Writings

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Overview

A collection of writings (my own and others' writings I've edited) from the last couple of years.

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Reflections on the Chain (April 2022)

• Role: Writer
• For: Master's Blockchain Aesthetics Course
• Abstract: Some collected thoughts on blockchain aesthetics, crypto art/culture, and the financialization of the world.

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NYU ITP's Adjacent Journal - Issue 9: Rituals (March 2022)

• Role: Managing Editor
• Editors' Note: For all of us, it has been a year of learning how to come back together, slowly and repeatedly. In times of both separation and union, we’ve turned to practices that mark time and bring connection. Rituals have been part of every human society and culture: rituals of birth, marriage, coming of age, death. What role do rituals play today? Do we still need them? What do they grant us now?The word ritual often conjures spiritual, religious, or occult context – such as witchcraft , ceremonies, sacraments. Today it also applies to the more mundane: any established or repetitive behavior, usually with some functional purpose. We all have our own unique approach to ritual. Our latest issue draws attention to the activities that structure and give meaning to our lives, celebrating their diversity and nuances (and sometimes their absurdity). From making offerings to the full moon once a month to repairing old kiddie rides, we invite you to explore our contributors’ takes on this perennial theme of being human.

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Speculative Neurotechnology-based Performance Reviews: Ethical Concerns (January 2022)

• Role: Writer, Researcher
• For: Master's Ethics, Public Policy and Emerging Technology Course
• Abstract: The following report analyzes the technological, ethical, and public policy considerations of the potential use of intelligent neurotechnology (INT)-based neuropsychological evaluations of employees’ performance at the tech giant Meta. These assessments would replace Meta’s current system for determining employees’ value toward the overall success of the company, and for thereby making decisions about their employment, promotability, and job roles. With its wide range of interdisciplinary R&D resources, Meta is in a favorable position to implement this innovation. However, possible downsides include numerous red flags regarding the efficacy, legality, and equitability of this neurotechnology use case.

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Neurorights Literature Review (January 2022)

• Role: Writer, Researcher
• For: Master's Ethics, Public Policy and Emerging Technology Course
• Abstract: As a longtime amateur researcher of psychology and neuroscience, and increasingly a professional one, with my recent projects exploring extended reality (XR) and brain computer interface (BCI) applications to mental health, I’m curious about the legal and policy contexts of the research, products, and services emerging from this intersection of disciplines and technologies. A leading question I carry with me is: What are the ethical implications of intervening more directly and powerfully in the functioning of humans’ minds, brains, and behaviors? Also, what are protocols that can guide the work being done in this area toward ethical and holistic health outcomes? To begin to flesh out this inquiry, I’ve researched eight relevant articles and book chapters and identified three themes: the novelty of this tech and its transformative powers; associated human rights issues; and the need for multi-stakeholder representation.

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NYU ITP's Adjacent Journal - Issue 8: Disembodiment (October 2021)

• Role: Editor
• Pieces I edited:
• 404 This Art Does Not Exist - Artist Owen Roberts collects series of screenshots from various missing art works – aka “dead art links” – in an attempt to patch together a timeline of when they were published, when they may have disappeared, and possibly even why they were left to die.
• Layer by Layer, A Study of Scale - A collection of digital sketches experimenting with our physical experiences of time.
• Daily Dividuals / One Man Band - One Man Band, as the latest issue of the art project Daily Dividuals, is a fantasy monologue in which “one” exists as a collective of his/her digital and physical doppelgängers who are trapped in a monotonous daily routine.
• Shadowplay - Databending and film lend structure to this nonlinear interactive essay on scientific interpretation, appropriating the sociocultural metaphors of the microbiome to contemplate the nature of evolution. Twenty experiments are weft with queries on the theater of truth-telling.
• A Slice of Shared Self - Here’s a slice of our shared self in the eyes of an AI, reflected off an algorithmically aligned/mis-aligned collective of camera feeds, including yours in real time.
• Cybernetics of Sex Webzine - The Cybernetics of Sex Webzine is a shifting pool. A collection of ephemera, projects, questions, and reflections that were part of our Fall 2020 ITP class, “Cybernetics of Sex: Technology, Feminisms, & the Choreography of Control.”

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Mindfulness and Transformation Technologies (January - March 2021)

• Role: Writer
• For: Master's Mindfulness and Transformative Technologies Course
• Week 2 Reflection
• Week 3 Reflection
• Week 4 Reflection
• Week 5 Reflection
• Week 6 Reflection
• Class Description: Transformative technologies (a.k.a. Transtech) are the wave of the future, yet many challenges remain before their use can become as effective and widespread as that of personal computers and cell phones today. This course will introduce students to this exciting field, starting with the examination of the potential for optimizing experience through mindfulness and meditation, the understanding of basic issues in obtaining and interpreting physiological signals, toward the aim of generating ideas for wearable transtech projects. Students will examine the ideas behind efforts to optimize human experience; practice different meditation techniques to experience the variety of cognitive and affective strategies they use and the varied effects they generate; explore the basic issues in obtaining and interpreting physiological data, and the use of brain stimulation methods such as TMS, dTCS, etc., and use this info to come up with ideas for wearable transtech devices.

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ITP Personal Statement (December 2019)

• Role: Writer
• For: Admission to NYU ITP
• Three Questions Shaping My Artistic Direction:
• How can new distributed technologies shape policy and evolve social movements?
• What organs of perception, forgotten or yet uncovered, may be awakened by emerging media?
• What is emerging media’s role in promoting behavioral health?

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The Cyborg Comes Home: Feminism and Virtual Reality (May 2019)

• Role: Writer,
• For: Undergrad Intro to Feminist Philosophy Course
• Thesis: Despite their built-in masculine design metaphors, virtual reality worlds can embody feminist philosophical values of relationality, embodiment, and reflexivity, and thereby contribute to the epistemic repertoire of feminist philosophical aims.