Blog Post 12: Fair Practice

Should all videos on the internet have copy-rights? I don't  believe they should. If you are an artist, tutorial maker, or make some sort of art/performance, I believe that is yours to own. If you upload a meme, then that meme is essentially open sourced. I don't think people should get upset when people remix their memes, that is the intent of them. I come from a software background where sharing open-source code is the bread and butter of programming. People make algorithms, softwares, music that we can all enjoy and pay if we think it's worth paying for. This model is what I believe is essential to survive in the digital age. If you want to sell your product, get on youtube, make a paid for website or whatever you think is necessary. If you upload something on to the internet, don't be surprised when people take it and use it for their own intent.

I make music and sampling is one of my bread and butters, I think sampling should be allowed on a large scale. There is of course rules you need to follow but if anything sampling just makes people check out the original source giving them more traffic.

Iron Maiden not to long ago had a tour that went to towns where they were most torrented and sold out every show. This to me shows a progressive mindset everyone should take on.

(2008) Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online video. Center for Social Media

Blog Post 11: Re-conceptualizing the Digital Divide

Forcing digital advancement on a society isn't always a positive thing. An example listed in the article is Ireland. They disrupted perfectly good social-programs for the progress. I think this is a good example for what the insertion of smart phones and social media into children's life has had negative actions. If you go into a public space, you hardly see anyone looking up. Everyone's in their phones, existing in a realm completely outside of reality. The next counter-culture will be the anti-tech movement. People will choose to disconnect entirely from social media and live in the moment..

I think the adding of technology into certain industries makes sense. You can save a lot of money using digital film over using Kodak film. The downside is it isn't always the same as their analog counterparts. Vinyl vs CD is a good example. I prefer vinyl but that's not always the easiest way listen to music so I will play digital if I need to.

It seems like these forced up-dates in society can cause people to transition with-out thinking of what they might miss. We see a large push in people going to retro gaming, music, etc. It's been happening for the last 10 years with Vinyl, pixel art and camera film coming back.

I think we will see the push back happen more and more as we go on.


Warschauer, Mark. “Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide.” First Monday, firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/967/888.

Carvin, Andy. 1's and 0's: Mind the Gap: The Digital Divide as the Civil Rights Issue of the New Millennium, The Benton Foundation.

Reading Response 10: Redefining the Digital Divide

In 2019, if you don't know how to operate a computer you are ill-prepared for the job market. Why is it then that members of certain demographics don't know how to use them? 'The Digital Divide' I would argue has lowered since the 90's when the having of a personal computers rising from ~23% to 62% in ten years( 1993-2003). The numbers have stagnated since then, we still only have 75% of households with computers. If computers are a necessary skill for the work place we need to tighten down this gap. I think that public schools make valiant efforts in minimizing this gap. I learned how to type in middle school. I also learned basic coding principles and how to use Microsoft office. I think we could mitigate a lot of this problems with offering free classes at local libraries.

The issue with our society is we believe ion pulling your self up by the bootstraps so it's hard to get funding for these types of program. I think that free education would truly provide us an innovative society and would mitigate this factor. I don't think it's something we will see in our lifetime but something we strive for. Free access to libraries and better resources is the best we can do with what we have.

Blog Post 9 : Deanna Zandht

In the “Power of Sharing”, Deanna Zandt used the analogy of bubbles to portray our social connection to others: “Picture billions of soap bubbles in a sink. Each bubble represents a different person, and the bubble size reflects that person’s sphere of influence. Where bubbles connect and intersect represents our relationships with people around us” (7). Keeping this analogy in mind, it’s easy to see how social media is such a successful way to mobilize people in seeking social change. It’s long been understood that the first step towards solving a societal conflict is raising awareness, which today is often done using such mediums such as Facebook and Twitter. When we post, “share” or “like” a video such as the Kony 2012 viral video Facebook allows all of our all of our virtual friends to see. Next, our friends can choose if they also want to share or like it, and if the post is interesting enough the outreach can be exponential as the awareness spread through the “bubbles” and “empathy” builds (1). Naturally when large groups of people become aware of a pressing issue, the normal course of action is to seek change. Social media often is a place where real life events and protests are organized, allowing users to set a date, provide a description and invite their friends to join. Prior to social media, events like these were took time and were difficult to set up as they relied on heavy word of mouth, print media, and if possible sometimes television. Social media has allowed for us to stay connected and unify quickly if necessary.

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Zandt, Deanna. “Ch 1: The Power of Sharing, Ch 2: “Are We There Yet”, Ch 3: “We Are What You Share” Accessed March 22, 2019

Blog Post 8

Tactical media is a media inherently created by the consumer. It's a media of criticism, crisis, and opposition.I think this is best represented by social media. On social media, everyone can be a critic, everyone has a say. This wasn't the way it always was. If you wanted to heckle someone you would have to come to their performance and articulate an actual view. That view could be negative, sure, but it was not an inherent thing. I have found a lot of value out of movie reviews by Roger Ebert, on how to analyse film. I have not found that value in any social media comment I have read. 

