01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
Cultural Achievement Undermines Contemplative Attention
Excessive positivity also expresses itself as an excess of stimuli, information, and impulses. It radically changes the structure and economy of attention. Perception becomes fragmented and scattered. Moreover, the mounting burden of work makes it necessary to adopt particular dispositions toward time and attention [Zeitund Aufmerksamkeitstechnik]; this in turn affects the structure of attention and cognition. The attitude toward time and environment known as “multitasking” does not repre...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
Zen Meditation is Proactive
The negativity of not-to also provides an essential trait of contemplation. In Zen meditation, for example, one attempts to achieve the pure negativity of not-to—that is, the void—by freeing oneself from rushing, intrusive Something. Such meditation is an extremely active process; that is, it represents anything but passivity. The exercise seeks to attain a point of sovereignty within oneself, to be the middle. If one worked with positive potency, one would stand at the mercy of the objec...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
Learn to See, to Think, and to Speak and Write
The vita contemplativa presupposes instruction in a particular way of seeing. In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche formulates three tasks for which pedagogues are necessary. One needs to learn to see, to think, and to speak and write. The goal of education, according to Nietzsche, is “noble culture.” Learning to see means “getting your eyes used to calm, to patience, to letting things come to you”— that is, making yourself capable of deep and contemplative attention, casting a long a...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
From Disciplinary to Achievement Society
Today’s society is no longer Foucault’s disciplinary world of hospitals, madhouses, prisons, barracks, and factories. It has long been replaced by another regime, namely a society of fitness studios, office towers, banks, airports, shopping malls, and genetic laboratories. Twenty-first-century society is no longer a disciplinary society, but rather an achievement society [Leistungsgesellschaft ]. Also, its inhabitants are no longer “obedience-subjects” but “achievement- subjects.”...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
The Infection Metaphor
Every age has its signature afflictions. Thus, a bacterial age existed; at the latest, it ended with the discovery of antibiotics. Despite widespread fear of an influenza epidemic, we are not living in a viral age. Thanks to immunological technology, we have already left it behind. From a pathological standpoint, the incipient twenty-first century is determined neither by bacteria nor by viruses, but by neurons. Neurological illnesses such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disord...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
06 JUL 2024 by ideonexus
The Allegorithm
A Sim in The Sims is a simple animated character, with few facial features or expressions. In The Sims 2 they seem a little more lifelike, but the improvement of the representation in some particular ways only raises the standards by which it appears to fall short in others. From the point of view of allegorithm, it all seems more the other way around. Everyday life in gamespace seems an imperfect version of the game. The gamespace of everyday life may be more complex and variegated, but it s...06 JUL 2024 by ideonexus
Games Turn Play into Work
‘Play’ was once a great slogan of liberation. Richard Neville: “The new beautiful freaks will teach us all how to play again (and they’ll suffer society’s penalty).” Play was once the battering ram to break down the Chinese walls of alienated work, of divided labor. Only look at what has become of play. Play is no longer a counter to work. Play becomes work; work becomes play. Play outside of work found itself captured by the rise of the digital game, which responds to the boredom...06 JUL 2024 by ideonexus
Being "Good" At a Game Means Internalizing It's Algorithms
The gamer is not really interested in faith, although a heightened rhetoric of faith may fill the void carved out of the soul by the insinuations of gamespace. The gamer’s God is a game designer. He implants in everything a hidden algorithm. Faith is a matter of the intelligence to intuit the parameters of this geek design and score accordingly. All that is righteous wins; all that wins is righteous. To be a loser or a lamer is the mark of damnation. When you are a gamer, you are left with ...Folksonomies: critical theory gaming
Folksonomies: critical theory gaming
04 JUN 2024 by ideonexus
Topic, Topology, and Topography in Critical Theory
In practice, critical theorists use these concepts to: Topic: Identify and critique the central themes and issues in various discourses, questioning what is considered important or relevant and why. Topology: Analyze the networks and relationships within social structures to reveal how power and influence are distributed and maintained. Topography: Map and describe the socio-cultural landscape to expose the underlying forces that shape it, often highlighting issues of power, inequality, a...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
07 MAY 2024 by ideonexus
How the Powerful Influence Culture
Signification, which is the only function of a word admitted by semantics, reaches perfection in the sign. Whether folk-songs were rightly or wrongly called upper-class culture in decay, their elements have only acquired their popular form through a long process of repeated transmission. The spread of popular songs, on the other hand, takes place at lightning speed. The American expression “fad,” used for fashions which appear like epidemics – that is, inflamed by highly-concentrated ec...Folksonomies: culture critical theory
Folksonomies: culture critical theory