Sara Hebert: Digital Musings on Digital Subjects

RIP! A Remix Manifesto Showing in Shreveport

2009-07-03T09:29:00.005-05:00

Last week, Chris Jay of the Robinson Film Center and I hosted a screening of RIP! A Remix Manifesto. Our turnout was fantastic: around 50 folks came out to see this fantastic doc about Girl Talk, remix culture, and copyright law. I highly recommend the movie to folks who are lost about why copyright law matters and who might think it only effects folks who want to pirate copyrighted material.

Robert Trudeau wrote a very nice review on his blog.

We packaged some open source software to give to folks with some of the following tools:

Audio Production:

Audacity
Ardour (mac only)
Jokosher (windows only)

Graphics:

Video/Motion:

Craig Baldwin at the Robinson Film Center

2009-04-18T14:26:00.008-05:00

The following are some stream of consciousness notes from filmmaker Craig Baldwin's artist lecture at the Robinson Film Center on April 18, 2008. He's a wild ride to follow during a talk!

Craig Baldwin notes the connection between 16mm, the digital revolution and vernacular culture.

Craig showed us three clips from the 70's dimension: http://www.othercinemadvd.com/70sDimension.html Three artists remixed found footage in "We Edit Life" a metatextual performance on digital remix production. Footage includes media producers, conductors an a symphony, computer users, Baldwin points out that abstraction isn't necessary and that using footage without digital manipulation serves the same pupose of deconstruction and analysis. All the footage was found in the dumpster.

The next sample comes from "outsider films" including military films, religious films, pornos, etc that get under theorized and under studied as important pieces of visual culture. We're looking at "Love Moods" http://www.othercinemadvd.com/subjectsex.html I'm wondering how archiving constitutes "parsing" - in order to embody the sensibility of a certain genre? So there's no need for remix. By bringing these marginal films into a "non marginal" space we're remixing. What's outside the center is most interesting and tells us the most about mainstream culture - Baldwin draws on the image of the corona, which enables us to see the sun but isn't THE visual identifier of the sun.

The next sample, Baldwin describes as piece of couch potato culture "Life With Fear" including "Lightfoot Fever" which juxtaposes images of wild life a a performance of "Fever"

Next we look at a mashup series "TV Sherriff and the Trailbuddies" which is complete low sensibility tv show nonsense. The piece we watch is a fantastic audio and visual remix of all sorts of Jerry-related footage (Jerry Lewis, Jerry Springer, etc). They self describe as "remix television broadcasts into reconfigured gaucho style ape beats." The style really reminds me of Eclectic Method. Its eye candy you can dance/explode your brain to.

Craig Baldwin then turns to mashup megalith Negativland and he's produced a documentary about them: Sonic Outlaws. (Which I can't believe I haven't seen yet)

Peter Tscherkassky makes Lacan-esque hauntingly beautiful films: http://www.tscherkassky.at/

Greta Snider's "Urine Man" personal diaries/documentary. Urine man wants you to google "urine cures bombshell" I think this film straddles voyeurism, taking advantage of a crazy person, and giving voices to the underrepresented. Its documentary kind of style films that put me in my most uncomfortable position, but also make me excited about digital media as a voicebox for democracy. At the same time, the film reminds me that democratic voices aren't always the best for contributing to cultural development (that's totally subjective - I'm at conflict re-reading my original thoughts a few days later on this piece).

Baldwin argues that cinema should not be overproduced researched market, but rather shorter works in enesembles, in microcinemas, backyards with political critique and history/political journalism. Taking it to another level of play, a bit of pop art.

Baldwin notes while discussing Tribulation 99 the dicotomy between right/left film's imagery: take language and iconography/fantasty associated with the right (fantasy, extravagance, sensationalism) and apply it to the left (which typically uses talking heads and less free image in documentary). Tribulation 99 is a pseudo-documentary about US intervention in Latin America. It mixes science fiction footage, fantastical narration, news reels, and crazy political title screens. Irrationality can be a useful political tools (racism, etc). Willingness to take things to extreme - relationship between van garde art and politics.

Compilation narrative take gestures and herd them into a new narrative. With Spectres of the Spectrum, Baldwin utilized action and science films to challenge the media environment which controls and perpetuates the popular mainstream. Kinescope images are used artifacts of the communications revolution as the history of the medium is embedded in these images.

What happens when popular mainstream culture recognizes these aesthetics and methods of commentary? Does underground culture then swing back into the high gloss production level to challenge the new aesthetic? What's the cheap point of entry in tools and methods of production that will allow us to challenge the co-option of vernacular culture (I'm thinking of tv shows that respond to tv viewer's reactions ala L Word, LOST).

Sometimes it feels like the archive just legitimizes conspicious consumption. I don't necessarily feel like remix or mashup adds enough to the larger dialogue about culture or challenges mainstream thought because of the co-option of these aesthetics and methods increasingly in popular culture. What do we do from here? Remix the remix? I have no idea. I think on avenue is to study the folk/non digital native response to new mediums, and utilize those methods in art production and design. What non-knowledgeable people do with new media and how that inform a revolution against the new mainstream (might also be useful UI/Design research)? Rather than focusing on artworks that are finished pieces or works that expose the underlying process, we need to see artwork is exemplifies the process. Perhaps something between the line of performance art and actual production methods. How can we encourage play and discover in the age of the database and instant informational satisfaction?

What I've learned from this lecture and comparing it with a recent lecture from DJ Spooky, is that when you're lecturing about remix and digital production its best to have complete control over the presentation environment (i.e., import your own footage on a computer, ask for control over lighting.) and do it yourself (and insist on doing it yourself at every venue).

I also like this interview with Baldwin for the super-informative-fantastic-free-badassed documentary Steal This Film:

Planning web site content development is difficult.

2009-01-30T12:01:00.004-06:00

I'm working on a large scale website content development project and I'm slowly realizing that my method of cobbled together site-maps and word documents isn't functioning as robustly as I'd like. We're still in the planning phases, fleshing out what content is available currently for us to use and what content we need to develop and in the process I'm getting a really mucky and unusable text document. I really wish there was software to help manage the planning and creation process run more smoothly.

I'd like to see software made for web designers that enables more flexible content strategy development. Here's some initial thoughts:

Flexible site map development which can be connected to drafts of content broken down by pages or sectional content/modules. If the site map is restructured, content follows pages/modules associated with site map objects. Granular/modular restructuring is what I'd really like to see.
Change tracking in drafts of content in a non-obtrusive way (ie. view most recent draft, view with content changes from specific collaborators, etc.)
To dos for researching content that's needed (i.e., product selling points, supportive images and references, resources to link to from content, etc.) including the ability to assign those tasks to particular members of a team
Associating drafts of content with other informational assets such as images, tabular data, forms, etc.

I'm sure there are software packages or web applications that provide this functionality out there, so leave them in the comments! I'd also love to hear about your workflow for creating content before a site is launched.

The Inauguration from all sorts of angles

2009-01-26T12:20:00.002-06:00

Lots of interesting digital photography of the inauguration is popping up all over. Here's two of my favs:

David Bergman shot a 1,474-Megapixel Photo of President Obama's Address. The detail is simply astonishing.

We never have seen an image like the one Chuck Kennedy from the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service got with a remote camera positioned near the speaker's podium.

Life update.

2009-01-20T01:38:00.004-06:00

There's been quite a bit going on for me professionally over the past few months:

I've been hired as the first and only creative-centric brain at Praeses doing web and graphic design. Mostly I build user-centric, accessible, standards based fancy websites and deploy content manged systems through open source projects like Joomla and Dot Net Nuke. I'm surrounded by very smart developers who I feel right at home with. I'm doing much more design-oriented work than I had when freelancing; however, doing quite a bit of work with Joomla! Most recently I deployed Joomla! along with a hotel booking engine for the Independence Bowl.
I'm teaching an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink web design course at Centenary this semester. Information about the course and my students' work is available. I'm trying to infuse an open source mentality in the course, so all the materials except the books for the course will be available through the website. Its an honor to teach at my alma mater for a semester!

Outside that, I just bought my first car, our dog Bowser is growing tall and my husband Chris is becoming a community correspondent with Red River Radio.

UX vs. XD

2009-01-20T01:33:00.004-06:00

My colleague Travis Stiles ponders the distinction between UX and XD:

Certainly the practice of UX or XD can vary and anyone calling themselves an “XD” can practice user-centered design, but my goal here is to define the implicit value and meaning in both terms and how that might affect the use and context of each.

Its got my brain turning on something I've been thinking about since I've heard the term "experience design." I've always thought about XD in terms of art making and installation work, which for many artists puts the cart before the horse. There's an idea or aesthetic you'd like to explore and while participation is key in that experience, "getting it" isn't necessarily the primary goal. Definitely a useful distinction that I'm looking forward to hearing more about!

Man badly beaten in Shreveport for wearing Obama t-shirt

2008-12-09T00:49:00.005-06:00

Via my good friend Versha, I found out a very great member of the Shreveport for Obama team, Kaylon Johnson was involved in a horrific beating this Saturday:

On Saturday night at a gas station in Shreveport, he was accosted by two white males who were yelling racial slurs, incensed by the Obama bumper stickers on Kaylon's car and the Obama t-shirt Kaylon was wearing. He waved them off, but when he came out of the gas station, they jumped on him.

Kaylon was badly beaten and has sustained several head injuries. He will have surgery on Friday to repair a broken eye socket, broken nose, and torn tear duct.

Dot Net Nuke and Mootools

2008-12-05T10:40:00.005-06:00

I really like the Javascript framework Mootools and some of the extensions and such that have been built for Joomla with it. Unfortunately, my company website runs on Dot Net Nuke and it looks like Mootools and Dot Net Nuke don't play well together.

I had a hard time finding any indication in Google searches for this - so I just thought I'd document it here. If I ever get anything with Mootools to work again, I'll post an update. So far it looks like DNN will play nice with Prototype so that may be the route to go if you want to use one of these ever popular Javascript frameworks with DNN.

EDIT: Per R Doom in the comments I checked out what I could do with JQuery. It works well enough with DNN but you've got to over ride $ functions using calling the neato noConflict ():


<html>
  <head>
  <script src="jquery.js"></script>
  <script>
  jQuery.noConflict();
  
  // Use jQuery via jQuery(...)
  jQuery(document).ready(function(){
  jQuery("div").hide();
  });

  </script>
  </head>
  <body></body>
</html>

More info here about noConflict.

Typographic animations to Jay Z

2008-12-02T19:24:00.002-06:00

Yet another beautiful typographic illustration from Evan Roth of Graffiti Research Lab, this time to Jay Z's Brooklyn Go Hard:

Jay-Z on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes

Oh and you can download the source code here. Open source love.