I believe social media is a good example of this as well. We are all performing and analyzing at the same time. We see everyone's highlight reels. This could make us potentially critical of ourselves. We think everyone else has this glorious life, when in fact they are probably just as mundane as ours is. I've heard it said that comparison is the thief of happiness.  I believe this is true, full heartily. This new access to social media has caused us all a fair amount of displeasure and grief. This new wave of technology has isolated us and made us feel more alone than ever.

"The ABC of Tactical Media." Garcia, David; Lovink, Geert. pp. 1-3. Published May 16, 1997.

Blog Post 7: Inanimate Objects

I completely believe it's impossible to have a relationship with inanimate objects. I think anyone who has written code feels like they are their bastard step child. I form deeper relationships with animals or humans obviously but I do think there is merit to humanizing an inanimate object. I think everyone's childhood they had a tamagotchi. Those taught children about responsibility and taking care of a pet. The benefit was we didn't actually kill an animal. The hurt of losing them was still palpable. 

Without a tamagotchi I don't think I would have been responsibility of a rat, it was an important part in transforming who I was. 

I don't think you could call AI inanimate tho. At a certain point it will be nearly indistinguishable from human life. 




Turtle, Sherrry; Taggart, Will, Kidd, Cory D; & Daste, Olivia. (2006) Relational artifacts with children and elders: the complexities of cybercompanionship

Blog Post 6: Interactive Art

Participation of interaction: Towards the Origins of the Interactive Art  by Solke Dinkle talks about how we can interact with our art mediums. The first two things that came to mind were: the blue man group and video games. The Blue Man Group is notorious for having audience members interact with their shows. Is this truly interactive art? I guess that would depend on what you are considering art.  Dancing to music at a show, is also creating your own art to jive with their art. I have been to a few art collective shows where all the painters start one painting and everyone else is asked to interact with that painting. Paint whatever inspired on top of their original art form. I think that's an interactive art. I think video games are the true new interactive art form. Games like Mario Maker, which take a game we are used to Super Mario Bros, and let us create our own levels. We can expand on an artform we already know, the platformer game, and create something in our own liking. People get absolutely nutty in creating masterpiece levels of difficulty and creativity. 

The game Journey, which is very linear, still I would consider interactive art. You can't change the outcome but you can interact with this world of pure beauty. 

I think the next true expansion of interactive art is going to be Virtual Reality, I am very excited where this art form takes us in the future.

Blog Post 5: Timohthy Brinkley The Vitality of Digital Art

Digital art is hindered by the processors on which the creations run. Now digital art is quiet amazing and can produce more colors than we could with an analog equivalent. This wasn't the always the case, we must think back to CRTS and 8 bit processors. The limitation of technology was preventing us from producing truly vivid pictures.

Now we can render any color, from a scale of 0-255 from the R,B,G spectrum in terms of what is put out. This allows us such a greater scale in terms of what we can produce. Last year in my engineering class we had to convert one of these pictures into gray scale for compression of information. It was an eye opening experience in how computers produce images.

I, however, love 8-bit and 16-bit pixel art, it makes me feel nostalgic. There has been a Renaissance in that art form in the last few years. It's almost like the minimalist art movement that started one hundred years ago. Now that people have the technology to make very advanced art, there is a longing for art that reminds us of our childhood. I grew up playing 16 bit pixel art games and sprite based fighting games. I grew up in the arcade playing Street Fighter 3: 3rd strike, so to see a return to that nostalgia makes my heart warm.

I don't think digital art seems any less real, but I could see how that argument could be made. Unlike the author though, I've grown up with digital art. I've seen the progression from CRTS to digital screens. I find digital art endearing.

Binkley, Timothy (1997). The Vitality of Digital Creation. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55 (2). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Blog Post 4: Programmed or Be Programmed

Chap 6:

 I relate to on a personal level. It is the main reason that I do not have a Facebook, people rely on the internet too much to hide who they are. They produce this person they think they should be seen as, and not the person they truly are.

Chap 7:

 I think is well said, being able to boil human essence down to those five things: survival, power, wealth, sex and glory are the five inspirations of man kind. I think it'd be hard to convince me that someone was doing anything if it didn't pertain to these five drives. It's easy to accidentally tag your friends or use them as a product. You could inadvertently make revenue off their likeness.

Chap 8:

I think memes are one of the greatest inventions in the last 20 years. It completely wraps up with that internet is about, quickness and accessibility. You can break humor down to just a phrase that makes people laugh uncontrollably. You can take political ideas or human rights issues and make people read about them because of the simplicity. 

