site map, blog post #7

My fist page will be my intro page, explaining my topic. This page will be visually pleasing and probably contain some fan art or a promotional video to lure visitors into checking out the rest of my site.

My next four pages will go as follow.

Because there is so much misinformation about running shoes and so many brands of running shoes, I have decided to dedicate an entire page to debunking some of the myths and provide my own suggestions for footwear while participating in the sport. This section will be closely related to interfacing. The shoes one chooses to run in are the make or break point for athletes. Shoes are the point of interaction for athletes with the sport. Choosing a proper interface is necessary to enjoying the sport.

My second page will be dedicated to modularity. Similar to Kimberlee I also plan to have an entire page dedicated to memes and cool fan art that others have created. I do not know if this page will be a promotion page or a de-motivational page. I will have to consider my audience before I make that decision. perhaps the page could contain both.

My third page will be based on Data base logic. This page will explain how it does not matter when or where you start running only that you can move where ever you want within the sport. People have asked me what they have to do before they can go trail running. I typically stare at their face for a second then tell them it is necessary to drive to a trail head. Many people believe there is a special club or secret handshake they have to perform before they can "advance" to trail running, or that they have to be an accomplished marathon runner. Like a database one can move within the sport picking up or leaving off anywhere they wish.

Although there is nothing automated about running, I am going to link my last page to automation because I am going to automate my last page by providing resources for people interested in the sport. My last page will be a page of resources ready for a viewer to click and be hyper linked to useful outside pages were they can continue their own narrative and move beyond mine. This page will contain links to youtube with useful videos, links to races in the area, rehab and pre-hab tips, and trails to go run on.

The Office Chapters

1. Home Page- Obviously. My homepage will be dedicated to drawing in viewers with heavy emphasis on visual design to offset the nerdyness of Manovich inclusion. You will find my introduction and plot synopsis on the home page.
2. Characters- I would like a page dedicated to the many characters of the show. There are so many and all are incredibly different. I would like to showcase the identifiers of their personality. I will focus on transcoding here and show the way a show can morph a person into a character. We usually think of actors as the characters and call them by their character name, especially with long-standing shows like The Office.
3. Seasons- With nine seasons, the story line is long. Characters come in and out. I think it is safe to say, we all have a favorite season or two. I would like to dedicate a page for highlighting main events of each season. I like to think that The Office is an example of variability. (I know it is a stretch, but stay with me.) Each season has similar features, storyline, main characters, predictability; however, each season changes, grows and branches in new ways. The show has become a representation of digital variability. Eh?
4. Memes- There are too many great memes to avoid having an entire page of them. Memes are probably one of the greatest things to hit the digital era, and it would be a dirty rotten shame not to include some visual examples of modularity.
5. Videos- I ran across some great fan videos on YouTube during a previous post and thought they deserved a spot on my site. Automation would be good to include here because a lot of the YouTube montages are made using programs that you can choose a template for quick creation.

Site Pages

Page one:
This will be the home page where I will be introducing the big man, I'm talkin' bout Jesus. Then I will introduce Manovich as required by Dr. Pepper.

(The numbers I have listed here probably won't be how I have them linked on the site.)

Pg 2:
Then I'll do my meme page, I was thinking I would use automation with this one since memes are made automatically with a meme generator. On this page I will explore the pop culture aspect of Jesus. I will discuss this and have a few memes up, as well as a link to a meme generator, as well as raptor jesus meme generator of course. Maybe modularity would work better here now that I think about it, I'll have to think about this some more hmmm.

pg 3:
Then I would like to discuss variability, and the varying representations of Jesus we are able to find in New Media. Here I will link to Jesus' facebook and twitter. As well as put pictures up as fan art, and discuss some different websites that are out there.

pg 4:
This will be my transcoding faith page. Here I would like to explore how people "transcode" their faith in Jesus into new media. I'm not exactly sure what content I'm going to put on the page to support my text but probably the videos I posted on my earlier post would work nicely. Also if I could link to some sites of Christian worship that would help offer more examples and tie it together.

pg 5:
I'm not sure what Manovich principle would work best here but I will probably do either automation or modularity pending which I decide would work best with the memes. Supposing I go with modularity it would be interesting to examine some of the digital elements of jesus floating around on the internet and see how those basic elements are being manipulated by users and for what purpose. For example:

http://www.jesusdressup.com

Post #7 - Mad Men Site Pages

Home page: Introduction to show, characters, plot, etc. This will also serve as an introduction to the content of the site. I'll probably highlight Manovich's principle of transcoding. The site itself is a perfect representation of transcoding. I think its Manovich's most broad term and works for me here on a couple of levels: transforming a show into a functioning website as well as creating an intersection of culture and technology through the site.

Page two: This will be dedicated to memes and other fan art. It will be funny and entertaining. I'll highlight Manovich's principle of selection. The pieces that will be shown aren't created from scratch, rather, they are created by selection--selecting from menus and buttons to create a new media piece.

Page three: This page will highlight the cultural impact of the show. As stated on my last post, the show portrays the 60's  as virtually unrecognizable time period. To me, the show screams that we, as a culture, have come a long way in 50 years. Yay us! I'd like to highlight an an article or paper that articulates this thoughtfully and a lot better than I ever could. I'll probably tie this to Manovich's idea of transcoding--computers shaping culture and culture shaping computers.

Page four: I'd like to have a page that highlights the main characters. I want to post a picture, a brief bio, and maybe some of their best lines. If that turns out to be too ambitious, I'll just focus it on the main character, Don (okay, I just want an excuse to post pictures of Jon Hamm...sue me). I could tie this to Manovich's idea of modularity--using pictures as a modular piece of my site.

