Comments for blog.castac.org

Comment on Teaching with Warez: Korsakow and the Database Documentary by hme

hme — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:08:28 +0000

I don’t even remember how I got here but am I glad I did — downloading the current Korsakow Beta (ambitious, eh?) — the juncture between editing and database, my past and my present, very nice. When I create something worth sharing I’ll come back. Thank you!!

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by What is the Quantified Self Now? » Cyborgology

What is the Quantified Self Now? » Cyborgology — Thu, 23 May 2013 06:28:48 +0000

[...] Self has adopted what anthropologists Dawn Nafus and Jamie Sherman aptly describe as a “big tent policy,” and there were certainly folks who thought Chang’s characterization was spot-on. My own [...]

Comment on A 3-D Future: A Response to Chris Anderson’s “Makers” by CA

CA — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:02:10 +0000

More arguments about the (political) potentialities of 3D-printing: http://millenniumjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/rumpala-additive-manufacturing-as-global-remanufacturing-of-politics.pdf

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by “Don’t Life Log Me” – Quantified Self 2013 in Amsterdam | Technology, Innovation, Education

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:42:45 +0000

[...] The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex [...]

Comment on On Being a “Natural” Human by Chris Furlow

Chris Furlow — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:39:54 +0000

Great post Jamie. It does seem that our projects have a lot in common. I’m very interested in boundary between authentic/fake you talk about and how that boundary is signified in terms of moving beyond vitamins. In cycling, they are governed by the WADA codes and definitions of legal/illicit drugs and methods. At the same time, there is a sense that it is critical to go way beyond vitamins (one pro-cyclist told me she took about 40 pills a day, all legal, of various vitmins and other supplements to aid perfomance and recovery). Diet and nutrition is also central to notions of professionalism. Eating the minimum necessary to maintain health and enable training in order to reduce body fat to minimum is the goal. Eddy Mercyx, considered greatest cyclist ever, is well known for his comment that it is essential to leave the dinner table a little bit hungry every night in order to succeed. So austerity and discipline are core values among pro cyclists. Hope to talk more with you. Chris

Comment on Moving Beyond Doping Scandals: Toward an Anthropology of Science, Technology and Performance by » On Being a “Natural” Human blog.castac.org

» On Being a “Natural” Human blog.castac.org — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:30:04 +0000

[...] come to this discussion out of the excellent recent post by Chris Furlow on competitive cycling. Chris suggests that discourse amongst cyclists centers on a [...]

Comment on Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories by Jamie Sherman

Jamie Sherman — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:09:05 +0000

This reminds me of a paper I saw – I am convinced it was at the recent AAA in San Francisco but have been unable to trace it or the author. The paper looked at the etiquette around “footprints” in the Japanese social media site “mixi.” There, people can see a record of who has visited their page. Importantly, it was seen as quite rude to look at a page and leave without comment. What was so interesting is the very different politics of surveillance and presence. Currently it seems like unfriending happens in a silent space. Would surveilled unfriending demand a new etiquette – would the unfrienders feel more obiligated to “do the right thing” and let you know they are unfriending you, or would we continue to track (surveil?) silently – an unspoken back and forth?

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Let’s Talk About You. What do You Think About Me? - GetSaga.com Blog

Let’s Talk About You. What do You Think About Me? - GetSaga.com Blog — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:31:32 +0000

[...] recently read an article about the Quantified Self movement by Dawn Nafus and Jamie Sherman that let me down. It was being [...]

Comment on Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories by Casey O'Donnell

Casey O'Donnell — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:32:25 +0000

Patricia, that’s a great question and cuts to the heart of the conundrum I think. Like you say, one can certainly notice over time that you lose friends. That’s how this idea started for me.

I think FB used to display prominently on your main page a link to your friends with a number (much like Twitter does) so a decrement in that number would be noticeable. Now I have to click on my profile to see that number. So, at least on FB, I rarely notice when I lose “friends.”

What makes it “surveillance” for me is that literally, in implementing this, the system would periodically poll the friend lists of those using the app. The user could do this, but for one reason or another doesn’t. Now there is another actor present in the system playing a role. It’s a designed role, that I can craft in perhaps a more (or less) ethical manner, but it’s doing something. Maybe it is or isn’t surveillance. But it’s something and it can do it way more vigilantly than a human.

Comment on Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories by Patricia G. Lange

Patricia G. Lange — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:12:59 +0000

I find this extremely fascinating. My question is, though, at what point is this truly perceived as "surveillance"? One always has access to the information that someone has un-friended you. It is not like this information is not available, if you wish to look. So, is the app really surveillance? Is it a question of scale and/or time? Given that most people would not casually compare lists over time? But if the information is always available, at what point does it really qualify as "surveillance"?

Comment on Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories by Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories // Culture Digitally

Public (Research) Design: Un-friend Stories // Culture Digitally — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:41:25 +0000

[...] [Cross Posted at the CASTAC Blog] [...]

