And the Word of the Year is..."Change"

Hello again. It has been quite some time since my last post (almost eight months to be exact) and a lot has happened since then. The two main reasons that I stopped contributing to this blog are because the class I was taking, which required me to regularly update and post to the blog, ended and my fiancé and I also had our first child back in May, which has kept the both of us quite busy. During that time I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to return to this blog and keep posting because I enjoyed the experience so much. All I had to do was find a suitable topic that I wanted to write about and then I could get back to blogging AND be inspired by a wealth of material that directly pertained to my passion.

Well as of recently, the opportunity to find a suitable topic to keep this blog alive has come to me and I have found lots of inspiration to go along with this topic. Over the past few days I have been reading the book "Paid to Play: An Insider's Guide to Video Game Careers", which has not only managed to crush my dreams of working in the video game industry as well as depress me (not really, but the book mentions a lot of the down sides as well as the perks), but has also managed to keep me intrigued and dedicated to finishing it as soon as I can. I am definitely not here to plug this book, but I do recommend that it be read by anyone considering a career in said industry so they know what to expect. If nothing else there are some useful suggestions, guidelines, and tips that could benefit anyone looking to get a job or be more professional in their line of work. Now that I have finished hyping it up (the check better be in the mail like you promised Prima Games) I'll get back to what I plan to do with this blog.

If you haven't been able to figure this out already, I'll just flat out tell you. My passion is for video games. Always has been (at least since getting my first NES at age four, which is about as far back as I can remember) and, no matter how hard I try to grow up and be more responsible, it seems that it always will be. Not that I think gamers are immature and irresponsible. Being a gamer I would take offense to that myself, but it is no mystery that gaming requires time dedication and the more that you contribute, the less time you have to devote to other goals and responsibilities in your life. So my inspiration for blogging will be video games. In particular the review of recently released video games. Although I'm still not sure if anyone is actually reading this (four months and fourteen posts without one single comment) I will continue to contribute and maybe someone out there in the vast expanse of the internet will actually catch on to what I am doing and find my input useful. With a little networking and word of mouth who knows, it might catch on and be a small cog in the massive video game industry machine. If nothing else at least I will get some experience critiquing games and be able to polish my writing skills some.

So, as the topic indicates, I will be changing this blog for the New Year from a scheduled publishing of school assignments to a dedicated, truthful, and passion driven chronicle of newly released popular video games and my take on whether or not they make the grade. Some of you might be saying who are you and why should I care what you think and my answers are, in order, "Nobody in particular....yet, and you should care because I am going to thoroughly play games in my own free time and give honest and unbiased opinion about them and what I feel could have been improved upon. Hopefully this will inspire others to comment and give their two cents, creating a public discourse about video games that might grow enough that developers take notice and give the people what they want, so to speak.

So bear with me as I continue to update the face of this blog, play and review games (while also trying to work, go to school full time, raise my daughter, spend time with my family, and maintain some smidgen of a social life), and try to get the word out so more of you web crawler....um, I mean web surfers can read about and participate with this blog. And if you have any ideas feel free to shoot me an e-mail. My e-mail address is Crabby0525@aol.com. Also, tell your friends about this site if they are interested in video games. The more people that participate the better our chance of having a voice that will reach developers and the more likely it will be that we actually get more of what we want from the latest game. Oh, and before I forget there is one more thing......

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

New Media: The Final Frontier?

Reading Response #3

The following post is a response to Chris Burns' blog post entitled "The Final Blog: What is New Media?". This post can be found in Chris' blog page at http://thethirdegree.blogspot.com/.

Reading over Chris Burns’ blog I am left to ponder the very same question that he set out to answer. What is New Media? I don’t define it as any one form of media at all. As one can tell from the classes we take, it seems to be a collaboration of all forms of media that have emerged from the digital age. From web site design and building to editing digital film, it seems that all bases are covered. They are not though. While most of what we study falls under the category of New Media, there is much that we do not cover in depth. Video games, for example, are a form of New Media that is still in its infancy, but is destined for great things. This can be seen in the ways that it is starting to trump all other forms of media, at least as far as sales go. My intention is not to point out what our program fails to cover though; it is to prove that New Media can be a wide variety of things, maybe even some of which have yet to be discovered.

The way I see it, New Media is like a new frontier. All of the roads fork and go in different directions, waiting for the right people to travel their paths and discover new things. It is up to us, the students, to decide where we want to end up. Personally, I was drawn to the program because of my love for computers, film, and video games. I’m hoping that New Media will help me to combine all three and create interactive and entertaining experiences in the future. I also see it as a deeper immersion into the digital realm of electronics that will help us to better understand that world. Even since I started taking this class, I have developed a whole new understanding of the digital culture, as well as picked up some new and interesting theories to contemplate.