Page five: I'd like this page to be a place where I can post some of my favorite videos from the show. I'm not sure exactly where I want to go, but I want some sort of video element to my site. I easily tie the videos to modularity or to variability.

Introduction to trail running

Trail running is still in its infancy, and speculations vary on the popularity of the sport. The closest anybody can guess at to the number of participants in the sport is about 4.6 million trail runners in the United States. The popularity of the sport is mainly concentrated in the western half of the country because of the mountain ranges which trail runners frequent. The earliest organization trying to govern trail running were set up in 1996. 

Although trail running has a steady base of participants  the number of races and other promotion events is limited because of  the extreme difficulty of many of the races. Most sanctioned trail run events are 36 miles or more going all the way up to 220 miles. Most races however are in the range of 50 to 100 miles with thousands of feet in elevation change. 

The digital age has undoubtedly increased the number of trail runners and helped spread the word about the sport and races taking place. This might be a stretch but similar to hyper-linking or the ability to move through cyberspace in a nonlinear way, some individuals have found the sport of trail running with out any prior running experience. In a way those individuals skipped the unnecessary first step and began a sport they enjoy. 

Blog Post Six

Since our awesome school website seems to be falling apart during registration I thought I'd make my blog post. 

Most scholars agree that Jesus of Nazareth did in fact exist. Christ's message promoted the values of: charity, faith, compassion, and virtue. Christ also established the notion that a personal relationship with god could be achieved by everyone without a intermediary such as a priest or idol. His teachings inspired the teachings of countless christian religions, and has defined spirituality in the western world for the last two thousand years. For this reason Christ serves as an interesting study as both a historical figure, and religious. Christ is many different things to many different people, he is both a symbol of  institutionalized worship, and  personal savior to many. For this reason analyzing the Christ figure in the digital age raises new questions on the role of Christ in the modern era. Is Christ's message bastardized through the lens of new media? Or does new media only allow Christ's message to me more tailored, and personalized to the individual--perhaps the way he intended it to be. 

Manovich principles:

Variability will be a big one.

Transcoding could be interesting

As well as automation.  

Blog Post #6 - Intro to Mad Men

The following is a an introduction to the show, Mad Men (even though I feel like I have already introduced the show to you. Sorry, this is kind of a repeat...)

Mad Men is a show on AMC that began airing in 2007. In early 2013, it will begin its 6th season. It poignantly portrays American life in the 1960's and provides viewers a peek into an era that seems so outdated that it almost feels unreal by today's standards. Fans love the show and are attracted to its social commentary and portrayal of life in a "simpler" time. They're also able to see what life looked like for their younger parents or grandparents. The show has been a favorite among critics and has been the recipient of numerous awards including 4 consecutive Emmy awards for Outstanding Drama Series beginning in 2008.

The show centers around the mysterious character Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm), a New York advertising executive, and his career as well as his seemingly perfect early 60's family life. He is as handsome as he is talented. Don is a likable character, yet, like most interesting protagonists, wrestles with a host of inner demons as well as a troubling past. He is a master of manipulation--which perhaps is the very reason he finds so much success in advertising. Don's character is supplemented by an extremely talent cast: Peggy Olsen (Elizabeth Moss), Betty Draper (January Jones), Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), and Roger Sterling (John Slattery).

In terms of Manovich, my mind immediately thinks of the 1960's technology portrayed on the show. In particular, I recall a scene where Peggy, a newly-hired secretary at the agency, is being briefed by Joan, her superior, on her new job duties. Peggy is introduced to a rotary phone, intercom, and a circa 1960's typewriter. She is told not to be overwhelmed by the technology...

We find this kind of funny because these devices are soooo old media. They don't represent the modularity, transcoding, or numeric representation of the new media devices we see today.

The Office Intro

The Office, a mockumentary of the average work place, originally aired in the United Kingdom in 2001. First airing in 2005, the United States version of The Office documents the varyious employee relations in Scranton, Pennsylvania's regional office of paper company Dunder Mifflin. Played by Steve Carell is Michael Scott, the manager you love to hate, who lacks any notion of self awareness or office appropriateness. Michael creatively leads and inspires a group of salesmen, accountants, and other admin employees. The frenemies of The Office are Jim Halpert and Dwight Shrute who consistently aggravate each other through obviously clashing personalities. Jim is notorious for his harmless pranks against the unsuspecting and naive Dwight. Ongoing inter-office romances occur between Dwight and Angela Martin, Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor, as well as Jim and Pam Beasley.

I plan to use Manovich principles throughout my project and feel that modularity may be most useful in the design.

Blog # 5

My YouTube results were free from commercialization and were mainly homemade clips. The top result which I linked in this post is an armature clip. The clip was created by Park City TV. I assume there is not much content commercial because of the difficulty of the sport and the typical age of a trail runner based off my observation is 35 to 50 years old. Many trail runners are x marathon runners who became tired of road running and are looking for a challenge. The content in the clips are short bios or how to run with some tips thrown in.

 The commercial market has not latched on to trail runners just yet and that is why the content is mostly home made clips. I also mentioned the average age of trail runners being higher than most athletes in many other sports. I think the older age group is less concerned with making trail running videos to promote the sport and more concerned with trail running. As a matter of fact one of the nations largest and most popular trail runs happens every year right here in Utah. I bet you have never heard of it. It is called the Squaw Peak 50. The average age of competitors this last year was 32.

