Tag: research

Project Update and Overview

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An update on where I am with my project & an informal annotated bibliography

Update:

-A few weeks ago I had a meeting with Simon Western, CEO/Founder of The Eco-Leadership Institute, and we had a discussion about my project. He has a podcast, Edgy Ideas, on which he invites various guests to talk about their expertise and ideas about the world. Some relevant episodes I have listened to so far are: Purpose Upgrade with Paul Skinner, Becoming Digital Savvy with Anni Rowland-Campbell, and Lurking Monsters with Nora Bateson. These were very interesting and although his work centers more on coaching and psychoanalytic perspectives, some ideas discussed could come into play in my project. He is interested in a plethora of theory including Latour and Haraway, who I had planned on including or centering my project around. We therefore discussed these ideas briefly and he gave some suggestions for further reading. He suggested: Latour’s We Have Never Been Modern – https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=latour+modern&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

He also suggested to look at John Law and actor network theory https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Organising+Modernity%3A+Social+Ordering+and+Social+Theory-p-9780631185130

as well as this paper “a classic the pasteurisation of France- a must read!”:  https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674657618    http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/215.html

and an unpublished paper of his own which is extremely relevant and discusses Haraway and technology.

Project:

Cyborgs and Intersectionality in Sci-fi and Speculative Fiction – Narratives of bodies, machines, and nature

– connection / disconnection / re-connection

My research will be an essay looking at contemporary speculative literature and theory surrounding speculative fiction, speculative futures, and technology and the body. It will largely use qualitative analysis and also contain some small sections of my own creative writing. The data will be literature and academic texts. I will undertake a literature review to outline my main texts and their perspectives and potential biases. The aim will be to explore and outline how we can make the world better and counter oppressive systems by envisioning hopeful futures through speculative fiction that contains intersectionality and the blurring of boundaries between nature (the body) and technology. The main research question will be something akin to, how do intersectional cyborgs in speculative fiction create hopeful futures?

It will expand on the ideas in Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ and accompanying texts, including the academic literature which responded and followed as well as fiction focused on those topics.

A preliminary overview of and reflection on the academic literature that I will be drawing on for my project – Informal Annotated Bibliography
-HARAWAY, DONNA J., and CARY WOLFE. Manifestly Haraway. University of Minnesota Press, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1b7x5f6. Accessed 2 April 2024.

I will particularly focus on the chapter ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ which was originally published in 1985, and its ideas. In ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ Haraway outlines how the idea (and potentially the reality) of the cyborg – a synthesis of human and technology – has the potential to be a tool of feminist emancipation.

-Cutanda, Grian A. The Earth Stories Collection: How To Make Another World Possible with Myths, Legends and Traditional Stories. The Earth Stories Collection, 2019.
Collects and sometimes alters traditional stories from various cultures around the world and adds to them. Discusses counter stories or counter narratives and their importance as well as the importance of oral storytelling traditions.
-DUNNE, ANTHONY, and FIONA RABY. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. The MIT Press, 2013. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qf7j7. Accessed 2 April 2024.
-Latour, Bruno. On the Emergence of an Ecological Class : A Memo : Subject – How to Promote the Emergence of an Ecological Class That’s Self-Aware and Proud / Bruno Latour and Nikolaj Schultz ; Translated by Julie Rose. Edited by Nikolaj Schultz and Julie Rose, Polity Press, 2022, https://contentstore.cla.co.uk/secure/link?id=4e47c45f-629e-ee11-ad36-a04a5e5d2f8d.
-Womack, Ytasha L. Afrofuturism the World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Lawrence Hill Books, 2013, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57718389725e25272beacd64/t/5f998f434c2ae52feda5ca70/1603899211765/Afrofuturism+the+world+of+black+sci-fi+and+fantasy+culture++by+Ytasha+L.+Womack..pdf.
-VanderMeer, Ann, and Jeff VanderMeer. The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Vintage Books, 2016.

Economic Narratives

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Economic Narratives Reflection

I was interested in economic narrative because I wanted to look at the way the two elements interact in different ways, particularly how economics and economic systems are depicted and effect a fictional narrative (Jane Austen’s works are a great example of this!) and how people (e.g. politicians) tell or spin certain narratives in real life.

