In the beginning I will using my Macbook Pro, and programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. As I bring the project closer to completion I will begin to use social media site like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube to create awareness of my business and begin to create a fan base and bring in potential customers.
Category Archives: NMD 206
Loose Krew
I have to idea to begin work on a company I want to operate in Virginia Beach. After graduation I plan to move down there and open up a clothing and board shop where I will sell Custom Shirts and Board Graphics out of a small shop I plan to buy, rent or lease. I will be using this to show rough designs and the progress I make in bringing this dream into reality.
Deep Play Question Response
What happens when a game breaks out of representations of violence (Grand Theft Auto) and actually engages (executes) violence (Tekken Torture Tournament)? In what way does representation sensitize or desensitize us to violence VS in what way does play (real enactment) resensitize us? When children play do they ever resort to violence? Can you describe its possible uses?
a) explain the main points of the passage briefly to the class & explain why you think it helps answer the question
b) raise questions related to the passage that open up discussion of the main points, and possible help you answer the question more deeply
c) give examples of a game or other media that relates to the question or passage
Main Points: The article talks about how games like Grand Theft Auto are based on (fictional) real world situations and gives players the ability to live out their twisted gangster fantasies, it also talks about a mod for Tekken which shocks players when their characters are injured in the game. The Article talks about how one is playing on the players twisted desires and how it translates into real life and how the other is taking one of the most key and basic elements of videogames out of the equation: No real world repercussions.
Being an avid gamer and fan of the Grand Theft Auto series I know this discussion all well, wether I was talking my parents into allowing me to get it or trying to explain to my younger cousins why they couldn’t play it even though I did for hours on end. The article took a position on the topic that I found very interesting.
“But the real danger of this horrific game may have less to do with the frenzied violence and underworld scheming portrayed in it than the critique it makes of the very institutions and bodies that seek to ban it. ”
Everything we see on the internet and TV is slowed desensitizing us to the evils of the world. If people really wanted to protect them from the bad things in the world they wouldn’t let them leave the house. Its the responsibilities of parents to teach their kids wrong from right and help them understand why the actions they do in the game are wrong. If a child sees that a man walked into a mall and shot everyone in sight because he lost his job, the child isn’t necessarily going to do the same thing when put in the position because everything that he is taught growing up in the world today tells him that is wrong and you can’t do something like that. So when a child plays a game like Grand Theft Auto, he isn’t going to steal a car when he’s older just because he saw it in a game because everything he has learned growing up tells him it’s wrong.
The Tekken mod is something completely different. For me, video games have always been contained in screen in which I’m playing on, when you add the electrodes connected to the players are I don’t consider it a video game anymore. A game like Tekken has always been two guys fighting on a screen, the winner only receives bragging rights, and the loser is shamed by his defeat. By adding pain to losers shame, I think it changes the whole dynamic of the game. Instead of going head first and button mashing to take your opponents health before he can do the same, you have to block otherwise you get shocked. Now kids aren’t just playing to win, they playing not to lose which isn’t what video games are about.
Violence is something everyone knows a thing or two about. As a little boy I know I played army, imagining bombs going off left and right, and bullets flying over my head. I didn’t grow up and make that a reality because I understood it wasn’t real, it was an image I made up in my mind. When I began playing video games like Grand Theft Auto, I didn’t bring the violence into real world situations because I understood the images I saw were just the “army games” someone else thought of and put on a screen for me to see and interact with. It’s bring imaginations to life and sharing them with other people. Nothing more, nothing less.
Another Example: Assassin’s Creed or Hitman – Both of these games are based on the idea of killing people without anyone else knowing it happened or that it was you. These games aren’t teaching kids how to commit the perfect murder or that walking up behind someone and slitting their throat is okay.
Keychain Breathalyzer
Place a breathalyzer on every keychain of a push-to-start vehicle. This would make it so that the driver could breathe into the breathalyzer, and if their blood-alcohol content is too high, then the car won’t start.
Inspectacles
We would make a pair of glasses that would project a computer screen. The user would use a controller and/or keyboard for interaction with the screen. The hard drive could be contained in the mouse and keyboard, and they would wirelessly transmit the image to the glasses.
