4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM CS2006 Week 3 readings From scrapbook to Facebook: A history of personal media assemblage and archives Social

media profiles VS scrapbooks Packed with personal information Problematic o Validity of a scrapbook as a biographical text o Rarely edited nor finished like formal publications o Messy, fragmentary and highly individualized o Do not achieve official or authoritative status of published media like newspapers or books o Tend to be personal collections of ephemera (only can be enjoyed for a short time) o Unclear what kind of functions scrapbooks served for their users in the past Private objects for storing thoughts? Serves a more immediate and social purpose? o How should scholars approach scrapbooks as personal archives and historical artifacts? Historical continuities in the public and private practices traditional scrapbooks and social media have promoted for users + methodological challenges produced for readers Scrapbooks: physical books in which paper scraps and other items are saved + also highlights the often blurry distinctions between scrapbooks and other social/archival media traditions (eg, autograph, photograph & confession albums + commonplace books) Digital carryovers of these traditions Twitter Myspace Pinterest Flickr

Focuses on Facebook as the paradigmatic site of contemporary social media use

Boasts larger membership than any other social network site Predominant object and site of social media research

Therefore purpose = provide a historicization of FB + other similar media platforms, where people: Document their lives Interact with media texts to express themselves socially

FUNCTIONAL COMPARISONS Importance in comparisons of old and new media technologies via shared functions due to the ability to shed light on social media use Novel phenomenon with no cultural precedent Wide variety of personal media practices can be seen as promoting a range of simultaneously documentary and performative behaviors Has private and archival functions /similar to scrapbooks: helping users perform specific social and performative tasks in the past

1. Documenting friendship a. Facebook = SNS social network site (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) as compared to social networking site i. Purpose isnt go network or meet strangers ii. Rather, to enable and make visible their existing social networks iii. Majority of contacts on SNS are between users who already have some sort of offline relationship Facebook creates textual links between real-life connections Makes social experience perusable, like pages in a book, by providing a structure and setting for users to view and traverse their social links SNS = web-based service that allows individuals to visualize relationships in the users extended social network

o Construct a public/semi-public profile within a bounded system o Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection o View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system 2. Navigating new media abundance 3. Communicating taste and building cultural capital

Week 8 Readings

4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM

MOVIEMAKER MASTER CLASS WITH MARTIN SCORSESE Biggest problem: Intent; what the filmmaker wanted to communicate to the audience, because: Direction the camera is aimed at shot by shot How does each shot build up to make a point which the filmmaker wants the audience to comprehend? o Purely physical Man walking into the room and sitting on a chair o Philosophical o Psychological o Thematic (Includes philosophical and psychological points as well) Sometimes, younger filmmakers have nothing to say Resulting in the films becoming very unclear or very conventional and geared towards a rather commercial marketplace

Basics: Where do you aim the camera to express what you put down on paper in the script?; How can you edit all your shots to create what you want to convey to the audience? First question can be : Do I have anything to say? o Not necessarily literal that can be expressed through words o Can be a feeling or an emotion

Talk about what you know 60s and 70s filmmaking more personal as compared to 80s onwards Consistently less of personal filmmaking in mainstream media Nowadays, independents also starting to show a trend toward melodrama and film noir; more commercial aspects The more singular and personal the film, the more it can claim to be art What makes a film personal? Making a distinction between directors and filmmakers Directors (people who interpret the script, who turn it from words to images) Filmmakers o People who will be able to take somebody elses material and still manage to have a personal vision come through o Shoot the film or direct actors in a manner that will eventually transform the film so that it becomes part of the body of work of other films, with similar themes and approaches to material and characterization.

Know what you are talking about Know your material; have some personal experience with it prior

Week 9 Readings

4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM

Week 10 readings
NEW MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE Goals

4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM

Understanding key concepts of the qualities and experiences of the digital image: virtuality, simulation, immersion Understanding key techniques of digital visual effects in cinema (digital compositing, 3D CGI, etc) The impacts of digital technologies on the traditions of cinema: realist and spectacular traditions

Virtual: Means that the virtual (whether virtual spaces, virtual worlds, or virtual environments) is largely present in contemporary media culture as a major trope or theme Necessary for us to understand its meanings in order to understand digital visuality Map, museum, studio, community, etc.

