TV for free?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/user/parselforce[/youtube]Overall the commercials were placed in a similar pattern. The first commercial was close to the beginning, like where a normal commercial would actually go. The next few commercials were placed much later on. I think that it is to rope you in and once you’re hooked you won’t mind watching a few commercials. The last commercial is usually placed right before the most intense or captivating scene right at the end of the episode.
Augmented Reality
For my second New Media Travelogue I’ve decided to work with and research the emerging field of Augmented Reality (AR). AR is all technology that includes the use of both virtual reality and real world objects. This is not the kind of futuristic VR you see in movies where people wear helmets and immerse themselves in an alternate world, but rather using video or digital imagery to interact with or simulate virtual spaces in real environments. The most common example is probably the Nintendo Wii and the wiimote, which can be used to create life-like or realistic interactions between real and virtual space. This is a pretty basic use of AR, though, and several people have hacked the Wii to create new modes of interaction, such as Johnny Chung Lee:
I think this could expand to include touch screen or sensitive interfaces, but I would probably limit myself to uses that dealt with issues of space and less with issues of functionality and usability (such as the iPhone), although there has been some interesting work done on ways of making flat touch screen panels register textures and shape through vibration.
This is just a start and it’s not something I know a whole lot about, so I’m very open to help/links/suggestions.
Patty’s Traveler Log
I’m interested in exploring the world of online photo sharing and the communities that develop within these websites (i.e. flickr, lomography.com). The lomo website has a lot of members who are interested in analog photography and convert these analog by scanning them - therefore adding a digital component to their work. I want to focus on how photography as an art is evolving and what digital and new media components are affecting its course. For example, the use of flickr as a platform to share your work with millions of people and the accessibility the internet is giving photographers (whether it be through a photojournalistic stand point or straight up art).
The idea that anyone can save your picture and print them - reminds me of an Andy Warholesque approach to photography - because you are taking art (which is thought of as untouched) and making it part of your own (if you like it and choose to) and printing it off of your computer. A sort of mass production approach or ripping if you will. It’s also interesting to see this retreat back to analog but with digital enhancements through photoshop, etc, etc.
It seems to be the direction I’m heading towards, but tell me if this doesn’t make any sense.
television invades the internet
I thought that in light of the writers strike and its pending conclusion that it might be interesting to investigate which companies protect their television show’s copyright, which companies post their shows online, which shows do they choose to post online (all, none or a select few)? How soon are they posted online after their debut? Are there commericals, if so how many and for how long? Are they the same commercials for each commercial break? Can one skim the content and skip the commercials? Has the quality changed from tv to the internet?
I know that I just posed a lot of questions but I do watch most of my tv shows on my computer now unless I simply can not wait until they are posted (…like bans on google/youtube) or the company does not post them at all. Warning, almost all of the shows that I enjoy are incredibly trashy and poorly made. For example, Bravo does not post full episodes of Project Runway but does post partial episodes and “teasers” on its website. It is not very good about watching its copyrights. There are several youtube users who will post entire episodes of Project Runway without commercials within days and sometimes hours of its original showing. It is interesting to see what content was taken down by the company and/or youtube. Most of it is taken down because the company is vigilant about watching their productions but sometimes it is due to high web traffic due to a link leading to it from another site such as celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.
The Trap, Big Pharma, and New Media
One of the most intriguing points that I discovered while watching “The Trap” was the use of psychotropic and psychiatric drugs in order to treat unhappiness. The documentary puts forward the point that drugs such as Prozac were released by the pharmaceutical companies partially as a ploy to “normalize” the masses, making them pliable and easier to control. The example of the red-haired woman, who cheerfully praised the effects of Prozac while her husband lamented how much she’d changed since she started taking it was a powerful image. Convincing people their unhappiness is an abnormality, then drugging them up in order to better place them within a homogenized sphere is a dangerous practice. Right before I blogged this, my home page presented me with an article concerning just this idea.
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/75081/
The article discusses how certain political ideologies or personal beliefs are now being placed within the realm of mental illness. This includes distrust of the government, which is being diagnosed as paranoia, along with a recommended treatment. This rejection of authority has been labeled as “ODD” (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), obviously labeled to conjure similarities with another “widespread” but debatable diagnosis, ADD.
So what does this have to do with new media? In this case, I’m considering new media anything that involves the near-instantaneous transmission of desired information, such as the internet, PDAs, and some cell phone technologies. Given the vast amount of alternative information and news sources present on the net, it stands to reason that individuals who feel uncomfortable with the current media power structure would seek out information online. These individuals also tend to cluster together in groups, in the form of newsgroups, listservs, or blogospheres. Given that these communities now have the chance to spring up on the internet, whereas previously geographic proximity would have been a necessity, it makes sense that oppositional forces would arise. In this case, the increasing diagnoses of thinking Americans as abnormal or disordered is a somewhat troubling situation.
The Trap and New Media
To me, the interesting connection between “The Trap” and new media is the underlaying notion of politics. “The Trap” examined politics and the ‘optimistic illusion,’ which states politics are out there doing best for the general public and not just for themselves. When in reality, expressing on behalf of general interest is impossible because general interests do not cover all of the public (the structure of the general interest is of certain class, income, race, etc).
With new media (specifically the internet), we are experimenting with what many refer to as the ‘democratic medium’ - one that gives substantially more power to the users to freely express themselves. However, this seems to me yet another illusion- the democratic medium is only available to those who have access to and can acquire the technology. The views that are being expressed on the internet is only half of the picture (those that have no access, have no voice). In turn, the politics of the internet are much like that of real life. The politicians (frequent users) of new media make up the ‘general interest’ but even this general audience is still limited.
What’s New Media? Post 3
Upon answering the question “what is new media,†I’d like to apply the famous principle of “positivity†and “negativity†of liberty. In terms of negativity of liberty, new media would be a channel, a trendy industry of communication in which people appropriate the information and resources from new media to spread their own perspectives of freedom including the freedom of speech and the freedom of markets and other subjects. New media, or the government who use the media as a vehicle to propaganda themselves, offer its people what they want and what they want the society to be in an effective and efficient way through the usage of high-tech.
From the standpoint of positivity of liberty, new media are leaders of a social, political, and economic revolution and movement that scheme an unprecedented idea of democracy for its people on the purpose of making a better and just society by employing non-traditional formats of mediated technology.
One of the primary arguments that Curtis makes in his documentary is how Game theory, and its application in psychology and politics, characterizes human beings as simplified and mechanized information processors. I would be interested in knowing how Curtis’s perspective on human interactivity relates to virtual/ cyber relationships and interaction, both in how individuals relate to personal computer devices as well as how they communicate with each other in a system governed by rational numerical rules. If the application of Game Theory based policies are contributing to our further simplification and self centered isolation, and our becoming “Lonely Robots” what role does our increasing dependence on computers/wired devices play? Curtis emphasized how the rational technology of computers influenced the research and theories of scientists, economists, and psychologists but he made no mention of how this dependence and ultimate faith in computer technology impacted (and continues to impact) humanity.
how the “trap” relates to new media
After watching the videos for the trap, it was hard for me to come up with an answer of how this documentary relates to new media without stating the obvious that it is new media because it now exists within the internet. What I thought was interesting was the kind of dichotomy between old and new media. The documentary was heavily based in clips of old taped interviews, and camera stills, etc.,, but because of the documentary being posted online it is now a new source of information about the cold war and things like game theory and how human beings are thought to behave. Had I not been exposed to such a documentary online I probably never would have tried to find it by going to a library, and with the upcoming elections this documentary certainly has me questing what our government is all about and where in that society do i “fit”.
