Aug 17, 2021
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Is It Art? (Generative)
I believe art adapting to media is an amazing transformation. The transformation affects how art can be distributed, it affects how art can be developed and it affects how art can be viewed all over the world.
By developing art with new interfaces on Internet 2.0, web users around the world in different cultures, different societies, can access and experience it. Art can become interactive and educational in ways we can never imagine.
Interestingly, like journalism, technology can create more artists. Walter states: "the early 21st C has spawned an entire class of cultural creatives". That is anyone with access to creative software can develop art of some kind. Majority of my class became "artists" when they downloaded the Instagram application. People are taking photos of people/places/experiences and manipulating them to look better or make a statement, thus becoming an artist. Other friends of mine even use software like this or Flikr to put their photographs out there, so people can acknowledge their otherwise unknown work. Facebook has become a place where people can highlight their artistic talent. A girl I grew up with in rural New South Wales, is unable to get to a major city to promote her talents in designing clothing. So instead she has set up a Facebook group, which people can like and have access to her designs. She has since set up her own business. The web has created places where artists can get their work known.
Walter believes anyone with access to Apple software can become an artist. "You could call the New Aesthetic 'Apple Mac' Aesthetic, as that's the computer of choice for most acts of creation" (2012). Mac have set themselves up as the choice of computer for designers and graphic artists, due to the software they have available. Because of this everyone becomes the expert in PhotoShop, InDesign etc. and in creating their own art.
As everyone becomes more proficient in internet usage I like the idea of changing the more traditional aspects of education. The XDesign Hub disusses changing essays to visual essays, (which we learnt about in 2091). "That visual essays are potentially 'read' by more people, more quickly, and contain 'more' information, is a reasonable claim, more over that we live in a visual culture" (2007). They suggest teaching this form of essays in class. I think this idea is fantastic. It could help the students that are not as capable of writing an essay a great deal. It taps into all sorts of learning.
Sterling writes that "'generative processes' are already going on all around us", he highlights how generative processes are all around us, even if we might not realise it yet. These processes can include art, but they can also include biology, engineering and many other systems. Laika's Derive uses new media to generate a mapping application. She uses; "new media locative data-mapping work about interspecies, communication, collaboration and knowledge. Community participants and their dogs use an electronic mapping system with their local area" (2012). This demonstrates an ecology using generative processes to communication and locate each other.
Generative processes are interesting to observe as they infiltrate our everyday life. It will be intriguing to observe how these change over time.
References
Walter, D. G. (2012), The New Aesthetic and I, [Accessed 20/5/2012], http://damiengwalter.com/2012/04/02/the-new-aesthetic-and-i/
XDesign, (2007), What Changes when an Essay is a Visual Essay?, [Accessed 20/5/2012], http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/
Sterling, B (2011), Generator Everything [Accessed 20/5/2012], http://www.sf360.org/generator-everything
Laika, (2012), Laika's Derive/Dog's De Tour, [Accessed 20/5/2012], http://laikasderive.sarahwaterson.net/
Future of Internet
The internet is an ever changing environment. If we observe the last decade, we can decipher that the internet is here to stay, and I think that is the only thing we know for sure. I believe institutions, such as The Future Institution, are very important in today's society. Careers, relationships and even inanimate objects have adapted to the change in technology, we are now discovering how these changes will affect the future.
These ideas were explored in this weeks readings. The 'Glass' will change the face of photography as we know. These are "...smart glasses--virtual overlay on the real world, an android device in your eyeballs" (Newitz 2012). This is taking smart phones to a whole new level. I believe this shows how limitless this technology can be.
The 'Floating Universities' explanation; "We create and distribute online multimedia curricula, rich in text, video, animation and graphics, that feature today's biggest thinkers, practitioner and leading scholars" (Big Think, 2011). As far as the 'Floating University' idea goes, I am surprised it has taken so long for an idea like this to take off. There are, of course, pros and cons but I fully support the idea of 'Floating University'. People shouldn't be limited by their location or income if they wish to learn. "Floating University is based on the premise that anyone, anywhere deserves access to the most important knowledge" Big Think (2011).
I find Jane McGonigal's ideas refreshing (McGonigal). There is so many scholarly articles and negative press around gaming, like how it is the cause of student violence, but I understand where McGonigal is coming from. There are positive aspects to gaming, The Sims can teach someone if you save money you get nicer possessions/bigger house, or if you keep going to work you can get promoted. It is also a way of socialising with people from other countries and creating an online ecology with people who have similar ideas.
