Tag: media

Posted on in Media, Networked Media, Production

Hypertext and Interwingled’s the word.

…this does not mean that you need to understand the intricacies of programming and other computer miscellanea (that would be like needing to know the intimate language and history of typography in order to read and write) but that an understanding of some general principals about the properties and qualities of these networks will allow you to successfully use them.

Adrian Miles, wherever you are right now, what type of coffee you are currently wanting to drink or how your morning was ruined by your dissimilar pair of socks, I would like to thank you for this great sentence about network literacy.

It alludes to the shenanigans of hypertext and frankly, after reading the very word hypertext, I had no idea what to do with myself. *rocks myself backwards and forwards*

I like the idea of not following orders to the extent of respecting authority, of course. But I like the idea of non-sequential things. And Latin being my most favourite subject, non-sequitur will forever be embedded somewhere in the deep recesses of my heart.

‘Drawing by Theodor Nelson from Computer Lib/Dream Machines. Courtesy Theodor Nelson.’

“Interwingled.” What a word. It’s almost as if J.K. Rowling conjured it from one of her pewter cauldrons of ingenious. Hypertext is basically writing/text that branches off allowing the reader for the best of readings on an interactive screen.

The world of paper, books and manuscripts can only offer you the choice of opening it, reading it, closing it and putting it back to the desired shelf or location it belongs. You can’t touch Augustus Waters’ name and suddenly a new page will magically transcribe itself on the spine of your paperback all beautified by Ansel Elgort’s gorgeous pout.

And that’s why the world of computer text systems come in a savvy, Sparrow-esque entree.

  • Jumps around text
  • Outlining and text expansion
  • Ability for users to put separate notes onto linear documents
  • Categorization of messages according to their “social-strategic type” (commitments, fulfilments, suggestions, inquiries, etc.)

I like this whole idea of hypertext. I mean, for crying out loud I’m using it right now. But I have another view in this matter. I shall elaborate after a glass of ink.

Posted on in Media, Networked Media, Production

Vannevar and the Research. A sci-fi band at wit’s end.

“Of what lasting benefit has been man’s use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence?”

 

I shall give you another ten seconds to re-read Vannevar Bush’s question before I carry on…

  1. Increased control of material environment, he says.
  2. Then there’s the improvement of food, clothing and shelter,
  3. Security and my personal favourite:
  4. Release from the “bondage of bare existence.”

Vannevar Bush’s sentiments echoes my very own. Increased evidence may prove facts and truth about our researches, but in the same way it also stipulates a mental breakdown. Take a simple psychological case study about say, Bandura’s controversial Bobo doll experiment. How many other researches have been funded under this parent research that produces a staggering amount of findings and conclusions of which we just do not have the time to grasp?

Follow up experiments in ’63, a refinement of the experiment itself in ’65. The result? Inconclusive and predictions that are not fully proved. Has your head exploded yet?

I love how the conduit between these two different worlds comes down to the “new and powerful instrumentalities” that come in handy dandy.

Would you call me a cinemaphile? Probably too defined for the ever-changing me. Let’s go with movie buff. As a movie buff, the very idea of machines having interchangeable parts that does as it’s told is cheesecake any day, all day. Perhaps if no new materials for recording appear, these present ones are almost always in the process of modification and upgrade.

Example, oui? Check out the Lytro camera. LOVE its concept. You take a photograph and there is no fixed depth of field. And it used to look like this but now it looks like this + more features.

I think it’s say to say that it’s a wonderful time to be alive!
… but then it really does give me lots more to think about.

Posted on in Media, Networked Media, Production

Rights of copying and a vat full of confusion.

Last tutorial when we divulged the hidden secrets of the world wide web and what belongs to what and which belongs to who, I was left incredibly dumbfounded and utterly unable to post this photograph of an ancient ruin landscape to grace the boring pages of my Mythographic because of utter fear that I may be infringing on someone’s rights to said photograph. And instead of bothering myself to go and find out if the good ol’ CC’s sign is somewhere to be found, I gave up in my paranoia.

(Which is a totally bad move, of course.)

In saying that. I hear from various media students who collectively scream the anthem of “freedom” along with me assuredly told me that it’s fine to post photographs and videos, and memes and remixes just as long as you don’t denigrate the works, take credit of ownership and no one approaches you with a pink slip that may include a postscript of “you owe us five thousand dollars for using this.”

In any case, here’s a link if you want to browse around for free music, images, text and audiovisual resources for your next Nobel prize-winning thesis or the sort.

 

Posted on in Media, Networked Media, Production

Scribble me an eternity.

A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames. 
– Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones.

 

For non-wizarding folk, the sorcery of books are both beguiling and abominably out of their domain of faith. Why? Because it is more than difficult to pretend that when the novel you stay up for till 3, maybe 4am in the morning (when you know you shouldn’t be), simply ends and a part of you has been shut along with it. I, for one cannot take the idea of something ending. Limitations are suffocating. Claustrophobic to the point of “how free are you on the scale of 1 to America” whence July the 4th.

Do books end? Physically, yes. Via paperback or hardback. Figuratively, no. Ever heard of fanfiction? It’s not just a website for penning down the what if’s and the what could have been’s or what the children of the seventeen year old protagonists would look like ten years later. It’s a living vat of butter churning away in everyone’s brains all day, everyday. The characters, the story, the facial expressions, the very way they “speak” are basically alive in us. It’s living in us, inhabiting our very beings whether that’s involuntarily or voluntarily.

Going back to Lloyd Jones and appropriating that to the digital age, however, a physically-bound book can literally stop you from looking up when your house is alight. (Have you seen those Folio Society books?) If you’re using a smart little phone, the key word is little. It’s small enough for your peripheral vision to take in the burning curtains and scream (or maybe snapchat) its poor demise. Tragic, really.

‘A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe.’
And this. Does this mean that when the book kills you, everything ends then? Tragically, yes. Metaphorically, no. Death is simply the beginning. You know what? Perhaps I’ll even write a story about that.

To the River of Styx it is!

Posted on in Media, Networked Media, Production

To err or not to err.

In every Twitter profile page, there’s an opportunity for one to state where they originate.

(Tupac, anyone?)

Models, celebrities, self-proclaimed professional photographers with their obscure-coloured Holga’s, “I’m K for Kardashian,” and perhaps even B Obama himself would lodge the A Walk to Remember reference with being two places at once. e.g. LA/NY.
Some hanker for a bit of attention: where there’s wifi (puhlease). And then you’ve got your fangirls and were we really like that back whence tween? Location: Harry Styles’ heart.

Cue my shudder and I prefer the strong jaw. Now that is where it’s at.

My misconstrued idea about social media stems from trailing my favourite celebrities and their endless promotional posts about cats, favourite new songs and aggressive conversations with fellow celebrities/close friends with no prior context whatsoever. And when we do think up of a witty reply that will sure get them to notice you, they’ve gone to bed because boo you, timezones.

But alas, such entertainment. One may only follow certain people just cause. But the trolling happens with an idea and a click of that magnifying glass once every five minutes.

Be-ware.