Chap 9:

I full heartily believe in open sourcing programs and letting them out for people to use. Open source algorithms are the backbone of the internet and human progression. A person in Africa could get access to Khan Academy, learn advanced math, and transfer to a first world country. Things like YouTube tutorials, Wikipedia, and countless other resources are educating the world at an alarmingly fast rate. The tools are there if people are just willing to look for the resources.

Chap 10:

Using all these principles, we can shape the future of the human race and the individual. We can reprogram how we think, how the world thinks and how we are digesting information. I personally think online reading is the best solution. It's how I learn most of my information for school.

Blog Post 3: Program or be programmed

As someone who came about in their senior year right when texting was a new technology, I can see how much it has effected people. They were texting one another during class and I just couldn't see the point of it. Fast forward to 2019 and I dread answering a phone when a simple text will do.

I think in a lot of ways I've seen this progress through the use of social media. I think people are too absorbed in their phones and need to detach themselves from that. I stopped using a smart phone 2 years ago to cut myself off from that absorption and get back to living in the now.

I don't have a Facebook or Instagram, don't really find the use for it. I would rather work on an art project, read a book, or do things that are more productive to my existence.

I think people have this false idea of who they are/who they want people to see them as, and they project that into the social media sphere.They would rather be seen as something great than work on edifying themselves. It's okay to be a work in progress and trying to better yourself everyday.

 I've been told before, much like Albert Camus character, The Stranger, that " I don't play the game" but shallow interactions are the bane of my existence. I'd rather connect with people on a deeper level.

Living without a smartphone has help me to see how much that can affect our existence and how much I don't want to be a part of that rat race.

If you read this post, I suggest you do the same, for the sake of your soul and well being. Disconnect and go smell a flower. Enjoy your love ones and find peace.

Response 2: Hypermedic,Remedation and immediacy.

I had never heard of these three terms(immediacy,Hypermedic,Remedation) before this reading. They intrigued me quiet a bit and can see their value.

This reminds me of Microsoft vs Apple. Microsoft feels more Hypermedic while Apple feels more immediacy. Microsoft feels like it's more based on the idea that it's just an engine on which different machines can operate. Apple on the other hand gives you the slickest machines to look at with decent operating systems. All their products are delivered to give interfaces which are easy to navigate and give a seamless experience. Windows is a bit cheaper and gives a clunkier interface. I don't know if Microsoft design intentionally follows the hypermedic model or is simply lacking in polish for the trade off of cost and integration. Apples Mac's are purposely crafted, every one of the their detail sthought out.  I find this stands out especially in details like  when you open apps. They embody the immediacy philosophy.

I see Remediation,the act of digital media improving on older techniques, in fighting games. Streetfigher 5 takes ideas from older versions of their game while trying new ideas and game play options. This Streetfighter is easier to access for new players. They made frame links between moves from 1 frame to 3-5 frame. This means the input timing for linking moves would have a much larger window in which to enter a move. This simple gameplay mechanic opened up their player base intensely. They improved their gameplay while still using the same basic gameplay ideas throughout their entire catalog.


Citations:

Bolter, J. David, and Richard A. Grusin. Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation. MIT Press, 1999

Blog Response 1: Medium is the Message

In the essay "Medium is the Message" by Mcluhan, he argues that the medium in which we receive information is as important, if not more important, than the message we receive. He used the example of the electric light to Illuminate his point. His argument was it did not matter whether you were operating on a patient in the surgery room or playing baseball at night, the light was the important element. It is  needed to effectively do both activities effectively. (medium is the message Mcluhan). It illustrated what he was trying to convey, but I think it is a weak comparison to make. Digestion of information and tools to do things are fundamentally different in every way.

. I thought it was an interesting point to be made, and do agree medium has an important power over the masses. I do not agree with the sentiment that it is more important than the message itself. I do agree that it will change how we will interpret that information, however, Ithink even the language in which we receive information will fundamentally change how we interpret the message. A famous example of this would be Nixon vs JFK. When they first debated, people who watched thought that JFK won the debate and those who listened on the radio thought that Nixon had one. This is a powerful example of how the medium objectively influenced people.


I believe hearing/seeing vs reading would be the greatest difference in how we received that info. I think reading puts the voice of the reader in place of the person who is speaking. I don't think Hitler for example would have been nearly as powerful if radio and film hadn't existed. If you simply just saw a picture of Hitler and read his words, the influence wouldn't have been as powerful. Mein Kampf was not a strong seller after well into Hitler's term as chancellor. When you hear him speak tho, and see his animations, they convey an energy of a higher caliber. It is easier to understand why he influenced people the way he did, he used the medium to his advantage.

As we journey further into the 21st century, it will be interesting to see how things like VR will become a new powerful medium. Maybe a holocaust museum will use this technology to make you experience that existence or the experience of the slave in america. I'm excited to see how this new medium will be utilized.