Trek’n’Check
Trek’n’Check is an application for any mobile device which would allow users to periodically check in at designated points during hikes or nature walks. This app would use a point system similar to Foursquare, where the user would get points for reaching certain parts of the mountain or trail. There would also be an award system if the user reached significant points, such as the peak of a mountain.
Facebook Scraping
Italian hacktivism artists Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico have been taking information from Facebook and using it to create a Mock website called Lovely-faces.com. I think this project is really funny because the artists are taking public information that people assume will never be touched and using it to make a mock website that appears to be real because all the information is real, just the intent is a little off. Every day people post to Facebook very personal and intimate information and they don’t think anything about it, these artists are bring to attention the fact when it’s out there, its fair game and can be used for anything, including a mock dating website.
Anonymous
“Anonymous is a loosely organized group of young computer experts once focused on just Internet freedom, has turned to more menacing attacks, including not only paralyzing websites but breaking in to steal data.”
I like to think of this group as a double edged sword. While one half is positive and brings about good change in the world through a group of people using their technology skills to keep freedom alive. They fight things like the SOPA act which would give governments power over the Internet. On the other side there is some negative where the group uses their skills (power) for “evil.” They steal documents and information that could be used in a bad way against a government or company. While sometimes using information negatively against some governments and companies can be for the better, governments were designed to keep order and keep the country running, these groupe could use the information for personal gain and not for the good of the country. This group could also use information to ruin a company who doesn’t “deserve” it. They could cause the downfall of a company and put people out of work due to a personal vendetta.
I think in the end this group will do the right thing with their power and they won’t misuse their skills for personal gain or settle a personal score.
Yes Men!
The Yes Men are a group of activists who use their skills in technology and design, and their creativity to bring attention to issues with the world. I thought it was very awesome how they would make fun of the stupid things people do to their face. When they went on BBC News and said they were with DOW, it gave me hope for the world because they were finally calling out a major company on something they did wrong. They aren’t afraid to attack the “bug guys” and that’s why they are so controversial. I think its good someone isn’t afraid to do it because someone has to. Without people like the Yes Men the world could run out of control, companies would lose all respect for human life as long as they made money. All they would care about are the “Golden Skeletons in their closets.”
Edge of Art, Autobotography
1-What are some of the reasons for a surge in digital autobiograpical production from “home pages” to “wearcams”?
Technology is always evolving. As the possibilities of where someone can capture footage increased so had the placed that people use it. Now that people are able to basically take their computers where ever they are, there is no need to only post while sitting at one, so something like the wearcam came about as a way for people to do the same thing they could on a homepage but anywhere and everywhere they were.
2-What is the role of autobotography vis-a-vis technology’s “narcotic effect”?
The boundary between human and technology is becoming finer and finer, thus some experts are beginning to think of us as cyborgs because of how technology is becoming a part of us and starting to define us.
“…and it is the job of autobotographers to chart the new edge between self and society.”
3-Jennicam gives us an example of the pleasures of self-disclosure, Mann’s WearCams give an example of the dangers of surveillance. Are there dangers in Jennifer Ringley’s work (or similar projects)? And what might those dangers be? Conversely, are there any pleasures in Stephen Mann’s WearCams?
Jennicam gave her audience full access to her life. She had very little secrets when it came to her day to day life. There are people in the world who could have begun to stalk her and were more interested in her life then their own and then done things to harm or control her. Almost like they were trying to take over her life or force themselves into hers. It would basically be doing all the research and stalking for a stalker and then charging them money monthly to do it. Wearcams i’m sure had a couple pleasures, like being able to keep track of all your friends and see how they are doing beyond safeties sake. They could comunicate and enjoy each other why not actually with each other. They could enjoy moments together like one their children’s first steps, or a first kiss on a date. The possibilities could be endless.
4-Explain how 2 of the blogging projects reshapes our sense of self, life, or writing.
Jennicam reshapes our idea of self and life because it was no longer only hers to live, by opening up her life for anyone to view all her private moments became public and she was had an audience to listen to and deal with (good or bad). Intimate moments with lovers were now public displays and it become voyeurism. There hadn’t been a reshaping like this before and it changed the internet and life forever.