All of these emerging forms of media are amazing in what they allow human beings to experience. An example of this can be seen in what I experienced this past weekend. Thanks to Grand Theft Auto 4, I got to fly a helicopter all around New York City, try my luck as a professional car booster, and made almost half a million dollars in just a few days, all without ever leaving my couch. If fantasy tends to be more of your thing than you can simply pick up a copy of World of Warcraft and see how you fare as a dwarf in the medieval alternate universe. Even if you simply feel like seeing what your peers think about certain topics or reuniting with distant family, log on to the internet and browse or chat to your hearts content. New media is limitless and immersive, allowing humans to play out scenarios they had only be able to dream about in the past. It seems that as time progresses and technology gets more advanced the experiences only get better. The only limit we face now would appear to be our own imagination.

Do Blade Runners Dream of Organic Replicants?

Choice Blog Post #3

In an effort to catch up on popular old movies that I have never seen, as well as expose myself to more content relating to topics addressed in my Computers and Culture class, I recently rented Blade Runner. This film, released in 1982, stars Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a retired blade runner re-hired to track down a group of replicants who emigrated to Earth. I know that the previous sentence may make no sense to those of you who have not seen the film, mostly due to some of the terminology and lack of back-story. I’ll try to explain without giving away too much of the movie. Basically, humans created bioorganic robots that are nearly indistinguishable from humans and have become very dangerous in this future dystopian world. They were used for slave labor in outer space colonies but, due to their level of unprovoked hostility, are not allowed on Earth where they can harm humans. Blade runners are a division of police force who’s job it is to track down and kill rouge replicants that make it to Earth. Harrison Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, is of course the best at doing so.

Blade Runner is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a novel by legendary science fiction author Philip K. Dick, a fact I was not aware of until after I watched the movie. It is also worth mentioning that the film was directed by Ridley Scott, the same director who would later go on to direct the 1984 Apple Computers commercial (posted below). The film didn’t have a great opening in theaters. Critics gave it a cold reception, claiming that the film was paced too slowly and that it was closer to “science fiction pornography” rather than science fiction. After its release it went on to develop a cult following and has since been re-released without the initial narration by Harrison Ford’s character (this was the version I watched).

While I agree that the pacing was slow at times, overall this was a very interesting movie as well as very relevant to some of our class discussions. Set in a future, November 2019 to be exact, Los Angeles, the movie tells of a world where humans and robotic humans struggle to coexist. The future is dim according to this movie. The film has a very gritty and dystopian feel. One of the features I liked most about the film is that it had a noir style to it, even though it was set in the future. The traditional noir style mixed with a futuristic setting is not a technique that is used often in movies. In fact I can’t think of any besides this one. I’m sure that the version with narration gives it this feeling even more so.

Some interesting themes were brought up in this movie as well. In particular when Deckard falls in love with Rachel, one of the latest versions of the replicants. Not only does the film touch on human/robot intimacy and love, it brings up the question of what effect it would have on society. Here is a man trained to kill these androids on sight, living in a society legally forbidden to interact with these machines, and he ends up falling in love with his sworn enemy. How a human can have relations with a robot is not detailed in the film, but to me it is the ultimate example of man merging with machine to form cyborgs, written about in Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. This also poses a problem for Deckard. Society is not likely to understand a human/android relationship and they would definitely not allow Rachel to remain on Earth alive. To be with the one that he loves he must either run from Earth with her or go into hiding permanently.

Another topic that is apparent is how these robotic organisms view life. I did not mention this before, but their purpose for coming back to Earth was to confront their maker, Dr. Eldon Tyrell of the Tyrell Corporation, to see if they could extend their life cycle beyond four years (the average life span given to them as a protective design measure). It seems that all anything with life desires to do is to keep living, regardless if they are human, animal, or synthetic organism. Once they become aware of their inevitable demise, the robots struggle in dealing with the fact that they are mortal and eventually have to succumb to death. This is an emotion that I am sure every being who is aware of their own existence must struggle with. Overall, this was a great movie and very relevant to what we discussed in class. If anyone is interested in science fiction or classic American films than I strongly recommend that you watch Blade Runner.

Apple's 1984 Commercial

Little Big Apple, Here I Come!

Choice Blog Post #2

Ever since the release of the first Grand Theft Auto game I have been a huge fan of the series. The unbelievable depth and storytelling that each game has been capable of is astonishing to me. It seems that with each new release, the Grand Theft Auto series only gets better at being able to deliver. Not to mention that Grand Theft Auto III basically gave birth to a new genre of video games, the open-world sandbox game. The purpose of this article is not to praise Grand Theft Auto, to be referred to as GTA from now on, and sell copies of it though; instead this posting is meant to discuss how it relates to me and why I prefer GTA to real life in certain situations.

As I write this there are just under two weeks left until the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto IV. The latest installment of the GTA series set in a fictional version of New York City, aptly named Liberty City. For well over a year I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this game. Compulsively checking the fan website http://www.gta4.net/news/index.php for any sliver of news about the game I can sink my teeth into. I like video games as much as the next young male of my generation, but normally I do not become so obsessed with one that I track it progress with such attention. For some reason this game appeals to me in a way that other games can’t even come close to. When I think about it, it doesn’t seem that complicated. Who out there wouldn’t like to explore a digital recreation of the city in which they were born and the area where they have spent most of their life. The increased freedom and fantasy that video games provide makes it all the more appealing. But, could it be something more than that?