Keynote Address: Stephen Graham

2008-10-18T05:14:00.003-05:00

Stephen Graham "Ambient Intelligence and the Politics of Urban Space"

Dana Cuff "Enacted Environments" - Representation of future urban space as augmented, city lives through bombardment of information interactions.

The modern city exists as a haze of software instructions" Ash Amin & Nigel Thrift

Four ways of thinking about the new ambient intelligence:

There's not a real/virtual binary, but rather a process of urban 'remediation.' (think Bolter and Grusin)
Cities are 'fluid machines' which combine distant proximity with 'proximate distance.' Think experiencing the distancing in a 'local' context.
Systems are most important when they are less visible and most important. They become the ordinary world of the city. They are visible when they fail (Susan Leigh-Star). These systems are built in modular components
The Automatic production of space produces a new urban-technological politics.

Friction-Free Capitalism - individually customized, surveillance is customized, real time. Perfect flow complete efficiency and annihilation of space through time.

RFIDS - smooth flow, just in time management, ubiquitous tracking. You can get it even when you think you don't need it.

Software Sorted Mobilities - makes possible the movement of old infrastructures into new markets (paying more for more efficient mobility on highways etc. paying for premium services in everyday processes) Filtering by the profiles in databases, Internet packets, biometric passports. Malls sensing particular individuals, store sent txts with discounts. Hyper filtering of the wanted and distancing from the unwanted.
Korea Digital Media City on the edge of Seoul

Securitization and Militarization of urban space. Technologies of risk management and means of prosecuting warfare are about targeting mobiles bodies and transactions that are threatening (Louise Amoore). Are we moving toward passage-point urbanism? The city as the threat, because this is where the security threats lurk. Everything must be justified in advance of its presence in the city within passage-point urbanism. Think of cyberwarfare "battlespace" - everywhere is a battlefield in the new militarism. It is ongoing, not a war you go in and out of. Artist Jordan Crandall: a militarization through 'Armed Vision': "tracking is an anticipatory form of seeing." One way collapse, the security anticipates before you arrive. Every time you fly out of the UK there are 53 variables that go into play deciding whether or not you are a threat.

Surveillence Creep: Embedded system become securitized. Means of management to a means of security. The city can be seen as clutter of concealment by the military. Enemy leaders look like everyone else, enemy vehicles look like civilian vehicles, etc. Need for close-in terrestial means of tracking - continual development and early deployment. Dreams of transparency, boomerang effect described by Foucault (the warzone connects to the domestic techniques of government). Biometrics replace id cards, etc.

Penetrating the clutter of the city (Paul Virilio): heads up display with overlays to get through and understand. DOD with a single uninterruptible database with biometric information: Fusion Centers. Cyberpunk visions are influencing military research. Automated targeting that happens through 'normal' and 'abnormal' - military utilizes geo-cultural norms to determine if something is not right. Algorithms with agency will find targets that need attention: figure out what normal behaviors what are not - politics of code become important as who will make those decisions? CCTV does this, analyzing the activities of people in crowds and gives enforcers the ability to respond immediately. Unmanned vehicles and weapons can target specific "threats."

Art and Activism: Re-enchanting, re-animating, re-politizing the city? These artists challenge the sanitized and transparent corporate and commercial spaces and militarized and securitized spaces. They re-appropriate the technology and use it to address aliented experiences, outing authorial empowerment. Remediate cities in a highly democratic way: Murmur project Kensington Toronto, stories linked to sites. Grafedia project allows people to write on objects of the city through cellphones. Yellow Arrow Guerrilla Mapping projects, allows people to tag and annotate the city through stickers and a web interface. RFID tag artists: Paul Roush (scroll down for interview) utilizes them in public transport to create sound environments. David Kousemaker iTea, RFID tags created searches depending on the person they were for on a table-based interface. Meghan Trainor puts them in uncatorgizable objects (she's made them).

Animating the Past: Digital Collective Memory. As moving around the city you can bring up archived information, an interface to collective memory that is contributed to by participants.
Animating the present: annotating the current place, personalized maps. Mapping emotion responses (Christian Nold's Greenwich emotion map - arousal surfaces.
Opening the City as Gamespace: Asphalt Games. Allow games to move out of cyberspace and into the city (flashmobs, etc.).

Counter-Geopolitics: You Are Not Here Counter geo-political project. In Manhattan you can be given parallel information about Baghdad. Paula Levine, Shadows from another Place: leave artifacts, similar to YANH.

Appropriate of military technologies. Counter Reconnaissance create a counter consciousness - sousveillence. Removes tech from an imperial structure.

There are three logics that are struggling to become fixed into infrastructure. Now is a moment of experimentation and the politics are relatively open. Graham worries that these opportunities will not last long as sentient intelligences become the city. We must look at how far off distances are become immediate spatio-temporailties. How are technophilic dreams enacted and mobilized. We must expose how new technological politics can be visible rather than hidden. How can we open up the politics of code? We must prevent dominance and normalization of militarized and consumerized logics based on software-sorting, targeting, militarization and neoliberalization.

Stephen Graham

Notes on Gender on the Internet Presentations

2008-10-18T05:11:00.002-05:00

Holly Kruse "Gender & Interactive Media Environments: A Case Study"

Horseracing and Interactive Media

Using the Internet to bet, or going into the physical space.
Kruse is concerned with presence and whether or not it is gendered. Think about para mutial betting - many people are influencing the odds but we don't sense who they are or where they are.

Gender and age are both factors in Off Track Betting (OTB) sites.

Women liked that the betting seemed private, time to figure out how to bet without pressure from others. They missed seeing the horses in person

Men liked the bar, being with friends at OTB. Women didn't like being around the other patrons, and they missed the horses at OTB.

Preferences on using the Internet to bet may be attributed to the use of the home (men = leisure, women = work)

Denise N. Rall "Craft in the Age of the Internet"

StitchnBitch movement where women meet in public places to knit
What is traditional craft? Involves environment, technologies, indigenous practices.

Spinning influenced cultural meanings in Peru because it was responsible for creating the clothing that labeled people as part of a hierarchical organization/status orientation.

Machinery is more important than care to the self. So where is protest part of spinning? Ghandi made hand spinning the visual icon for his nonviolent protest movement. StitchnBitch claims that craft + protest was rooted in the 1960's - Rail believes it goes much further back. Women were first given independent work and incomes in during the Industrial revolution as a result of the mechanization of spinning and weaving. Rail doesn't think people were knitting while protests were happening.

Home craft experienced a break after mechanization. Think Bauhaus the home as a "machine for living"

Digital Domesticana. Martha Stewart exploded, Needlecraft is now worth 1.07 Billion. Knitting now has new imagery: knit "chic." Urban vs. rural economy: the Internet plays a huge role in Urban areas because of its speed and reach. The Internet fails for people in rural communities because the networks are locally built and you learn in the home and strong connection to land argriculture and animals. Urban communities can reconfigure traditional elements. Representations, crafts should be kinky and it tells the home craft person that they need the expertise of professional crafts and you can't DIY. But isn't that just extending your social network? Just because a professional is in your social network doesn't mean you can't learn from them. Spinning is different because active pursuit of the craft is rare and its hard to learn from the book. Finding a specialized practitioner is almost necessary

Marj Kibby "Not Sleeping with the Band: Female Fandom Online"

Hysterical female fans of the Beatles in 1964 - it was one of the few roles available to women at the time in music. Female music fan's experience is mediated as a pre-teen idolization rather than a mature appreciation of music culture. The Internet has changed music culture and music fandom is experienced through access to music and other fans. Music zines and music blogs, from the bedroom to the street - music culture is more public. Women are more likely to participate when they know what they are saying is accurate and won't make them look stupid.

Both males and females feel as though they have a personal relationship with bands on MySpace. Both males and females talk about their personal feelings outside of the band using messaging systems (had a bad day, glad to be among friends, ex.)

What the Internet provides is enhanced opportunities a greater variety of experiences and increased returns for effort. Woman can view themselves as music fanatics instead of groupies.

Sarah Bocciardi Bassett "Performing Themselves: Women's Identity Strategies in World of Warcraft"

Games girls play: Games marketed to girls, games marketed to men that women like (Halo, etc.) Are there ways that women play sexist games and subvert it? Are identities fixed or fluid?

Sample is not casual gamers, these are women with multiple 70 level plus characters.
Strategies:
Portrayed themselves as very feminine, flirting and playing up their gender. They did this because there were rewards: help, free stuff. Using gender to advantage
Make gender a non-issue. Didn't disclose gender to anyone except close friends. Need to monitor chat and looked down on very feminine women, wanted to exceed because they're good players.
One respondent took on a very masculine role. Gave her more authority, people listened to her more. When she played as a women people really tried to help her. In her guild people knew she was a woman, can flirt etc. but assumes authority as well.

Role playing was seen as creating fiction. Others saw this as an opportunity to have an outlet on their true identity without judgement. Many tried to fight sexism actively.

Women want to play games marketed to men, but they need to be marketed to. Identities may be more fixed than we thought. Its very had to maintain outside Internet identities as members network outside of WOW.

Notes on Youth presentations at IR9

2008-10-18T05:06:00.003-05:00

David Gurzick "Rethinking Recruitment for Adolescent Online Communities"

Adolescents have very obviously become a driving force in utilizing new technologies. David defines them as 12-19.

Which methods are successful in getting adolescents to register for online communities? Did this method have any impact on their level of participation? David and colleagues created a community and recruited youth to participate. FieldTrip is a media rich FieldTrip to stimulate teenagers to think about ownership of education. Youth made digital videos to discuss their beliefs and attitudes about education and learning. David's research group hired the same company that edited the Wire to edit video from the youth.

Recruitment started one month prior using snowballing emails (to UMBC faculty and undergrads) and flyers with incentives. Created groups on Facebook and MySpace and posted to related groups also utilized craigslist. Parents wouldn't be aware of what they were producing and everyone was anonymous as no one could disclose personal information. Adolescents were most responsive to joining an online community through authority figure prompted solicitation (they actually went through with registration

Were there higher levels of engagement from peer prompted solicitation? David notes that the level of participation (number of logins, content viewed and postings) wasn't varied at all based on the recruitment method. Qualitative research found the same result.

