Fascia 181006190131

08.07.2019
Essay
Issue#3
08.07.2019

Fascia 181006190131

Marija Bozinovska Jones

Marija Bozinovska Jones – Fascia 181006190131
Marija Bozinovska Jones – Fascia 181006190131

In her performances, Marija Bozinovska Jones explores connections between social, computational, and neural architectures, analogous to fascia tissue which runs through the entire body as a tension network and thus directly influences the neuromuscular system. In the following excerpt from Fascia 181006190131, part of an ongoing performance project, she uses spoken and programming languages in conjunction with sound to explore new technologies and their impact on individuals and society. In times of technocapitalism, identity appears as matrix: the self, quantified and split between imposed value systems of self-optimization, social platforms, and symbiotic relationships. In the audio part of her contribution, Bozinovska Jones’ spoken statements are delivered by voice interface MBJ Wetware, trained to simulate Bozinovska Jones' voice via a blackboxed AI. The Deep Learning training sentences are embedded in layers of sound by musician J. G. Biberkopf. 

 

Retracing aeons of cosmological evolution, here we stand at a humbling point...

Marija Bozinovska Jones – Fascia 18100619013
Music and sound design: J. G. Biberkopf
Voice interface: MBJ Wetware

5_I N T E L L I G E N T P E R S O N A L A S S I S T A N T

The economies of affect develop novel user interfaces:
Intrinsic seamless interaction: fingertips and polymer membranes
Skin and silicon: in hybrid organics
Sight and haptics: give way to language and voice

[ Valid recording ] “This behavior of neural networks is sometimes called dreaming.
The human brain is still not fully understood.”1

Artificial Intelligence embeds crevices in its (dis)embodied manifestations.
Automated response simulations leak patriarchal promise; affective labor oozes through the cracks.

4_S E L F H O O D

The use of technologies seems to imply an agreement with having digital traces mined.
The sense of self becomes reduced to approximation and binary logic.

[ Valid recording ] “The bakery was next to the slaughterhouse.”2

Data defines our profiling via the logic of the market. Fiscal transformation and statistical abstraction enable its camouflage. In line with the ontological dualism proposed by the Occident, the immateriality of data disguises its value in the cloud.

[ Valid recording ] “The references are good in the very narrow area of histogram methods.”3

“A Western culture self is usually seen as abstract, private, individual, and separates themselves from the rest of the group. An Eastern culture self might be presented as open and flexible.”4 5

3_M U L T I T U D E

The Last Universal Common Ancestor is the most recent population of organisms considered the common descent for all life on Earth.
Three billion years ago, the oceans were vast genetic swamp inhabited by a planetary super-organism. The mega-organism later split into three domains which gave birth to all
life: bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes; the latter were to be the ancestors to animals and plants.

[ Valid recording ] “The stained glass offered a hypnotic atmosphere. The houses
were squashed together like sardines.”6

In order to maintain life on their own, LUCA’s cells exchanged useful parts with each other, resulting in the creation of a global cooperative.7 Even in our earliest inception, we have been an assemblage of symbiotic relationships.

2_S E L F R E G U L A T I O N

Self-regulation references how natural systems seek a state of equilibrium.
Observing the breath as an anchor is self-regulation; an attempt to regain power on an individual level.

Statistics for Wednesday: mostly Active

Tracked: 14.5 hours

Neutral breathing: 10.6 hours

Calm, Focus, Tension, or Activity: 3.9 hours
8

Autopoietic properties in organic orders cut across computational architectures; analogous processes surface as non-linear fintech models.

Виталиj Димитриевич Бутерин, роден на 31 јануари 1994 година9

[ Valid recording ] “What's the meaning of an asterix in a regular expression?”10

Faang is to become a popular name for babies born after the year 2024.
FAANG is an acronym for the market's highest performing tech stocks: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.11

1_S E L F I M P R O V E M E N T

The Quantified Self depicts a culture of self-tracking—collecting personal data by monitoring and analyzing behavioral habits and physiological functions.12

Focus: 63 minutes

Tense: 41 minutes

Active:1.8 minutes
/ steps: 12.158

Calories: 1.053

Goal: 80 minutes

Sedentary: 6.3 hours.13

The movement’s motto is “self knowledge through numbers.”
Business psychology and behavioral economics point out the skewed assumption that accuracy implies relevance.14 


[ Valid recording ] “Entering this area is forbidden without stroking the owner’s cat first.”15

Self-tracking culture promotes an ever-intensifying productivity strive as a neoliberal virtue.

TEF stands for Teleological Egocentric Functionalism.16

Optimind
5 HTP
Neuromaster
Mind Lab Pro
Adrafinil
Alpha brain
KetoPrime

0_S E L F C A R E

Audre Lorde bursts in light through “caring for oneself not as self-indulgence, but as self-preservation and an act of political warfare.”17

[ Valid recording ] “What's the difference between hibernation and standby mode?”18

C22H37NO2 denotes a chemical formula for Anandamide. The Sanskrit word Ananda means

“joy, bliss, delight”

Anandamide is a neurotransmitter correlated to anxiety and depression levels.19 These are frequently byproducts of social media use.

[ Valid recording ] “ There's something funny going on around here”20

C22H37NO2 parasites Instagram as an exhibiting platform.21 Data content here is created without payment while extracting users’ affective value.
The self adopts the platform’s hashtagged language and an approach of a brand to be
promoted. The personal analytics succumb to idealized standards and the quantified data
is flattened to wellness industry aesthetics. It advocates growth goals and lifestyle ideals.

The sky is blue
Yes
The sky is blue
Yes
The sky is blue
Yes
The sky is blue
Yes
And the water is wet22

Quantifying the breath as a fundamental derivative of life leads to a question: can we quantify life itself?

 

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