I have the luxury of living not too far outside the city limits of the real New York City. On any given day I can drive or take public transportation into NYC and experience whatever I choose, within reason. If I want to take in a Broadway show I am more than capable of doing so. Even if I just want to sight see and explore some of the many wonderful areas New York City has to offer, there is nothing stopping me. Interestingly enough, in real life I avoid New York City like the plague. The crowds, the traffic, the noise, it is almost enough to drive any sane man nuts. Why is it that I am so eager to lose myself in digital Doppelganger of the Big Apple?

There are many answers I can think of for the aforementioned question. Perhaps it is because if I get tired of walking I can smash a window of the nearest car, “borrow” the ride, and cruise around. Perhaps it is because if people walk in front of my car, as they so often like to do in New York City, I can simply plough through them rather than stop and get stuck behind the next red light. Or more simply it is that fact that I can do all this and more without ever having to leave the comfort of my couch. No matter what the reason, the truth is that this game will be able to provide me with what real life cannot, an opportunity and place to live out my greatest fantasies and deepest desires. Not that I deeply desire to commit vehicular manslaughter on a regular basis, but knowing that there will be no consequences for my virtual actions in GTA IV makes it all the more appealing.

If nothing else, videogames are a great escape from the rules and regulations of everyday life. A chance for people to be something greater than they are in their regular lives. That is why I love videogames and will most likely continue to play, and make (if all goes according to plan), them for as long as I live. As for the game itself, it has been a long wait, but the release is just around the corner and soon it will all be worth it. So when April 29^th of this year comes around I will be instantly teleported to a synthetic world with which I am very familiar and can appreciate that much more. Until then, I can only dream about the fun my friends and I will have in an alternate New York City where anything goes and there are no real life consequences.

Nip/Tuck

Second Life Gender Blog Post

One of the factors that make virtual worlds, such as Second Life, so interesting is that one is no longer bound by the physical constraints that come with being a human. In real life I would never be able to experience what it would be like to live life as another race or gender, short of cross dressing or wearing a lot of skin makeup. Normally I can only read about the chronicled experiences of such a person. However with programs such as these, we are able to experience daily life through their eyes. In the past two weeks I have changed my avatar to first resemble a person of different ethnicity than my own, then to resemble a person of female gender. My first experience of being a different race was interesting, but written more in detail in my previous post about finding racism in a virtual community. What I would like to write about right now is my experience of being a woman for a day in Second Life.

My first true female experience came when we were exploring in our class groups to which we were assigned. While walking around the island of Royier I encountered an avatar who inquired about selling my newly female character a gun. Having zero lindens and wanting to test my new attributes, I asked if there were any other means of payment that could be arranged for the virtual weapon. At first the male avatar declined, but after some conversation he gave me the weapon item as a gift. This was quickly followed by a friend request and an offer to join him on a Wild West role playing island named Tombstone, Arizona. I explained that I was busy at the moment, but offered to join him after I was done with my class.

For the rest of the class I explored Second Life as a female avatar, but noticed nothing that differed from any of my other experiences in Second Life. Perhaps this is because I was surrounded by classmates. After class I did take the aforementioned male avatar up on his offer to join him in role-playing on the island of Tombstone, Arizona. Upon going there he presented me with a female Native American outfit to match his character dressed as a Native American male. I got the feeling he was looking for some female companionship for his role-playing escapades in Second Life. For awhile I complied, trying to find out more about what it was like to virtually be a female. I wore the outfit and followed him around Tombstone, Arizona. He told me about the local citizen avatars as well as some current events that occurred within the island. After some time he attempted to make a pass at my character by telling me that I was beautiful. I thanked him, but not liking where the situation was going I bid him farewell and went to explore other locations. For the remainder of my time on Second Life that night he would send me instant messages asking my whereabouts and what I was up to. I didn’t respond and logged off soon after that.

As a male I have never been pursued in such an eager fashion. Second Life allowing me to switch my gender gave me some insight on what it might be like to be a woman. While this was certainly a very interesting experience, I not sure that it is something that I would be inclined to do again. I know nothing about being a female and something about deceiving others and having them show sexual interest in a digital female representation of myself does not sit well with me. While being able to easily switch your appearance in the online worlds is definitely an enticing option, why one would do it for reasons other that of research or experimentation is beyond me.

Third Time's a Charm

Second Life Blog Post #3

After over a month of participating in Computers and Culture classes in the real world, the time once again came for us to venture into Second Life and see what we could discover in this digital realm. This was definitely an interesting class in which I discovered many new places as well as got to experience what it is like to be a different gender. Upon logging in, I met up with the other class members in order to participate in a lengthy discussion led by the co-facilitators for this class session. For over an hour we sat and discussed the readings from last week, as well as new topics that arouse about racial identity and cyberspace. Although this was informative and educational, most of the action occurred after the class discussion. This is when we separated into groups and explored certain islands that our group leaders had been assigned to take us to. This is when it got interesting.