In the course, both in the reading an in the intensive we explored the blending of literature and economics, looking at many different forms of this combination. The reading was largely focused on various economic crises and all of the elements which these entail. I was worried at first as some of it was quite complex economics and numbers which was hard to understand, however the intensive was great and as it was largely in a seminar format anything we were confused about was explained well and we got to have complex, in depth discussions about the material and other related things, exploring the historical, economic, and literature perspectives/ different blends of economic narratives.

We also did group work where we explored one topic and how economic narratives were conveyed. Our group looked at greenwashing and how companies often lie in advertising.

Some notes:

-many different ways to tell a narrative – e.g. visual economic narrative e.g. fashion

-economic systems, companies, corruption, financial crashes

-echo from World as Story – brought up again what makes certain narratives contagious/ sticky – very interesting, important

-really good course!

-Made me think of economic systems in fiction – specifically Snow Crash and, much more subtly, What you are looking for is in the library, which I read most recently, amongst other examples such as depictions of economic systems in dystopias (e.g. 1984).

For my essay I wrote about how Jane Austen depicts the economics of the time in her texts, especially in relation to character, how this interacts with other themes such as class and gender, and how important it is to her texts.

Potentially Relevant Texts:

-Imagined futures : fictional expectations and capitalist dynamics / Jens Beckert. https://doi-org.eux.idm.oclc.org/10.4159/9780674545878
–Economic Science Fictions by William Davies. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/detail.action?docID=5382570
–Speculative time : American literature in an age of crisis / Paul Crosthwaite. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198891796.001.0001

Building Near Futures

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Building Near Futures - reflection so far

Building Near Futures has been very fruitful so far. We are in groups for a big project and my group is a very good mix of people from different disciplines who are all great workers with lots of ideas and are keen to work on our project. We are looking at sustainable cities and green architecture and design and are potentially looking at creating a future design of EFI centered around green technology, community, and a sustainable approach. This has been very interesting and rewarding so far and we have already learned a lot, looking at various case studies of sustainable and green cities (and smart cities) as well as green design, architecture, and elements (like urban farming) which we might want to include.

The course has largely been centered around this project and I am glad we are doing something so meaningful, that I find so interesting, and that we work together so well. It is also great to bring in some narrative and literature knowledge for some aspects and even some knowledge from my A-level Geography. My passion for art has also come in use, especially as we are looking at architecture and design elements and even have a meeting with the architecture firm for EFI. It has already been extremely eye opening and a real learning process to find out more about EFI, the building, and the limitations that we may face in our design.

The theory has been interesting and certainly relates to creating narratives futures as a whole and may be useful to integrate into the theory of my futures project, specifically the theory on futures projection, the futures cone, and more. Texts such as Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby would certainly come into play – especially as it talks about the envisioning of real futures and how fiction comes into play with technology and design – and possibly other texts on the course like Technology and Sustainable Development : The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-Solutionism by Henrik Skaug Sætra or even Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities which was suggested by a lecturer. Theory such as discussion about wicked problems and how to approach them may be very relevant to use.

Furthermore, there are many ways that this form of envisioning and designing the future may blend with art and literature as although it focuses on the near future and the real and tangible, this is an important aspect to add to the imaginative speculative fictions of authors such as Ursula e Guin and the artist Solomon Enos. There is also a lot of overlap topic wise, which is no surprise, looking at green and sustainable solutions to climate change and its intertwining issues.

Most of all, I have learnt about how important it is to think in the near future or the short term, as well as the long term, in order to blend speculative fiction into reality, and so that people can’t deem solutions too far away/ into the future and offload responsibility.

Ethical Data Futures

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Ethical Data Futures

So far, Ethical Data Futures has been very developmental and I have learned a lot, particularly from studying the case studies and going in depth on certain topics. I think that there are definitely readings which could inform my final project such as the books Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins and Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell.

It has been extremely interesting to look further into issues such as algorithms, AI, and many other technologies and systems from an ethical perspective, especially as I have been interested in this area of study before and touched upon it in my undergraduate degree and dissertation. I think this perspective, interrogation, and area of study is crucial in EFI and is often looked at either briefly or through a wider, less specific lens in other programmes. Here, cases, examples, and issues are looked at and explored in depth and debated about. The theory is complex and interesting to look at critically and this is encouraged. I felt challenged but in a good way and although at times was confused I definitely learned a lot about certain theories, theorists and their positions, where certain issues stem from, and what needs to be done in organisations to make things better/more ethical.