These videos are serving a small purpose for the sport but I do not think the clips on YouTube have influenced the sports culture at all, simply because there are not enough people doing the sport for commercial internists to take hold and promote the sport. I do however; think the purpose of the clips serves a quick crash course for somebody who may be considering trail running for the first time and searches YouTube before they embark on a maiden voyage or beginners who might want some tips on gear or methods.

Ultimately there has been a growing interest in trail running because many of the "Extreme" races such as the Dirty Dash, Spartan Race and many other such races that feature trail running for the main event. I believe by this avenue the sport will achieve much of its popularity in the future.  I have embedded a link for a Spartan race. Competitors essentially trail run through rough terrain from obstacle to obstacle.

Park city TV trail running clip.

Spartan Race.

So this is going to sound lame but I can not figure out how to embed the videos into my blog post. Any help would be great :)

Bill Buttlicker

The most common YouTube Videos made by fans are Jim and Dwight pranks which are my favorite. I chose this video because I had never seen a Lego interpretation before of an Office moment before. I thought they did it well. There are also several Jim and Pam love story videos and probably the most interesting are the outburst of people pranking other coworkers. Office environments are being influenced by Jim and Dwight pranks, and I love it.

The Office has redefined how many people see an office environment.

Mad Men in 60 Seconds - Fan Video

So...I found this video on Mad Men and thought I'd post it for a couple of reasons. First of all, its short, witty, and done really well on what appears to be a fairly low-budget. Secondly, I don't think any of the blog readers (all three of you...) have ever seen the show. The clip shows actors playing different Mad Men characters and will give you a satirical overview of the show and it's overall vibe.

There are a ton of Mad Men video spoofs and parodies on YouTube. It would seem that the show was made to be parodied. You'll also find many videos showing small clips of the show put together in funny or entertaining ways (is this called a mash-up? I don't know...sounds good though). These videos highlight and exaggerate the show's many themes: drinking, smoking, philandering, etc. Essentially, they are good-heartily mocking the show's social commentary of the 1960's. 

This was one of the best fan-type videos I was able to find. While there are a lot of high-quality, professional Mad Men videos (check out the Sesame Street parody...too funny), fan videos such as this are lacking. Most are not funny and appear to be done by a 14-year-old. I was a little surprised by this, especially given the show's popularity.

Youtube Videos

Youtube videos concerning Jesus on Youtube span a wide array of topics ranging from the philosophical, religious, musical, and comedic. One video in particular had more hits that any other. The Video is called, "Why I hate religion, but love Jesus" the video consists of the performance of a poem a man has written explaining in his opinion the difference between Jesus and organized religion. He comes to the conclusion that  coming to Christ is a good thing, but doing so through organized religion may not be the best route. Interestingly, this video has spurned a series of responses from both atheists, muslims, and catholics. The dialogue taking place is interesting. Well, maybe the topic in and of itself isn't really that interesting, it seems to be the timeless debate which millions have fought over for centuries now, but to see this age old debate play out in the form of new media is particularly interesting. I suppose people just don't get tired of debating Jesus, and religion and Youtube has just given us a new way in doing so. Here is the Catholic response to the video, which I found more interesting than the original.

Another thing I found particularly interesting while searching my topic was the clash between "sacred" videos (I use sacred as way to describe homage videos to Christ) and what many would consider to be sacrilege videos. I've been thinking about how the bible was translated from Latin into the vernacular giving more people access to religious ideas, and how now through the internet we see that same pattern continue through the form of new media where people are both able to be exposed to more religious ideas, but also to express their opinions concerning their beliefs (or lack thereof) to a broad audience. I think this ability to respond, and actually be heard is very unique to new media. 

# 4, 98,000,000 search results in a quarter of a second.

After Googles extensive quarter of a second search, nearly 100 million search results were at my finger tips.

My search was (trail running)

The narrative looks like this...

The title of my narrative would be "Running Shoes" very little substantive information came up on the first page about

actually running. The information was all about shoes. The first chapter of my book would be called "shoes, buying the
 right ones" the next chapter would be called "how you know if they fit" and the third chapter would be "try them out for
 a few days, but do not run because you could die"There was hardly any information about actually running it was all information
 about shoes and where to buy shoes. Nearly all the sites were owned by shoe companies. The overarching theme in my narrative
 would be how one can appear to run and do all the motions of a runner with out actually running.

The next few pages in the search order were about injuries that happen to runners. Not until page five does the actual information start.

i.e where to go, tips for nutrition, times of year that are best for certain areas, what to bring, miles to a hospital, wild life 

in the area and so on.  

I would like to point out the harsh reality of the first three pages of my search results. look around at school and see how

many people are wearing running shoes who look like they either have no athletic ability or have never run a day in their life

and are still wearing the shoes. This is crazy to me, it would be like a NASCAR driver wearing his race suit to school, or 

a gymnast wearing hand chalk pads around all day. 

The narrative would eventually move into actual running about search page 15 or "chapter 15" where sites begin to appear 

about signing up for a run, or fun trails to run in your area. This narrative seems almost backwards to me. The narrative 

would little connecting information from one chapter to the next and would simply be a random collection of chapters about running 

shoes. Perhaps this is precisely the reason why so many people want to run so they buy the shoes and then do not know

what the next step is. 

Gooogle Narrative

Constructing a narrative from all the random information a google search yields is a daunting task. The conversion of a google of jesus' name into a narrative would begin something like this...

Once upon a time there was a man named Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth who was the son of God, and eventually came to be the central figure of worship for all Christian denominations (wikipedia). This first chapter would be something of a look at christ as both a historical, and religious figure.

The next chapter would take a different perspective. From a person in the 21st century attempting to figure out who Christ was, and is. This quest would bring him/her to jesus.org which to me would be something like a revival meeting in the format of a website. At this meeting a man would be spewing the absolute "truth" of who Christ was, and how to follow him.

