My mother and brother live in Spain (yeh good deal) so for Christmas ive come over to Marbella to spend it with the fam. My brothers quite a keen philosopher and has been pointing me in the direction of some heavy research material. Philosophy Now back issues as well as The Philosophy Gym by Stephen Law. The latter articulates some pretty deep ideas in a very accessible manner and the former is obviously an excellent source. So ive been reading chapters and articles surrounding the issues of causality, control, free will, Evolutionist vs Creationist. Ive also been rereading Albert Camus "L'Etranger" or "The Outsider" due to its link to free will and expression of existentialism. Meursault, the protagonist, is an atheist who kills a man for almost inexplicable reasons. He keeps things simple, never saying more than is necessary. When Meursault refuses to turn to God after his crime he is sentenced to death. This, like his imprisonment, barely bothers him. The important fact is that he stays true to his beliefs. He is not a religious man therefore it seems absurd for him to suddenly accept God just to escape death, which he completely accepts responsibility for. He appears a very insensitive character (for example at the beginning of the story he doesn't cry at his mothers funeral) but it is simply that he remains honest to how he feels. He doesn't exaggerate emotions or reactios just because that's what's expected or just because that's what everyone else would do in the same situation. As i said, he stays true to his beliefs, no more, no less.
Ive also started to touch on Jean-Paul Sartre (not literally). Ive been reading about him in the Philosphy Now magazine. He is one of the fore-runners of existentialism and was friends with Albert Camus until they differed on their political and philosophical perspectives. There's a couple of quotes that really hit me, he claimed we, as human beings are
"condemned to be free"
I really like this statement, it's a poignant quote in existentialism and sums up an angle of free will. As Neo and the Architect discuss in The Matrix Reloaded, the reason why the human race cannot live in a peaceful paradise of loving harmony is the problem of choice. To act, or not to act. To interact, or not to interact. To make love, or war. Now of course those who do not believe in free will and take a more deterministic approach may argue that we are simply reacting to prior outside material causes, or that we are just resulting effects of the laws of nature and science. This to me is an excuse. If society took this deterministic idea we would have absolute chaos, a civilisation without moral responsibility. Imagine the madness. But nowm, back to Sartre, who also believed,
"existence preceeds essence"
Its not the meaning of life thats important, but the fact that we are actually alive. Anything we do with our life comes after the real significance that the human race exists in the first place. For arguments sake lets say we all believe the Big Bang theory. Now if that explosion had differed by even the minutest detail - we, earth, life, would not exist at all. It took the most perfect conditions for single celled organisms to come into being after the explosion, and then (assuming we are all Darwinians) millions of years of evolution for homosapiens to develop, for conscience to become, and for civilisation to advance to its current stage. The meaning of life is the miracle that we are alive. Similarly, whether free will is actual or an illusion, the crucial point is that we have the idea of free will. It is vital to society that we think we have the choice between right or wrong. As i mentioned above, if we can blame everything we do on outside forces, that are out of our control, then noone will have to take responsibility for their actions, be them positive or negative. It is essential for morality, justice and social responsibility that we believe we are free agents who have the option of acting or not acting and accept the consequences.
There, i did it, thats what im thinking at the moment. How i integrate this into a digital media interactivity brief is another matter. But until then. HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! (Does that hold any significance if im an evolutionist who therefore doesn't believe in God...)
Saturday 22 December 2007
Thursday 13 December 2007
Articulate to matriculate
Lev Manovich - Totalitarian Interactivity.
The above link was provided to me by Claire in a comment a few weeks back. It's Lev Manovich writing on the myth of interactivity and interactivity as a subtle form of manipulation and the resulting effects on society. This was the initial issue i was dealing with in regards to the brief. I have since moved on to other pastures and have developed an idea for an installation that sums up my recent thoughts. Therefore now this is covered i want to explore the original idea of control.
Back to the myth of interactivity. By giving the user choice this alludes to them having control, when in reality the author is simply herding the audience in a certain direction. As we move from an industrial civilization to an information civilization, the text (art work) moves from representation to manipulation, giving digital media and our current information age a very foreboding feel.
Focusing on psychological interaction between user and computer we have discussed how hyperlinks externalize the authors mind, the user follows this pre-meditated path of anothers associations, mistaking them for their own. As well as the issue of our current postmodern culture desensitizing the commonwealth as we are bombarded with hideous imagery of death, misery and pain. Now photographs and footage of this nature have such little impact. It seems our digital media society cannot escape the fact that no idea is original, thoughts are merely residual of early mechanization and more recent technological development. We are doomed to follow set narratives in every sense and our minds are therefore becoming ever more narrow.
The above link was provided to me by Claire in a comment a few weeks back. It's Lev Manovich writing on the myth of interactivity and interactivity as a subtle form of manipulation and the resulting effects on society. This was the initial issue i was dealing with in regards to the brief. I have since moved on to other pastures and have developed an idea for an installation that sums up my recent thoughts. Therefore now this is covered i want to explore the original idea of control.
Back to the myth of interactivity. By giving the user choice this alludes to them having control, when in reality the author is simply herding the audience in a certain direction. As we move from an industrial civilization to an information civilization, the text (art work) moves from representation to manipulation, giving digital media and our current information age a very foreboding feel.
