Digital Technology for Digital Living.
January 28, 2005
Technotranscendence Hybrid Entertainment Matrix, Or iPod.
We love our iPods as much as the next geek, but this guy’s definitely been smoking something.
According to Giesler’s preliminary research, the iPod isn’t simply an updated Walkman. It’s an entirely new beast: a revolutionary device that transforms listeners into “cyborgs” through a process he calls “technotranscendence.”
Unlike the Walkman, the iPod taps into a “hybrid entertainment matrix,” in which functions like random shuffle are a key construct, not just a cute marketing device.
“IPod and user form a cybernetic unit,” said Giesler. “We’re always talking about cyborgs in the context of cultural theory and sci-fi literature, but this is an excellent example that they’re out there in the marketplace…. I have seen the future, and it is called the cyborg consumer.”
The cyborg consumer, Giesler said, is one that uses several different technologies — from cell phones to Viagra — and is highly connected, technically and socially.
The iPod, for example, isn’t just an MP3 player. It’s an extension of the memory: storing the soundtrack of a lifetime, as well as names, addresses, calendars and notes.
Giesler notes that users give their iPods names, and carry them close to their bodies — the vibrations of the hard drive makes the device feel alive.
We’re guessing that Giesler figures that the more ridiculous buzz words he makes up, the better his chance of making some press. Oooh. Look it worked, you can read the article at Wired.
Gadgetman | | General, Music
January 28th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Okay, I can agree that the Wired article is 99% buzzwords, but there is some credibility to Giesler’s work! If you check out his iPod Stories site, the idea of an ethnographic study seeing how iPods effect people’s lives is really interesting and quite legitimate research! :) Of course, it might be that Wired likes the buzzwords and that there was a little more to the interview. Strangely, though, if you take our the words ‘iPod’ and ‘consumption’, everything Giesler says sounds like it jumped straight out of N. Katherine Hayles’ book How We Became Posthuman.