Chapter three would begin with our young protagonist so inspired by the ideas of the revival meeting attempt to establish a personal relationship with Jesus. This would manifest itself in really the only way our hero knows how which is to add him on Facebook. Yes, Jesus has a facebook. Here they would develop a relationship, and our hero would learn to exercise his or her faith through the internet whether that be through inspirational memes or liking Jesus' status's.

Eventually our hero would become curious of more orthodox ideas of who Jesus was, and is. This would bring him to the catholic church. Here he would search the annals of the catholic encyclopedia.

Then disaster will strike. The shard of papyrus discovered from the 4th century alluding that Christ may have had a wife will rock our young hero's faith. He will then turn his back on his beloved Fox News, and read an article from the New York Times on the subject. With this seemingly innocent act our hero will begin a long and troublesome journey towards atheism.

Along this path he will befriend Jesus on twitter. Where he will not build a relationship with Christ as he did on facebook, but will begin to mock christianity, as well as the very concept of Christ through the form of hilarious memes, and tweets.

Eventually our young hero will comeback to Christ once he hits rock bottom in the depths of twitter. In the end he will turn back to the web site, whoisjesus-really.com and his faith will be restored, after which he will close his twitter account, and cancel his online subscription to the New York Times.

The Office Chapter Book

Chapter 1- Current happenings of The Office brought to you by NBC.

Chapter 2- A detailed history of The Office brought to you by Wikipedia.

Chapter 3- Delve into the actors' roles on the show and individual careers on IMDB.

Chapter 4- Watch episodes on Hulu! Right now! Do it. Now.

Chapter 5- "Like" The Office Facebook page and receive awesome updates.

Chapter 6- If you are a true fanatic, follow The Office Talley blog where your entertainment becomes obsession.

Chapter 7- Like the American version? Try the British version now on TV.com!

Chapter 8- All great things come to an end. Details on the final season of The Office.

A Mad Men Narrative by Google

If Google made the show Mad Men into a narrative, it would go something like this:

It would start off with a trip to AMC's official stuff--amctv.com. This would probably be considered chapter one. This would give the "reader" (of my pretend narrative) a good look at the show's characters, setting, and the general vibe of the show. He/she would meet Don, Joan, Peggy, and the rest of the cast. For chapter two, he/she would have to stroll on over to Wikipedia for a fact-filled-encyclopedia-type look at everything Mad Men. These aren't necessarily fun and exciting chapters, yet they will provide a good foundation for this story.

The next few chapters are slightly more entertaining. Chapter 3 would contain the latest news for the show (Mad Men "dethroned" as television's best drama?? Gasp...) as well as actor news, imdb.com stuff, posts from television bloggers, etc. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the fan sites. There are lots of 'em. Wow. This reader should have no problem being entertained by these sites--they're cool, weird, and are loaded with content.

Chapter 6 is dedicated to retailers like Amazon who want us to buy the Blue Ray set of each Mad Men season that viewers love so dearly. Of course, they're selling other junk stuff too: shirts, mugs, and Don Draper Aviator sunglasses. Chapter 7 is all about social media (enough said), and Chapter 8 takes the reader to video content. These are mostly popular clips from the show or funny fan videos.

Chapter 9 would go to all the other sites, articles, and blog posts that some may consider highbrow. These articles look at the social and political texts of the show and analyze (possibly over-analyze) them. These are often written by academics who dive deep into the context of the show. This would be an interesting chapter for readers wanting a more intellectual take on things.

I'm not sure what chapter 10 looks like...for now, its going to wrap up the show and end my pretend narrative....

Theme Change

So I've been thinking of changing the theme of my project. Instead of shoe horning my subject all semester I was thinking it would be interesting to change my subject to Jesus. I thought I would post first to see what feedback you guys had for me.
Here are some memes/fan art.


Meme 1

Meme 2

Fan Art (you should look this up if you haven't already)

Memes

This first meme pokes fun at six different aspects of running. The captions under each picture make a little joke about what each group of people think a runners actually do. The last picture "what I actually do" is a joke at runners who load up on carbohydrates before a run and typically use running or "carb-loading" as an excuse for overeating. Carb loading is an old fitness myth that has been debunked time and time again, now it is a joke in running circles, one who overeats before a prolonged race will be in stomach pain mecca after mile one. 

This meme is another joke about running and eating. A lot of people think that running is a great way to loose weight and eat what ever one pleases. Running does not aid in rapid weight loss nor can one eat "Dessert" and go running with out puking it up. The knowledge needed to understand this joke is very limited. Many of us have heard somebody we know say "i will run it off" after a large meal. 

This meme took the most digital tallent to create. We can see a Greek God looking individual (photoshopped) with a superimposed Colosseum in the background. The two pillars of light are also photoshopped in and a heavy contrast filter has been laid over the entire photo. This drastic contrast not only makes the historical background stand out but also makes the athletes over developed muscles stand out on a dark skin person in a dark photo.

The purpose of making such a work of digital art is for inspiration. "if you run, you can look like this" This photo is highly altered and is obviously promoting the unbelievable physical attributes of athletes competing at the olympic games.

All these memes took some kind of template and or filters to create some taking more skill than others. The reason for creating these memes were to sensationalize running, either with humor or with a felling of serous motivation. The athlete in the third photo contains no humor and is the opposite of the first two working to motivate a viewer to go and run.

All three are to motivate a viewer to either make fun of running or to actually put on the shoes and go for a run. Ironically the man in the third picture is not wearing running shoes.
 

The Office!

