While free speech and freedom of the press are often treated as eternal rights in democratic systems, the protections they offer individuals and their role in society are in constant flux. For much of the past century, the “marketplace of... more
While free speech and freedom of the press are often treated as eternal rights in democratic systems, the protections they offer individuals and their role in society are in constant flux. For much of the past century, the “marketplace of ideas” metaphor justified these protections and provided the working model for their implementation. Within a democratic framework, this is intended to give citizens various ideas and opinions to critique and elect their political leaders. Recently, however, a series of contested elections have exposed deep, long-simmering rifts in the political frameworks of many western democracies. Simultaneously, the emergence of new digital platforms capable of spreading individuals’ speech at mass media scale have upended the traditional roles of media and ordinary citizens. This chapter explores the interplay of new digital technologies and the abstract political ideals of free speech and a free press, treating the debates around “fake news” as symptomatic o...
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At HASTAC 2016 we took part in a Wearables and Tangible Computing Research Charrette, where charrette was used in order to signal a session that was collaborative and participatory with the goal of shaping and extending how we engage with... more
At HASTAC 2016 we took part in a Wearables and Tangible Computing Research Charrette, where charrette was used in order to signal a session that was collaborative and participatory with the goal of shaping and extending how we engage with concepts around wearable technologies. We are now proposing for HASTAC 2017 a workshop on the same topics
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Author(s): Fallon, Kris | Advisor(s): Williams, Linda | Abstract: Recent scholarship treats the transition to the digital format in documentary film as a straightforward change in production practices or distribution channels, ignoring... more
Author(s): Fallon, Kris | Advisor(s): Williams, Linda | Abstract: Recent scholarship treats the transition to the digital format in documentary film as a straightforward change in production practices or distribution channels, ignoring the deeper implications of digital technology for non-fiction moving image media. Far from a simple transition in the technology used to shoot and produce these films, however, digital technology has altered, and been altered by, documentary film to a far greater extent than any previous period in its history. The first decade of the twenty first century gave rise to dramatic technological, aesthetic and political revolutions around the globe, dramatic events mirrored in the rapid evolution of documentary form across the same time period. This project focuses on the emergence of digital documentary in the context of the ideological shifts and social conflicts of the early 21st century. As blogs, social networks and mobile technologies became the conne...
Research Interests: History and Social Media
Panel Proposal Taking Form: From Ontogenesis to Repetition and Exhaustion This panel will explore how film and digital media “take form,” performing something akin to what Gilbert Simondon calls ontogenesis and Henri Bergson calls... more
Panel Proposal Taking Form: From Ontogenesis to Repetition and Exhaustion This panel will explore how film and digital media “take form,” performing something akin to what Gilbert Simondon calls ontogenesis and Henri Bergson calls creative evolution. Yet, this taking of form does not always imply emergence as the becoming of formation, becoming in-formation; the act of taking form is also an act of repetition which puts more emphasis on the concept of “taking” (Deleuze), and sometimes this repeated formation even amounts to the undoing of form (the exhaustion of form). For Simondon ontogenesis involves a mediation between forms of individuation — a mediation between vital, collective, and technical modes of individuation. We aim to look at how films like La Vallee close (Jean-Claude Rousseau, 1995), installations like Nouvelles histoires de fantomes (Georges Didi-Huberman, 2014) and data visualizations like Selfiecity (Lev Manovich, ongoing) make visible sets of relations or “allagm...
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StressSense is smart clothing made of fabric sensors that monitor the stress level of the wearers. The fabric sensors are comfortable, allowing for long periods of monitoring and the electronic components are waterproof and detachable for... more
StressSense is smart clothing made of fabric sensors that monitor the stress level of the wearers. The fabric sensors are comfortable, allowing for long periods of monitoring and the electronic components are waterproof and detachable for ease of care. This design project is expected to be beneficial for people who have a lot of stress in their daily life and who care about their mental health. It can be also used for people who need to control their stress level critically, such as analysts, stock managers, athletes, and patients with chronic diseases and disorders.
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In their non-fiction modes, film and photography have long traded on optical metaphors drawn from philosophy. Phenomena like observation, objectivity, truth and reason translate into terms such as light, transparency, clarity, exposure,... more
In their non-fiction modes, film and photography have long traded on optical metaphors drawn from philosophy. Phenomena like observation, objectivity, truth and reason translate into terms such as light, transparency, clarity, exposure, etc. These function in an almost homophonic fashion to describe both the aesthetic properties of images as well as the understanding and awareness an observer might achieve regarding an external phenomena. In a political and social context, these optical metaphors and their materialized media forms further translate into questions of governance and power. The degree of exposure a state or individual citizen is subject to often equates with the force of accountability on one hand (in police worn body cameras, for example) or the erosion of individual privacy (in the case of pervasive video surveillance). What’s good for the state, in other words, might be detrimental for the citizen, and vice versa. Where the state can marshall vast resources to tr...