Virtual reality: an event or entity that is real in effect but not in fact Importance: in virtual reality is how it exists Something we may call virtual does not exist in physical or actual sense However, the virtual exists because it has some properties of the object and event, such as shape, sense, value, that we know, experience or imagine Due to the fact that it incorporates properties of the physical object or real event Eg, Virtual money and online banking o You know that your money is in the bank but you dont have it physically o However, you still can make purchases with this virtual money o We can also deposit to and withdraw from our online account o Yet the real fact, when you take all your money out, both effect and fact is that you are bankrupt Eg, Video games (call of duty 3): first-person shooting game set in a fictional near future war in Russia o Game doesnt exist physically o But we feel that the virtual game world is real o Not just because the computer graphics of the game look so real and vivid o Due to the fact that the game allows us to experience what we know or imagine about warfare High-speed chaos

Prompt responses to enemies for survival Skills of targeting and shooting Learning new weapons and tools Digital world models not just visual elements of the real war. Models the knowledge and sensory perception of the human being who experiences the war

Characteristics of VR: Simulation Simulation: (context of digital media) refers to various computer methods for modeling Virtual: an object or event that does not exist actually but nevertheless we perceive and experience as real o Requires bringing key properties of the object or event to our field of experience or knowledge Does not necessarily the virtualization of a tangible object or real event

Fields or disciplines have consistently developed and used o Virtual reality technologies: Sciences, including engineering, natural science and medical science VR technologies are used to visualize theoretical objects such as atoms and particles; phenomena/objects that are not visible with naked eyes, such as stars and planets in astronomy, and cells and organs in biology and medical science, etc.

Methods for modeling something that assumes the appearance or effect of a real entity or event Modeling is not necessarily limited to a tangible object or real event (eg hypothetical objects, imaginary worlds, etc) o Applications of Objects of simulation are more than making visual illusion (movements of physical objects, natural phenomena, human behaviors, etc.) o Distinguished from imitation

Week 10 reading 1
NEW MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE What happened to virtual reality?

4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM

Context: 1980s-1990s, populist hype, widespread experiment, frequent conferences and artists projects explored virtual reality; how can this waning of interest be explained? Example of a new medium (potential candidate to be one) Enthusiasm for VR was part of the euphoric techno-utopian expectations of the period and the heady mix of the computer counter-culture and the neo-liberal Silicon Valley entrepreneurship Therefore, VR has returned to where it came from o less commercialized/for the masses like the internet o more into the industrial complex in the military; where research continues Lead researcher Stephen Ellis at Advanced Displays and Spatial Perception Laboratory (NASA): o The technology of the 1980s was not mature enough o vision ran ahead of the available hardware and software o too little was understood about how the human sensorium responded to the degree of bodily immersion that was attempted o However now, computers become many times faster o Peripherals more lightweight o Futher research into the biology and psychology of perception can be drawn upon, renewed and serious interest is being shown again Not only NASA but in ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Is VR a new medium? Medium: set of social, institutional and aesthetic (as well as technological) arrangements for carrying and distributing information, ideas, texts and images (whether neutral or not as a medium is never separable from the information or content it carries; it contributes to, shapes, allows or disallows meaning) Not medium o prime example of technology (or collection of technologies) o stage where development and investment are taking place for a variety of speculative reasons o Immersive VR has no firmly settled institutional pattern of distribution, exhibition or use (social context) A medium is more than the technology that it depends on; it is also a practice

