JR's Blog

Langdon Winner

2008-12-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

Winner is a social commentator, science writer, and technology professor. In his 1986 essay "Mythinformation," he argues against the notion that computers themselves have the capacity for a "revolution." Rather, he, along with predecessors such as Ted Nelson, looked to the computer, and the ways in which it could connect people, as a means for social progress. Still, he was very concerned about potential issues that computers, and computer networking presented, such as privacy rights.

Tele-information Services

2008-12-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

In 1986, Jan Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam created a way to classify computer-related activities into various categories. They came up with four main categories: Allocution, Conversation, Consultation, and Registration. Allocution could be seen as traditional media-based broadcaster-receiver relationship, in which a main source disseminates information to multiple recipients. Conversation, logically, is the bi or multi-lateral communication between end-users of a system. An example of this is email. Consultation is the receiving of information from a source, which is facilitated by a service provider. An example of this would be watching HBO via your Time-Warner cable box and service. Registration, the final category, is an activity in which an end-user submits information to the service-provided. An example of this is when a user registers his copy of Microsoft Office when he first tries to install it on his computer.

Brenda Laurel

2008-12-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

Brenda Laurel’s work from 1986 and 1991 is considered to be a classical view of computing. She seems it as a form of theatrical expression. She, like many other writers and scientists, saw computers and new technology as a means of exploring new opportunities in theater and entertainment.

RMS

2008-11-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

Richard Stallman, or RMS as he is sometimes known, is a crazy guy. GNU, which is pronounced like the insect, is an operating system he created. The primary idea behind GNU is that it is free. Stallman explains that he doesn't mean "free" as in "no-cost," but rather open, for people to make their own. He was one of the pioneers of the open-source software movement, and to this day, makes all of the code he writes available to the public.

Cyborg Theory

2008-11-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

Donna Haraway created Cyborg theory in 1985. The theory is a progressive hybrid of scientific thought, one that involves the integration of technology into human life. In other words, she talks about how technology can be an extension of the self. This is very similar to many of the thinkers we've read about earlier in the New Media Reader.

Computers as a Means of Living out Fantasies

2008-11-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

Shelly Turkle's 1984 essay "Video Games and Computer Holding Power" examines the notion of computers, and their ability to give users other means of anonymously expressing themselves. Specifically she looks at why people play videogames, and makes some conclusions about how the games serve as an outlet for many people to express themselves in ways that they feel their normal lives are lacking. Turkle is a psychologist, and was interested in determining people's reasons for being so into gaming. While this was written long before Second Life the game, she brings up the notion of the "Second Self," which is the idea of using the digital realm to have a second identity that can do things the individual in real life cannot.

Direct Manipulation

2008-11-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

In his 1983 essay, Ben Schneiderman discusses the notion of "direct manipulation." Essentially, direct manipulation is using more life-like means to interact with a computer system. The idea came from arcade and videogames, in which people did not use text commands, but rather joysticks and specialized buttons, to affect an action in the game. Many of these buttons more directly resembled the action than entering text onto a keyboard. For example, it is more realistic to move a joystick to the right to make a character in a game walk to the right, rather than typing in "move to the right."

This type of technology reminds me of the idea of the MIT Media room, where the scientists were interested in showing how easy it could be to manipulate a computer, and that it did not require a knowledge of a sophisticated programming language. As the GUI became more and more mainstream, the idea of direct manipulation tools, such as the eraser in a painting program, rather than typing a command "erase," grew too.

The Endless Chain

2008-11-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

Ben Bagdikians's 1983 essay on the consolidation of media companies has some particularly fascinating points for me personally. First, The Baltimore Sun is my hometown newspaper, which my family gets every day. Second, the bank Bagdikian mentions, Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, was my first bank, and the place that my family and I used for our checking and savings until it was acquired several years ago by PNC Bank of Pittsburgh. This is somewhat ironic, being as the local Baltimore bank was acquired by what is now the 5th largest commercial bank in the United States, and how Badikian used Mercantile as the hook for his essay about media consolidation, and the bank itself has been absorbed into a larger banking conglomerate.

In any event, Bagdikian's essay is very accurate in the sense that he points out that even though the digital revolution presents opportunities for users to be more liberated with their intake and output of media and information, there is still a growing consolidation of media sources, and this is not a good thing for society.

Bill Viola

2008-11-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

Bill Viola is a famous new media video artist. His work has been featured at many galleries and museums, including the Whitney in New York City. Viola was a pioneer of video art, and he was one of the first to experiment with video instead of film. In addition, he was interested in exploring the future of data-space, in terms of the internet and, it seems, privacy vs. what is public. Hence the title of his 1982 essay, "Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?" a somewhat abstract piece that explores what is art, what is technology, and where it will all lead with further development.

Literary Machines

2008-11-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

Ted Nelson's 1981 Xanedu system project was a vision for something very similar to what we enjoy today in academia. Essentially, Nelson had a vision for a system in which users could upload, view, edit, and re-upload documents to a public service accessed by computers. Today we have systems such as Pro-Quest and Lexis Nexis, which allow users to access almost every piece of published information on record. The component that is not there, and where the current versions differ from Xanedu, is that Nelson was envisioning a system by which people could "piggyback" on other users' contributions, ultimately creating works that were better than what just one person or a small team of writers could create.

Clearly, the closest version of this today is Wikipedia, which Jimmy Wales sees as a depository for all of the world's information, which can be updated and edited by any user. Nelson was thinking of this decades before Wales made it a reality.

GH

2008-11-12T08:37:00.006-08:00

GH’s presentation about his public/interactive/situationist art clearly shows that his work is strongly influenced by Augusto Boal, one of the most famous pioneers of situations art. Just as Boal tried to illustrate issues involving government corruption and impropriety, GH, as we saw in class last week, creates situations that are specifically designed to create anticipated responses, teasing out flaws in our society.

Richard A. Bolt

2008-11-12T08:37:00.005-08:00

Richard A. Bolt’s “Put-That-There” is a 1980 article describing a Media Room that as set up at the MIT Architecture Machine Group. The media room involved several different types of input and output mechanisms, including CRT screens, projectors and screens, speakers, eye-tracking equipment, and more. The idea of the room was to create an immersive environment in which the user could command the computer to do certain things based on gestures and verbal commands, as opposed to simply pressing a button. The objective of this experiment was to show just how easy and natural a computer could be to control, and that doing so did not necessarily involve the knowledge of a specialized programming language. This development was an important step in the process of integrating computers into the mainstream society. By the mid-1980s, people were building computers with intentions other than simply using them to increase knowledge in the field of computer science, but rather, for practical, home and business uses.

