Reading 2
Due Monday, Sept 17th
History of Leisure PDF
Second Life URLs:
Prim Perfect Magazine (flip thru PDF) www.primperfect.net/mag/summer07.pdf
Linden Lifestyles http://lindenlifestyles.com
My Virtual Life (Business Week) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm
Please address the questions below in your 350-word reading response:
1) Explain what Gelber means by “disguised affirmation”.
2) Give an example of “flow” within the context of leisure or labor.
3) After reading Gelber’s text, can Second Life be considered a “hobby”? why or why not?
4) What do you think would be a good class project to create in Second Life?
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1. When Gelber uses the phrase “disguised affirmation” he is referring to the idea that we seek fulfillment in activities pertaining to our work outside of its constraints. For example, in my work experience I used to be a digital photo re-toucher for a company that produced finely printed images from family photos to fine art photos. The skills I acquired there were a semi-complete knowledge of Photoshop and its inner workings. The job was entirely unsatisfying and somewhat spirit killing, and yet I took those skills acquired there and began applying them to my own work and production outside of the constraints of that work environment, only to find the satisfaction I needed in that job Work and leisure intermingled to the degree it affected my life outside of the work building.
2. The concept of “flow” is a little different than disguised affirmation. It addresses how we might perform in the work environment. In my example above I talked about being a re-toucher. In that experience the process of re-touching was broken down into specific time increments that determined how long any given picture should take to edit. For example a basic retouch (ie zit removal and skin tone evening) should take 8 min. or less where as an object removal (dependant on size) should take 12 min. The challenge of conforming to the time constraints while calling upon my specific skill set put me in a zone of production, or flow, that more or less made it possible to perform my job throughout the day. Something else that made that also made it possible, in my opinion, was the fact that I also listened to music at the same time. The job was more automatic do to the fact that the music allowed me to zone in and out and sometimes pay less attention to the actions, making me rely upon the trained movement I had learned. Without those constraints posed by the work environment there was less flow. When I worked at home the tendency to take longer or get distracted was greater, making it impossible to really achieve a flow of any kind.
3. The question of whether or not second life is leisure or not is something that I feel would be personal. For me it would be recreation due to the fact that it is not an experience that I have in my work environment and in the end leads to no actual gains or losses. It is a game that may replicate life actions in choices, but the fact is that you can be anyone and do things that may not be things you would do in you life. It is for entertainment only. I see it as separate from working, therefore qualifying as leisure.
Katerina
1. “Disguised affirmation” is what Gelber calls hobbies. Hobbies were done as a leisure activity, an escape from work, but at that same time use skills and values that are learned at a workplace. The basic structure of work and capitalism and ideologies of society is replicated in certain activates that people do for leisure without them realizing it.
2. Gelber describes “flow” as a feeling of “euphoric concentration” someone can get after completing a great challenge using all their skills. It is like mixture of pride and satisfaction but greater. People take on certain hobbies that give them a sense of flow, such as the mountain climber that Gelber mentions, but it can also happen in the workplace.
3. Second life can be considered and hobby and to some people it has even become their work. While people play the game in their leisure time to escape “real life” they bring their social values and skills into the game in the way that they play and interact with other players. In the game you need money so people can use the skills that they learned from their jobs in the game. Such as a businessman might create his own business in the game, or someone that works as a game designer/programmer might make stuff for the game. The idea of compensation can also apply to Second Life, maybe the businessman works for someone else at his real job but in the game he owns the business and the game designer gets to make what he wants instead of what is required at his job.
4. When we start playing the game it would be interesting to see the kinds of stuff people end up doing and how closely it reflects what they do in their real life.
1) Explain what Gelber means by “disguised affirmation”.
Gelber’s term “disguised affirmation” explains the behavior of replicating the positive intrinsic feelings generated by accomplishing work through leisure activities. Taken literally, the term means just that - “affirmation,” or a positive statement or truth, “disguised” by the process of work or the action peformed in a hobby or leisurely activity. Disguised affirmation provides us with a way to feel as though we have accomplished something important or positive, a sense of fulfillment and self-value.
2) Give an example of “flow” within the context of leisure or labor.
