Worries, Worries Everywhere: Digital Media

Social-political worries-

This to me is probably one of the biggest worries of all with digital media and Wikileaks especially. Wikileaks to an extent revolves around these worries. It included power and control worries from the government and the people in charge, but it also involves worries from the people too, worries about their own privacy and individual worries about their secret.

Let's start with the first part, the worries coming from the government. First and foremost, I think its ridicules that they even have to worry, the first amendment states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Although they are not making a law to stop him (yet) they are trying to find other ways to arrest him. They file charges against him that coincidentally happen at the same exact time as the Wikileaks!! (The charges from Sweden.) In summary, there are no laws that are being broken by Julian Assange, so why worry??

The second section is about the peoples worries, most I would say are thoroughly enjoying the leaks and the whole buzz about it, but there are the ones who don't like that all of their private documents are being exposed. The majority of these people are the ones that have a reputation to protect and has their fair share of skeletons in their closets that are now getting revealed and jeopardizing their future. So they d have the right to worry, but for their own mistakes.

Social-interpersonal worries-

The social worries about heavy Internet users only socializing online and therefore isolating themselves and all that seems unnecessary to me. If a person wants to socialize online instead of in person its a) their choice (most importantly) and b) it is probably because of a bad past experience in their life or c) it's their personality. 

The first thing I mentioned is that it’s their choice. This part is simple, they decide how they want to socialize, not everyone else, so quit the worrying.

Next is the kids you usually see always online gaming 24/7 and only talking on their headset to people in the game are usually the kids that get picked on (especially in high school) right? Because they have been bullied, excluded, and made fun of by other humans in person, that a lot of times just pushes them deeper and deeper into this imaginary world online where their life doesn’t suck. A lot of people get all worried for these kids and think its so bad for them to talk online instead of face o face, but if that’s what makes them happy, then why worry, and why bother them even more.

Finally, it could just be their personality, it may be harder for them to be social and feel comfortable when not behind a screen, but if the only way they can open up and communicate is the Internet, then let the introverts be introverts. And if your an extravert, more power to you, that’s probably one of the reasons its so easy for you to talk about these issues, but that doesn’t mean everyone needs to try to be a extravert.

Psychological-emotional worries-

Internet addiction can be a huge issue, depending on how far it has gone without being addressed. I took a look at the links and Growing Up Online was very fascinating to watch. It was shocking to see that so many schools completely surround their students in technology at such a young age, they showed a grade school class and they were all sitting at computers, the teacher was showing a PowerPoint of some sort with technology, and they were talking about how they did pod casts. It seemed unreal that at such a young age they aren’t just sitting in a regular classroom with books and the same classroom feel I had when I was young. I think that even though the teachers realize growing up in a world of technology is bad, that it's weird they are some of the ones surrounding them with it.

The other example I found pretty shocking was the 13-year-old boy was sitting alone updating his MySpace, with his little brother who is 7 is playing a game online, but also not only a game, a socializing, interactive game. When I was little I RARELY used the Internet, and when I did, I sat on my moms lap and she helped me play games, and monitored me. Now parents are just letting their kids use the Internet at whatever age as often as they want. This is asking for them to get an Internet addiction, because the online world is so fascinating, new, surreal, and endless, who could resist??

Sychological-cognitive worries-

The worries about this form of digital media are understandable because yes, Digital media does make our brain's memory and focusing abilities not function as well, but I would not say it is making us dumb. Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid" article was interesting, but I would disagree, I think that with every loss there’s a gain, and although we may lose some things, with digital media, the gain is a bottomless one, and well worth it. I also agree that there is no way we will go back to the way it used to be and with good reason.

On the other hand I do think that the worries about distraction from the Internet are legitimate. In Carr's book The Shallows he writes, "The natural state of the human brain, like that of the brains of most of our relatives in the animal kingdom, is one of distractedness. As soon as something in the environment changes, we need to take notice because it might mean danger - or opportunity" (Carr 64). This means that every time a pop up comes up, or we see something that pulls our eye in on the side margin, we take notice and let our brains get off track. Digital technology is literally designed to distract us. With that said, there are so many benefits and opportunities that it offers, that its worth the minor flaws in the long run.