Focusing on psychological interaction between user and computer we have discussed how hyperlinks externalize the authors mind, the user follows this pre-meditated path of anothers associations, mistaking them for their own. As well as the issue of our current postmodern culture desensitizing the commonwealth as we are bombarded with hideous imagery of death, misery and pain. Now photographs and footage of this nature have such little impact. It seems our digital media society cannot escape the fact that no idea is original, thoughts are merely residual of early mechanization and more recent technological development. We are doomed to follow set narratives in every sense and our minds are therefore becoming ever more narrow.
Thursday 6 December 2007
Installation Proposal:
A fairly small room, longer than it is wide, is split in half so to the user it appears they are entering one very small room, with a screen, plinth and switch facing them. In the other room, to which the interactee is completely oblivious, is the Mouse Trap game.
The user approaches the plinth and triggers the switch, which plays a video of the artist in a mouse mask, setting up the game Mouse Trap. In real time this process took 40 minutes. The video will be sped up to last around 6 minutes – the alleged number of days it took God to create the heavens and the earth. Once the footage has run the screen switches to a camera that is suspended from the second rooms ceiling, filming the mouse trap game. When the video is over and this camera is activated, so too is the mouse trap game, and the user (if they’re still in the first room watching the screen), now gets to see the game in effect through a real time feed from the secret room.
The ideas here are still fairly rough, but do you see what im going for? If you’ve read my blog recently you’ll know I’ve been exploring the contrast between the extensive time taken on the artists behalf to prepare and create a piece of work, compared to the brief time it will take for the reader to view the piece. In my installation I want to force the viewer to sit through the process of creating the art work and delay the expected instant gratification i.e. the Mouse Trap game executed.
The video of the artist setting up the game: I initially imagined the artist in a white room dressed in a mouse costume as this seems to be quite a zeitgeist trendy thing to do at present, what with Mark Wallinger winning the Turner Prize in a bear outfit. However Elly Rees advised that this is a good reason NOT to have it. As well as the fact that the novelty value of someone dressed up as a mouse will detract from the main focus of the piece. Therefore the artist will remain in a white room, but will wear a simple mask simply to hide his identity.
Sunday 2 December 2007
The way things flow
Over a pint of Kronenberg in Rikitiks i was chatting to a friend, Will Jarman about my thoughts on causality. He mentioned the absolute necessity of the begining agent, the catalyst of the reaction, the creator. I was proposing to him my idea of the least possible amount of interaction on a complex system with such impressive results, referring to Fischli and Weiss's "The Way Things Go." As well as focussing on the time and effort on the authors behalf compared to the minimal effort on the audiences side, and the awe-inspiring nature of the resulting spectacle. Now, Will concentrated on the integrality of the audiences primary input, it is essential to initiate the reaction. I found this angle a very interesting consideration and so at this point the discussion goes two ways:
1) The theory of the Big Bang and
2) Genesis, The Old Testament
Science vs. Religion. A classic battle. I shall research both.
1) The theory of the Big Bang and
2) Genesis, The Old Testament
Science vs. Religion. A classic battle. I shall research both.
Thursday 29 November 2007
Coincidence does not exist, only consequence.
To summarise today and my current thoughts.
In a conversation with Micheal many interesting issues were raised surrounding high and low interactivity. Chris Crawford suggests the more interactive a media experience, the better. Specifically referring to digital media and computer games he argues,
"The more we emphasize interactivity in our designs, the more fully we utilize the true strength of the computer as an artistic medium."
This i certainly agree with, however my hang-up lies with the ungrateful audience. Our spoilt Postmodern society, especially our Generation Text, are far too accustomed to instant gratification. They do not appreciate the formulation of such vast amounts of information that grants them instant entertainment. In my notes from Alister McDonald (Kerb lecturer) i mentioned the paradox fo Flash games and their immediacy to the user, and the time and effort it requires to create and code them. This point is relative to all digital media and recent computer games. Consider the fact that it can take upto 3 years to produce an XBox 360 or PS3 game and yet only 50 hours for the player to complete it. This reminds me of "The Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, a 100 foot installation of physical interactions and chemical reactions, which inspired the Honda Cogs advert and latest Guinness advert i referred to earlier. They all beautufully demonstrate the idea of causality, but the real relevance is the point that the authors would have taken months to prepare the sequence and yet a mere second of interaction for the reader to trigger the potentially 30 minute cause and effect process, which is a very impressive and captivating spectacle.
Micheal and i also discussed the idea that high interactive media forces the audience to engage with it. Imagine back to the 1930's - 1940's when TV had just become commercially available. During that time of the technology it was a simple case of switch on the 1 channel, sit back and absord the information presented. Now with such cast choice and control of what we watch it is a far more active, participatory, thought-through experience. The viewer is coerced into interactivity without being aware of it, because that is the very nature of digital media. As computer games become more advanced, as does the audiences interaction with them, We are seeing increasingly complex patterns of thought and reaction, problem and solution.
In a conversation with Micheal many interesting issues were raised surrounding high and low interactivity. Chris Crawford suggests the more interactive a media experience, the better. Specifically referring to digital media and computer games he argues,
"The more we emphasize interactivity in our designs, the more fully we utilize the true strength of the computer as an artistic medium."