Flow is described by Gelber as a “transcendent experience” which occurs when people engage in self-directed activities that optimally use all of their skills to the fullest. Flow is a positive state of being which helps a person accomplish the task at hand. In the context of labor, I have experienced a flow-like state in my work as a computer support technician. This type of work is typically performed by one person, with a well-defined goal in mind, i.e., returning a computer to a specific state of proper functioning. I often find that while working on repairs, I am in a state where I can effectively “tune out” other activity in the room and focus entirely on the task at hand. In this state, I feel that I can function “automatically,” without much guidance, in order to achieve my goal. I don’t need to pause and consider what steps to take next, because I already have some predefined mental concept of how to achieve an end result and the steps can only flow in one logical order. One specific example of working in this state would be “imaging” the lecture hall computers, which is a process by which the computers are all formatted and “cleaned” to a newly-installed state. Following this process, certain settings need to be applied in a specific order and certain software needs to be added to certain rooms. The process becomes automatic through my knowledge of computers and my knowledge of the desired end result.
3) After reading Gelber’s text, can Second Life be considered a “hobby”? why or why not?
I feel that Second Life’s categorization as a hobby depends primarily on the way it is being used. Since Second Life has no defined end result, its use is entirely dependent on the desires of the user. If a user chooses to use Second Life solely as a business endeavor, with only the intent of making money, then it might be considered work. If they choose to use it because the action brings them some type of pleasure, then it might be considered a hobby. As the uses of the system vary and change exponentially, so too must its definition as a “hobby” or “work” activity.
4) What do you think would be a good class project to create in Second Life?
I think it would be interesting to try and create, distribute, and promote (and potentially find some way to track or follow the use of within the Second Life world) a unique “fad” item. In the real world, items like iPods and other gadgets are incredibly popular, but it’s hard to think of an object that would be as useful or necessary in the virtual world. These types of items are often seen as status symbols, and I think it would be interesting to find out what could be considered a “status” symbol in a world that doesn’t always (and doesn’t need to) obey the “rules” of what is true and logical. What would the value of such an item be? Who would buy it? Why?
1) Gelber defined disguised affirmation by saying that hobbies “gained wide acceptance because they could condemn depersonalized factory and office work by compensating for its deficits while simultaneously replicating both the skills and the values of the workplace.” In other words, people were strengthening the skills they needed for their job by using them somehow along with a hobby or vice versa. Gelber gives a short example about the women in the early 19th century and how they took on hobbies that helped them practice and understand work-like activities. The biggest difference between working a job and having a hobby is when it’s done. “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” (Mark Twain) An individual does not get to choose when they would like to work, when things need to get done. Some one tells them and even though that individual may not need to work, they are forced to or face the consequence of losing their job.
2) I have two personal examples of flow because I interpreted it in two different ways. The first happened when I used to work concessions at a baseball stadium. It was constantly busy and I used to cook food and serve ice cream to customers. There were nights when I would get a song stuck in my head that went perfectly with the beat I was working at and totally zoned out. This helped me accomplish everything I needed in the fastest time possible without ever realizing that my body was exhausted and feeling like I wanted to go home. The second example is when I play soccer. I go into a state where everything comes naturally. I’m not thinking too much or trying to hard, it just happens.
3) I believe that Second Life could both be work and leisure, depending on the individual and the situation. I now very little about Second Life (hearing about it for the first time in class) but what I understand is that people can actually create new things from scratch and sell them to other players. I would think Second Life is leisure because it is not something people are obliged to do. On the other hand, there might be companies and people out there who take it upon themselves to create new things in the game and sell them for real cash (i.e. the space station I mentioned on the ‘cool site of the day’). If this becomes a main source of income, then it does become work. Even if the individual started out the ‘job’ because it was great as a hobby, it has now become a job because if it were lost, so would their income.
4) I don’t know much about Second Life but would be glad to discuss other’s ideas in class.
Ashley Rose
1. Gelber describes disguised affirmation as hiding the work related skills and values of liesurely activities such as hobbies. Disguised affirmation helps to give worth to a seemingly stressful job by giving leisurely qualities.
