#mediaecology

[laramzp]

Overgrowing Technology: A Ghost in the Archive (2023)

The garden is already a database. A controlled environment where images of nature are stored, indexed, made retrievable. Here, technology documents growth, organizes it into folders, timestamps it, makes it searchable. What was once wild is now archived, its unruliness flattened into a gallery of stills.

At the center stands a figure that refuses resolution. It's not entirely absent, but not fully legible either. It lingers where it shouldn’t, as if technology, in its attempt to hold everything, has produced a residue, a ghost.

It’s the system showing its seams. The checkerboard of transparency, the layering of files, the collapse of foreground and background—the machine is struggling to contain what cannot be fully processed.

Overgrowing technology. Or maybe, technology overgrowing itself. The archive is haunted not by memory, but by its own limits.

[loveyanewyork-blog]

#jazzfest #neworleans #musicphotography #musicfestival #nyu #mediaecology #angeldiaz remembering the school days, Alex and careless fun... (at The Juilliard School)

[aubriannalowry-blog]

Blog Assignment 3

In the video , ‘How to win the internet’ by Liz Heron, we can see many points made on how live news has progressed over the years.  Live-News used to consist of a reporter going to a scene they had been informed of through people they know or their editors had heard about, bringing their notepads to jot down notes, getting all the information swiftly and accurately, and then heading back to their computer to write and print the article.  This process used to allot about 3 hours of working time, tops.  Now real-time news consists of people taking their iPhones, iPads, etc. with them everywhere to document a video, post, etc. ASAP to get their tidbit of information into the world. Researchers can use these resources to get stories out there fast, as well as figuring out the newest trending topic.  While using these sources can be quick and easy, it raises many ethical questions.  According to a study on social media research, your every move is monitored by your cyber footprints.  Everything you do, or search, links you to others that search the same things.  This rises an ethical question of “Is this an invasion of personal privacy?” While this article covers this ethical question of how much can be harvested from the Internet, we are also let to wonder what we’re putting out to the world.  According to the newest form of digital media ethics there are now set guidelines when it comes to ‘journalism, blogging, digital photojournalism, citizen journalism and social media’.  This article describes our media ecology as ‘a chaotic landscape evolving at a furious pace’.  It is also stated in this article that like every new ecology, new norms are put into place while the old ones are thrown out or even sometimes questioned.  So are we simply moving forward, or getting way off course? Reporters go after people on their Twitter accounts to get the newest piece of information, as seen in the photos presented by Professor Newly.  Journalists do need to find the newest form of information, but there is no set ethical code on how to ask someone these hard questions over the Internet.  We should try to learn the best techniques or require more criteria when it comes to what we consider newsworthy. 

[thoughtsofamediastudent3091-blog]

Week 3 - Media Ecology and Patterns of Relations

This week we studied Gregory Bateson and his theories on media ecologies, and communicative patterns of relations. In order to reflect my understanding of these concepts, I am going to talk about my own 'patterns of relations' and the way that I view my media environment as an 'ecology.’

The word ‘ecology’ in itself implies a study of environments and its “structure, content and impact on people” (Media Ecology Association). Bateson likens the media environment to ‘ecology,’ as it is evolutionary and has cultural consequences (Milberry). This also reflects the theory of cybernetics – which I am sure I will commonly refer to in future posts.

According to Bateson, the ecosystems in media ecology consist of all kinds of communication networks, which lead me to Bateson’s next theory of a communicative pattern of relations. An environment consists of “shifting patterns of relations across the mind, body and world” (Bateson). This is as applicable to the media environment as it is to our natural one.

Personally, the ecosystems in my media environment are quite limited as I mainly communicate via the Internet. However, the platforms of online communication that I use are quite varied and subject to change. For example, two years ago I would post up to two statuses per day on Facebook. Now, I rarely post on Facebook as a result of converting to Twitter as my main means of expressing myself – primarily communicating my anger toward Sydney Trains.

This represents an evolution in my ecology that had consequences on the pattern of relations between my mind, and the world – as I now feel obliged to tweet at every hour of the day. I have also noticed that the modern media ecology has, to an extent, eliminated the facet of the ‘body’ as people no longer value the difference between face-to-face communication and technological forms.

An example of this is the use of Skype. I was Skype calling a friend with our microphones turned off and our videos turned on. I had made a joke and my friend typed ‘haha’ in response out of habit. I could clearly see on the screen that he was not amused.

In this way, patterns of relation can be conflicting as the media ecology continues to evolve. I am now trying to reconcile emotive communicating (or body) with technological (world and mind), so much so that I find myself texting or messaging solely in emoticons rather than words.

Therefore, media (as our environment) plays a huge role in influencing how we act and what we feel (Media Ecology Association). All I can say is, although progress is good, it is definitely not without consequence.