Behavioral-practical worries- 

"When you check your information, when you get a buzz in your pocket, when you get a ring — you get what they call a dopamine squirt. You get a little rush of adrenaline," he says. "Well, guess what happens in its absence? You feel bored. You're conditioned by a neurological response: 'Check me check me check me check me.' " I started this last section with this quote because it was one that really made perfect sense to me and summed up my thoughts on the last topic pretty well. Using technology all day everyday becomes a habit, and the more you do it and more often you do it, like any habit, it gets harder and harder to break, and can develop into a behavioral problem.

Referencing the above quote, as a nation we use technology all the time, from texting all day, to checking our email, and of coarse facebooking, blogging, twittering, gaming, and everything in between. When we are not using technology, we have trained our bodies, through this obsessive using of the web, to get bored and need to be stimulated. This is one example of a behavioral problem developing with a lot of people in this generation, and it's only getting worse every year. 

"We are spending too much time in front of screens and not enough time up on our feet moving around, going outdoors, ect." This is a quote from the assignment page by Bob King, and it is true, the solution is not to boycott technology, but to take a portion of that technology time, and go outside with friends, or take a kickboxing class, and just get moving! This is an easy, simple, and great way to help fix one of the problems with digital media.

My personal experience with Digital Media-

Although our generation uses technology more than the ones before it did, the younger the person, the worse it gets. My little sister is four years younger than me and now gets on facebook 10 times more than me a day, Photoshops all of her photos (something I learned to do just a few weeks ago in this class) and is constantly texting and using her phone all the time. Although I text a good amount, and get on facebook maybe 3 or 4 times a day, my technology habits are not even close to the extent hers are.

When I was watching the Growing Up Online video, I was reminded of a memory from my childhood. The little 7-year-old boy was playing this Penguin Club game and explaining it to the cameraman. It reminded me of when I used to come home from school, in middle school, and either have a snack, or start working on homework, and my little sister would always be playing that penguin game on the computer, she must have been 9 or 10 at the time, and I would ask her how it worked and watch her play sometimes. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?? Why is it that my little sister was explaining thing to me. I guess I just never really got into computer games as a kid, but she started using technology at a young age, and it shows now. As each generation goes on, the kids will get better and better at understanding technology, and along with that, get all the side effects of it too.

Boundary Dissolution From Science to Jazz

"Around two and a half years of age a child can actually begin to recognize himself in the mirror." This is a quote from the first source, "The Empathic Civilization" that I found interesting and because it states further that after that happens they can begin to recognize others having an emotion or feeling and understand why they are reacting that way, i.e. mixing emotion with cognition.  In Jonathan Lethem's article he covers many topics from technology to blues and jazz, but the one quote that stood out to me was about the different types of media and how they became central in expressing ones self; "Visual, sound, and text collage... became explosively central to a series of movements in the twentieth century." In "The New Literacy," it talks about how the Internet is not necessarily a bad thing and also the parallels between learning and living, and essentially to me says that to live in this world, you are always learning and they go hand in hand. Some learn from book, some from the Internet, and some from experiences depending on your generation and where you live in the world, but you are always learning.

Helene Hegemann's piece was very interesting, it was cool to get a perspective from someone close to our age, one thing that he said I though was fascinating but also true was "Creative culture is dominated by borrowing and repurposing," although that isn't a good thing, its how the best ideas and thoughts are forced, by reading, others work, discussing with others, and forming an opinion based off of multiple sources and then making it your own and putting your twist on it. I loved the piece by Lawrence Lessig because the topic is very similar to my topic for Wikileaks about freedom of the press. He is correct in saying we as a nation put freedom and rights in two separate boxes, but if we could just break that border or boundary line and think of them together, it could really help open up for some great discussion and might even help form new ideas and viewpoints.

