Response 1 (Updated)

I. WHAT IS NEW MEDIA?

Describe the hallmark characteristics of New Media.  How do you think this changes who has the power to “define reality” via the media?  Give an example of where this might be the case. (2-3 paragraphs)

New Media could quite possibly be the most complex entity I have yet to study to the fullest extent of. It is a living, growing entity that is ever-changing as technology continues to widen and expand. Essentially, the hallmark characteristics of New Media lies in two simple yet incredibly complex concepts. New Media allows for information to be individualized then delivered to an infinite number of people.  The second hallmark characteristic states that each of the people involved in this medium share equal control over the content. It is a living, growing entity that is ever-changing as technology continues to widen and expand. The two characteristics used to describe New Medium is simply illustrates the medium as a new tool to receive information that is more accessible in terms of individualization.

Furthermore, in comparison to Mass Medium, the characteristics describe this specific source of communications as more singular in that information that goes to all recipients is exactly the same. The content of Mass Medium cannot be distinguished and individualized to separate recipients nor do the recipients have control over the content. With that said, it seemed to me after reading this article that in Mass Medium, whoever has the power to control the content of what is being released into the public is fixed. Whereas, in New Medium, any party involved shares the equal power over the content. Ultimately, the presence of New Medium allows for power to be distributed to a possibly infinite number of people. It allows for all kinds of people to contribute to content that would then be distributed to an infinite number of people.

EXERCISE 1: WHICH IS THE NEW MEDIA SOLUTION?

PROBLEM: A DISAPPEARING LANGUAGE

Ian Larson wanted to help preserve the Passamaquoddy language from extinction.

• Solution B  Distribute laptops with video cameras to schoolkids in the Passamaquoddy community and ask them to record their grandparents telling stories in Passamaquoddy. Upload these to a Web site along with the grandparents’ definitions of particular words used in the story, and make these words searchable via a tag cloud.

Answer – Solution B

In this case, solution B would embody the “many-to-many” principle. By distributing technology to school kids in the community and asking them to record stories from their grandparents, there is an involvement of more than one singular group of humans. The schoolchildren would be one group of people, then there would be the group of grandparents from whom the stories would be gathered from. In this way, there is a more varied group of people transcribing information to be shared with an infinite number of people, as opposed to only seeking information from a select group.

PROBLEM: NEGLECTED RUINS

Evan Habeeb wanted to make people aware of the beauty of abandoned buildings.

• Solution B  Build a Web site that allows adventurers to print stickers they can leave behind in abandoned buildings they explore. Create the stickers so they can be scanned by a mobile phone to reveal a Web site built to feature photographs taken by those explorers.

Answer – Solution B

Similarly to the first problem, solution B offers the opportunity for a wider group of people to contribute to the information shared to the public. With a fixed number of people creating content to an infinite number of people, solution A is more of a Mass Medium as opposed to solution B, where there can be an infinite number of contributors. This concept, by the way, is fantastic. I hope it was a success.

PROBLEM: MISUNDERSTANDING COMPUTER ANIMATION

Ryan Schaller and Jason Walker wanted to help people understand the many layers required to create a computer-animated film, including wireframe, textures, and light effects. As a case study, they created an animation depicting a cartoon archeologist digging for ancient artifacts.

• Solution A Design and build a touch-screen interface that allows viewers to “rub” away layers of the film with their hands to reveal previous stages of the animation as it plays.

Answer – Solution A

Solution A fits the many-to-many principle because it allows for viewers to contribute to the work through interaction as it is being performed. Solution B is a more singular path that doesn’t allow for much contribution from other people.

PROBLEM: A BROKEN FOUNTAIN

Danielle Gagner wanted to renovate the waterfall fountain under the skylight in the middle of the University Union, which had fallen into disrepair.

• Solution B  Use Google Image Search to download photographs of natural bodies of water such as streams, rivers, and the ocean. Combine these with nature footage from sources like National Geographic and the Discovery Channel to create a multichannel video installation that projects images of flowing water and rippling waves onto the fountain, which has been covered with theatrical screening. Supplement the moving images with the sound of a babbling brook emanating from surround-sound speakers mounted on the ceiling.

  Solution B

  This was a hard one. I selected Solution B because with the collaboration of people contributing their images on the internet, there is a wider group of people contributing to the product. Even though both Solution A and Solution B offer a large number of people to become collaborators, with Google Images, there is an infinite number of possible contributors.

EXERCISE 2: INVENT YOUR OWN MANY-TO-MANY SOLUTIONS

VISUAL ART IS TOO STATIC

How can you create a mural that responds to individual viewers?

Example: Michelle Sabine, titleTK.

My solution to this problem is to create an interactive mural using a system of miniature cameras such as webcams or go-pros which are constantly connected to another system of projections with a clear and consistent connection to a wall. People who pass by would take photos of their faces and allow for the photos to be split apart in a matter of seconds just to be combined with 2-3 more viewer’s facial parts.

What would come out of this, would be a photo of a face containing more than one person’s facial features, representing the concept that we as humans are all different and distinguished yet one and the same. A similar concept was created in Taipei, Taiwan, where there is a mural or more specifically, a kinetic sculpture, containing close up images of the human body- specifically the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. This installation, called “The Moment We Meet” is located at a subway station and it represents the process of a first acquaintance between two people, showing eye-contact, greetings from the mouth, etc. in the form of split-flap displays. (The featured photo is a photo of this installation, source).

Response 1B

Issue: Public transportation in rural areas

Strategies: Specifically in Orono, Maine, although there are plenty of options for students to take public transportation, (and though many do take advantage of it) there are a great number of students who choose to drive their own vehicles to go five minutes down the road to school. A big contributing factor to this is that many people simply just prefer the convenience of having the power of self-transportation. However, students who use their own transportation to travel to school everyday often find themselves stuck in traffic for over 20 minutes due to the overwhelming number of students trying to go to class at specific times. This happens especially in local apartment complexes such as the Avenue or Orchard Trail apartments. Then, a 5-minute drive would turn into a 20+ minute session of idling each day. The more important reason why this should be a problem is the overwhelming amount of CO2 emissions that is rising everyday. In fact, private vehicles are the largest contributors to the carbon footprints of individual houses. Imagine what would happen if students set aside a number of days each week to make an effort and choose to take public transportation for the day. How beneficial would that be to the carbon footprint of our community?

One strategy to combat this problem is to create as much visualization (such as posters or signs with bus schedules and statistics) as possible on growing carbon footprints as well as money-saving statistics. Another strategy could be to create an app that combines all methods of public transportation (such as the Community Connector and the Avenue shuttle bus). Not only would the app become a tool for students to plan their day based on when busses are available, it would be designed to also show how much money they saved on a given day by taking the public transportation or show reduction rates of carbon footprints by taking public transportation. This would serve as motivation to continue using public transportation.

Target Audience: My target audience would be college students who live off campus. These students are the majority of students who prefer their own transportation due to comfort and convenience. If students realize what they are really risking when they choose to drive their own car for personal convenience, perhaps they will take a second to adjust their personal actions. It can start from setting small goals to eventually becoming more dependent on public transportation than individual personal vehicles.

Helpful sources: https://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/documents/greenhouse_brochure.pdf