Reading Notes #3

If I had one word to initially sum up the content of last week’s readings, it would be “chaotic.” We read parts of Hayles’ Writing Machines and viewed Memmott’s Lexia to Perplexia. Writing Machines was a written narrative of the online Lexia to Perplexia . These pieces were about the same topic, yet differed in their presentations. I’m glad I read Writing Machines before I viewed Lexia to Perplexia . Initially, this reading and presentation were very confusing to me. Hayles was similar to McLuhan in that she was concerned with how the medium shapes the message. She believed that the medium shapes how we receive the message and also how the message is generated. I would agree with this belief to some extent. Two completely different processes are used when producing a message broadcast via television versus a message broadcast via a book. I believe people’s reactions and ways of interpreting the messages also differ. Some people prefer the “movie version” over a story in a book. These cases are obviously very different. In the movie case, you have someone’s opinion and understanding shaping your understanding. You consequently form your own opinions while reading a book. Reading a book also requires just one sense while watching television or a movie requires multiple senses.
I was initially very frustrated with Lexia to Perplexia. As I continued to click on different areas, I got more and more confused. It was difficult to keep track of the content and how the different parts related to each other. I thought that the many puns were creative, but I was not familiar with that kind of language, so it took me awhile to catch on. My feelings changed somewhat after discussing in class. Scot pointed out that one of the main objectives of the presentation was to purposely be unclear and unstable. Our class pondered why this was so, and came to the conclusion that it dealt with the relationship between the user and the computer. The user clicked on different areas of the video, yet had to explore in order to find the “right” spots. In this way, both the user and the computer were in some sense “controlling” the other. The computer in this case was what is called a “cyborg”, which is something that has both machine and biological components.
This reading and online video were challenging, yet broadened my perspective about ways in which messages are broadcast and ever-evolving relationships between technology and humans.