Skilled work on raw materials (eg words, photographic materials) which uses conventions, structures and sign systems to make sense, to convey ideas and construct experiences Therefore it is still questionable whether VR can become a form of social communication and representation in the manner of radio, cinema or television Stages to determine which potential communications technologies or media will pass: 1. Existence of basis in societys general scientific competence so that a certain kind of technology is feasible (ground for a technologys possibility) 2. Stage of ideation where an idea or concept of how that available scientific competence may be given a technological application is envisaged by several individuals in their supporting contexts in various locations 3. Invention when a technology can be said to exist properly as it moves beyond an idea; prototype stage as clear necessity or use is seen and finds social acceptance Social availability of VR: Hybrid technologies of immersive VR appear to be teetering between repeatedly reinvented prototype and invention VR occasionally flickers to life at prestigious art or media festivals and trade shows (mostly unique and short ones) Due to construction of state of the art virtual spaces and environments being intensive in it use of technology Therefore, outside of the military sphere, realizations are restricted to few fleeting locations; usually requiring expensive travel and maintenance in real time and space for those who wish to participate Ironically, viewer has to be in a precise and expensive institution or place in a real world if they wish to be in virtual reality

Case study: VR, art, and technology Douglas MacLeod, director of The Art and Virtual Environments project 2 years of intensive and groundbreaking work for artists and technologists to bring a range of VR projects into completion Huge effort only provided a suggestion of what this medium could be Too complex and artists have dispersed along with their expertise VR is very rare in terms of spatial/geographical distribution due to its costs Most ubiquitous (found everywhere) form of VR is stripped down versions; shoot-em-up arcades

Outside of commercial arcades and theme parks, university or corporate research departments, immersive VR is hardly accessible to most of us Contrasts ubiquity of the personal computer PC= used for entertainment, interpersonal communication, self-expression and access to information of many kinds and therefore PC = media o Such uses have also developed distinct genres, institutional frameworks and patterns of consumption; difficult to say for VR

THE VIRTUAL AND VISUAL CULTURE Nintendo Wii = weaker than the immersions or simulations promised by head mounted displays Nevertheless, presents us with visual (and sometimes haptic) experiences that attract the description of virtual Recently, existence of dramatic changes in the way that images are produced in the ways that we meet and access them and in the kind of relationship we have to them; the fact that we are not wearing those head mounted displays and immersed in virtual worlds does not mean that the virtual has not become an important characteristic of visual culture Retreat of VR nevertheless remains important Virtual (worlds, spaces, environments) abounds in contemporary media and visual culture o Immersive quality of videogames/ first-person POV/avatar that allow us to project into and move within the game world o IMAX cinemas filling field of vision o Networks of webcams monitoring public spaces, online image banks and virtual realities

VR AS AN OBJECT TO THINK WITH Full blown VR remains a paradigm; example of a discursive (lead by argument + reasoning rather than intuition) Apparatus which produces a kind of experience that raises questions about the nature of reality, perception, embodiment, representation and simulation 18th century, Camera obscura was thought of this way

Today: camera obscura = instrumental technology; forerunner to photographic camera; kind of camera without film used by painters and draughtsmen as an aid to constructing images in perspective Use these terms predominantly to describe camera obscura because it has been mainly art historians who have paid attention to it Use in 18th C, not instrumental (not for making images) but possessed by people; philosophers and natural scientists in order to stimulate philosophical reflection and speculation on the nature of visual perception and knowledge Provided a model for and raised questions about the relationships of the external world, eye and brain Practical model and a point of conversation and discourse used to understand the rocesses of perception and our experience of the visual world more generally Both Camera Obscura + VR serve similar functions in that they promote intense speculation about vision, embodiment and the nature of experience VR has a discursive status due to representation in other media; matrix factor rather than frequent first-hand experience and use Virtual now a major theme in media culture as it has close relationships with other themes; simulation and immersion along with older concepts related to the study of images; representation, illusion, mimesis, even picture, copy and fiction are drawn into the sphere of the virtual Through time, relatively settled definitions become unstable and there is a lack of clarity in the relationship or difference between representation and reality, between representation and simulation and between looking or gazing at immersion Digital virtual enters into visual culture with early experimentation in humancomputer interface design; the means by which a human interacts with the machine Seen as promising to go beyond the physical objects (screen, keyboard mouse); Technology goes away because we are inside it (Jaron Lanier)

