Blog Post 7

1.    2.

My first image is an example of Studium because the background is blurred and the picture focuses on the man. As a spectator, my evaluation of the intentions of the operator, the photographer,  is that he wanted to take a portrait photo of the man blurring out the unwanted distractions. According to Barthes, Studium is the order of liking not loving. As a spectator, I like this photograph but I do not love it because I do not know this individual. He is in a neutral position and the photographer only took the photo from the waist, up. If it was a photograph of his entire body, attention might be focused on his bottom half and posture.

My second image is an example of Punctum because it is a photograph that either attracts or distresses someone. The spectator might really like or think it is too vulgar. Punctum photos does not have to be virtuous. According to Barthes, punctum photos can be “ill-bred” or rude. Punctum is an object that jumps out of the picture and most likely the first thing the spectator views. In this photograph the bottoms of these individuals are the punctum, because it is the first this the spectator views. Then it goes on to the different shades of skin color, then the way that everyone in the picture is aligned facing forward with their hands in front of them.

“For the Love of Zoe”

PR2

I chose this example about the Robot because it was interesting to me about the type of technology we have in today’s world. Back then we didn’t need to ask the question “What Technology Wants” but now, we can. In this summary, Kelly described his visit to Willow Garage where the PR2 personal Robot was designed. This robot has been trained to receive internet commands and can do a variety of things such as playing billiards, cleaning, folding clothes and even plugging itself in when the battery runs low. One thing that bugs me is that you cannot determine the relations and interactions between the Robot which makes it scarier to think that you don’t know what it is “thinking” or going to do next. He made an example to a bee and hive where you cannot determine the behavior of a hive if you have the bee. Getting into the hive might be extremely dangerous, so might be the same for getting into the Robot. The robot machine is a technium which means it is an interconnected technology with complex systems all together in one. These Robots are capable of anything because the internet is also corrupted. What if you don’t want to use your Robot but it keeps recharging itself. I believe these machines are 100X smarter than human beings just because it is made up of technium. They can eventually learn new things, different emotions, feelings and eventually cause chaos with the human population.