2. “Flow” is described as a state of concentration. Gelber says that this state is reached when there is an optimal relationship between skill and challenge. He goes on to say that “flow” is often not reached in leisurely activities because they pose little to no challenge, but occurs more often in work because it requires more skill and challenge to accomplish ones task. The best example I could come up with is in sports. During a soccer match or football game or some other athletic event one tends to concentrate fully on the ball, the score, the defense, and anything else involved in the game. Outside influences play little to no roll once someone has entered this state of “flow”.
3. Because of the nature of Second Life its hard to determine if it can be considered a hobby or not. I would personally say that it is intended to be a hobby and to most people it is a hobby. However there are the select few that turn Second Life into a second or primary job, thus making it not a hobby. People will use Second Life, much like many other online games, to make money by creating and selling equipment and goods in game for real cash outside of the game. They use SL as a job and play it to make money to survive. To those people it is not a hobby, but to the people who play a few hours a week and get on to enjoy their free time, it is a hobby.
4. One interesting idea that comes to mind is to figure out if there is a way to make an online business that could specialize in one certain product. The product could be non-complex, but see over the span of a few weeks how popular this product could become.
-Scott
1) Explain what Gelber means by “disguised affirmation”.
According to Gelber, disguised affirmation is the act of applying skills learned through work in leisurely activities. The theory here is that we seek personal fulfillment from work.
2) Give an example of “flow” within the context of leisure or labor.
Gelber’s concept of flow is a self-induced state of increased efficiency. As an example, I used to work as a file clerk for a medical supply company. It was an incredibly dull job, and if I wasn’t paying attention, I could end wasting hours on end by working at a slow, lethargic pace. Ultimately, I discovered that if I listened to fast paced music, I would actually develop a rhythm in tune with the music and get everything done much faster, making the work day much more satisfying.
3) After reading Gelber’s text, can Second Life be considered a “hobby”? Why or why not?
For a lot of people, yes, it can definitely be considered a hobby. Virtual objects can be created for personal satisfaction using potentially work related design skills, with no ultimate material gain. Then there are, of course, people who create a livelihood out of Second Life, eliminating its status as a hobby.
4) What do you think would be a good class project to create in Second Life?
It seems like two biggest markets in Second Life are furry and x-rated. Not really my, uh, cup of tea personally, but I do find the entire furry sub-culture pretty fascinating. I think delving into the world of furries could be interesting, but things like this often only seem like a good idea until you’re stuck in the middle of some horrifying world of fur and scales.
I do not have any particularly fond memories of unfortunate and accidental furry encounters.
1) Explain what Gelber means by “disguised affirmation”.
“Disguised Affirmation allows participants to think about an activity as leisure-time recreation while it functions as a form of ideological re-creation.” Hobbies are an example of this because to the participant they are a refuge from the demands of the workplace (in industrial 19th cent.), but they also mimic skills and values of the workplace such as work ethic and free market.
2) Give an example of “flow” within the context of leisure or labor.
An example of “flow” within leisure could be trying to beat your own high score in a video game. It could also be trying to get that higher jump off a ramp skating or biking. In work for example, in the assembly line environment, “flow” could be pushing out more products in a shorter time period. “Flow” is “…a sense of euphoric concentration experienced by people when they are successfully using their skills to the utmost.” You feel you have both the knowledge and power to achieve a goal and you are in a state of being challenged, but not to the point of being overwhelmed.
3) After reading Gelber’s text, can Second Life be considered a “hobby”? why or why not?
Second life can very well be seen as a hobby, but for some it can be work. Someone who enjoys playing the game for pleasure has a hobby. Those that are using SL strictly as a way of gain, such as making money, are working rathing than participating in a hobby.
4) What do you think would be a good class project to create in Second Life?
I’m not sure but I think it would be fun to track what kinds of habits people in second life have, and if there needs to be rules placed down in it. Another possibility could be tracking the behavior of an avatar and documenting their leisure.