IVAN SUTHERLAND (pioneer of computer graphics and simulation technologies) key figure in the operational and conceptual history of VR Demonstrated that the impulses (electrical pulses within a computer; electricity) translated into an electron beam that was visible on a visual display unit (screen) Envisaged the possibility of going beyond graphic display to make the results of computation tangible Formed the idea that if a computer reduced and processed any kind of information as a series of impulses, given the appropriate algorithms and programming, the physical movement of the human body and even material resistance to that movement could be encoded as information which the computer could process FROM IMITATION TO SIMULATION Sutherlands inspiration = joystick of Link Flight Trainer which simulated the feel of aircraft in flight back to the trainee pilot Work on flight simulators showed how human actions could become computable information hat was then passed back to the human subject via servo mechanisms and sensors to then inform or control their further actions Flight simulator = black box with no external morphological reference to aeroplanes but once entered; sensory conditions experienced in real flight can be more fully generated to include programmed negative flight conditions Simulation of planes that havent been built or flights that have not yet been taken

Distinction between imitation and simulation: notion that in simulation (as against imitation or mimesis) the model now, in some senses, precedes the reality a reversal of the expectation that models are built (imitate) pre-existing realities Following recognition that what distinguishes simulation from imitation: Artifact that is a simulation (rather than copy) can be experienced as if it were real, even when no corresponding thing exists outside the simulation itself We are familiar with simulated reality effects (CGI in movies and TV)

A head-mounted three dimensional display http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B8aq_rsZao (watch this to see it at work; purpose: present the user with a perspective image which changes as he moves) Generated mathematically Structured by 3D Cartesian grid with its 3 spatial co-ordinates imaged stereoscopically on the binocular TV screens held close before their eyes

Sutherlands invention of an apparatus that would generalize the flight stimulator No specific purpose; just a visual and tactile interface with a computer This was basic, spatial, visual, tactile and kinaesthetic

IMMERSION: A HISTORY Sutherlands perception of VR was of a continuity as compared to other scholars at that time, Margaret Morse who feel that it is a experience of immersion; of being inside and experiencing completely different worlds Morse: VR user is a spectator whose station point is inside the projection of an image, transformed from a monocular and stationary POV into mobile agency in 3D space Jonathan Crary: historical break from renaissance period; not a copy of reality before lenses but a transformation in visual culture Sociologist quantum leap into the technological construction of vision

Emphasis on these views: Stress on the immersive experience Provides and (in some) a shift of vision from its dependence upon the spatially positioned human eye to its production by machines and technologies Key idea of passing through the surface of an image or picture to enter the very space that is depicted on the surface stepping through Albertis window

ALBERTIS WINDOW perspective in images

St James the great on his way to execution by Mantegna (left) Orchestra pit (right) Mantegna makes the viewers envision what it would look like (left image) from the perspective of people in the orchestra pit (right) Feet of the guy in the center as if its protruding off the stage; feet of figures depicted as further away from the viewer and are cut off from view How this was achieved depends on managing the relationship between the viewers position in the physical space and the position of the depicted figures in a kind of a virtual space

(Diagram of Albertis system) Alberti thought of a picture as a vertical plane (AB-CD) that was inserted at a certain point within a cone of vision centered on the spectators eye (ALBERTIS WINDOW) Distance from painter to AB-CD is physical distance between viewer and painting AB-CD to figure S is pictorial space, the space that is seen through the window Albertis schema is to connect 2 kinds of space: that from which the image is viewed (actual space visitor inhibits) and that which is viewed within the image (seeks to be as good as and continuous with that space) Mantegna is hinting at in making that foot protrude as if crossing from one space to another

We are therefore, now in a position to think of pictorial perspective (Albertis system) as a technology for constructing the space within an image and for managing the relationship of a viewer in physical space to the virtual space of the image