 Memes add meaning to the episode moment through another subject which is why they are so hilarious. I chose this particular meme because of the hatred Michael has for Toby and how far he goes to conceal it from his girlfriend by his hand gestures. Without understanding the dynamic of their relationship, you wouldn't really understand this meme. I think the reason for this meme in particular is to expose the ridiculousness of Michael's actions in a real-life way. In all honesty, I would probably go to ridiculous great lengths to hide the crap I did from my parents. This meme makes Michael, a very extreme character, more relatable.

 

 In order to understand this meme, you have to have fallen in love with the Pam and Jim romance story. I don't care who you are. Unless you have no soul, their relationship tugs at your heart strings. On to the second photo, I don't think watching this episode is absolutely necessary to understand this meme, but it sure helps. Michael's catastrophic approach to women is well known, but this episode probably tops it. Pam and Jim relationship is the ideal while Michael is the opposite extreme. Again, I think this makes Michael a more relatable character. Honestly, who hasn't said or done something while dating that made you want to crawl in a hole and die? Yep, we all have. The only difference here is that Michael won't feel the utter shame.

  I liked this fan art specifically because Toby and Michael almost look like the same person. I had to take a double take. I think the selection is great. The montage of the images is what makes this fan art so great. Again, distinguishing the two different characters is difficult at first glance. The purpose behind this piece of fan art is to maybe show Toby and Michael as equals, consciously aware of their battle. For fans who love the dynamic of their relationship, this fan art is both interesting visually and comically ideal.

 

Meme/Fan art

Ok so this isn't in Utah but I liked this meme, because I feel that it makes an interesting statement on what our interaction with wilderness is as modern Americans. I believe that wilderness does still play a big role in our lives, mainly as an escape from our work-a-day, routine driven lives. I do not really know statistics, but I wonder if now more than ever we seek out wilderness to escape from the stresses of our lives. I think this popularity is a good thing in the fact that it promotes the protection of these areas from development. This meme functions in a couple of different ways, In some ways it is promoting the concept of wilderness, as well as our need for it in our modern lives. But in another way it is also mocking our work-a-day mentality, where we escape for a day or two into the wilderness and then spend 90% of our time in a cubicle, completely miserable. I also like how this meme took the form of a motivational poster, it really adds to the comedic value of the meme.

This is a satellite image of Desolation Canyon near price UT. Desolation Canyon is not technically a wilderness area, but is a BLM wilderness study area.

So this is a photo by Guy Tal, this photo was taken at island in the sky at Canyonlands National Park. There is a proposal to have the greater canyonlands area surrounding this park to be designated wilderness to prevent things like oil shale development, and nuclear power plants being built (both of which are being proposed) This photo is particularly interesting, and works nicely for this assignment. At first glance I thought this was painting, but as I read on I realized it was actually a photograph. Clearly this image has been drastically altered through the means of some digital image editing program such as photoshop. I thin that is an interesting interaction there between a natural image, and filtering of it through digital means. There is a certain skill here to be appreciated, I mean the image is impressive, and the natural beauty is enhanced by the digital alterations to it. In the end I believe that the primary purpose of the image is to instill in the viewer a greater appreciation for the natural world, interestingly with the use of technology.

Blog Post #3 - Memes and Fan Art

I've been able to find 3 images that I think correlate nicely with my subject, Mad Men, and provide a few examples of the the meme/fan art genre.

Meme #1:

 

This meme is a picture of Don Draper, the main character on the show Mad Men. His facial expression and hand gestures appear unsympathetic as he smugly suggests the reason why women get paid less. Putting this image in context, one must know a little about the show. Don is a handsome, playboy ad-executive in the early 1960's. He espouses many of the sexist attitudes that were prevalent in that era. Women were to get married, have children, stay home, and take care of the kids. Women who were more career-minded, were typically frowned upon. Much more goes into these topics, but I think you get the idea. The meme pokes fun at Don as well as a generation that generally accepted a chauvinistic, male-dominated workplace. The meme, through the character Don Draper, sends a specific message of ignorance and insensitivity to women in the workplace during the '60's.

Meme #2:

This meme shows Don with a fresh cigarette in his mouth, apparently right after finishing an old one. To put this into context, one must know Don is a heavy smoker. Smoking a cigarette, along with drinking a glass of scotch, is one of his trademarks. He lights up literally everywhere: his office, at a restaurant, in the doctor's office, etc. This meme not only takes a shot at the habitual, chain-smoking Don Draper, but I also think it goes deeper. I think it tries to contrast the acceptance of smoking in the '60's (welcomed, permitted, enjoyed by many), verses the acceptance of smoking today (restricted, contained, often prohibited). It's funny yet, as the first meme does, displays some possible ignorance from this period of time.

Fan Art: 

I'm not sure why I chose this piece of fan art. I guess I gravitated toward its simplicity. I also enjoy its color scheme and what it says about the show and the time period. I'm sure it was a computer-generated piece. It was thoughtfully designed, most-likely by a professional graphic artist. It appears that the piece was made to be a poster. It is good enough to be mass-produced and sold to fans of the show.

I think this piece is a good illustration of being created by what Manovich would call the Logic of Selection (123). Manovich states that in computer culture "authentic creation has been replaced by selection from a menu" (124). The creator of this piece used software to generate it. Within the software he/she used menus, buttons, and keystrokes to manipulate the images, add color, etc. In other words, it was not created totally from scratch. This poster is just one of thousands of pieces of work I can think of created through this process. Technology is making Selection more mainstream and, hopefully, artistic expression more accessible.

Manovich, Lev. Principles of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Print.

