So as you can see the trend of my project is leaning towards the Audio tangent.                     The direction I want to take is still to be confirmed… I’m almost there!

Little background story – For the past 5 years I have been a DJ – in a Cybercultures world, I would be called a number of things: Just another DJ, Fuqboi, The Guy who presses Play, and a person who hears the most common question phrase and question of all – “Can I request a song?”

“If I had a dollar for everyti…    nevermind.”

Seriously, being a DJ is not easy by any means. It is not as simple as,  “you are being paid, to do your job, which is being a DJ – How hard is that?” There are varying factors to being a DJ and being a great DJ – a DJ plays what is known on the radio, plays music that everyone would expect and mixes from track to track like an iTunes Playlist on Shuffle mode. A great DJ on the other hand,  builds from track to track.

Analogy Breakdown: Picture a scene, with your mates out camping, where you decide its probably a good time to start a fire because its freezing outside. The fire starts with a small amount of starters and some kindling; from here the fire starts to radiate, and you decide to place larger sticks over the pit to increase the intensity a little more. From here you are building on a fire which blazes very quickly in the beginning, but now it is your job to maintain that fire and heat throughout the night.

Therefore, if you can start a fire you have just completed “How to be a DJ 101.”

The reasoning behind the fire analogy is based on my recent finding of an application that allows anybody at a party, event or gathering to be the life of the party with just an iPhone, Spotify and this wonderful app called Serato Pyro.

It is the answer to all my questions in most cases because:

1. I can now DJ with just my iPhone and a set of really good Hi-Fi Speakers
2. I don’t have to be the awkward guy in the corner
3. I can socialise, dance and let Serato Pyro do the work for me
4. I don’t have to set-up or pack-up anything

I’d like to unpack this app, as a result of technology being completely efficient to our lives in any way, shape or form.

I’d still like to relate some of it to music and how we engage with music in different environments – but of course it’s still yet to be confirmed.

– Dan

Computerisation, automation and interconnected networks have allowed for certain social conditions and convictions to arise. Such social constructs help form an ambiguous ‘cyberculture,’ associated with automation and assembly. Economics and cultural assumptions of capitalism, that of a ‘postcapitalist’ society and ultimately religion lie within the centre of arguments relative to robotics (Wohlsen, M. 2014).   

Mercedes-Benz demonstrates the integration of automation and human resources through introduction of ‘robot farming’ (Gibbs, S. 2016).  However, the language used by Benz delivers the assumption that this is a present consideration until technology overcomes that of human capital. Santini (2016) builds upon this illustrating that robotics will eventually outpace human development. Demonstrating an attitude towards human capacity decreasing to the point of mass unemployment.

Such rhetoric and expression of fear associated with employment and automation can be considered unwarranted, with Wells (2014) attributing through automation our socio-economic principles may change to the point of universal basic income, a form social security in which unconditional income is received on individual basis (BIEN, 2015). Additionally the relationship between religious credence and automation, employment and ultimately intelligent AI can be related to the display of societal fear. To illustrate such the segment of Shinto faith that is Animism, illustrates the belief that all entities, even those constructed by humans have a spiritual essence. Idolatry, the creation of life through assuming the position of a ‘false god,’ in Western religion is considered sinful (Mims, C. 2010). Thus the negative associations of automation in the West can correlate to that of humanity as creators, and contrast to that of Asian doctrine holding spiritual significance to that of robotics.

Reference:

Gibbs, S. (2016) Mercedes-Benz swaps robots for people on its assembly line, The Guardian, viewed 05-03-16 <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/26/mercedes-benz-robots-people-assembly-lines>

Santini, J. L. (2016) Intelligent robots threaten millions of jobs, Technology, phys.org, viewed 07-03-16 <http://phys.org/news/2016-02-intelligent-robots-threaten-millions-jobs.html>

Wells, T. (2014) The Robot Economy and the Crisis of Capitalism: Why We Need Universal Basic Income, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, viewed 04-03-16 <http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/07/17/4048180.htm>  

Wholsen, M. (2014) When Robots Take All Work, What Will Be Left For Us To Do? Business, Wired.com, viewed 04-03-16 <http://www.wired.com/2014/08/when-robots-take-all-the-work-whatll-be-left-for-us-to-do/>

Mims, C. (2010) Why Japanese Love Robots (And Americans Fear Them), MIT Technoloy Review, viewed 04-03-16 <https://www.technologyreview.com/s/421187/why-japanese-love-robots-and-americans-fear-them />

Unknown Author, (2015) What is basic income? BEIN, Basic Income Earth Network, viewed 04-03-16 <http://www.basicincome.org/basic-income/#history>