Seymour Papert

2008-11-12T08:37:00.003-08:00

Seymour Papert was an influential in furthering the penetration of computer technology to the mainstream market. Specifically, he was interested in using computer technology as a means of education for children. He developed a programming language called LOGO that allowed anyone to program basic aspects of computers. One example of this is a toy, Lego Mindstorms, that I actually played with during my childhood. The Mindstorms allowed users to program basic aspects of the movement of motors inside the Lego creations. Paper predicted, correctly, that by the end of the 20th Century, children’s toys would have as much computing power as the best IBM supercomputers of the day. His work on getting computer technology into the hands of mass-market children’s products for education was one of the ways in which this vision was realized.

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

2008-11-12T08:37:00.001-08:00

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari wrote a book, A Thousand Plateaus in 1980. The introduction was called “Rhizome.” Rhizome is a very, very abstract concept, which I do not really understand. After reading about it, I think it is a type of writing. As the writers explain, “The rhizome connects any point to any other point.” I am fairly certain this is an offshoot of the idea of hypertext, in that text can be connected at many different points, and does not need to be linear. I could be totally wrong, because this piece is very confusing and vague, but this is my interpretation of what the writers were saying.

Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg

2008-11-12T08:36:00.006-08:00

In 1977, Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg wrote an essay called “Personal Dynamic Media,” in which they laid out there vision for personal computing. Specifically, Kay and Goldberg discussed their idea of the Dynabook, what essentially became the modern laptop, as well as the Xerox PARC, one of the earliest versions of the personal computer. Essentially, they saw the computer as being a device that should be accessible to the average person, as opposed to just engineers, scientists and artists. They had ideas for all sorts of uses of the computer, including word processing, filing, music, drawing, design, and more. Even the pictures of their prototypes look very similar to what we know today as the modern laptop and desktop computers. They had a vision for putting a computer in the hands of everyone who wanted one, which was one of the key elements to the success of the internet.

Myron W. Krueger

2008-11-12T08:36:00.005-08:00

“We are incredibly attuned to the idea that the sole purpose of our technology is to solve problems,” said Mryon W. Krueger. Krueger was both a computer scientist and artist, who was just as interested in using the computer for aesthetic as well as engineering purposes. He is considered to be the father of virtual reality, and his ideas probably provided the inspiration for such current inventions as the virtual reality dome that we saw in class. He was also interested in exploring the notion that “The response is the medium,” in the sense that unlike conventional art in galleries which many times was created to be sold, new media art should be designed primarily for the reaction and response of the audience. His 1977 essay on Responsive Environments provides a insight into some of the projects he was referring to, such as the Glowflow, which was a collaborative project that involved installation art, computer technology, and, most importantly, the viewers’ responses to work. Krueger’s would probably be particularly impressed by the Self Organizing Still-life work that we saw at the Sara Tecchia Gallery in Chelsea.

Joseph Weizenbaum

2008-11-12T08:36:00.003-08:00

Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976”Computer Power and Human Reason” is a work that touches on many of Weizenbaum’s concerns about the growth of computer technology. Weizenbaum was not against this growth, per se; he was in fact a computer scientist who programmed a very famous Chatterbot called Eliza, which was supposed to impersonate a psychologist. After creating the Chatterbot, Weizenbaum began to show increasing concern that people would begin trying to replace actual therapists with the ‘bot. In his work, he explains that there is a big problem if people cannot understand the line between the proper and improper uses of a computer. His thoughts strike me as somewhat similar to those of Vanever Bush. That is to say that where Bush was concerned about the growing military-industrial complex, and humans not fully realizing the power of computers, Weizenbaum, too, was concerned that humans did not understand the degree to which computers and technology should be allowed, and expected, to replace the human.

Nicholas Negroponte

2008-11-12T08:36:00.001-08:00

Negroponte was a driving force behind the attitude that computers and new technology should empower people, and that people should not be slaves to the machines. In 1975, he wrote Soft Architecture Machines as part of the Architecture Machine group at MIT. As an example of empowering people, Negroponte wanted computers to be as responsive as possible to human inputs and commands, not just to be “number-crunchers.” One main example of what Negroponte meant by this had to do with his graphic user interface that was used for creating architecture and design.

Augusto Boal

2008-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Augusto Boal was a Brazlian interactive artist/performer, who knows first hand what oppression is. The Brazilian military government murdered his colleagues. He was spared, but before that point was tortured and then left the country to Argentina, and then Chile.

Boal played with the notion of the “cop in the street” and the “cop in his head,” as a way to highlight and tease out oppression and injustices where they existed. After many years, Boal managed to return to Brazil, and was actually elected to public office. Almost to make fun of his enemies, Boal brought his theatre/performance colleagues with him to serve as his political staff.

Much of Boal’s work deals with the notion of “embodiment,” which is to say how the people involved in the public art become the art themselves. Some of these ideas can be seen in the methods of GH, which we saw in class last week, in which he creates situations that are specifically designed to create anticipated responses, teasing out flaws in our society.

Computer Lib/Dream Machines

2008-11-12T08:34:00.001-08:00

Computer Lib/Dream machines is a book by Ted Nelson. Actually, it is two books. The two books are bound together, back-to-back, in the same way as some magazines or clothing catalogs. One can read one of the books, close the cover, flip the book over, rotate it, and read the other book. It is ironic that this clever technique was used for a book about new media, which is inherently about pushing the envelope.

The more famous of the two books was Computer Lib, which was published in 1974. In the book, Nelson railed against the idea of central computers, and, much like Enzensberger feared could not happen, Nelson advocated for more individual, decentralized computing.

Dream Machines, the other book, was more about new media as opposed to just technology. Nelson, although he was a computing pioneer, did not care too much for the specific technology, but rather, the ideas. Nelson advocated for using computers as a method of advancing new media, open-source, collaborative development, and lastly, as a way to empower others to advance. He seems like he would be an influential in the life of Richard Stallman.

Trying to decipher Baudrillard

2008-10-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Jean Baudrillard was a modern philosopher. Much of his work is very abstract and difficult to comprehend. His 1972 essay "Requiem for the Media" is no exception. Essentially, however, Baudrillard's essay was a response to that of Enzensberger. Enzensberger, who came at the idea of media from a very skeptical, Marxist perspective, was somewhat pessimistic about the ability of new media to emancipate the people. Baudrillard, it seems, did not share quite the same concerns. While he no doubt had issues with media and society, he did not see the media as being quite as inherently structured as Enzensberger. The interesting part about all of this is that the internet wasn't really around at this point to the general public, and both Enzensberger and Baudrillard, while speaking loosely about cybernetics, were really writing about a somewhat unknown realm, which is perhaps why it is so difficult to really get to the bottom of what either of them are saying.

Response to Enzensberger's Constituents of a Theory of the Media

2008-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

In his 1970 essay, Hans Enzensberger outlines his seven principles for an emancipatory use of media. When one analyzes these principles, compared to the seven repressive principles, it is clear that the internet today should be seen primarily as an emancipatory use of media.