Before going anywhere I decided to change my gender first so that I could see what it was like to be a female avatar in Second Life, as well as fulfill the requirements for one of the upcoming postings, to document my experiences while being the opposite gender. After that, I met with my group and prepared to travel. The first place our group ended up was an island by the name of Royier, near a place called Commando SL Base. This area was surrounded by airplanes, boats, helicopters, and other off-road vehicles. Inside of the base, weapons were sold and there was a place called the combat zone on the roof of the structure. To me this island seemed very male oriented and geared toward a masculine crowd since it had a lot to do with weapons, combat, and big vehicles. Being that I was now a female avatar I looked for feminine activities and was not surprised that there weren’t many on this island. At one point I was offered to purchase a gun from another avatar and I tried other means of persuasion to acquire the gun item. This is a very interesting story which I will go much more into detail in my next posting about my transgender experience in Second Life. As for the island, I felt my female character was out of place in this male oriented environment and after some time exploring we decided to move on.

Next was a wedding themed island which was essentially the opposite of the last island we visited. Here we traded the gunshots and whirring chopper blades for a much more peaceful and natural environment. Walking around I could hear water running, birds chirping, and no matter where I looked there was some romantic setting that had to do with weddings. I’m not sure if virtual SL weddings are held here, but one thing about this place is obvious, it has a much more feminine feel to it. After a while we decided to move on to the next location, Bad Boy’s Urban City. As the name implies, this area is a gay club modeled after an urban environment. Walking around, I noticed many position balls for all sorts of sexual acts as well as many pornographic pictures on the walls. It is clear who the intended audience is on this island. One thing that intrigued me was that there were male and female labeled position balls in some places. Being that this is a virtual gay bar, one would expect positional balls only relating to the same gender. Curious I tried some of these positions out to see what would happen. As you can imagine, it is more comical than exciting to watch ones avatar perform a 69 all by its self.

Lastly we went to one more place, Soulphoniks Mega Outlet Store. This is an area where one can purchase clothing and items inspired by the hip-hop community. I noticed that most of the posters advertising the clothing items had darker skinned avatars in them, indicating who the target audience was. After looking around for a bit, we decided to head back to the Purchase College island to wrap up class and discuss our adventure. As I mentioned before there are quite a few interesting experiences I had being a female avatar, but I will go more into detail about those in the next post. In my travels today I saw many examples of locations made for specific races and genders in a supposedly neutral community. As in real life, a person’s preferences and interests vary and specific communities are in turn created to bring those interested in them together. What makes SL compelling is the ability it provides to allow anyone to change their appearance and participate in these communities if they desire. A very interesting class indeed.

Finding Racism in the Virtual Community

Reading Response #2

This week all the articles I read dealt with racism in the virtual worlds that society has created. While some of the articles focused on the more subtle forms of racism, there were also readings that focused on the more blatant and aggressive forms. The article I’ll Take MY Stand in Dixie-Net: White Guys, the South, and Cyberspace, by Tara McPherson, talks of how a part of the country with very racist origins, the South, tries to preserve its heritage in a place where it can never be forgotten, the Internet. Sites such as www.dixienet.org and http://www.hpa.org/ are referenced in the article and used for the basis on its contents. While visiting these sites I could not find any blatant forms of racism, but I also got the feeling that the site was not made with non-whites in mind. Some of the beliefs mentioned, such as strictly patrolling the borders, did not make for a unified utopian digital community. While not outright degrading and offensive, one can get a definite sense of what is implied by visiting these sites.

When the internet first came into fruition many people believed it would be the utopian environment that would save us all from the always evident problems and suffering that plagues the human race. For so long man has suffered in one way or another and has always been at the mercy of more powerful, and seemingly less moral, rulers. Although situations have gotten better over the long span of years, we continue to live in a world that will most likely never be fair and always have some kind of problem. The solution it seems is to find or create another world where everyone is equal and no one suffers. The problem with this theory is that not everyone has the same idea of what a utopia should be. What is perfect for some may be terrible for others. We live in a world with many different beliefs and desires, making near impossible to please everyone. While the internet has greatly improved life for those who can access it, by making information readily available and by improving communication, it is not without flaws evident in the real world.

The articles Same Shit, Different World, by Lauren Ban, and Head hunting in cyberspace, by Lisa Nakamura, described the more evident forms of racism that can be found in this seemingly digital utopia. These articles made reference and occurred in sites and programs such as NetNoir and Second Life. NetNoir is a site that focuses on the African American community and has a graphical avatar program similar to second life. Nakamura uses this program, Club Connect, to document her experiences with race in the virtual. Second Life, on the other hand, is the program we use in class and does not focus on any one race, although it may be predominately white. The article Same Shit, Different World tells of how for research certain users changed their race to document how they were treated differently in Second Life. The results mentioned in the article were appalling and extremely racist.

