was Mr. Daguerre himself, the father of all camera obscuras. However, not only was I expensive, but also the iodized silver plates, which had to be inserted into me to, almost instantly, take pictures of sceneries. And, I do not want to repeat myself, but the results were astonishing for that time. Now we are in the year 1926 and it seems that I am no longer needed. The creation of the “Kodak” was the first sign that my reign was soon to be over. I did not want to realize that I was being replaced, but with the “Brownie” in 1900 and finally the “Leica 1” a year ago, my use has come to a halt. People stopped operating me and started to use those newly invented “Cameras” with their fancy “photographic film”. They may be much lighter and cheaper, but they will never be an icon as I was before them. But how will all of this end? Will I sit in this box for the rest of eternity and wait for my components to fall apart as I slowly drift into oblivion? I do not want to die like this! I do not want to be forgotten as if I had been a nobody!

But wait! What is this? Steps coming towards me. I am slowly being picked up and carefully placed on a glass shelf. It is so bright, I can barely see. Yet just beside me, one of my fellow camera obscuras! Oh, what joy! But where am I? An exhibition? No, this is bigger. Now I see! It is a museum! Maybe I will not be forgotten, just like tears in the rain. Maybe I will be remembered forever, as the first camera ever to be build.

Narrative article introduction

Sense of life

Marla is sitting in her living room, eyes stuck to the TV, hoping to hear something new in the news, while she expects her husband Tyler to return from his nightly strolls. She had stopped asking him where he went or why he left every night just to return with swollen, bloodstained knuckles. Marla stopped imagining what he might be up to while being out, simply because she could no longer put up a fight after hearing the news that their only son, a passenger of the missing Boeing 777 had gone missing along with the rest of the plane. 

Since the disappearance of flight “MH370”, Marla had not once left the house, neither to go to work, nor to see her friends or do the shopping. However, there was no real need to do the shopping, as Marla had ceased to eat since the message was brought to her. Many people would think of her to have died at that point, and to a certain extend this might be true, but inside of her there still lies a spark of hope that all of this might just be a nightmare, soon to be awaken of.

A.I. and Cyborgs - Science fiction or reality?

Artificial Intelligence fascinates people all around the globe.
Much of this fascination is due to movies and TV series, where machines start to think on their own and it usually ends badly for the humans.
This scenario is in my opinion just one of three which could come up with the current development of machines.
The first one being, as shown in several movies that the human race is extinguished by the machines, the second one being that machines serve humans as butlers, and the third one being that machines and humans merge to keep up to the ever increasing capabilities of machines. This would turn us into cyborgs.

At first, I did not really know what to pick as a topic in the field AI, but frankly I am really getting into the topic of humans merging with machines, which is not unrealistic, seeing what implants athletes use at the Paralympics for example.

Because when you look at it like this, the revolution of a cyborg is not to far fetched as expected.

A man with a camera in his eye - Reality

Star Wars - General Grievous; is a cyborg, but unfortunately fiction :D

PSA: After-Death Avatars

Every year 15,000 "After-Death Avatars" drastically change their behavior due to wrong data input.

While the person left behind is dealing with grief, the ADA's behaviour can change to the worse and death of the user may occur in the process. 

Every day hundreds of people suffer from behavioral changes of ADAs. 

Help us stop this madness.