It is decentralized, each receiver is a potential transmitter, it has the potential to mobilize the masses, it calls for the feedback of those involved, it has the potential to be used for political learning, it has elements that call for collective production, and there are many communities on the internet that have their own forms of social self-organization.

Compare this with the repressive tenets, and it is clear that the internet in general is a great emancipatory media.

Thoughts about the 1970 Jewish Museum Technology Exhibition

2008-10-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

In 1970, a group of technological innovators organized an exhibition called "Software." The primary organizer was Jack Burnham. The main premise of these exhibition was that it was to be an experiential exhibition that let people interact with new technology and media for the first time. As the pictures in this article show, attendees got hands-on experience with many technologies they probably had never even heard of before. At the same time, the exhibition allowed organizers and exhibitors like Karl Katz and Nicholas Negroponte to see the public's reaction to some of their projects, and to gauge the potential success of those initiatives.

Thoughts on ARC

2008-10-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Reading about ARC, PARC, and Englebart's 1968's demonstrations remind me very much of Steve Jobs' demonstrations today. This is not surprising, considering that it was ARC and the early computer demonstrations that Engelbart pioneered that type of promotion that is so common today. Many of the tools that Engelbart demonstrated (the mouse, the GUI, WYSIWYG, etc.) are things that we now take for granted. It is pretty impressive to think just how advanced he and his peers were, in terms of creating their own network to transmit data from two different locations, just for one demonstration.

E.A.T

2008-10-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

E.A.T. was an acronym for an organization called Experiments in Art and Technology. It was a group in the 1960's that was made up of artists, engineers, and computer scientists. The primary goal of the group was to continue the fusion of arts and engineering.

The group conducted experiments involving art projects that looked more like science experiments. In fact, the initial sketches for a lot of their projects involved relatively complex schematic drawings and blueprints.

The pieces of work described in the chapters relating to E.A.T. remind me very much of some of the work Ken Perlin is doing in the media research lab. It is this fusion of art and science that interests me most, as it is where the most advances will be made in art and entertainment, and I am very excited to see where it leads in the future. The people in E.A.T. started this movement.

Thoughts on McLuhan

2008-10-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Marshall McLuhan was a very well known social critic from the 1960's. In 1964, he coined the phrase, "The Medium is the Message." Essentially what he meant by this was that much more so than the content of one's message is the means by which it is delivered. This had to do with many different aspects of the message and its delivery, including which media was used to get the message the the recipient and with what other messages that specific message was packaged.

McLuhan was by and large correct. We see examples today where specific messages are diminished because of their means of delivery. For example, many people tend to disregard all of the stories on Fox News because of its overall conservative bent, even if some of the stories are perfectly acceptable and unbiased. At the same time, people do see citizen journalism, such as blogs, as being as credible a source as major media such as newspapers and radio.

The problem with McLuhan's theory, as I just explained above, is that the people who subscribe to it, most of them subconsciously, preclude themselves from significant amounts of information because they disregard information coming from places, or types of media that they have trained themselves to ignore.

Decoding the Oulipo

2008-10-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

The Oulipo was a group of French writers in the 1960's who created all sorts of "potential" pieces of literature. Essentially these were single lines that could be put together with other lines to create literary works. It is a fascinating concept, similar to that of the hypertext novel, or even some new computer games such as Little Big Planet. I say this because essentially, all of the "code" is there on the page, and it is up to the user to put it together into a cohesive piece. This also relates back to the cut-up method, in which people take fully developed pieces of writing or music and cut them up to create new versions. The theory behind the Oulipo is essentially the opposite, where people have bits and pieces that have not really been put into a coherent piece of work, and it is their responsibility to do so.

Ted Nelson on Hypertext

2008-10-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ted Nelson, a computer scientist from the 1960's, created the concept of hypertext, along with that specific term.

It is hard to say that Nelson was ahead of his time, since the 1960's was a decade of serious progress in the field of computer science. It is fair, however, to say that Nelson, in the way in which he thought of hypertext, seems to be ahead of his time. In fact, as the article explains, may of Nelson's concepts were actually more complex than the hyperlink that we know of today.

I think that Nelson was referring to a more intelligent version of the hypertext we know today, and that we should remember that today's hyperlinks are only one part of a much larger system that he was envisioning when he wrote this paper.

Thoughts on Roy Ascott's "The Construction of Change

2008-10-18T15:57:00.001-07:00

Roy Ascott is a British artist who has been very involved in new media since the 1960's. Ascott was very interested in fusing art, design and technology into one cohesive unit.

The article is short but wide-ranging, discussing topics such as how to analyze particular artists' motivations in creating their works and how artists should orient themselves into the modern world through cybernetics.

I think that Ascott is advocating that artists become more aware of the environments in which they work; who their predecessors and contemporaries are, how their work affects, and is affected by others they may not even be aware of, etc. Ascott is also suggesting that artists use technology in order to collaborate with other artists. The more artists do this, Ascott would argue, the more they can learn about themselves and the art they produce, ultimately becoming better at what they do.

Thoughts on "Sketchpad"

2008-10-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Sketchpad was a system created in the early 1960's by Ivan Sutherland. The system was one of the first Graphic User Interfaces (GUI). It allowed users to make drawings, as opposed to just seeing letters or straight lines on the computer screen. Additionally, through the use of a "light pen," users could actually draw directly onto the computer screen, transposing their drawings into the computer document.

This system seems like an early precursor to Ken Perlin's PAD system that we learned about in class. The similarities are striking, perhaps most notably in the idea of being able to zoom in so many levels (2000 for Sketchpad, and an infinite amount of PAD), and create "sub-documents" within each document.

Thoughts on Ken Perlin's Tour and Talk

2008-10-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Ken Perlin, a professor in the Media Research lab at NYU's Courant Institute. Ken is an Academy Award winning computer scientist, who has created technologies used in many films, including Jurassic Park, True Lies, and many more.

Ken showed our group of of the new technologies he is working on, including a "multi-touch pad" and a variation on a flight simulator.

The multi-touch pad is a piece of hardware that is a cross between a mouse and a tablet. It senses input from everything touching it, unlike a traditional tablet or touch-pad mouse. It also senses pressure, which is a major advance in terms of computer input devices. The product will also be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and Perlin hopes that the device will become available to even average consumers, at an accessible price-point.

The other project that Ken showed us was a computer game that one of his graduate students created, using a sophisticated Austrian input device involving two pull-handles, as well as not-so-sophisticated output devices: 3 household fans. The game involved flying a bird through a series of hoops in the air. The player had to pull on the levers to make the bird's wings flap, an keep it in the air. Depending on where the player moved the levers, the bird would respond accordingly. In addition, the amount of wind the fans produced depended on how hard the player pulled on the levers, to create more wind when the bird was moving faster. While it was impressive to see such a relatively polished game produced by graduate students--this was the first time I think I've even seen a "prototype" game like this--it struck me as very similar to Nintendo Wii. The only more sophisticated element than a Wii, of course, was the output from fans, which added another layer of reality to the game.