David suggests utilizing the best recruitment method that fits with your available resources.

http://www.UMBC.edu/fieldtrip

Henry Mainsah "Ethnic minority youths' expression of identity on a Norwegian social network site"

Henry is looking at how minority youth utilize the Internet in Norway particularly through patterns of self-representation. How do self-authored profiles serve as platforms for reproducing or resisting the main identity narratives that shape the Norwegian multi-cultural space. He finds that people have fragmented and fluid identities online and produce "new ethnicities" particularly among transnational youth

Biip.no is very popular among youth of 15-20 and functions as an SNS in Norwegian. Mainsah has utilized virtual ethonography as he's participated in many SNSes that youth use and has gained an understanding of how these are utilized by youth.

An examination of screen names includes these references:

Ethnicity/Nationality: Chilena, Afghan Mafia, Cuban Sugar - these reinforce their nation of origin
Indexing race: Chocolate, Vanilla, Latte, Brown Sugar - reference physical features. In their profile some will write personal narratives and others will write about their ethnicity as collective identity: "Roses are red but LATINOS are everywhere!"
They also mix language codes, mixing other languages with other slang terms from other languages.

Cultural reproduction through hybridity, creolisation, bricolage. In this case macro-society really shapes how people display themselves online, not necessarily resisting, but often reaffirming normative views

Nadia Kutscher "Worlds Apart? Virtual Spaces of Youth People: The Power of Cultural Capital while using the Internet"

Kutscher is interested in how educational inequality shape participants in Germany.

Attitudes toward Internet use:

Leisure oriented Internet use
Information-oriented Internet use (high formal education background, frequent Internet users, focused Internet use, they shop, use wikis, they also often utilize it for Internet)
Establishing new social networks/relationships (like to chat, register for new sites, often younger)

People surveyed often visited ebay.de and google.de. wikipedia.de never heard of netzcheckers.de lizzynet.de fluter.de. A correlation analysis shows that wikipedia was utilized by mostly formally high educated and Knuddels used by those with a low educational background.

Certain groups will dominate particular sites with views and construct meanings of these spaces/websites. Construction is in flux between website makers and website users, informed by a variety of factors (educational background, targeted audience, actual use of the site), reproduce resource inequalities. Unequal options of mobility can be reconstructed according to the availability of resources. There is a process of social closure which exclude some and make it more exclusive for constituents.

Lynn Schofield Clark "Digital Media and the Generation Gap"

How families utilize digital media to maintain/enhance family ties: Media Rich & Time Poor. How families articulate authority and how teens view attempts of authority in digital media practices.

Lower income families are of course time poor as well, and have more time burdens than gentrified communities: chronic health conditions, extra jobs, etc. The role of digital media is different, but strategies are the same.

Youth people from 1st gen immigrant families - part digital part dream (better futures, "living large"). Want to value culture, but also want to be part of digital environment.

Rise of reflexive parenting - parents need to choose how they parent and how they construct media that reflects that type of parenting. Patterns of authority show that authoritative notions are most effective. What are parental concerns about Digital Media? How do young people interpret that? How do they respond?

Parental concerns:

Predators
Porn
Bad morals
Abduction
Lack of experience shapes this
limited experience shapes this

One child was annoyed with the idea that she would look at porn, knows that her parents trust her. Parents trust her to self-regulate.

Time limited at places where youth were utilizing Internet (family's house, library).

Many believe that abductions are common through the Internet. Youth know that parents believe they don't need to use Internet much, and that they have no real idea what they're doing.

None intentionally restrictive, emphasis on trust; frustrated by what parents were worried about.

Parent strategies relied on others to snoop on children online. Youth will buy their own methods of communication, and deregulate.

Teen strategies: educate parents to gain trust. Rebuffing parents concerns "times are different now." Denigrating and lying: making fun of parent's ignorance of what's going on with the Internet. Just telling parents they've stopped posting pictures when they're concerned, only use it to talk to friends, etc.

Secondary strategies: older siblings will take on parental roles by monitoring use, buying their own technologies and paying the bills (purchasing autonomy).

Gregory Donovon "Whose Safety, Whose Security? Situating Young People in Cyberspace"

Increased surveillance and censorship expands youth's digital footprints and greater mystification of their informational environments.

Young People as Victims:

To catch a predator
Access to cyberporn in magazines
Government advertising as potential drug use, "everyone's space"
theantidrug.com teaches parents to snoop
Naive children as a perpetuated narrative which is usually inaccurate

Young People as Charismatic Consumers:

Informational ideal
Young people are in themselves marketers

Young People are Criminals:
Filesharing, hackers, copyright infringers

Young people as Actors:

HR4437 protests organized through new media to bypass authorities (depends on a trusted network)
Circumventing filters with proxy servers, Peacefire.org

Partcipatory research practices - how can this create an empowered youth citizenry?

I Spy Surveillence - identify things that were collecting information about them online (looking at cookies, taking pictures of security cameras) reflect on behavioral modifications
Digital Device Timeline - evocative devices and reflect on how it shaped their identit
Digital auto-ethnography - bookmarking services, classification of browsing behaviors with reflection

Notes on Presentations during "The Role of Digital Images and Photos Online"

2008-10-16T10:08:00.003-05:00

Soren Petersen: The new role of digital images and photos online

Flickr use in Copenhagen

Picture vs. Photo

Photographs with fancy cameras, picture with camera phones.
Documentation, presents a "hat" or a "beach": these are photographs used in ads
A photo with aesthetics, the example has a very low depth of field so the background is out of focus
A picture has little aesthetics, it is grainy and it has notes and comments attached to it. Encourages interaction with the image.

A photo comment is from a viewer/spectator and a picture from a person who can relate on the basis of common everyday experiences. This may be why people post many banal images to web.

Lefebvre's triadic concept of everyday life: daily life, the Everyday (media, urbanism, bureaucratic), Everydayness (effective character, understood as shared but unrepresentable...desire of everyday life)

Sensations - Deleuze. When people take a picture of everyday experience they want to transmit the sensation of the experience. Everydayness then becomes the sensation of moblogging.

Concept of being the the world, the collective experience. Unity of sensing and the sense (Deleuze on Francis Bacon) Aesthetic differences between the photo and picture > experiencing commonality through banality and enjoying the everydayness. This may be why mobloggers have a hard time explaining why they take such pictures. Pictures gather meaning through the meta-textual context they are in (think comments on flickr)

How can we apply this to youtube, and things such as tazering videos which we often watch out of disbelief. does this appeal to the fantasy that we experience within everydayness?

Larissa Hjorth "Re-imagine Mobility: A Conceptual Reflection Upon Gendered Mobile Media in the Asia-Pacific

This was an amazing video that completely bombarded the viewer with tons of information about how gendered use of technology has been utilized in commercial and communicative means. I wish this was available somewhere!

Edgar Gomez, Amparo Lasen: Digital Photography and Picture Sharing: Redefining the Public/Private Divide.

Subjectification Process involve the shaping of the self and being subject to others, photography can enable this.
Flickr study: Who is this girl? Group in Madrid. Creates lively discussion about what is public and private. Girl was found and told about it and she freaked about being discussed as a subject. The concept of public is transforming..

Configuration of self through self-portraiture. Pictures of the body, sometimes involving nudity usually taken in private places. Shaping the perceptions of others and controlling the external gaze. Show what's interesting. This is part of the contemporary embodiment process.

The definition of privacy is now key on having control over who knows what about you See Livingstone, 2008 Who can access information about you.

Digital photography is taking par tin the definition of what is suitable and can be expected when being in a public place.

Convergence of digital photog and the Internet contributes to a new complex gaze.

Andrew Cox
Photoshop contests on Flickr
Looks at Photoshop Tennis: no ending point, multiple players. with player nominated rules (have fun, photorealism/no cartoons, themes, etc.)
Worth1000 often has more complicated rules focused toward a reward, rules are casual. Focus is on maximum participation rather than on PST there is an emphasis on quality.

Notes from Mimi Ito's talk: "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Genres of Youth Participation in Networked Publics"

2008-10-16T04:55:00.002-05:00

Presentation about Teens engaging in video games, digital media production
Found youth through parent networks, youth programs
Social and cultural factors driving innovation "translators"

Rise in teens use due to:

Growing availability of tools
Sharing with public visibility

Youth Networked Publics were geeky, but now they are more mainstream, "domesticated." These are placed within the context of regular interaction readily accessible persistent, specialized and broader context for publicity.

Genres of participation:
Tie together structures of participation and engagement with media/social groups

Friendship-driven participation - Hanging out within online spaces without restrictions on mobility and school with privacy. CJ Pascoe ("Living Digital") has done research on romantic relationships between teens through social networks. Notes that teens prefer to meet people in person first, not on Facebook. FB comes second. Teens use sns to overcome restrictions in their local social network. Media literacy comes through these everyday activites (web design, video production). Casual messing around can lead to "geeked out" participation
Interest-driven participation - Passion and interest drive these interactions. Exemplify the potential to change social worlds teens have access to. Expand beyond local social groups, niche knowledge, broader context for disseminating information. Most youth aren't participating, but Ito sees a possible expansion in the future.

Fansubbing anime is Mimi Ito's current research interest. Amateur fan networks will subtitle videos that aren't released in the US. Often these fans sub videos are the only access to particular shows. Speed focused groups will typically get a video out after 24 hours of release. Often extremely collaborative and specialized someone who records the show, typesetter, translators, quality checkers, editors, etc. Fans take high level of ownership with the products that fansub communities output. Often they'll critique fansubs and compare along very detailed standards. Improve craft, some peer pressure involved here - but focus in on creating and improving fansubs. They want to gain notoriety for their work, many downloads and views.
Anime Remix Videos. Ito shows us an AMV that shows a woman getting interested in AMV and her process. Kudos for showing a woman since fan remix videos are a very feminist approach and women have taken a huge role in producing these videos. Interestingly, the video shows a high level of self-deprecation that I think is common among video remixers. I like AMV's because they aren't concerned with the legitimacy that most remix videos are concerned with (i.e. Disney mashups that include the title screen, re-dubs where lips matching voiceovers matters). Transmedia videos like this one really push the boundaries of the reality of a story or show's universe - which what remix was all about initially. Video editing skills may not be encouraged locally, but through online communities, teens can become "greater gods" of editing.
There is a high level of self-deprecation among fansubbers and remixers - Is this a practice that is required to become legitimate among a community? There are specific levels of involvement with AMV communities and levels of engagement/induction. However, there are low barriers of entry.

Back to teens in public networks:
Learning in networked publics for youth happens through observing and practicing - outside of typical structures of school and limited access to peers. Experimenting with adult like autonomy. Stakes for participation are raised, consequences for publishing all this stuff, delayed gratification. Youth are engaged with the result is immediate. Adults will having to catch up to learning and innovating online.

