Monday, September 21, 2009

Operations chart, first draft




Link to the high-resolution image of above diagram.

The first draft always reveals the problems.

As notes, here are a few observations on this first, "distilled" diagram:
1. The primary difficulty seems to be the very small amount of information shown that actually takes place on the internet. This may not pose a problem, if what I am interested in is really the cognition and overlaying of images of things broken, normal, or even idealized, much of that is to be expected to take place in the real world. Part of my interest is definitely in the concept of reality in a world when everyone seems so eager to dive headfirst into the hyper-real (and I should note to look up some of those essays from Eco's book "Travels in Hyperreality"). Is it alright to show the internet as just two links of transmission, shown in the diagram above as just two arrows in the center of a lot of mental and physical operations?
2. Another interesting part of this diagram is the absence of ownership over the operations. From the previous diagram we know the characters A and C, they both own motorcycles, they both are amateur mechanics, they both have computers and internet hookups. But the distillation here down to simple operations (and the accuracy of these operations as actual descriptions of the action is still in question) completely omits them as characters or even agents. It is interesting then to see the "problem" or this "meme" as being passed around, put through multiple translations and reiterated as a tailored solution, without the apparent manipulation by a character or agent. More on this later.
3. I've picked up a copy of a first year textbook on cognitive psychology from the library. This chart is almost an exact replica of charts used in the cognitive sciences, as I found one quite similar in the first few pages of the book. The only major difference is the addition of the diamond shape, representing a division. The grammar of my diagram is different, with the boxes, though they have ambiguous titles, representing nouns specifically: both translation and comparison, for example, are nouns. Verbal operations are represented by the lines and arrows connecting. Perhaps this will undergo a change, but for now, if carefully applied, I think should suffice.

1 comment:

  1. Cool, you have really found some abstract terrain. I can't completely follow but interesting that the psychology nomenclature is analogous to wiring diagrams, control diagram... Speak to one of your classmates to resolve the resolution problem with the diagram. It is difficult to read. Couldn't see where there is internet and where not. Your analog seems to invite the participation of people, interacting with the 'machine' in a kind of dialogue. Develop some sketch ideas for your proposed analog and take one more pass at the diagram. G.

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