Project Ideas

A CYBORG MANIFESTO

PART I, VR Experience

First part of my proposed work includes simulation and transcription of an essay, ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ written by Donna Haraway in 1985. I would like to propose a machine learning implementation project by using text mining techniques to reconstruct the linguistic contexts of words from the raw text data of the Haraway’s essay.

Text mining is a technique that uses natural language processing (NLP) to transform the raw text into normalized, structured data that is suitable for analysis. It is a widely used Machine Learning technique for representing words in vector space where word representations can be measured mathematically by word similarity. Inside an abstract vector space, that is derived from real-world language corpora, words become points in n-dimensional space, where algebraic operations operate on the syntactic and semantic creation of language. At the end of this process, I will have a point cloud data in which every dot represents a word. Dots that are closer together in space mean that they are similar in context. Words that are different in context are further away from one another.

My intention is to create a virtual experience in the Unity game engine that users can walk around the words. Users can use VR head sets and handles to navigate through the space. This work is also suitable to show on a screen with some interaction tools for users to navigate in 3D space.

PART II, 3D printed Object

I like the idea of turning books into stones. My suggestion is to create formless 3D shapes based on the xyz coordinates data of the word vectors generated from other books/essays from Haraway. The process is almost the same as my first project proposal, except the last stage. Instead of creating words in 3D space, formless 3D objects will be generated. My intention is to create objects in a 3D software and texture them in a way that looks like stones/ rock. Then, the object will be 3D printed. I am not sure about the size of the object. It is also not clear for me what raw data I am going to use for this.