According to Benjamin, how does mechanical reproduction change culture? What do you think are the consequences of digital reproduction on cultural expression today? Can a digital work have anything like an “aura? How does the culture of remix confirm of refute Benjamin’s ideas?

Benjamin thinks that mechanical reproduction is something that is new to everyone, creating something that isn’t just a reproduction. It’s changing time and the place point of view.

I think that the consequences of digital media is pushing things along much quicker then it needs to be. With the world today, every one is “go go go.” There is no time to absorb what is important with the experience you are doing at that point in time.

Digital work can have a aura. People create pieces to have deep meaning to them, and with the creator so passionate about what they are doing it creates a aura in itself. Many people can think of what they think the aura is because everyone’s point of view is different.

Remix is so many blends of tradition that in Benjamin’s argument he sees that tradition is changed through mechanical reproduction. Also creating remix you can forget tradition/time and place.

This is the result of taking a really large chunk of code from the above picture.

Americans that still want to use fireworks during high risk fire season in the PNW.

According to Benjamin, how does mechanical reproduction change culture? What do you think are the consequences of digital reproduction on cultural expression today? Can a digital work have anything like an “aura? How does the culture of remix (see above video) confirm of refute Benjamin’s ideas?

From his Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Benjamin states a few things on the effect and change on culture. Mechanical reproduction allows for something totally new rather than just a reproduction. What I understand is that it also changes the presence of time and place that the image or piece came from. The process of mechanical reproduction while impressive, allows for a new change towards how we view time and space. More connected to culture, Benjamin asserts that mechanical reproduction effects culture by means of new ways in conditions of the production.

(Jennifer Lee Halsey.Com)

I think the consequences of digital reproduction today is the loss of tradition and time that is associated with a piece. The presence is taken for granted in today’s culture, where everything is so quick and you have limited time to soak up the importance of something before our screen take it away and provide us with something new to observe.

In my opinion digital work can have an aura, although like Benjamin said time and space becomes skewed in the reproduction process, the aura will always remain. I like to think that if one can look deeper into a piece they can find that aura with research. But maybe the aura should be very obvious? I agree that reproduction loses some of that tradition as Benjamin also mentions. Tradition is a key idea here, in that it can be interpreted through time just like these types of reproductions. You cannot expect a piece to remain the same in purpose when it is reproduced across time.

The culture of remix kind of accepts this idea that Benjamin discusses. Because remix combines many different traditions and ideas, while in Benjamin’s argument he recognizes the role of tradition that is changed through mechanical reproduction. The culture of remix I think can also forget tradition and the time and place of a work, which Benjamin would be discussing how important that is and that it is lost in mechanical reproduction.

The multimodal design McLuhan’s used in his book “The Medium is the Massage”  summarized the main idea of the book which is that the way we send and receive information is more important than the information itself. In another word the medium itself has the strongest impact on our life’s more than the message that is deliver. “Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior, especially in collective matters of media and technology, where the individual is almost inevitably unaware of their effects upon him.”- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, p.318 

McLuhan believe that any technology is an extent of our body, for example a car works as our feet, the telescope is an extinction of our eye, and so the electronic media is an extension of the nervous system. McLuhan called the printed media “hot media” and he means by that is it needs one sense to engage with it, and he called the television and the mass media “cool media” because more senses are involved with it.

  In what ways do Manovich’s 5 principles of “new media” extend McLuhan ideas about how media shapes us?

Below is some general principles of how media shape us. these principles noticed by Manovic, and they apply for most media.

1. Numerical Representation :media objects are math equations, and built form numbers. Any manipulations for these numbers will change the object.

2. Modularity “fractal structure of new media.”: media objects has the same structure, but they  are built on bigger or smaler scale.

3. Automation: Both the first and second principles allow the media operations to be automated.

4. Variability :Media object can change to different  versions.

5. Transcoding

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This is my first official meme. I will give you a quick background of it. The big container is made form clay to keep the water kind of cold, and the littlie thing on the top of it is a cup that people use to dip in and get water. It used to be very common specially around schools and buses stops. Now a days it is very rear. Notice how the littlie cup is secured by a rob so it does not get lost!! The meme could be use to promote the vaccine to people who born before 2000 and lived overseas in the middle east or Africa.

  Original    Glitched

The Medium is the Massage uses an unconventional style to illustrate McLuhan’s point that the medium chosen to communicate a message can often hold as much value or meaning as the message itself. As such, the way his book is illustrated highlights this idea. By introducing a novel way of reading, McLuhan’s readers forget what they know about disseminating information from normal books and are forced to study and study his words more closely. 