Having spent some time in Second Life due to this class and having not yet seen evidence of racism, I decided to test it out myself and swap my race. As of last Friday my character went from being an ordinary looking caucasian character to being a darker skinned avatar with a bald head and a beard. Trying to witness some reaction based on my appearance I spent some of the weekend wandering around Second Life and looming around large groups of people. To my surprise nothing happened. You can take that as you like, for I am not sure whether the other avatars avoided me because of my look or if they simply did not bother with me because I was just standing around waiting for something to happen. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed, not because I failed to find blatant racism, but because I did not come away with better examples to report on. After reading about how the characters in the article got chased by cars and called racial slurs I was expecting to come away from this with some outlandish examples of the racial divide in digital communities. Instead I just got treated as if I were another man walking down the city block. In one sense I am greatly pleased with my results. Maybe things in the virtual world are becoming more unified and less racially charged. On the other hand maybe its not getting better and I just didn’t run into the type of people I was hoping to get a reaction out of.

New Media Lecture 3

For the last New Media lecture of the semester there was a lot more going on than usual. When I walked in there were four performers making variations of music using only car batteries to power their equipment. While the confined space made it difficult at times to distinguish who was making what sound, overall I found this to be very interesting. Not only were they refraining from using any house current, they were also using random items that some may consider trash to manipulate their music. An example of this was one performer who was using old shoes as drum pads and a detached steering wheel as a turntable. They were also broadcasting live from the Neuberger Museum during the performances, which I thought was a nice touch.

At the time I wasn’t aware that there was more than one lecture, but when I walked into the presentation room early I was surprised to find a man by the name of Jeff Stark already addressing an audience. Curious, I sat and listened to him and found great interest in what he is involved with. Jeff participates in something called Secret Dinner, a dinner club of sorts that meets for dining and entertainment every so often in rather unusual locations. Inspired by groups like the San Francisco based Suicide Club and Dark Passage, Secret Dinner meets in long-forgotten, rundown, and mostly abandoned structures to host a night full of social activities and dining in very untraditional settings. So far they have been to locations such as the 1964 New York World's Fair in Queens and Freedom Tunnel, an Amtrak tunnel underneath Riverside Park in Manhattan. Settings such as this have always intrigued me and I have always wanted to explore them, but tend to stay away because of the dangerous nature of such places. It is no wonder then that I found his lecture to be of such interest. For those who are more interested in Secret Dinner, photographs of the events can be seen at http://everydayilive.com/worldsfair/.

Last up was a man by the name of Matt Bua. Matt is an artist who builds miniature concept homes out of scrap material, which would otherwise be garbage, he collects from demolition sites and industrial yards. His program, Sing-Sun Room, tries to use as many natural or recycled materials as possible in order to make the structure “green”. He has a rather large piece of land in Catskill, NY where he constructs many of his eco-friendly mini homes. Right now he claims to be more conceptualizing than actually building, but has done work all over New York, including Governors Island. Examples of his work can be seen at http://www.free103point9.org/artists/22/. While this was also interesting, I found Jeff Stark’s presentation to be more appealing. Overall, it was a busy day at the Neuberger Museum with much to experience. A perfect way to wrap up the New Media lecture series for this semester.

Attack of the Drones

Choice Blog Post #1

A reoccurring theme that I have noticed since we began this class is the underlying fear that technologies, which we as a species created, will one day turn against us and ultimately lead to our downfall. I have been aware of this theory for quite some time, but I came to notice that the more I thought about it, the more I saw examples of it in everyday media. This doomsday theory first appeared as a topic in this class when we were reading the book Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture, by Ted Friedman. In the book there is an entire chapter dedicated to this dystopian theory citing two very relevant, but rather dated examples of where it can be seen.

The first example used by Friedman is the movie Desk Set. While on the surface this film may seem like a romantic comedy involving computers, there is the ongoing topic that computers will replace humans in the work force thereby rendering us useless. A more sinister example which alludes to the machines eradicating us, which is mentioned in the book as well, can be seen at the end of the movie in the scene where the main character, Bunny Watson, asks the super computer, EMERAC, what the weight of the world is. The computer responds to her question with a query of its own. “With or without people?” it asks. None of the characters in the movie seem to take notice of the dark implications of this question, but when applied to the topic of this post one can quickly sense the machines impending takeover.

The next example is the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is a more blatant view of this theory in which the plot of them film involves the supercomputer AI, named HAL, developing emotions and essentially taking over a space shuttle and killing most of its astronauts. HAL embodies some of the greatest fears that humans harbor when it comes to this theory, the self-awareness and free thought of machines and computers. Other more recent films this can be seen in are I, Robot, a 2004 film starring Will Smith which is based on a series of sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov, and The Matrix, a 1999 film by the Wachowski brothers which by now should need no introduction or explaining. Both of these films are solely based on what would happen if and or when machines finally rise up and take over. Examples of this topic can be seen in television as well. The other day I was watching an episode of The Simpsons in which the family took a vacation to Itchy & Scratchy Land. The episode, which has the same name as their destination, told a brief tale of what happens when the robotic representations of the characters Itchy and Scratchy malfunction and try to kill the park visitors. There are many more examples of this which I have not mentioned and are very relevant, but for times sake I will just say that this theory can be seen in many medium.

