Evaluation

I found the elective interesting and enlightening. It was particularly interesting learning about the phenomena and ideas behind things that impact us on our everyday lives, it seems that I am constantly using 'digital' and to an extant, i would say, interferes as well as enhances, my everyday life. I think Manovich's essay and his assertion that "It is only a matter of time before constant broadcasting of one's life becomes as common as email." was fascinating because it directly corresponded with my personal experiences of the internet over the years.

I think the most challenging thing has been the pure overwhelming scale of the issues involved with digital environments. Everything seems to get faster and more complex exponentially and what you have studied and concluded one week may be completely out of date by the next.

The Digital Environment elective relates to my major in that it has given me an understanding of current and past processes and technological advances in new media and will hopefully give me a starting point for self-promotion via the internet and other technology in the future. Despite the fact that I am on a heavily drawing/'craft'-based illustration course, it was useful to have my eyes opened to the potential out there.  I suspect that 'digital' will affect my aims for the future in a number of ways. As an illustration student, it's likely I will end up doing freelance work and an online portfolio has been essential for a number of years. The internet is a cheap and relatively easy way in which to reach a huge number of people all across the world, and it is no longer necessary to discuss a brief with a client in person. However its constantly evolving nature means it's difficult to predict what outlet will be most effective by the time I graduate. MySpace, for example, was responsible for launching a number of music artists, but now appears to be all but dead. It will be important to keep a look out for trends.

I feel that the elective has helped me to question a number of things I took for granted, and to realise that things that until recently seemed far-fetched are surprisingly close in the digital world.

Laser Cutting

Talks by Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky on institutions vs. collaboration

Clay Shirky: How social media can make history

These are the responses people in the group came up with concerning the following statement:

digital environments create the possibility for . . .

1) Increasing the impact of the individual voice
2) Mass action 
3) Less institutionalised, professionaly driven world moving towards one that is more socially driven.
4) Breakdown of institutional hierarchy.
5) The human archetype.
6) Equality for expression, instability of information access (loss of history).
7) Having a choice to find the right answer.
8) Freedom of expression.
9) Powerful, global group influence.
10) Mass collaboration of individuals.
11) Access to hi-technology (rejection?)
12) Bitesize media consumption. 
13) Less linear and geographic based communication/societies/communities.
14) A more level playing field, producers and consumers are one. 
15) Complete exposure.
16) Diluted power structures.
17) Positive and negative.
18) Ease
19) Escape from reality
20) Triangular to circular 

I really like these (digital noise)

Digital Noise

Notes from class

Sound waves, instruments, sound by technology , old computers, modems, spectrums, unwanted sound.

Claude Shannon 1916-2001, communication theories, a mathematical theory of information theory , schematic diagram, 

'everything is miscellaneous' David Weinberger 

1948 - landmark paper'A Mathematical Theory of Communication'information theory was put on the mapdefined 'binary digits' (or bits)led to work on computer science, communication capacity, redundancy in language (how much do we need to hear to get the message), measuring of information.

noise is the interference that impacts on a signal as it is transmitted from the source to the destinationnoise - detrimental to the purity of the original signal
Shannon was an engineer, working to increase the efficiency of telephone wireshowever - his ideas have also been used as a model of communication in a wider contextuse of 'transmission', or 'transport' as a significant metaphor for communicationthis metaphor, noise in the enemy of transporting communication.

evelopment of digital technologies - once again noise is seen as a dysfunctional factorDigital environments have been seen as a space in whichperfect copies are made and transmittedbut David Weinberger in book 'Everything is Miscellaneous'suggests that noise is where the world turns upthe use of Shannon's model - abstracted, formal, informationnoise is the world refusing to be quietbroadcast medium - one to manybroadcast medium can't contain differencethe web is really noisy (its strength & weakness)but it contains difference'differential hermeneutic' an idea talked about by AKMA a theologian, he suggests the possibility of a 'noisy peace'digital environment far from perfectbut the noise gives the view of the otherthe other point of view creates the noise
noise & the other's view come together


Mark Hansen (Hansen, Mark. N. B. New Philosophy for New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 2004.)suggests that to perceive a digital image it is necessary to have an 'embodied experience'artistic digital practice shifts 'from perception to affectivity'a shift from 'a dominant ocularcentrist aesthetic to a haptic aesthetic rooted in embodied affectivity'
I think he means a shift from simple visual recognition, seeing somethingshift to possibility at least - experiencing the moods, feelings of a piece of art - not least by physically interacting with it
Hansen suggests this is artist's effort to 'specify what remains distinctly ‘human’ in this age of digital convergence'

I think its good to be able to make a perfect copy so technical glitches are limited, however I like the rough, raw pieces that aren’t so much.  I guess it depends what the sound is being used for/describing.   When noise is produced you become more involved in what’s happening, we react to noise.  Getting from one site to the next is about being as clean an quick as possible, and  be able to gather and communicated with ease.   The ‘noise’ created is our voice, our presence online, it may appear lacking in human feeling sometimes but really I think the majority of it is ours?

