This brief video discusses how our senses are too limited to perceive everything is going on. The video suggests that technology has begun to form a sixth sense for us, one that tunes us into a reality that we cannot perceive with our own senses. Bizarre.
qualcommsparks. "The Digital Sixth Sense." Youtube. 11 September 2012 Web
When I typed "meta-reality" into youtube, what I found was not exactly what I was expecting. These glasses are not using the term in the same way as the assigned readings, but they function in a fascinating way. The cyber reality functions similarly to how we navigate our touch screens, but rather than being confined by the screen, this product gives the illusion that it's projections are a part of one's 3d landscape.
Globetrendy. "Trying on meta-reality glasses." Youtube, 14 November 2013. Web
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rj9nMJq1Vk
This story covers the "human power movement." These ideas were created as a push back against the convenience of many technical advancements. Although convenience and efficiency are generally good things, some believe that it makes the body (the fleshy human one) become weak and soft. The story highlights different bizarre ways folks are approaching this design problem.
Sharpe, Jennifer. "Rejecting Tech, Some Opting For Human Power." NPR.com, September 7, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112622695
An interesting TED talk by Neil Harbisson, a man who is completely color-blind. He built himself a device with a camera which reads color, and translates the colors into different frequencies. He considers the device to be an extension of his brain, part of his cyborg self. Eventually he was able to train his brain to hear more colors than normal human beings can even "see," and in essence is able to tell more about his surroundings than a normal person.
http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color
Harbisson, Neil. "I Listen to Color." Ted.com, video. Filmed June 2012, accessed March 2014. http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color
I followed some links from the net.art year in review reading assigned, clicked around, and found this cool collection. Stolen fragments of famous pieces of art. Although the documentation was of course displayed and shared via web, what connects it to the topic of internet art seems to be the concept of fragments. That though having a piece of rock from a famous piece of art may not be much, when collected together these fragments form a commentary on something bigger, perhaps the absurd "value" Deshamps (for instance) objects are set at.
Though the internet art we have been reading about is related directly to activism, I was trying to think of whether I can think of any modern internet art in any form. What came to mind first, at least in the main-stream(ish) realm is the fairly recent trend of google poetics. Basically the concept is that when you start typing a word or a phrase into google, it's suggestions will appear in a drop down menu. Often humorous, if looked at in the arena of poetry they can be awfully profound.