Response 1 – SophiaCC

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. 

I would like to start by stating that this would have been a nice essay to have read in NMD 100 last year. Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to about that class had the same experience of coming out of it having no clear understanding of what New Media actually is, mainly due to the fact that most of our readings were vague and often did not attempt to take on an actual definition.

According to the article, the hallmarks of ‘the New Medium’ are a combination of the Interpersonal medium and the Mass medium: the New Medium is able to be individually customized to and by a near infinite number of people, and it is able to do that simultaneously.   This huge degree of freedom allows anyone with access to a vehicle of the medium to contribute to the global community, so in that way, it allows anyone with access to a vehicle of the medium to affect their reality and that of anyone who consumes the contribution.  An example of this could be YouTube or Twitter.  Both platforms allow contributors almost total freedom in the content they produce, while allowing the consumers to meticulously curate the content they see.

New Media Strategies

PROBLEM: A DISAPPEARING LANGUAGE

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

• Solution A  Create a task force from a select group of Native American language experts, and ask them to write down a dictionary of words and their definitions. Enter these definitions into a database and build a Web site that allows anyone to search for terms and hear their pronunciation. Hire a high-profile Web designer and marketing firm to ensure that as many people as possible learn about this resource.
• 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.

I think that Solution B is more implementable and therefore a better initial effort and an important one.  While it would benefit from the dictionary suggested in solution A, solution A has the possible consequence of losing the Passamaquoddy culture that can be preserved by the story telling aspect of solution B.

PROBLEM: NEGLECTED RUINS

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

• Solution A  Assemble a film crew and visit abandoned homes, factories, and other buildings. Bring lights to illuminate these spaces dramatically, and record ambient sounds like dripping water. Edit the footage onto a DVD to create a compelling account that documents these relics for posterity, and distribute copies to historical societies across the state for their collections.
• 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.

Solution B is far more social and within the confines presented by New Media and the idea of many to many communication.  However there is the unfortunate consequence of this sort of thing:  it necessitates a sort of vandalism, which can destroy the integrity of these buildings over time.  It would most likely be more successful than Solution A because it would be transmitted to more people and a community would form more easily, but it does have its risks, so there would need to be some sort of plan in place to limit vandalism.

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.
• 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.

Solution A is the far superior solution in my opinion.  Solution B is attempting to explain animation using still images and text, whereas the teaching tool present in solution A is far more organic and intuitive.

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.
• 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.

The two solutions are from two entirely different schools of thought, neither of which fits the common convention for many to many communication, so it is challenging to say which would fit better.  As a community member I think that Solution A would be the better option because it encourages a more sustainable mentality, something that the University likes to promote as a value it holds.

THE SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF SOUND ARE UNDERAPPRECIATED
How can you make an audio installation that makes listeners more aware of their 3D sonic environment?

I work at the VEMI lab here on campus and this is actually something we have done work with.  We have an virtual environment called ‘Alone in the Dark’ that requires the user to maneuver their way through a pitch black space to find various objects entirely by sound.  The sounds are a crying woman and a cat and having to rely on one’s hearing to find them demonstrates to users just how much of their navigation ability can be affected by their hearing.

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? 

From my reading of the article, Boal feels that the media oppresses a populous by curating the stories that are being told.  He attempts to resolve this by allowing regular people to tell their own stories in a historically respected manner: a theatric performance.  By having the performances be a communal effort he was also able to show that people have similar experiences and that they are not alone, as well as the large lack of experience puts the group in a position of absurdity which allows for a level of detatchment which can prove useful for objectivity.

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. 

We have formed something similar in Social Media, especially in anonymous online networks such as Tumblr or other forums.  These platforms allow people to come together and discuss whatever they want, be that random things that make them smile, or serious topics such as past abuses and injustices in order to heal from them.

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1B:

Loren Hubbard, Tanner Matteson, and myself came up with a plan for a rebrand of a world news magazine (e.g. the Week, the New York Times, or the Economist) in the style of the Yes Men. Here is the suggested outline.

• Re-brand of the economist or the week or the nyt (something with a simplistic graphic style cover that will be easy to replicate.)
  • Fill with idealized world news
  • Distributed via stickers with the URL put up around campus, and print copies placed in school buildings/mailboxes if allowed by the university.
  • Set some point in the future, as a possible future
• Possible roadblocks
  • Planting things in mailboxes is technically illegal
  • Printing off copies of magazines would be expensive
  • Writing enough copy for a magazine will be time consuming and challenging
  • If done wrong, potential repercussions from the company we are impersonating