Author Archives: 0alloldusers

I found this photo on Google Maps while searching in Key West, Florida. I find it to be an interesting scene due to the inability to know what is really happening. Is the man stretching? Is he reaching to pick something up? Or has the Google car actually captured a man at one of the worst times, tripping and falling off a ledge. All scenarios could be true because there is not enough evidence to prove one over the other.

There is something about a photograph that makes it mysterious and creates the ability for there to be alternate explanations for what is happening in the picture. Even though this photograph recreates the scene exactly like it happened, we still do not know for sure what is going on. This is where I think Walter Benjamin states it best in his article “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” when he says, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (page 3). If we were actually standing at this place where this picture was taken and we had the ability to watch what was happening there would only be one scenario we could imagine. But since this is just one single frame of existence stripped away from all the surrounding context, there are now many stories one can come up with because there is no way to truly know the truth from a single picture.

I have two pictures from opposites sides of the world.  The first one is from Bangkok  Thailand in the heart of Chinatown.  I was there just last summer, it’s a crazy chaotic place, and it is very common to see parents ride with their children in this manner.  The second one is from Chicago, and from the looks of it right under the L train.  Perhaps this bride is going to get on the L train to go to her wedding, or perhaps she’s going to celebrate at the bar.  I choose to believe the latter because that’s what I’d be doing.  Walter Benjamin says, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be,” (p.3).  These two photos existed in a particular time and space, their time has passed but these images eternalize that specific moment.  Google street view allows us a way to peer into the lives of other people all over the world, but in a very detached way, which I find fascinating.

This picture struck me as I was looking around google maps. I found the ambulence, and I began following it, curious as to where it was going. Eventually I came across this scene, a scene with multiple facetes that I couldn’t analyses them immediatly. As Walter Benjamin said “This constitutes the shock effect of the film, which, like all shocks, should be cushioned by heightened presence of mind.” Pictures and films have a unique ability to give you an almost unfiltered view of an instance. This picture takes place in Chile, in what is quite possibly a dangerous part of town. The photograph is taken from a place where there is no feasible way for me to get the picture, and yet there it is.

Photography is pure, this is a pure view of this place, of these people. But while it’s a pure view, it’s only of an instance. We have no way of knowing if the ambulance was in a rush to help someone that was injured, or what the story of the family on the left is. You can almost feel the tension between the two men on the right, photography asks questions but refuses to provide answers. It’s almost maddening how a simple picture can ask so many un answerable  questions.

@joe5joe7

The computer is something that has been with us for years, at least the concept, however only recently has gotten become as general purpose and powerful as they are today. Originally they thought of them as solely for the purpose of computing and doing the very specific formula they are designed to solve. Charles Babbage’s difference engine for example, “Intended to revolutionize computation by mechanizing it.” Over time these became more and more complex, eventually reaching the point where the very concept of something like The Matrix could be thought of.

At it’s core idea, the Memex thought of by Vannevar Bush is designed as an augmentation of life. It’s designed to facilitate receiving information, as well as allowing you to easily share it with others. It’s designed so that any time you need information, all you have to do is reach out and the information is readily available to you. Along those same lines if you have any need to augment the information or change it, that also merely requires reaching out and making the change. The falling lines of code in the Matrix are simply the natural next step along this line of thinking.  Instead of the device augmenting your reality, making it easier to work with, the device is your reality. Unlike the contained nature of the Memex, the falling code of the Matrix is all encompassing, it permeates everything that you see. While Vannevar may be considering “As we may think”, the concept behind the falling lines of code is What we may think.

@Reneejo714
The Xbox Kinect, Created by Microsoft is a fairly new media object. The Xbox Kinect falls under a new media object because it has been made through multiple computer programs, which makes it digital. This can be read from slide five from the slideshow presentation. This is only the beginning for our generation. There are many other New Medias like The Wii by Nintendo, Face time by Apple. The Kinect allows your body to connect to sensors and you become the controller. The sensors work by how the camera from the Kinect transmits the invisible near-infrared light and a measure its “time of flight” after it reflects off the objects. First characteristic is Numerical Representation: Means that the Kinect itself can send the invisible near-infrared light to give a visual of the body that can go back through a computer that will eventually break it down to see that it had come from a numerical form. (Manovich 28)Modularity: components such as images, shapes, and sounds are all basic factors with the Kinect, throughout the game you will have your picture taken of what you look like while you’re competing against someone or simply having a good time.(Manovich30)Automation: The Kinect can connect with this characteristic by a few things, with the 3-D, the Kinect shows yourself which is 3-D, creates backgrounds, and even some courses in some games. The Kinect can also relate by the AI. The AI creates other players to play with or compete with. (Manovich 32-34)Variability: Being able to customize your own character. This is something that you can do with the Kinect; this is a personal factor for most games. Your body that picks up the sensors is the controller to the character you customize. Transcoding: A computer layer and culture layer that are important elements of each game, allowing the game to have a story line of some sort. With these five characteristics you can see that the Xbox Kinect is a new media object.

Print media can be considered an old dying media object, losing ground to the digital news media.  While traditional mass media like the AP still exists online, new competitors are undercutting them.  The game is changing and new media objects like Gawker media are leading the way.  Gawker media is an umbrella blog network; they own eight different blogs, which cover a variety of topics.  Their main site Gawker covers gossip and news, Deadspin sports, io9 science and science fiction, Gizmodo gadgets, Jolopnik cars, Lifehacker productivity, Kotaku gaming, and Jezebel focuses on issues affecting women.  This substantial variability allows Gawker to pull in a broad spectrum of readers, which makes them more profitable.  Their profit is mainly based on advertising revenue.  What makes Gawker have high earnings than other blogs is their ability increase interent traffic and maximize revenue with such a limited staff.  This in itself encapsulates many characteristics of a new media object; obviously their use of html code shows their numerical representation, but also their accounting of page views which generates revenue, shows both numerical representation and automation.  Having eight different blogs allows Gawker to cross-link stories that might be of interest to the other blog’s readers.  As Manovich points out this form of modularity only exists on the web, print media does not have the ability to branch off, as it only exists on the tangible paper it is printed on (41).  Old media often references new media, perhaps in an effort to stay relevant.  Now old media like print and radio have blogs and podcasts and facebook pages.  This old media is transcoding into new digitized media as Manovich points out (47).  Yet another way transcoding works is how new media objects are acknowledged by old forms of mass media, i.e. print, radio, and TV.  Gawker has done this by braking stories on politian’s affairs, and Viacom’s treatment of employees.  They also have a controversial map program called gawker stalker in which gawker readers point out where they point out and update where they have seen a celebrity.  Many celebrities view this as dangerous, but Gawker editors say it is in good fun.