"The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined." this is from us copyright information and to elaborate on this quote, I think its good to explore and experiment with blending things like creativity and intellect, and even freedom and rights, but if the line were blurred between these two it could be a recipe for disaster. This may be one thing that needs to remain the way it is. The "Creative Commons" website visually pulled me in by the layout, under the creative section was culture and on the other side was science, although that may not be something that they purposely did, it still orchestrated to me a sense of boundary between intellect and creativity. "Bound by Law translates law into plain English and abstract ideas into ‘visual metaphors.’" This sounds so awesome! It is helpful in making some complicated topics easier to understand by putting them in black and white. This quote was pulled from the "Bound by Law" link.

Les Manovich talks about how he uses technology to digitally display art work and break different pieces up into quadrants or sections so you can focus on different areas, this mixes the boundary between pieces that had originally been drawn or painted on paper, and technology and pixels. He uses technology to help assist benefit the art in a positive way. Although I found the two pieces Issa and "The Old Spice Guy" interesting, I feel like they didn’t really reveal anything new to me. I don’t really think there is much of a boundary to be blurred between the artist, and the people behind it all, they seem to be in the same category and already mix quite well.

"The Story of Cosmetics" was pretty much telling us that everything in everything is poisoning and giving cancer to everyone and all of their friends and families. In my opinion everything gives you cancer, and so I don't think that walking on eggshells with everything you use and do to prevent cancer is silly. The two articles by Steve Dixon talked about how the Internet comes into play with performances. He used the example of; "New dramatic forms and performance genres emerged in interactive installations and on the Internet." This is true with moms wanting to show their daughters dance recital online for family or even friends posting part of a one act they did on facebook and tagging their friends that did it with them. But posting performances and using the Internet to show your favorite show or your own work can be helpful to others. It can help give a performer ideas of different takes on a song they want to use for an audition, and also can help them get a better idea of what song to pick.

Blending art and science seems like a stretch but when you think about it, that kind of blending happens everyday. Here is an example of that; "Her voice is electronically treated to make her phrases shorter in mathematically precise increments and the orchestra matches this shorter phrasing." This is a quote from the piece Hypermusic Prologue. Lastly were the Hip-Hop and Remix links, the one on Wikipedia had a very fascinating fact; "The roots of hip hop are found in African-American music and ultimately African music." I never would have guessed that but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The second part to it is the remix part, and its origin, found in the second Wikipedia link, is Jamaican. So Hip-Hop remixes origin is Africa-Jamaican. Cool right??

In my own life as a student at UNCSA, I am asked to blend boundaries all the time, not only in my arty classes, but also in academics. Like it is with mostly everyone, it can be hard to break that line between two things at first, but you just have to ignore the part of your brain that’s been told, "you can't mix those two things" and think creatively. For example, one of my projects I’m working on right now I am making my spiritual dwelling place and am asked to mix creativity, planning, perspective, and realism all in one. At first it was hard for me to put a tree inside and a wooden fence in an ice cave with mountains next to stairs, because it didn’t seem right, but when i was finally able to mix fantasy with realism, it turned out really cool. Also in a drawing class, simultaneously, I am asked to mix science with art, by drawing a skull and then making it not as real, and that is another thing that was difficult, but good in the long run to experiment and play around with. I think it’s very important to explore breaking boundaries and to be able to blur and even dissolve them.

