Archives

RIP books?

Aug28

Is the book dead? This question seems to be a hard one to answer for me. And after reading through one of this weeks readings The End Of Books – Or Books Without End?: Reading Interactive Narratives, and listening to all the ideas raised in the symposium, it made me think a bit. I grew up reading books, and I grew up loving books. I still like to read, but to be honest, it is not as frequent as I used to. Technology has definitely played a major role in changing the way I, and many other people around the world, make use of books.

In my personal experience, the fact is that my iPhone is just a bit more interesting and fun to use/read/play, than a book. I was about 16 when I first got my iPhone, and since that day I have probably read about 1/4 of the amount of books I would have if this new distraction hadn’t been introduced into my everyday activities. To me, this suggests that the book is definitely slightly more irrelevant in todays society.

Why would we choose to read a giant and heavy book about film studies, when we can read the same version of that book online, as a PDF file, that has no weight and is easily accessible? The convenience of eBooks, online material, and devices like iPhones and iPads, has made it easy for the world to move on from books, and even begin their downfall.

However, in saying this, there are still many people out there in the world who still read books, go to libraries, and enjoy the feel of a physical book in their hands while they imerse themselves in a story world, or drown themselves in facts and histories.

So is the book really dead? Is it on its way to being extinct? These questions are difficult to answer, but the use of new technology has for sure  increased the likelihood of this happening in the future, and has increased the demand for electronic reading, rather than reading physical books. Which is exciting in the innovative world we live in, but also kind of sad.

Bloggers

Aug22

I found the Landow reading interesting this week. His discussion of hypertext and individual path ways of knowledge brought up some good ideas. I especially found his discussion of blogging kind of intriguing, as he spoke of a majority of bloggers being highly skilled computer users,

‘majority of bloggers (and also the most intense ones) are highly skilled computer uses whose professional activities demand technical information’

This statement stood out as I like blogging and do it frequently via my tumblr, however I wouldn’t consider myself to be a ‘highly skilled computer user.’ Landow also stated that having comments allowed on blogs enable the reader of an online diary to participate actively, which also leads into his discussion of the fine line between ‘private’ and ‘public’, ‘real life’, and a ‘virtual reality’. This all stood out to me as I think it is true, once you start posting about your private life online, in a blog, it becomes somewhat public, for the world to see. The line between private and public definitely becomes blurred.

Also the idea that when blogging it is each to their own, individual thoughts, feelings, and base of knowledge. This is what makes blogs so great – the difference from one person to the next. The flow of ideas may be somewhat the same at times, however the online persona and narrative voice throughout the writing can always be different. Blogs are fun to have, and keeping them updated with your own thoughts can be really helpful, as going back to look over things you wrote a year ago can be amusing and insightful.

This entry was posted on August 22, 2013, in Readings.

Research

Aug21

For my first Niki page, my group have been given the man that is Vannevar Bush to discuss. As I was just doing some research into him and his achievements and inventions, I came across this in the comments of an article about him. I thought it was really interesting, so I’m posting it on here…

 what if Vannevar Bush’s advice on research for cancer had been followed? below copied from Boston globe book review (The Emperor of all Maladies):

In the decade following World War II, zealots like Lasker sought to create a “Manhattan Project’’ for cancer that would tackle the disease with centralized planning and a relentless wave of resources. In contrast, Vannevar Bush, an electrical engineer who rose to become President Truman’s chief science adviser, favored a system of diffuse basic research over “programmatic’’ science dedicated solely toward precise, practical ends. DNA pioneer James Watson, among the best known of the anti-Laskerites, argued that the success of the Manhattan Project, and later the moon landing, rested upon a previous generation’s collected body of theoretical insights and empirical research of the sort not yet available to cancer’s foes. These two competing visions of the anticancer struggle finally joined in battle over the content of the National Cancer Act of 1971, ultimately a Pyrrhic victory for the Laskerites that ensured Richard Nixon’s “war’’ on cancer would be little more than a muted salvo.

This entry was posted on August 21, 2013, in Niki, Readings.

