Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog

I love Neil Patrick Harris, and I love Dr. Horrible's Blog; it's totally genius. Dr. Horrible's blog shows us what a high quality web series can be, without pretension, and without trying to be like a television show. It maintains its web series format and length, and although the characters and the acting/singing are great, like The Guild, it is meant to be seen on the computer in short bursts, and probably would not make it as an actual television show. It captures our attention completes a dramatic arc in each short episode and still leaves you wanting to come back later and watch another episode. I definitely think that half of the reason this show is so good is because of the music composition, which is apparently done by the brother of Joss Whedon. The music is clever, catchy, and very much in line with great musicals of today. Of course it also doesn't hurt that the lead character is played by Neil Patrick Harris who does an incredible job of being sincere in a ridiculous role.

The Guild

I know this web series is supposed to be ridiculous, but I can't help but see several of my friends in these characters. I think that may be what made the Guild so successful, because it was being made in a medium that people who would relate, are watching. Nevertheless, this show isn't only entertaining for people who play RPG's (I've never actually tried one) because it's genuinely hilarious and kind of heart-warming. The characters in the guild are nerdy, but they're cute, and particularly Felicia Day's character who is so likeable but also incredibly socially awkward, which makes for a good web series. It's interesting to think that a character like that may not have been as successful on television, but it works perfectly as a web series, perhaps because it reflects so many socially awkward Youtube video blogs that the show is based after.

New Media Reader (Intro 2)

The second introduction of the New Media Reader by Lev Manovich begins with a more sociological history of new media compared to the more technological time-line of the first introduction. Manovich attempts to explain why the United States has been so far behind on the new media trend with it mainly coming down to the lack of government funding. The culture of commercialism in America has established that the new media being created in this country will be made mostly for commercial means, funded by advertisers. The problem with advertisers funding art pervades throughout American film, television, and new media and causes artists to work like robots in set formats and dumb down their content to appease their patrons. Because of this motivation behind most new media here it was easy to see how the "art world" took so long to recognize it as an equally creative and artistic medium. As Manovich explains, "This resistance is understandable given that the logic of the art world and the logic of new media are exact opposites." While the art world is based on individual authorship, the uniqueness of the piece, and control over how it is distributed, the new media realm praises work that goes "viral," for the work to exist in several forms, and a sense of collaborative-authorship (Manovich, 14).
New media called into question the entire idea of authorship and distribution; it worked on an entirely new set of principles that took advantage of the community network of the web looking to connect with one another. This is why Manovich argues that there needs to be a separate field of new media art apart from art made with the use of digital programs.
In addition to this cultural history, Manovich discusses the cultural importance of new media and computer science and attempts to define it in several ways. He explains how all of our culture today is being filtered through the computer in some way or another and deserves to be discussed as a historical phenomenon, which makes new media ever-harder to define. First it is separated from the idea of cyber-culture and the social aspects of the Internet, and then it is separated from any kind of finished products and instead describes new media as the digital data that is created to be used in multiple forms. New media is also, according to Manovich, "the aesthetics" of digital media and computer interfaces, as well as the "language" of the computer. It is clear that the definition of new media is ever-changing and extremely widespread.

Noah Wardrip-Fruin

I don't know much about video game design or programming but I still found Noah's lecture interesting. His interest in the relationship between the game designer and the player is a topic that I had never really thought about before. I was particularly interested in the idea that the game designer could, in essence, be having a conversation with the gamer as he showed with the example of Sim City. The idea behind Sim City is that there is an ultimate city construction that would run smoothly and efficiently and be self-sustaining and in order to do that the player must continue to learn through trial and error the rules of the game. It was also cool to see how some defects are created with his guided tour through the Star Wars X-Box game. I've seen these types of problems occur in some games that my brother used to play, and always enjoyed the games with the most elaborate plot lines so it is interesting to see the method behind creating the story lines. Noah made game design seem a lot less foreign to me and may have peaked my interest in playing some new video games to try to understand more about the inner workings.

Bingo/Ryan

The animations by Chris Landreth are really innovative. I don't know very much about animation but it seemed like the style of this kind of animation was totally different than anything I've seen before. The fact that the short Bingo was created to demonstrate the capabilities of a new animation software makes perfect sense because it was an excellent visual display of the variety of animation the software could create. Landreth used a similar animation style for his animated documentary, Ryan, to an even more creative extent. I didn't fully understand the meaning behind some of his animation choices but I did feel like the style he had chosen really accented the documentary and give it more gravity rather than a typical animation which tends to make the world look childish. For example, I couldn't understand why the presumed restraints around the characters were so colorful while the rest of the "world" was in gray tones, although it was nonetheless visually very interesting. I would love to see more of this type of animation in the future, it reminds me of the semi-animated film Waking Life.

Sand Beasts

Theo Jansen's sand beasts are incredible creatures. When I first saw this video I couldn't help but think that these creations are really alive, and that maybe, we need to expand our definition of life to include things like this. Maybe it doesn't need to eat, but it is fueled by the wind, and maybe it doesn't have a soul, but it does crawl around all on its own. Perhaps it was the way that the beasts moved that made them seem so lifelike and at the same time, so completely futuristic. I would love to understand more about the mechanics of these creations to know how they are actually moving.

