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Academics – Page 57 – Life as an Extreme Sport
Life as an Extreme Sport

the camera eye

I’ve been spending some time thinking about photography, since I hope to do a photo project in the upcoming weeks. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the difference between the digital camera and a film camera. I mean, yes, there’s the obvious difference, and then there’s the ability to erase with a digital camera. You can take the picture until you’re satisfied with it; some would consider this a bonus, others (say, Zizek) would likely argue that it’s allowing a representational reality to flourish. But what I was specifically thinking about tonight was how a digital versus film camera is used. A TV commercial, adveristing Wal*Mart’s online film processing (upload your digital pictures to pick up film in store in an hour), was showing a mother photographing her child by holding the digital camera away from her, so that she could see what was on the screen instead of looking through the “viewfinder”. You can’t do this with a film camera; you have to hold a film camera to your eye, and to allow the camera to become an extension of you. All you see is through the camera; with a digital, you still see the outside world as you take the picture; it’s no longer an augmentation of self, but a mere tool. It changes the function and purpose, and I wonder how it changes the use.

The 2005 Summer Institute in the Humanities

For health reasons, it was necessary for me to stop blogging for a while. That’s hopefully under enough control that I can get back to this. And with that, I should like to state that I was recently awarded a Mary Gates Endowment to attend the 2005 Summer Institute in the Humanities. In addition, I am also a Mary Gates Scholar, and will be a participant in the next Undergraduate Research Symposium at UW.

Perhaps self-evident, but this is what’s going to be (and really, already has been) on my mind for a while.

First Paper of the Quarter

I had to turn in my first paper of the quarter today, and, if I do say so myself, it sucked. If I was grading it, I wouldn’t fail myself, but I would strongly suggest a rewrite, a better attention to detail, and to not cover quite so much in the paper. I’m trying to remind myself that I didn’t know until last night that it was due, having basically left for a conference immediately after getting all the class syllabi for the quarter. Still, I’m a smidge of a perfectionist, and unhappy about it.

If you’re really masochistic, you can read the paper here. I gave it some suitably pretentious title, something like “Ghost Outside the Machine: Emergent Functionalism as an Option” or somesuch. Good title, at least – maybe I’ll pursue the concept in my final paper.

MHE 497 Final Project Proposal

This quarter I have had the opportunity to take a lab class that is directly related to Humanities 102. The concept for the course is “Eye and Mind” and it is focused on the interaction and division between science and the arts, and whether or not there actually is such a thing. I’m actually functioning as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the course, working with an interdisciplinary professor from the Comparative History of Ideas and a researcher from the School of Medicine. As part of this lab work, we have been growing human bone cells in vitro. As the quarter has progressed, my research project has moved away from bone cells and towards genetic sequencing, leaving me with the dilemma of what to do with the cells I’ve been growing. For now, other students have had a need for them, which is wonderful, but what ultimately happens at “the end”?

This train of thought led me to the Japanese Mizuko Kuyo ritual, performed for stillborn, miscarried, and aborted fetuses. Some information from one of many, many websites:

In Japan, the mizuko jizo Buddha takes care of and represents stillborn, miscarried and aborted foetuses. Unique to Japan, the ceremonies surrounding the jizo were created and developed by women. Over the centuries, the image of the mizuko jizo has changed, from a dignified, adult figure, to a serene looking monk-child with a Buddha smile. The jizo has a double purpose. The image both represents the soul of the deceased infant/foetus, and is also the deity who takes care of children on their otherworld journey. The ritual of honouring the foetus or stillborn is called mizuko kuyo. The word mizuko means “water child,” or “deceased infant/foetus,” and kuyo means “memorial service.”

In Japan, water is both an acknowledgement of death and an expression of faith in some kind of rebirth. When the foetus or newborn dies, it goes from the warm waters of the womb to its former liquid state, in which it prepares itself for an eventual rebirth.

For my final project, I would like to answer the question of the ethical implications of a broader, Mahayana Buddhist, mizuko kuyo-influenced ceremony or ritual for those working in laboratory settings. What would the ritual look like? Is it ethical to perform religious rituals over tissue and genetic material of someone belonging to a different faith? Is there an ethical way to incorporate more respectfully religious action in a research clinic environment, and is it necessary in the first place?

I envision this as a combined project, both artistic and a written paper. The written paper will address the questions above, while the artistic component will be an example of the type of ritual one might expect from a Mahayana Buddhist, from the appropriate bodhisattva image to the offerings left to the statue.

I will be starting with B. Alan Wallace’s book on Buddhism and Science, as well as McGrath’s Science and Religion. Branching out, I expect I will utilize resources from the Mind Life Institute and the local Buddhist community for more information on the religious aspect of my project. Dr. Elizabeth Rutledge will assist me in finding a starting point for the science and scientific research that will need to be done.