DATA
What is data exactly? Data according to media analysts is a collective amount of raw unprocessed information which could be manipulated and distributed in a number of different ways depending on the coder (Business Dictionary 2013).
What's interesting about this is that this so called position as the coder, the person who uses this data to create useful tables like statistical information, charts and pictograms has shifted from an elite amount of people to virtually anyone with a working computer. Excel and other softwares and programs have allowed everyday users to wrangle data into anything they want it to be. And what's more, data has become democratised in a way that anyone can access it.
There are still many different forms of data which the public could not access and this forms of data are most likely commercially traded to other businesses such as supermarkets to create large marketing campaigns against the public. This is a form of data privacy in which the public has no control over which could basically lead on to issues like internet piracy and such.
I see data as something which is quite useful, I remember a few years ago studying about the idea of visualising information onto different platforms and modes of media. Something as similar as an excel sheet could be easily transformed into charts. Why? It gives us different perspectives about what something might look like. A glass jar of jellybeans could easily fool someone into thinking that there are maybe less than a thousand of them, likewise this also happens when we look at tiring amounts of numbers.
This week one of the readings discussed the issue of climate change and how it is often argued that it doesn't exist simply because of a clash of different data types. I personally agree that climate change is happening and the way the writer explained it does have a fair few points which further corners skeptical scientists. For one, data having been processed through different models and systems and the fact that these models and systems have the potential to change and be replaced over the years by technology. It goes to show that we cannot argue about something looking back at its history when the data used has never been standardised.
Business Dictionary 2013, What is data?, accessed 13 April 2013, <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/data.html>
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Thursday, 11 April 2013
ARTS3091 - Wk5 - The reality of realities
AUGMENTED
I want to spend a little bit more time talking about technological determinism and cultural materialism. Again, I see virtual reality on the side of technological determinism. It has its own set of rules and guidelines on how it works and has a strong impact on our society due to its strong ubiquitous nature. I see virtual reality as something of a computerised space that existed far before roleplaying games and web 2.0 was invented. Its existence may have shifted over the years in definition but its basically a space where people could simulate their presence on the internet, I feel that we have already been doing this ever since emails, webcams and voice chat has been invented - just that it wasn't to the level of having a physical connection to the virtual world since we were quite limited in technology over a decade ago.
In the future I see virtual reality to play a big part in our society, my experience with virtual reality connects with the classic sci-fi film Tron (1982) where it depicts a world created through computer processes and binary, through such spaces, many of readings are mixed in terms of what virtual reality could impact society but most encourage its use due to how it could benefit society. I really like the idea of having a Tron-like reality where we could render virtual shopping malls and have people set up shop there which could lower fixed costs. I personally see a lot of good in virtual reality as it is also acts as good training such as military training on driving tanks and personnel.
As for augmented reality, in contrast to virtual reality which is a simulated space with its own set of principles and a whole different plane of reality; augmented reality enhances our reality and basically assists our reality in many ways. In this regard it leans towards cultural materialism since because of its nature. I could name a few augmented reality things that are available to the public today such as the Xbox Kinect and an old augmented reality simulator game which simulates fishing and hunting dragons (Japan Trend Shop 2013).
Again I believe virtual reality and augmented reality are both things that try to tap into a higher potential of the human brain as detaches and delegates our body into useful machines.
Remember World Lens (QuestVisual 2010) a while back? Well that's also a piece of augmented reality. I like how it draws from a simple program we use regularly like google translate and shifts its gaze into enhancing our reality. This idea of extending our capabilites to machine is definitely one of the major ideas of augmented reality. Sure, it makes us redundant in the process but it makes our lives easier.
References
Japan Trend Shop 2013, Dragon Hunting Real Augmented Reality Virtual Fishing Reel, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.japantrendshop.com/dragon-hunting-real-augmented-reality-virtual-fishing-reel-p-1348.html>
QuestVisual 2010, Introducing World Lens, online video, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h2OfQdYrHRs>
Tron 1982, film, Buena Vista Distribution Company, United States.