This i certainly agree with, however my hang-up lies with the ungrateful audience. Our spoilt Postmodern society, especially our Generation Text, are far too accustomed to instant gratification. They do not appreciate the formulation of such vast amounts of information that grants them instant entertainment. In my notes from Alister McDonald (Kerb lecturer) i mentioned the paradox fo Flash games and their immediacy to the user, and the time and effort it requires to create and code them. This point is relative to all digital media and recent computer games. Consider the fact that it can take upto 3 years to produce an XBox 360 or PS3 game and yet only 50 hours for the player to complete it. This reminds me of "The Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, a 100 foot installation of physical interactions and chemical reactions, which inspired the Honda Cogs advert and latest Guinness advert i referred to earlier. They all beautufully demonstrate the idea of causality, but the real relevance is the point that the authors would have taken months to prepare the sequence and yet a mere second of interaction for the reader to trigger the potentially 30 minute cause and effect process, which is a very impressive and captivating spectacle.
Micheal and i also discussed the idea that high interactive media forces the audience to engage with it. Imagine back to the 1930's - 1940's when TV had just become commercially available. During that time of the technology it was a simple case of switch on the 1 channel, sit back and absord the information presented. Now with such cast choice and control of what we watch it is a far more active, participatory, thought-through experience. The viewer is coerced into interactivity without being aware of it, because that is the very nature of digital media. As computer games become more advanced, as does the audiences interaction with them, We are seeing increasingly complex patterns of thought and reaction, problem and solution.
Causality: the relation of cause and effect
OK, continuing the "ephemerality in execution verses the pain-staking time in preparation" theme i mentioned in the previous post, the new Guinness advert sprang to mind. It utilizes the domino cause and effect scheme with objects other than just dominoes, from books to flaming hay bails. This sequential process expresses the above idea perfectly, it takes a single, simple motion from the user to trigger a chain reaction that would have taken days, weeks and possibly months of planning and setting up on the authors behalf.
Honda had a very similar ad a few years back which uses car equipment for exactly the same purpose. I prefer this Honda version of the domino effect because it is mechanized and therefore more in keeping with the feel of the brief. In addition it is also a more intricate setup and so more elaborate once executed.
A second theme i have been exploring is the idea that interactivity is a subtle means of manipulation. I think i would like to exploit this point in my project manifestation. Rather than the user controlling the work, it is the text itself that is actually operating the reader and directing them to an overall goal, all the while the reader believing they are acting independently and of their own accord. The Lev Manovich text "The Myth of Interactivity" was an excellent read in regards to this concept. His arguement that hyperlinks, which form the basis of online interactivity, are pre-determined paths through information and therefore equating the user to follow someone elses thought process, rather than making their own natural associations, fascinated me and has a lot of scope for expansion.
Honda had a very similar ad a few years back which uses car equipment for exactly the same purpose. I prefer this Honda version of the domino effect because it is mechanized and therefore more in keeping with the feel of the brief. In addition it is also a more intricate setup and so more elaborate once executed.
A second theme i have been exploring is the idea that interactivity is a subtle means of manipulation. I think i would like to exploit this point in my project manifestation. Rather than the user controlling the work, it is the text itself that is actually operating the reader and directing them to an overall goal, all the while the reader believing they are acting independently and of their own accord. The Lev Manovich text "The Myth of Interactivity" was an excellent read in regards to this concept. His arguement that hyperlinks, which form the basis of online interactivity, are pre-determined paths through information and therefore equating the user to follow someone elses thought process, rather than making their own natural associations, fascinated me and has a lot of scope for expansion.
Thursday 22 November 2007
Digital Laurels...
Brilliant, new brief! Lets shed the shackles of Design Futures and play with the possiblilites of interactivity.
"Design boundaries can be thought of as very elaborate systems of control."
I like this quote, it makes me happy, and i'll tell you why. In terms of interactivity, especailly online, power is alluded to through the vast choice the user has. There is an unlimited number of paths the reader can take through the information available. However one is always following a pre-determined route. Lets take the hyperlinks throughout Wikipedia for example. Accessing each of these is immediately taking anothers pre-meditated journey through the data. This is not necessarily a bad thing, the point is that power comes as a system of knowledge (Foucault) and this is best epitomised by the internet and the techniques it employs to give the user an illusion of absolute power (corrupts absolutely).
"The users of new media are becoming the content of the form."
This second quote obviously reminds us of Marshall McLuhan's the Medium is the Message. And it is completely accurate. All Web 2.0 sites rely on their users to create the content. Wikipedia, Youtube and Facebook - the only thing these sites do is provide an excellent platform for the consumers to communicate on and to interact with, and in doing so, they allow an endless amount of content to be generated. The very nature of the Web 2.0 medium necessitates itself and perpetuates itself. I feel that although the medium is the message, this is an easy excuse for contemporary society. Yes our technology is amazing, but despite these complex platforms for communication, our message is banal, vacuous and just plain dull. Take the content of most text messages for example, "im on the bus, where are you?" and Facebook comments, "wicked night last night mate, i was battered!" Im pretty sure this is not how DesCartes came up with "Cogito ergo sum" - "i think therefore i am." In our digital media age we lay back on our lazy laurels and believe that "i surf, therefore i am" will cut it. Well it won't!
In the same vein but in no way an insult to our guest lecturer today, we had Alister McDonald from Kerb, who designs online viral games. The guys an obvious pro, multimedia acronyms were hitting me from all angles and he talked about code like it was bread to a baker. However it's not to me and although the cute little games looked slightly entertaining for a few minutes i remained suprised as to why a company would invest significant amounts of money into this particular form of marketing. It appeared to me to be just another way to waste time online and subtley subject us to advertising. Another thing that struck me, the extremely ephemeral nature of web content, the immediacy of these games to the user, verses the time and patience it requires to action script and create these viral interactive games in their entirety. It is ideas surrounding this last point i would like to develop towards our current interactive brief.
