Roaming the CosmosExplosion and Implosion in the Electronic Consciousness and

Space TimeYunju Agreen WangTemple University

What is Relationship between Media, Consciousness, Space, and Time?

Electronic Consciousness

Oshii, M. (2004). Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

• The Metaphor of the Video– Electronic consciousness is born out of

voids. – Electric light connects, composes,

transmits, and filters information in the virtual consciousness.

– Implosion brings the atoms and energy for the further expansion of the electronic consciousness, the light world.

Electronic Consciousness

• Plato—the Allegory of the Cave– Prisoners are chained in a cave and only

allowed to watch shadows on the wall.– One prisoner breaks the shackle and

escapes to the upper bright world, where he finds shadows are only projections of things through light.

– Light serves as the ultimate source to enlighten individuals to find the truth.

Search For Light

• Bacon—New Atlantis– Bacon describes a faraway utopia island

where residents are urged to acquire light.

– In the book, Bacon repeatedly links searching for knowledge of nature with seeking for light.

– Light is not just a precondition for truth; it also implies that light is a carrier of information.

Search For Light

• McLuhan—Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man– The electric light is “pure information without

a message” (p. 8). – The electric light precipitates large quantities

of information transmission within seconds.– The electric light annihilates time and space

and seems to integrate human consciousness in the network as the external extension.

Search For Light

• Guy Debord—Society of the Spectacle– Authentic human life has been

systematically replaced by mass media representation.

–Mediated images and signs have supplanted meanings and truth.

– Human society steps into “total light” , where “passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity” (Debord, 1957).

Search For Light

Search For Light

• “Total Light”—Light is reality.

• Vanishing point is reversed and disappears in humankind’s eyes and consciousness.

• The external consciousness crushes individual inner thinking; the boundary between the electronic consciousness and reality becomes fuzzy.

• Visual glamour of the spectacle hastens individual to react to light without deep consideration—React with action.

Information Implosion

• 6,000 years ago, according to the shadow of sun, Babylonians first invented Sundial to record time.

• In roughly AD 850, people in Chaco Canyon crafted a petroglyph called Sun Dagger to mark the cycles of the sun.

• During the 13th century in Europe, the prototype mechanical clock appeared.

• The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

Information Implosion— Human Time Is Accelerated

The electric light replaces sunshine to display time.

Sundial and sun dagger use sun light to measure time

Information Implosion— Human Time Is Accelerated

• Apollo 8—Orbits the Moon– Capture the light from the earth

• Hubble Space Telescope—Extension of Human Eyes to see the Universe – Retrieve light from the outer space

• Hubble Deep Space Field—Probe Deep Voids in the Universe.

Explosion—Expansion to the Universe

• The Cosmic Clock—Pick Up Light That is Travelling at the Speed of Light Years.

• Light years duration substitutes for immediate transmission. .

• Is it possible for humankind to restore the cosmic time in the “total light” society?

Explosion—Slowing Down Time?

Implosion ExplosionPlato’s Allegory of Cave

Shadows Projected on the Wall through Fire

The Outer Light Restore the Understanding of the Universe

Bacon’s New Atlantis

Acquire Light=Reach Knowledge of Nature

McLuhan’s Understanding Media

Light Is “Pure Information without A Message”

Debord’s Society of the Spectacle

“Total Light”

Electric Light Internet Galaxy; Instant Transmission; Annihilation of Time and Space

Vast Cosmos; Search for Voids

Time Split Seconds Light Years

Implosion & Explosion

• The clock lasts for 10, 000 years.• Every Tick for One Year; Cuckoo comes

out every millennium.• One tick in the electronic

consciousness is permanent lyprolonged here.

• Can this clock merge deep time with fast time, comic clock with electronic clock?

Clock of the Long Now

• Electronic Consciousness VS. Boundless Cosmos.

• Instant Transmission in the Internet Galaxy VS. Capture Light Travelling through Light Years.

• Information Saturation VS. Voids Retrieved.

• Visual Glamour VS. “Poetically Dwells Man Upon This Earth” (Heidegger, 1977, p. 34).

Discussion: Implosion VS. Explosion