Week 2 reading take away

Online Audio-Visual culture … (p 53)

I found this section of the reading quite interesting. The Discussion of how what was once a private, personal space, that has now become a public platform where everyone who has access to the internet can play a role in and contribute to the public discourse, is very truthful. The internet has enabled mass communication worldwide! Being 19 years old myself, I can remember growing up not checking the internet every single day, I can remember a time when the social interaction online was not so hugely prominent in daily activity. Fast-forward to today, and it is a completely different story.

Bringing in the topic of ‘audio-visual’ online culture, online videos have greatly impacted the internet and its many uses. The internet thrives off of any kind of video, from the crappy home made short film, or the dodgy recording of a concert you went to the other night, to the bigger scale productions where money has been spent and a target audience is in mind. The reading explains why YouTube is so successful as a video platform, and I found this to be put really nicely –

The main reason for the enormous success of YouTube lies in the fact that it operates as an open channel for the teeming millions of prospective content producers who, thanks to the technological and economic development of digital media production equipment, now have the possibilities to exchange meanings, experiences and ways of expression through the film medium.

The internet has enabled a giant platform to emerge for audio-visual produce and the people who enjoy creating them.

And we’re back for year 2….

Mar6

The position taken in this article is that any project that starts with an intention to document the ‘real’ and that uses digital interactive technology to realize this intention can be considered an interactive documentary. – from week 1 reading

Dreams of Technology

Oct16

This weeks heavily speculative reading discusses many aspects of technology and the future of technology – which is an aspect that people are highly interested in. Technology entwines itself with the whole idea of design fiction and the concept that allows people to think and ‘dream’ up new and exciting ideas for the future of technology, some viable, and some, not really. This whole reading places technology in a speculative, open position, where interpretation of the various different aspects of it is opinionated, and emphasis is placed on the role of technology as an art form.

here are the two ‘dreams’ that interested me the most:

. Dream of Symbiosis – Man- Machine Symbiosis – both humans and machines learn from interaction with each other – both would evolve to higher level of knowledge and functioning.

(To be honest, this dream slightly scares me a bit… I mean, just thinking of humans and machines combining to create the ultimate life forms is scary – all the movies that have been made about this kind of thing don’t really help with my confidence in the concept either hahaha. But yeah, The idea that humans and machines can learn from each other is great, but the combining of the two freaks me out a little.)

. Dream of world peace – Communication instead of leaving a trail of destruction.

actor-network

Oct14

This reading for week 11 was a bit complex. However, in my tutorial Elliot explained the main important aspects of it and this did help with my understanding:

‘Nothing is more intensely connected, more distant, more compulsory and more strategically organized than a computer network.’ – Bruno Latour

This theory is a model of communication that is beyond what we might have seen before. Model of understanding reality in terms of the entire network structure.

Ability for Actors in the network to interact – this ability is not limited by a physical geography – but communicative.

eg – Twitter and Facebook – proximity is closer to those on the other side of the world than people in the next level of this building.

Bruno argues that Networks aren’t necessarily about social networks!

Extends the idea of actors beyond people – but entities that can react to certain stimuli.

Actor-Network – entirety of the act itself – the communication has meanings contained in it.

Networking at its finest

Oct8

So, throughout this course we have been learning about networking, and how the web functions with the use of hyperlinks, where the world wide web is a giant playground, and at the click of a button we can be transported to a million different places and times. The internet is a revolution in which will keep evolving throughout time, and with it, we as people continue to learn and grow alongside it.

When it comes to networking and the whole idea that through the internet, we can meet, talk to, discover, and find so many various people around the world, one example that stands out in my mind is Justin Bieber. The kid who went from posting You Tube videos of his singing contest at the age of 13, to selling out worldwide arena tours in a matter of minutes. His story is one that has been plastered everywhere and if you haven’t heard of him then it’s safe to say that you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years.

Justin Bieber’s story is quite an amazing one, and it has a lot to do with this process of networking via the world wide web. His mum began posting videos to his You Tube channel after he sung in his local singing contest. These videos started to get lots of hits (views) and then suddenly people were sending him messages requesting more videos and more songs. The idea that people from all over the world could sit and watch this kid sing songs on his youtube channel was a true establishment of this concept, and then the fact that this would eventually lead into him being offered a record deal proves that networking actually is a big deal in society today.

However, after being offered his record deal, radio stations still would not play his first single, as there was no platform for a 14 year old kid to be catapulted into the charts with. So, this is where major networking came into play once again. All those ‘fans’ that had been tuning into his youtube videos and requesting songs, began writing into radio stations and tweeting and facebooking and spreading the word that THEY wanted Justin Bieber to be played on the radio. More and more people joined in and then suddenly Bieber had his own following, built from the ground up, purely on social networking sites. This following grew and grew and grew, and eventually he was played on one radio station, then two, then five, and then all over the world.

