Response #1 – Ian H

I found aspects of the “What is New Media” piece to be very interesting, however it had a rather pretentious tone to it. Claiming that people are forgetting the initial usage of the term “media”, yet I feel that this is a foolish argument, as words over time change dramatically in meaning. At one point he says this “If you were to ask a person in the year 1506, 1606, 1706, 1806, or 1906, medium they used for their news, they wouldn’t understand what you asked.” He uses this as a means to explain why the word is being misused in modern day, and quite frankly that’s just annoying. To claim an entire societal definition of something to be wrong is rather pretentious and attention seeking. “… but I consider it the most important thing I have ever written …” The term “New Media” in and of itself is begging that idea of change, something different and new. So of course, as time goes forward the definition for it will change, just as the technology associated with it will. At one point a pen was considered new media, yet it isn’t anymore, because as a society we move on. Despite this aspect of his piece annoying me, I did enjoy his metaphor he used to explain everything. He related everything to transportation, which was a good way to how things relate to one another. Yet he still managed to miss the mark by claiming that there are only three clear cut form of this, that or the other thing.

Considering the many to many idea that we seem to be focused on, solution B works far better than A. For with solution B, you are giving anyone who has access to the internet the ability to attempt to understand and learn directly from those who are a member of the Passamaquoddy. This would also give a much better understanding of the culture surrounding the words. While solution A would ultimately be more successful and directly preserving the language, it would lose it’s culture, as well as it wouldn’t be a many to many format. Both of these solutions would be effective in their own right, it’s just that solution B would better answer the question being asked.

Solution B would be a much more social experience, therefor promoting the idea of many to many. As for those who get to visit each place, will get to see all the others who have been there prior. Also you’ll get to share your own experiences, as well as see others experiences, by proxy of this website and photos. While solution A would get accross to many, the lack of a strong social backbone makes it fall a bit plat in feeling personal, as well as working with many to many. Since it would be a small group of people telling the world, versus a lot of people telling a lot of other people.

Solution B is definitely the more effective, and many to many solution here. Solution A is way to specified, making it difficult for many people to have access to it. While an application is easy, and effective at getting to the greater audience of the world. Although, due to the nature of how solution B is, it may be considered dull by many, and never finished. This is somewhat of a niche market.

Solution A would ultimately lead to more people using it and ultimately knowing about it, yet it’s not exactly many to many. However it’s many to many more-so than the second solution, as that would be a small crew to the world. Overall both of these solutions are a bit… extravagant? Unnecessary? They don’t really relate to this many to many idea.

A very effective way of doing this would be to attempt to gather others who are interested in a topic, whether you find them through a crowd sourcing website, or just a forum. This would be a great way to begin finding interesting people who can implement and suggest their own ideas. Attempt to target artists with this though, as they’ll be the ones ultimately making your book seem more fun and interesting. Add something of a story to it, as this will make the reader want to read more and more about the topic, despite it being about a more educational thing. By adding a more playful element to the book, it’ll make the reader feel inclined to tell others about it, increasing the many to many idea behind it. And by having it made by a group of people you found through forums or the like would also help enhance that experience.

III. Theater of the Oppressed

How does media oppress people in this article, and how does Boal try to give that power back to people? How does he use humor to do this? (2-3 paragraphs)

A theater show is generally speaking considered to be an experience where one watches a story, and does no more or no less. The spectators go and have no expectations thrust on to them, yet they have expectations on the show, this is due to the opinions from outside sources that spoke about the show. So the audience and the outside world is essentially “oppressing” the show, just by having outside expectations. So Boal attempted to create a show with more life so to say. He urged his actors to improvise, and incorporate the audience in some manner. Meaning that the show is a free flowing work of art that the media can’t pin down as “good” or “bad”. It just is.

How can New Media accomplish similar goal?  give a few examples. You can add projects we review in class, but you might want to start by trying to think of some yourself. (2 paragraphs)

Film and art is changing faster than ever now a days, with the constant stream of social media and video websites such as YouTube, and couple this with the accessible equipment; you have a society in a steady state of change. Music is a wonderful example of this, the spread of music is extremely fast which creates this need to a quick turn over. A song will be a hit for a couple months, and quickly be replaced by the new sound. So we have society listening to a song, and by the time they get sick of it, a new song comes along with a new and interesting sound. Adding the fact that indie music artists are literally everywhere, and can post their music whenever they wish, no one can run out of supply for music. This is essentially fast acting innovation within an artistic field, creating an effect that would branch to more than just the pop genre.

With this instant gratification, and ability to find new music, the consumer can easily give their opinion for all to see. This will ultimately lead to more artists seeing what’s wanted, and expand upon it. It’s a giant many to many system, when the listener can essentially tell the artists what they want, and the artists can interpret what they mean. This wouldn’t really be possible without media input and output, as that acts as the catalyst for critiques and innovation for some music artists.

1b.

The issue that I’ve noticed is how easy it is to copy and trace others artwork. Due to the modern age of the internet, everything is extremely accessible, making it so some artist come across the issue of someone else pro fitting of of their work. The most common nonoccurence of this is with screenshots, and YouTube videos. They seem to commonly get re uploaded, without permission, to other website such as Facebook and Twitter. Although there have been moments of corporations stealing artwork. So I tried to come up with a couple of ways to combat this.

One thing that I would like to do is create a search engine of some kind, one where you upload an example of your artwork, weather it be picture, video or audio, and this engine then scours google for specific files that are akin to the source file. There are plenty of algorithms that can be used for this, as copyright programs have been created, yet for one reason or another the common man doens’t have access to one. All we have is a reverse google image search, which is great, yet it could be expanded upon to try and combat all forms of files and art theft.However, the biggest issue I find is that some corporations will steal art if it benefits them. I found an example of Walmart stealing someones work, and using it in an advertisement campaign. This is a problem that would be very difficult to fight, outside of trying to press legal charges. Maybe the search engine could be used as proof that they stole it.

Honestly I would try and target folks within the Art community, as well as social media folks. Both to tell artists that there is a way to get out and around this issue of art theft, and to tell the thieves that they will be caught. I guess this boils down to targeting the people who are digital, or the younger generation.