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Thoughts on Remote episode (469):

Well, here we are... bizarre few days. This Spark episode was a refreshing moment in catching up with what has transpired over the weekend. Having been producing a short film through March 12th to 15th, each day came as a radical whirlwind of disembodied information. I wasn’t sure how serious or truthful much of this news was day to day. Only until cooling down after the climax of this weekend have I had a chance to breathe and collect all the data I can on where the world is at and how that involves myself, my peers and my family. 

In this podcast episode, Nora Young inquires on varying individuals attempting to normalize their new work environments, whether that be from home or on the front lines in retail stores or restaurants. It was nice to hear how others, specifically those outside of CapU and Vancouver, are dealing with this new reality. What a great tool the internet and social media have been in keeping the globe united during this undetermined period of isolation. I found particularly interesting the discussion by Young and her interviewees on how working at home will be impacted moving forward in this crisis. It’s not necessarily good for those previously pushing for businesses to shift to working at home employees because this pandemic could be too forceful a transition, leaving many companies with a bad experience in the fallout of Covid-19. Additionally, a unique point was raised regarding privacy: must workers be expected to always use video calls while at home? Is this an invasion of personal space?

As a filmmaker, I do think this will prove to be an incredibly unique shift in power between streaming platforms and traditional theatrical releases. Specifically in regard to festivals and award ceremonies who will likely need to shift their gaze of consideration from predominately theatrical films to streaming films come award season later this year. I think that, while the aftermath of this pandemic will be painful for all, some more so than others, the world will exit this having seen what it was like to openly communicate and collectively share in a conflict. Everyone is in the same boat. And everyone is needed in order to slow this virus down. Flatten the curve as the motto now goes. 

Source: https://16523.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_SPARK_FROM_CBC_RADIO_P/media-session/a3e03643-dd55-4502-9114-5ac85b38697a/spark-FDuZoHyk-20200320.mp3?ttag=season:13

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Thoughts on Living Buildings episode (466):

Not gonna lie, I was rather bored by this episode until nearly halfway through—that changed when the lifespan of buildings was addressed through the research and development of biological, living architecture. Should we continue to live by the ideology of building things to last? Or should we move forward as a species building to limit our footprint on this planet? As nostalgic creatures of collection, are we capable of changing our entire practice of existing, of inhabiting, by building homes and workspaces to only last a finite number of years? Imagine, if you will, that the Empire State Building, erected in 1931, was slated to deteriorate in the next couple of years; or even worse, was designed to only exist for about twenty years after completion. This would mean we could only have seen its grandeur in old photos or films. 

I know that for myself, I have a heartache when I see paintings of ancient ruins that no longer exist—if only I could have lived then to truly witness this place. It brings to mind those news stories that float up to the surface every five or so years reminding the public that the wreck of the Titanic is slowing being consumed by underwater bacteria; in just a short few decades the ship will be gone forever... *sobs*. Perhaps the digital age allows for this shift to happen gradually. As places become endlessly recorded, will humanity hunger to travel and physically inhabit a space? Will this lend to a shift from possessive attitudes? But maybe it’s more than that—like the Titanic, I know I’ll never have a chance to travel to that depth to actually see the wreck, but simply knowing it’s still there, existing in my lifetime, is a powerful thing... *happy sobs*.

But this podcast episode really got me thinking about how we have chosen to construct our buildings in the past several thousand years. What were the ancient Egyptians planning when they constructed the pyramids, and how must we now think about construction moving forward in this climate crisis? It seems we’ve painted ourselves in a corner. The interviewer, Nora Young, asks about how living architecture might affect urban planning; Phil Ayres, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, responds, “I really think it affects our understanding with—and our relationship to—our built environment in really fundamental ways...We are starting to understand the need to have urban environments that can be promoting bio diversities rather than essentially eradicating them through construction is something that is really necessary now.” (23:30 - 24:30). It would seem this current era is demanding radical change in how we build and inhabit our surroundings. While I struggle to imagine how these living buildings will materialize in the most practical of ways—all hopes, aspirations and theoretical orchestrations aside—this episode of the Spark podcast opened my mind to a whole new way of planning and living for the near future. 

Source: https://20253.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_SPARK_FROM_CBC_RADIO_P/media-session/e1bc14e9-3242-4f0f-b169-a79bb20203f3/spark-kqnfRdAq-20200228.mp3?ttag=season:13

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Thoughts on Sweaty Drug Caring Caterpillars Crawling Through My Arteries:

I was driving one night—thoughts drifting from the long day to the copious responsibilities ahead—when the usual babble of the radio mentioned “sweaty robots”. Naturally my curiosity was tickled and my need for a blog post subject was alarmed (a five minute report on sweating robots is arguably a little bit shorter than an hour long podcast episode; but who knows anymore—it’s that point in the semester). It was CBC Radio and the subject, as said, was perspiring 1s and 0s; I thought, “sure, why the hell not.” 