Video on Wikileaks: Freedom

I really enjoyed working with creating this video and exploring the program. It was a great way to get familiar with the program and learn how to do projects like this. I'm not very tech-savvy so creating all of these digital projects has taught me a ton! I made the foundation for this video with two different types of media, a YouTube video, and my own audio college from Audio Hijack. I then added images to fit with the lyrics, words, and theme. I Finished the video with a GrooveShark file, downloaded via Audio Hijack from School House Rock.
The theme for this video was once again freedom of the press, but also leaning more towards secrecy, and the government. The first segment of the video is the beginning of my audio collage with pictures of  Julian Assage showing up to the beat. I also messed around with some of the effects and made some fade, zoom, and swirl in. Next it goes into a video clip of Cenk Uygur talking about how the government hid a lot of murder, rape, and torture from the public, and numerous documents. I strengthened this part with images of torture, guns, and other images timed to go along with the words.
Next it transitions into another part of my audio collage with John F. Kennedy speaking about secrecy and that it is not a value in America and put pictures of JFK to go with the music as well. These pictures were shown in a calm, and orderly way, and gave the viewer time to study each of them. With Julian's pictures they came in from different directions, and flashed quickly, creating a more chaotic, fast moving environment. This was a design choice to illustrate the chaos of Wikileaks and the mood of the situation with Julian Assange, while on the other hand, JFK was a noble, calm man and spoke in a tranquil way. I orchestrated the mood of his character with the way the images were displayed.
After the JFK segment I went to another section of the same video with Uygur that talks about the charges Julian is being charged with and how its such a crazy "coincidence" that it happened at the same time as Wikileaks was going on. I added some simple images to this part to add interest and help keep the viewer engaged. Also it was just a fun way to show how silly the process was to charging him.
The final section is part of a song about the constitution, government and our country. I put up images of the constitution, the USA, and other patriotic images to make a mockery of this situation with Wikileaks and the lack of freedom of the press the government is showing Julian Asssange.
Video media is very effective in being about to do all of the different types of media at once. It was far more effective than the image composition because it had more depth to it and effectively went to the beat and engages the viewer. The only downfall of it was that it to me didn't seem quite as effective as the audio college. The reason is because although it was able to do more at the same time, it runs the risk of becoming distracting for the brain to multitask like it is asked to in viewing the video. Overall I felt this video had a very effective and powerful end result.

Freedom of the Press: Wikileaks Audio Remix

The Remix I created was mostly based off of two main songs, An instamental of 3 peat by Lil Wayne, and A song from School House Rock the musical called The Preamble. I chose 3 Peat, because it was a great beat to start with and fit well with a lot of my I had gathered. I then started the only Lyrics with the words Julian Assange that I pulled from different YouTube clips of people saying his name. I did this for two reasons; the first was to set a very dramatic and interesting tone or the Remix, and the other was to show how much press there is about Wikileaks and Julian. Next I added a clip of Cenk Uygur saying how Julian is telling the truth to the American people. Then I followed that with adding a clip stating that the first amendment enforces freedom of the press This is to establish where I am going with this mix up and whose side I'm on, so to speak. For the last part of the first segment involving the back beat 3 peat, I put in a speech by John F. Kennedy about secrecy, he states that we are as a nation opposed to secrecy, and that its bad. This works in beautifully with the topic of Wikileaks and freedom of the press, and that the government should be concerned unless they are trying to hide things and keep them, secret.

In the second section of my remix, I used The Preamble Song and mixed it with a few different types of audio. I lead into this segment with a very loud statement saying we don't want to be America anymore; this is a great way to grab the listener’s attention and pull them in. Then I went into a short snippet of the song singing, "do you know about the USA?" Next I added more explanation about the first quote in this segment, and so on. I continued to go back and forth between the song talking about our constitution, and statements made about Julian Assange and how he has done nothing legally wrong with Wikileaks. I think this is the strongest part of the remix and mixed very well together, although it too the longest, it was well worth it, and I was pleased with the end product. It is most defiantly mocking, sarcastic tone, just like my image was but with this remix, it was much more powerful than the image. It grabs the listener’s attention very successfully in many parts of the song, and has a great beat to it.

The last section of my remix has many of my hall-mates and friends stating freedom of the press one right after another. Behind this is The Preamble Song summing up how the constitution helps us run our country and keep people free through their rights. Lastly I added four songs singing about freedom and cross-faded them together to finish the remix up. This was to send the listeners away with a nice flow and beat, but also for mockery purposes once again.