"Design boundaries can be thought of as very elaborate systems of control."
I like this quote, it makes me happy, and i'll tell you why. In terms of interactivity, especailly online, power is alluded to through the vast choice the user has. There is an unlimited number of paths the reader can take through the information available. However one is always following a pre-determined route. Lets take the hyperlinks throughout Wikipedia for example. Accessing each of these is immediately taking anothers pre-meditated journey through the data. This is not necessarily a bad thing, the point is that power comes as a system of knowledge (Foucault) and this is best epitomised by the internet and the techniques it employs to give the user an illusion of absolute power (corrupts absolutely).
"The users of new media are becoming the content of the form."
This second quote obviously reminds us of Marshall McLuhan's the Medium is the Message. And it is completely accurate. All Web 2.0 sites rely on their users to create the content. Wikipedia, Youtube and Facebook - the only thing these sites do is provide an excellent platform for the consumers to communicate on and to interact with, and in doing so, they allow an endless amount of content to be generated. The very nature of the Web 2.0 medium necessitates itself and perpetuates itself. I feel that although the medium is the message, this is an easy excuse for contemporary society. Yes our technology is amazing, but despite these complex platforms for communication, our message is banal, vacuous and just plain dull. Take the content of most text messages for example, "im on the bus, where are you?" and Facebook comments, "wicked night last night mate, i was battered!" Im pretty sure this is not how DesCartes came up with "Cogito ergo sum" - "i think therefore i am." In our digital media age we lay back on our lazy laurels and believe that "i surf, therefore i am" will cut it. Well it won't!
In the same vein but in no way an insult to our guest lecturer today, we had Alister McDonald from Kerb, who designs online viral games. The guys an obvious pro, multimedia acronyms were hitting me from all angles and he talked about code like it was bread to a baker. However it's not to me and although the cute little games looked slightly entertaining for a few minutes i remained suprised as to why a company would invest significant amounts of money into this particular form of marketing. It appeared to me to be just another way to waste time online and subtley subject us to advertising. Another thing that struck me, the extremely ephemeral nature of web content, the immediacy of these games to the user, verses the time and patience it requires to action script and create these viral interactive games in their entirety. It is ideas surrounding this last point i would like to develop towards our current interactive brief.
Monday 12 November 2007
A picture says a thousand words.
After talking to Mike Blow last Monday we discussed the possibility of using icons rather than text for the menu options of favourites, search, play etc. These symbols are universally accepted and understood and i think in the future we will see this type of representation replacing writing as much as possible. I almost feel our society is becoming lazy, relying on visual communication rather than textual material because it is easier and quicker to decifer. Now it could be argued that this is more a product of Bauhaus Modernism, that aimed for efficient design, "a simplification of forms by a reduction of ornament" for example the iPod. However think about our younger generation compared to the elder, our children's attention spans are decreasing rapidly with more and more kids being put on Ritalin every day. So today ive been reworking my interface and designing some such icons in a Web 2.0 style; translucent, reflective, liquid like surfaces.
To be, or not to be... that isn't a question, it's a necessity.
Ok it's 10.09 am on Monday the 12th of November, that gives me around about 100 hours until the dealine at 4.00 pm Friday. Sketch book wise, I have to consolidate my research and document my idea and aesthetic development. Practically i have to push on with my After Effects animation, rehearse my physical movements to sync with that of the demonstration, and i must carefully consider the commercial package i will be presenting the concept as - BBC Netvision's design, promotion, product etc etc. It's going to be an interesting 5 days, i generally like to believe that i thrive under pressure...
Thursday 8 November 2007
ZoeMode - Games Design and Development
ZoeMode - Games Developers based in Brighton under the umbrella corporation of Kuju. They mainly work on casual lifestyle games for social occasions for friends and family e.g Dancing with the Stars... Anyway, lets not dwell. It was a very informal presentation which was a welcome relief. Rather than show us what they were working on at present, they described their education and careers upto and including their positions at ZoeMode. From Jon Taylors' pitch i got an impression of the volatile nature of the industry and the narrow minded but ruthless attitudes of EA and the like. The frequency that games companies open and close was shocking, and so many projects with potential and promise that will never transpire to see the light of day. He talked with an almost bitter realism, a man who had a dream but has already accepted a lesser fate. Well this is the nature of the business, producers want games built on generic templates that fit the popular demographic, and in that sense he was happy to be working on games like Singstar. These are a more challenging thrill because it is a fresh format still in its infant stages and outside of his comfort zone.
From Ste's presentation i gathered his name is infact Ste, not Steve, it's STE. I hope i spelt that correctly... I liked the fact he was initially a games journalist, reviewing for Edge in a pretty top-cat postion. This was early Nineties when games were not mainstream reading material. It was encouraging that he seemed to naturally fall into this role after sending out a Fanzine to many a music magazine. After an undisclosed GTA walkout he got a producing job at Sony, however it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I think Ste described it as "thankless" as he had no creative input in the development of the games and his quirky dreams were being crushed. Which reminds me of "Crush" a game based on an insomniacs repressed memeory. Because of the story it allowed the two creatives to design some very interesting subconscious environments, with puzzle solving tasks and a dark gothic undertone. Now i think he has his fingers in as many pies as the Creative Director of ZoeMode and enjoying the job immensely due to the variety and influence he has on the creative process.
-> a few things i took away with me: The competition vs collaboration issue of creativity and coporations. They seemed opposed to the idea of Wikinomics, and taking the more fundamentalist perspective of Andrew Keen, favouring competition over collaboration.