PERSPECTIVE AS A SYMBOLIC FORM Building of temporal dimension into static images Depth axis of perspective to solve narrative problem: how to depict the unfoding of an act over time, in a single, static scene which depicts space as a unified continuum In right image, we see one neophyte in the process of undress, another waits, naked and shivering and a 3rd receiving baptism 3 images can be read as 3 moments in a continuous process Can be read as 3 men doing different things or as stages of one mans actions

(left) in this image, perspective which integrates pictorial and architectural space enables Masaccio to represent St Peter as he walks past 3 beggars and as he does, the cripples are cured and rise up 3 different levels Peter looks ahead, out of picture space and into spectator, whos viewpoint is beneath the saint He appears to walk, curing the sick as he passes and with a powerful implication that he is about to enter into our real space; suggestion that we are next? Masaccio paints a sequence of separate moments into one frame, unlike other artists of his time; they therefore become embodied and embedded in virtual space, and a sense of anticipation as well as physical experience is expressed

BAROQUE

Paintings on the roof of churches; when spectator looks up, its like hes looking into heaven

These baroque paintings invite the spectator to enter a virtual space; they draw the viewer into a space that changes with their movements; navigable spaces of persuasion THE PANORAMA Installation of 360-degree images in purpose built sites known as panoramas

Spectator positioned in the center of the panorama, surround completely by a seamless, illusionistic painting of a landscape, a historical event, or battle Spectators gaze = mobile; they are either free to move & turn themselves or be moved by a rotating mechanical floor Central viewing position in a gallery ensured that they were kept at an appropriate distance from the painted scene to reinforce its optical realism As they developed in the 1900s, the illusion was enhanced as appropriate with other effects like sound, lightning, smoke, mist In entering the panorama, the paying spectator entered a artificial world. Panorama installs the observer into the picture

THE STEREOSCOPE

Early 19th C technology of seeing that would appear to parallel closely to the VR experience 3D of photography that the stereoscope achieved is the only way in which at the beginning of the 19th C, a number of boundaries between what was real and what was represented began to blur These devices didnt enclose the body and hide the limits of surrounding images by architectural design but by placing binocular images very close to the viewers eyes; similar to Sutherlands head mounted displays

All the above are part of a continuum of technological development, rather than an absolute and revolutionary break with earlier image forms. After several 100s of years of perspective as a pictorial technology, the photographic camera industrialized perspective VIRTUAL IMAGES/IMAGES OF THE VIRTUAL The Virtual & the real Not opposite of the real but a kind of reality itself Eg, Ravi term paper, when you say its virtually complete it exists in your computer; for all intents and purposes, you have finished, its as good as finished. But once you print it, it will then actually exist A digital image resides in a computer file, it is a code or a set of information, a kind of latent image awaiting visibility and material form when it is loaded into appropriate software and projected or printed Virtual isnt the same as an illusion Illusion suggests, unreal. Virtual different from the actual but both are real in different ways

Increasingly, the virtually real and actually real are not completely distinct or separate worlds There is overlap or coexistence and in technologically developed societies we move between them EXAMPLE: ATM o At the ATM we simultaneously inhabit the actually real and the virtually real o Machine is actually real o World of online banking and our virtual cash we access are also real o If we find out we dont have money in the virtual world we dont have money in the real world as well

Virtual, simulation, representation In new media, virtual has come to equal the simulated synonymous terms: virtual realities and virtual environments are produced by simulation technologies, principally: computer graphics software and telecommunications network Shared space simulated in which we can interact with simulated 3D objects and our view of such spaces and places changes in response to our simulated viewpoint We are familiar with: o Computer aided design and the simulation of objects and events that do not actually exist o Software techniques such as ray tracing and texture mapping which digitally generates the visual forms and surfaces of invented objects as if they conformed to the physical law of optics o Production, animation and seamless fusion of still and moving photorealistic images o Equipping of robot machines with the ability to see o The hybrid collection of technologies that produce the illusion of inhabiting and moving within virtual places o The technologies of telepresence that allow the body to act, through vision and touch, on remote objects o New forms of medical and scientific imaging (such as magnetic resonance imaging) that allow the interior spaces of the human body to be noninvasively seen and imaged o Synoptic images of the art and space in which a range of data gathered by satellites is translated into photographic form