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Tamar

Tamar — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Dear Dawn,
I’m a philosopher working on emerging health technologies and subjectivity, and have come across your paper ‘This one does not go up to eleven’. I would be interesting in referencing it, or other similar work of yours. Has it been published yet?
Thanks,
Tamar Sharon

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Dawn Nafus

Dawn Nafus — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:21:08 +0000

Chris,

That line between competitive and “just for myself” can be blurred it seems. Notions of optimization do pervade in QS,but are also quite diverse.In ways similar to your cyclers, they don’t settle easily or obviously into “natural” or “unnatural” categories. Some less caught up in data challenge quantification as itself “unnatural”– not a charge levied at your cyclers, I suspect. There was a great AAA paper last year on Kenyan runners who reject timing runs, not just on the grounds that it is unnatural to do so but that it made them less competitive. Go figure!

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Maggie Appleton

Maggie Appleton — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:20:14 +0000

Hi Dawn and Jamie,

I’m an anthropology senior currently writing my undergraduate thesis on the Quantified Self movement and online community. I would love to cite the draft of your “This One Does Not Go Up To Eleven” paper just published on the Quantified Self blog – please get in contact and let me know how I can properly cite you guys. Love your ideas and insights and share many of them!

Thanks,
Maggie

Comment on Moving Beyond Doping Scandals: Toward an Anthropology of Science, Technology and Performance by Chris Furlow

Chris Furlow — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:43:14 +0000

Thanks for your comments. I’d be interested in reading your work on body builders. In cycling, there are varying perspectives about the “authenticity” of performances. Many “clean” riders, some sports medicine scientists, and some fans view “enhanced” permances as artificial. However, some “clean” cyclists and many fans don’t care while racing cyclists in general seem mostly concerned about “a level playing field” whether that field is “enhanced” or not. Many sports doctors view doping as therapuetic (not too different from the anti-aging doctors and clinics that are appearing all over now) because of the extreme stresses placed on the bodies of elite cyclists and justify their methods and the cyclists’ performances by viewing them as what a “healthy” body could achieve if not for the negative effects of exercise induced stresses. I agree that there is much disentangling to do and I’m just beginning to dig into the theoretical work in the area of performance theory and concepts like performativity. If you have any references you’d recommend, please send them to me.

Comment on Moving Beyond Doping Scandals: Toward an Anthropology of Science, Technology and Performance by Jamie Sherman

Jamie Sherman — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:53:56 +0000

Chris, this is very interesting work. I have a couple of thoughts rooted in my own graduate work on bodybuilders. In my own research, debates around “authenticity” had a lot to do with what specific “performances” meant. That is, “enhanced” bodies were described as “fake” because they did not reflect the kinds of work, discipline and knowledge that a “natural” body would. It seems to me that “performance” as a key word is interesting because in its “native” usage it is referencing an underlying ideological framework that extends beyond bicycling to laptops, and jobs, etc. At the same time, from an anthropological/theoretical perspective you are going to need to carefully disentangle it from, and situate it in relation to the very rich discussion of performance and performance theory. I am looking forward to seeing/reading more!

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Chris Furlow

Chris Furlow — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:52:57 +0000

Hi Dawn,
Very interesting! Your work connects in interesting ways with mine on “performance” especially in sports but expanding beyond as well. Self-monitoring of performance is endemic in cycling as there have been bike computers since the mid-1980s. Various devices are now available that allow users to upload their personal data and share it with friends and other users in order to compare one’s performance with others and allow interesting visualizations that compare your data to others’ such that the QS becomes explicitly socially mediated and often competitive. Strava.com is a prime example. I look forward to hearing more on your work with QS.

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Quantified Self as Soft ResistanceQuantified Self

Quantified Self as Soft ResistanceQuantified Self — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:41:42 +0000

[...] They’ve also described the direction of their work in this blog post. [...]

Comment on The Quantified Self Movement is not a Kleenex by Measured Me

Measured Me — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:47:15 +0000

Hi Dawn,

Interesting post, thanks a lot! I just wrote something similar on “one size fits all” vs. Quantified self approach to self-discovery on my blog: http://measuredme.com/2013/03/why-quantified-self-and-big-data-do-not-pair-well . I argue that Big Data and Quantified Self are on the opposite ends of the conceptual spectrum. The former operates on the principle of “Average” and generalizability, whereas the latter values personalization and individuality.

Comment on Inside MOOCs: A First Hand Account, Part 1 by » Inside MOOCs: A First-Hand Account, Part 2 blog.castac.org

» Inside MOOCs: A First-Hand Account, Part 2 blog.castac.org — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:43:38 +0000

[...] I’m also behind in my MOOC diary which I started several weeks ago, and I hope the reader will forgive me for that. Now, [...]