#edcmooc POPULAR CULTURES: Bendito Machine III, Inbox and Thursday.

1:  BENDITO MACHINE III

What is this film suggesting are the ecological and social implications of an obsession or fixation on technology?

Society demands technological devices for different purposes: it mainly provides entertainment, it also guides ourselves in our daily life: technology substitute going out for entertainment, doing sport, learning, looking for information- you do not need to look for it anymore, devices as internet or television also selects what you must watch or learn, therefore it also provides you the knowledge some consider you need (the video does not show who or what is behind the machines, it is presented as a divine being). As new technologies appear faster and faster, we feel the necessity to consume more and more, so we throw obsolete devices to buy new ones which implies mass production and therefore, the depletion our natural resources. Mass production means lots of factories manufacturing for tonnage consumers, and as a result, pollution and a world which not many resources left.

Do the film’s characters have any choice in relation to their technologies?

I think they do. They can always continue with their lives as they were before, at the beginning of the film. As their lives go on along with technology, they get used to it, they feel they really need it, they adapt their lives to technological devices and I do not think they even think in the possibility of having a choice. The fact that a supernatural being is the one which/who offers these machines to humans is also interesting as a rejection of traditional values being substituted by technological rites. This also leads to a further discussion: can we consider technology as the new belief in the 21^st century?

What are the characteristics of various technologies as portrayed in this film?

Independent and autonomous machines. Machines with personality. Anthropomorphic devices with their own will and power.

2: INBOX

Depending on how you interpret the relationship between the two main characters, and the ending, you might argue that this is a utopian account, or a dystopian one - what do you think, and why?

As it is said in the question, this video can be seen from a utopian or dystopian point of view. I think I could argue both, the advantages or disadvantages of social networks or digital devices we use to communicate. According to the story, the main characters are able to communicate and interact thanks to technology, depicted as a magic red bag. Humans have got adapted to this situation, to this way of communication and for most of us, social networks and technology is also a widely accepted tool to create links. Technology has brought a new way of creating new relationships as acceptable as the ones we normally create in real life.

The dystopian point of view in my opinion rises when the boy accidentally tears the “bag”. In this case, technology does not fulfill its purpose and there is a communication breakdown. So, some may say that technology can never substitute human face-to-face relationships and that we should not depend on technology, that technology should serve us and not the other way round.

3: THURSDAY.

What message is the film presenting about technology? What losses and gains are described? Who or what has ‘agency’ in this film? [agency is the capacity of an agent (a person or other entity, human or any living being in general, or soul-consciousness in religion) to act in a world]

Since we wake up until we go to bed (and at the beginning of the video, even while we sleep), we are surrounded by digital devices. Technology is present in our daily life at all times. The video pictures a perfect harmony between nature and technology in a sense you can even distinguish them (described when the bird imitates the ringtone of the mobile phone). The video shows a checked pattern most of the time: the pattern of the duvet, buildings from above, floors, computer or television screens and offices.

People are depicted as automats or robots serving a global system ruled by technology.

I think this video shows just the opposite of most dystopian narratives. It shows a technological world in which a strange agent changes the system. The odd element in a technological world is depicted by a weak little bird, a metaphor of the natural world, where humankind really belongs to. Nature, as being represented by such a small and a priori weak animal, shows all its power bringing down such a powerful technological system, system which made humans slaves and dependents.  People serve the system but it is also completely dependent. The sunlight through the window annoys the man who is working with his computer and he also has to pay to enjoy the views from a tower. People in the video do not accept nature as part of themselves, they do not consider themselves as part of it but a part of a system and a network as they have become alienated beings.

For all these reasons here, I think the system itself is the one who has agency in the video.

As I was watching the videos, a lot of ideas popped in my mind. One of those ones is the one which follows, related to learning and understanding from reality.

We live in a digital era and our understanding, our view of reality and even reading has changed. In the past, people from the Western world used to read from left to right and reality was seen like that, that was our system to “understand and read” the world. We were the agents and it was our duty to find the input we needed. Nowadays, I think that pattern has changed: we are not agents anymore, we are passive beings and we receive the input via “flashes”: images from television or computer screens, interactive media, digital devices such as mobile phones and tablets or audio formats . Digital world has even changed that system and I really think schools should adapt new students´ needs to their teaching systems. The way we learn and get information has changed so we also need to change the way we present information so communication and learning can be successful.