Response to "To the Letter Born"

2008-10-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

Steven Heller recently wrote an article for the New York Times called "To the Letter Born," in which he interviews branding and corporate identity expert Brian Collins. The article analyzes the graphic choices of the Barack Obama presidential campaign, with specific emphasis on his font choices.

In the article, Collins explains just how important choosing the right font is to a campaign. One good example of this comes towards the end of the article, when he suggests a reader examine the word "Change" in several different fonts (Comic Sans, Times New Roman, and Gotham). Gotham, of course, conveys just the message that the Obama campaign appears to stand for, which is why, according to Collins, they chose to use this font.

Thoughts on "Helvetica"

2008-10-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Helvetica is a documentary about the font Helvetica. The film traces the routes of the creation of this font, interviewing many graphic designers, as well as the actual creators of the font.

After an initially humorous beginning, the film struggles to become a documentary more about fonts and the bygone era of creating typeface, as well as the more current profession of digitally altering fonts for specific clients. At this point, the film becomes too long, trying to cover too many subjects than it can handle, which is sad, because the first part of the film is so entertaining.

My personal opinion is that this should have been limited to a short film of no more than 30 minutes, rather than a feature that is bound to precipitously lose audiences as it drags on.

Interpreting Engelbart

2008-10-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Truthfully, I'm do not completely follow Engelbart's essay, "Augmenting Human Intellect." It is a relatively advanced, technical piece on the future of computing and networking.

What I do know is that Engelbart worked for DARPA, which was the second generation of ARPA, and now called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He was a successor to Licklider, and Bush before him.

He was interested in furthering the relationship between humans and computers, essentially increasing the interactivity between the two. He saw the computer as more than a number-cruncher, and helped develop some of the technology that made computers as user-friendly as they are today. These technologies included the mouse, the graphic user interface, the word-processor, as the window.

Burroughs on the Cut-Up Method

2008-10-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

William Burroughs, the beat generation writer, recalls the Cut-Up method invented by Brion Gysin. The cut-up method is actually a simple writing technique, whereby writers literally cut their complete written works into words of phrases, and then piece them back together to create entirely new pieces of work. This practice is also used by musicians, lyricists and DJs.

While this was not, to the best of my knowledge, his intention, it seems that R. Luke DeBois' work at Bitforms gallery follows a similar technique.

Explaining "Happenings"

2008-10-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Allan Kaprow's 1961 essay about "Happenings" in New York provides the reader with an explanation of the phenomenon that swept the underground art scene during the early sixties. A Happenings, as Kaprow describes them "Are events that, put simply, happen."

To be slightly more specific, Kaprow was referring to somewhat impromptu art performances that people would put together in spaces that were not typically associated with theatre; lofts, vacant stores, parks, etc.

Kaprow explained some of the differences between theatre and Happenings, which included much less adherence to traditional theatre methods, as well as a lack of a stage, and an increased interaction with the audience.

Based on Kaprow's essay, I kept thinking of the example of Fuerzabruta, the South American "performance art" that is currently housed in a former bank in Union Square, as an example of what he would consider a Happening.

Reflections on "Man-Computer Symbiosis"

2008-10-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

Man-Computer symbiosis is the title of a 1960 article by J.C.R. Licklider, an American computer scientist. Just after writing this article, Licklider became the head of ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Department of Defense. ARPA was a relatively secretive agency that worked on highly advanced technical projects, the most famous of which led to the development of the Internet.

This essay discusses the future of computing, and Licklider's vision for a greater integration between humans and computers. Essentially, Licklider argues that at the time of writing, computers were able to solve human-created problems quite well, but they were not able to actually "think," or reason like humans.

It is hard to say whether this has become a reality. On one hand, I do not think computers can really think for humans yet, especially considering they are still programmed by humans in some way or another. However, computers today can do far more "suggestive" work than they used to be able to. One example is predictive text, which we commonly see in cell phones, as well as spell-checking, and even phrase suggestions when users insert tags on their delicious pages. Another example of where this technology is Google's quest to be able to determine, based on a profile of its user, whether it should return naked pictures and gossip, or hotel reviews, when it receives a search query for "Paris Hilton."

I still think there is a significant way to go before the type of symbiosis that Licklider was referring to can be fully realized, but there are certainly steps in the right direction being taken today.

Issuu

2008-09-27T16:42:00.001-07:00

Issuu is an online too that allows users to create digital magazines. It is rather similar to a site such as Blogger or Wordpress, but it takes things one step further, allowing users to package their blogs into a format that more closely resembles a physical magazine.

In addition to the blogging capabilities, Issuu allows users to share magazines with one another, and to recommend publications to other users based on their interests.

This seems like a viable concept that could become rather popular if enough people learn about it. It's format looks somewhat like Youtube, so I think there might be the opportunity for Google to purchase it, and combine it with Blogger and Youtube to create the ultimate in user-generated new media production and distribution.

LittleBigPlanet

2008-09-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

LittleBigPlanet is a program that will allow novice users to create their own video game experiences. The technology comes from Will Wright, the creator of The Sims.

Much like how Blogging created the field of citizen journalism, LittleBigPlanet will significantly lower the barriers of entry to the creation of videogames. It sounds like the potential for this technology is limited only by the content and templates available online for the programmers to use to build their games.

This might be the ultimate notion of Hypertext, as it is an extension of a videogame's embodiment of this notion. Users can utilize the existing code to play a game in which they create new code based on what they're given to work with.

PSFK Trends

2008-09-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

PSFK Trends is a blog that discusses trends that relate to either digital technology or the future of the world. The articles range from advanced technology magazine covers using "E-ink" to Chef David Chang's predictions about a return to widespread vegetarianism based on the rising cost of meat production.

The blog has some fascinating articles, some of which appear outlandish. I decided to look bake at the archives from some of the blog's first months. The makeup of the articles and posts appears rather similar to those on the most current edition. There are some ideas that seem rather far-fetched, but also some ideas that really did take off, such as GMail, USB Memory Sticks and Zipcar, which were featured on the original blog back in 2004 as up and coming technologies.

Thoughts on the EPOC Headset

2008-09-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

The EPOC headset, made by Emotiv, is called a Brain Computer Interface. The device is supposed to pick up on electrical signals being transmitted by the brain. This will, in theory, allow a computer to interpret brain signals and translate them into inputs for computer games.

I will be surprised if this technology takes off. I imagine that there is a significant amount of regulation surrounding the use of devices that interact with the brain. The article also raises concerns about whether the device could be hacked and could transmit signals into people's brains. I can't think of many uses for this device that would outweigh the benefits it brings, at least based on the context of the article.

Frankly, I am surprised that this technology emerged from the gaming industry rather than, say, the medical industry. Perhaps this device could merit some further testing on animals or volunteers for medical experiments before it is allowed to be released to the public.

