Side: Notes from Lecture

I will take a break from project blogging to say something interesting that was taught in lecture.

A new word we learned was Agents, which is something that is programmed to do things or assess situations on its own. An example that was given to us was a table that moved and interacted with people according to how the people interacted with it. If someone was violent to it, then the table would "get angry" and chase the person to the corner of the exhibition room. A woman started to dance with it, so the table followed the woman and danced along. The table was also able to pick who it wanted to be friends with; two other women entered the room and the table let one touch it while rejecting the friendship of the other woman.

We also discussed the ideologies of Don Ihde, who is a philosopher of science and technology who categorized human and technology relationships into three categories:

1. (I-Tech)-World: objects that we use without thinking about (embodied). It almost seems as if they are an extension of us. Examples include glasses or a cane.
2. I-(Tech-World): objects that we have to think about using (hermaneutic). Examples include clock or compass.
3. I-Tech-World: objects that exist on equal planes with us (alterity).


In relation to our project, our garment is supposed to fall into the category of embodied. We don't want our users to force the flower to open and the spores to light up. We hope the flower and spores could act as an agent to react to the natural acts of intimacy.