Way of defining simulation, to contrast with representation

Representation, media studies, visual culture Representation: key idea in traditional media studies Points to the role of ideology, belief and selective perception in act of communicating ideas abut and experiences of real world Draws attention to role of language and realm of visual representation the signs and codes that we necessarily employ in making images The way that the words or visual signs used (signifying processes) necessarily mediate or change the objects in the world that we communicate about Strongest form: the world only has meaning for us because of the concepts that we employ to make it meaningful Images: o Lead us to see the world in varying perspectives o Shaped by our ideas and a cultures priorities and interests Technologies available play a role in these processes VS. Simulation: modeling of a dynamic system; of a structured environment, a universe with its own rules and properties with which the user or player interacts; not confined to imitating existing worlds or processes although it may also do that part

Wider perspective in digital visual culture; distinctions between representation and simulation that make sense in the study of computer games doesnt hold due to: Not only simulations are real o Representations are as well as they are also artifacts and are composed of material stuff just like the things they represent o Both involve work on materials and utilize tools and technologies and both are artifacts Mimesis: theory or representation o Meaning is thought to lie in real things themselves and hence the work of representation is to faithfully copy the appearance of that thing o Aim: convey meaning rather in the way that a mirror reflects reality o Contrast: simulation produces and constructs while representation mimics something pre-existing The lack of an original o Simulation: an artifact that can be experienced as if it were real, even when no corresponding thing exists outside of the simulation itself o Simulation cannot be a copy of the original

o Yet, there is also a large class of visual representations that nothing corresponding exists (dependent on beliefs): Baroques impression of heaven on the ceiling From representation to simulation (and back again) Genre of painting trompe loeil (tricking the eye) Artists paint their images in places where we might expect the real thing to be Success: momentarily belief that depiction = reality and also triggers haptic sense Viewer oscillates between awareness of the image itself and of the means by which it was produced

DIGITAL CINEMA Popularization of CGI and its use in special effects and computer animation Forms: o Materially and historically situated technologies and media o On the other hand, perfoming a technological imaginary where the impact of digital technology on cinema is presented as either symptomatic of, or a causal factor in the virtualization of the modern world

VIRTUAL REALISM Great excitement of future possibilities of immersive or interactive entertainment But, fear that digital technologies are leading film into a descending spiral of spectacular superficiality John Elliss identification of a number of realist conventions in cinema and television o Common-sense notions and expectations such as correct historical details in costume drama, or racial stereotype in war films o Adequate explanations of apparently confusing events, establishing logical relationships between cause and effect in events o Coherent psychological motivations for characters Recent debates that Hollywood films deny the contradictions of a reality characterized by class conflict, gender inequalities and hidden power structures Realist codes ensure that conflicting POV + power relationships within a films fictional world are always resolved or reconciled A world riven by contradiction is always, by the end of the last reel, whole & coherent If ending not happy, there still is closure

While technological apparatus of cinema and TV is sometimes discussed in these debates, it is rarely identified as a key factor in the construction of the ideological effects of these realisms Allen: o Realism no longer film theorys set of ideological and formal conventions of narrative, character plot and hierarchies o Rather, technical and aesthetic qualities of sound and image o Realism now operates between the image and its qualities and the technological apparatus that generates it o Uncomfortable conflation of three distinct notions of realism Photographic image is seen to be privileged among all other representations in its grasping of the real world Spectacular or illusionistic immediate grasping of reality in which the medium itself seems

to flicker out of the picture o The more visually realistic a film or special effect sequence is, the more artificial or illusionistic it is. Leads to: VERISIMILITUDE: appearance of being true or real Claims to capture the visual appearance of the world, people and objects, as they appear to the human eye

Eg: Trompe loeil genre of painting In reality, it is taken for granted In CGI, it becomes an object of interest to both producers and spectators. Eg, in Toys story, toy soldiers = rendered complete with all the imperfections of a cheap toy in real life; shows attention to detail INDEXICALITY: relating to or denoting a word or expression whose meaning is dependent on the context in which it is used Photographs, pre digital ages characteristic was that the images were created through a direct physical relationship with their referent