I want to spend a little bit more time talking about technological determinism and cultural materialism. Again, I see virtual reality on the side of technological determinism. It has its own set of rules and guidelines on how it works and has a strong impact on our society due to its strong ubiquitous nature. I see virtual reality as something of a computerised space that existed far before roleplaying games and web 2.0 was invented. Its existence may have shifted over the years in definition but its basically a space where people could simulate their presence on the internet, I feel that we have already been doing this ever since emails, webcams and voice chat has been invented - just that it wasn't to the level of having a physical connection to the virtual world since we were quite limited in technology over a decade ago.
In the future I see virtual reality to play a big part in our society, my experience with virtual reality connects with the classic sci-fi film Tron (1982) where it depicts a world created through computer processes and binary, through such spaces, many of readings are mixed in terms of what virtual reality could impact society but most encourage its use due to how it could benefit society. I really like the idea of having a Tron-like reality where we could render virtual shopping malls and have people set up shop there which could lower fixed costs. I personally see a lot of good in virtual reality as it is also acts as good training such as military training on driving tanks and personnel.
As for augmented reality, in contrast to virtual reality which is a simulated space with its own set of principles and a whole different plane of reality; augmented reality enhances our reality and basically assists our reality in many ways. In this regard it leans towards cultural materialism since because of its nature. I could name a few augmented reality things that are available to the public today such as the Xbox Kinect and an old augmented reality simulator game which simulates fishing and hunting dragons (Japan Trend Shop 2013).
Again I believe virtual reality and augmented reality are both things that try to tap into a higher potential of the human brain as detaches and delegates our body into useful machines.
Remember World Lens (QuestVisual 2010) a while back? Well that's also a piece of augmented reality. I like how it draws from a simple program we use regularly like google translate and shifts its gaze into enhancing our reality. This idea of extending our capabilites to machine is definitely one of the major ideas of augmented reality. Sure, it makes us redundant in the process but it makes our lives easier.
References
Japan Trend Shop 2013, Dragon Hunting Real Augmented Reality Virtual Fishing Reel, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.japantrendshop.com/dragon-hunting-real-augmented-reality-virtual-fishing-reel-p-1348.html>
QuestVisual 2010, Introducing World Lens, online video, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h2OfQdYrHRs>
Tron 1982, film, Buena Vista Distribution Company, United States.
Friday, 29 March 2013
ARTS3091 - Wk4 - The way our brain has changed
EXPERIENCE
This lecture had a basic outline of about the big question about how our brains actually work in relation to the environment around us. The brain is quite an adaptive piece of machinery, its the cross attached to the strings of a puppet, with d-pads, control buttons and triggers from all sorts of video game controllers.
Brains are quite adaptive and experiential machines. They themselves act as a storage system for our internal memory, it records information and replays them back to us in a whole different language from how it actually happend, but even so we would still understand it because its an internal language that's distinctive to and unique to our internal systems.
There are many ways to describing the brain and its relationship with the things around us. Firstly many scholars have mentioned some long standing ideas about long term, short term memories as well as retention spans. These concepts have lived with us our entire life to the point where we don't appreciate the importance of these issues and we simply let our actions speak louder to project our mind into our environment.
We often have feedback in our environment after adopting certain forms of technology and its forms such as television, telephones and now a fusion of all these older machines.
Another concept I found quite interesting in the readings this week is this idea of an extended mind. An extended mind is that our mind could be visualised as a center piece of a jigsaw puzzle. This piece often could be connected with objects and technology that could extend our cognitive function. For example the many ideas I've noticed that scholars mention are stuff like smartphone technology. We also regularly use some tools like memopads, paper, scripted stuff.
The reason I wanted to point this out is that the core theme of this week's idea of the media and the mind is based on some old media ideas by Plato who disliked the use of such external technology and we should simply reinforce our internal memory. There is some truth in this - The loss of such valuable pieces of information which is all recorded in our phones could be easily lost, distributed and sold to others. We could as easily lose our sense of identity recorded in these mediums than gain it. We could easily lose such important details like contacts, messages and valuable personal information. We can delegate tasks to the objects around us, but it has no meaning and no autonomy - which might be what people fear.