NAU's Cocoon

2008-09-27T15:20:00.001-07:00

The Cocoon is a virtual-reality dome that incorporates 360 degree digital monitors as well as touch screen and motion sensing technologies. The idea is that, when inside the Cocoon, the user can experiences an infinite number of different environments, be in a museum, a library, a coral reef, ancient ruins, etc.

This is a real-life example of the technology Tom Cruise used in The Minority Report to grab and drag different video clips around a screen with his hands.

It will be interesting to see how these machines will be rolled out. I imagine they will start at universities and science museums. Eventually we will probably see these machines replacing the current generation of virtual reality simulators at theme parks and arcades. Perhaps ten years from now we will begin to see these machines in people's homes or office. I could see this being a good tool for doctors and surgeons to perform virtual surgeries on patients.

Reflections on Gehry's IAC building

2008-09-27T14:56:00.001-07:00

The Frank Gehry-designed Chelsea headquarters of Barry Dillar's InterActiveCorp (IAC) is a stark juxtaposition to the industrial warehouses that line the streets of the neighborhood just east of the Hudson river. The building would be more at home inside one of the Chelsea galleries rather an standing on its own.

The building resembles some of Gehry's other recent works such as the Disney Concert Hall in LA and the Millenium Park theatre in Chicago, except it is made out of glass rather than Gehry's stainless steel.

This building is the same style as the new hotel being erected on Bowery around 7th St. in the East Village. Perhaps the arrival of this type of glass tower marks the official gentrification of a neighborhood.

Doug Aiken's "Migration"

2008-09-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

"Migration" is Doug Aiken's current work on exhibition at 303 Gallery in Chelsea. The work involves 3 large-scale Christie Digital projectors displaying high-definition widescreen video onto 3 identical replicas of roadside billboards.

The video shows scenes of wild animals inside roadside hotels and motels. It is fascinating to watch, but doesn't make much sense at all at first. What are these animals doing in motel rooms?

A visit to the 303 Gallery Website sheds some light on exactly what we are watching in this exhibition. The title of the work is "Migration." What we are seeing is an interpretation of the travel that these animals take during their animal migration. Instead of traveling through the wild, however, they are traveling on popular interstate paths, and spending their evening in nearby motel rooms. This is a very clever piece, and I wonder whether it is Aiken making a statement about the overdevelopment of land that was previously the territory of these wild animals. Either way, this also explains why the projections are being shown on replicas of roadside billboards.

Another question I have is how a Gallery like 303 makes money. They don't charge admission, and unlike many of the galleries we visited, it would be very difficult to sell the art on display at here.

Fair-Weather Forces at Eyebeam

2008-09-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Germaine Koh's "Fair-Weather Forces" is a digital new media installation at Eyebeam Gallery in Chelsea. The installation involves a series of steel stanchions and black velvet ropes. The ropes are connected to the stanchions which are suspended by bicycle chains that revolve around motors. The installation is connected to a digital box which streams, via TCP/IP data collected from a nearby water source (in this case the East River) regarding tide levels. The motors raise and lower the ropes to reflect the changing tides. At first glance, the ropes are not moving, but when one gets up close, or examines the movement over a time-lapse, it is very clear that the movement resembles the changing tides.

I see a promise for this technology to be used in tsunami-detecting devices, which could be placed hundreds of miles offshore, and could relay information to seawalls which could raise and lower based on the impending threat of a tsunami.

R. Luke DuBois at Bitforms Gallery

2008-09-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

DuBois' current exhibition at the Bitforms Gallery in Chelsea is very thought provoking. He analyzed every Presidential State of the Union speech since George Washington, and figured out the most frequently occurring words. For each president, he put the list of words onto a paper in the same format an optometrist would use to evaluate one's eyesight. The product of this process is a snapshot of each President based on his word choice. The closer one gets to each frame, or symbolically, each President, the more he begins to understand about that Presidency.

For example, the largest word for George W. Bush was "terror," while for Bill Clinton, it was "21st." Reagan's largest word was "deficit." Each president had many other words on the lists that revealed intricacies about that person, the way they spoke, and their other priorities as President.

This is another piece that I would like to have for my apartment. It is a fun way to pick your favorite President and show your admiration in a much more sophisticated and unique manner than a portrait.

David Fried's SOS at Sara Tecchia

2008-09-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

David Fried's SOS, or Self Organizing Still-life sculptures at the Sara Tecchia Gallery were some of the most refreshing pieces of art I've seen in quite some time. The pieces are essentially balls made out of different materials that are set on a granite "boxing ring." Though a proprietary technology that Fried developed (which has a patent pending, according to Sara Tecchia), the balls respond to sound cues based on some sort of leveling device inside each of the balls.

The pieces at the gallery were relatively small, but on David's website, there are examples of many larger versions of these sculptures.

Out of all the pieces we viewed on Thursday, this was the one I wanted the most for my own apartment. I wonder if they are for sale...

The Western Lands by Michael Zansky

2008-09-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Michael Zansky's current installation at the Nicholas Robinson Gallery features many mixed media pieces that utilize digital prints, 3-D diaramas, spinning motors, spotlights, toy dolls, large glass lenses, and more. While I found the idea of the installation innovative, I did not care for the substance of the actual pieces. I thought that the combination of characters and materials in the pieces, such as the diabolical clowns and chiffon material were somewhat disturbing, to be honest.

Zansky places these large, dichronic glass lenses in front of his 3-D pieces to magnify particular parts of the scene. This also has the effect of obstructing one's normal view of the pieces. When he places enough of the lenses around the display, the viewer naturally wants to look to the side of the lenses to see what it looks like to the naked eye.

I was particularly fascinated with one of the first pieces in the exhibition, just up the stairs and to the left in the main gallery room. This piece had a glass lens that covered the entire front "entrance" to the box in which the piece resided. This aroused in me a sense of curiosity to want to see what was behind the glass.

I really didn't find this exhibition to be that special or involve much of what I would consider to be new media. There was nothing digital about any of these pieces. In fact, the only technology they used was very standard analog motors and lights. It could perhaps be considered new media though because it is not what people would consider standard art (a painting, sculpture, etc.), but rather a combination of many types of art.

Timeline

2008-09-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Jorge Luis Borges:

"The Garden of Forking Paths"

1941
Created a story that would be the inspiration for the hypertext novel.
Inspired "Hopscotch," the first hypertext novel, written by Julio Cortazar.
Some people think of Borges as creating the concept of the internet

Vannevar Bush

"As We May Think"

1945
Bush wrote about how the developments of the military/industrial complex of WWII created the need for a way to retain and access all sorts of information as means of preventing the abuse of powerful technologies (especially weapons).
Invented Memex, the first desktop data storage and access/viewing system.