Water Printer

I love technology like this water printer. I love when the calculated, analytical precision of computers and programming come together with something organic and beautiful. This water printer is the epitome of that juxtaposition between the digital and the organic. As I watched the youtube video of this fountain for the first time I kept thinking of it like the beading loom I used to have as a kid. With the loom I could create really intricate designs one line of beads at a time the same way that the water printer creates designs by dropping each line of water with a different pattern of water droplets and no water. These kinds of devices help to push the idea that technology and computers can create something beautiful and artistic.

The New Media Reader

When I signed up for this course I had very little understanding of "new media," but the very first sentence of The New Media Reader helped me to clarify this field as the use of "the computer as an expressive medium" (Murray, 3). The introduction of this textbook starts to paint a picture of the vastness and potential power of "the digital medium" as both a tool for understanding, communication, and organization, but also as an incredible means of self-expression and collective-expression. The use of the world "new" reflects its ever-changing nature and the fact that we are still unsure of its full potential and uses; it requires an entirely new way of thinking about the arts and creative expression. As Murray explains, "the right instruments organize not just the outer world but consciousness itself," (Murray, 4). It becomes a self-perpetuating system as we are able to further complicate technology, we must learn to think in more complexity, which will in turn require more advanced technology. This idea is displayed in the chronology that Murray presents us from the invention of the pen to the rise of print, to the creation of the computer, the internet and all of the applications that were designed for it. She explores through this time line both the advancements in the actual technology and also in society's perspective of the technology and how it could be used. Murray completes this part of the introduction with an important conclusion as to why humans would struggle to use something as cold and mechanical as a computer system to express ourselves and her answer is that we "are drawn to a new medium" as humans have been throughout history. We must constantly look for news ways to communicate and understand one another as our access to the world and information expands.

As I was reading, one of the ideas that struck me the most was our "desire to get everything in one place," (Murray, 6). I have been witnessing this phenomenon for years as I first complained about the isolating dangers of the Blackberry (or Crackberry). Devices were being designed to replace the need to interact with people face-to-face more and more, because utilities were being compressed and added to one mobile device. Years ago, skeptics of the computer shared my fears believing that it would "amplify the destructive powers of television (for example, in exercising even greater holding power over consumers, further alienating them from the "real" world)," (Murray, 7). Today, an individual with a blackberry or an iphone has the power of a phone, a computer, the internet, entertainment, navigation, and more without ever having to look up at the world in front of them. I've found that often, people with these devices, can no longer hold full conversations and instead sit, eyes glazed, staring at a mini-screen, interrupting your discussion with instant messaging and research on Wikipedia and Facebook. Obviously there are huge benefits to these tools, but I am most concerned that the overuse of them will lead us each to be completely isolated in a very Wall-E-esque type of world.

The Magic Wall

The creation of the magic wall was revolutionary, to say the least. I remember first seeing it in the Minority Report and thought wow that looks cool, but I never expected that it was real and functioning. I recently got an Ipod Touch and discovered how incredible this touch technology is. Even my mother, who can barely turn on her desktop computer, found the IPod Touch easy to use and was even amused by it. It actually made technology fun for her, which may not have been the purpose of the technology, but it's a great bonus. The scale of the actual wall makes it an incredible tool for organizing a lot of information at once. The daily show episode that jokes about the magic wall illustrates, albeit totally exaggerated, the potential power of a technology like this. It seems these days that technology allows us to do almost anything so who knows how far it could get. I'm sure there were plenty of other people who never expected something like this to be created in our lifetime so perhaps one day there will be an all-powerful super computer (although I imagine it won't be controlled by John King).

Flute/Beatboxing

I officially want to work for Google. If it means getting to see performances by Beardy Man and Nathan Lee the flute-boxer, then I want in. I'm always looking to see someone do something original and innovative and the idea to use a flute while beat-boxing is ingenious, and although beat-boxing has been around for awhile, Beardy Man's ability to imitate the sounds of an actual computer-generate techno song are mind-blowing. I sometimes feel like technology is going to surpass human ability, and perhaps already has in many fields, but to see a person capable of making those sounds all by himself, simultaneously has restored my faith in humanity.

Danyl Johnson - X-Factor

What a voice this guy has! I literally had goosebumps listening to Danyl Johnson sing for this X-factor audition, which for all intensive purposes, was really a huge concert performance. I see that reality TV has become even more of a spectacle when they start shoving in huge audiences in expensive venues for the first round of auditions. I think this means we're spending too much time watching X-factor if they can afford to do that. Nevertheless, if X-factor could find Danyl Johnson in the see of fame-obsessed Americans, then perhaps I should give it, and other performance based shows like it, another chance. Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed the idea that a little old housewife or school teacher from England could be discovered as the next big thing (this is a very American fantasy that seems to have infected much of the western world), but usually the winners from these competition shows have one hit single, if that, and then fade away again feeding into the 15-minutes of fame phenomena.