Hyperlinking

Social media uses hyperlinks extensively, I clicked around Facebook for a few minutes, virtually everything on the page is a hyperlink. Each link connects the "clicker" to another profile or page containing even more links, the hyperlinking potential is limitless and even cyclical. A user can choose to open or close links or select an option on the link tab to close it, when one link is closed another one will appear. Facebook is a hyperlink Hydra. Many of the links are illustrated by little pictures or symbols. We link so extensively on social media platforms we do not even realize we are doing it. Linking used to be a task completed with thoughtful consideration. During the early days of internet a hyperlink would be highlighted in blue, and plain text would appear near the link saying “Link:” by clicking the link a browser warning page would pop up on screen saying “WARNING you have clicked a LINK, would you like to continue?” and one would have to thoughtfully consider the consequences of clicking “Yes” or “No”.  

Facebook is extremely clickable; almost all text and pictures are links which can be clicked. Many but not all of the links are internal links taking you to another part of Facebook, such as a Facebook applications, profiles, pages, and advertisements. Most advertisement links redirect to the products web page, or a Facebook page for the product.  

Hyperlinks contained on Facebook encourage users to express their ADD with no bounds. Have you ever heard somebody say or even post "Dang I did it again! I got lost in Facebook world for two hours!"? This is an extreme example of hyper-linking out of control. A Facebook user has barley reviewed 10% of the information on a page before finding another link to click and opening another episode of rapid page linking. Viewers are encouraged to link continuously. From a design perspective the amount of information on each page is limited and linking from one page to the next is necessary to complete one individual task, making it fun for some and bothersome for others.

The links enhance to the Facebook experience by providing a continuous flow of fresh information to Facebookers. For example Facebook’s new “Timeline” profile display is a linear display of links based on the time they were created. Advertisements, profiles and page links move further down a page becoming less noticeable the further back the link was published.

Facebook has become the opposite of its name. The word “book” would insinuate a linear beginning to end narrative of social connections. Facebook has little linear narrative and is continually adding new links everywhere possible. 

Hyperlink Use

For my project I have been toying with the idea of making a blog about the wilderness areas in Utah. I'm not sure if this is still what I'm going to do, but I think it might be somewhat interesting. The site I looked at was wilderness.org, a site for the The Wilderness Society.

At first glance wilderness.org is a pretty simple site. I have been to it before, and my first impression of it was that it was a pretty simple site dedicated mainly to current events effecting wilderness areas nationally. But when I looked at it for this assignment, and explored the site's hyperlinks I quickly learned that this site is actually a dynamic site.

Wilderness.org implements the use of hyperlinks so that most of the sites content is accessed through hyperlinks. For example if you are reading about wildlife the site will link wildlife to a page that has tips on watching wildlife. This site does stuff like that a lot. Not only does it hyperlink internally, but it also links externally. So if they are discussing say a proposal of the Bureau of Land Management's they will actually have a link to the proposal on the blm's own page.

It was fun to look at this site and actually be conscious of the use of hyperlinks, I honestly have to say that if I hadn't done this I wouldn't have been aware of 80% of this sites content--maybe this is a weak point for this site--too much hyperlinks. But when I wised up to what they were doing their site became a lot more interesting and dynamic. I think in the end it works out because they have a huge site, and hyperlinking gives them away to scale their content to specific users by channeling their content into specific pages the user is reading out of their own interest.

Blog Post 2

Mad Men is a show that works on so many levels. I love it. From the first season, I was hooked. The dialogue, the hair, the sets, the characters--it all drew me in.  Due to my mild obsession, I've decided to make Mad Men it the subject of my final project.

The real reason for this post is to talk about a Mad Men fan site that I found (http://www.madmenshow.com/). This site is filled with content relating to the show. It has links, pictures, and news on all things Mad Men. The links take the user to sites that relate to the show: the official AMC site, the actors' sites, and sites pertaining to the show's time period.

Fans who come to it are looking for a lot of Mad Men content: history, news, gossip, video, etc. The hyperlinks are tools that the site uses to get the fans the information they want quickly and easily. This site would be too overly-informative (and cluttered) if it posted every piece of Mad Men fan content in existence. For this reason, the hyperlinks are helping to organize it and make it look better.

The site is organized with the broad subjects easily read at the top (cast, episodes, etc.), and more concentrated categories listed on the left hand side (spoilers, fan fiction, etc.). The real content is in the center of the screen. Ads frame the content on the top, left, and even the bottom of the screen. Its made to look a lot like AMC's official site, however, the obnoxious flashing banners and lack of thoughtful design scream low-budget fan site. To its credit, one may think that it is the official site at first glance...if its a quick glance!

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

You guessed it. My project topic is The Office! Best. Show. Ever.
The website I chose to use for this project is OfficeTally.com, a fan site where they release videos, up and coming episode peeks, and videos of the ultimate office romance.

Office Tally has links to websites, essentially hoping they can hook you up to whatever you are looking for like ringtones, computer wallpapers, bobble heads, etc. Additionally, they have links to commercials, interviews, and other shows any of The Office characters are featured in.

Office Tally is a one-stop shop for everything you can and cannot think of which I am sure is intentional. However, I do not like the visual layout of their site. The posts are set up almost in a blog format which I get bored with easily. The links to other websites are organized and easily accessible, but overall I am not in love with their layout.

Stay tuned for more!

Manovich

Numerical Representation

“All new media objects, whether created from scratch on computers or converted from analog media sources, are composed of digital code; they are numerical representations.”

