Artefact: Danbo’s day out

A crossover tale. In a world of familiar and strange illusions, a robot dreams some of his own.

The defining feature of virtual reality is not the sophistication of its underlying technology but the quality of presence it creates. This broader meaning is the take off point for this video, a nudge towards a more imaginative design of online courses, which in themselves are virtual environments. Far too many online courses, I think, are as desolate as the sprawling server farms which host them. They are hollow places of learning.

What is real and what is virtual? Rooted in neither, the robot straddles both, mimicking the blurring of boundaries that Haraway celebrates in the Cyborg Manifesto. This sense of dislocation is positive, offering possibility and opportunity, rekindling imagination to plant seeds of wonder and delight in learning online.

2 comments

  1. Jeremy Knox says:

    Amazing film Ed! A real visual treat. The final scene really got me thinking about animal/technology/human hybrids – the animals seemed to be fused with various media technologies, and the main character appeared to be much more relaxed in their presence than in front of the computer screen. Was this final gathering some kind of posthuman education I wonder?

    • Ed Guzman says:

      Thanks very much Jeremy! That’s a wonderful way to interpret the ending. Maybe this part-menagerie part-gadget dump can even allude to an education that, for example, addresses the needs of the entire planet (other species, the environment, etc.) instead of human societies only. And perhaps an example closer to online learning, a posthumanist view would look at how the physical design of our devices (mobiles getting thinner, computers getting lighter) affect how we learn, a perspective that sees human and technology mingling, the material having agency.

      The revolving camera also suggests that humans are not at the centre, I realise now. To be honest, I never thought of this post humanist interpretation myself, and certainly not when I was making the video. Thanks for bringing this up and helping me make the link to the educational context.

      Thanks, this is an a-ha moment for me!

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