I believe that the problem isn't the new technology or Web 2.0, rather society's reaction to change. "While accepting that a technology like mobile telephony has become the world's largest share platform for information exchange, we are perhaps less accustomed to the idea of space as a technology or medium of information," (Easterling 2012). I think we have to change our way of thinking of the online environment. Respect it as a source of information, accept it is here to stay, and accept that it is going to change how technology, relationships and careers work. I believe these changes are for the better and technology is just going make our world an easier and more interesting place to live.
References
Big Think, (2011), The Floating University: About [accessed 13/5/2012], http://www.floatinguniversity.com/about
Easterling, K (2012), An Internet of Things, [accessed 13/5/2012], http://www.e-flux.com/journal/an-internet-of-things/
Institute for the Future (2012), Future Work Skills, 2020, [accessed 13/5/2012], http://www.iftf.org/futureworkskills2020
McGonigal, J. (No Date Supplied), You Found Me, [accessed 13/5/2012], http://janemcgonigal.com/
Newitz, A (2012), Could This Photograph Change the Future?, [accessed 13/5/12], http://io9.com/5909151/could-this-photograph-change-the-future
Open Science Blog
It seems one of the ongoing themes in this semester is how various industries adapt to the changing face of technology, the internet and the media.
The readings highlighted that scientific data should be open and available to everyone. Obviously like all types of change, there are pros and cons to this idea. This was represented in the readings; Pisani (2011) discusses how the Wellcome trust is enforcing this idea, as they were not informed when the work towards cloning started in the early 1980s. So it seems if this data was available it would be positive for the industry. However a negative aspect of this plan is that it could prevent scientists from their research. Barriers such as religious groups or activist groups could make problems if they don’t agree with the research and use the data against the scientist or scientific group that is involved. This makes me wonder if Craig Venter (mentioned in Sample’s article) would be able to make the discoveries he did, as religious groups do not agree with his research. As with any change there is going to be pros and cons, although I believe having open sourced data is a positive move for scientific groups, and is a probable outcome as the world develops with technology.
I think a ‘revolution’ could be really positive for science. Imagine a journal where hyperlinks replace footnoting. A person is not limited by a journal; they can read a variety of material on the same topic. Marley and Willbanks discuss how journals need to move into the present. I think the Internet could stop negative connotations associated with scientific journals. As libraries discontinue their scientific journal subscriptions, these article become less accessible. I don’t think these journals should have pay walls or be limited to the public. There are other methods to make these online journals profitable (such as advertising and grants). These changes could make the scientific world highly accessible and more enjoyable to use.
This year Dobbs wrote an article in Wired magazine about what would have to change to get the journals online. I agree with him when he says their needs to be improvements in editing, distribution and reputation around the Internet. Although I believe the archiving system we use now could work with these journals. I think the method of searching and storing articles on the Internet, whilst not highly sophisticated, is easy and accessible. You just have to know what you’re looking for.
I can understand why scientists would not approve of the open science model, although this way society is provided with the correct information and data to make informed decisions, a right that I believe should not be restricted by a pay wall.
One thing that we know for sure is that people are hesitant when it comes to change, but then again everyone had to adapt to the Internet in the first place…
References:
Dobbs, David, (2012), ‘Is the Open Science Revolution for Real?’ Wired, February 3, [Accessed May 7th] <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/is-the-open-science-revolution-for-real>
Marley, Justin (2012), ‘Science 2.0’ The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog, January 28 [Accessed May 7th], <https://theamazingworldofpsychiatry.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/science-2-0-deconstructing-web-2-0-harnessing-collective-intelligence/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter>
Pisani, Elizabeth (2011) ‘Medical science will benefit from the research of crowds’, The Guardian, January 11, [Accessed on May 6th] <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/11/medical-research-data-sharing>
Sample, Ian (2010) ‘Craig Venter Creates Synthetic Life Form’, The Guardian May 2, [Accessed on May 6th] <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form>
Wilbanks, John (2011) ‘On Science Publishing’, Seed, [Accessed on May 6th]<http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_science_publishing>
Government 2.0 or 3.0?
In 2010 Latika Bourke won the young Walkley award for covering the Liberal leadership spill like no other journalist in the past. She describes her coverage as "reporting back in this new concept of instant..." (Mumbrella, 2010). Latika was the first Australian journalist to cover a political story via Twitter with such ferocity. "It really changed the face of politics and the face of climate change policy in Australia" she said (Mumbrella, 2010). That was the power one small time journalist and a twitter account had. She is now social the ABC's first social media reporter.
This reflects where the media and politics relationship is heading. Like all other industries the Internet and social media phenomenon has had a large effect on politics and more importantly on the coverage of politics. An average person (who has access to the Internet) is now able to report on politicians whether it be their professional, social or private life.
