Thanks Ayhan. Very apt suggestion.
mike
On 3/5/06, Ayhan Aytes <aaytes@weber.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> Mike,
> In the context of digital media, the blurry border between real and
> fantasy is addressed in Sherry Turkle's book, Life on the Screen (1995,
> MIT). Her etnography focuses on MUDs (Multi user dungeons) and applies a
> psychoanalytic method to explore how people experiment with different
> identities.
>
> Ayhan Aytes
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> On Behalf Of Mike Cole
> Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 4:08 PM
> To: Andy Blunden
> Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Experience: material, ideal, real, imagined
>
>
> I hope others will continue to chime in with their observations and
> suggestions. I also agree that Peter's crack about Bush is relevant. The
> other day a speaker at our department noted how Reagan used to, visibly,
> confuse pictures he was in with the new role he was playing as president
> and Bush sometimes gives me the same impression (his slightly bowlegged
> swagger when they let him out of the corral with jeans on being
> informal).
>
> My own take on mediational theories of mind is that there can be no
> sharp distinction between what we call reality and what we call fantasy.
> For the only paper I have written where this is taken up (if you are
> interested) see the paper by Cole and Levitin on the lchc.ucsd.edu web
> page.
>
> I am posing the question because of the need to teach some about new
> massive multi-user games and various cyber environments where, for
> reasons that may implicate your computer screen comments, Andy, the
> borderlands are particularly foggy and seemingly extensive.
>
> This has also brought me to the topic of imaginary companions and
> transition objects, the latter of which Mary has been trying to bring to
> our attention. But I am finding is that while there is a tone of
> academic work on the topic with respect to kids becoming "more
> realistic" (to speak crudely) there is too little about the way in which
> adult experience is infused with the imaginary. Hence, my query to all
> of you. mike
>
> On 3/5/06, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> >
> > A couple of decades ago, my job was managing a building automation
> > system, a set of interconnected computers which turned building
> > equipment on and off and reported back room temperatures etc. It was a
>
> > matter of some concern to me at the time that people had real
> > difficulty understanding the differences between the temperature (EG)
> > they saw on the screen, the temp the system had in its memory, the
> > reading on the physical gauge and the actual temperature, etc., etc.
> > People tended to accept what they saw on the screen as absolute truth
> > and get very upset when it turned out to be untrue. This experience
> > led me to observe that the whole computer screen business, whereby
> > software invisibly intervenes between user action, reality if any and
> > screen image, was enormously confusing for people (all of us) who
> > don't understand what is going on 'behind the screen'. I think Peter's
>
> > crack about the Bush administration is not far wide of the mark.
> > No-one knows or understands what lies between the news-readers audio
> > on their TV and objective reality. If you're not aware of that immense
>
> > chain of human interaction that produces a story with only the
> > remotest connection to anything that actually happened in the material
>
> > world outside, how can you have a realistic and critical attitude to
> > the news? I'm sorry I can't give you references to academic studies of
>
> > this Mike; I know there is a lot of stuff about games which goes on,
> > ... Andy
> >
> > At 05:02 PM 4/03/2006 -0800, you wrote:
> >
> > The following quote from Dewey speaks to issues that have been ongoing
>
> > on XMCA and also provide context for a question I am hoping for some
> > help on (having been so successful with my question about references
> > on narrative!). In particular, it concerns the
> > conclusion that experience is a hybrid of what is termed here the
> physical
> > and the mental. This snippet is provided courtesy of Matt Brown, a
> member
> > of
> > our seminar on mediational theories of mind.
> >
> > Here's a little tidbit from Dewey that I think is interesting for
> > several
> > reasons: it answers the question from earlier about whether Dewey is
> > concerned with the social, it provides a sort of summary statement of
> > central Deweyan theses, and it is exceptionally clear (for Dewey).
> From
> > Chapter 11 of *Art as Experience*:
> >
> >
> > Experience is a matter of the interaction of organism with its
> > environment, an environment that is human as well as physical, that
> > includes the materials of tradition and institutions as well as local
> > surroundings. The organism brings with it through its own structure,
> > native and acquired, forces that play a part in the interaction. The
> > self acts as well as undergoes, and its undergoings are not
> > impressions stamped upon an inert wax
> > but depend upon the way the organism reacts and responds. There is no
> > experience in which the human contribution is not a factor in
> determining
> > what actually happens. The organism is a force, not a transparency.
> >
> > Because every experience is constituted by interaction between subject
>
> > and object, between a self and its world, it is not itself either
> > merely physical nor merely mental, no matter how much one factor or
> > the other predominates... In an experience, things and events
> > belonging to the world, physical and social, are transformed through
> > the human context they enter, while the live creature is changed and
> > developed through its intercourse with things previously external to
> > it.
> >
> > Here is my question, related to this characterization of experience:
> >
> > In various situations (in particular, I am thinking of various massive
>
> > multi-user games and related cyber-interactional meeting places) it
> > appears that people can, perhaps cannot help at times, confusing what
> > we would normally refer to as "fantasy" and "reality."
> >
> > There is an extensive literature on the development of this
> > distinction in children's development, but I am seeking research on
> > the distinction's presumed presence or absence among adults.
> >
> > Any and all help appreciated
> > mike
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> > Andy Blunden, for Victorian Peace Network
> > Global Justice Tours: http://ethicalpolitics.org
> >
> >
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