Be aware of the should-be obvious difference between East and West games nature and players attitudes. The East sounds more promising, with more scope for narrative structure and general artistic interpretation.
From Ste's presentation i gathered his name is infact Ste, not Steve, it's STE. I hope i spelt that correctly... I liked the fact he was initially a games journalist, reviewing for Edge in a pretty top-cat postion. This was early Nineties when games were not mainstream reading material. It was encouraging that he seemed to naturally fall into this role after sending out a Fanzine to many a music magazine. After an undisclosed GTA walkout he got a producing job at Sony, however it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I think Ste described it as "thankless" as he had no creative input in the development of the games and his quirky dreams were being crushed. Which reminds me of "Crush" a game based on an insomniacs repressed memeory. Because of the story it allowed the two creatives to design some very interesting subconscious environments, with puzzle solving tasks and a dark gothic undertone. Now i think he has his fingers in as many pies as the Creative Director of ZoeMode and enjoying the job immensely due to the variety and influence he has on the creative process.
-> a few things i took away with me: The competition vs collaboration issue of creativity and coporations. They seemed opposed to the idea of Wikinomics, and taking the more fundamentalist perspective of Andrew Keen, favouring competition over collaboration.
Be aware of the should-be obvious difference between East and West games nature and players attitudes. The East sounds more promising, with more scope for narrative structure and general artistic interpretation.
Read More Books
Found a couple more articles on the Guardian website, the first http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2207210,00.html is about brain enhancing drugs, which is an area i neglected when considering my genetically engineered Superhuman concept. These drugs are much like Ritalin (subsequently known as "kiddie coke" a nick-name which both worries and amuses me) but they are for aimed at students and young professionals working in highly stressful and pressured environments, people who could benefit from mentle agility, hightened alertness and short term memory enhancers.
This second article http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/05/mondaymediasection.comment is in relation to the Wikinomics theme we have been discussing recently, the short feature mainly focusses on advertising revenue in the media, which is apparently going to run out sooner rather than later. Thanks to the rise of the amateur and the availablility of free information in blogs, wikipedia and citizen jouranlism, the media are getting paid for their content less and less and are therefore relying more heavily from the cash money advertising brings in.
On the whole Wikinomics tip, as ive already mentioned more than enough, check out Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur. This book assaults the whole Web 2.0 user created content ethos, arguing that it is destroying our culture and economy. It directly attacks all websites involved in this second Web-revolution. Now this guys opinions are pretty extreme and although he raises some good points i don't agree with a lot he has to say. What did make me laugh out loud is when i checked his website, notice the links to Amazon.com to buy his book, a site that he directly critisized in the very same book.
This second article http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/05/mondaymediasection.comment is in relation to the Wikinomics theme we have been discussing recently, the short feature mainly focusses on advertising revenue in the media, which is apparently going to run out sooner rather than later. Thanks to the rise of the amateur and the availablility of free information in blogs, wikipedia and citizen jouranlism, the media are getting paid for their content less and less and are therefore relying more heavily from the cash money advertising brings in.
On the whole Wikinomics tip, as ive already mentioned more than enough, check out Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur. This book assaults the whole Web 2.0 user created content ethos, arguing that it is destroying our culture and economy. It directly attacks all websites involved in this second Web-revolution. Now this guys opinions are pretty extreme and although he raises some good points i don't agree with a lot he has to say. What did make me laugh out loud is when i checked his website, notice the links to Amazon.com to buy his book, a site that he directly critisized in the very same book.
Wednesday 7 November 2007
Hype, hype, gimme the funk, gimme the funk!
Below is my first dissertation proposal i wrote as part of our critical and cultural studies in May 2007. It's a bit of a rant but you get the gist.
TO WHAT EXTENT HAS GLOBAL CAPITALISM SUPPORTED/CONFIRMED BAUDRILLARDS THEORY OF SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION? HOW MUCH RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD THE MEDIA ACCEPT IN THE CREATION OF MEANING?
In our current world of hyper-reality, if the real no longer exists, are we (as a New Media society) living a lie? When direct meaning has been replaced by signs, codes, metaphors etc how do we define the real? It's almost as if we have to frequently prove and reaffirm our existence with imagery, photographs and short films of family and friends and the great times we all shared. Now these can constantly be displayed on Web 2.0 sites such as FaceBook. We can regularly upload documentation of our memories and exhibit them to the entire online community. Rather than simply living we must record our existence to repeatedly remind ourselves and others that we are in fact, alive.
Postmodernism has perverted basic reality. Existentialism is dead. Commercial advertising and communication media now dictate reality with hyper-mediation. We are no longer free agents, we have become walking, talking billboards. Individualism is impossible, our responsibility is not to ourselves, but to TopShop and H&M. Human existence is not defined by personal experience but by which stereotype we best fit. We are categorised and regergitated into another commodity. In a recent Argus i had a look through the personal ads, one read as such. "Arctic Monkey loving Vegan female looking for a non-smoking mid-twenties male to share world-cinema and soya milk with." Is pigeon-holing people now completely inescapable?
In an authentic-fake world how do we distinguish the real? If there's no need to refer to an original but just reproductions and representations of the real, then what is really true and what is false? And more importantly, how do we define true and false in contemporary society? The simulated copy has superseded the original object by the signs of its existence rather than its actual physical presence. How can we trust copies? Are we the donkey, instinctively following the digital carrot of invented meaning, dangled before our eyes by the all powerful Media?