The interviewer asked something along the lines of “why the fuck?” and a sweaty sorry sap said, “so I’m not the only one with pit stains at the office.” I kid of course, robots don’t wear t-shirts. But the primary defense of this new function is to maximize a machine’s ability to cool itself down. Like the fan in your computer, the tiny manufactured pores built into the jelly-like skin of the robot’s surface discharge water over its body, dropping its temperature and probably its self-esteem. This is in an attempt to create greater power efficiency—if only we had known it came at a great cost: A.I. with B.O... have robots become too human? Has science gone too far? 

“David, your blog title. It makes no damn sense” you say. “Oh, yeah—I wrote that first. Almost forgot to tie everything back into that, thanks” I retort. So, robot drug-dealing caterpillars. Yeah science has gone too far. The CBC interview wrapped up with a detailing of where all this new research and development might be taken in the near future. One application I found particularly interesting was that of wearing a rubbery robot skin that could help paraplegics move their limbs again, or not, maybe they lucked out. Maybe they’re lazy. Either way—cool, cool. “But the druggie caterpillars!” you insist. Right, here, too, an application of this science could be used to create small, jelly-like robots the size of caterpillars that can inch their way through organs and arteries to deliver drugs to specific places in the human body. The ability to control excess heat through sweating is a large step forward in bringing adaptability to robots and machines. And for even better news: deodorant companies have a whole new demographic to market 24-hour odor block to!

Sources: CBC Radio (Unable to find radio report); https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/29/scientists-build-robot-hand-that-can-sweat

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Thoughts on Divorce episode (461):

I found the A.I. assistance of color coding potential conflict inducing messages to be particularly interesting. As the podcast details, the divorce mediating app’s A.I. will indicate the potential positive or negative connotations of one’s text(s) to the partner he/she is separating from. If the phrasing of a sentence evokes a passive aggressive attitude, the app will color the message blurb red; alternatively, if the wording is positive and/or of face value, the blurb will be green. This is to indicate for the sender whether or not his/her text could unintentionally trigger conflict between the dividing parties. 

The existence of these divorce, or post-divorce, apps is very interesting. I had no idea that they were available and could offer assistance to people struggling to efficiently sustain contact with his/her ex-spouse without needlessly maintaining too casual or intimate of contact. Namely, these apps are used as a formal bridge between individuals who share children or are sending legal documents back and forth—a great idea to have such a tool. 

Again, I found the color coding to be very interesting and wonder if it could be of great use for texting in general. But perhaps it could be an unnecessary check-and-balance for more casual, baggage-free conversations. Such nuance might only serve to hinder free-flowing dialogue between people who do not have “egg shells” to be stepping over. Never the less, it is an interesting social device, this A.I., that I had not previously considered before hearing this podcast episode. Also, as a studying filmmaker, I found the reference to “Marriage Story” to be apt as it serves as a good insight into the hardship and miscommunication of an emotional separation between two loving people. 

Source: http://21393.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_SPARK_FROM_CBC_RADIO_P/media-session/c0477389-2600-405a-a611-7222d9dbe175/spark-Rv5NIdj0-20200117.mp3?ttag=season:13

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Thoughts on A.I. episode (458):

The explanation about AI’s inability to contextualize was interesting—AI only does what it is pre-set to accomplish and/or explore. The example in the episode was that of detecting sheep in varying images. AI rely on probability, therefore, AI search and categorize based on previously received data; images of sheep are typically in context of green, grassy fields. So the researcher instead gave the AI images of sheep in unanticipated locations: indoors, in someone’s hands, etc. The AI, unfamiliar with these new contexts, would label the sheep as household pets, like a dog. Because the AI generally encounters images of dogs indoors or in someone’s arms. Thus, without the backdrop of a pasture, the probability was closer to that of an indoor pet. 

That said, I was taken back to our first class discussion regarding “This Person Does Not Exist”—the creepiness, the uncanny of that site, and of that AI’s ability to recognize correlating data and to then create, stuck with me. It reminded me of how we as humans are always processing information day by day, second by second and that that data influences how we, too, create—whether in engineering, painting, recognizing familiar faces, whatever. It also struck me that, regarding the fake face generating AI, it didn’t really matter if those faces, those “people” were real or not. The “face”, entirely convincing in nature, was as familiar to me as any stranger I might see on the street; in fact, I can see even more detail in those generated faces than I could glancing at someone passing down the sidewalk. What did it actually matter? That generated face might as well be someone across the globe with a family and friends that I’ll never meet—much like the actual people around the world I have no idea about. 

In this way, AI can reveal philosophical teases, as it were, that I would never come across in an entirely “real” world. And much like a painter or an author of some fashion, this AI creates figures and identities that, too, speak volumes.   

Source: http://21393.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_SPARK_FROM_CBC_RADIO_P/media-session/b4dd326d-2907-499b-ac25-e44e8f091170/spark-vhWqhSvs-20191220.mp3

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