"At the heart of it all are young people obvious; students; westernized; secularised. They use sociall media--as the main stream media has now woken up to--but this obsession with 'they use twitter' is missing the point of what they use it for," Mason (2011).
As 'young people' post about their own lives all around Twitter, their way of life and of thinking is broad casted around the world. Their friends, followers and even fans can start to form similar opinions. Their reach is greater than that of politicians. Like Mason, I believe the media need to get over the fact that these kids with an opinion are tweeting and they need to observe what they are tweeting about.
"During the early 20th century people would ride hanging on the undersides of train carriages across boarders to make links like these..." Mason (2011).
Twitter and Facebook reflects real life for politicians. People can post when they see their local member at the pub with a few mates or having a walk in their local park. If someone is spotted doing something untoward it is almost guaranteed it will be leaked. Society has to ask themselves is this the kind of transparency we want for our political leaders? Are they not entitled to live a life of their own also?
"The 'naked transparency movement', as I will call it here, is not going to inspire change. It will simply push any faith in our political systems over the cliff," Lessing (2006). It seems everyone knows everything our government does from where our Opposition Leader goes on his daily jog to which sex club a member of parliament walks out of, is this really a help or a hindrance as far as how our country is run. I don't believe either of these events would affect how the nation is run and/or perceived by the rest of the world.
It seems the pressure of the nation is also getting to the politicians. Many have blamed a lack of sleep reasoning behind Kevin Rudd's downfall in 2010. "The 24-hour news cycle is at the heart of this, and it's killing our democracy," Bob Elis (2010). It seems we expect our politicians to maintain a vast understanding of our current news cycle and operate on next to no sleep when we, ourselves, would not expect that of anyone we know.
"The larger question, though, of sleepless politicians and therefore burnt-out politicans an policy incompetence and the curren ruinous way of doing things, needs a whole new way of culture I fear" Elis (2010).
I think the government needs to adapt to this new way of operating. The Internet is only going to get bigger and better, and if the Government can't keep up it's going ot give more reason for uprisings and anarchy, which has become easier to organise since social media.
Because of the power and knowledge the Internet has provided and more important social media has provided, people are no longer nieve nor as likely to believe everything our leaders tell us. I strongly believe if Adolf Hitler were to perform the same leadership mechanisms in today's society he would not be successful.
"People know more than they used to...people have a better understanding of power," Mason (2010).
People are starting to question things, let their opinions be known and challenge leaders, the influential people and the journalists. All sources of power in the past. Therefore propaganda is not as influential or believable as it once was construed.
"The truth moves faster than lies, and propoganda becomes flammable," Mason (2010).
This is reflected in the Egyptian movement in 2004/2005. The people took to the World Wide Web to publish their thoughts and feelings for the world to see. The blogosphere quickly became a place where people could voice their opinion with less chance of being caught. The country relied on their bloggers to publish the stories journalists weren't able to write themselves.
"These online activists have played a key role in transforming the conditions of politcal possibility in Egypt during the last decade..." Hirshkind (2011).
Usher (2011) points out that these bloggers would make their stories known and global media franchises would start reporting on the wrong-doings in Egypt.
"First, social media provided those already plugged into the networks at the first sign of unrest..." Usher, 2011.
It seems this method was successful throughout Egypt.
It's because of this we realise that the governments have to change to adapt to this new media. The power it holds can cause uprising and even anarchy.
"Decentralization has been lying dormant for thousands of years, but the advent of the Internet has unleashed this force, knocking down traditional businesses, altering businesses...The absence of structure, leadership and formal organisation, once considered a weakness has become and asset... The rules of the game have changed," Brafman and Beckstrom (2010) and I believe the governments of the world have to redefine and apply these rules and perhaps re-organize themselves.
References
Brafman and Beckstrom (2010), The Power of a Leaderless Organizations, [Accessed 23/4/2012], http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/the-power-of-leaderless-organizations-20100911
Elis, B. (2010), Sleepless in Canberra, [Accessed 22/4/2012], http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/35116.html
Hirshkind, C. (2010), From Blogosphere to the Street: The Role of Social Media in the Egyptian Uprising, [Accessed 23/4/2012], http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/599/from-the-blogosphere-to-the-street_the-role-of-social-media-in-the-egyptian-uprising
Lessing, L. (2009), Against Transparency, [Accessed 21/4/2012], http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/against-transparency?page=0,0
Mason, P. (2011), Twenty Reasons Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere, [Accessed 23/4/2012], http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/02/twenty_reasons_why_its_kicking.html
Mumbrella (2010), Latika Bourke is the ABC's First Social Media Reporter, [Accessed 23/4/2012], http://mumbrella.com.au/latika-bourke-abc-social-media-37518
Usher, (2011), How Egypt's Uprising is Helping Redefine the Idea of a "Media Event", [Accessed 23/4/2012], http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/02/how-egypts-uprising-is-helping-redefine-the-idea-of-a-media-event/
Music and Journalism Distribution
"Transversally"
Now that is out of the way...
