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1.4 MB
Extraction Summary
5
People
3
Organizations
2
Locations
1
Events
2
Relationships
4
Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Biographical profile / academic summary (house oversight committee document)
File Size:
1.4 MB
Summary
This document is a biographical summary or academic profile of Caroline A. Jones, an art historian at MIT. It details her academic focus on the intersection of art, technology, and cybernetics, specifically describing her course 'Automata, Automatism, Systems, Cybernetics.' The text explores her philosophical views on 'left' versus 'right' cybernetics and references historical figures like Wiener, Shannon, and Turing. The document bears a House Oversight Committee bates stamp.
People (5)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Caroline A. Jones | Art Historian / MIT Faculty |
Subject of the profile, discussing her academic interests in art, technology, and cybernetics.
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| Wiener | Scientist/Author |
Referenced as primary reading material (Norbert Wiener).
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| Shannon | Scientist/Author |
Referenced as primary reading material (Claude Shannon).
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| Turing | Scientist/Author |
Referenced as primary reading material (Alan Turing).
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| Dave Kaiser | Author/Academic |
Referenced by Jones regarding the term 'hippie physicists'.
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Organizations (3)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| MIT |
Institution where Caroline A. Jones teaches her course.
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| Esalen |
Mentioned in the context of 'Left Coast' and 'left cybernetics'.
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| House Oversight Committee |
Source of the document (implied by footer stamp).
|
Timeline (1 events)
Ongoing (at time of writing)
Locations (2)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
|
Mentioned as part of the 'Left Coast' definition.
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Colloquial term used to describe the political grouping of 'left cybernetics'.
|
Relationships (2)
Jones cites Kaiser's term 'hippie physicists'.
Text mentions 'Her MIT course'.
Key Quotes (4)
"As an art historian, a lot of my questions are about what kind of art we can make, what kind of thought we can make, what kind of ideas we can make that could stretch the human beyond our stubborn, selfish, ‘only concerned with our small group’ parameters."Source
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Quote #1
"Her goal: to come up with a new central paradigm of evolution that’s culture-based—'communalism and interspecies symbiosis rather than survival of the fittest.'"Source
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Quote #2
"What do I mean by left cybernetics? In one sense, it’s a pun or a joke: the cybernetics that was ‘left’ behind."Source
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Quote #3
"It’s not an adequate term, but it’s a way of recognizing that there was a group beholden to the military-industrial complex, sometimes very unhappily, who gave us the tools to critique it."Source
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Quote #4
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (1,917 characters)
Caroline A. Jones’ interest in modern and contemporary art is enriched by a willingness to delve into the technologies involved in its production, distribution, and reception. “As an art historian, a lot of my questions are about what kind of art we can make, what kind of thought we can make, what kind of ideas we can make that could stretch the human beyond our stubborn, selfish, ‘only concerned with our small group’ parameters. The philosophers and philosophies I’m drawn to are those that question the Western obsession with individualism. Those are coming from so many different places, and they’re reviving so many different kinds of questions and problems that were raised in the 1960s.”
She has recently turned her attention to the history of cybernetics. Her MIT course, “Automata, Automatism, Systems, Cybernetics,” explores the history of the human/machine interface in terms of feedback, exploring the cultural rather than engineering uptake of this idea. She begins with primary readings by Wiener, Shannon, and Turing and then pivots from the scientists and engineers to the work and ideas of artists, feminists, postmodern theorists. Her goal: to come up with a new central paradigm of evolution that’s culture-based—“communalism and interspecies symbiosis rather than survival of the fittest.”
As a historian, Caroline draws a distinction between what she has termed “left cybernetics” and “right cybernetics”: “What do I mean by left cybernetics? In one sense, it’s a pun or a joke: the cybernetics that was ‘left’ behind. On another level, it’s a vague political grouping connoting our Left Coast: California, Esalen, the group that Dave Kaiser calls the ‘hippie physicists.’ It’s not an adequate term, but it’s a way of recognizing that there was a group beholden to the military-industrial complex, sometimes very unhappily, who gave us the tools to critique it.”
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