COOL SITES OF THE DAY 9/18
biggest annoyances in SL:
http://lindenlifestyles.com/?p=135
FBI probes SL gambling:
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/04/03/fbi-probes-second-life-gambling/
http://www.comcastic.com/
ANOTHER COOL SITE OF THE DAY:
Understanding Games:
http://kongregate.com/games/pixelate/understanding-games-episode-1
Disguised Affirmation is a term that is used to describe a process by which one could replicate the skills and values of the workplace while at the same time personalizing time in a way that office and factory work could not do. The vehicle for this process that he discusses is “The Hobby”, where a person could often bend one’s will toward some productive activity that was generally looked on as fun. In one respect is was a way that people could use skills or knowledge generally reserved for the work place in an activity that was not work; the parent who worked as a carpenter yet on their free time builds the tree-house or fort for their child, for instance. It is fun because it is not mandatory, nor needed for survival. Yet, at the same time this was sort of a cartharsis for the masses, a process of social engineering geared toward making sure people not only did not lose track of proper work ethic and skill but also that idle time would not be used in ways that would be a threat to the power base. Flow, whether in the workplace or for leisure is merely the process of action and gives rise to different methodologies of said action. Flow is less what we do and more how we go about doing what we do and it coexists, or rather can, in both work and leisure. The difference between the two is that work constantly defines and redefines, invents and tweaks varies methods of work-flow, and those are generally made to be mandatory integrations into the process of work. Following such methods in leisure activity might produce better efficiency in that leisure, or it might detract from the experience, making it seem to much like work. As to whether Second Life is a hooby really rests with the individual. I know two types of people within this artificial world; those that are there merely to have fun and those there are there to make money. There are those that are there for both as well and I will group them with those there to make money. If you are playing the game for financial end, to produce something with tangible value then I would most definitely say it is a hobby, in the terms listed in the reading, and yet if you are there just to have fun it falls out of the hobby bin back into play. Personally I think hobbies have taken on such a broad definition that in general terms, outside this reading, it could be considered a hobby in as much as “playing video games” is a hobby. I think it would be interesting to explore designing items in the world and see if the class can open a buisness of some kind.
http://beyuu.net/blog/?p=29
1.
through structure & notion of work ethics
“disguised affirmation”
affirmation of productivity (as opposed to “idleness”
disguised as “productive leisure”
“productive leisure” compensated for the rigid structure of workplace by letting one structure one’s own leisure activity and produce work of one’s choice, in one’s time and pacing, a work or product that one would have control over. It, thus, functioned as a “venting” for aspects of workplace that is considered “negative”.
While it established itself as an alternative, independent marketplace that countered the absolute power that factory marketplace had on economy, productive leisure (or hobbies), by its very nature of production replicated the production and work ethics of a work environment, but in a relaxed, voluntary environments of homes, during “free” time and of one’s freedom to choose.
so, while a person involved in a productive leisure thinks that s/he is countering the mass production economy, by the sheer act of producing in one’s own “free” time and of one’s accord, one is actually contributing to the economy that the mass-production factories are a part of. in the end, it’s not exactly an absolute opposition but a complementary or an alternative under the disguise of leisure. Rather, it is the labor under the guise of leisure.
Foucault is of the opinion that one cannot completely oppose or escape socio-political power structures but is only able to re-orient oneself in relation to the structure. While a rigid labor structure stands for an absolute power over individual freedom and the idea of leisure as escape from it, productive leisure seems to be a compromise one makes within the structure to better situate oneself for one’s own well-being.
2.
“flow” in leisure and labor
the “flow” - the voluntary and freewill aspect of leisure in terms of the activity, time structure, environment and product - is what seems to separate leisure from labor.
However, Gelber states that the “flow” aspect of leisure is able to permeate into labor environment as well, the same way as structures from workplace permeates the leisure to make it productive rather than idle.
This can be thought of in terms of flexibilities certain job positions allows one to have within teh work structure, for instance a flexible working hours, working over weekend, working from one’s home, brainstorming creative ideas, etc.
Doing Art work seems to be an interesting area for speculation in this regard. While art can be viewed as a productive leisure (as in not a part of corporate work obligation), it also requires certain structuring in terms of setting up deadlines for getting one’s art work done, managing time structure for working on one’s projects, etc.
3.