This week I investigated how the Internet is forcing change in certain industries. In particular music and journalism. Surprisingly these changes are very similar. Producing these mediums used to be a qualified task, now anyone with a computer can be a journalist, musician or producer. Because of these changes both the journalism and music industries have had to adapt to the challenges the Internet has thrown at them.
The music industry is rapidly changing. This issue has been discussed throughly over the past years. Casey (2011) points out that the new music industry is already here. An industry where the musician doesn't need a recording contract, agent or even an instrument to produce recorded music. She goes onto to say there are countless new artists emerging along with countless new consumers. I have noticed in the cultures I interact in it is socially cool, even encouraged, to find "new music". This means trawling Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud etc. and once you have found this "new music" you post it on your blog, Twitter, Facebook to show your friends. This is an example of music being intergrated into social media.
These new musicians often do not record in traditional recording studios. After engaging in this week's readings I realized how Apple has now become the recording device, the producer and the host of music. The musician can record their piece on GarageBand where they can edit and produce it. They can then send it off to the iTunes store (or Amazon) where the store will host it. Taking 30% of all profits for simply having the song on iTunes (or Amazon). There is no risk for them to host the music (Paul 2012).
David Byrne (2007) discusses what is like to be on both the creative and the business aspects of the music industry. He voices his concern that the industry has become about selling the product (e.g. albums) instead of the concepts (i.e. music). Because of the changes to the industry recording costs have declined, manufacturing and distributing costs have declined and touring is not just for promotion (Byrne, 2007). These changes demonstrate how the music industry has altered since the rise of the rise of the Internet.
Journalism is being challenged in similar ways. Now anyone with a smart phone, laptop, tablet or any other connection to the Internet is a journalist. Opportunities for citizen journalists keep appearing. Now the major newspapers are encouraging audience participation, debate and even to challenge the journalists and correct them according to Rusbridger (2012). I find this concept interesting. Although the media sources state they are all for citizen journalism they still control which article the audience is allowed to comment on (more on that in my research paper).
This led me to thinking about what a closed environment the Internet is. If a citizen, lets call her Jane, contributed to an online paper or online part of a paper such as The Guardian (this is hypothetical remember), and they post on their blog, Facebook, Twitter and email all their friends about it imagine how many hits it would get. Now assume the article is well written and very interesting so each of Jane's friends shared this article. And so on and so fourth. Add a paywall into the equation, and although this would discourage some, it would also increase payments from a demographic not necessarily tapped into. I'm not entirely sure this makes sense, but it was a huge realisation moment for me. I believe it is very well represented in the Guardian News Advertisment about the Three Little Pigs which can be seen here.
This advertisment and interacting with any online news source highlights how intergrated the multimedia platforms are. These changes show how the journalism industry has adapted the Internet. They also highlight how the industry will continue to change. A lot of media scholars believe this is the way media will be distributed in the future. Slowly fading out the traditional forms of distribution.
I found it interesting to see how the music and journalism industries have changed to accomodate the Internet, and how they will continue to change so they are still profitable and satisfying to all audiences.
Refrences Byrne, D (2007), David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists--and Mega Stars [Accessed 9/4/12] http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all
Paul (2012), I'm a Successful Artist. And Here's Why Things Have Never Been Worse, [Accessed 9/4/12] http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120214cracker
Casey, T. (2011), The New Music Industry Is Not Coming, [Accessed 9/4/12], http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/the-new-music-industry-is-not-coming.html
Hicks, J. (2012), The Verge Interview: David Car on Curation, Crowdsourcing and the Future of Journalism, [Accessed 11/4/12] http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/3/2912487/david-carr-interview-dnp
Rusbridger, A. (2012), Q&A with Alan Rusbridger: The Future of Open Journalism, [Accessed 11/4/12] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/25/alan-rusbridger-open-journalism
VIRTUAL REALITIES: "HOW WE KNOW WHAT IS REAL"
I found this week's readings really insightful; they highlighted how virtual world is integrating into our lives as we interact with media.
We interact with virtual realities on a daily basis. Personally, I am obsessed with the video game The Sims every day I interact with their virtual world which happens to mimic our reality, thus creating a virtual reality. This example is our reality becoming a virtual one. So we see how reality today is depicted in a virtual environment on a screen.
