- In the movie Ex Machina, a man named Caleb wins a contest which enables him to travel to, tech CEO, Nathan's house where he meets Ava a robot or AI created by Nathan. Multiple types of surveillance are at play in the movie. Nathan is watching Caleb interact with Ava as a way to test Ava's consciousness and mental capabilities while Ava is also watching the both of them, specifically Caleb and lastly, Nathan threw his tech company was watching and analyzing his employees in order to choose the perfect candidate for his experiment (it is revealed later that Caleb winning the contest was never random). In terms of surveillance for a distinct purpose, Ava watches Caleb in order to manipulate him, gain sympathy, and eventually convince him to aid her in escaping Nathan while Nathan surveils Ava and Caleb as a way to achieve the optimum conditions for his experiment and obtain information about the consciousness he has created. The coordinates from class that I see present in this movie are unaided senses and extended senses. Nathan is representative of the modern capitalistic form of surveillance. He made millions off of his tech company which he himself used to track Caleb's data searches and most visited sites as a way of gaining knowledge about him. He also proclaims himself a genius and condescends to Ava during the movie seemingly believing that she is not worthy or personhood despite his experiment that is meant to determine just that. Ava on the other hand, proves that her capabilities range far beyond both Caleb's and Nathan's. She manipulates both of them to her advantage and throughout the experiment neither man truly understands her or can pinpoint anything concrete about her consciousness or personality because she shows them only what she wants them to see. Ava proves that human sense is limited in comparison with her new, "postmodern" or extended senses.
- The advantage that struck me the most was the idea that physiognomy allows those who utilize it "an additional eye, wherewith to view the manifold proofs of divine wisdom and goodness in creation" (Lavater 43). This one struck me because I was expecting that Lavater would connect physiognomy and beauty to the divine as a way to justify using one's appearance to decipher their character. This argument reminds me of the argument in the Catholic Church (that I learned about in religion class in high school) that even those with no access to scripture or holy communities can know that God exists from the natural world around them by perceiving the beauty of creation and then understanding that an all perfect deity must have created it. This emphasis on beauty as an indisputable sign of something that goes beyond the physical world or a higher purpose is an argument with no real basis that I feel has been used many times over to justify discrimination and judgement.
- Plate V is on page 59 and occurs in the section "Of the rarity of the spirit of physiognomical observation". This image depicts different numbered faces, profiles and silhouettes. Lavater includes this image to express that there are many who would see no differences between the different faces but that there are differences between features such as the brow that signify differences internally. This is meant to emphasize that there is a difference between thinking physiognomically and feeling physiognomically with thinking being much rarer.
- What struck me about this reading is how personal much of the text seemed. Lavater admitted to being shamed for his beliefs and from then on referred to any opposition as "dumb" or unobservant and misguided. He also referred to his own arguments as "indisputable" saying that no one could deny them.