Response 1 JasonD
What is new media? This question keeps coming up, and every time I hear a different definition of it. I found that the readings did not disappoint me in this respect. I find it interesting how the concept of specific technologies as being a new medium incorrect. I have heard the term of medium describing an environment before. When put in this way, It makes sense, and analogizing it with vehicles was especially helpful when recontextualizing the question.
My concept of New Media is unsurprisingly different. Rather than consider what specifically constitutes a new medium, I prefer to view the problem as the medium. It has been, for awhile, my definition that New Media is the process in which new problems are solved through the use of old and new technologies. Learning how things were done in the past is good, but should not be held to very strongly. The point of new media is to break from the traditional answer, and finding a truly new idea. It is looking at an old or new problem and try to find new answers that are better to the ones that already exist, or create new answers to problems never before seen.
I am a non traditional student that has discovered new media recently. What it has done for me as take all the things that I have taught myself, and brought it together under a single helm. I taught myself how to use Rhino 3d while in middle school I taught myself how to photoshop before there was ever a photoshop. I taught myself how to create webpages. I learned how to program, and even experimented with electronics.
What I lacked was formal knowledge, or a cohesive manner of viewing each of these topics in a matter that not only gave it purpose, but also application. I found all my tasks of exploration to be exciting, and have enjoyed expanding my knowledge in the past year of New Media. I have always been working with what is commonly considered new media technologies, and I have become very good with them. It is the process of discovery that compels me to continue to learn. The process of constructing something out of nothing is empowering. It has always been my goal and process to develop things by recycling other things.
I disassemble computers, and their components. I’ve broken down printers, monitors, literally any gadget that no one wants or feels to work anymore. Discovering how it works, and then remixing the components to create something new.
What can I build? I have absolutely too many project ideas for me to list them all. I can tell you my Capstone idea has been part of a process of learning and development, and have been working to map out my discovery and development towards my final project. My greatest passion is for space. I love NASA, I love SpaceX, I love the ISS, I miss the space shuttles. I hate how there is no push, or general interest in advancing our space technologies, and pushing further out to Mars, or even just returning to our moon. My capstone is specifically in trying to develop an advanced mars rover, specifically for exploration, but could be modified for construction, mining, processing, or just general purpose transportation. My capstone would be a smaller prototype proof of concept.
I cannot limit myself to just this though. It is the exploration of new things that makes the process of developing and designing so exciting. The ability to exercise one’s imagination, and creating physical constructs is so easy to do with modern manufacturing technologies. It is wielding this type of power that I enjoy tremendously.
2 thoughts on “Response 1 JasonD”
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Your skills will be valuable to both yourself and your colleagues during your time in New Media. It will give you a solid foundation in the WHAT and HOW.
Have you thought about the WHY? For example with the Mars and space ideas–really cool–how do our tools help us live in a more healthy way on the earth and with each other? Does our appreciation for the life potential on Earth influence how we see other planets like Mars? And if we can’t figure out how to live sustainable on this planet how will we know how to behave properly on other planets? Can you link an ethics for space work? Have you seen the Earth Charter http://earthcharter.org/discover/what-is-the-earth-charter/ ? Would Mars have a similar or different charter?
I agree with you one hundred percent. It is part of my philosophy of living and has contributed to many of the things that I have thought and designed. Sustainability is important. Recycling is great, but there are certain lifestyle changes one can adopt to further minimize their impacts. It is my dream to someday help create an intentional village that is completely self-reliant. The associated ideas, designs, and mentality are easily executed from the viewpoint of settling another world. Intentional villages rely on the skills and abilities of each of its members to prosper and sustain.
If anything, it is an intentional village that should truly be the model for interplanetary colonization. The Earth Charter, in this case, would have to be an embraced ideology. The ethics proposed within the earth charter can easily be expanded to include many different definitions of ‘human’. Wouldn’t it be incredible that the technology deployed and developed for and on Mars would be the same that would save Earth? Would that not be an honoring of that charter?
Humanity has made a terrible mess of ourselves, and the world around us. In this stage of sociological development, I would consider humanity at the teenager stage of development. Defiant. String-Willed. Closed minded. Invincibility against all wrong. Gullibility that runs deep. If we survive this stage and don’t drunk-drive ourselves into a tree, we will gain wisdom, and look back, shake our heads, but make the long hard push to make reparations. We must as a species. There are many other animals in this world who have nearly the same intelligence as us. We fail to recognize that, and they will be the stewards of our destruction.
There are threats outside of our world that could destroy our entire world. We may not be able to detect the next asteroid that wanders too close. If we are to survive ourselves, we have to survive that as well. The only way we can broaden our chances of survival, as a species, is to settle other worlds. It is the only way we can have insurance against what we have no protection from. Maybe it won’t be until we have lost an entire world of ourselves that we finally learn the lesson. When we become lonely again in the vast uncaring void, maybe we might find humility.
Forgive me for my dark response, but it is something that I care very deeply about. I believe in humanity. I want us to survive. We can do and have done incredible things. I hope that I will no longer to have to feel guilty for being human and having been a contributor to the detriment of our planet.