FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT

Description

A white rabbit with a harness on a leash, carrying a GPS device has been used to analyze the David Marr's (1982) levels of description in cognitive systems for a better understanding of information processing. The rabbit's performance has been recorded by a GPS device to be examined in both its technical and cultural forms.

Background

In the world of sophisticated technology and travel implementation devices, there is no doubt the fundamental role that representational assumptions in our culture play in cognitive system mappings. In order to understand such information-processing systems, David Marr proposed three levels of description including the computational, algorithmic, and implementational. On the most basic level, the computational account of navigation consists of one-dimensional positional constraints and the distance-rate-time constraint, which can allow a single solution path to satisfy them. This level gives a general model of the navigation problem. On the next level, algorithms are based on representational assumptions, and thus culturally specific. This is also true on the implementational level. In Cognition in the Wild, by Edwin Hutchins, distinctions have been made on the culturally-specific algorithms used by Western traditions and the primitive Micronesian culture to navig! ate. The! divergence of traditions can be traced to the practice in physical instruments as a repertoire for knowledge, measurement conversion from analog to digital, and technologies for arithmetic computations. It is clear how culturally-influenced computations can influence the analysis of the computational accounting level, when in fact, the underlying navigational constraints remain the same. On the computational level of wayfinding, networked configurations are defined as paths or routes represented as one-dimensional linked segments after integration with other paths. In the rabbit tracks, the network configuration is very intricate, with the rabbit being able to return to frequently visited sites. While these sites are particular only to the rabbit, there is observable favoritism that the rabbit is keen to visiting, such as shaded spots, underneath fallen tree branches, and tasteful tree trunks. While spatial information exists on several levels for human beings, such as feature names, and location features and places such as the size and magnitude, it is much more different for the rabbit. The rabbit’s sensory system automatically changes the level of constraint that spatial information exists, so that the rabbit experiences the wild differently through recognition by sight, hearing, taste, and habit. At each site the grooming takes places, whether marked by ! the licking of hind legs or the rubbing of the face by front paws, the path of integration can clearly be drawn out. As a cultural artifact, the white rabbit has been given meaning in its algorithmic and implementational level of descriptive travel. The icon itself became a representational assumption, where Marr’s level of description in the first computational accounting level is no longer relevant. It is unknown how the system works, and the constraints no longer consist of line segments and time alone. Culturally, as the symbol of the path towards enlightenment, the performance is one that is personal, mysterious, and purposeful.

Location

Bristlecone Pine Forest trees

The most frequently visited spot is located at 395142.7, 4150643. It is part of one of the busiest areas, with its surrounding visited intensely. The return to such sites back and forth, as seen in the line segments, shows that the rabbit has returned to perform a ritualized activity, either grooming or eating. There is not a very long range of tracks, only revisitations of former sites. >From an observer’s point of view, the first level of computation is unclear. There is no reasoning behind what the system does, or why it does so; the rabbit moves in a seemingly random manner. However, “there is a distinction between what is computed by the system as a whole and what is computed by the individual practitioner” (Hutchins, 51).

Shown below is an animation of the rabbit's tracks. They are recorded in 10 second intervals. You can see how closely linked the networked configurations are. Notice the long pauses when the rabbit decides to take a rest. The long movement below the graph shows when I have moved the rabbit from its location, and then its desire to carry on back to revisit its familiar route.

CHRISTINA TAM

Christina is a Management Science major, and has a background in using analytical methods to a variety of research projects. She is very creative and has an interest in exploring the realm of new media. This is her first investigative project done as both a performance piece and important scientific milestone.