In Life_Sharing your computer was no longer private, everything you do (which for me at least is A LOT) becomes public and people can look at all your deep, dark, digital secrets. You could no longer be alone on your computer, self was removed and we was replaced.
5-Pick one of the “moving self-portraits” and explain how the project evokes the mystery of our contemporary lives. What kinds of issues does the portrait raise?
Artist Statement by Young Hae Chang is a project to reveal the fascination of using the web as a medium for self-expression. It is an autobotography but also an interrogation of the link between self-publishing and multinationals, between desire and advertising, between self-absorption and connection to unknown neighbors. The issues this project raises form a question; are we sharing ourselves with the world or are we selling ourselves for profit?
6-Katherine Hayles speaks of the “post-human” in describing the cyborgian entities we have become. How do the artists of this chapter create autobotographies of this “post-human” cyborg? Consider, for example Life Sharing and [phage].
We become cyborgs because the technology become parts of their lives more then the average people. In Jennicam, Jennifer is filming everything. She no longer needs to remember every part of her home life because there is a video bank which has captured everything. She is constantly talking to the camera so even her thoughts, hopes, and dreams are part of the collection. She is taking part of the human experience out of living.
7-How do digital artists examine the commodification of the self? How has the self become another consumer good, or how does a human being get reduced to a “consumer”? Which digital projects raise theese questions and how do they do it?
Any of the projects were a person is selling personal time as a good. In Jennicam, Jennifer was selling her life for a fee each month, that is how we ourselves become another consumer good. No longer are we just a seller, our bodies, thoughts, and all around lives become the good that is being sold. Its more then just an experience because its everything, no secrets, no extras, just you. People either take you for what you are and don’t get involved. Webcams are what allowed Jennicam to come about but even a harddrive can be the technology like in Life_Sharing. Everything you do on your computer is recorded and contained in your harddrive, and when you sell that, you loose yourself t the consumer and become a “good.”
8-Describe the autobotography of “invented selves” or avatars. How do Female Extension and Darko Maver raise questions about the nature of digital selves. Why do they use invented selves and what are the reasons for doing so and the effects of their choices?
There are three reasons I can think of to create an internet persona.
1) To hide your identity to stay out of trouble. If you want to do something many people wouldn’t agree with then hiding your identity can be very useful because it allows you to say and do as you please without fear of receiving the backlash of your actions.
2) To create a hype. People are very curious by nature, they could follow someone’s activities just because they want to know more and find out all the facts. When they aren’t told the whole story they are more likely to gain interest and continue to follow to see what happens next. For example the rock group The Gorillas were a cartoon band that received a lot of publicity because they kept their identities hidden for years.
3) If you aren’t happy with yourself… Become someone else. By creating an avatar you can become someone else and be whoever you want to be. You’re no longer constrained by your past because your avatar has no past, its like wiping the slate clean.
The Fantasy Beyond Control – Lynn Hershman
This article was very interesting to me. Before reading it I had never even heard of Lynn Hershman and the projects and ideas she brought into the world. I was very fascinated with her project Deep Contact: The Incomplete Sexual Fantasy Disc. I found this very intriguing because it seems like the first of it’s kind where an artist is combining sex and technology and making a project that is also artistic. In today’s day and age, sex is everywhere. Most advertisements, movies, and even songs have underlying sexual messages that are strategically placed there because the sellers know that sex sells. This project was something completely different, it was bringing in a technological element like never before. I think it is very cool how she was able to do it and to see the kinds of things this led to.
Edge of Art, Designing Politics
1. Describe the difference between Political Design and Hacktivist Art. Use an example of each and describe how that work fits the category of design or art.
Political Design is more about bringing attention to important political dilemmas so that something can be done about it. An example of this is a web site created to track the number of injured and tortured people in Sri Lanka and Guatemala. This is something that is done the “right and moral way.” They create a group or website with a set goal and don’t use any kind of dirty tactics. Hactivist art is similar in that it still wants to draw attention, they are “hackers with a cause.” An example of this is the Yes Men. They want to help bring attention to important things that often get overlooked, and they will do almost anything in order to achieve that. The yes men hide their true identities and goals from people in order to bring about change. This can be seen are wrong because they lying in the process but they are doing it for a good cause. Digital Robin Hoods if you will.