We live in a day ‘n’ age where the internet, and networking via social media sites, can play a giant role in our lives, and a major role in our careers. All due to networking on Youtube, and then branching out to twitter, this Canadian kid went from a 14 year old YouTuber, to a 19 year old global star.

And that’s the power of networking on the world wide web for you!

Where it all started – First ever You Tube Video posted on Justin Bieber’s user account – which now has

6,624,615 views

.
6 years since he posted his first ever youtube video, which launched him into the world of craziness he lives everyday now.

Thoughts on technology

Oct1

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the symposium for this week, however, I did read through the discussion points and thought I’d have a go at answering one of them for myself.

We often forget that technological inventions are made within a society that has particular values. How does this context get embedded into the technology and shape the way it is used?

With this, I strongly think that the context of the society that produces a technology is definitely embedded into that technology in a lot of ways. Ideologies and particular values shared by a society help inform the creation and invention of new technologies. This concept refers to the cyclical co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon the other (technology upon culture, and vice-versa). After conducting my own research, it is clearly understood that this relationship has occurred from the dawn of humankind, with the invention of simple tools, and it continues into modern technologies such as the printing press and computers.The development in modern mobile phone technology, like increasing speed of phone processors, the use of touch-enabled screens, and the implementation of mobile internet access, are further examples of this cycle of co-production. Society’s desire for widespread, frequent, and easy access to communication lead to the research and development of an ever widening range of mobile phone capabilities. Access to these capabilities, in turn, has had huge influence on the the way humans live.Within this, there is also the impact of societies values on the way in which technology is used. Continuing with my example of the mobile phone, I guess I can say that such technological devices are mostly used in reflection of the values of the society they were created in and for. People use mobile phones to call, text, book appointments, online shopping, etc. The list of uses is endless. And yet, each use of the mobile phone comes with the idea of a value shared by society. These values seep through in all uses, and embed themselves in the day to day lives of people and their mobile phones.

(… okay so maybe not the clearest explanation of my thoughts here, but I tried my best!)

MURPHY & POTTS

Sep26

Before doing this reading, I recognised the authors straight away, as I have done a few readings by them for my Communication Histories and Technologies class. Once I began reading, I soon realised that the ideas discussed are similar to that of the ideas we have learnt about in Comm class. The main concept that there is a complex relationship between culture and technology is important, as technology and culture are definitely linked in the way they function in society. I think that technology can only be created and expanded within a society where the culture plays a role, and influences, helps, and/or guides the process. Murphy and Potts introduce the term ‘Technoculture’ in their reading, and this quite nicely embraces the whole idea that technology and culture are intertwined.

Readings week 8

Sep19

This weeks reading’s didn’t really strike me as very interesting, and I personally found it quite difficult to read through it all and comprehend it all. However, I guess the main point intended to get across from reading these was to highlight how the network was/is created, through the intricate intertwining of links and the way power laws play a role in the bigger picture, including self organisation of networks. Maybe I read them at a time when I didn’t have a clear head or maybe my mind just doesn’t fully want to comprehend the ideas put forward here, so I’m not really 100% sure what exactly I learnt form these readings.

But it’s okay. Just a bump in the road I guess.

The Small-World Problem…..

Sep17

cluster of friends, each based on shared experience, location or interests.

This entire idea by Watts is quite relevant to me and my life as of right now. As I have posted about before, I am an avid user of social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram – and can say that due to this, I have met many new friends from all over the world – all because we share the same ‘interest’ – we all have the same favourite band!

As I have also already mentioned before, I have a twitter called @Team_JoelMadden, and by using this social network, I have been introduced to some of my best friends in my life today. I met my best friend in the whole world because of this, and my band, Dear Jane, all came together because of mutual friends and twitter. It is kind of crazy when I think about it, but it is true that i wouldn’t of met and become really great friends with so many people if it wasn’t for social networking and twitter. This small-world problem talked about in the Watts reading, is quite relevant in my life today, and due to this, I feel like I understand it pretty well.

Hypertext:

Sep11

So, I wrote this little blog in week 6 of the course, saved it as a draft, and totally forgot about it over mid semester break…. yeah. But alls well, I’ll just post it now:

To be honest, for the past few weeks that we have been discussing Hypertext, I haven’t really fully understood it. I havn’t really been able to pin point exactly what it is and what it’s purpose is. But, in yesterdays tutorial, we had a short conversation with Elliot about it, and it helped me wrap my head around it a bit more.

Two main points I took away from this discussion were:

Hypertext exists in formats: Writing and video. Writing the most common. However, some audio projects occurring right now.

An idea from Landow – Hypertext mirrors the way we interact with the world. In many ways it reflects our way of thinking.

Inside Shannen's Mind..

All these dreams & all these plans, I built them all with these two hands

Archives