In plain non-tech English Manovich is saying that everything we see on a computer, pictures, movies, and blog posts area all representations of math equations. Remember 7^th grade algebra when countless hours were spent plotting points on a grid using an algebraic formula. Computers do that exact same process as 7^th graders only millions of times faster. Each spot of color on your screen has an equation so the computer knows where to place it on the screen.

Modularity

“fractal structure of new media.”

When we open a web page and see links to all different kinds of websites and video feed, or one clicks a hyperlink in a Power Point presentation and is directed to the web address are both examples of modularity. Programs working within programs because they can stand alone and are not dependent once they are written into another work. This allows digital document designers to use links, videos, sound bites and many other digital files imbedded with other files from different creators. Clicking on a video link and being confrotneted with a “Download 10.0 vid player to view this clip” is an experience web surfers frequently encounter. These encounters are because of modularity.

Automation

Automation is simply making a process automatic, for example an automatic transmission in a car opposed to a standard, automatic opening doors and even the automobile. With regards to computing automation is simply replacing human action with a computers program. Instead of typing in thousands of web addressed when looking for a new cookie recipe Google automatically searches the web for new recipes we type in the search engine. Google has even gone further by automatically filtering out search results we may not be looking for such as “cookies and milk, a recipe for health disaster”  

Variability

Grossly understated because this is a detailed section, variability is the ability of computers to change on the fly through complex programing. Amazon.com is a great example of variability. An Amazon.com user frequently views a banner on the bottom of their browser suggesting other products they might like based on their past browsing history and purchasing history. These automatic selection provide Amazon.com users to a wide variety of useful products they previously did not consider. Amizon.com seamlessly hyperlinks and codes to customers personal taste each time they use Amizon.com. These programs are continually working behind the scenes to recognize IP addresses, log in frequency and mouse scroll patterns to tailor each buying experience to the consumer.

Transcoding

Transcoding is the conversation of computers. When computers exchange language they are transcoding. Computers have a constant open dialogue with one another. For example when a user connects to the web they have opened up transcoding to millions of computers. When a user is operating a computer offline with no peripheral networks only minimal transcoding is taking place within the computer’s OS, similar to a stream of though in a person’s mind and conversely when one is participating in a large open discussion.

All five of the summarized principals above have impacted our “culture undergoing computerization” equally the principals above are not independent of one another. They have all evolved in unison. Each principal has had an effect on culture and that is precisely why Manovich spent the time to publish a 354 page text on the subject. It will be interesting to see if the five principals above become new cultural theories similar to poststructuralist and modernism.

Eric Kirkham

Manovich Terms Demystified

1. Numeric Representation has a two pronged meaning, that each piece of media is assigned a numeric code and that code is manipulable or programmable. An example I imagined for numeric representation is a digital photograph. Often when uploading an image to the web, the image size and clarity will shrink or be reprogrammed for compatibility reasons.
2. Modularity is the combination of independently functioning systems to create a new, higher-functioning system of media. Instead of recreating a piece of media consisting of several media formats, a user can manipulate one functioning system while the rest remain untouched. A car is a prime example of a modular system. The transmission of the car operates independently from the brakes, meaning either can be replaced while the other stays in tact untouched.
3. Automation is the attempt to remove human intention from the creative process by creating generic web pages and templates. An example of automation is stock photography. If you are in need of a health care photo, specifically a doctor consulting with a patient, automating an existing generic image is much easier than creating the moment and taking the picture for your purposes.
4. Variability, simply put, is a piece of new media that can exist in potentially infinite versions. My first association is with software where you commonly hear "Version 2.0" or "Version 39.5". Additional examples of variability include technology examples such as laptops. Two months after your "latest and greatest" purchase, your barely-used lap top is outdated. Technology is a great example of variability because of its' constant evolution.
5. Transcoding is simply to translate a piece of new media into a different format of new media. I associate transcoding to the common process of burning an HD DVD onto a regular non HD format disc. Transcoding is also used in the opposite direction when technological advances are made such as updated websites, software etc.

Blog prompt numero uno.

I'm not sure I fully understood all five of Manovich's principles of new media. Actually the Manovich's dense theoretical writing threw me off guard at first, so I found myself re-reading this chapter tonight before I went to make this post. His first principle, Numerical Representation appears to me to be stating that new media is divided to it's absolute base to numbers, or mathematical code. He seems to be drawing a parallel between new media and language in the sense that in language the very base of language is composed of morphemes, new media can too be divided into numbers, or binary code. Manovich goes on to use a digital image as an example of the underlying mathematical base of new media. He tells us how an image can be divided into a grid, divided numerically, and that as users we can alter this image merely by altering it mathematically, but necessarily by altering the visible image we ourselves see. At least this is how I understood it. I suppose the best example I can think of this is playing the guitar. A guitarist plays music that we hear, that sound that we hear could be likened to new media. But that new media (the music) also has a numerical representation (tablature) where the guitarist is reading a series of numbers assigned to a certain line that constitute that music. My comparison my fall short in the fact that tablature cannot really be manipulated with mathematical equations. However, it does have a numerical representation.

The next principle is modularity this one was especially confusing to me mainly because it talks about fractals and I really suck at math, so I had to look up what a fractal is. And to be perfectly honest I'm not quite sure what a fractal is still. But from what I can gather a fractal is an object that is composed of many different smaller irregular objects. He uses HTML as an example, for a website is composed of HTML, which can be reduced to independent lines of code, jpegs, gifs, etc. This sort of modularity Manovich asserts is a principle of new media. I would liken this idea to a digital recording--in a sense this example is very similar to Manovich's photoshop example. But a digital recording of say a band is composed of multiple tracks, or layers. When we play these layer simultaneously we get a full and complete song, but we may also add or delete tracks to this complete song. Like a drum track, or a bass line, or even sound effects. I think this ability to be moved and added to anything else while retaining it's initial properties is what Manovich is getting at with modularity. 

