Luke Gooden

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Blog post 4) Peer review

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Lynn Nwosu – themes reflection reviewed by Luke Gooden,

For my final blog post, I will be reviewing Blog post 2 by Lynn Nwosu (available at https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/05/11/blog-2-themes-reflection-23/).

The second blog post by Lynn Nwosu is one that I had found particularly appealing as it investigates the importance of knowledge which she describes the inextricable link between knowledge and power in the sense of maturing as both a mind and person. This seems to go beyond the scope of the three factors sustainability, social responsibility and diversity and instead looks at the archetype in which they all inevitably convulse and this is the importance of knowledge. Without the knowledge of this world, we are mere spectators of shadows on a cave wall as proposed by Plato in his book Republic.
To look at this I will briefly analyse two contrasting systems in which the epistemic and transcendental ideologies synthesise themselves into a system of which their aspects are seen as institutions, though not tangible. Existentialism and essentialism both believe in different things. The existentialists believe that it is for us to assign our meaning and assimilate our actions and convictions towards becoming what we want to be and this works for us in a way which allows the accumulation of knowledge to assist us in becoming. Essentialism is the belief that we are born with an essence, a certain “Luke-ness” and thus I believe (in relation to essentialism) knowledge acts only to confirm who we are and expand on our ideas. We are all born of free will, Tabula rasa if you will, and on this, we must create our own future.
Knowledge allows for mass introspection and thus allows us to compare and contrast concepts which plague the mind for better or for worse. We must know of hot to know cold, sadness for happiness and good for bad. Lynn speaks of how the lectures we are given help us to assign our own moral convictions to concepts, past and present, and progress as people in a subjective and unified manner. The contemplative internal dialogue in unison with the space we are in (regarding contemporary fashion and its physical and mental properties) allows us as fashion practitioners to become active members in activism and create new material for people to build ideas from.
I hold in high respect the position of which Lynn holds when she talks of the following “It still amazes when I realise that the people that I sit within in class and I are next up in the industry”. Not only is she using the knowledge of her practice for herself, but the ideas are also in the minds of others, though they may not be aware. This level of observation is one that we should strive for. To be something we must be knowledgeable of all of the good and the bad. All of this for a better future, not as an industry but as a movement one that is human all too human.
In conclusion, although the issues of sustainability, social responsibility and diversity were not directly addressed the blog post latched its self to something that these existing concepts cannot be without nor can they progress without and that is knowledge and more specifically subjectivity of information interpretation for the mind of one and that of others.

Waterfeild, R., (2008) Republic translated from the Greek by Plato. Oxford: Oxford university press

Crowell, S., (2017) “Existentialism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available athttps://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/existentialism/

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Essentialism. (No date) Retrieved May 11, 2020, Available at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/essentialism

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Better Lives Blog post 3

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Initially, fashion activism was seen by me to have a slightly more narrow of meaning. In my close-mindedness I saw activism in fashion to remain within the confines of more aggressive acts that were in no way tied to commerce, however, this can be tied to my dismay for the term fashion. Yet again the lack of a broader scope had taken away from my ability to see a multitude of outputs as fashion. I took the term fashion for something purely material and in that same sense superficial. The acquisition of knowledge and thus the expansion of the concept of fashion can be primarily attributed to the better lives unit as my studies in fashion photography represented an artistic component as opposed to one where creativity and commerce meet. In essence, the better lives unit was to allow me to comprehend the full spectrum of what fashion means but more importantly means to me and my own practice. From my understanding fashion can be seen as more of an all-encompassing practice taking into account socioeconomic, sociopolitical, sociocultural and capital attributes. When applied to my own practice I had started to realise that fashion can be kept at an arms-length to tie into what I consider more predominant concepts. The better lives module introduced a new method of production to my own creative process. Moving image allows for an entirely new narrative to unveil and form in an opposite (yet similar) narrative process. To quote John Breger “A film unfolds in time and painting does not.” I had used this for an analytic method for critique as opposed my own practice to some extent.
With the events of recent I have had to overcome the obstacles that limitations posed but this was quickly combatted with the point I had once heard and it explained that the less you have the more creative you have to be with the tools that you have to produce out of curiosity and not ease. Over the course of the film making process, I had to learn Adobe Premiere Pro which is a professional video editing software which I had always seen to be too convoluted but instead found it an impeccable tool for what I needed. Already that is two new skills in a very short time, Videography and video post-production both of which relied on me applying knowledge of photography and all that is associated it. The film its self uses key sociocultural themes all of which required me to look within to externalise a narrative. The poem which I wrote came from a place I had only wondered and never searched, themes I’ve felt and never truly known. This has prompted me to work more with moving image and even make it a part of all that I do. For example, implementing a short clip into my test shoots.
Better lives have taught me not only should we be active in our own lives and what we as individuals do but how change is a collaborative process and requires many minds to make something happen.

References

Breger, J. (2008) Ways of seeing. London. Penguin Books.