We must question whether we're our lives are being governed by such technology or are our technology the ones who are living our lives for us? Is our phones living the life for us in the Matrix or should we pull out and really experience reality? These are important questions.
References
just.Luc 2008, digital photograph, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/3044490806/>
This lecture had a basic outline of about the big question about how our brains actually work in relation to the environment around us. The brain is quite an adaptive piece of machinery, its the cross attached to the strings of a puppet, with d-pads, control buttons and triggers from all sorts of video game controllers.
Brains are quite adaptive and experiential machines. They themselves act as a storage system for our internal memory, it records information and replays them back to us in a whole different language from how it actually happend, but even so we would still understand it because its an internal language that's distinctive to and unique to our internal systems.
There are many ways to describing the brain and its relationship with the things around us. Firstly many scholars have mentioned some long standing ideas about long term, short term memories as well as retention spans. These concepts have lived with us our entire life to the point where we don't appreciate the importance of these issues and we simply let our actions speak louder to project our mind into our environment.
We often have feedback in our environment after adopting certain forms of technology and its forms such as television, telephones and now a fusion of all these older machines.
Another concept I found quite interesting in the readings this week is this idea of an extended mind. An extended mind is that our mind could be visualised as a center piece of a jigsaw puzzle. This piece often could be connected with objects and technology that could extend our cognitive function. For example the many ideas I've noticed that scholars mention are stuff like smartphone technology. We also regularly use some tools like memopads, paper, scripted stuff.
The reason I wanted to point this out is that the core theme of this week's idea of the media and the mind is based on some old media ideas by Plato who disliked the use of such external technology and we should simply reinforce our internal memory. There is some truth in this - The loss of such valuable pieces of information which is all recorded in our phones could be easily lost, distributed and sold to others. We could as easily lose our sense of identity recorded in these mediums than gain it. We could easily lose such important details like contacts, messages and valuable personal information. We can delegate tasks to the objects around us, but it has no meaning and no autonomy - which might be what people fear.
We must question whether we're our lives are being governed by such technology or are our technology the ones who are living our lives for us? Is our phones living the life for us in the Matrix or should we pull out and really experience reality? These are important questions.
References
just.Luc 2008, digital photograph, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/3044490806/>
Monday, 25 March 2013
ARTS3091 - Wk 3 - Media Equilibrium
Metacommunications
In response to my further brain storm of technological determinism and cultural materialism, after some reconsidering - I feel that these two schools although quite different, are both part of the same process. Both need each other, on one side are technology used to govern our lives whilst the other idea is convinced that technology, man-made technology is designed because there is a need for it. We've seen around us that both sorts of technology exists in our world, some scholars focus particularly on media technology when this term technology has co-existed with humanity since the stone age.
This term media ecology represents a sort of environment, a representation of many elements, complex processes and ideas. This sees the relationship of the media with different modes of information, technics and codes of communication. Simply put, decades ago the power of the media is much stronger than what it used to be, the media forms ideas to the public and there wasn't quite as many choice of media and communication as it is now. Media ecology sees the environment as a constant balance between all these elements and forms - now with the existence of social networking, Wikileaks and the world wide web, it tips the balance of the media ecology in an extraordinary way, a new age in which the public sphere has a form of defense and critical power over what is written in the press.
But is this perhaps a good thing or a bad thing? I feel it is a good thing that the public has some form of control over ourselves as opposed to having no voice in our daily lives. But this could also mean that this power could be easily misused. Take for example the kid and his POLICE BRUTALITY during this year's Sydney Mardi Gras. The footage is raw, the media easily manipulated the footage to place blame on the police officer when in actual fact, viewing the footage raw allows the audience to form their own opinion on the issue. We trace back a few years ago and we could see that such an incident may not have such mixed opinions as we're fixed to view the situation over a few specialised outlets.
In response to my further brain storm of technological determinism and cultural materialism, after some reconsidering - I feel that these two schools although quite different, are both part of the same process. Both need each other, on one side are technology used to govern our lives whilst the other idea is convinced that technology, man-made technology is designed because there is a need for it. We've seen around us that both sorts of technology exists in our world, some scholars focus particularly on media technology when this term technology has co-existed with humanity since the stone age.
