"Dreams of a New Medium" - by Aden Evans
Evens' starts by relating his whole idea with Marshall McLuhan's description of technology as an 'extension of ourselves'. He discusses the effects of web 1.0 and web 2.0. Thus by doing so, he explains the connection between web activities such as apping, blogging, mapping, mashing, geocaching, tagging, searching, shopping, sharing, socializing and more. For me this text was very confusing because Evans goes directly into the issue without correctly explaining his topic. All along as I was reading, I never really understood the connection between web 1.0, web 2.0 and apparently 'web 3'. He makes the readers believe web 2 to be a sort of event. As for McLuhan's 'extension of ourselves', I believe Evans tries to show that we are computers. Technology has become humans and humans are slowly transforming into technological databases. The internet or as he refers to it as the 'web' through out is the best way of displaying and accessing information:
"If the fundamental proteanism of the digital perplexes its ready categorization as a simple medium, the World Wide Web offers a complex counterpoint to the computer's recalcitrance. For no digital technology more than the Web can claim to be a (new) medium. We obtain news and information on the Web. We watch video and listen to music. We publish and distribute fiction and analysis on the Web. We shop, make art, and pass the time on the Web. Understood in terms of these and its many other functions, the Web is a medium." In other words, the internet cannot be surpassed by any other technological advancement.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
CART 345: Week 6
Bolter. “Seeing and Writing”, ch. 47, pp. 679 – 690 in the New Media Reader. [W]
In this particular passage, Bolter discusses the changes in typography, from analog to digital and the nostalgically toward printed books. He feels there is a strong difference between print and electronical text. The reader will not have the same reading experience thus altering what they get from the text. Bolter states that he sees a computer screen more like a medieval parchment in which text and and images intertwine. He also discusses the deception practitioners have to live though as they thought that digital text would bring something stable and of lasting value. Storing and displaying text in Bolter's opinion are inseparable but are being slowly but surly being torn apart because of technology. Technology is evolving and so is our perception for text, for letters, for different means of typography.
Vanderlans and Licko. "Ambition, Fear"
As technology is evolving and changing, skills required to be a type designer also changes. There is now no more need to be both creative and to be a skilled punch cutter. They can now do everything without outside help for different assets. Designers have control over all aspects of the creation, production, and the printing. As in the article it says, "It is now possible for one individual to take on all functions required in publishing, including writer, editor, designer, and illustrator, thus bringing together a variety of disciplines and consequently streamlining production." Computers have altered the way typography is being produced and designed. It has in fact advanced the state of graphic art. With computers, we have more control over the size, the spacing and even the colors being used. The huge question that remains un-answered is whether this technological advancement is beneficial for the viewers. Computers are now programmed to reproduce methods such as airbrushing or calligraphy. Today's artists have it easy in terms of reproducing but they must keep in mind the fundamental aspects of design. "Digital technology is a great big unknown, and after all, a mystery is the most stimulating force in unleashing the imagination."
In this particular passage, Bolter discusses the changes in typography, from analog to digital and the nostalgically toward printed books. He feels there is a strong difference between print and electronical text. The reader will not have the same reading experience thus altering what they get from the text. Bolter states that he sees a computer screen more like a medieval parchment in which text and and images intertwine. He also discusses the deception practitioners have to live though as they thought that digital text would bring something stable and of lasting value. Storing and displaying text in Bolter's opinion are inseparable but are being slowly but surly being torn apart because of technology. Technology is evolving and so is our perception for text, for letters, for different means of typography.
Vanderlans and Licko. "Ambition, Fear"
As technology is evolving and changing, skills required to be a type designer also changes. There is now no more need to be both creative and to be a skilled punch cutter. They can now do everything without outside help for different assets. Designers have control over all aspects of the creation, production, and the printing. As in the article it says, "It is now possible for one individual to take on all functions required in publishing, including writer, editor, designer, and illustrator, thus bringing together a variety of disciplines and consequently streamlining production." Computers have altered the way typography is being produced and designed. It has in fact advanced the state of graphic art. With computers, we have more control over the size, the spacing and even the colors being used. The huge question that remains un-answered is whether this technological advancement is beneficial for the viewers. Computers are now programmed to reproduce methods such as airbrushing or calligraphy. Today's artists have it easy in terms of reproducing but they must keep in mind the fundamental aspects of design. "Digital technology is a great big unknown, and after all, a mystery is the most stimulating force in unleashing the imagination."
Thursday, October 7, 2010
CART 351: Week 5
After a session of PHP we had to create a database search engine. I grouped up with Sophie to do this project. Simple yet effective, our project consists of a simple box where the person visiting the site can enter anything that passes through their heads. This will link the person to Flickr images. 100 images then appear under the search box.
