David, <br>Thank you for pointing out the connections between pre-modern concepts of automata and the oriental other. From the medieval theological texts to enlightenment drama the European imagination is replete with concepts that conflate automata with the oriental. To some extent, this association is related with the first introduction of the idea of automata from the Byzantium and Islamic literary sources into Europe in late medieval period. Since the technique of making automata was associated with the heresy of Islam, sorcery and other illegitimate knowledge practices, its Oriental image was crucial to create a screen (or a veil) on which techno-mythical desires of autonomous machines could safely be projected. <br>
<br>Kempelen's chess playing automaton is one of the examples of this idea, congealed in a material form that was made perform the idea of controlling/manipulating the body and the mind of the other through their own logic, the machine. Influenced by these historical examples, my take on Amazon's Mechanical Turk as a global labor market can not ignore the cultural mediation role of this market between the postindustrial west and the Global Rest. It is also helpful to remind us that the immaterial labor is not just immaterial, digital labor is not just digital, and software does not exist (as Kittler argues) without hardware. And when I look at the hardware of our times, the Personal Computer, I can not help but see the little cabin that is made to fit a single chess player who is surrounded by the tools to manipulate the game that he is not invited to watch as part of the audience. Its a very strong metaphor to think about both the limitations and the possibilities of the current logic of the network. This condition of alienation through atomization in the cognitive labor scheme as "innovated" by Amazon's MTurk clearly undermines the cooperative aspect of immaterial labor as claimed by Tiziana Terranova, Hardt&Negri and
many others.<br>When we consider from the perspective of the innovation as an internal force of capitalism, as
explained by Pasquinelli on his reading of Lazzarato reading Tarde (Jonathan Beller's earlier post), this
innovation of MTurk is clearly concentrated on the design of the task
flow, the procedural knowledge embedded in the machine shop that
facilitates the cognitive work for optimum productivity. I think it is crucial to consider digital labor from the perspective of
the corporate control room in order to understand some of the
preferences that goes into the logic of its machine and constitute its
characteristics of mode of production/interaction/consumption.
MTurk divides cognitive tasks into discrete pieces so that the
completion of tasks are not dependent on the cooperation of the workers
themselves, but organized from the outside by the interaction modules
designed by the requesters compatible with MTurk's operation platform.
By the elimination of the cooperation aspect of the cognitive work, the
labor power becomes a "variable capital" in the Marxian sense
because the labor power needs the activation and organization of the
capital in order to create value.<br><br>I think Irani&Silberman's Turkopticon is a great response to this problem. I had the privilege to be in the same panel with Lilly Irani during the conference and I think their research is terrific.
Another MTurk talkback apparatus, TurkersTalk is hosted by Talkshoe, an
online community call service that provides tools for groups of people
to interact by audio recordings, chats and video conferencing also sounds very promising. <br><br><br>I will soon post a draft of my paper on the conference site and would love to hear your feedback. <br clear="all">
<br><br>Ayhan Aytes<br><br>Ph.D. Candidate<br>University of California San Diego<br>Department of Communication<br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 5:47 AM, David Golumbia <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dgolumbia@virginia.edu" target="_blank">dgolumbia@virginia.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
May I enthusiastically second this as an audience member? I assumed<br>
Martin must have missed your paper, Ayhan, which I think was the last or<br>
second-to-last paper on the panel, and I found it just terrific and<br>
unexpected. The historical connection between Western perceptions of the<br>
Muslim other and computing was astonishing; and I don't think I see you<br>
directly mentioning here, Ayhan, the close historical connection you<br>
demonstrated between the words "automata" and "Turk." I'm still thinking<br>
over all the consequences of this paper more than any other from the<br>
conference, & I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't had a look at<br>
it (is a copy of it on scribd or one of the other conference sites)?<br>
<br>
David<br>
<div><br>
Ayhan wrote:<br>
> Hi Martin,<br>
> My presentation was actually on the orientalist imaginations inscribed in the conceptions of the human machine assemblages. I used a media archaeological analysis to demonstrate the role of the oriental other in the 18th century automata that incorporated the mechanical animation of Muslim bodies for mediation of the key philosophical discussions on Cartesian mind/body duality. Within the long history of human workers kept hidden behind the machines, or as specters that animated the industrial machine, Amazon's utilization of Kempelen's Mechanical Turk automaton as its metaphor for branding and the model for exploitation in the age of cognitive labor looks like a corporate Turret syndrome.<br>
><br>
> The cultural as you suggested is not a mere superstructure but it is at the center of the evolution of these technologies. Before the actualization of many technologies we see the efforts of imaginations and conceptualizations through various devices that act as the cultural apparatus for later reconfigurations. 18th century automata was among such apparatus and many of the notions we discuss today were explored through their proxies of that time, the chess playing Turk being one of them. It was a safe proxy for exploring the uncanny possibilities of the idea of autonomous machines. Interestingly today, it is still relevant to such an extent that its vivid image is almost transparent or outside of our field of vision as a factor in our analysis of the alterity in the cognitive labor.<br>
> Thank you for bringing this issue up. I also wanted to thank Trebor for organizing this conference, it was a great experience for me and I learned a lot.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Ayhan Aytes<br>
><br>
> Ph.D. Candidate<br>
> University of California San Diego<br>
> Department of Communication<br>
><br>
> Ayhan Aytes<br>
><br>
> Ph.D. Candidate<br>
> University of California San Diego<br>
> Department of Communication<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
<br>
<br>
</div><font color="#888888">--<br>
David Golumbia<br>
Assistant Professor<br>
Media Studies, English, and Linguistics<br>
University of Virginia<br>
</font><div><div></div><div><br>
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