Sticking Around Pays Off

I stuck around after viewing the EYEBEAM opening for a short presentation. Artists shared their philosophies as well as works that were too big or old to bring to the gallery. My favorite presenter was Michel de Broin, who used anything from refrigerators to cars to batteries for his art. My favorite piece by him was "Keep on Smoking." I don't know if this would be called sculpture or what, but in a nut shell it was a bicycle that emmitted smoke when driven. The irony of such a device was highlighted by the solitary passenger, and seemed to beg the question "what right does this guy have to screw up my air?" I realized that cars, though conventional poluters, often carry only one passenger, but their size gives the impression that much more cargo is on board. Seeing "Keep on Smoking" got me thinking about the absurdity of thousands and thousands of people all driving in their own cars to the same place everyday. Let's get carpooling people!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, He'll Want a Hotel Room

Doug Aitken's "Migration" places wild animals in human environments. We see beavers taking baths and Lion's having pillow fights. Not only is the film beautiful, but its presentation should strike a cord with anyone who's ever driven on the freeways. In the 303 Gallery in Chelsea, Aitken projects his film onto three mini-billboards. Such billboards are traditionally used for advertising, but by projecting alternative notions of migration on them, he seems to be calling for environmental action. This will definitely work for those who are staunchly opposed to moose sharing their towels, but I doubt many people feel empowered to take any action at all.

MICHAEL ZANSKY: The Western Lands

I took this picture at the Nicholas Robinson Gallery of Michael Zansky's exhibit "The Western Lands." The piece seen here consists of a doll headed angel backing a magnified rotating table. On the table one finds a merman king smiting some fat-headed WASP. All the while the magnifying glass conflicts with the glass orb next to the WASP which causes him to look tiny in comparison. This tension caused between magnification and minimization leaves the viewer only one option; to go behind the "curtain" and see for himself.

To me this effect speaks very much to the era of new media. Everyday we are faced with the conflict of apearance vs. reality. One network will show politicians hidden behind a veil of rhetoric and propaganda, while the next is uncovering what ever slanderous facts can be invented. This causes a state of constant unknowing, and forces citizens to look for themselves, resulting in large online communities such as digg and wikipedia.

David Fried Won't Leave Me Alone

We viewed David Fried's sound sculptures at Sara Tecchia's gallery in Chelsea. As soon as we walked into the gallery space, small spheres on a granite table started to aimlessly role about, bouncing off the boxing-ring-esq ropes. Surprisingly, the magical spheres move to the noise in the room. The louder the noise, the faster they move. Unlike many interactive new media instalations, Fried's sculpture doesn't need your concent to be interacted with- only your presence. You'll be standing in the room, trying to enjoy a painting, and this sculpute in the corner keeps anoying you when the spheres collide. "Stop making so much racket," you may think to yourself. But then you realize the art is actually saying the same thing to you. Everything was chill before you showed up.

"R. Luke DeBois: Politics as Usual"

Bitform's exhibit "R. Luke DeBois: Politics as Usual" is a scary way to look at politics. It takes State of the Union addresses given by each president and lays out the discourse like an eye chart. At the top we see the biggest word on the chart, which represents the most frequently used word in the SOTU speach. The second row contains the next most frequently used words, and each row decends in like fashion. Standing in a room with clear representations of the evolving American political discourses, the only word I can use to describe it is "frightening." On one side we start with Washington. "Gentlemen" heads the chart. On the far end of the room we find Bush. Imediately we see "Terror."

Gehry Building

The Gehry building in Chelsea looks like a huge ice burg. Maybe we should build something that looks like the Titanic next door. I'm sure we could get Leonardo DiCaprio to come for the opening.

LittleBigPlanet

I used to be into a game called Rainbow Six Rogue Spear. Every night I would sit up late talking to my buddy on the phone while we played the game online. One summer this was all I did. But as soon as the levels began to grow old, we discovered dozens of user-created levels for free download on forum sites. The fact that we could play on so many new levels without having to wait for the publishers to put out a new game made the possibilities of Rainbow Six seem endless.

If LittleBigPlanet truly allows gamers to create their own content, we may be seeing a new era in video games. Huge publishers will still be around, but I see many various subcultures emerging in the video game world. New stars will rise. Could LittleBigPlanet be to video games what mixtapes were to hip-hop?

Issuu and Online Magazines

Magazines are expensive and take up space. Though the aesthetics of a coffee table piled high with intriguing mags is unbeatable. What to do?

Issuu seems to think the next step is online magazine publication. But after perusing the site I feel they are too far off base. It is nice to have so many publications at your fingertips with high resolution photos and nice page turning graphics, but do these traditional forms of print have any reason to be on the web?