Research Interests: Sociology and Population
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand what dimensions consumers prefer to track using wearable technology to achieve a healthier lifestyle and how these tracking dimensions are related. Design/methodology/approach An online... more
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand what dimensions consumers prefer to track using wearable technology to achieve a healthier lifestyle and how these tracking dimensions are related. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted with potential consumers in the USA, and a series of Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis and multiple regressions was conducted. Findings The most preferred self-tracking dimensions, tracking dimensions on others, most private tracking dimensions, most variable dimensions, and the dimensions that need to be improved were identified. The results of this study showed positive relationships overall among similar types of tracking dimensions, such as among dimensions of physical health condition (disease and disorder symptoms and general vital signs), mental health condition (stress level and mood/feeling), healthy lifestyle (fitness, and pose and posture), and productivity and task management (work productivity, location, ...
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Research Interests: Art and Documentary Film
Though best known as a documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris's recent use of other mediums including books, a blog, Twitter and short films demonstrates a willingness to rethink old questions in new terms. As Morris begin working across... more
Though best known as a documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris's recent use of other mediums including books, a blog, Twitter and short films demonstrates a willingness to rethink old questions in new terms. As Morris begin working across media he seems to be offering a critical take on the media itself.
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This article offers a working draft of a larger qualitative analysis of the popular smartphone application Instagram. It offers a reading of the ubiquitous contemporary form of self-portraiture, the selfie, locating its origin in the... more
This article offers a working draft of a larger qualitative analysis of the popular smartphone application Instagram. It offers a reading of the ubiquitous contemporary form of self-portraiture, the selfie, locating its origin in the longer evolution of digital photography into a form of social media. Though its function as a basic self-portrait and signifier for our various social profiles appears straightforward, it has somehow become the ‘face’ of online sociality and subjectivity, a portrait of the promise and peril of our online existence. And yet, a closer look at the various feeds and streams in which the selfie appears reveals that it is one genre amongst many, no more or less common than a variety of landscapes, still-lifes, and other modes of photographic observation. Taken together, these various views of the world reveal an emplaced mode of image-driven autobiography, one far more complex and nuanced than a straightforward meme would appear to be. Image Credit: Jeremy Bi...
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Recent scholarship treats the transition to the digital format in documentary film as a straightforward change in production practices or distribution channels, ignoring the deeper implications of digital technology for non-fiction moving... more
Recent scholarship treats the transition to the digital format in documentary film as a straightforward change in production practices or distribution channels, ignoring the deeper implications of digital technology for non-fiction moving image media. Far from a simple transition in the technology used to shoot and produce these films, however, digital technology has altered, and been altered by, documentary film to a far greater extent than any previous period in its history. The first decade of the twenty first century gave rise to dramatic technological, aesthetic and political revolutions around the globe, dramatic events mirrored in the rapid evolution of documentary form across the same time period. This project focuses on the emergence of digital documentary in the context of the ideological shifts and social conflicts of the early 21st century. As blogs, social networks and mobile technologies became the connective tissue of political dissent and social mobilization over thi...
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For Martin Heidegger Weltbild (or world picture) ‘ does not mean a picture of the world but the world con cei ved and grasped as a picture.’ More than a form of reproduction or representation (mimesis), the Weltbild constitutes a... more
For Martin Heidegger Weltbild (or world picture) ‘ does not mean a picture of the world but the world con cei ved and grasped as a picture.’ More than a form of reproduction or representation (mimesis), the Weltbild constitutes a system — a way of calculating, organizing and molding things. The Weltbild is, therefore, accompanied by anonymous shadow worlds, networks o f power, and big data that are ‘withdrawn from representation.’ At the same time this Weltbild produces a universally recognized image and a network of shadows, it transforms the art of its own imaging into an aesthetic experience ( aisthesis ). That is to say, this act of picturing does not constitute a simple image but a process that establishes relations between the visible image, invisible networks, and new forms of affecti ve experiences. For Heidegger ‘getting the picture,’ means also ‘ getting into the picture.’ But this implies, an individual subject that can recognize and relate to this picture. B...
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The author charts the development of self-portraits from the painted canvas to Instagram’s selfies. Revolving around autobiography as a multifaceted genre over the centuries, the author claims that the desire for greater visibility... more
The author charts the development of self-portraits from the painted canvas to Instagram’s selfies. Revolving around autobiography as a multifaceted genre over the centuries, the author claims that the desire for greater visibility further enhances our wishes to leave our mark on history, and in society. It also brings to light a new type of arbitrary documentary discourse based on self-performance and self-branding.
The author charts the development of self-portraits from the painted canvas to Instagram’s selfies. Revolving around autobiography as a multifaceted genre over the centuries, the author claims that the desire for greater visibility... more
The author charts the development of self-portraits from the painted canvas to Instagram’s selfies. Revolving around autobiography as a multifaceted genre over the centuries, the author claims that the desire for greater visibility further enhances our wishes to leave our mark on history, and in society. It also brings to light a new type of arbitrary documentary discourse based on self-performance and self-branding.