ger 35 final exam review

What did Ginzburg write about

biometrics, anthropometry, eugenics

What did Steyerl write about

image spam

What did Nake write about

surface and subface, digital images

What did Foucault write about

discipline and punishment, the panopticon, surveillance

What did Luhmann write about

future presents and present future, futurization and defuturization

What did Forster write about

The Machine Stops, defuturization

Why are biometric technologies good

• track health

• tells us abt ourselves

Why are biometric technologies bad

• tracks people to control them

• people reduced to data

• can target certain groups

where did study of fingerprints originate

Divinatory practices in China, Japan, Bengal, used to ornament letters and read the supernatural

How was fingerprinting colonized?

used to identify Bengalis because they “all looked the same”, made into technology in the west

What is eugenics?

pseudoscience, connects racial traits to biometric data

What is anthropometry?

Data only, ex. driver’s license, facial recognition software

What is Nake’s two parts of an algorithmic image

surface and subface

What is the surface

output, image that we see

what is the subface

code that creates the image

why does Nake not like the term digital image?

“digital'“ is the subface, but “image” is the surface

what does nake prefer to call digital image?

algorithmic image

why does participation trump representation in the age of digital images?

digital images don’t mean anything, information is only a number and have no qualities or sense

what do texts by nake and steyerl have in common? (3)

1. talk about how media technologies participate in truth and social relations

2. have an ironic thought style on “truth” and “representation”

3. short texts

what is power technology

system used to control and monitor behavior of people in a society

how is the panopticon a power technology? (4)

• subjects do not know when they are being watched

• treated like its always there

• power is automated

• power belongs to the structure

how did power work in europe before the french revolution?

absolutism, held by one or very few people

how did power work in europe after the french revolution?

the system holds the power

foucault’s notion of power?

1. power not bad or good, not moral

2. exists always and everywhere

why is it bad to rely on AI to explain theoretical concepts?

ideas are recycled, theoretical concepts are subjective and based on personal opinion, AI is only the popular opinion

Where do political dreams originate according to Foucault?

in response to political crises (pandemic, war, famine, catastrophe)

Why was the future not a big topic before the french revolution?

everyone had predetermined role

why did future become a big topic after the French revolution?

social mobility became possible, future is open and undetermined

How are social relations and technology intertwined in E.M. Forster’s story The Machine Stops? (2)

1. all social experience through technology

2. no individual/direct experience

what are 2 strategies of defuturization according to Luhmann?

presentification and institutionalization

what is presentification (luhmann)?

focusing on the present

what is institutionalization (luhmann)?

relying on social structures that make the future more predictable

what were the two diseases that led to political order in Foucault’s text?

the plague and leprosy