However, the Bear 71 video showed how our reality is becoming virtual, as we gather more and more information about the world around us we force all creatures on the planet to adapt to the rapidly changing technological environment as much as we have. This video is reality television in every sense of the word. We experience this through a virtual (and interactive) video. By hooking the wildlife up to tracking devices the rangers are forcing the creatures to interact with media so their lives can become a virtual reality--essentially for our entertainment.
The IDEO Lab video demonstrated how virtual realities make our experiences limitless. Instead of boarding a 23-hour flight to Europe, one can simply now don a headset and step into the Colosseum or The Eiffel Tower without the expensive of travel. These virtual realities mean that every experience is at the users fingertips.
How we interact with these realities is interesting. In the IDEO Lab video the man simulating the experience interacts with it as if it were three dimensional and real. When presented with a railing the man puts his hands out as if they were resting on it. When presented with the stairs we walks "down" them simulating real life, one step at a time.
Whilst virtual realities are an incomprehensible phenomenon they also produce a frightful element also. This is reflected in The Guardian article. The Guardian produces an article that reflects how technology may be getting out of hand, for example the navy carrier jet that does not need a person to fly it.
These computer-stimulated environments have already changed the way we interact. Something as simple as video conferencing or skyping your friend has changed into a virtual reality. These realities are dissolving the time/space barriers that keep people from interacting.
As a form of communication, although a little scary, it's pretty cool...
Embodied, Mnemotechnics and Brain Stuff
This week was all about the extensions of the brain, how we remember aspects of our lives and whether the brain is the thing inside our head or something more.
A lot of the sources I reviewed for this blog are two or more years old, which in the media is a long time, hence, there have been some significant advancements since 2009/2010.
I believe 'mnemotechnics' and the 'extended mind' is more apparent now more than ever. Personally I rely on my phone for everything. Since I am starting out my career it has all my professional networking recorded on it; in the form of email, phone numbers and LinkedIn profiles. I no longer have to remember people's numbers, positions or even names off the top of my head with access to this information (although I still try to--just because we have this technology doesn't mean we can be rude.)
Bernard Stieger brought up an interesting point in 'Anamnesis and Hypomnesis: Plato as the first thinker of the proletarianisation' about 'consuming blindly'. He mentions how the more advanced automobiles become, the more reliant we are on them (e.g. learning in an auto and ignoring how to drive a manual). But I I believe that although we are more reliant on how we consume we now engage and question how we do things. For example the newspaper has become very accessible online to people all over the world. We have disregarded some traditions, for the most part, such as collecting newspapers from the front lawn or the corner shop. Instead now, readers interact directly with their news source, questioning it, adding to it, even contributing news stories. So although some of the traditional things we have learnt, we end up 'un-learning', we engage with parts of society differently.
David Chalmer's 'The Extended Mind Revisted' was interesting viewing. He speaks of how his mind has extended to his iPhone. This was over two years ago. It is astonishing of how far even the iPhone has come in such short time (not to mention, various other technologies). Now we have everyone's best friend Siri the auto-generated device inside the iPhone 4S that means you never have to click a button again. Now instead of scrolling through my contacts to call my mum I can ask Siri to find her for me, the same with any upcoming appointments I have or what the weather is going to be like (you've all seen the ads). I would be interested to see what Chalmers thinks of the 4S, but it truly is an extension of the mind. The iPhone 4S fits in with Chalmers and Andy's thesis exactly it is constructed to be coupled 'to a cognitive system in the right way, they become part of the mind' (2009).
I found this very interesting and once again these studies have shown me to look past the obvious and see how our brain responds to things such as the media and how we are accomodating it to our daily lives.
But then again, the brain is a complex thing maybe I have the wrong idea completely and I am lazy storing stuff in my iPhone. As Alva Noe states: "we don't actually have a better account of how consciousness and cognition arise in the brain than it arises out of immaterial soul stuff." (2010)
References
Stiegler, Bernard (n.d.) ‘Anamnesis and Hypomnesis: Plato as the first thinker of the proletarianisation’ [Accessed on 18th of March 2012] <http://arsindustrialis.org/anamnesis-and-hypomnesis>
Chalmers, David (2009) ‘The Extended Mind Revisited [1/5], at Hong Kong, 2009’, [Accessed on 18th of March 2012] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S149IVHhmc>
Noë, Alva (2010) ‘Does thinking happen in the brain?’, 13:7 Cosmos and Culture, [Accessed 18th of March 2012]
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2010/12/10/131945848/does-thinking-happen-in-the-brain>