Audio is a great way to express emotion, meaning, and mostly yourself. Not only can one express themselves through design choices and what beat you use, or how the tone of the lyrics can express thousands of different emotions, but one can also express their option on a topic, person, or pretty much anything. Another great thing about audio is that one is not just typing the words to be read or interpreted in whatever way the reader sees them, one can layer a dramatic, loud, fast passed violin solo under their stressed, dynamic lyrics and set a mood of chaos and fear. Or take the same words but have them spoken in a slow, soft, calm voice with the sound of waves crashing on a beach and make that same thing into a tranquil and soothing piece. With images one can show the viewer a more powerful moment then most text, but with audio, not only is it stronger and more effective, but its more than just a few moments, it can be a whole ten minutes of a powerful vibe. Overall audio is time consuming, but well worth expressing a point in the end because of its powerful impact.

Knowledge is Power: Technology

Most of the content I reviewed were all yet another eye-opener to this crazy world of technology that is advancing at an almost scary speed. Below I briefly touch on each of the sources, it was not only an eye-opener, but also very interesting information, and there were even cool bands and documentaries.

The one thing that caught my ear, so to speak in the Instructors audio clip, was that digital media IS made up of tiny little pieces that all come together and form images, text, and sound. It was also so interesting to think about how every single thing done digitally can be translated into numbers. The text by Lev Manovich explained how "new media" is defined. It essentially said that new media is a large revolution in media. An example he used was the printing press, and now the Internet. Lev Manovich states: "We are just beginning to register its initial effects." This quote stood out to me because it is so true that this is only the beginning of the digital world. He states the five key principles of new media and summarizes each key point; the five are numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcending. The one he goes the most in depth into is variability and states that variability helps us to connect many characteristics of new media that at first sight may seem unrelated.

The Sampling Rate was a great page to help me understand the project I’m working on now and what all of the waves in the graph mean. The Chaplin video, although goofy and entertaining, was a great way to illustrate how factories back then worked and how different things are done (and speeds they are done at) in this digital nation we now live in. Next was the Did You Know video, the statistic that surprised me the most was that the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. Although these statistics were interesting and some were even astonishing, I felt like it was just a lot of facts thrown together, in other words, it didn't really do anything for me.

I was mesmerized by the Atomic Tom video on the subway. As soon as it started I just stared in amazement until it was over. It is so cool to see what people can do with technology nowadays. Although it was a great performance, I think this should be another thing that our nation can look at and be able to say, this is really the reality our world is coming to, and this could be seen as an everyday thing in a few year; something that we won't even bat an eyelash at. Lastly the documentary, The one thing that drew me in was the introduction or opening, where he stated that this film, the people dancing, and the viewers watching the video were all illegal things, but that was the REASON he made the film. It was cool to experience a film almost based off of spite.

When I worked on my Wikileaks Mix, the graphs of the wave links looked very similar to the ones on the Sampling Rate page. It also made my project make a lot more sense, for example when I zoom in and out the wavelengths would change drastically, and sometimes worried me because I thought I had pushed the wrong button and altered my audio. After reading the Sampling Rate page, I realized it was just showing detail closer together or farther away, causing it to look completely different. After I read about the wavelengths, I went back to my audio mix-up and zoomed all the way in to look at the details in the waves, this time going into it with a better education of how to read what they mean. I also made some changes and messed around with making the waves longer and shorter to alter the volume and amplify some of the quieter clips.

Like I stated about, this content was enjoyable to listen to, read, and watch, filled my brain with a lot of facts and helped me see even more how quickly this technical world is advancing. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and in this situation, it couldn't be more true. The best part about these documents for me was the wavelengths page, because it was so fascinating and helped me to be a little less frustrated with the project and understand what I was doing more.

Let Freedom Ring: Photoshop Project

I started this image with the American flag as a foundation. I did this because I wanted to have the focus of this image be about the first amendment and so I used the flag as a symbol for our country. Then I put a picture of Julian Assange In the upper left hand corner, I picked one of him looking high and mighty because the people who comment on Wikileak's facebook page love Julian for founding Wikileaks and revealing all of these documents. I also put him up there so it would resemble him almost as god looking down on the people.

