Ulmer Rounds it Out: Oh We Are Going to Make a Movie about Mike Utley’s Title Now!

Chapter 7: Miranda Has Her/It’s Way

In chapter 7 Ulmer outlines the way we might extend the concept of justice to electracy by using a pun on the word/name Miranda. Ulmer starts by talking about the history and mechanism of the Turing test, which is a test designed in order to see if a computer can disguise it’s language to sound like a normal human, thus proving that machines can basically replicate what it means to be human (at least in some defintions). Ulmer harkens back to the ways that the original test that this method is based off of comes from a test on gender where a man and a woman stand behind a curtain and both try to convince the audience that they are a woman.

The question, then, is which one of these choices falls into the “correct” category? Ulmer takes this question and expands it out to the ways that we think about the “right” decision in a given situation, or what is justice. This question, Ulmer shows, is how we can be sure of what is just if justice is rhetorical, that is, if justice is something that we can be convinced of. This problem of justice and rhetoric then connects to Ulmer’s first reference to the Miranda puncept in the form of Miranda rights. Miranda rights are created to protect criminals from incriminating themselves under pressure from the police. This is to say that we want the criminals to be naturally guilty, not to be convinced that they’re guilty.

Ulmer’s second vein of meaning is to the idea of dealing with meanings as if they were a samba dance. This helps us to think about how meanings and justice are made not as a kind of verdict that we place upon things and people, but as a way of entering into a motion which is acting with the decision, not just acting on it. This vein comes to bear on the subject of Carmen Miranda, who is said to have brought the popularity of samba dancing in America. Ulmer then draws out Miranda’s image as it was replicated, as well as the kind of historical and social consciousness that made her what she was.

To this, Ulmer brings in the ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein as a counter mode to Carmen Miranda. Wittgenstien detested ornamentation, and was a key logician in the ultimate creation of the Turing Test. It is this opposing standpoint which Ulmer finds most interesting, and tries to elaborate on the ways Wittgenstein was obsessed with things like detective novels and jokes in order to get to the more affective side of Wittgenstein. In this capacity, Ulmer unleashes a dialogue between Carmen Miranda and Ludwig Wittgenstein where they ultimately dance the samba together. This dance signifies a Turing Test of a different kind, where we are meant to find the difference between these two methodologies.

Throughout all of this discussion, Ulmer weaves the story of how Turing decoded the enigma machine, which also connects back to its fair share of gender roles and stereotypes. To decode the machine, Turing took the punch card that the machine was coded on and fitted them on top of one another based on their “gender” properties. When fitted together the cards had certain holes that lined up, and using the knowledge of the holes and patterns Turing was able to break down the code. Ulmer then urges us to think about this method of looking for patterns as a sort of dance between the two sides of Wittgenstein and Miranda, and between the need to remain silent and the need to testify our experiences.

Chapter 8: Pom-Poms a Plenty

In the eighth chapter Ulmer highlights a specific MEmorial to the process of building memorials to 9/11. Ulmer follows Will Pappenhiemer’s proposal through to its completion in order to show how creating a MEmorial quickly becomes a collaborative effort. On one level this collaboration is indicative of the material needs that were going on at the time. Pappenhiemer needed many tiny pom-poms in order to achieve his MEmorial, and he also needed an extensive camera crew to document the experience. But the collaboration also extends to the bystanders that became a part of the MEmorial as they gazed upon its construction, or politely moved out of the way. It also extends to the way the chapter is written, as it contains mostly Will Pappenhiemer’s messages that were sent out during the creation of the MEmorial, as well as the messages that were sent to him. This demonstrates how the Y, the branching out and extension of ideas, can be carried on by multiple groups at once. While these groups react simultaneously to the image sense of the MEmorial, they all remain connected in their own obtuse point of contact. 


Questions:


If the internet databases exist as a point of collective wisdom, what are the possibilities and limitations of using wikipedia as the way into creating an archive of images, terms, and meaning?


Considering the age of electracy, to what extent should/can entertainment function as a part of the academic classroom?


Do egents need to have the bandwith and phone data plan to move at the fastest speeds available? Or are we already moving at those speeds outside of the material devices in ways that it can be useful to tap into? 


images used:


http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNjA5NjExODc4OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzYwMTM2._V1._SY314_CR16,0,214,314_.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Turing_Test_Version_1.png/220px-Turing_Test_Version_1.png

http://manhattanlaw.info/images/MirandaRights.jpg