Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision

by Carol Vernallis, Holly Rogers, Jonathan Leal, Lisa Perrott, Selmin Kara

Length: 472 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication Date: 2021-10-21
ISBN-10: 1501357042
ISBN-13: 9781501357046
Sales Rank: #5217850 (See Top 100 Books)

We’re experiencing a time when digital technologies and advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data are redefining what it means to be human. How do these advancements affect contemporary media and music? This collection traces how media, with a focus on sound and image, engages with these new technologies. It bridges the gap between science and the humanities by pairing humanists’ close readings of contemporary media with scientists’ discussions of the science and math that inform them.

This text includes contributions by established and emerging scholars performing across-the-aisle research on new technologies, exploring topics such as facial and gait recognition; EEG and audiovisual materials; surveillance; and sound and images in relation to questions of sexual identity, race, ethnicity, disability, and class and includes examples from a range of films and TV shows including Blade Runner, Black Mirror, Mr. Robot, Morgan, Ex Machina, and Westworld. Through a variety of critical, theoretical, proprioceptive, and speculative lenses, the collection facilitates interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration and provides readers with ways of responding to these new technologies.

Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Editors and Contributors
Introduction
	Cybermedia’s Backstory: Lead Editor Carol Vernallis
	Bibliography
Part One AI and Robotics
1 Could the AI of Our Dreams Ever Become Reality?
	Mutual Simultaneous Constraint Satisfaction
	Metacognition, Explanation, and Discourse
	The Role of Culturally Invented Modes and Tools for Thinking
	Goal-Directed Thinking
	Final Thoughts
	Bibliography
2 Director Alex Garland Converses with Cybermedia’s Scientists and Media Scholars Alex Garland, Jay McClelland, Paul Skokowski, Simon Levy, Jeff Zacks, Carol Vernallis, Selmin Kara, andJonathan Leal.
	Introduction
	Bibliography
3 (S)Ex Machina and the Cartesian Theater of the Absurd
	Descartes’ Internal Theater
	Turing Te{x|s}t
	Nature, Nurture, and Deep Dreams
	Uploading and the Acquisition of Knowledge
	Rule-following and Private Language
	She’s Not One of Us
	Closing Thoughts
	Acknowledgments
	Bibliography
4 Epiphany, Infinity and Transcendent AI
	Bibliography
Part Two Big Data, Sentience, and the Universe
5 A MASSIVE Swirl of Pixels Radiohead’s “Go to Sleep”
	Massive
	Sonic Agencies
	Life, Movement, and Form
	Animacy and Animation
	Automation Trouble
	Imitation of Life
	Bibliography
6 The Rise of the Machine Body-Knowing, Neural Nets, and Emergent Freedom
	1. Defending a Line: Dismal Prospects for Human Creativity and Freedom?
	2. Can a Machine—Or Artificial Intelligence—Perform Achievements of Tacit Knowing?
	3. Does a Machine’s Ability to Perform Achievements of Tacit Knowing Mean that that Knowledge is Now Fully Explicable?
	4. Dwelling in the System: Evolution, Animals and Intelligent Machines
	Bibliography
7 The Quantum Computer Sci-Fi Narrative’s Favorite Character
	Is the Devs Quantum Computer a Central Character?
	Physics and Determinism in Devs
	Quantum Theory and Fiction
	But What Do These Three Different Interpretations Suggest?
	Quantum Computer: Science Facts, Speculation, and Fiction
	Bibliography
8 Composer Ben Salisbury Discusses Scoring Science for Alex Garland Ben Salisbury, Holly Rogers, John McGrath, Carol Vernallis, and Dale Chapman
9 Ex Machina and the Question of Consciousness1
Part Three The Neuroscience of Affect and Event Perception
10 “A Solid Popularity Arc” Affective Economies in Black Mirror’s “Nosedive”
	An Economy of Affect
	The Society of Control and the Sonic Episteme
	“A Sickly Pastel Feel”
	The Color of Affect
	“It Would Be a Dull World Without Wonder”
	Bibliography
11 Cognitive Boundaries, “Nosedive,” and Under the Skin Interview with Jeffrey M. Zacks
	Introduction
	Bibliography
12 Toward an AI Future of Comics Study and Creation A Cognitive-Affective Approach
	Methods
	Materials
	Procedure
	Analysis
	Comics Results Summary
	Conclusions
	Appendix
	Bibliography
Part Four The Digital West
13 The Philosophy of Westworld
	Setting the Stage
	The Knowledge Argument
	Is Dolores a Zombie?
	Could Dolores be a Swamp-Droid?
	Putting Things Together
	Bibliography
14 New Visions of the Old West AI, Self, and Other in Westworld
	Visiting Westworld—Those Small Remainders
	Mechanical and Fleshly Bodies
	Cognitive Maps, Late Capitalism, and Freefloating Postmodernism
	Bibliography
15 Scoring Music for Westworld Then and Now A Cognitive Perspective
	Introduction: Two Westworlds, Two Scores
	Harnessing the Brain’s Representations of Musical Meaning and Emotion
	Film Composers, Resources, and Techniques
	Musical Challenges in Westworld, Then and Now
	Karlin’s Westworld, The Movie
	Westworld, The HBO Series
	A Cognitive Model: CAM-WN
	Summary and Conclusion
	Acknowledgment
	Bibliography
Part Five Interface, Desire, Collectivity
16 Director Terence Nance Discusses Random Acts of Flyness
17 The Gift of Black Sonics Interface and Ontology in Sorry to Bother You and Random Acts of Flyness
	Black Sonic Technics and the Interface
	Sorry to Bother You: White Voice and Black Silence
	Cash for Brains: Movement, Genetics, and the Black Interface
	Random Acts, Flyness, and the Sounds of Black Collectivity
	Conclusion: Simultaneity and a Black Essentialism
	Bibliography
18 Technology, Chaos, and the Nimble Subversion of Random Acts of Flyness
	Against the Grain
	Thematic Areas of Random Acts of Flyness
	The Technologies of Random Acts of Flyness
	Angels and Devils—A Jungian Perspective
	Scenius and Genius
	The Sound of Random Acts of Flyness
	Conclusion
	Bibliography
19 Expecting the Twist How Media Navigate the Intersections Among Multiple Sources of Prior Knowledge
	Bibliography
20 Face Color
	The Color Problem
	What is Color For?
	Skin Color
	Semiotics of Color in Film
	Acknowledgements
	Bibliography
Part Six Productive Neuropathologies
21 Digital Vitalism
	Bibliography
22 Neuroplasticity From Experience to Healing
	Experiences
	Neuroplasticity and Self-Identity
	Alterations of the Mind, Memory Recollection, and Pattern Completion
	Pattern Separation, Healing, and Dance
	Bibliography
23 Where is my Mind? Mr. Robot and the Digital Neuropolis
	Introduction: Elliot in Neuropolis
	Isolated in the Screen’s Lower Quadrant
	What if Error404 is a Message from the Real World?13
	Psychic Realities
	The New Wounded: Healing the Fragmented Self in Scientific Discourse
	Feeling Mediated
	The Freedom Tower in Neuropolis
	Bibliography
24 The Dopamine Circuits of Wanting, Liking, Habit and Goals An Interview about Mr. Robot with Neuroscientist Talia Lerner
	Introduction
25 The Taste of Cybermedia An Interview with Hojoon Lee, The Lee Lab at Northwestern University
	Introduction: Julia Peres Guimarães
Index