I immediately felt that looking at magazines in my web browser was awkward. Not only do I hate reading from a computer screen, but the intricate lay outs caused me to have to zoom in and get lost with copious scrolling. It just wasn't as satisfying as actually holding a magazine.

It seems to me that if you want an online publication, there are more aesthetically pleasing ways of doing so on the web. Blogs are quite prevalent, and online comics have begun to develop standards of their own. If you want a publication, you can have one, but do it right. If you want to publish a magazine, stick to it's strongest point and keep it physical. I want to hold "Stop Smiling" in my hand, not in my note book.

PSFK's 'BETTER"

PSFK's goal is "to inspire our readers, our clients and our guests to make things better - whether that’s better services, better product ideas or a better way of living."

This seems to mirror the community mentality of early adopters of the internet. Even before the internet, those involved in its creation shared this communal effort towards "betterment."

This sense of betterment and shared communal progress seems to be a thread at all points on the avant-garde of new media. Is this due to tradition or the fact that much of the avant-garde of new media are untapped markets and are therefore not surrounded by corporate greed. You don't see Yahoo and Google working together to make the best search engine do you?

Virtual Reality Cocoon: A Step Down the Wrong Path

NAU's Immersive Cocoon promises to provide virtual reality possibilities we have never seen. Not only can you see a vitual world surrounding you, you can also reach out and touch it, interact with it, and even jump in it.

What NAU has done is create a space (the cocoon) that simulates other spaces. Though this is a cool idea, it doesn't seem very practical. First, the space required for such a cocoon is unrealistic for most consumers. Not only this, but I feel the average gamer enjoys the thrill of traditional video games not only for the virtual world, but also because of it's ease of use. In a game I can run through a battle ground, jump over buildings, and duck from explosions, all without having to exert any energy. This may just be me, but if my failure in a video games is partially do to my physical abilities, I am going to get a little turned off.

In addition to this, NAU theorizes that one day AMAZON.COM will be a virtual book store, where we can walk around, pick up books, read their backs, and even talk to other customers. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is Amazon's success not partially do to the fact that I DON'T have to go to a bookstore? Isn't is much easier to have Amazon's advanced search and consumer tracking technologies help me find the best book for me? If I want a book recommendation I'll go to a bookstore, but I'm going to Amazon all other days because I can't stand the idea of going into public. I like my anti-social internet just fine.

The Future of Gaming

The Emotiv EPOC headset - the first Brain Computer Interface (BCI) device for the gaming market is said to revolutionize the future of gaming. Not only does this technology promise to allow users to control games with their minds, it also makes sci-fi scenarios, such as those found in The Matrix, that much more of a reality.

There is a counter movement going on right now arguing that those things we thought were bad for us, such as TV and videogames, are actually making us smarter. If this is so, I can only imagine what Emotiv's EPOC headset will do. Imagine having to learn to control worlds and characters using "the force" from age five. I wish I had that kind of focus now....

Would you call this a documentary?

The Borges documentary was unlike any documentary I have ever seen. It not only interviewed the subject and those that knew him, but it also attempted to recreate some of Borges' works. To me, this approach felt like an episode of "The Unsolved Mysteries," as the film felt much more about the reenactments than Borges himself. Then, suddenly, we find Borges actually penetrating those very scenes he had earlier constructed. It is no longer about Borges or his work, but rather a philosophical take on what Borges' work represents, and posits the sorts of engagements Borges is currently having with it.

Microcosmos

Bugs up close taught me something important: Bugs have crazy mating rituals. The use of music during some of these scenes, as well as those scenes where bug battles ensued, heightened the tension to the point that I felt I was watching a Hollywood film. Who knew bugs could be epic?

Turing Test

The Turing Test is fascinating to me for several reasons, but one sticks out in particular. If we were in fact able to produce a machine which could pass this test, countless debate would ensue as to the true meaning of such success. Many would argue that though it was a great feat, it still does not constitute consciousness. I for one would agree with this. What is interesting to me, however, is that such a success for AI would beg the question of human consciousness. If I can't tell that you are any more conscious than a machine, what right do I have to say that you are any more conscious than a machine? Some might argue that the machine has no motivation or emotion, but I could just as easily retort and ask how it is that I am to KNOW that you have motivation and emotion. As far as I am concerned, I am the only conscious thing on this planet. There is no way I will ever know for certain if you or anyone I have ever known shares this same trait. But for my own sanity I will passively accept your claims of consciousness and not allow my delusions of grandeur to get the best of me.