Adverts and design in general manipulate meaning and mold the publics perception of the world. Traditional moral values are brought under the microscope by contemporary media. Ethics are being reshaped by modern technology. In a hyper-real society people no longer have to think for themselves, their opinions are governed by headlines.
Much of modern design and architecture is illogical. Should not every new Postmodern apartment block have solar panel roofs? New media isn't just working in conflict with the natural environment, it's striving to provide an alternative hyper-real environment - virtual reality.
TO WHAT EXTENT HAS GLOBAL CAPITALISM SUPPORTED/CONFIRMED BAUDRILLARDS THEORY OF SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION? HOW MUCH RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD THE MEDIA ACCEPT IN THE CREATION OF MEANING?
In our current world of hyper-reality, if the real no longer exists, are we (as a New Media society) living a lie? When direct meaning has been replaced by signs, codes, metaphors etc how do we define the real? It's almost as if we have to frequently prove and reaffirm our existence with imagery, photographs and short films of family and friends and the great times we all shared. Now these can constantly be displayed on Web 2.0 sites such as FaceBook. We can regularly upload documentation of our memories and exhibit them to the entire online community. Rather than simply living we must record our existence to repeatedly remind ourselves and others that we are in fact, alive.
Postmodernism has perverted basic reality. Existentialism is dead. Commercial advertising and communication media now dictate reality with hyper-mediation. We are no longer free agents, we have become walking, talking billboards. Individualism is impossible, our responsibility is not to ourselves, but to TopShop and H&M. Human existence is not defined by personal experience but by which stereotype we best fit. We are categorised and regergitated into another commodity. In a recent Argus i had a look through the personal ads, one read as such. "Arctic Monkey loving Vegan female looking for a non-smoking mid-twenties male to share world-cinema and soya milk with." Is pigeon-holing people now completely inescapable?
In an authentic-fake world how do we distinguish the real? If there's no need to refer to an original but just reproductions and representations of the real, then what is really true and what is false? And more importantly, how do we define true and false in contemporary society? The simulated copy has superseded the original object by the signs of its existence rather than its actual physical presence. How can we trust copies? Are we the donkey, instinctively following the digital carrot of invented meaning, dangled before our eyes by the all powerful Media?
Adverts and design in general manipulate meaning and mold the publics perception of the world. Traditional moral values are brought under the microscope by contemporary media. Ethics are being reshaped by modern technology. In a hyper-real society people no longer have to think for themselves, their opinions are governed by headlines.
Much of modern design and architecture is illogical. Should not every new Postmodern apartment block have solar panel roofs? New media isn't just working in conflict with the natural environment, it's striving to provide an alternative hyper-real environment - virtual reality.
Monday 5 November 2007
Death of the Author, Birth of the Amateur
Yes ok ok i admit i have neglected my documentation duties over the last couple of weeks and must get stuck in again. However in my defence i blame our theorizing. I have delved deep into the dark realms of the dissertation. After our Wikinomics article last week i did a bit of research and found an anti-Web 2.0 manifesto called "The Cult of the Amateur" by a bitter ex-Silicon Valley rep Andrew Keen. He claims we are sacrificing trustworthy information for a quick-fix of cheap empowerment. Now i don't agree with everything he has to say as his arguments are quite extreme at times, but it was certainly a good book to read at present, when everyone seems so blindly besotted with this user-created content movement. I have also been dabbling in some further reading of Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Messege" and "The Rebel Sell" by Andrew Heath and Joseph Potter, which critiques culture jamming activists such as AdBusters magazine and analyses the hipocrisy of such texts and how they simply fuel the fires of capitalism they are fighting so avidly against. So lots of diligent dissertation reading going on but the deadline is creeping up from behind like a paedo in speedo's so i must fix up and look sharp.
Anyhoo, stop living in the past. Now i need to focus, i need to do some industrial cutting and pasting in my sketchbook and i need to prepare my final presentation and figure out the best medium and method for demonstrating my ideas. I plan to produce an After Effects animation of the Netvision menu and applications, to which i will carefully choreograph a set of movements that sync with the actions of the Netvision menu on the screen resulting in what appears to be a movement-sensitive interface - much like the Wii controller and the overly referenced Minority Report. Sounds a bit too ambitious ey? Well, it probably is but i believe it to be the best way of displaying my future-of-TV-meets-the-internet concept.
Anyhoo, stop living in the past. Now i need to focus, i need to do some industrial cutting and pasting in my sketchbook and i need to prepare my final presentation and figure out the best medium and method for demonstrating my ideas. I plan to produce an After Effects animation of the Netvision menu and applications, to which i will carefully choreograph a set of movements that sync with the actions of the Netvision menu on the screen resulting in what appears to be a movement-sensitive interface - much like the Wii controller and the overly referenced Minority Report. Sounds a bit too ambitious ey? Well, it probably is but i believe it to be the best way of displaying my future-of-TV-meets-the-internet concept.
Monday 15 October 2007
Ideas Pouring outta my Ears
We've had some excellent industry professionals in to talk to us about they're work and lifestyles as freelance designers, animators etc. Sam Butler and i talked about the possibilities of interactive television shows where you can manipulate the plot and influence the outcome of episodes, storylines or whole series. As well as the option of multiple camera angles, similar to games such as Halo 3, and perhaps the possibility of experiencing the whole show from the P.O.V of your favorite character.