Seeing all of these examples lead me to think that this was a common belief shared, but not spoken as much, by everyone. Was this really what the future holds for us? Are we to be replaced by computerized and mechanical representations of ourselves who, like man, wish to be free while at the same time control everything. For that matter what is man? We are in essence the ultimate computer. Our parts may be biological, but we are artificial intelligence, made by each other and programmed with what we should do and believe. The only difference that we have from computers, as of right now anyway, is that we have emotions and don’t know who our initial creator is or was. What if we were made, in the sense of how machines are made, and placed here in order to evolve while being examined? While my theory may seem foreign and very much sci-fi, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact the book we are currently reading, Neuromancer, by William Gibson, has these types of theories toward the ending. Overall, I don’t think that we will one day be replaced or made extinct by machines. Machines and computers are supposed to be tools designed to make life easier and aid in everyday tasks. They will only become as powerful as we allow them to be. In fact, I think the human race has a much better chance of destroying ourselves than machines will ever have.

New Media Lecture 2

This week we had a man by the name of Torsten Zenas Burns come to share his digital artwork with us for the New Media lecture. Torsten is a filmmaker who has spent time all over the country and world attending residency programs and teaching. During his travels he has done much experimentation with film using digital effects. Some examples of his work can be seen at http://mysite.verizon.net/holyokeresearcher/. He started off by showing us a PowerPoint of selected images from some of his works. He had these images separated by project so he could show us different examples of things he had done over time. At the end of the lecture he put on a DVD that contained some of his movies that he had made. This way we got to experience some of his artwork in motion, rather than just looking at still images of it.

I understand that artwork is a creative expression of its maker and that I may not like or understand all art that exists under the sun. That is why I try to have an open mind when viewing the works of others and try to understand what they are trying to express. That being said, I am going to have to say that not only did I not understand Torsten’s presentation of his work, I didn’t like it as well. I perceived his films to be very abstract strange and almost disturbing. I could not seem to find a point in any of it. Needless to say, sitting through the entire presentation was difficult. The constantly changing images and patterns mixed with the highly saturated colors made his films difficult for me to watch. Also, when trying to understand what was going on in the films I often found myself confused and lost. One work in particular made me rather uncomfortable. It was the film in which a naked man danced to strange country sounding music while holding his belly as if he were pregnant. This reminded me of a disturbing scene from the film The Silence of the Lambs in which the naked cross dressing serial killer character “Buffalo Bill” did a similar dance to the song Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus.

My intention is not to put down Torsten or his work, only to express my opinion of it. I do not always know what’s best and just because I don’t understand or like something doesn’t mean that it is not good. After leaving the lecture and having time to reflect on my experiences it occurred to me that Torsten has spent considerable time in Korea teaching film. This could explain a lot of his style. Its characteristics and randomness in a way reminded me of Asian anime. I respect Torsten even though I may not appreciate or understand his work. It takes a lot of courage for any artist to stand up and present their art to a group of strangers. I’m sure there are many who would like his style and what he is trying to portray, I just don’t happen to be one of those people.

Literalisim vs. Magic

Reading Response #1

There didn’t seem to be a common theme shared by the three articles assigned for reading this past week. The first one I read “Experiences with the Alternate Reality Kit, An Example of the Tension Between Literalism and Magic”, by Randall B. Smith, seemed to be more of a scientific study rather than a literary article. It focused on the experiences of users when presented with the Alternate Reality Kit or ARK for short. ARK is like a virtual interface that is supposed to imitate an environment similar to our own space. It has programs of simulation that imitate our world with features such as gravity and propulsion. The key point of the study is that the more the program follows concepts based on reality, the easier it is for the average user to figure out and understand, but than the program tends to become less helpful. On the flip side of that, the more the program follows concepts based on magic, actions not allowed within the realm of our physical world, the harder it is for the user to understand and therefore requires more of an explanation. These magical interactions tend to make the program more useful though.

The next article “Folkvine.org, Ethnographic Storytelling in Folk Art Web Design”, by Natalie M. Underberg and Kristin G. Congdon, is about the website www.folkvine.org. This website tries to emulate the experience of visiting local folk artists in Florida as well as the feel that tourists get from visiting the average local Florida roadside gift shop. The article discusses how the builders of the website work to create a feeling of actually being there and visiting the local artist or gift shop. The last article “WHAT IS DIGITAL CINEMA?” , by Les Manovich, tries to explain what digital cinema is, where it came from, how it differs from analog cinema, and what it has in common with the animation style that gave birth to cinema. I found this to be a very interesting read, but difficult to sum up in one or two sentences. If you are interested in film, arts, and the digital age, as I am; than I strongly recommend that you read this article.