This course will definitely relate to the reasoning behind my project – the need for certain stories and narratives to be told, and therefore also links to the real world connections and examples that link to sci-fi stories (e.g. racial bias in AI and algorithms, amongst a plethora of other issues). I think some of the cases and texts explored in this course could most certainly be linked to the theory of my project — based on Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto — and could most certainly be useful.

I was also really interested in the ethics of the intersection of mental health and technology – specifically algorithms, bots, and AI — and explored in the course, the case study of Crisis Text Line. This topic was extremely interesting, especially as someone who struggles with mental health and has had therapy, and the online discussions with classmates (although sometimes less fruitful) was very in-depth and fascinating for this case. The topic reminded me of many things, including character.ai and the visual novel game Eliza which explores the ethics of technology and mental health in an extremely complex and insightful way.

 

First Supervisor Meeting

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An overview of my first meeting with my project supervisor

I met with my supervisor, Simon Malpas, for the first time and had a really great and very helpful meeting where we discussed where I am at with my project and thought about what my next steps are.

I am glad to have him as my supervisor as his specialty is in literature and has a valuable knowledge of contemporary science fiction. Although he has had a couple of different research interests, including the literature, culture and politics of the Restoration period, he is largely currently focusing on the relationship between science, literature and society from the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century to the present and science fiction.

We had a long discussion about my plans and influences as well as suggestions of texts which I could look into. We also looked briefly at my past blog posts and tried to clarify my project focus. He also suggested I look into the podcast ‘Our Opinions are Correct’ by the novelists (and science writers) Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders

As I expected the main feedback so far is to narrow down my scope and have a really solid idea of what exactly it is that my project is and is doing.

My task until the next meeting is to really solidify a few core texts which will influence my project.

 

Futures Project Reading List

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-Alicia Yanez Cossio’s “The IWM 1000” from the 1970s

-The big book of science fiction

-Amazing stories

– Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction (1984), David Hartwell

– Rokheya Shekhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” (1905) is a potent feminist utopian vision.

-W. E. B. Du Bois’s “The Comet” (1920) isn’t just a story about an impending science-fictional catastrophe but also the start of a conversation about race relations and a proto-Afrofuturist tale.

– Yefim Zozulya’s “The Doom of Principal City”(1918)

– A. Merritt’s “The Last Poet and the Robots” (1935)

– Frederik Pohl’s “Day Million” (1966)

– Karel Capek- 1920s robot plays and his gonzo novel War with the Newts from the 1930s

– Katherine MacLean

-Margaret St. Clair

-Carol Emshwiller

– Ursula K. Le Guin – essay “American SF and the Other” (1975)

– Joanna Russ – essay “The Image of Women in Science Fiction” (1970)

– James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Russ, Josephine Saxton, Le Guin.

– The Ultimate Cyberpunk (2002), which contextualized cyberpunk within earlier influences (not always successfully) and also showcased post-cyberpunk works.

– Angelica Gorodischer was publishing such incendiary feminist material as “The Unmistakable Smell of Wood Violets” (1985)

– Misha Nogha, whose Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist Red Spider White Web (1990

– Zipes, Jack. Speaking Out : Storytelling and Creative Drama for Children, Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ed/detail.action?docID=199667.
Created from ed on 2023-11-08 19:27:53.

-‘Narrative fiction creates possible worlds— but they are worlds extrapolated from the world we know, however much they may soar beyond it. The art of the possible is a perilous art. It must take heed of life as we know it, yet alienate us from it sufficiently to tempt us into thinking of alternatives beyond it. It challenges as it comforts. In the end, it has the power to change our habits of conceiving what is real, what is canonical. It can even undermine the law’s dictates about what constitutes a canonical reality.’ —Jerome Braner, Making Stories

– ‘It would be misleading to argue that every story told is utopian or to assert that there is an “essential” utopian nature to storytelling. There is, however, a utopian tendency of telling that helps explain why it is we feel so compelled to create and disseminate tales and why we are enthralled by particular stories. In his monumental three-volume work The Principle of Hope, the philosopher Ernst Bloch argued that real-life experiences are at the basis of our utopian longings and notions. Because our daily lives are not exactly what we want them to be, we daydream with a certain intentionality and glimpse another world that urges us on and stimulates our creative drives to reach a more ideal state of being. It is our realization of what is missing in our lives that impels us to create works of art that not only reveal insights into our struggles but also shed light on alternatives and possibilities to restructure our mode of living and social relations. It is through art that utopia, designated as no place that we have ever seen or truly experienced, is to be realized as a place truly inhabitable for humans, a real humane place different from the brutal artificial places we inhabit and the earth that we are in the process of destroying with dubious notions of progress. All art, according to Bloch, contains images of hope illuminating ways to create a utopian society that offset our destructive drives.’