Next I added “we the people” and feathered the edge to make it blend well and to make the sharpness of Julian still stand out. I then added the scroll and feathers to help tie in the “we the people”, sort of constitution look. It is also a symbol of how times have changed, from writing with a feather and ink well on a scroll, to the viewing and discussing the endless documents that Julian gave us access to. There is a facebook image with some people from facebook that I placed under the “we the people”, this is to help say that the people of our country can express themselves and discuss Wikileaks on facebook.

Then I have the people talking with duck tape on their mouths, I did not place the duck tape to say that they are not allowed to talk about Wikileaks, I placed it there to say if the government is going to go against freedom of press, then what's to say they wont take away freedom of speech too? Lastly I put the handcuffs on Julian Assange, this is to show that he has the freedom of press, but they still want to stop him, and it could come to the extreme of locking him up for doing nothing wrong.

I wrote freedom of speech under the people with duck tape on their mouths and freedom of press above Julian to add the dramatic quality that this image portrays. Then finally I wrote let freedom ring, to add a sarcastic and almost mocking tone to the picture, I feel like I was able to convey the more vivid and powerful tone I wanted for my image, then I could have shown through my text. This is mostly because it is condensed into one moment when you look at the image and kind of have that "Whoa" feeling that couldn't be achieved with a text. But on the contrary, with a text I feel like the reader gets the idea better because it can’t be taken the wrong way, which is possible with images.

Words and images defiantly stimulate different parts of the brain; personally I think that an image stimulates the creative part of your brain while text stimulates the intellectual side, for the most part. Therefore when an image and text are in combination it energizes the brain so much and makes for a stronger message.

Intellect and Creativity

At The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, creativity is key. Without a sense of creativity, it would be more than just difficult to get through this school, and in addition to that, it's probably not the place for you. From the school of Drama, to Dance, to Design and Production, every field at this school practically requires creativity. For acting one needs to be able to preform improvisation and think outside the box. For dance, one can only take what the teacher is saying to a certain extent, but if there isn't a sense of their own flow and style, then what makes it special. Then you have Design and Production, and that is something where you really have to think outside the box, from designing a costume for a show about cannibalism, to lighting a stage with just the right moodiness for the scene of a death. Creativity is KEY at this school.

In addition to that, intellect is very important here as well. An artist has to be able to discuss their design decision and why they chose to convey it that way, and use intellect to support their creativity. That's why these two mix so well together. For example, in Color and Design, the teacher will tell us to be creative with a project and really think like an artist. But she always stresses not to just do things mindlessly and call it art, you have to put intellectual thought into your design decisions. Then when you go to present it, she will challenge you and ask why you picked that certain color, or twisted the wire in that type of curve. They both must coexist to really create great papers, art, dance pieces, blog entrees, and everything else in between at UNCSA.

"Engage in creative work intelligently, and engage in intellectual work creatively" -Bob King. This quote was pulled from Media Studios: A Field Guide. It really describes and summarizes this school, and mixing these two properties together. It shows it's not enough to just create art without intellectual though, and it's not enough to write a paper without using creativity to make it unique, your own and most importantly, engaging.

Writing creativity, and with your own style is very important, especially at School of the Arts. Academics at any other school they would want a student to write very linearly, and pointA, pointB, etcetera... at this school one can write how they want to and more free and CREATIVELY. But, it should not just random and artistically written without INTELLECTUAL thought behind it. This is a quote from Meeting Macomber, REMIXING intellect and creativity, wrote by Bob King; "I'm also talking with you creatively now, making connections between disparate points, not between sequential points... In some places it is more like connecting pointA to pointQ rather than connecting pointA to pointB, and that's okay." This relates to the previous statement I made about things not having to be completely linear thoughts, in fact, it’s best not to in many cases. These two things mix beautifully together and both help add interest to one another.