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Social Ai – Can AI learn to love? Blog post 2

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It is far from understated the impact of technology and it relationship to our advancing societies. I will discuss discrepancy in which Weak AI and Strong AI both works with us but are heavily reliant on us.
Weak Artificial intelligence is to mimic a narrow range of human cognitive objectives such as calculators, autocorrect and pathfinding amongst many other traits of the same calibre. It can be said that weak AI poses no harm to us as its programming does not allow for further and abstract thoughts to be synthesised into an opinion and nor can it. Weak AI is only capable of apriori knowledge, they are without sense but that in its self has numerous complications. For example, if a Weak AI system is built with a soft membrane and underneath exist pressure-sensitive pads that respond to touch, is this then empirical knowledge? Does the touch mean the same for the AI as it does for us regardless of the complexity of the machine?

What is touch but a binary signal? The sensors work only as an indication for us and not for the benefit of the machine. Much like us weak AI are able to work on formulas which are applicable to the syntax of human curiosity for the given statement.
Strong AI, then, may be characterised by artificial intelligence which has the capability to think like us. As with any robotic system, it relies on us to program is and without us is simply an inactive mechanical mass which prior to programming to such an extent exists purely as an object. The property of which the programming sets out to do may be seen in two potential ways. Firstly, the programming of the machine may be seen as giving the machine its personality and secondly giving the machine the potential to think on its own accord within reason and thus giving the machine free will in which it is only programmed to utilise for benefit of the human-animal.
The idea of injecting the machine with a personally may bring welcomed dispute for what extent the characteristics it is given works In unison with the idea of personality. Part of the word describes person. Frequently the fluidity of this term extends beyond the use for people and can be used to express traits for any animal, however, within this we may be inclined to question the reach of this term. The character traits placed upon the mechanical mass of strong AI are to be seen as allowing it to think freely yet oxymoronically only within the confines of its programmed objective. The AI has the ability to react and respond and thus boosts its comparison to the human animal. In doing so humans may feel obligated to treat the AI with an empathetic approach which is the proprietor for disaster.
Initially, the first period after programming may see the AI to have skill comparable to an infant yet it could be said that with the ability to react and respond but not (potentially) respond based upon emotion and thus responds with a logical approach in which follows it is a reaction based on behaviour alone, could be compared to a person with social disability. The machine understands the syntax yet the emotional response is either non-existent. As the AI learns using its knowledge of what it has observed and what it knows, it has the ability to react towards its counterpart with an empathetic response without immediate human realisation as the AI had been programmed only to think within the confines of what is was programmed.
To summarise, can a computer learn to love?

By Luke Gooden.

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Better lives – cultural appropriation. blog 1.

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The first topic that was found to be an excellent premise for discussion was the rule of academic misconduct which can be used as a term for all aspects of intellectual property. The ongoing epistemological arguments are now to be more indicative of how we exchange ideas now more so than ever. The empirical stance on which we use most often in ourselves can be thought of as a series of emblems which represent something in which its existence is tangible beyond the self, however, is independent on cognition by an agent figure. During the interaction, there are both apparent and unintelligible action brought to either member of the party and in this transcription of emotional assertion, a premise for empathetic understanding shares a relationship with the power structure of the interaction.
Cultural appropriation is in essence, the theft of cultural signs and symbols that are devoted to historical
anecdotes which are misappropriated for use in other aspects for gain to any degree by another. This in its self leaves room to question to what extent is something inspiring and what is appropriation. Braids are a hairstyle synonymous with African women and its extensive history of cultural significance is well documented and highly intelligent. Hair and more specifically the styling of hair was a sociocultural, sociopolitical and interpersonal display of one’s status. As with many cultures, the hair that was most adorned signified one’s place in the hierarchical structure of the society and this had many adaptations amongst gender, age and tribes amongst many other things (Sherrow, 2006). With this information, it can be understood that many years later its importance and its meaning subsides in the ideologies of the more modern human yet more specifically in the modern offspring to the pioneers of the modes of expression.
Comme Des Garcon in their fall/winter 20 show featured primarily white male models “striding bouncily along on adolescent legs, exuberantly crisscrossing the room in some kind of headlong boy-dance.” according to an article on Vogue by Sarah Mower which however failed to mention or even acknowledge any signs of appropriation throughout the show. Out of 32 looks, only 6 of them were modelled by black models which are only 18.75% of the show. Surely to have a show in which the aspect of cornrows is a primary figure in the show’s concept the expected figure for models of Afrocentric origin should be in the realm of 70%+ to give the concept any validity. Even for the sake of creativity those who are the key workers in assembling the show must show compassion and not instead seek industry norms. In the words of artist Jenn Nkiru “Rebirth is necessary.”
Change is a process that requires systematic cohesion in order for it to flow freely throughout the given audience which arguably, as fashion is one of the most prominent mediums of self-expression, is predominantly to the hands of those who uphold the pyramid. In a paper by Robert A. Dahl titled the critique of the ruling elite model to elaborate on political discrepancies however the model is transferable to any other system in which an agreed ruling majority share similarities and have somewhat a monopoly on power in comparison to an alternative party of which is part of the same system.

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