Some youth have disabled the ability to have a top 8 to avoid social pressures.
Parodies are typically male genres, relationships are female dominated.

Hypersociality - more digital media tokens.

Report coming soon - November 2008 at http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu

Blogging from AOIR 9

2008-10-16T04:54:00.002-05:00

I'll be blogging various talks and such from the Association of Internet Researchers Conference in Copenhagen over the next few days. There's just rough notes, but I'll do a round up of awesome stuff afterward!

Carl J. Couch Research Award

2008-06-25T23:29:00.000-05:00

I'm very flattered that a chapter of my master's thesis, "Your World, Your Imagination?: Representation and Social Expectations in Virtual Memorials" received the Carl J. Couch Research Award this past week. As a result, I'm trying to make my way to Copenhagen in October for the Association of Internet Researchers conference. If you've got a rich uncle looking to sponsor a rogue academic, give a girl a hollar.

You can read the chapter by downloading my thesis.

If you're interested in learning more about Carl Couch's symbolic interactionist approach to technology, I highly recommend his book Information Technologies and Social Orders which is a great read for those who like the works of Marshall Mcluhan or Walter Ong. Rather than merely making sweeping assertions such as Mcluhan's "media extend ourselves," Couch places these ideas within a social context and describes technology as a object which is continually being reconstructed through use and social orders. One might already see the connection to Second Life!

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (www.cccsir.org) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Award is presented annually and recognizes excellent student-authored papers.
Richie Neil Hao, a doctoral student in Department of Speech Communication, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the First Place winner for his paper, "Virtually Tsinoy: Performing and Negotiating Diasporic Hybridity Online."
Angela Adkins, doctoral degree candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio is the Second Place winner for her paper, "The Presentation of Self in Internet Forums: Face Work without Being Face-to-Face."
A tie for Third Place means that there will be two award winners in this category. They are Sara Hebert, a master's degree candidate in Digital Media Studies at the University of Denver, for her paper, "Your World, Your Imagination?: Representation and Social Expectations in Virtual Memorials;" and Vilma Lehtinen, a student in the Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland, for her paper, "Performing Diverse Social Relationships on a Social Networking Site."
The Couch Center established the Couch Award in 2002 as the centerpiece of an extensive awards program. Winning papers apply symbolic interactionist approaches to internet studies as advocated by the late Dr. Carl J. Couch, long-time professor of sociology at the University of Iowa.
Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines, and winners are selected by a committee of university professors in communication studies and sociology from across the U.S.
This year's competition was rigorous, with entries received from students of all levels, from undergraduates through Ph.D. candidates, and were submitted by students from Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as North America.
Winners receive a cash award as well as the opportunity to present their papers at a national or international conference. This year's awards will be presented at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 15-18.
The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl J. Couch and his academic associates. Couch is recognized as the founder of The New Iowa School in sociological and communication inquiry, and was a pioneer in the qualitative research of information technologies.
The Center provides networking opportunities for students and scholars who conduct social and Internet research, inspired by Couch's work.

Robinsonfilmcenter.org has launched!

2008-06-25T23:24:00.001-05:00

I've been busy moving back across the country to Louisiana, but in the process, the brand new Robinson Film Center site launched, after much hard work and fun with Joomla! Many of you know I have a soft spot in my heart for the film center because of its ambitious media education program and brave programming in the deep south. They've been a blast to work with, and I highly recommend the popcorn salt that they use and keep at the concession stand for patrons like me.

Musings for Memorial Day

2008-05-29T13:22:00.001-05:00

I was away in the mountains for my first time for this year's memorial day. I had a hard day reconciling going out and having fun on a day that I should have been remembering the veterans that have fallen protecting and serving our country. Many of you who know me personally, know that I am not extremely patriotic, but that my research deals with America and how we grieve. I am patriotic in the sense that I love everything the United States stands for, but I am not proud of of the current state of government (which to me, makes me even more patriotic).

On Memorial Day, one of my favorite radio shows, To The Point, dedicated their show to a critical look at how memorial day came about, what memorial day means and how that meaning is shaped due to the current war. It is a very moving, smart and fair look at what Memorial Day means for us, a public torn between political views on the Iraq war and the value of human life.

One of the commentators (from Shreveport, ironically), Michael Sledge, mentions that in America we have lost national grieving, that is public grieving. I disagree slightly, as I believe we miss regular, healthy, productive and active public grieving. As I discussed in my master's thesis, spontaneous shrines for example, are very public methods of grieving that respond to public tragedy by becoming an amalgamation of private meanings. Immediately after a tragedy, the public creates these metatexts, but often these sites and tragedies don't retain their monumentality long term. The solution I think, is to build memorials that can reflect current collective memory of tragedies and can be responsive to the public needs. Unfortunately, our typical methods of materializations don't foster healthy remembrance, much like how Memorial Day has become a day for barbeques, and in my case, escapism to the mountains.

I could probably go on and on about why dedicating days to the memory of public tragedies and public figures doesn't work, but for the sake of brevity, please listen to the Memorial Day edition of To The Point.

Japan proposes a pay once royalty structure for mp3 players

2008-05-07T01:57:00.001-05:00

Japan is considering levying a fee on manufacturers of mp3 players and HDD recorders. Such a fee already exists for devices with hard drives or other storage methods such as mini-disc recorders, DVD recorders and other digital devices:

While digital portable music players and HDD recorders face new levies, personal computers and mobile phone handsets designed for general purposes will be exempted, even if they contain recording functions, according to the plan.

The specific rates for the royalties will be determined through deliberations between the agency, copyright management groups and the manufacturers.
They are expected to be several hundred yen for each device, totaling several billion yen a year for the makers.
At Thursday's meeting, representatives of the manufacturers are expected to voice opposition to the plan because they do not think they can pass on the additional costs to consumers.

More about the proposal. Thanks _akira_

Doesn't seem like a bad idea, although its kind of like putting a big band-aid on a larger issue. While it would frustrate me to see these devices get even more expensive, it would be glad to know that no one's going to knock on my door and try to sue me.

I has a master's thesis

2008-05-01T20:00:00.001-05:00

I haven't been blogging much because I've been completing my master's thesis, Digital Memorialization: Collective Memory, Tragedy, and Participatory Spaces. I'm defending it next week on the 7th at 2pm in Sturm 434 at DU. I know pretty much anyone who reads this probably knows that already, but feel free to come by if you're a stranger looking for some knowledge.

Keep an eye on this space for more information. I'll also be continuing my research here.

Are you a racist?

2008-04-10T13:12:00.001-05:00

This game was meant to test reaction times to suspects who might be carrying a gun. I apparently am a racist accord to the test, as my reaction time to white people holding guns was longer than my reaction time to black people holding guns. I'd like to note that "black" also appeared to include Latinos and possibly other "dark skinned" minorities. I could be wrong because I was too busy trying to tell if these guys were holding guns or not. The other thing was it wasn't really controlled at all, there were many backgrounds used in the game, and I don't know if the researcher is collecting information on this, but on some backgrounds it was harder to see a gun than others. Oddly enough, there's lots of images from Denver, so I was also a bit distracted by that. Anyway, my armed reaction times reverse it: I spent a longer time checking to see if Blacks were unarmed rather than whites. Pretty interesting study! I wish I could compare myself to other people. Feel free to post your scores in the comments.

Try it out here: http://backhand.uchicago.edu/Center/ShooterEffect/

Via Poplicks

Hurricane Katrina video tribute - with Anime!

2008-04-10T01:25:00.000-05:00

While doing some research on a YouTube user that commented on one of the videos I'm examining in my thesis, I came across this video posted by a user that makes anime music videos. The producer created this as a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This one uses images from Naruto, which I haven't seen so I'm not sure if there's some meta-textual story telling going on. Anyone familiar with the series?

Compare it to the one I'm looking at that uses the same song by U2 and Green Day:

They both use methods of production that are hot topics among scholars studying fan-created media - but they're both dedicated to the memory of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and not about extending the fan-object's narrative.

(ps. Just a side note, but I'll be anxious to be done with this chapter and listening to music that I don't associate with Katrina. I treat myself to other tunes when I can right now, but man, I'm anxious to listen to a wider range! I think I could recite the lyrics to nearly every song in the videos I'm examining.)

Maya Lin's last memorial is a piece of activist art.

2008-04-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

Maya Lin, the architect of the highly influential Vietnam Veterans Memorial is producing only one more memorial during her career. This time it'll be to the growing number of endangered and extinct species with the purpose of educating and motivating the public to take action:

Lin would like her new memorial to have global reach. She wants to use the Internet, interactive media and a book to tell people specific steps they can take to spare the environment, like avoiding plastic bags, insisting on shade-grown coffee or joining a program to "adopt" an endangered species and help protect it. She wants to unveil donated corporate billboards in locations such as Times Square, with 20-minute videos with images of endangered species and places.

Does this mean she is crossing the line from artist to advocate?

Lin paused for a thoughtful moment. As a child, the burning of toxic contaminants on Lake Erie did spur her to environmental activism. She petitioned the Kroger Co., owner of Ralphs and Food4Less, to ban animal traps and advocated for Greenpeace.

"I've always said I present history. I don't dictate what people think," she began carefully. "I don't try to preach. This one, like the others, makes you aware of it: 'Did you know the sound of the songbirds, as we knew it when we were little, are gone?' But yeah," she added with a shrug, "Definitely, I will be giving groups and people things they can do in their everyday lives."

While I believe that most of Maya Lin's work is activist media in the way challenges the public's normal engagement with memorials; her reshaping of the memorial landscape into spaces of activist art will be very overt in this memorial. I'm anxious to see it come fruition and what sort of new media applications she'll be using.

Read more at the LA Times.

PS. This really just makes me justified in what I'm studying - Hopefully one day I'll be able to incorporate Lin's final memorial into an extended essay on how the public used networked on-line spaces to memorialize and as activist media and how the memorial institutions have incorporated this behavior. Exciting!

Whirlwind writing

2008-03-31T16:41:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in so long! I've been hiding out, writing a bunch on other chapters of my thesis, and in general being an overworked grad student. I'm loving it, but I'm also looking forward to June 7th, when I finally get to wear that awesome hood and get a little piece of paper proclaiming me as a Master of the Arts.

Here's a small update on what I'm working on thesis wise. I'm taking a close look at two forms of video tributes, the very unorganized efforts on YouTube related to Hurricane Katrina and the very organized efforts of http://iraqmemorial.org. The reason I'm looking so closely at just two memorial efforts is because of the way both events are critical pieces at revising American national identity and collective memory. They also vary much in aesthetic and organizing - but both have ties to activist media in that they challenge the forgetting of these people/events. I'm excited to be drawing on resources from Pierre Nora to the fan vidding and vlogging community. I'm attempting to not just look at literature produced by academics, but also by new media producers and their respective communities.

