Response 1 – CamB
I. WHAT IS NEW MEDIA?
New media is the communications we have that are offered to us because of technology. This new media makes it possible for everyone to be able to communicate with everyone and anyone. This is possible because there are things in new media called “vehicles” which would be the internet for example. Today, we can go on the internet and communicate with millions of people, a group of people, or one person directly. These different ‘vehicles’ within a ‘medium’ are all the ways we are able to communicate with each other or get a message to a large group of people. Since we are able to get information from more than one person at a time, this is where the “many-to-many” came into play and helped information be exchanged between anyone and causes there to be more interaction with people everywhere.
In my opinion, this changes who has the power to ‘define reality’ in the media to everyone in everyday life. We are able to see what we want to see on a daily base via social media apps. For example, Facebook, people are on it everyday scrolling down their newsfeed looking at accounts they follow. Everything you see on Facebook is usually connecting to what you’re interested in in the first place, for example, if you follow a sports account you will see a lot of sports updates compared to someone who has a different interest like cooking. We are able to see everyone’s opinion about certain topics on social media which can be dangerous and start drama. When someone sees something on social media they don’t agree with, they comment what they think is wrong about it and then someone can see that comment and disagree and do the same thing and so on. Different subjects can be talked about for a long period of time with Facebook, for example, comments on a certain post with everyone’s opinion on it might never end. A social media like Instagram is different because everything you see on your newsfeed more current, you can’t re-post on it so therefore once something is posted it will get a couple comments and then it’s forgotten.
Overall, I believe the new medium is growing and we are still seeing new ways of communication and will continue to make new one’s overtime.
II. NEW MEDIA STRATEGIES
Exercise 1:
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.
This uses the ‘many-to-many’ principle because it allows people to get information from a variety of people and easily accessible for anyone to look at. This way keeps the language original since it’s coming straight from the people that experienced it and share it to a website so everyone can experience it.
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.
This uses the ‘many-to-many’ principle because it allows interactions between photographers from all over. They are able to show their work and explain it to the people that will explore the buildings in the future.
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 B Create an iPad application that documents each stage of the animation process, using stills from the archeologist film as illustrations. Explain techniques such as ray tracing, motion capture, and morphing. Include links to companies that create animation software such as Autodesk.
This seems like it uses the ‘many-to-many’ principle better. Creating an application that can be used by anyone at any time would be way more helpful for getting opinions and help from professionals.
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 A Repurpose the existing plumbing to irrigate a garden planted in the former fountain. Research the types of plants that would grow well together at different levels of the fountain, and meet with dining hall staff to find out what herbs or vegetables they might add to salads and other offerings. Then plant these in collaboration with the sustainable agriculture club on campus, and invite students to pick the resulting parsley, strawberries, and other fare from the garden for their lunch.
This uses the ‘many-to-many- principle because they are getting ideas from the dining hall staff to better the idea of the garden fountain. This way they aren’t putting random plants in, each one is there for a reason because of convenience. Also, now the people that actually use the garden will be getting something useful and not random.
Exercise 2:
YOU NEVER HAVE A CAMERA WHEN YOU NEED IT
How can you make photography more accessible for everyday moments like hiking or driving a car?
Using the ‘many-to-many’ principle, I would start by going around and asking several photographers what kind of problems they run into and try to address a solution. I would then find a way to fix all they’re problems with one general solution. This way I’m getting information from multiple people and after finding the solution you could then relay it to other people with the same problems. It’s important to combine all the problems and come up with one simple solution so it makes everyone happy and not just the few that were having a certain problem.
A helpful solution would be body cameras, whether it’s on your chest, arm, hat, glasses, for easy access while walking or driving so you don’t have to bring an expensive camera on a hike or go through the danger of trying to take a photo while driving a car. It’s best to keep the solution as simple as possible but make sure it works effectively at the same time, this way not only would these photographers have a solution to their problem but it would also be easy to use.
III. THE THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
The Theatre of the Oppressed was made by an oppressive society in South America, which is where Boal lived at the time. It was so bad that people he knew were being tortured to the point that they were being killed. Boal was treated this way too because of the new form of theatre he started in this oppressive society. It was originally so bad that you had no freedom to express feelings and he wanted to make a change. He made a theatre that was run a little differently, instead of people showing up and quietly watching the play for a few hours he decides to get everyone involved. He chose to do this to try to get everyone to interact with each other more to try to solve the problem in their society. It worked well and everyone started getting involved, which gave them the ability to express feelings just like he wanted from the start.
Out of all the possible solutions that accepted humor were incorporated into the theatre one way or another. This was possible because everyone realized with this new form of theatre they’re allowed to start interacting with the play. Instead of just sitting there silently, you would be apart of the action and the humorous solutions to stay involved. It worked that they came up with the idea to make the theatre humorous because who know’s how long that society would have been oppressive towards the people that were apart of it.
New Media can definitely accomplish goals like what Boal did in ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’. Where we are today with technology, it is much easier find people in your area or anywhere else that have the same interests as you and maybe even find similar skills that could be helpful in the real world.
There are websites on the internet that are used every day by millions of people to help solve problems. These websites are helpful because they show past experience of people that have had the same problems and what they did to overcome it so the next person that runs into the same problem can try the same solution. Personally, I like to make covers for local music artists and new media helps me reach out to new people that I probably never would have even heard of if it wasn’t for new media.
RESPONSE 1B
Team members: Matt Carlson, Pete Blangiardi
Explore past student projects in New Media Strategies, projects discussed in videos or in class and tactics or case studies in Beautiful Trouble with a team of 3 students; pick some issues and strategies that you could use in a prototype project of your own concerning some aspect of culture you think would benefit from a hacking intervention. Your goal is to be creative and to challenge some aspect of power you feel is unjust or unhealthy. Discuss with your team but post individually.
1-List your topic/issue and your proposed intervention (Eg UMaine requires immunization for students matriculating, but Maine has a law that allows citizens to refuse immunization. UMaine should explain the pros and cons of each choice, educating students, and give students this option)
- Music streaming has been around since the early 2000’s, and while being great for the consumer, it takes away from the artist by lowering the total revenue they are actually receiving making artist want to opt out of music streaming.
2-List your top strategies, how they work, and why you would use them.
- To create a new music streaming app service that uses cryptocurrencies and goes directly to the artist.
3- Describe how you will reach your target audience: Consider effectiveness, as well as aesthetics, fun, surprise, or any other aspects that make the strategy appealing. What does this say about the conventional line between serious & playful? What is that line doing there? Who does it benefit?
- I think that once artists saw that they would be making more money by switching to the new service it would make them want to opt out of putting their music on Apple Music, or Spotify, then leading their fans to also join the app. This will benefit the artist so they are actually making a greater revenue.
One thought on “Response 1 – CamB”
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Cam–some good ideas here. Re the camera solution, remember it’s far easier said than done to “combine all the problems and come up with one simple solution so it makes everyone happy”!