Dan Miller introduced the notion of advertising and specifically product placement within my concept, which would obviously be a fundamental area to cover. Imagine pausing live TV as Britney Spears sips on an ice cold can of Pepsi, the camera zooms in and pans round the can of Pepsi and as the user rolls over it, a tab of other options and hyperlinks is made available, for example:
1)Your nearest Pepsi supplier is 134 Tarner Industrial Estate, Brighton, BN2 7QR.
2)***WIN A LIFETIMES SUPPLY OF PEPSI*** just enter our competition here
3)Check out our newest advertisement with the freshest Justin Timberlake Clone.
Angie Taylor and i spoke about the personalisation of the service, with profiles and online TV communities. You and your peers could could create a group revolving around the cartoon Family Guy, where you all settle down in your separate houses and watch it at the same time and converse about it on the text banner at the bottom of the screen - similar to how present viewers at home can text their opinions into Question Time and other talk shows. Of course this isn't as fun or wholesome as all congregating in the same room to actually watch it in each others company, but i think this is the way our Generation Txt is going. There could also be a recommendations option that advises, "if you like Family Guy you may also enjoy South Park, Simpsons, American Dad, Futurama, Aqua Team Hunger Force...etc." Amazon has a similar service for its users, as do the online Music applications Pandora and Last Fm.
Dan Miller introduced the notion of advertising and specifically product placement within my concept, which would obviously be a fundamental area to cover. Imagine pausing live TV as Britney Spears sips on an ice cold can of Pepsi, the camera zooms in and pans round the can of Pepsi and as the user rolls over it, a tab of other options and hyperlinks is made available, for example:
1)Your nearest Pepsi supplier is 134 Tarner Industrial Estate, Brighton, BN2 7QR.
2)***WIN A LIFETIMES SUPPLY OF PEPSI*** just enter our competition here
3)Check out our newest advertisement with the freshest Justin Timberlake Clone.
Angie Taylor and i spoke about the personalisation of the service, with profiles and online TV communities. You and your peers could could create a group revolving around the cartoon Family Guy, where you all settle down in your separate houses and watch it at the same time and converse about it on the text banner at the bottom of the screen - similar to how present viewers at home can text their opinions into Question Time and other talk shows. Of course this isn't as fun or wholesome as all congregating in the same room to actually watch it in each others company, but i think this is the way our Generation Txt is going. There could also be a recommendations option that advises, "if you like Family Guy you may also enjoy South Park, Simpsons, American Dad, Futurama, Aqua Team Hunger Force...etc." Amazon has a similar service for its users, as do the online Music applications Pandora and Last Fm.
Evolve or perish
Progress must now be made. Ive decided to roll with the future of TV idea, as this is the most producable of the three. I aim to create an interactive menu, using Photoshop and Flash. Below are some first attempts and they need a lot of development until they look like something you would use in 10 years time. It's hard to find the balance between form and functionality. The interface obviously needs to have a futuristic aesthetic quality about it but also be highly user friendly and easy to navigate as every household will be using it.
Wednesday 10 October 2007
RESEARCH
Here are some links to articles ive read, and reread for research. Get your digital juices flowing.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19125635.600-why-not-become-superhuman.html
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19526141.700-superhuman-what-gives-elite-athletes-the-edge.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13512/
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185646,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2175360,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185715,00.html
Additional articles and information can be found in my sketchbook.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19125635.600-why-not-become-superhuman.html
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19526141.700-superhuman-what-gives-elite-athletes-the-edge.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13512/
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185646,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2175360,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185715,00.html
Additional articles and information can be found in my sketchbook.
Monday 1 October 2007
Designs Futures 01.
Brief:
This brief is concerned with the development of a concept that addresses the future and use of new technologies or technological services. That is to say, how technology might manifest itself in years to come and what direct impact it would have on our everyday lives. The basis of this project is to develop a ‘bluesky’ concept working on the principle of ‘what if’. The concept per-say could be derived from a product in as much as tool or for that matter a service. The concept should clearly have a defined rationale behind it and should be generated through a clear consideration of existing technologies and or related services, A clearly defined audience / user group should help to shape the conditions of the language used concerning the sonic, visual and physical elements along with the technical parameters, modes of delivery etc. Considering the time allocated for this project, students will have the opportunity to create a screen based presentation of the concept a ‘look and feel’
Brief:
This brief is concerned with the development of a concept that addresses the future and use of new technologies or technological services. That is to say, how technology might manifest itself in years to come and what direct impact it would have on our everyday lives. The basis of this project is to develop a ‘bluesky’ concept working on the principle of ‘what if’. The concept per-say could be derived from a product in as much as tool or for that matter a service. The concept should clearly have a defined rationale behind it and should be generated through a clear consideration of existing technologies and or related services, A clearly defined audience / user group should help to shape the conditions of the language used concerning the sonic, visual and physical elements along with the technical parameters, modes of delivery etc. Considering the time allocated for this project, students will have the opportunity to create a screen based presentation of the concept a ‘look and feel’
Designer Futures.
Ok, ideas. They came thick and fast at first (pun... intented?), but the bane of rationality has limited them somewhat, so here are a few ive whittled down.