Check out the memorials I'm looking at:
Videos from iraqmemorial.org:

Video tributes on YouTube to the victims of Hurricane Katrina:

For now its back to work for me, but I'm hoping to keep blogging a bit more about my thesis as time goes on. I'm also working with Joomla! quite a bit right now, learning templating and doing some customization for a pretty rad organization in Shreveport. You guess who. Anyway, I want to share a little review of what its like learning and working with an open source community from a designer/developer stand point - so keep your eyes out for that! Aaaaand a new portfolio layout! Productivity!

Presenting Thesis Chapter on the NIU Shootings and Online Responses

2008-03-07T16:41:00.000-06:00

Today I'm presenting a newly finished draft of a chapter of my master's thesis on Social Networking Sites responses to the NIU Shootings. Here's my fancy Google Presentation if you'd like to check it out:

There's also a preliminary investigation of the topic over at Pop + Politics. A longer draft is coming on Monday as well.

Shreveport's Chimp Haven on This American Life

2008-03-06T19:16:00.000-06:00

Shreveport has a chimp rehabilitation center that opened while I was in college there. I hadn't ever heard what it was like for the chimps there and it is fascinating. I haven't visited either, but now I want to. Check it out on This American Life's third act "Almost Human Resources":

Reporter Charles Siebert talks with Ira about retirement homes for Chimpanzees. Yes, retirement homes for Chimpanzees. There are thousands of aging chimps in the US: retired chimp actors, ex-research subjects, abandoned pets. They can't be put back in the wild since they don't know how to survive there. Charles Siebert visited many of the facilities where they're housed, often in rooms, with TV's and 3 meals a day. He's writing a book about his experiences called Humanzee. (11 minutes)

And the section on NY's Rubber Room is fascinating too.

Mediated Mourning?

2008-03-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

I've been collecting all my notes on various academic works I'll be working with in my thesis, but in particular I love the complexity of Harriet F. Senie's "Mourning in Protest: Spontaneous Memorials and the Sacralization of Public Space." She deals with identity and the collective at the spaces of violent events in the article and it is fantastic. Here's a short quote:

Although, perhaps even because, public experience in our culture has been rendered private by television and the internet, many of us feel an overwhelming need to make real what is increasingly mediated - to recapture the here and now. To stand on the ground where something happened is to feel the reality of the event - to feel meaningfully linked to others and to history.

To some degree, Senie is correct - when these events are mediated the public reaches out and tries to connect somehow whether that's through donating money, collecting goods, making a pilgrimage, leaving an object at the physical site, etc. We experiencing mourning as something to act upon: we need to take action and just do something. However, I believe Senie alludes to the idea that media remove us from mourning and make it private. In my research, particularly with the online mourning community surrounding the NIU shootings, I see the complete opposite where people are finding online publics like Facebook to connect with other mourners without actually interacting in a physical space. However, they are making "real" what is increasingly mediated - but through the means of mediation. The profile picture changing, the mourning group joining, all the other new media production around the tragedy signals that the public is using the mediating technologies to become meaningfully linked to one another and to the history of this event. After all, isn't the Internet one big database with lots of joined tables?

What it feels like when you're working on your thesis.

2008-03-02T18:51:00.000-06:00

Here's a little humor in the vein of two of my non-academic interests: LOST and animated gifs.
But seriously, this is how I've felt lately working on my thesis.

Thanks, Chris!

RICK ROLL mod in DOOM

2008-03-01T20:36:00.000-06:00

Now you can rick roll in DOOM:

KRS One and Stop the Violence in New Orleans

2008-02-29T12:29:00.001-06:00

KRS One visits a "camp site" in New Orleans as part of Stop the Violence's campaign to get the Hip Hop community involved in addressing global violence through education, critical dialogue, grassroots organizing and direct action. I've always had mixed feelings about KRS One's activism: is it genuine, does he really understand the complexities of these situations, what is he doing to create change and not just bring these issues to light. However, this video is really telling of the complex issues in New Orleans where there's no one group of people to blame - rather a complex system of governmental failures, issues of poverty and gentrification, land use, and natural disaster response.

Seeing this video reminded me of TED talk that I've been reading about from Philip Zimbardo (known for theStandford prison experiment) about his book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (here's a nice interview from Wired). When people are put under intense pressure to survive or do their jobs, there are horrific things they'll do. While the scene with KRS One handing out money is a smaller contained example, this isn't something people would do normally but they're put in position where they're broke, homeless, hopeless, living in a city with a blind government and there's a guy handing out 20 dollar bills. What would you do?

via GRANDGOOD

BIL Conference is AMAZING

2008-02-26T16:47:00.001-06:00

I wish this was just a few weeks later and I had a little more money or I'd go:

The Concept

BIL loves TED. TED is a great place to sit and listen to interesting ideas. Many of those ideas make it online, and millions get to experience them.

The catch for many of us is that TED is $6,000, which is too expensive for most people, including a great number with good ideas worth spreading. BIL has been created as a free space for people with ideas to come together and share them.

Our event is self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic. Nobody is in charge. If you want to come just show up. If you've got an idea to spread start talking. If someone is saying something good, stop and listen.

We hope BIL can be a perfect match to TED.

Link

CMW Records Logo

2008-02-24T18:00:00.000-06:00

I'm really happy to present a logo I've been working on for Creative Music Works, which sponsors space for education and innovative performances in Denver. They're starting a record label for similar artists and I have to say, I've always wanted to design something for a record label! They've also been the most pleasant clients I've ever worked with.

An in depth look at the Northern Star at NIU

2008-02-20T14:19:00.000-06:00

Fresh Cut has a great video documenting how NIU's student run paper, the Nothern Star operated the day after the shooting. Apparently they knew who the shooter was before CNN and utilized Facebook to gather information about the victims.

SLSA site redesign live

2008-02-20T07:58:00.000-06:00

The SLSA site redesign went live today, and I'm happy with how the project has turned out. The folks at SLSA are brilliant wonderful people and its been great working with them to implement a new website design and a Joomla interface to handle their resources, blog, email archive and newsletter.

NIU community successful in blocking WBC protests

2008-02-19T22:18:00.001-06:00

Looks like the groups that utilized Facebook and other social networking sites were able to band together with local law enforcement to avoid any major confrontation at one of the NIU victim's funerals:

"When this is what you do as your hobby, as your leisure time, this is what you spend your money on," said Paulette Phelps, daughter-in-law of Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. "This is our vacation. This is our fun time."

In spite of their inflammatory signs, including one that read, "God sent the shooter," their protest took place almost without incident.

The only exception was when a mourner shouted at the protesters from behind a police barricade before being led away by police.

The presence of several dozen police officers from departments throughout the county seemed to effectively prevent any confrontations between the Westboro Baptist Church and mourners.

A row of St. Charles snowplows formed a physical and highly visible barrier between the park where the protesters were assembled and the east entrance of the church.

About 40 officers from the Kane County Mobile Task Force, in riot gear, stood guard around the park to protect the mourners from the protesters.

"They have the ability to express their freedom of speech," St. Charles Police Chief James Lamkin said. "We wanted to make sure there was nothing that would disrespect the funeral."

About 15 students from around the suburbs were on hand to express their disgust for the protesters' message.

Article on Pop + Politics

2008-02-19T19:28:00.001-06:00

I'm completely flattered to be asked by Pop + Politics to comment on the NIU shootings last week and how mourning has manifested on social networking sites. Its a fantastic blog with some really wonderful news and writers. Here's an excerpt from my article:

Activism also plays into online memorials, perhaps more intensely than it does for physical memorials. Nearly all of the Facebook and MySpace memorials address the Westboro Baptist Church’s announcement that “God sent the Shooter…WBC will picket their hypocritical funerals & memorials & "vigils."” WBC pickets many vigils, memorials, funerals and public gatherings in response to mass tragedy and loss such as the funerals of soldiers, hate crime victim Matthew Shepard and other school shootings because the church sees these events as God’s “Wrath & Vengeance Against an Ungrateful Nation that has Forsaken Him & Embraced Filthy Fags.” In response, there was a call from members connected to the Facebook and MySpace memorials to set up a counter-protest and later promote when and where the counter-protests would take place:

Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle

2008-02-18T14:56:00.000-06:00

barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com
hillaryclintonisyournewbicycle.com

Lovin' this new meme! Although obviously Obama-biased, both sites relate the awesomeness of Barack Obama to the joy of getting a new bicycle - or so I'm able to ascertain!

Thanks tstiles

YouTube and Academia?

2008-02-05T17:12:00.000-06:00

YouTube - Juhasz Final Video

I'm slightly frustrated by this video posted by a professor who utilized YouTube in her class to get her students to think about media critically. She's very honest about her frustrations and successes within the course. Here's an outline of the five points she makes in her video about why her experiment with YouTube in the classroom wasn't successful:

1. YouTube is a new media form surrounded by speed and efficiency. Doesn't allow extended dialogue which is what academics specialize in.

2. Humor and sincerity are important qualities of YouTube videos. Attempting to communicate something in a logical structured format isn't considered successful.

3. Popularity is a fundamental organizing strucutre for YouTube (corporate and people's viewing experience). Searching for this popularity leads to meritocracy. "There is a certain amount of talent that is needed to produce things that rise up and above the noise."

4. YouTube sells us the same type of commercials that other media sell us, but in a slicker mode. The corporate imperative causes this. YouTube is a "big TV." Policing organized around the most mediocre mainstream middling ideas of the culture, everything that falls to the outside is suspect and easy to remove.

5. There is a second world, niche micro communities, who produce radical culture and media outside the logic of YouTube and isn't well supported by YouTube's structure. It needs to find a new community that will support building an infrastructure for dealing with (I'm paraphrasing here)"asking the harder questions, saying the hard things that need to be said...and hold on to the terrain that is slipping away as corporate culture and mainstream culture take away our energy."

How do you feel about Juhasz's comments? I know that I haven't taught or participated in a class that used YouTube as it's main source of communication, but I will say personally, it is examples such as this that make me never want to teach within a university setting. Her 5th point really gets under my skin, which I interpret as "Academia needs its own ivory tower mode of discussion and YouTube isn't good for anything except videos of cats." Wow... what about media literacy projects like this, political activism and education like this, or smart détournement like this, or citizen media like this.