McLuhan’s thoughts on the differences between print culture and television and mass media are found on page 66. He believed that television demanded your whole being to be involved and participating, like a ritual process. There is no longer time for narrative forms

Manovich’s 5 principles of “new media”

Numerical representation shows in all digital art. New media is algorithmic, programable. It can be read by computers and humans alike, even manipulated.

Modularity is depicted by pixels on a screen. All these individual objects come together to form an image or text, and can be broken up and re-arranged.

Automation means “human intentionality can be removed from the creative process, at least in part” (Manovich). Where “old” media was entirely intentional, every brush stroke, hammer chisel, etc., humans have allowed for the automation of various operations including manipulation and access of media.

Similar to modularity, variability in new media objects means a single piece of art can exist is different forms, after being copied, distorted, rearranged. This is a result of new media being made from code and numeric values.

Finally, transcoding is the way that new media becomes translated across different formats. From a video, to gif, to still image, to becoming photoshopped, new media is subjugated to being changed at anyone’s whim, to make it easier to digest and be understood across cultures.

Describe how the multimodal design of “The Medium is the Massage” expresses the ideas in McLuhan’s text. What is McLuhan saying about the difference between print culture and the new electric culture of television and mass media? In what ways do Manovich’s 5 principles of “new media” extend McLuhan ideas about how media shapes us? What about these principles have an effect on social interaction and/or cultural production? In what ways are media and culture being reshaped and transformed by the logic of the computer?

“The Medium is the Massage” is a graphical representation of McLuhan’s  “medium is the message” thesis. It is done in an experimental mosaic style, combining text with visuals. His argument is that technologies (or the medium) are in themselves the message and that the actual content of conversation is not as important.

 According to McLuhan, print media culture is more of a “hot media” meaning there is less engagement, favoring one sense, and has a single, linear point of view. The new electric culture of mass/social media falls into the “cool media” category, which has a more social aspect with multiple points of view in play, and relies on more using more senses to digest and process information. It’s more expansive, open to interpretation, less singularly directed.

Manovich’s 5 principles of “new media” extends on McLuhan’s ideas:

• Numerical representation 
  New media is digitized by mathematical equations done by computers. Numerical sequences are manipulated to create sounds, color, text, video, etc. A physical painting is transferred into the digital realm through these complex equations and is seen in a new way through a makeup of pixels/light emissions.
• Modularity
  New media is highly adaptable, alterable, scalable, easily remixed, etc. Being broken down into pixels allows things to be easily arranged in a seemingly infinite amount of ways.
• Automation
  Much of the creative process is now streamlined by computed perfection. Mess up on a mechanical typewriter and canvas painting and you must start over. Mess up on a digital format and you can easily undo the action or change it into something else non-destructively. Different techniques can be applied, unapplied, reapplied through a computer’s help, which takes a lot of the grunt work away from the creative and allows for higher variety, output, and creative possibilities.
• Variability
  New media is never really fixed. It can be chopped and screwed into many different forms. Its modular-ness allows for infinite possibility and different ways perceive.
• Transcoding
  One of McLuhan’s points: the medium is (part of) the message. New media is created on, distributed by, stored through computers. The computer’s handling of the media can affect its cultural understanding. Networks of highly varied information are being built. Billions of user’s computers connect to this network and shape it over time. Different meanings are being attributed and interconnected all the time.

When you realize you actually have to socialize with people at school in the fall. 

This meme represents how shocked I was of being the only one in my social circle lucky enough to now get covid, even when I was the one that was constantly in and out of the house due to what was my job at the moment

The Medium is the Massage

According to The Medium is the Massage, a medium is an idea which may be communicated in several diverse ways. The imagery and captions in mosaic are shown differently and convey a different message. For instance, the images convey a distinct emotion than the text itself. McLuhan represents the diminishing value of traditional approach as they blend with modern techniques. In this new digital era, by attracting the readers’ attention with imagery and phrasing, as they work together to achieve a shocking and intense experience. In a non-linear form, McLuhan focus on the medium itself rather than the content to transmit the intended message to the readers of mosaic. He achieves this by using examples of unexpected swings in social ideas and connecting those with exciting visuals, resulting in a disorganized and unpredictable style. 

Manovich’s 5 Priciples of new media

Through the concept of programmability, Manovich’s first principle can be extended into some of McLuhan’s ideas. If every new media can be mathematically defined, it becomes more open to change and relates to McLuhan’s theory of how we absorb data and how that data impacts our judgment. The second concept is also relevant to McLuhan’s overall narrative in “The Medium is the Massage,” as he connects multiple media aspects and pieces to communicate a greater message. The fourth concept talks about variability, as it implies that new media, in any form, is not a fixed entity. When you look at the method, he utilized to express the content on the mosaic, you’ll notice that the idea of chaos is quite like the idea of variety, and it gives the readers freedom about how they engage with his content.