'a web of opinions' - 5 views of the internet as outlined by Charles Leadbeater

1. Just a tool

the importance of the internet is overblown

it's the same as we have always done

- just quicker, bigger audience

eg. ebay is just a large and convenient flea market

I don't believe the ‘importance of internet is overblown’ I think it is incredibly important.  The thing that makes it so incredibly important is the fact that it isn’t ‘just a large convenient flea market’, it is a thousand times more complex than that, and that's what makes it so fascinating.  It is extremely different now, the way we do things,  and it is changing the way our society integrates with one another and ultimately has changed our relationships with one another and how we develop as a race personally and interpersonally.

2. big but becoming dull

dull = integrated into everyday life

big changes can lead to big gains but only after the technological changes have become integrated

but it's a long time before we really see what impact the internet will have, if any

We are seeing results of the Internets impact everyday… we may not notice it everyday, but it is happening.  If we look back 10 years ago , the changes made were unimaginable so , In 10 years time, im sure the same thing will happen.   Im not sure if I would be describing it as ‘dull’ but it will be integrated into everyday life, much as it is for most of us now (like the home phone). But whos to say what new and exciting ‘everyday’ inventions and developments we will have new to play with.

3. big but BAD

there are 3 reasons why some people see the internet as bad:

1. killing experts & professionals - mass amateurism

2. dependency on web - eroding independent thought - dumbing down

3. eroding privacy & identity

I think people that believe that the Internet is ‘killing experts & professionals’ is something of an exaggeration to be honest.  The Internet is a huge advantage to professionals in advertising their own work.  The only disadvantage is that it gives opportunities to people who didn't have the education, money, circumstances or guidance to give them a professional ‘title’. So the competition is higher.   I think to call it ‘mass amateurism’ is somewhat elitist, and we should just except the fact that everyone has the same freedom to post what they want.  If the quality or standard of information is lower than some, then it is exactly the same as in reading and in professional movies, people voice their opinion, and it has always been like that.

I do agree to a degree about the dependency of the web.  I myself, when stuck on something or want to know something, I run straight to my laptop.  However that may be the case for some people, but I feel I learn a hell of a lot form the internet ,  its not ALL ‘copy and paste’ .  It really does depend on the individual to sort that one out.  Maybe more emphasis needs to be put on  library’s and other learning sources.?  Obviously if you spend too much time on the web, and you are ‘eroding independent thought’  then there is something wrong, nevertheless I feel TV and newspapers are also extremely influential cultures. 

I feel the loss privacy and identity is more or less left up to the individual.  If people didn't want to be exposed to the would wide web, then they don't have to be?

4. big and getting bigger FAST

for those holding this view, they see the internet as mainly good but there are different views as to why it is good:

a. more diversity, choice, frictionless markets, free stuff, choice, capitalist cornucopia, long tail

b. community & collaboration, commons production, peer to peer, non market, non hierarchical, open source, wikipedia, we think, communitarian utopia

c. different options for organising ourselves, get the things that matter done, innovation & knowledge sharing, collaboration, professionals & amateurs (but will all this social networking, new conversations, actually help in tackling major issues like environmental problems?)

I suppose none of this is going to help ‘environmental problems’, but it is happening.  The best we can do is do our best to recycle and re use and re plant where we can.  

5. big, good - could become bad

growth of the internet = pollution in the internet

spam, malware, surveillance, invasion of privacy, trivia

chaos, abuse of net = clogged up

this view see the current self-organisation as only a passing phase

it needs traditional control

someone to organise it - this leads to paid for access

the internet needs someone, business or maybe governments to regulate it, clean it up, build areas of easy quick access, free from spam, trivia etc

paid for access would of course mean that not everyone would have the same access.

I don't like the idea of having to pay for certain access as Rupert Murdoch has suggested. 