2. What does execution mean? How does it relate to computers (ie .exe files). What are some example of executable art? How is execution different from representation? In other words how does each relate to the media paradigms of one-to-many vs many-to-many?
Execution means that something is to be carried out or put into effect by others. An executable file on a computer has a specific action it is supposed to carry out, just like executable art. As stated in the text, the Barbie voice-box switch is an example of executable art because it was more than an idea, it was something that people were actually sent out to put in place to make a point about how we raise our children. This is different from representation because it is more integrated into our culture. Representation is something that is only seen by people who come across it or are looking for it. But when something is executed, it is sent out in the public to get reactions and start a wave of new thinking. Representation is one-to-many and execution is many-to-many.
3. Why do you think Hacktivist artists find themselves hacking capitalist and political structures that most other people revere? What problem or dangers do they see in these forms of power? Use sample projects to answer this question.
I think most hactivists attack political structures that others revere because they know something that the general public doesn’t. The hacktivists spend time researching “behind the scenes” facts about structures that others don’t think to question. Therefore, when something is brought to our attention by hacktivists, we view them as radicals. For instance, the Yes Men collect knowledge about companies that many other people not have time or resources to know about. They knew that Dow chemicals owed the people of Bhopal money for their losses. Therefore they felt it was their responsibility to bring it the attention of the general public. They attack the people no one else will touch or no one else would think to look twice at. They seen through the disguise and bring that knowledge out for everyone to see.
4.How do hacktivists confirm McLuhan’s prediction that the ‘nation-state’ would not survive the advent of electronic media? Do hackitvists challenge or question any critical policies of nation-states? Does their practice suggest any alternatives to the nation-state? Or why are they not really concerned about anarchy?
Hactivists confirm this fact about the advent of electronic media because they know that a large amount of people will not be able to live peacefully in a media-heavy environment under a nation-state. Hactivists challenge the fact that not everyone can share and identify with a certain culture. The United States especially has a lot of diversity and this is still evident in an online environment. They are not concerned about anarchy because they think they have the capacity to change the world before it gets to such a point.
What is New Media?
This question has plagued me (and most likely my classmates) since the first day of Freshmen year. When I walked into my first class (NMD100) , the first thing my professor did after introducing himself was ask the class what New Media is, and no one had an answer. For homework that night we were given the task of writing a paragraph of what we thought (through research and personal opinion) New Media was exactly and while I got credit for the assignment I still to this day am not 100% sure what it is. I know it’s dealing with technology and using it to change the world, but what does that really mean? Every class I have taken has been something completely different from the next. Every professor teaching a different (New Media) lesson and even after taking multiple classes with the same professor the outcome is the same. In engineering classes you learn math and physics, those are the basic components of what Engineering classes are. In New Media I have written papers on old technologies (analog vs. Digital) and how this affects the world today, I’ve made pictures, both from scratch using Adobe Illustrator and using photos in Photoshop, I’ve made movies both real life actors and animation, I’ve taken photos and learned what makes a good picture, and now I am talking relentlessly about how to take old things and reinvent them and what types of projects can I do that will shake the very foundation that we live on today. All these classes have no true rhyme or reason or for the most part any bridge that connects one to the next.
Maybe I’m just trying to figure everything out right away so I know exactly where I’ll be when I graduate in 2 years but the more time I spend thinking about New Media and the classes I’m taking, the more I’m starting to believe it can be anything I want it to be while also being anything available. Maybe by throwing New Media students into the world of technology and having them touch upon every single work of art and project possible in the first few years, the professors and creators of New Media are trying to give us a solid and very broad base to continue our lives as students because it seems we are going to have to constantly be learning if we are going to be able to stay in this field. Technology is always changing, improving, becoming obsolete, and then being brought back as something new or the same thing with a slight twist and if we want to secure a job and be able to sustain an existence in the world of technology we need to stay up to date with it. Maybe our professors are trying to show us how we need to be able to sort through hours and hours of Bullshit to find the important “diamond in the rough.”
When I say diamond, I say it with a lot of hesitation because what I may see as a priceless diamond, one of my classmates could see as just another piece of shit. Each bit of information isn’t going to be perfectly sorted for us to read and allow to sink in and it is up to us to find what we need and allow the rest to pass by.