We had many ideas for this project, but due to technical difficulties we kept a simple search tool engine. Our primary idea was to create a kaleidoscope but we struggled with some aspects so we decided to change. To people who don't exactly know what a kaleidoscope means, here is a picture:
We still plan on keeping this original idea for our next project. For now we are pretty happy with what we have accomplished with little knowledge about PHP.
Here is the link to our search engine:
Link
The readings for this week
Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism
Discipline & Punish under the french name Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison was translated in 1977. To summarize this reading quickly and effectively, It is about the philosopher Michel Foucault who further examines social and theoretical mechanisms behind the massive changes that occurred in western penal systems during the modern age. The text specifically documents historical passages in France. Foucault contradicts the commonly accepted idea that the prison became the consistent form of punishment. To do so he brings the idea of power over the mind/body. "Discipline" was then considered a new technological source of power. It was introduced anywhere from schools, hospitals, military barracks. Four recurrent and major themes can be seen in 'Discipline & Punish': torture, punishment, discipline and prison.
The most important feature in his discussion of the panopticism, is when Foucault introduces the public to Jeremy Bentham. He is the creator/philosopher behind the idea of the panopticon. He explains it to be a building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner is in. The prisoners cannot communicate to one another but can be seen from every angle. The prisoners then have a sensation of being permanently watched (permanent visibility). Thus where the sensation of 'power' comes into play, which is of course the goal of the panopticism theory. The panopticon was destined to spread all throughout society. It was designed to install a society of control and improve public morality. Overall, for Foucault, the panopticon represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society.
The database as a genre of new media by Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich introduces 'The database as a genre of new media' with an introductory piece called "New Media from Borges to HTML" in which he addresses the question: What is new media? He starts off by giving brief definitions on the issue, introducing the viewers to the topic. Manovich explains the different types of digital storage medias and how the Internet constantly grows in today's modern society. He also states quite abruptly that database and narrative do not have the same status in computer culture. In summary he concludes that regardless of the medium, "as linear narratives, interactive narratives, databases, or something else, underneath, on the level of material organization", in the end they all are databases. All to display sources of information. Databases are everywhere and are used by almost everyone. They are constantly growing and evolving, thus, "it is not surprising, then, that databases occupy a significant, if not the largest, territory of the new media landscape."
The Next Big Thing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing: Cultural Analytics
To summarize this article it takes about the close disappearance of books, libraries and any form of analog methods that we still use. This of course, is a theory rather than a fact. This why this has caused such debate and overall controversy. As it states "part of the debate resides in the historical separation that began with Erasmus and the Renaissance", thus the separation of science and art. Professor Lev Manovich, of Visual Arts at UCSD, and Director of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology "is well versed in the revolutionary possibilities that lie at the intersection of the arts, humanities, social science and digital technologies." Thus the question that arises, what is meant by 'big humanities'? Manovich responds by stating, "is one of the ways I use to characterize a new approach for the study of culture made possible by a convergence of a number of forces. Other terms that can be also used are "Cultural Datamining," "Culture as Data," or (my preferred term) "Cultural Analytics.""
We had many ideas for this project, but due to technical difficulties we kept a simple search tool engine. Our primary idea was to create a kaleidoscope but we struggled with some aspects so we decided to change. To people who don't exactly know what a kaleidoscope means, here is a picture:
We still plan on keeping this original idea for our next project. For now we are pretty happy with what we have accomplished with little knowledge about PHP.
Here is the link to our search engine:
Link
The readings for this week
Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism
Discipline & Punish under the french name Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison was translated in 1977. To summarize this reading quickly and effectively, It is about the philosopher Michel Foucault who further examines social and theoretical mechanisms behind the massive changes that occurred in western penal systems during the modern age. The text specifically documents historical passages in France. Foucault contradicts the commonly accepted idea that the prison became the consistent form of punishment. To do so he brings the idea of power over the mind/body. "Discipline" was then considered a new technological source of power. It was introduced anywhere from schools, hospitals, military barracks. Four recurrent and major themes can be seen in 'Discipline & Punish': torture, punishment, discipline and prison.
The most important feature in his discussion of the panopticism, is when Foucault introduces the public to Jeremy Bentham. He is the creator/philosopher behind the idea of the panopticon. He explains it to be a building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner is in. The prisoners cannot communicate to one another but can be seen from every angle. The prisoners then have a sensation of being permanently watched (permanent visibility). Thus where the sensation of 'power' comes into play, which is of course the goal of the panopticism theory. The panopticon was destined to spread all throughout society. It was designed to install a society of control and improve public morality. Overall, for Foucault, the panopticon represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society.