Alan Turing

"Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

1950
Turing was a mathematician at Cambridge
Helped create the British Colossus computers which decrypted data
Created the Turing test, the goal of which was to see in a practical manner, whether computer could "think"
The turing test involves a computer and a person answering another person's questions and having the questioner decide which answer comes from the machine and which from the other person.
He concluded based on these tests that computers could outsmart humans.

Norbert Wiener

"Men, Machines, and the World About"

1954
Invented the idea of "Cybernetics"
Cybernetics involves the similarities between the human mind and the way machines/computers work
Did a lot of work on the notion of Feedback Loops in the context of computers receiving commands (inputs) and taking actions based on those commands (outputs)
The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility gives out a Wiener Award based on interest in the responsible use of new technology.

J.C.R. Licklider

"Man-Computer Symbiosis"

1960
Head of ARPA (Advanced Resarch Projects Agency at the DOD)
Had a vision of using computers for more than just solving problems that humans gave to it, but rather realizing problems and solving them on their own, based on what they would think humans would be interested in
Perhaps a precursor to the idea of predictive text and suggested searches that we use today

Allan Kaprow

"'Happenings' in the New York Scene"

1961
Kaprow was a performance artist who pioneered the "Happenings" movement
Happenings were impromptu performances in unusual spaces, not normally associated with theatre
These were perhaps indicative of the sixties' counter-culture movement, as this is when they became quite popular

William S. Burroughs

"The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin"

1961
Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer, most famous for "Naked Lunch"
User of the "Cut-Up Method," whereby writers, musicians and DJS cut up their finished works, and reorganize the words and phrases to create entirely new works

Douglas Engelbart

"Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework"

1962
Member of DARPA (formerly ARPA)
Protege of Licklider and Bush
Invented the theory of Intelligence Amplification
Interested in furthering the ability for humans to use computers to simplify their lives and increase their intelligence
Invented the Mouse, the Graphic User Interface, the Window, the Word-Processor
Simultaneously invented the hyperlink, along with Ted Nelson (coincidence)

Ivan Sutherland

"Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System"

1963
One of the first Graphic User Interfaces (GUI)
Allowed users to draw directly onto the screen, and have their drawings become part of the document
A precursor to Ken Perlin's version from the 1980s, simply called the Pad system.

Roy Ascott

"The Construction of Change"

1964
Ascott is an artist and a teacher
Advocated artists becoming more aware of where they exist within the artistic spectrum
Believed that artists could become more focused based on the more they know where the fit in

Theodor Nelson

"A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate"

1965
Coined the Term "Hypertext"
Had a vision for the hyperlink and hypertext that was much more broad than how we understand the term today

The Oulipo

"Six Selections by the Oulipo"

1961, 1973 & 1981
A French group of writers
Created "potential" literature
The user was encouraged to take the individual lines and make his own works out of it
Similar to, yet the opposite of, the cut-up method

Marshall McLuhan

1962 & 1964
Social critic and important scholar in the field of journalism
Coined the term "The Medium is the Message"
Distinguished between "hot" and "cold" media
Started to explain the shift towards "electric" or "new" media after the invention of typography

E.A.T.

1961, 1966, 1967, 1972
Experiments in Arts and Technology
Founded in 1966 by Billy Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman and Fred Waldhauer
Helped to bridge the gap between artists and engineers
Pioneered some interesting new media art pieces involving sophisticated technology

Ted Nelson

1974
Computer Lib/Dream Machines
Two books, bound back-to-back
Nelson railed against central computers
Nelson advocated using computers for advancing new media
Advocate of open-source-style architecture

Augusto Boal

1974
Situationist Artist
Highlighted injustices in Brazil with his art
Tortured; his colleagues were murdered
Eventually elected to office in Brazil
Brought his fellow artists to serve as his political staff

Nicholas Negroponte

1975
Wanted computers to be as responsive as possible to humans
Not interested in just having computers to be number-crunchers
Helped create the Graphic User Interface (GUI)

Joseph Weizenbaum

1976
Concerned about the growth/potential dangers of computer technology
Created the most famous Chatterbot, Eliza, which used a script called Doctor
Essentially created a digital therapist
Was concerned that people would see computers as an alternative to human interaction

Myron W. Krueger

1977
Computer Scientist and Artist
Helped to bridge the gap between science and art
Wanted to use computers for more than just math, and wanted to use art for the response of the viewer
"The Response is the Medium"

Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg

1977
Worked at Xerox's PARC
Created the idea for the Dynabook, the precursor to the modern notebook computer
Created the Xerox PARC desktop computer
They had visions for using the computer for many basic tasks such as filing and drawing

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

1980
"A Thousand Plateaus"
Created the notion of Rhizone, an abstract writing method similar to hypertext

Seymour Papert

1980
Helped to further the penetration of computers into the mainstream market
Involved in using computers as a method of education for children
Created LOGO programming language
One of the forces behind Lego Mindstorms

Richard A. Bolt

1980
Wrote essay about The Media Room at MIT
Virtual Reality immersive experience
The Media Room helped show how accessible computers could be to ordinary people

Ted Nelson

1982
Literary Machines
Explained his vision for Xanedu, a system for accessing and editing everyone's documents
Similar in concept to Wikipedia

Bill Viola

1982
Pioneer of Video Art
Explored the notion of private vs. public space in the digital realm

Ben Bagdikian

1983
Talked about his fears of media consolidation
Published in several editions; each time there were fewer, but larger media companies
He was concerned that too few people controlled too much information and influence

Ben Schneiderman

1983
Explored the notion of direct manipulation
A more interactive, realistic means of working with computers
Inspired by video and arcade games

Shelly Turkle

1984
Turkle, a psychologist, explored why people played videogames
Concluded that it was partly due to a need for people to express themselves
Talked about the idea of the "Second Self," decades before the game Second Life was created.

Donna Haraway

1985
Cyborg Theory
Talks about how technology can be an extension of the self

Richard Stallman

1985
Created the GNU operating system
Pioneer in the "free" software movement
"Free" as in open-source, not necessarily monetarily

Brenda Laurel

1986 and 1991
Takes a "classical" view of computing
Saw computers and technology as a means of exploring new opportunities in theater and entertainment

Jan Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam

1986
Attempted to create categories for computer-related activities
4 categories
allocution
conversation
consultation
registration

Langdon Winner

1986
Social comentator, science writer and technology professor
Saw computers as a tool for people to connect
Didn't like the idea of a "computer revolution"
Didn't like the idea of computers that weren't networked with other users

Lucy A. Suchman

1987
Science and Technology Professor
Scholar in the field of Human Computer Interaction
She thinks that the environment in which technology is used is as important as any other element.