This term media ecology represents a sort of environment, a representation of many elements, complex processes and ideas. This sees the relationship of the media with different modes of information, technics and codes of communication. Simply put, decades ago the power of the media is much stronger than what it used to be, the media forms ideas to the public and there wasn't quite as many choice of media and communication as it is now. Media ecology sees the environment as a constant balance between all these elements and forms - now with the existence of social networking, Wikileaks and the world wide web, it tips the balance of the media ecology in an extraordinary way, a new age in which the public sphere has a form of defense and critical power over what is written in the press.
But is this perhaps a good thing or a bad thing? I feel it is a good thing that the public has some form of control over ourselves as opposed to having no voice in our daily lives. But this could also mean that this power could be easily misused. Take for example the kid and his POLICE BRUTALITY during this year's Sydney Mardi Gras. The footage is raw, the media easily manipulated the footage to place blame on the police officer when in actual fact, viewing the footage raw allows the audience to form their own opinion on the issue. We trace back a few years ago and we could see that such an incident may not have such mixed opinions as we're fixed to view the situation over a few specialised outlets.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
ARTS3091 - Wk 2 - Media Change and Retrospectives
MACHINIC
The first week didn't quite cover as much as I'd expected so I'll just fuse the first two weeks together.
The first week didn't quite cover as much as I'd expected so I'll just fuse the first two weeks together.
I can understand why media critics are so pessimistic and critical about the effects of technology on the society. Some argue that technology has no meaning, they are neutral, but it depends on the person using it to see whether it's beneficial or harmful.
Think for example of a knife. Knives are ancient tools used by people to cut their prey as well as to fend off enemies. It's also one of the top most lethal things ever to have graced humankind. It's all perspectives, it really depends on the person. You could say it's technological determinism that brought this item into the world yet it's also materialism. Maybe the concept was natural but the creation and the label placed on the item is all human. You could say that most items of the ancient past were similar in this respect, civilizations were more work-driven than about entertainment.
Using this, we could see that the media has been known to have some impact on our lives. People use to gather around the television when it was first invented, it drew people into viewing the world through the broadcast's lens when the real is just outside their house. We used to glue our eyes on to the television back when computers weren't as prominent, but now? Look around. Smartphones is the new television in the long line of media technology. I've never been as frustrated taking the train as I have in the past, the level of fascination with handheld computers seems to go beyond a normal distraction but an intense obsession to be updated every second.
I agree that technological change is an integral part of media, this idea that the media change happens after a long period of stability doesn't seem that plausible. It seems that the world has always been exposed to new technology every few decades, it seems like media change has always been a continuous process while a stable world, are short resting points for the new.
The second reading with Parikka discusses this 'media archaelogy' heavily which I think is just a longer and less direct way to understand retrospectives. It's almost completely brought on by nostalgia, some would argue that retrospectives bring about nothing new into our world, but actually most ideas are always a synthesis of multiple interesting views. Perhaps people enjoy a simpler way of doing things to remind people that there is nothing to fear about the future. Understanding the old is a good way to understand the impact on the new, it's close to media historianism.
Here's a link of an iphone with an NES controller case I came across a few months ago, I feel that this captures the idea of retro quite well in the age of smart phones (SvenS 2013)
References
SvenS 2012, Redbubble, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.redbubble.com/people/svens/works/7891044-nes-controller?p=iphone-case&type=iphone5_deflector>
References
SvenS 2012, Redbubble, accessed 13 April 2013,
<http://www.redbubble.com/people/svens/works/7891044-nes-controller?p=iphone-case&type=iphone5_deflector>
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Arts2090 - Final Essay
I made the essay as a video/audio format.
Essay developed by Marcus Wong, Student No. z3329336.
Q4. When publishing changes, so does society. Investigate and compare the impact of two publication technologies, one pre-1900 and one post-2000, on a specific aspect of society (e.g. education, politics, creative industries, science, entertainment, social relationships).
Format No. 5. A mixture of video and audio.
I do not own any copyrighted material in the video. They are used as not-for-profit educational purposes. They belong to their respective owners.