The database as a genre of new media by Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich introduces 'The database as a genre of new media' with an introductory piece called "New Media from Borges to HTML" in which he addresses the question: What is new media? He starts off by giving brief definitions on the issue, introducing the viewers to the topic. Manovich explains the different types of digital storage medias and how the Internet constantly grows in today's modern society. He also states quite abruptly that database and narrative do not have the same status in computer culture. In summary he concludes that regardless of the medium, "as linear narratives, interactive narratives, databases, or something else, underneath, on the level of material organization", in the end they all are databases. All to display sources of information. Databases are everywhere and are used by almost everyone. They are constantly growing and evolving, thus, "it is not surprising, then, that databases occupy a significant, if not the largest, territory of the new media landscape."
The Next Big Thing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing: Cultural Analytics
To summarize this article it takes about the close disappearance of books, libraries and any form of analog methods that we still use. This of course, is a theory rather than a fact. This why this has caused such debate and overall controversy. As it states "part of the debate resides in the historical separation that began with Erasmus and the Renaissance", thus the separation of science and art. Professor Lev Manovich, of Visual Arts at UCSD, and Director of the Software Studies Initiative at California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology "is well versed in the revolutionary possibilities that lie at the intersection of the arts, humanities, social science and digital technologies." Thus the question that arises, what is meant by 'big humanities'? Manovich responds by stating, "is one of the ways I use to characterize a new approach for the study of culture made possible by a convergence of a number of forces. Other terms that can be also used are "Cultural Datamining," "Culture as Data," or (my preferred term) "Cultural Analytics.""
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
CART 345: Week 5
Blackwell. pp. 1 - 34 (no page numbers; count from first page ) [W]
David Carson is an American graphic designer best known for his innovative magazine designs most successful in the 90's. He created many influential and experimental pieces and people often referred to his work as "grunge typography". Using techniques such as layering he earned himself an international reputation. His work is beautiful, it seems like all is planned out yet in an un-organized way. His use of text is phenomenal as each word or letter tells a story. He creates very powerful and illustrative images that speak for themselves. Layers upon layers Carson creates depth in all posters/illustrations he has created. After reading about Carson I felt the need to further my knowledge on his works. I looked on different site to find pictures of his art pieces and found one that particularly suited the so called "grunge" era:
I feel like this graphically attracts the eye, without saying too much about what the image actually means.
Bellantoni. Ch. 1 Precedent. Recommended: Ch. 2 Narrative. [W]
This text more than the other one, attracted my eye more on the visuals. This article mainly revolves around kinetic typography, being a mixture of motion and text. Various techniques are identified though out the article. To me this read like a story book. The way the images are placed attracts the eye as if you are reading pictures instead of words. It closely resembles a cooking manual or a step-by-step instruction guide. Being a very visual person I felt compelled when looking though the pages. The text discusses the transitions made over the years, from analog to what we now use, the digital. Another important issue that they refer to is the use of titles. Titles are everywhere and need to visually interesting to capture the eyes of its audience. The article goes into details talking about different methods, like using all capitals, horizontally, and vertically bold typefaces.
David Carson is an American graphic designer best known for his innovative magazine designs most successful in the 90's. He created many influential and experimental pieces and people often referred to his work as "grunge typography". Using techniques such as layering he earned himself an international reputation. His work is beautiful, it seems like all is planned out yet in an un-organized way. His use of text is phenomenal as each word or letter tells a story. He creates very powerful and illustrative images that speak for themselves. Layers upon layers Carson creates depth in all posters/illustrations he has created. After reading about Carson I felt the need to further my knowledge on his works. I looked on different site to find pictures of his art pieces and found one that particularly suited the so called "grunge" era:
I feel like this graphically attracts the eye, without saying too much about what the image actually means.
Bellantoni. Ch. 1 Precedent. Recommended: Ch. 2 Narrative. [W]
This text more than the other one, attracted my eye more on the visuals. This article mainly revolves around kinetic typography, being a mixture of motion and text. Various techniques are identified though out the article. To me this read like a story book. The way the images are placed attracts the eye as if you are reading pictures instead of words. It closely resembles a cooking manual or a step-by-step instruction guide. Being a very visual person I felt compelled when looking though the pages. The text discusses the transitions made over the years, from analog to what we now use, the digital. Another important issue that they refer to is the use of titles. Titles are everywhere and need to visually interesting to capture the eyes of its audience. The article goes into details talking about different methods, like using all capitals, horizontally, and vertically bold typefaces.
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