As I write I realize that my first sentence was false. There is common theme shared by all three articles, even though the theme may not be mentioned word for word in all of them. Even though all three articles seem to be about different topics, they are all connected by two keywords, “Literalism” and “Magic”. We are all forced to face the literalism of the real world day in and day out. The monotony of life becomes all too real at a certain point and we, as humans, look for that magic as a way to escape the literalism. Whether it be a virtual simulated interface, a website about Florida attractions and artists that tries to recreate that local feel, or animation in any form, traditional, cinematic, or digital, we turn to it to help us forget about literalism. I feel that I need the magic aspect that digital age has made readily available, in order to continually face the literalism of real life. I’m not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing, but I know I’m ok with it and it has made me more aware of a world that is constantly digitizing. Literalism and magic, two very different ideas that compete to make a balance in life. I know that too much or either one can be a bad thing, but a little bit of both seems to make the world go round, at least from my experiences anyway.

Adventures in Second Life - Part II

This week was somewhat different from my last experience in Second Life. I saw the more educational side that the application had to offer. My assignment was to collaborate with a group of my peers through our Second Life avatars and explore locations based on the readings. Finding these places wasn’t difficult seeing as I was paired up with the two co-facilitators from this past week. They had already researched islands that pertained to our readings about open source software, net neutrality, and intellectual property. Our first stop, after leaving Purchase College Island, was a location called Free and Open 43 on ama gi Island. Here my group and I were able to get information and access hyperlinks for companies and programs that promote open source software, such as Mozilla, Linux, and Ubuntu. We were also able to get free promotional in game objects. I walked away with several different virtual shirts, a pixilated Debian notebook, and a digital can of GNU Linux classic soda. Not a bad haul.

Next up was a landmark called Open Source Information Center on Watarrka Park Island. This is where we spent a majority of our time and learned a lot of useful information. Upon arriving at the island we were greeted by an avatar by the name of Catherine Pfeffer. Catherine told us to look around and ask her if we had any questions. After looking around the Open Source Information Center for a while, watching streamed videos and gathering information about open source software in the form of text documents, our group engaged in a lengthy discussion with Catherine. We discussed a lot about the benefits of open source software, intellectual property, and much more. She also provided us with websites where we could download our own open source software. At the end of our discussion Catherine reveled herself to be a technical writer from France who was very knowledgeable about what we are currently learning in class. When we were ready to move on we thanked Catherine and teleported to the next location. Our last stop was a place called the Old School Gaming Zone where we looked for examples of copyright infringement. After searching for a while, we decided that this area didn’t have what we were looking for and decided to part ways since our class time was almost up. After we all bid each other fare well, we logged off and went about our days. That pretty much sums up my second classroom experience in Second Life.

Our First Class in Second Life

Last Monday we had our first class held within the online community program of Second Life. Going into this I had no idea what to expect. To be honest I wasn’t too fond of the program initially because of its unpolished look, lack of responsiveness, and glitchy behavior. The lag alone turned me off to using it and only kept me online long enough to figure out what I needed to be prepared for class. I tend to have little tolerance for slow and unresponsive programs. Needless to say when it came to sign on and meet with a whole class full of users, I was skeptical. Now that it’s all said and done I would have to say that this was one of the most entertaining classes I have ever experienced. Because of the interactive nature of the program, time seemed to fly by and there was no lack of activities to experience. In fact there was so much too see and do that I even stayed logged on for an hour after class ended just to explore some more.

I also noticed that being around people who are represented by digital characters makes for some interesting interactions. It seemed that many people were quicker to participate and interact with other users when they were masked by a digital representation of themselves. Meeting in Second Life did not have that traditional classroom feel. It felt like there was less of a hierarchy and that everyone participated equally without hesitation. As far as learning goes, initially I felt that I didn’t learn a whole lot, other than how to use some features in Second Life. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I learned much pertaining to computers and society just by observing my fellow classmates during our three hour session together. It is amazing how not shy some people will act when they feel like they are hidden within cyberspace. Just observing showed me a lot about computers and how they have affected our culture. Overall I had a lot of fun meeting in Second Life. There were many moments when I would laugh out loud, amused by the actions of another classmate. I am glad that we will be meeting more in Second Life this semester. It is a great example of how society acts inside the false reality of a computer generated world.

New Media Lecture 1

It is always interesting to see the way that different people incorporate their art into what they stand for or what they are passionate about. Last Wednesday night I attended the New Media Lecture at the Neuberger Museum. The guest speaker was a woman by the name of Amy Franceschini. Amy is a New Media artist from San Francisco, California and has had considerable success in the field. Her work can be seen on the website www.futurefarmers.com as well as www.free-soil.org. Both of these websites are also founded by Amy.

She started off the lecture by showing us some of the projects that she worked on in her earlier days as a New Media artist. The first project was a website where users can deface a picture of President Bush, as well as view some of the creations made by other visitors. There were some funny interpretations of the President made, including a drawing of him as Adolf Hitler and of him as a puppet with strings attached. Although amusing, I didn’t see much purpose of this site other than to mock the President, which has been far from innovative or hard to do based on his actions during his tenure. More examples of this can be seen at this website, www.futurefarmers.com/texasdrawl, worth checking out if one is bored while surfing the internet and looking for a good laugh.