Bush's Memory Suplement

Bush's writings on technology and progression say a lot about the thought of his era. For example, many of his ideas are centered around mechanical devices as opposed to the streamlined electronics of our day. But because of this mindset, his language offers unique insight into the functions of modern technology. This is direct result of his difficult task of articulating his futurist theories to a relatively ignorant public. A case in point is his 'memex," which he claims to be "an enlarged intimate supplement to (mans) memory" (45). This struck me as I have never thought of the internet, my hard drive, or RAM as an extension of my memory. To me, these things very much exist separately from me. But Bush is stuck in a situation where mechanical memory is unheard of, and the only way he can articulate such an invention is by relating it to our own forms of memory. Though I initially disagreed with his statement, I soon saw the truth to what he was saying. My mobile device, which is always on my person, contains contact information, notes, and my calendar. Often times I will email myself something as opposed to just memorizing it. The longer and longer I live this way, the more I realize that what I claim to "know" is not always knowledge stored in my own mind, but rather in an easily accessible electronic format that only I can access. Today I might "know" Josh's phone number, but if I were to loose my phone, this would no longer be the case. What is 'knowledge' in this era of new media?

Internet History

Something that has always struck me about the internet is the communal effort that has gone into its creation. Much of the software online is programmed by dozens of people who have never met each other, and will never see a dime for their work. Linux is an example of this. We have built databases of entertaining content that we can access for free because it was our own creation. Though often we must pay the price of being subject to online advertising.

I see a thread emerging here when looking at the history of the internet. The creation of the internet was a community effort. No one was looking to out do the next guy. They all had to work together to make it happen. This tradition seems to still be just as important in our online communities today as it was then.

Bingo, Ryan, and the One Man Who Created Them

Chris Landreth's Bingo and Ryan must have blown minds when first premiered. I'm sure the human like motion simulated in the films grabbed audiences in ways traditional animation never has. However, attributing these great achievements to only one man seems problematic. After each of these films, huge credit sequences ensued. The number of artists responsible for the creation of only a few minutes of computer animation is incredible, and each seem to only be responsible for the smallest piece of the puzzle, but without any one of them the film would be nothing close to what it is. I suppose this questions the status of director in all film and the artistic attributions we place on them, but in traditional film directors, cinematographers, and actors all share a slice of the credit. Will the genius of computer animation films always be attributed to one man?

Cyberculture and Engineers as Artists

The Text clearly separates the notion of "cyberculter" from that of "new media," claiming cyberculture is the study of social aspects of the internet and other new forms of communication, while "new media" is the culture (artifacts?) and computing of the new technologies.

I find it difficult to draw such a distinction between new media as an art from and the cyberculture that has resulted from it. It seems to me that if engineers are indeed some of the greatest artists of our time, like those who invented the internet, then the interactive spaces they have created and the affects on society that these spaces are having are the art that they have developed. Put another way, I question whether or not we can imagine the use of this new technology as a tool to paint a "social picture," therefore making the community surrounding it the art, as opposed to the user interface being what we see as the sole artifact.

New Media Reader Intro and The Guild

The Guild-

Celebrities addicted to video games over coke was good enough, but now The Guild? Can't have too much of a good thing.... What struck me with this web sitcom was recognition of the new world we live in with alternative communications. Through games such as WOW, people are breaking down age, gender, and racial barriers. My best example come from watching my little brother. He and his friends have found solace in the video game world. I'm sure escapism is at the core of their addictions, but they have found something more. One night I came home and found my brother and two of his friends all sitting in front of the computer. Though, as opposed to talking with each other, they were talking into the mic. Soon I learn that they waited up late for their friend from Pakistan to wake up. They had known this guy for over six months. He was in his thirties, a muslim, married, and employed. My brother at the time was a 15 year old WASP from Middle America. Good things are happening.


New Media Reader Intro-

What strikes me here is the notion that the term "New Media" depicts our confusion of current media progress. Indeed, "New Media" is a vague umbrella term for many new communication and art forms. But what is probably at the root of this confusion is the fear caused by such a speedily developing technology. Scientists, artist, engineers, and philosophers have been collaborating on this "New Media" for decades, creating something that almost tricked the Turing Test, and through this expanded human ideals of identity and democracy. What's more, it has given us the locus point from which to analyze film, tv, and radio in a historical context.

In this brief outline of the history of New Media, we see new discourses develop, particularly around the gaming youth. We see a power struggle between corporate controlled TV and the genius of free information through new media. New market places have emerged, new academic institutions have risen, and a real hope for a more utopic society seems to be just over the next hill. But all of this has come from the tireless work of engineers and scientists and an evolving ethics surrounding individualism and information.

Though this intro challenges the fears of New Media instilled by some of our darker thinkers, I question if our obsession with, and reliance upon, this new media form will not create horrors as of now unmentioned.

Hi

Hi Cynthia----