Im not sure that a lot of people would do it because the thing about a lot of the information on the web is that a lot of its content can be found in other sources.  Maybe to use some sites people will use computers in places such as library’s, colleges and schools where they pay for these upgraded web pages… who knows, maybe laziness will indeed overrule and people will give in to these charges…

There are already a lot of websites that you have to do a full subscription and fee before you can experience the ‘real deal’, so I’m sure it will be a lot like that, or maybe you will be able to buy packages with your internet subscriptions? 

Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-American media mogul. He is the founder, a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp).

Beginning with one newspaper in Adelaide, Murdoch acquired and started other publications in his native Australia before expanding News Corp into the United Kingdom, United States and Asian media markets. Although it was in Australia in the late 1950s that he first dabbled in television, he later sold these assets, and News Corp's Australian current media interests (still mainly in print) are restricted by cross-media ownership rules. Murdoch's first permanent foray into TV was in the UK, where he created Sky Television in 1989. In the 2000s he became a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry and the Internet.

Start in business

He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion. He bought the Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia and, using the tabloid techniques of his father's mentor Lord Northcliffe, made it a success.[citation needed]

Over the next few years, Murdoch established himself in Australia as a dynamic business operator, expanding his holdings by acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, The Daily Mirror, as well as a small Sydney-based recording company, Festival Records. His acquisition of the Daily Mirror allowed him to challenge two powerful rivals in Australia's biggest city and to outmaneuver his afternoon rival in a lengthy circulation war.

His first foray outside Australia involved the purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily The Dominion. In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the sleepy Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate, Lord Thomson of Fleet. On the spur of the moment, he launched a counterbid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which the 32-year-old Murdoch outwitted his rivals. He took an active interest in the paper, at least until distracted by bigger undertakings, and remained the dominant shareholder in New Zealand's Independent Newspapers Limited – the nationwide media group that ultimately developed from his takeover of The Dominion – until 2003.

Later in 1964, Murdoch launched The Australian, Australia's first national daily newspaper, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. The Australian, a broadsheet, was intended to give Murdoch new respectability as a 'quality' newspaper publisher, as well as greater political influence. The paper had a rocky start that was marked by publishing difficulties and a rapid succession of editors who found it impossible to cope with Murdoch's persistent interference. Touted as a serious journal that was devoted to covering the affairs of the nation, the paper actually veered between tabloid sensationalism and intellectual mediocrity until Murdoch found a compliant editor who was able to tolerate his frequently unpredictable whims.

In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph from Australian media mogul Sir Frank Packer, who later admitted regretting selling it to him. In that year's election, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected. As the Whitlam government began to lose public support following its re-election in 1974, Murdoch turned against Whitlam and supported the Governor-General's dismissal of the Prime Minister.

During this period, Murdoch turned his attention to Britain. His business success in Australia and his fastidious policy of making prompt periodic repayments of his borrowings had placed him in good standing with the Commonwealth Bank, which provided him with finance for his biggest venture yet, the takeover of the family company that owned The News of the World, the Sunday newspaper with the biggest circulation in Britain.

When the Mirror group decided to get rid of its mid-market broadsheet daily newspaper The Sun in 1969, Murdoch acquired it and turned it into a tabloid format; by 2006 it was selling three million copies per day.

Murdoch acquired The Times (and The Sunday Times), the paper Lord Northcliffe had once owned, in 1981. The distinction of owning The Times came to him through his careful cultivation of its owner, who had grown tired of losing money on it.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of the UK's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and the party's leader Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a political issue in Britain. Though this has recently started to change, with The Sun publicly renouncing the ruling Labour government and seemingly lending its support toDavid Cameron's Conservative Party, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said in November 2009 that Brown and Murdoch "were in regular communication" and that "there is nothing unusual in the prime minister talking to Rupert Murdoch".

In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. The greater degree of automation led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process. In England, the move roused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute that played out in Wapping, one of London's docklands areas, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper publishing facility in an old warehouse. The unions had been led to assume that Murdoch intended to launch a new London evening newspaper from those premises, but he had kept secret his intention to relocate all the News titles there. The bitter dispute at Fortress Wapping started with the dismissal of 6000 employees who had gone on strike and resulted in street battles, demonstrations and a great deal of bad publicity for Murdoch. Many suspected that the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher had colluded in the Wapping affair as a way of damaging the British trade union movement. Once the Wapping battle had ended, union opposition in Australia followed suit.

In response to print media's decline and the increasing influence of online journalism Murdoch proclaimed his support of the micropayments model for obtaining online revenue , although this has largely been criticised by thinkers on the subject.

http://www.crunchbase.com/person/rupert-murdoch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/rupert-murdoch

News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/10/newpaper-internet-paywall-murdoch-live