Progress

Aug15

Reading Vannevar Bush’s article excerpt from his renowned essay “As We May Think” (1945) has given me insight into another way of thinking about the world of technology and science today. So many of the gadgets and such things that people use in todays day ‘n’ age are products of progressive thinking from people who lived years ago. This is something I definitely take for granted. The fact that I can be sitting here on this train, typing this blog up on my computer, is something I’ve never really second guessed before. I literally cannot imagine not being able to do this – and it’s because of innovative thinkers like Mr Bush, that this is even possible. Sitting here now and having a good think about it, it is really, truly incredible how far technological advancement has, and continues to, come! Mr Bush was an innovative man, who envisioned new and useful concepts and tools, all before the time in which it was actually possible to create them, and form them into things that would be used on a daily basis by people like me.  So to all the past, present, and future innovators out there, props to you!

 

More Thoughts on Design Fiction

Aug10

‘For a minute, stop and think about the amount of consultancy work that has been presented to clients but never made it off the production line.’

This sentence is so completely true. And when you really think about it, it’s crazy to think of ALL the numerous amounts of ideas people have come up with and created, to only be shut down by clients and bosses worldwide. The fact that people are always designing something for an environment that doesn’t yet exist, in order to impress their clients and the people they work for, makes you think hard about all the ideas that have ever been thought of and considered for this world in an attempt at trying to construct the future.

An example of design fiction ideas that have had a huge impact on the world are by the corporation Apple. Apple designed a whole new world of technology, going beyond the social norms of the time and pushing limits to create products that revolutionised the world. The designers and creators at Apple must engage in design fiction on a daily basis.

 

 

This entry was posted on August 10, 2013, in Readings.

Knowledgable

Aug6

In todays Unlecture, some pretty great ideas and thoughts were thrown out into the open, for us to either catch and run with, or for us to let slip by and forget about as soon as we walk out of the lecture theatre. I like to think that I caught some of the ideas, and carried them out with me. One topic that stuck with me from listening today, is that knowledge is constructed, and we construct it in the way we want to. We are all individuals, who all learn differently, and who all hold certain things in life to be important. We all know a lot about some things, and less about others. The notion that we all produce knowledge is intriguing, and this makes me even more excited to be able to have this blog and update it with information that I myself know and information that I can construct in a way that let’s other people learn and be slightly more knowledgable about certain topics, events or people.

The explanation from Elliot on Design Fiction also helped me understand more about the reading than I did at first when I read it. The concept of working on something with an idea of how the future is going to function, wanting to create something that is futuristic and yet somewhat helpful/useful in the world of today.

This unecture also gave me a few more ideas on what I can blog about in future posts. So on the topic of the unlecture being considered irrelevant by some, for me, I disagree, as I find it interesting and helpful to attend.

Design Fiction. Yep, I read about it!

Aug5

 

‘One useful definition calls design fiction “an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.”’

Bruce Sterling’s explanation of Design Fiction at first kind of confused me, but then when he brought up the whole ‘iPad in the 2001 film ‘A Space Odyssey” being a successful example of Design Fiction the idea seemed to make a bit more sense. So, after reading both Bruce Sterling and Matthew Ward’s pieces, I guess I feel like I now know a new term – Design Fiction. I’d never heard of it before, nor ever really thought about the concept of it. But I like it. I don’t really know how to explain much about what I learnt from this reading, but as I was browsing through some other students blogs (..trying to see how they were running theirs, trying to get some more ideas for my own,) I came across Arthur’s post about Design Fiction, and I really like how he explained the concept and made it slightly more simple to understand. After reading his thoughts on this, my mind is more at ease with the idea of Design Fiction and what it entails. So Thanks Arthur!

This entry was posted on August 5, 2013, in Readings.

A Public Diary..

Aug2

I finally just got around to reading through Blogs in Media Education by Adrian Miles. Better late than never hey!

This reading was interesting, I like how it explained why we choose to use blogs to display our thoughts and our work, especially on a public platform where we can share our ideas with other people who may be in the same learning space as we are. Adrian explains how our work on our blog can ‘make a contribution to a larger community,’ and I think this is a really cool thing. If what I post on my blog today can be read by someone else tomorrow and it can in some way contribute to how they think about something in life, that’s pretty rad.

Using our blogs ‘to document and explore changes in our lives’ is also a good statement I took away from this reading. The idea that my blog is like my diary of thoughts, out for the public to see, slightly scares me, but it also inspires me to want to write about things that I love and things that I have something worthy to say about – so when people do read through my blog, it will represent me and my interests, passions and dreams. I feel like this reading helped me gain more of an appreciation for this blog process and it gave me a better insight into what kind of blog I want to run.