The third principle is automation. I think this idea can be summed up rather quickly by simply saying that new media has the ability to operate on many levels automatically without actual human manipulation. I think this is something very unique to new media, and really can't be found anywhere else in human history. Up to the advent of computerization any sort of mechanized action had to be human caused. The fact that new media is doing millions of things automatically makes it extremely unique. Manovich uses the example of AI players in a game that oppose a human player in a game automatically. A good example of this that I can think of is are those creepy little ads you get on google for mentioning something similar in one of your messages. I hope (at least) that no human is going through me emails looking for ways to advertise specifically to me, instead I'm sure that an automated system scans through the words makes a match and then throws an ad my way to specifically target me. 

Variability, a new media text can by duplicated, manipulated, altered, in any way instantaneously. In this regard a new media text is vastly different than an old media text. Manovich ties this concept closely with his principle of modularity, where independent bits compose the whole. In this principle I would say that Manovich is saying that these independent bits are capable of undergoing any sort of imaginable simply by being a new media item. For example the whole hide your kids hide your wives thing. It started out as a simple news interview, but it took on new life as it gained popularity, and took on new life as users took artistic liberties to it. here are some links if you're not sure what I'm talking about the first one is the original, the second is an example of the infinite variability of a new media text.
Original-

Variable-

I'm a little ashamed that I thought of that as an example. 

The fifth principle is transcoding, and in this principle Manovich starts to get really heavy, almost too heavy. He basically asserts that new media is functioning on two planes one being on a cultural plane that we see and understand as humans, and the other being on a computer plane. He seems to be suggesting that this dialog going on between computers in our world does have an effect on our cultural plane. Which is interesting, and I do not fully understand his argument for it. But he calls the merge a new computer culture, which I'm pretty sure we are living in right now. I guess we can see this most plainly in our current methods of communication. Text messaging is a good example (I think) where our human interactions are influenced by computers. Instead of speaking as we usually would we have altered our language to better suit the computer technology, so I would argue that there is a direct influence on our human culture in that regard. 

The most important principle I would have to say is automation. I think automation has some rather detrimental effects on humanity as a whole. I believe that it makes us lazy, allows us to better exploit each other, and results in an overall dumbing of the masses.

Lev Manovich's Principles of New Media - Blog Post #1

1. Numerical Representation

Fundamentally speaking, digital code is numerical representation. As such, all new media is digital and therefore numerical. Manovich asserts that because of this, all new media is mathematical. It consists of numbers and formulas and is subject to algorithmic manipulation; new media text is programmable (27). One example of this numerical representation would be the digital television transition that took place across the United States in 2009. Going from analog to digital broadcasting offered the viewing public better sound and picture quality as well as a myriad of other benefits. The digital switch has created interactive video and data features. Digitization made television programmable.

2. Modularity

Modularity is a term Manovich uses to discuss the modular, independent nature of technical devices. Simply, it is the ability for a digital item to be taken from another digital item, yet both pieces still function independently. One piece does not change or destruct the entire system. Modularity is essential for updates and revisions in an ever-changing technological world. One example of modularity is simply updating a website. One picture can be taken from a website and placed in another. A web programmer can also easily update videos, manipulate text, and remove content that is out-of-date or irrelevant. It is because of the site’s modularity that he/she is able to do this quickly and painlessly. 

3. Automation

Automation is the ability for new media objects to be created automatically--independently of human prompts. These devices essentially do the thinking for us. Of course they are not entirely “automatic” as the machine has been created and coded by humans to perform said functions. Automation is literally everywhere in a digital world. One example of automation would be the auto-correct computer function. Auto-correct is a feature designed to correct typos and misspellings in digital text. It will notice when a word is misspelled and will provide the user with what it “thinks” is the correct word and its correct spelling. Auto-correct is found in cell phones, word processing software, search engines, and other places where large amounts of digital text is created. 

4. Variability 

Variability is the notion that a new media object is not stationary, unchangeable, or fixed. On the contrary, new media is designed to better itself and change. New media objects are (or should be) frequently re-examined and revamped; this often happens in a branch-like fashion where one branch does not look like a neighboring branch, yet both share similar features of  their parent branch. Examples of variability in new media abound. One such example is the modern ipod. What once was a simple white-screen instrument whose only function was to play music, is now a sleek, colorful “do-all” device that, it probably goes without saying, does much more than play music. Yet, even with all of the different versions, all ipods have some of the basic inherent characteristics that the first ipod had: portability, a small, rectangular shape, a user-friendly interface, the ability to play mp3s, and they are all designed to be used with Apple's iTunes software.

5. Transcoding

Manovich tells us that to transcode something is to “translate” it into another format (47). It’s turning one thing into another. In the context of new media, Transcoding is the term used to describe the way media and culture are being changed through the different versions of the computer, and conversely how computers are adapting in order to display new media.  Sound, images, and text can be transcoded into digital representations that appear on a new media device. An example of this transcoding would be a band playing a live song, but recording it digitally to be played back on a computer or ipod. The song was changed (or “transcoded”) from a live acoustic version to a digital new media version.

The preceding terms make up Lev Manovich’s five main principles of new media. He also refers to these as key differences between old and new media (27). The descriptions and examples provided are my own interpretations of his terms and hopefully provide clear, user-friendly (and somewhat correct :-) ) explanations. This list is broad, yet it provides a good basis for any student learning about new media, digital media, and all of their related categories.

Manovich, Lev. Principles of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Print.