I too am of the opinion that the question of whether or not the Second Life is leisure or labor depends on its use and what it means for the person involved. As Gelber mentioned in his book that one person’s leisure may very well turn out to be another’s labor and vise versa, while some people may see second life as an opportunity to explore the phantasmatic world and the possibilities of extending & performing their identities beyond their everyday physical worlds, some may find the standards and structures of the virtual world as constraining as the physical world they live in and see no point in exploring this virtual dimension. they may not feel the “flow” of simultaneity and freedom to do what one pleases, to explore alternatives of themselves and their extensions into their surroundings. An instance of this would be to have to choose from a limited avatars that are standardized as human-like and gendered unless one can purchase OR program one’s own. or the workings and environment - a replica of what one sees everyday the physical world. By the same token, borrowing from Gelber’s argument that “people bound within a society controlled by others could still carve out personal, ethnic, class, gender [] meanings from even the most monolithic products of mass culture”, an activist leisure activity in this world could be finding ways to subvert these standardized and normalized codes.
Another aspect is the use of Second Life to make money - virtual or material, which would take us back to the debate of whether or not monetary interest in “play” or “leisure” robs it from what is it supposed to be - i.e. not for money. Virtual Sweat Shops in east-asian countries based on “playing” avatars in the Second Life hours and days on end, under harsh physical and psychological conditions for a meager wage is in sharp contrast to a person in the West using the virtual sphere to wander around and perform as one’s alter ego.
4.
It would be interesting for the class to do a group performative action in a designated place in a public sphere in the second life. We could be playing tag or doing a mock-scrip reading. The sheer gathering of people doing something would create an interesting spectacle for users not in our group. We could find ways to get strangers involved in what’s happening, or just start conversing with them on one-to-one basis.
Jason M.
1. Disguised affirmation - is a productive leisure, a hobby or special interest that you have that ends up turning into a skill. Hobbies allow the participant to consider their activity as a form of “recreation” while subconsciously re-creating a certain ideology about work and their place in society.
2. Flow - is the sense of euphoric concentration experienced by people when they are successfully using their skills to the utmost. An example I can give would be when I play counter strike I get completely immersed into the game. None of my surroundings matter nor do I think of anything. I’m just flowing.
3. I see second life as being more of a hobby before it becomes a job. People first play it for the sheer fun of the game but once they recognize their skills and what they can do in game, it turns into a business for them. Why not make money while your having fun?
4. I would say come up with some sort of service that people would want/need. People are always looking for ways to make something easier, so if we can come up with some sort of service that could be used in game to help making something easier for people to get around or make something that people stress making would be cool.
1. Gelber’s definition of “disguised affirmation” is that it is something that “allows participants to think about an activity as leisure-time recreation while it functions as a form of ideological recreations”. Basically what he is saying is that a hobby is a disguised affirmation because it is work disguised as play. For example, a popular hobby that is still around today is model train building. It can be seen as play because you have control over what you want to do and when you want to do it. However, it is work because you are making something. The constraints of time and rules are gone, but the an aspect of work, being productive with your time, is still there.
2. Flow is “the sense of euphoric concentration experienced by people when they are successfully using their skills to the utmost.” Flow for me can be both in the context of leisure or work, as described in the book. I will describe an example for each situation. For work, I am a blackjack dealer and on some nights I often describe myself as flowing or “in the zone” to coworkers. That night I can be dealing extremely fast and doing it automatically. I can pay a $37.50 blackjack without thinking and I could deal the cards without even looking at the table. In leisure, I would use the example of playing Halo. Again, the “in the zone” phrase comes to mind because there will be those games where it just all feels easy or “automatic”. Usually, a lot of caffeine is in my system and I have been playing for a few hours.
3. I believe SL is a hobby for most people because based on Gerber’s reading, it has all the attributes of one. It is voluntary and it is pleasurable (for most). It does have aspects of work in it but Gerber described that leisure can be very similar to work. The thing that separated the two was how voluntary it is and the pleasure obtained by doing it. SL is completely voluntary but the pleasure obtained is going to depend on the individual playing. Based on the magazine for SL, it seems maybe people get a great deal of pleasure out of it. There is the other side of SL where people use it simply as work. For example, Anton Hand, a teacher at UB, creates characters and assets for people in SL and makes money off of it.
4. I think it would be cool to have some sort of social bar where you can sit down and talk to other people avatar face to avatar face. I noticed that its really hard to talk to someone without being interrupted or without getting distracted by something else going on around your avatar.