Amy went on to show us other projects ranging from a site based on avatar creation and representation to a slide show of pictures based on her time at a San Francisco museum where she and other colleagues hosted an exhibit based on interactive media. This was interesting to me. From what I saw of the pictures she showed us, it looks as if she hosted this exhibit based on interactive media, but failed to incorporate one of the biggest forms of interactive media that exists today, video games. She did mention that she had some form of video games there, but being that neither she nor any of her colleagues were gamers, they neglected to add more, not knowing the culture that well. She did have some other rather interesting, more hands on projects, which she showed during the exhibit, such as the lemon powered Gameboy, but none of them seemed to really encompass what interactive media is today. Being a gamer myself I figured that I would point this out since it doesn’t make much sense to me. I respect Amy and think she is great artist on the path to do big things for this society and nature, but the fact that she kind of brushed over video games for an exhibit that was supposed to be based on them left me slightly confused.

Ultimately what this lecture led up to was Amy showing us some of the work she has done reinstating the Victory Garden program, reminiscent of the World War II era. I thought this was admirable and a very good idea. Even before it became popular to do so, I have always been for the environment and expanding of plant life and nature. What Amy was working on was a government sponsored program that encourages people to build gardens in the unused spaces of their backyard, both to add to food production as well as to make the area more “green”. She showed us videos of her work so far and talked to us about where she intends to take this program in the future. She concluded with the Victory Garden project and answered any questions the audience had. Overall I thought this was an interesting and beneficial lecture.

Computer Love

* Photo courtesy of www.penny-arcade.com *

Recently we were assigned the task of using the internet to research a song. The song is one that we heard in class and were not given any other information about. Having deduced the songs name, “Computer Love”, from hearing it and reading the syllabus, I sat down at the computer and started where all of my online research usually begins, www.google.com. Like most search engines, Google is really helpful for leading one in the right direction through a multitude of relevant hyperlinks. After I typed “computer love song” into the search box and hit the search button, many links showing sites that had useful information appeared. From the links that popped up I could tell right away that the song was by a band named Zapp & Roger. To find out if this was the song we heard in class I needed to research further. While the internet may be a very useful tool, you can not always believe everything it offers. It is usually best to do additional research to confirm that what you are reading is true.

Recently I have discovered that You Tube is a useful site for tasks other than watching pointless videos of people performing senseless acts. It is also good for viewing music videos, particularly old ones that are hard to come across on television. Once at www.youtube.com , I typed the name the name of the song in the search box and hit search. A new page popped up with a bunch of links to videos of various versions of the song. Remembering the band name Zapp & Roger from my previous Google search, I clicked on the link to a music video by them, called “Computer Love”. When the web page came up, the song started to play and the video screen displayed a picture of what appeared to be the album cover. While the song was called “Computer Love”, it was not the one we heard in class. This was a more funky Seventies style electronica version of the song, which I assumed to be the original song, since computers were a newer technology during that decade. Intrigued and wanting to find out more, I went back to the You Tube search engine and found another version of the song, a remix by a band called Kraftwerk. Clicking on this I listened to a different version of the song, much more like the one we heard in class. This seemed to be a faster-paced techno version of the song. While I’m not certain they are the same song, it is very close to the version that we listened to in class.

To get additional details of these songs I needed to go to a more informative website. For this I choose to go to www.wikipedia.org, a site that I believe to be one of the more useful resources on the Internet. In the Wikipedia search box I typed in “computer love” and three different results came up. It appears that this particular song has been preformed by three different bands, of which Wikipedia knows. Both bands that were mentioned before, Zapp & Roger and Kraftwerk, have articles for their version of the song here, as well as a band name that I have not seen before, Eruption. Since the article about the Zapp & Roger version appears first, I clicked on that link and proceeded to read about it. It turned out that this version was released in 1985 on the album The New Zapp IV U. Other details about the song are given in the article too, such as the fact that it was featured in the soundtrack to movie Menace II Society and that it has been sampled by many rappers.

When I went back to the Wikipedia links, I discovered that there is no article for the version of the song by Eruption, just a link to the article about the band. All that left me with was the link to the version of the song by Kraftwerk. To find out more about this version I went back to the previous page and clicked on the link to the article. Once there, I found that I was wrong in my earlier assumption that Zapp & Roger were the first ones to create a song by this name. Kraftwerk’s version was released first, in 1981 on the album Computer World. The article also gives details about the song, such as where else it has been used and that the song is about finding love through a computer. I found this description to be very relevant because it explained why the song has significance in our Computers and Culture class. The song is about a person who finds love through a computer, and this was back before Windows, or any other operating system for that matter, even existed. Before computers had even become a mainstream part of culture, this song was evidence of the impact that computers already had, and even served as a premonition of how they would further influence society. Keep in mind that Kraftwerk is a German band and that this song reflects the impact of computers on European culture, not just American culture. This songs meaning even holds true today, almost thirty years after the song was written. Millions of people turn to the computer as a method to find love with sites such as www.eharmony.com. While internet research is not new to me, I have never documented my methods while searching for information. I found this exercise to be an interesting one and a good of example of yet another way computers have influenced our everyday life.