Milberry, Kate (n.d.) ‘Media Ecology’, Oxford Bibliographies, <http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0054.xml#>

Media Ecology Association ‘What is Media Ecology’ <http://www.media-ecology.org/media_ecology/>

Bateson, Gregory (2000) ‘A Theory of Play and Fantasy’, Steps to an Ecology of Mind Chicago: Chicago University Press: 177-183 (sections 1-11)

[discarnate-man]

Second Nature's latest discusses how media ecology can expand an environmental ethic for the better: 

In relation to environmental stewardship, we need to take into account that technological changes affect not just the social sphere of human endeavor, but the realm of nature, as well. Returning to the example of the light bulb, we relate differently to each other, and to the created order of which we are a part because we have adopted the technology of the electric light. This change brings together both social and natural in a single ecology: the “city that doesn’t sleep” becomes possible, representing a change in human relations to one another and to the natural rhythms of night and day. In addition, this technological decision entails changes in resource use (supporting the manufacture of lighting equipment), energy consumption, disposal of waste, light pollution, and the like. While our thinking about creation care often contemplates these latter effects, it does not typically consider the larger ground against which the effects are seen as the figure. Continue reading: http://secondnaturejournal.com/why-environmentalism-needs-media-ecology/

[discarnate-man]

My latest over at Second Nature Journal is the text of a presentation I gave at the Symposium for Advancing the New Evangelization at Benedictine College. This year's theme was "building a culture of freedom" so I addressed the importance of media studies to a liberal education. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was clear that lay people have a responsibility to engage the changes in communications technologies in a way consistent with Christian charity and so I discuss the basis of McLuhan's media ecology in the history of the liberal arts and how media ecology can help build a culture free of determinism:

During his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI made the new media an important part of his emphasis on the new evangelization. As part of his message for the 45th World Communications Day in 2011, the Holy Father pointed to the “radical changes taking place in communications” that “are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself.” Pope Benedict further challenged lay people to place these new communications technologies “at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity. If used wisely,” he continued, “they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth, and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.” This new ecclesiastical focus on the influence of these technologies mirrors the relatively recent addition of communications departments to most universities within the past century. Relative to the rapid changes in this field however, the Church has been slow to develop a coherent way to approach the subject of media and communications. Of course, those of us who wish to build a culture of freedom cannot ignore the important role the new media play in shaping our culture.

Continue reading: Media Ecology Is Already Christian: Why McLuhan Is What the Church Needs for the New Evangelization

[discarnate-man]

T. David Gordon offers his thoughts on the (un)biblical origins of the praise team phenomenon:

In the medieval church, the congregation was invited to join in the singing of praise, but was not able to do so, because the congregants did not know Latin.  So the priests in the front of the building sang the praise, because they alone had the knowledge necessary to do so.  One of Luther’s most intentional reforms was to re-introduce congregational praise, and he did so both by writing almost forty hymns, but also by translating others and encouraging the writing and translating of more (Brown, 2005). For Luther and Calvin, “the priesthood of believers” meant that the entire congregation now offered the sacrifice of praise to God (not just Levitical priests who offered animal sacrifices).  As James Hastings Nichols (1968) put it:

“The most important thing was intelligent participation, resting on full understanding of the language used.…Calvin knew, as did the ancient church, that ‘each Christian bears the exalted title of sacrificer’ (Opera Calvini, XXVII, 407) and has his rightful place in the corporate offering of praise and intercession.  The people should understand and, insofar as possible, unite themselves to voice the sung and spoken prayer of the service.  So they had done in the third and fourth centuries.”

Today, the barrier to full, hearty congregational praise is not the lyrical score (in Latin) but the musical score (withheld from the congregation).  The medieval worshipers did not know thelyrics; we do not know the music.  But in each case, some smaller sub-section of the congregation performs its praise for it, graciously inviting the congregation to participate, but not actually permitting it to do so in a vigorous manner.  What Ann hears is not the congregation/assembly of Jesus Christ; what she hears is a small ensemble, highly amplified.

[discarnate-man]

Our newest post at @SecondNatureJrn is from Shane Hipps, author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture and Flickering Pixels. He writes on the role Facebook and Twitter can play in our spiritual lives:

This heavily edited and carefully controlled self easily hides certain parts of ourselves we don’t want others to see.  This is hardly new, of course.  In any social situation we seek to control the impression we give.  The problem is that in real social settings there are limits to what we can hide.  At a certain point people intuitively see through us.  Eventually they get a sense of who we really are.  In this way, unmediated friendships can function as a powerful and healthy mirror.  They become an honest mirror that loves but doesn’t flatter us.  Facebook is more like a funhouse mirror.  Feeling short and squatty, no problem, just bend the mirror and presto!  You are who you wish you were.

Over enough time this subtle affect creates a minor split in us.  A split between who we are and who we think we are.  This tiny fracture may seem insignificant, but if we remain unconscious, it leads us away from a life of wholeness and integration.