Yes, there are lots of stupid things on YouTube and they don't develop a discussion and most users probably don't think critically about media but becoming a producer of media is the beginning of that (in my opinion...maybe I'm wrong). I think it's a fantastic entry way into a smarter, more critically minded, accessible dialogue about media production.

Heath Ledger Facebook Memorial Group

2008-01-25T22:33:00.000-06:00

I was wondering how long it would take for a social networking memorial to Heath Ledger to surface. It looks like it started immediately. This really shows some same qualities that spontaneous shrines have:

Lots of media or objects related to the person that died. Here on Facebook, there's movies, news media, images, user created media, sentiments from people ("I still can't believe it..."). There's a wide range of expressions from disbelief to claims about the validity of a suicide attempt. It is absolutely fascinating how rapidly this amount of information has been put into one place based on one tragic event.
Mourning in protest. There's some interesting discussion around random bits of media saying that Ledger is in hell because of his portrayal of a gay man in Brokeback Mountain. There are so many expressions of outrage at this claim made by some evangelicals, that it almost seems like the discussion thread on the memorial page has become a space for supporting gay rights. Take a look at this:

"Are people so ignorant these days that they will allow a person to be typecast for a character he portrayed and not the man he truly was? This man was a wonderful father and caring human being. He most certainly is headed nowhere near hell. Shame on these awful people for printing and saying such blasphemy. His sexual orientation (which was heterosexual by the way) should not determine his value as a human being. Have some respect for his family during this difficult time."

Memorializing Women

2008-01-22T01:21:00.000-06:00

Lately on national holidays I've been thinking about something I read and had an "Aha!" moment. John R. Gillis notes in the introduction to his book Commemorations that there are no national holidays for a woman in the US (he also notes to the lack of them in other countries).

I'd like to propose a list of women who deserve national recognition for their dedication to the freedoms of US citizens:

Elizabeth Cady Staton who wrote the Declaration of Statements was vital to the women's suffrage movement and was a social activist.
Susan B. Anthony, another woman who played a vital role in the women's suffrage movement who has her own coin - ironically associating women with ownership and property once again.
Another other woman involved in the women's suffrage movement who didn't oppose the 14th and 15th amendment openly and wanted to see rights extended to all citizens, irregardless of sex or race, like Carrie Chapman Catt. My vote goes to Catt.
Rosa Parks, African American civil rights activist who capitalized on civil disobedience. There's been lots of attention to her work due to her recent death. There's lots of people honoring her - just no national holiday.

Anyone else I'm missing?

It seems more common to commemorate women through objects (coins, statues) rather than through living memorials such as national holidays or large public spaces (parks, buildings).

Benazir Bhutto Memorial in Second Life

2008-01-16T13:56:00.000-06:00

There was a memorial service on Jan. 6 and a hopefully lasting memorial dedicated to Benazir Bhutto in Second Life. I haven't visited yet, and while this is more of a note for my own research, the quotes from two articles (Second Life Herald and GamePolitics) are extremely interesting. Here's a few making really poignant statements about the complicated method of memorialization in participatory spaces:

I give it approximately 10 minutes before it's covered in dicks. Posted by: Alyx Stoklitsky

...Regardless of how...complex...we might feel Mrs. Bhutto and her husband were in their nation's complex politics, we still can't but feel sorry and condemn this summary execution by terrorist forces. It should be thoroughly examined and Scotland Yard shouldn't be the entity doing the forensics.... Posted by: Prokofy Neva

BlackIce, Dragunov Marksman Says: Let’s hope it will stand for a little while.

lumi Says:I think this is a much better political use of SL than any of the campaigning garbage that’s been going around. I wonder if there’s some way that “Second Security” could be arranged to prevent it from being defaced. LL might want to look into that as a future service if it doesn’t already exist.

Thanks Josh!

Mr. Quintron's Drum Buddy

2008-01-11T11:40:00.000-06:00

I'm stoked to see Mr. Quintron's Drum Buddy being featured on Boing Boing. Quintron lives in New Orleans, and definitely represents some 9th Ward pride. One of my favorite "swamp tech" songs of all time is "Witch in the Club," which you can check out on his MySpace. The Drum Buddy is an amazing machine: an analog drum machine that creates sound out of light.

Check out Quintron on the Drum Buddy:

YouTube - QUINTRON/MISS PUSSYCAT

A Drum Buddy Demo:

YouTube - Drum Buddy Demo

Mr. Quintron and Ms. Pussycat get interviewed:

YouTube - Quintron & Miss Pussycat

Reel to Reel Tape Cutting

2008-01-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

I've always been curious as to how this worked, and this YouTube video is really illuminating - I've gotta get a Reel to Reel!

Via GRANDGOOD

WaPo makes a mistake according to the RIAA

2008-01-09T22:52:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post reported the other day that a man in Arizona was being sued by the RIAA for ripping a CD on to his computer. The RIAA says WaPo got it totally wrong, and that the illegal act was placing it into a "shared" folder for a filesharing program to access. The most interesting part is that Cary Sherman, the President of the RIAA, makes an evasive move in regards to the question whether or not its OK to copy music to your computer:

I think that is a question you just can't answer in the abstract. That's the problem. There are a hundred hypotheticals you could come up with to try and come up with whether its legal or illegal in this particular set of circumstances. And you can go down that path trying to figure it out case by case and it just makes you realize that sometimes the law just isn't as clear as you'd like it to be.

We can't speak for all copyright owners and say whether its legal or illegal. And Its going to vary from case to case anyway. Copyright law whether we like it or not is very complicated, but that's why we're tried to make clear.

Hear it here.

I sympathize with Sherman, because the RIAA was misrepresented, even if copyright law hasn't kept up with technological advances. I freaked out after reading the article and even told my activist media class that ripping CDs was now considered illegal. I hope that this misreporting will lead to better journalism and free, accessible, and useful adult education on copyright. I feel that there's too much of a focus on children and teenagers when it comes to media literacy when there's a huge demographic of adults who just don't understand (myself included and the RIAA) the repercussions of exponential technological growth. Media literacy groups must reach out to adults in order for a big faux pas like WaPo's to be avoided in the future.

RIP Stockhausen

2007-12-10T10:53:00.000-06:00

Oddly enough, Just a few days after Josh and I made this lolspace in response to this article, Karlheinz Stockhausen dies. He worked to understand and compose electronically and as a result I think many people call him the grandfather of electronic music.

Oh and there's an online memorial already. Leave a testimony!

The Mountain Goats Screwed and Chopped

2007-11-19T04:52:00.001-06:00

Chris and I just started working on a new project entitled "Screw Your Indie Cred Vol. 1" and its off the chain. We're screwing and chopping indie rock songs - really? How has this not been done before.

Here's a track I produced last night, a screwed and chopped remix of Mountain Goats' "Palmcorder Yanja": Palmcorder Screw (And if Mr. Darnielle or his lawyers stop by, I haven't made a dollar and I've given the Mountain Goats a shitload of money since I was 18. Just ask me to take it down, and I gladly will)

I picked this song for experimenting because it paints such a clear memory, something I see screwed and chopped music doing very very well. Also, I wanted to see if that bright guitar and John Darnielle's high pitched, nasally voice could sound eerie and ominous. I think it really brings out a great feeling to the original composition

Slowed and Thowed: Pharmacomusical Meditation

2007-11-19T04:49:00.000-06:00

Michael Veal traces dub's influence on other forms of music in different geographic locations at the end of his book Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. While he quickly glosses over the well-documented emergence of the hip-hop scene in New York, it is important to note that many of dub's production techniques and cultural production happen in other African diasporas. The South has contributed to the development of American music by injecting the blues, jazz, gospel and other styles produced by African-American communities. Of specific interest to me is screwed and chopped music, which has evolved out of Houston Texas, which has corollaries in memory, fragmentation, pharmacology, and consumption. In my examination, I take a look at “Servin a duce” by DJ Screw, “Still Tippin'” featuring Mike Jones, Slim Thug, and Paul Wall, “Cadillac on 22's (screwed and chopped)” by David Banner, “Love and Happiness (Al Green screwed and chopped),” and Kid606's “Robitussin Motherfucker (DJ Screw RIP).” I conclude by noting screwed and chopped's ability through pharmaceuticals and production methods to create a meditation space for resolving some issues I have with Southern rap culture.

Download the paper.
Download an accompanying mix.

Here's a YouTube playlist for a sampling of some screw videos and videos of DJ Screw and DJ Kralos producing screw tracks:

Lolspace.org Call for submission

2007-11-17T03:17:00.001-06:00

Josh and I have recently started a project in response to representations of space on album covers, and our interest in Lolcat memes. I just wanted to point you guys to our blog, and let you know that we'd love to have some images created by anyone on the blog. You can email them to Josh (josh.fishburn [at] gmail.com) or I (hebert.sara [at] gmail.com), and if you're interested in contributing on a regular basis, we can set up an account on the blog for you.

kthnxbai!

Excerpt from an examination of screwed and chopped music

2007-11-17T03:08:00.000-06:00

I pretty much love all music from the south, but screwed and chopped music is something just insanely psychedelic. Here's a small section from a paper I'm writing about meditation, the African diaspora, dub, and screw:

“Still Tippin'” featuring Mike Jones, Slim Thug, and Paul Wall, produced by Swishahouse and appearing on Mike Jones' Who is Mike Jones?

Produced by the Swishahouse camp out of Houston, “Still Tippin’” exhibits the method of screw music public performance “cruising” with a group while playing a mixtape. While screwed and chopped music emerged in South Houston from DJ Screw, Swishahouse was started by Michael “5000” Watts and Slim Thug to bring the sound to North Houston. “Still Tippin’” garnered commercial success and has been extensively remixed by DJ’s working in various genres.

While “Still Tippin’” is not considered a purist screwed and chopped song, its production methods are informed by the genre. The beat is composed of deep bass and sample of piano and saxophone with synthesized hand claps and melody line. This is complemented by a screwed version of the chorus, delivered by Slim Thug pitched down to a deep, thunderous, demonic tone. During his verse, Slim Thug’s delivery of the main theme of the lyrics “Still tippin' on fo’ vogues/wrapped in fo’ vogues/Pimping four hoes and I'm packing 44’s” is the only section of the song to be chopped, but in a non-traditional production mode. Chopping usually creates a quick repetition of sound, the chop of this theme creates an additional vocal layer. During the verses (one performed each by Slim Thug, Mike Jones and Paul Wall) the synthesized hand claps and melody drop out, creating a sparse, repeated saxophone swell, with crunchy snare hits. The delivery of the vocals creates a slurred, extended expression of vowels.