Reference
List:
Beacon Learning Center 2004, Brief History of Cave Paintings, pdf, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/1137_01.pdf>
Clottes, J 2002, ‘Chauvet Cave (ca. 30,000 B.C.)’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, unknown date, accessed 6 June 2012,
Enwezor,O 2008, Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art, Steidl, New York.
Doctorow, C 2011, Publishers and the internet: a changing role?, The Guardian, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role>
Gray, R 2008, Prehistoric cave paintings took up to 20,000 years to complete, The Telegraph, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/3352850/Prehistoric-cave-paintings-took-up-to-20000-years-to-complete.html>
Greenslade, R 2012, Paywalls? Journalism students say ‘we won’t pay’, The Guardian, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/may/28/paywalls-facebook>
Kavner, L 2012, Marvel Dives Deeper Into Digital Comics, Expands Offerings, Huffinton Post, accessed 6 June 2012,
Law, J & Hassard J 1999, Actor Network and After, Blackwell, United States.
Suciu, P 2007, The Rise Of The Prosumer, Tech Crunch, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/15/the-rise-of-the-prosumer/>
Walljasper, J 2010, The Commons Moment is Now, On the Commons, accessed 6 June 2012, <http://www.onthecommons.org/commons-moment-now>
Zorich, Z
2011, A Chauvet Primer, Archaelogy
Magazine, accessed 6 June 2012,
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Blog 8: The visual blender
PRESENTATION & PLATFORMS
I just wanted to point out before I get into the big cheese that the notion of 'transparency' and 'glass' seems to have different meaning in our world. Transparency of information means that everyone could see and access everything. Diminishing boundaries of censorship seems to be the key idea, mutual understanding through clarity between both sides of the glass.
And then there's some other phrases like the 'glass ceiling'. Its used to describe how women in the work force have limited opportunity to get into highly paid positions and get lower wages than males in the workforce.
Andrew basically suggests how meanings are static in regards to what perspective you're looking at something.
There's this idea that photos and visualising data gives us a dimension or frame of what we're looking at. But it alone has an insignificant meaning to the wider picture. But visualisation's become ubiquitous in everyday life. It might seem to exist in one plane of visualisation but in reality, its become invading and mediating in all forms, creating different relationships with one another. Portable information such as the iPhone, computers and then there's information that is moving and motionless. Videos and flash animated advertisements compared to posters and large promotional texts. Much like Google Maps, a single plane is now not enough. We get different ways of looking at the same thing, street view or map views.
Looking back on the lecture slides there's also aggregation. The idea that we're mixing all kinds of stuff together in this giant data blender. Different ways of synthesising ideas to create new meanings. Like remixing videos and songs, youtube poops etc.
I just wanted to point out before I get into the big cheese that the notion of 'transparency' and 'glass' seems to have different meaning in our world. Transparency of information means that everyone could see and access everything. Diminishing boundaries of censorship seems to be the key idea, mutual understanding through clarity between both sides of the glass.
And then there's some other phrases like the 'glass ceiling'. Its used to describe how women in the work force have limited opportunity to get into highly paid positions and get lower wages than males in the workforce.
Andrew basically suggests how meanings are static in regards to what perspective you're looking at something.
There's this idea that photos and visualising data gives us a dimension or frame of what we're looking at. But it alone has an insignificant meaning to the wider picture. But visualisation's become ubiquitous in everyday life. It might seem to exist in one plane of visualisation but in reality, its become invading and mediating in all forms, creating different relationships with one another. Portable information such as the iPhone, computers and then there's information that is moving and motionless. Videos and flash animated advertisements compared to posters and large promotional texts. Much like Google Maps, a single plane is now not enough. We get different ways of looking at the same thing, street view or map views.
Looking back on the lecture slides there's also aggregation. The idea that we're mixing all kinds of stuff together in this giant data blender. Different ways of synthesising ideas to create new meanings. Like remixing videos and songs, youtube poops etc.
Here's a video I wanted to post some weeks ago. Its a video of aggregation. Its how we combine shadow puppetry with live action motion. We create new interesting ways of seeing things by aggregating information. Or you could say we aggregation exists when the world has gotten bored with the old.
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