In his essay, Agre points out that the technology that tries to capture as much information as possible changes or restructures the activity or behavior of the object whose information it captures. The Cave clearly does that in several aspects. In order to capture the position of my body, it requires that I put on these awkward and inconvenient glasses which are specifically used for the Cave and would only hinder my activity in other spaces. It also confines me in the little space of itself, disenabling any movements that would bring me out of its boundaries. The device is supposed to capture my movement, but under its influence I certainly do not move as I would without it. But just as what Agre argues, that such a capture device a lot of times bring positive results for the subject under its effect, I gain the benefit of being able to experience the 3D space and creative pieces through voluntarily submitting myself to the confinement superimposed by the Cave. Going much beyond wearing the glasses and keeping myself in the space, I grew highly conscious of every movement of my body – turning my head to the right in order to see what’s on that side, holding up my left arm to reach out for the letters – and I carefully arrange all my movements aiming at one goal, to better experience the Cave. Before knowing it I find myself doing what a Panopticon prison is forced to do – conducting constant self-surveillance.
by Qian
Anna's session
No comments:
Post a Comment