This lax delivery is representative of slow molasses like nature (perhaps due to the heat) of the South. This juxtaposition of the deep, almost menacing chorus and the relaxed, lazy delivery of verses represents the rap culture in Houston. The ultimate ego to exhibit is cool and restrained emotions, not worrying about the dangerous environment of Houston. An example of this chilled identity manifests in another song by Mike Jones “Back Then” where Jones incorporates his phone number into a rhyme - and yes, it is his real number and he will answer. The influence of promethazine is apparent on the culture and the production of screwed and chopped music. “Houston so real” because of of its relaxed nature even though it is bounded up in the delivery of lyrics bounded up in egoism, delivered off the cuff, as if a contestation of the greatness of these rappers just isn’t a big deal. Slowing down represents a security in their “big boss” -ness, and thus, they are keeping it real.

This security also points to a domestication of physical space, a ego that emerges from being aware of the possibilities of control for public space. While much screwed and chopped music emerged out of the bedrooms of Houston, its real domesticating power is exemplified in the act of tippin', in which screw music is being consumed in cars driving around the streets of Houston. The rappers on this track speak of the technical specifics of their car much like the housewife with hi-tech kitchen tools in the 1940s an 1950s (Taylor). For example:

Slim Thug:
Barre sippin', car dippin', grand wood grain grippin'...
[while drinking syrup, grabbing the wood grain steering wheel]
Five-percent tint, so you can't see up in my window.
[extremely dark window tint]

Mike Jones:
Car stop, rims keep spinnin'
[rims with discs that spin from moving forward when stopped]
I'm shakin' the block with four 18's, candy green with 11 screens.
[four subwoofers, super-shiny green paint, 11 LCD screens inside]
My gasoline always supreme
[using high octane gas regardless of its higher price]

Paul Wall:
I got 84's pokin' out, at the club I'm showin' out...
[vintage rims also known as fo' vogues]
Wood grain all in my range, drippin' stains when I switch lanes.
[wood grain steering wheel, paint so shiny and wet that it appears to drip]

Driving these cars through the streets of Houston enacts an ownership and contributing to this posturing is not only the essential screw mix tape, but also highly maintained, hi-tech vehicles. Much like the dub producers from Jamaica, reclaiming and domesticating space plays an important role in the screwed and chopped scene.

Death death and more death

2007-11-12T00:53:00.000-06:00

This past week on This American Life was a nice radio show about dealing with your parents and death. Its got really moving stories about assisting your mom in planning her suicide, making a documentary about your mother's murder, and why muder mystery dinners are offensive. Luckily, I haven't had to cope with that yet, but all this reading on memorials has made me ponder more about how I'll deal with the death of loved ones and my death.

Diane Di Prima Pt. 2

2007-11-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

YouTube - "Rant" Video

Here's the video for my audio composition around Diane Di Prima's Rant. Chris spent his evening last night working with all found footage from self help videos and other random finds from the thrift store (Dancin' Grannies, Yo yo instructional video, etc.). I can't tell you how happy I am with how this turned out, and to be working on a project with Chris again.

Diane Di Prima

2007-10-31T07:46:00.000-05:00

I just picked up Women of the Beat Generation because I wanted to submit a piece to a call of readings of Beat/Black Mountain writings back in Shreveport. I'm really happy with how mine came out, perhaps as a result of some of the ideas I had been messing around with in our Digital Sound Cultures class (particularly non-musical sounds, reverb, multilayering). To be honest, the only audio work I've ever done was small spots for KSCL and tinkering around in Fruity Loops while Chris wasn't looking. So, this has been a really fun, unique experience overall. Please feel free to check out the written version of Diane Di Prima's Rant and my audio reading of her poem.

TV Links is gone gone gone

2007-10-24T20:21:00.001-05:00

The site I used to catch up on all my cheesy 80's cartoons is gone, its maintainer arrested:

As reported in the Guardian, last Thursday a 26-year-old Cheltenham man was arrested and the site, tv-links.co.uk, was closed . According to the Gloucester police, the arrest was carried out for alleged violations of Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act.

The man was not charged and the case remains under investigation, says Eddy Leviten of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. He likened the activity of TV Links to someone who advertises a car that is not theirs. "The main issue is that the original material is stolen," he alleges. TV Links was collecting links to movies such as the new Nancy Drew film that were allegedly illegally recorded in the cinema and then hosted on Chinese websites, he said. The federation is pursuing the websites that host the material, but it is difficult to pursue sites not under English jurisdiction.

Link

Where else am I supposed to watch M.A.S.K.?

Critical Mashup Generator - for Mac

2007-10-08T11:56:00.000-05:00

I've been experimenting with Applescript lately and I set up a script that creates a mashup based on random selections from iTunes. I wanted to create an opportunity for myself and my machine to collaborate beyond tool utilization on a project, and I feel like I'm heading in the right direction. I'm putting the script up for download and tinkering if you're interested here.

I'm also throwing up my critical reflection just so I can access it later as well. And a mix produced by the script.

My initial thesis proposal

2007-10-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

Feel free to download my initial thesis proposal on digital memorialization here. I'm looking at collective memory and how participatory culture can shape it through digital memorials.

Memorialization and the act of mourning have taken on new dimensions as society looks to digital spaces to collectively mourn and commemorate events centered around death. My thesis will explore how digital memorials contribute to and have the potential to change the collective memory of the landscape of tragedy. I will also observe the role of rituals surrounding mourning in these spaces, how rituals in non-virtual spaces translate to digital memorials, and what new rituals may be emerging. Also central to my thesis is the role of participatory culture, and whether or not it democratizes memorial space shifting power from large organizations and committees to the public. I will focus on specific examples of digital memorialization, or a specific tragedy and its digital memorials and place these within the context of collective memory and participatory culture.

The Amen Break

2007-10-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a great video/installation by Nate Harrison on the Amen Break sampled from The Winstons' "Color Him Father". It's easily the most used breakbeat ever and I would assume followed up in popularity by "Funky Drummer" by James Brown/Clyde Subblefield (who has a myspace page!) and "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band. I think its an interesting meme in electronic music. I don't really have a background in memetics, or fully understand the concepts surrounding them but I would argue that the Amen Break, as a staple of hip hop, house, drum and bass and other genres of electronic music is really successful at survival. I really would like to spend some time looking at its mutations and also how it could be detrimental to its host (perhaps it's seen as too derivative?).

Also interestingly, Harrison argues that markets and capital will benefit from a more open and flexible culture and public domain.

EDIT: I'm sorry, as my fiance pointed out in the comments, the SONG the sample is from is "Amen, Brother" which is on the B-side. Color Him Father is on the A-side.

The Posthuman DJ - in the 70's at TX/LA radio

2007-10-02T22:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, I am floored by this amazing broadcast from The Black Pope:

"I'm a human radio station, I'm the transmitter, I'm the tower, I'm the turntables, I'm the building, I'm every doggone thing."

More jive DJ's here.

Ridley Scott releases the final Director's Cut of Blade Runner

2007-09-29T01:43:00.000-05:00

My favorite science fiction film is probably Blade Runner for a ton of reasons. I love the noir aspects, its basmy favorite Philip K. Dick work, Rachel Ross (Sean Young) is a hottie (I wish I could let my hair down and it suddenly be CRAZY CURLY), and the Egyptian themed office at the Tyrell Corporation and the 80's kitsch quality.

If you've ever seen the feature film release you've probably gone insane from Harrison Ford poorly delivered and written voiceover. The most nauseating part for me is when Deckard and Rachel escape to the magical nature world at the end. Seriously, did anyone say anything about how nice it would be to settled down in the countryside at all in the entire movie? The Director's Cut was an absolute treat after experiencing the awfulness that was the studio approved version. I love the music in the unicorn dream sequence; its quite possibly one of the most perfect visual/audio pairings in a movie ever.

Wired's interview really gives an image of Ridley Scott as someone who refuses to give up on his complex ideas about how Dick's story should be told visually. This is most certainly going on my Christmas list.

Scott: I was touching on possibilities like replication. It's now quite commonplace, but 25 years ago they were barely discussing it in the corridors of power. Now, the film is not really about that at all, it's simply leveraging that possibility into one of those detective film-noir kinds of stories. People were familiar with that kind of character, but not with the world I was cooking up. I wanted to call it San Angeles, and somebody said, "I don't get it." I said, "You know, San Francisco and Los Angeles." It's bizarre: People only think about what's under their noses until it comes and kicks them in the ass.

Mourning in Participatory Culture

2007-09-20T04:25:00.000-05:00

Since I've been investigating my thesis topic on memorialization and port-mortem data storage and all things digital death-ness, I've wondered how virtual spaces designed to be participatory deal with mourning. In general, most of these spaces lock users out of participation (ie. Second Life memorials to the Virginia Tech shootings, 9/11; static html memorials, post-mortem MySpace/Facebook pages - all of which are usually maintained by one person or by a select group), but an interesting counter-example is the funeral in World of Warcraft that took place a little over a year ago. The funeral was meant for the avatar of person who died IRL, and was raided by a rival guild:

Skip to about 5 minutes for the raid

My question here is how can mourning, a very private, solemn and personal experience be shared, created and carried out in spaces that are for the most part out of the control of users? At the same time, how can we experience death - particularly mass-death or high profile deaths, which often effect large groups of people - in spaces which are built upon a participatory culture without bastardizing or harming that experience?

musique concrete

2007-09-18T13:42:00.000-05:00

I thought this project (Musique Concrete) by Simon Morris was a nice mix of psychogeography, performance, and interactivity. The skateboard adds a really interesting performative element, merging musical and sports live performance in a way I haven't really seen before. I'd really like to have this for my daily commute.

Urb festival 2006 Kiasma Museum

Overwhelming

2007-09-14T02:43:00.000-05:00

I normally wouldn't post this sort of thing here, but I'm looking for some media help/suggestions on an issue very close to my heart. Last night, as Tropical Storm Humberto passed through my home parish, a tornado ripped through my sister's house destroying it and the majority of their belongings. Sadly, they didn't have homeowner's insurance for a variety of reasons, and also they had just completed some of the last steps to finishing their first home.

Pending the permission of my sister and her family, I'm going to be launching a website to do some fundraising to try to get them back on their feet and into their own home. I am really thankful that everyone made it out ok and just frazzled. Its times like these that really make me realize the insignificance of material objects and in general that there's very few concrete guarantees about life. I'm also really glad to see everyone in my family stepping up to help out and provide some temporary housing until they get on their feet.

Anyway, keep watching this space for more information about what fundraising efforts I can organize, and any updates about my family. In the meantime, if you're interested in lending a hand, please feel free to email me at hebert.sara at gmail.com

Read and watch more: http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7071891
Unfortunately the video does not work on Mac's, which of course, is a pain the butt.