Michael Joyce

1988
The first writer of a hypertext novel with legitimate literary merit
Coined the notion of "Constructive Hypertexts"
Highlighted the distinction between constructive and exploratory hypertexts

Bill Nichols

1988
Talks about cybernetic systems, as they relate to new media and film
Nichols is a film theorist

Lynn Hershman

1990
Filmmaker and artist
She created video art installation that involved interactivity (Lorna)

Pelle Ehn and Morten Kyng

1991
Created mock-ups of computers, computer equipment and office furniture from cardboard
This method of design was an easy way to simulate the final step of the design process
One of the steps in the process of creating the Graphic User Interface

Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer

1991
Habitat was an internet-based video game
2D Role Player Game created by Lucasfilm Games in the mid 1980s
One of the first internet-based games

J. David Bolter

1991
Professor of New Media
Helped to advance graphic space for computers
Windows, tiles, etc.
Furthered the notion of how one "see"s the information on the computer, and how it is displayed

Stuart Moulthrop

1991
Hypertext writer and theorist
Talks about the plusses, minuses, limitations and potential of hypertext
From my hometown of Baltimore

Robert Coover

1992
Writes about the progression and future of hypertext
Predicts the end of the novel as it is known
Suggests that everything will become computerized and based on hypertext

Scott McCloud

1993
The "Aristotle of Comics"
Defined comics as "sequential art"
His work helped to pave the way for understanding other types of new media that portrayed time passing

Philip E. Agre

1994
Wrote about Privacy in the digital age
Poses similar concerns to those of Larry Lessig in "Code 2.0"
Many of Agre's concerns are very relevant today with the Patriot Act, etc.

Espen J. Aarseth

1994
Major figure in electronic literature
Saw video games strictly as games and not as art or hypertext, etc.

Critical Art Ensemble

1994
A group of several media minds, artists, writers, theorists, and more
Used their specialties in specific fields to work for political causes and cultural change

Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen and Arthur Secret

1994
Wrote about the World Wide Web
All major pioneers of the Internet, and various other developments in the world of computers and technology
Outlined what the World Wide Web is, how it works, etc.
Also talks about the future of the WWW, which was still in its infancy, and where the writers wanted it to go, and how the reader could help it get there

Reflections on "Profile of a Writer: Jorge Luis Borges"

2008-09-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

This film is a very unique mixing together of interview, story and (I think) fantasy. It recounts the life of Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian writer who was born in 1899. The film was released in 2000, 14 years after Borges' death. Borges wrote "The Garden of Forking Paths," one of the first stories using the notion of hypertext.

The film is put together in a similar, non-linear format of a hypertext novel. Truthfully, without proper preparation, it was very difficult to follow and appreciate the film. Perhaps it would have had a larger impact outside of class, and put into slightly more context.

I'm sure there are mainstream movies I've seen that utilize a similar format. If I recall, Batman Begins has a slightly non-linear plot. However, the film that reminds me the most of this format is Memento, which essentially plays out backwards, from ending to beginning.

These types of films are the kind that need to be seen multiple times to be fully appreciated.

Reflections on "Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe"

2008-09-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Microcosmos is a 1996 film that showcases animals in an incredibly up close manner. The film utilized special camera technology that took the viewer closer than even to the lives of bugs and other small animals.

The film won numerous awards, including the Technical Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996. The new camera technology captured images that up until then could have only been imagined or achieved though animation, which is why the film falls somewhere between art, new media, and documentary film.

Microcosmos kept me transfixed in class. I had never seen anything like it before, and I don't think I've seen anything else like it since then. I look forward to watching the film in its entirety at some point soon.

Reflections on Wiener's "Men, Machines, and the World About"

2008-09-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Norbert Wiener's complicated 1954 essay focuses on the notion of "Cybernetics." My understanding of cybernetics is that it involves the connections between humans and computers. More specifically, Wiener discusses how the human brain and computers operate similarly based on the notion of feedback. Feedback is the process by which computers and people respond to various stimulants, which Wiener refers to inputs.

Wiener gives an example of feedback by talking about a thermostat in a house. He explains that a thermostat reacts to the temperature of the room in which it is located (the input) by activating a circuit which activates a heating or cooling unit elsewhere in the house (the output). The idea that an input can cause an output is how feedback works.

The problem with this example, which Wiener notes, is that the thermostat can be fooled into creating an unintended output if it is located in a room that is abnormally hot for the house, such as a room with a fireplace.

This problem relates intimately to the previous essay in the New Media Reader by Alan Turing. He wrote extensively about whether computers are smart enough to fool people into thinking they are human. Here is a case of where humans clearly possess a greater level of reason than machines.

Reflections on Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

2008-09-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

In this 1950 essay, Alan Turing contemplates the question of whether machines can think. Turing quickly acknowledges that this question is very difficult to answer because of the philosophical debates associated with figure out exactly what should be considered a machine, but, more importantly, what it means to be able to think. He was not as interested in conquering the philosophical challenges associated with the question, but rather the practical matter.

So Turing devised a test, now called the Turing test, which aims to determine a more concrete question: Can a computer fool a person into thinking it is a person. The test works by a person asking a series of questions to which the computer and a second person respond. The person asking a question then decides which answer it believes comes from the human and which comes from the computer. If the person guesses answers incorrectly just once, the computer wins.

Turing then expounded on this theory, suggesting that since digital computers operate in a universal binary language, if one computer can fool one person, then all computers can think.

My guess is that since Turing published this article in 1950, there have been significant advances in artificial technology. The test now should involve a panel of dozens of humans and one computer that needs to convince the questioner that it is the actual person.

This is most relevant today in the form of online "customer service representatives" and automated call center "operators." For example, when I go to the Sprint website, I am frequently "approached" by a representative who initiates an online chat session with me asking if I need any assistance making a purchase or researching calling plans. Another example is when I call Amtrak to book or change tickets to travel home from New York. I always speak to Julie, Amtrak's automated assistant, who asks me basic questions that are meant to be answered in several predetermined phrases. I know that Julie is an automated computer because she "tells" me right when I call, and because her voice is so "sterile," but I never know whether these online "representatives" for various companies are real or not.

Web Serials

2008-09-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

Web Serials, as we have discussed before, have taken off in recent years for several reasons. I think that the reasons are all somewhat related. The formula is rather simple, too. Because of the low cost of production, people can create many of these short, ongoing series that they distribute to their friends via Youtube or the like. Many of the projects are so specialized that they will only appeal to a very narrow market of viewers, which is something that cannot be done on Television for all sorts of financial reasons. My guess, though, is that the more specialized a show is, the more a person with an interest in the area will enjoy it, and pass it on to his or her friends with similar interests. As I said before, due to their low cost of production, there are hundreds of thousands of these short serials floating around the Web, each with their own cult following. I am not very interested in these, but every once in a while I will watch some short web videos when I am bored, and some of them are quite good. Perhaps I will post some later.

Reflections on Engine Room Article

2008-09-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

"Engine Room" is a new TV show produced by MTV and HP that follows a competition of young digital designers who vie for a $400,000 prize. The show really seems like a PR stunt for HP, who is providing all of the computer equipment for the show. The designers will be broken into teams, who will then come up with various creative solutions to tasks they are given, and the winners will be determined by panels of well-known members of the arts and entertainment community.