So after reading all this you see why I am still unable to answer the question: What is New Media. It is always changing and there is no answer that I have come across that I give and not feel like I’m leaving a large part out. I know I am in the right field because I love technology with a passion and my ideas of what I can do with it and where it can take mankind are beginning to form with more force and stronger possibilities of making them a reality then ever before. I’m not longer thinking in the what if, and trying to create ideas that might never be possible but instead I’m beginning to see where we are today and take the next possible step which I could make a reality. Only time will tell what New Media truly is, and I’m alright with that because it’s just like you can’t say where technology will going and everyone is comfortable with that.
The world needs to you to see it with fresh eyes
“The world isn’t designed intelligently.”
That quote is one of the most meaningful quotes I have ever read. Its something that is so true and that I have never thought of before. Sometimes I get caught up in the hustle and bustle of college life and I think this is how life works, everything is laid out and every question has an answer but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Problems in life are not asked by someone with the answer, they given to the people who look for them. If the only thing I take away from this article is to remember that not every question has an answer then the article was a success because I will always remember to keep the world in perspective and not expect things to given to me.
How Occupy Wall Street Changes Everything
First off let me say that anyone who doesn’t understand the Occupy Movement and what it means to our country and the entire world for that matter then I suggest you start by reading the entire article. In this reading you’ll get insight into how it began, what it aims to do, and what it has already done.
Since it began I’ve been very interested in the entire event and what is going on at these occupy sites. This article helped me to understand how the sites have already changed so much even though people are still getting screwed by the way things are set up. By simply bringing attention to the issues and showing how we are truly all together in this battle the Occupy Movement has change the world whether people want to admit it or not. No longer can anyone argue that what has been going on is the peoples fault. If any fault falls on the people it is for not doing something sooner. And I hope after reading this article people understand that change isn’t going to come about right away. It has taken many years for the 1% to build their base and to shape the system to aid them in any way possible, and it will take just as long if not longer for the 99% to retake the country and the system.
There were a few questions that is article brought up for me:
1)How does a group of people without work or income plan to maintain a society that is structured about wealth?
2) How will they survive the winter, between snow, rain, and cold weather serious health risks could under mind the very base of the movement which is you can’t get rid of us all. Illness and other things could sweep through the entire group and be the death of the movement.
3) When will we see serious change, will Obama speak directly (possibly indirectly while addressing the nation) and bring news of serious or will we slowly see small things (blips on the radar) and one day someone will realize all the change that has been brought about.
As It Happened – A Secret History Of Hacking
This movie was very interesting and made me think a lot about history and how it is written by the victors. The Hackers weren’t these international terrorists, they were American’s, who like there forefathers before them, were pioneers in something that shaped the world as we know it. Without there ambition and love for their craft there is no evidence we would be were we are with technology, they led the way by coming together going where no one had gone before. It was people like Bill Gates who wanted to use the innovations to make money who inevitably destroyed the creative process which brought about many early innovations. I’m not saying that Bill Gates was completely wrong for wanting to make money because without companies like Microsoft and Apple, America may not be the top nation in the world. Had the creative process remained a free information style of innovation another country could have cashed in on the opportunity.
In a legal sense the movie showed me how corporations and people in government have control over history and how they can (to some extent) shape how our society views various things. Before watching this movie I had always associated hacking with a negative connotation and believed they were and always had been bad people, or digital thieves. To my surprise the origins of this word came from the innovators developed the technology. It was Hollywood and the media that transformed this word be thought of as the names of digital thieves of the 21st century. Yes there are some bad people in the world who would and do use this technology for “evil” but to categorize and mislabel the innovators who first designed the technology is doing such a great injustice to these brillant men and women that it seems almost immoral to use the word in that sense. How can a country so dependent on these things wrongfully name and categorize the people who created them. They put in countless hours working towards their idea of the future and were able to bring it to masses at reasonable prices. To categorize them with thieves and con-artists who misuse the technology is wrong on so many levels.
This goes to show how in history the victors write the books. The men and women who influenced the media and Hollywood to transform the word and disallow the free sharing of information may not have realized what they were doing, and to this day may still believe they did the “American” thing but I will never again fall for such shortcomings and wrongdoings.