Books for the quarter.

2007-09-14T01:56:00.000-05:00

Here's what I know I'll be reading this quarter for my Research Methods class and for my Digital Sound Cultures class.

Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music

Virtual Music: How the Web Got Wired for Sound

Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture

Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life

Web.Studies (I love love love the cover of this book.)

Reading Digital Culture (Keyworks in Cultural Studies)

And just for fun/research:

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide

Microserfs

My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts

Howdy

2006-08-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

This is a test post.

2005-12-20T12:46:00.000-06:00

Things I am doing over the holidays:

Learning some PHP
Finishing Chrismakwanzah (or whatever) presents
GRE Cramming
Visiting my recently married grandmother for a few days
Explaining to my parents why two of my friends are vegan and will be eating food here.
Re-Reading Seth's Its a Good Life if You Don't Weaken
Being a witness at a wedding
Missing folks

I edited my blog, fool.

2005-12-10T18:59:00.000-06:00

I saw Shannon at the mall today, which reminded me of my lack of friendship mending with folks lately. I try not to get sucked into my own little world, but it happens and I'm working on it.

It is so cold here at Bruce Ave. that my hands have numbed and I can't feel my fingertips when typing. The phone is ringing, and I don't feel quite domestic enough to answer. I'm trying to cut down on the domesticities of the relationship I'm in so that I'll be more prepared when it comes time for graduate school. In general, I am trying to keep social interactions to a minimum so that I won't go insane staring at my computer all day getting that master's.

I am afraid that I will forget what my life has been like for four years here, which have been possibly a few of the most important for me developmentally (aside from when my father left my family at an early age, and my mother living in a homeless shelter). As much time as I spend living life, I spend less documenting it.

I have failed to save photographs of friends, document my feelings about other people, or reflect candidly and honestly about myself and others. This is perhaps a direct result of my blogging style and my awareness that everything on the Internet is archivable and searchable and easily accessed. I hide things from people who show up on my statistics counter, etc.

I'm sure my concerns about documentation originate somewhere from how fast paced a technological life can be, as it seems everyone from Pasados (see new faux old buildings, typical of Mexican restaurants) to my parents (who decorate their home in "Old Timey" things) is deeply concerned in creating history, or the sense of a history. Even Jeffersonian architecture was developed with the idea of looking older, like Grecian temples - which brings me to believe this is a typically American idea...

huh...

2005-11-22T15:39:00.000-06:00

SH: "I think I'd be much happier just not talking to anyone for the rest of my life."
JH: "Then you're cut out to be an academic."

2005-11-13T22:44:00.000-06:00

SHREVEPORTERS:

I ask that you please please read and take note of the ridiculous experience I had at Yeero Yeero with Chris, Alysia, Allison, Ashley and Leo the other evening. The following letter will be sent to their place of business and the Better Business Bureau tomorrow. If you really want Greek food, try Athenian Delights instead.

This letter will be sent tomorrow, and I will cease eating there permanently. There's nothing wrong with Athenian Delights, and there's better atomsphere there anyway.

To the Owners and Management of Yeero! Yeero!:

I have long enjoyed the food at Yeero! Yeero! since moving to Shreveport three years ago. I have often had friends complain about the service provided at your establishment; however, I never experienced it first hand. Unfortunately, due to a series of events on November 11, 2005, I will no longer be dining at your facilities due to one of the most unpleasant dining experiences I have ever had.

Upon arrival with my party, we were left to sit for approximately seven minutes before anyone greeted us. After our drink orders were taken, we were not given menus, and had to borrow menus from other patrons until menus were brought to us. Even then, there were still not enough for everyone at the table. After our food arrived, we received no attention from waitstaff, and were often ignored or merely not heard when requests for more pita bread or drink refills were made. When my glass of water was filled, the waiter spilled a large amount of water on my arm, and did not acknowledge his mistake. At the end of our meal, we asked for the check to be split among our party, an action performed many times by the waitstaff at your restaurant in my many previous visits to your establishment. The waiter, however, refused to do so for our table. Our confusion and frustration only escalated when we realized we had been given the wrong bill. When a member of our party got up and brought it to our waiter's attention, he snapped it out of his hand without a word or even an apology for this inconvience. Additionally, when he returned with the correct bill, we did not receive an apology or even any word from our waiter other than slamming the bill on the table. Due to this and the poor treatment we received during our dinner, we decided to not leave a tip for the waiter.

Let me note that a tip is defined as gratuity for a service performed voluntarily or outside of obligation. At no time during our meal did we feel that the service given to us as paying customers was deserving of a tip. Rather, we were treated quite rudely and as is a tradition in our society we did not tip as a result of these actions.

Rather than taking notice of our lack of tip and adjusting his treatment of customers, our waiter ran out to our car to berate us about our lack of tip. When approached about an explanation we were waved off to leave, despite our willingness to explain the lack of tip and discuss the appropriate treatment of customers. This sort of harrassment will be made known to our friends who are regular patrons to your business.

Thank you for making time to read this letter, and I would appreciate if your business were to take customer satisfaction to be its highest priority in the future. If you have any questions about this letter or would like more information about our dining experience at Yeero! Yeero!, please feel free to contact me. I would be more than happy to speak to you in further detail.

Sincerely,
Sara Hebert

Please give your business to another place in Shreveport that appreciates its customers. Viet-Coast, India's, China Hot, Southfield Grill, Tacomania, Ichiban, and other places in town have top notch service, and great food to boot.

2005-11-11T15:52:00.000-06:00

It's amazing what you can get done in an hour.

2005-11-07T11:22:00.000-06:00

I think I'm a horrible writer, but my newest revision of my senior thesis is ballering. Check it.

In other news, I'm addicted to Harvest Moon now. I proposed to Nami, the girl that I call sexy girlfriend or Indie Rock Girl. She said yes, and now I'm going to have a farming wife with pink hair. How awesome! I also have 3 cows, 5 chickens and a massive field. I am rolling in the gold. Also interesting is the lack of any real machinery outside of the scientist's house and all that is like boiling liquids in vats. Also interesting to point out is the fact that you can't play as a woman, you can't marry someone of the same sex, and you are limited to only 3 women to propose and marry. I couldn't swoon any of the other girls in town if I wanted to. Nor could I even stay single because the game pairs you off with a foxy lady in the winter! So I rushed into proposing to my sexy girlfriend...er...wife. The most fantastic thing is the poor translation that has so many typos you'll have a "?" over your head for (virtual) days.

It makes me want to be a farmer, with a simpler, hard-working life.

2005-11-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

So I know I've got brains, and brawn (sometimes) but I really get saddened by girls in sororities.

I don't even want to be like them but I still get so depressed when I see that they have a bond with other girls. Whether or not it's as tight as a bond as I think it is, someone always stops to talk to them if they're in the same sorority.

I'm super jealous. They're all really freaking pretty, dress well and they're just supercute in general.

I wonder if its really media that are telling me to be like these girls, or if I pressure myself to be like them in order to be accepted by society. Surely there are a great number of forces at work here. However, I do wonder what causes me one day to be like "Those girls are stupid!" and then the next day say "God, I'm so jealous!" PMS?

And now, you think I'm stupid.

I'm just thankful for the pals I have. Without the few of them, I think I'd go nutso.

2005-10-31T16:32:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was great!

Lots of U2ness in the air, and I thought a lot about the book I'm slowly reading, Liveness by Philip Auslander. He writes about how the live performance has changed due to our highly mediatized culture, and I originally picked it up thinking about hip hop and electronic acts. Everytime I've watched a video'd or a live performance of groups of these types there's always some sort of antic that fills in the void where live music playing would reside. Whether its bringing on your huge crew, or wearing a metal mask, there's usually some gimmick to these electronically focused musicians. Think about DJ's and the stunts and tricks they perform while they're spinning - it would be pretty boring without them, because that would essentially just be you looking at some person moving their hands over records. We're even losing that little bit of liveness with new methods of mixing.

Anyway, back to U2! The stage is a marvel of mediation, boasting huge LED curtains which project amazing animations, and not to mention the running lights around the "egg" stage. I couldn't convince myself whether or not stage lighting antics were exciting or just simply distracting. Of course, I just wanted to star at 4 of my favorite men in the world the whole time, but how could I with all the flashing lights? Basically, it was a brain fuck of media that night, between the real live people down there, the big screens and all the freaking lights all over.

Not only was it a bombardment of color and sound but also of politics and pleas for help. My partner put it best when he said "It's like going to a political rally with music." Bono does a great job of convincing folks of the need to erase debt to third world countries and that wealthier countries need to give more to economic development and disease control there. For him it may be a matter of Coexistance, but for a lot of people it's the difference between living today and tomorrow. If you want to help, you can join the ONE campaign, or get specific and help with Debt Aids Trade Africa - DATA. Even just signing your name on a petition brings us one step closer to solving a huge worldwide problem.

So yeah, the music was great. Bono brought up a great young kid to play guitar on Angel of Harlem, and he even stumbled on the lyrics to "Stuck in a Moment." It was duly noted that Larry Mullen is quite "bowed up." (And it's his birthday today if you were wondering!) Adam seemed to enjoy himself, and I even caught a smile or two. The Edge's shirt was too baggy, but it didn't keep him from doing the "Edge Leg Stomp" or rocking that fine guitar. And Bono...well, gosh, was amazing.

I met a crazy lady who has seen U2 6 times and said that one time her husband told her "You're supposed to worship Jesus, not Bono." She even has a U2 tattoo. That lady is the shit.

I also got to see a Jackson Pollock in person, and I have a new found respect for his work. Seeing his artwork in person made it 100x better. I also got to check out a great installation by a Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima called Counter Ground, in which LED counters counted from 1 to 9 in various speeds in a darkened room. It was like watching technology breathe and take life.

I also visited Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum with a JFK Fanatic who felt like his life was complete after visiting. Its always an interesting place to visit, because of all the crazies there. I just can't imagine making a living off someone dying.

I have some great notes I took the other day at the Facebook Forum here on campus, but the Internet connections have been too wanky for me to post them up from my Mac. Until it gets resolved, I'll be updating from this janky PC lab.

2005-10-26T11:49:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

I'm reinventing myself, my blogging ethic, and what I write. I'm looking to use this blog as more of a meditation on technology and culture, with the heavy dose of great music, fun events, and of course ecological issues. The content will definitely be a little different from my last blog that you might have followed, but I'd love to see you keep reading. I'm just growing up and hitting the beginning of my "professional" career and a change in what I blog about was certainly needed.

xoxo,
Sara