It will be interesting to see how this show comes together and what the response will be. With the success of similar shows such as Top Chef, Shear Genius and Project Runway, this show could be bound for success, or it could never take off.

Reflections on the Internet Documentary

2008-09-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

I really liked this film. I already knew a decent amount about the history of the Internet's development from a previous class I'd taken. I knew about packet switching vs. circuit switching technology, I knew about Arpanet, I knew about TCP/IP protocols, etc. I'd never seen pictures, though, of any of the cast of characters behind the internet's development. I'd heard names such as Tim Berners-Lee before, but I'd never actually heard him speak, or see how down to earth he is.

What was most fascinating for me about this documentary was how dated it was. It was released 10 years ago. It was on VHS. Think about how much has changed since then. The internet moves faster and there are more websites with richer content. Most importantly, however, is that there are so many more users, and even more importantly is the fact that the internet was not a fad that died out, but that rather, it has become a way of life for so many people.

I wonder what will happen if 10 years from now a similar class watched the same tape we watched yesterday, or if the class was to watch a similar film to what we saw, but that reflected the technology of 2008. How dated will they think the films are? How many more advances will there be?

Reflections or Bingo and Ryan

2008-09-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

"Bingo" and "Ryan" are the titles of two computer-animated shorts that were created in 1998 and 2004, respectively. They were both created by Chris Landreth, and Ryan won an Academy Award.

The animation in the films is very impressive. What is particularly interesting is to see the difference in style of the two films. Ryan uses technology and animation techniques are appear far more "edgy" and "agressive" than those used in Bingo. It is interesting to think about how the available technology for these productions changed in the six years between their releases, and how much of an impact that had, vs. Landreth's style choices, on the final cuts of the films.

Response to Induction of The New Media Reader

2008-09-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

The introduction to the New Media Reader is a fairly good summary of brief history of computers and new media. It provides the reader with some context in which the idea of a computer and the internet took place, and attempts to explain why computers were invented.

I liked how Murray put forth the four defining qualities of the computer. She argues that they are procedural, participatory, encyclopedic and spacial. If I read this correctly, I think she is does a good job covering the purpose and potential of the computer. Procedural probably refers to the methods by which computers can store and recall information. Participatory refers to the interactive nature of the computer, and how users can manipulate the devices to respond to their particular needs. Encyclopedic refers to the massive amounts of information a computer can store and recall, and the fact that the information can be constantly updated, unlike an actual encyclopedia.

Lastly, spacial refers to the notion that a computer allows a user to function in a parallel "universe" online, under a different identity than who they are in real life. This notion is, in my opinion the most significant of the four qualities, and the one that could be explored in the most depth. I quick example of this notion, though, comes from our class's experience watching "The Guild." In the show, the characters have taken on second identities thought the use of their computers in order to play World of Warcraft. When the players meet in person, it is as if they are strangers who have never met before, even though their second identities have been interacting for quite some time.

Reflections on Bush's "As We May Think"

2008-09-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay discusses many of the benefits, and challenges, of science, in the context of the second world war and the development of nuclear weapons. He explains that with the power man now posesses, it is necessary to understand as completely as possible all aspects of the technology available at the time, and that only then will one be able to appreciate that promise, as well as the potential danger, of the technological capabilities at hand.

How does this relate to New Media? Essentially, Bush was examining methods of easily compiling, storing, recalling and sharing all of the available information of his time to colleagues. The drawing of the Memex goes to show just how forward thinking Bush and his counterparts were. The Memex was essentially a desk that had built in mechanisms to store all types of information on microfilm, which could be recalled at any time by pressing a series of buttons. The film would then be projected onto a screen on the top of the desk. While this contraption is very different in form than the modern laptop or desktop, the though process behind its development is essentially the same.

Even back in the mid 1940's, scientists and scholars were looking for ways to compile as much of the world's information as possible so that their contemporaries could responsibly utilize the new technology at their disposal. While Borges' essay may be more about the theory behind hypertext and random-access of information, Bush's essay really describes the need for what became the modern day PC.

Thoughts about MSNBC Article on Cheap Web Access

2008-09-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about a project to provide cheap internet access to parts of Africa and the Middle East that previously never had it. Based on the information in the article, this will be a for-profit venture, but it will provide significantly reduced costs to access the internet. The company behind the project is called O3B networks, which stands for "The Other 3 Billion." The article suggests that Google is somehow involved in this project, but did not go into details as to Google's role.

This project could be an interesting sister project to the $100 laptop that people are attempting to mass produce and distribute to children in third world countries. The laptops, which I will blog about later, will allow children to learn to read, write and access other information that would otherwise be unavailable to them. One question about the project, though, was how would the computers be updated with new software as children completed the more introductory lessons. Surely, there is an opportunity for these two projects to come together to help overcome this obstacle and really make a serious impact on the lives of children, and adults, in third world countries.

Reflections on "The Guild"

2008-09-09T08:26:00.001-07:00

The Guild is a comedic web-TV based series. The series involves a group of online friends who play World of Warcraft together decide to meet in person. Up until that point, the people only knew each other by their voices and online aliases.
So far, there have been ten episodes, averaging about 3 minutes each. The show is free to watch online, and was produced a very small amount of money. The show is supported by donations from fans.
Most significant about the show is that it symbolizes what today’s technology allows a group of creative individuals to produce without any commercial film companies, agents, etc. This show is an example of how the internet breaks down the barriers, or at least reduces the requirements for entry into creating a successful sitcom that millions of viewers can access for free.
Another benefit to a web-based show is that viewers can watch it anywhere they can access the internet, which today means many more places than where they could watch television. People can even watch the show on their smartphones. And because of the short length of each episode, The Guild, and shows like it are a great source of entertainment when people are looking to kill a few minutes, while waiting for a flight, a friend to show up for coffee, or event for a class to start.

Reflections on "The Garden of Forking Paths"

2008-09-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Jorge Luis Borges' short story, "The Garden of Forking Paths," provides an interesting anecdote about the development of the hypernovel. The hypernovel is essentially a short story or novel which can be read in many different ways. Readers can choose different plots and outcomes of the story by choosing to read different sections of the story in different orders. The idea is to have the story be a sort of "maze" or "labrynth" as Borges says, that the reader can explore in many different ways.

To me, the hypernovel described in "The Garden" is almost like an ancient videogame. He talks about a story, where the text is already written, but which can be explored many different ways with different outcomes each time. This is essentially the same as a videogame today; the code is already written, but the player can make the game his own by fighting different villains, exploring different levels, using different weapons, and much more. The only real difference between the story presented in "The Garden of Forking Paths," and a modern videogame is the graphic user interface, and the fact that videogames today have many more interactive options than just choosing which page to turn to. Otherwise, though, the concepts Borges talks about are almost exactly the same.