– Murray, Janet Horowitz. Hamlet on the Holodeck : the Future of Narrative in Cyberspace / JanetH. Murray. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1998. Print.

-The John Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, and Benjamin J. Robertson.

– Contemporary Science Fiction course – resource list

– Rob Lathan – Science Fiction Criticism – Anthology

– Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Week 10

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Project Development

How has your project developed? What were some of the key ideas/texts/resources shared by your peers that moved your project forward? Where have you made changes, where did these decisions arise?

My project has developed a little, I am slowly researching and am more at the widening scope stage at the moment. The different intensives have greatly shaped what I imagine my project will look like, and in talking to my peers I have gained ideas and thought more about it’s structure.

Currently, I am creating a long list of sources and readings, largely helped by the reading from the intensives, especially ‘writing speculative fiction’. Additionally, I have been adding anything I come across which I feel is relevant and have been listening to the podcasts ‘The Digital Human’ and ‘Edgy Ideas’ which are helping me think more about current issues, topics, and problems in the world and ideas about solving them. This has led for me to think about wider research questions and how my work could potentially address them. The two ‘Edgy Ideas’ episodes 62: Becoming digitally savvy with Anni Rowland-Campbell and 65: Purpose upgrade with Paul Skinner have been particularly relevant in terms of issues discussed and thinking holistically. I am interested in delving deeper into these ideas and into the work of the guests, particularly Anni Rowland-Campbell.

Additionally, In talking to my peers about the structure of my project, I have more of an idea of what I want to create. I want my project to be largely research based and centered around the exploration of ideas, however due to the modules ‘world of story’ and ‘writing speculative fiction’, I want to incorporate my own creative work (possibly short pieces of narrative text/a story spread throughout), and embed it in the project to aid and embody the ideas discussed.

I am still looking at the ideas of intersectionality in speculative fiction and science fiction works, and am still exploring texts and art for this. I think the idea of the cyborg and what that means in fiction vs in real life and how they combine is really interesting, and something to keep researching into.

Key Ideas:
  • Cyborg Feminism
  • Cyberpunk
  • Afro-futurism
  • Indigenous Futurism
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Intersectionality
  • AI
  • Science Fiction
  • Speculative Fiction
  • narrative
  • art
Solidified Project Idea:

An essay investigating ‘intersectional cyborgism’ through narrative and scattering my own creative work (narrative) throughout as a response and to embody the ideas discussed.

Week 7

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Methodology - Methods Training & Research

I do imagine that my Futures Project will take a qualitative approach and use discourse analysis. I also plan to potentially use an intersectional approach or look at texts through an intersectional lens.

During my undergraduate degree, when doing research for my dissertation, I did delve into phenomenology a little, due to reading a lot of academic papers about embodiment and ideas about mind-body dualism in relation to Descartes when exploring cyborgs, AI, and the metaverse (technology & the body). It was, however, an approach/topic that was quite complex and a large undertaking for me at the time, and I focused on other things in the end. So I could potentially explore it in my Futures Project.

Next, I plan to research more into my topic area (Afro-futurism, Indigenous futurism, combinations of technology and the body) and find more new areas and academic texts within it to explore, as well as find and read literature which I might want to explore. I might also search for more artworks in this area and research them — as I may use visual analysis in my final futures project — because I am interested in multimedia and the intersection of image and text. This may mean that I will also utilise art historical methodologies in my futures project such as iconographic and formalist methodologies, although I am most likely to take a majoritively biographical/contextual approach, looking at identity and history. Also, I may ask certain lecturers if they have any recommendations for where I should look for sources.

Overall, everything I am doing in my modules feeds into my learning and my approach for my futures project.