1: SUPERHUMANS. I'd love to roll with some sci-fi prophecy of the future where, as Morpheus said it, "human beings are not born, they are grown." However not with such a bleak, end of humanity feel. More like an age, ohh say about 2048, where civilisation is at its pinnacle. Life is good for the everyday homosapien, desease is basically irradicated, poverty and hunger barely exist, and of course, the machines are our loyal servants. Genetics is at a point where we can pick and choose to create the 'perfect' human. You want your child to have blonde hair, blue eyes. No problem. But why? You want your little foetus to be a girl, tall and cat-walk skinny, no problem. The idea came from an article i read in New Scientist a few months back, on athletes with essentially super organs. Lance Armstrong (he won the Tour De France seven consecutive times, during losing his right testicle to cancer) was born with larger than normal heart and lungs. This is a characteristic common in many marathon runners, free divers and cyclists. So if we apply the blue sky what if...? What if we could genetically design foetus's to have superhuman strength, agility, respiration etc etc Superman. Well the problem with this idea is i don't know how it would manifest itself into an appropriate piece of work for the brief. Pretty cool to think about though.
2: GPS YOUR BABY. We all live in a surviellance society, Big Brother is watching blah blah blerghh. But for all this CCTV and Microsoft reading your email, what the hell happened to Madelaine McKann?! Now the parents are prime suspects or something, i mean i duno where i stand, i dont know them from Adam, but to lose you little girl and then be blamed for it, that's gotta be horrific. Anyhoo i digress. GPS your baby. Perhaps a decade or so into the future it will be more than acceptable to microchip your new born, maybe even at birth, you know like cutting the umbilical cord. And done so in such a way that it's undetectable to others. Now no more missing child, or person cases, paedofilia made impossible, yay, and all that surrounding malarky. Brilliant. You could even equip your child with a mini lens and microphone and see exactly what they see and where they go, while watching from your work office in North London, yuppie.
3: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION. Yes, TV is going digital, no i dont have a high definition TV or even a Sky set top box. I watch most of my TV on the internet, alluc.com thank you very much. This allows me to watch whatever i want, whenever i want. Shows, sit coms, cartoons, films, documentaries, the choice is so vast it is practically unlimited. Now imagine if we could all do this on a 60" HD screen from the comfort of your favourite arm chair. Ooohhh yeh that feels good doesn't it? Yes, but this isn't anything new you say? Well blue sky, i mean what if you didn't know the series plot of Heroes and you were watching episode 13 without seeing the previous 12 (obviously if anyone actually did this they deserve to be probed) then you could pause the show and bring up a synopsis from something similar to a hyperlink. Now imagine, if there was an actor or even something more specific like an object in the background of a shot that you wanted to learn about? Pause the show, cartoon, docu and run your remote mouse controller over it as a hyperlink to detailed information on said object. The scope is fairly massive with this idea, i need to further think about the accessiblity and amount of information possible to the user and consider what restictions there will be for the consumer.
1: SUPERHUMANS. I'd love to roll with some sci-fi prophecy of the future where, as Morpheus said it, "human beings are not born, they are grown." However not with such a bleak, end of humanity feel. More like an age, ohh say about 2048, where civilisation is at its pinnacle. Life is good for the everyday homosapien, desease is basically irradicated, poverty and hunger barely exist, and of course, the machines are our loyal servants. Genetics is at a point where we can pick and choose to create the 'perfect' human. You want your child to have blonde hair, blue eyes. No problem. But why? You want your little foetus to be a girl, tall and cat-walk skinny, no problem. The idea came from an article i read in New Scientist a few months back, on athletes with essentially super organs. Lance Armstrong (he won the Tour De France seven consecutive times, during losing his right testicle to cancer) was born with larger than normal heart and lungs. This is a characteristic common in many marathon runners, free divers and cyclists. So if we apply the blue sky what if...? What if we could genetically design foetus's to have superhuman strength, agility, respiration etc etc Superman. Well the problem with this idea is i don't know how it would manifest itself into an appropriate piece of work for the brief. Pretty cool to think about though.
2: GPS YOUR BABY. We all live in a surviellance society, Big Brother is watching blah blah blerghh. But for all this CCTV and Microsoft reading your email, what the hell happened to Madelaine McKann?! Now the parents are prime suspects or something, i mean i duno where i stand, i dont know them from Adam, but to lose you little girl and then be blamed for it, that's gotta be horrific. Anyhoo i digress. GPS your baby. Perhaps a decade or so into the future it will be more than acceptable to microchip your new born, maybe even at birth, you know like cutting the umbilical cord. And done so in such a way that it's undetectable to others. Now no more missing child, or person cases, paedofilia made impossible, yay, and all that surrounding malarky. Brilliant. You could even equip your child with a mini lens and microphone and see exactly what they see and where they go, while watching from your work office in North London, yuppie.
3: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION. Yes, TV is going digital, no i dont have a high definition TV or even a Sky set top box. I watch most of my TV on the internet, alluc.com thank you very much. This allows me to watch whatever i want, whenever i want. Shows, sit coms, cartoons, films, documentaries, the choice is so vast it is practically unlimited. Now imagine if we could all do this on a 60" HD screen from the comfort of your favourite arm chair. Ooohhh yeh that feels good doesn't it? Yes, but this isn't anything new you say? Well blue sky, i mean what if you didn't know the series plot of Heroes and you were watching episode 13 without seeing the previous 12 (obviously if anyone actually did this they deserve to be probed) then you could pause the show and bring up a synopsis from something similar to a hyperlink. Now imagine, if there was an actor or even something more specific like an object in the background of a shot that you wanted to learn about? Pause the show, cartoon, docu and run your remote mouse controller over it as a hyperlink to detailed information on said object. The scope is fairly massive with this idea, i need to further think about the accessiblity and amount of information possible to the user and consider what restictions there will be for the consumer.
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