Blog # 5

Blog #5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRbzJ0L1Zn8&feature=related

The object I have chosen for this week’s blog assignment is the Porsche 911 sports car. The specific advertisement that I have selected, which can be found by following the link, supports what Lupton said in the assigned reading regarding a few of the different ideologies about the computer/ user relationship. The ideologies that can be transposed onto the Porsche commercial are the notions of the disembodied computer user and the humanized computer.

In the reading it is mentioned that a popular subject of debate in the computer world is the potential offered by computers for humans to escape the body, that embodiment is often represented as an unfortunate barrier to interaction and that the demands of the fleshly body compel computer users to distract themselves from their pursuit.

In the commercial a young child sits bored in a classroom. He gazes out the window catches a glimpse of the Porsche and becomes completely enamored by its sleek design. Unable to look away the car absorbs his every being. Only an event in the real world is able to bring him back. It is as if he leaves his body but because of his current embodiment, that of a small child who doesn’t own a car, is unable to interact with it. His pursuit is further hindered by the demands of the fleshly body when he is reprimanded by his teacher for not paying attention in class.

He hustles to the Porsche dealership where he is allowed to sit in the car, momentarily escaping his body. I believe this is depicted in the heavy sigh and again when he asks the car salesman for a business card and suggests he will return in 20 years (when he has a new body).

In my example the car takes the place of the computer (the hard textured object) and is depicted in a warm, pristine, almost unearthly quality. Sports cars are typically anthropomorphized as female and in this commercial it is no different. The Porsche is humanized by the child’s reaction in the commercial. He is portrayed as having an irrepressible passion for the car that leaves him basically empty, or at the least unfulfilled without his ultimate companion, the Porsche. Another viewer of this commercial, metagear89 shares my opinion as evidenced in his humorous but still informative comment of, “The kid became a drug dealer and got a Porsche in 10 years instead of waiting 20 years. Sarcastic, but it acknowledges the overwhelming desire for the car that is captured in the portrayal.


The most significant thing I have learned this semester is about the digital divide. The reading that was most informative was:
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/967/888