Current anxieties are that this now can be manipulated PHOTOREALISM: a style of art and sculpture characterized by the highly detailed depiction of ordinary life with the impersonality of a photograph similar to verisimilitude But these CGI sequences are not so much capturing external reality as stimulating another medium

Measured more by its figuration of these other media than by any capture of the look of the real itself HYPERREALISM: extremely realistic in detail Identify a distinct and dominant aesthetic in popular animation, developed by Disney Disney animation presents its characters and environments as broadly conforming to the physics of the real world Context of animation: not wholly constrained by live action conventions, Disney hyperrealist animation never fully remediated the live action film; always exceeds verisimilitude; evident in graphic conventions of caricature in character design as well as exaggeration of forces of the real world REALITY EFFECTS Photorealism in CGI and the hyperrealist imagery and narrative structures of Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks animated features Understood as, or are claimed to be, in different ways, offering a more realistic experience, a less mediated grasp of the world and experience Each of these reality effects references not the actual external world directly, but rather other cinematic and media conventions

SPECTACULAR REALISM Advent of popular CGI cinema, left with an apparently paradoxical notion of realism; referral to both a perceived immediacy but also a heightened illusion and spectacle Verisimilitude not on indexicality of photography but on the wizardry of digital synthetic imagery and its designers that re-introduces that least realist cinematic form, animation back to the mainstream Paradox serves to foreground 2 more important factors o Continuities with earlier spectacular visual media forms o Critical concern with the visual image over the other aspects of cinema Spectacle: not so much a set of particular cultural or media events and images but characterizes the entire social world today as an illusion, a separation from, or masking of real life

SPECIAL EFFECTS AND HYPERREALITY The Mask popularity based on use of CGI Special effects: best distractions from, and at worst, deleterious (causing harm/damage) to the creative or artistic in cinema

Special effects driven films (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, action) seen as illusory, juvenile, superficial More associated with the technology rather than the art of cinema (character psychology, subtleties of plot and mise-en-scene) Claims that blockbusters are bringing about the dumbing down of culture Fears that popularization and pervasiveness of electronic technology has profoundly altered our spatial and temporal sense of the world

Overlapping discourses of CGI a. Forms and aesthetics of CGI = latest in an evolutionary process of ever-increasing verisimilitude in visual culture b. Pessimistic version of (a) characterized by a suspicion of CGI as illusory, superficial and vulgar; opposition to the true creative qualities of film as a medium as taking over traditional cinema and the technical virtuosity (artistic pursuit) it brings c. Cybercultural perspective, digitally generated verisimilitude marks a new distinct phase in western culture d. Inversion of cybercultural perspective; cinematic tech is symptomatic of technological change more generally but this is a slide into digital illusion and depthlessness rather than the creation of new realities Early cinema to digital culture cinema machine is the product of social and economic forces, drawing from the diverse range of photographic and other technologies for the presentation of moving images technologies which operate across the boundaries between entertainment, art, science, government and the military seem to offer an analogous (comparable) cultural, historical and technological movement digital technologies, unlike cinema, emerge into a world already familiar with a centurys development of mass media Digital visual culture although new in important ways, is at the same time continuous with a tradition of spectacular entertainment that runs through the twentieth century Despite diversity in all the forms, they share an invitation to their audience to engage with the visual or kinaesthetic stimulation of these spectacles, and to be fascinated by their technical ingenuity by entertainment technology itself as spectacle cinema of attractions: acknowledged spectator rather than inward towards the character-based situations essential to classical narrative

Did not disappear but continued in other moving image forms like animation

Audiences and effects Most Hollywood feature film production now feature digital effects; but not always presented as such to the audience. Digital imaging is used to generate backdrops or climatic conditions that prove difficult or expensive to film conventionally Some effects are designed not to simulate ostensibly normal events (Titanic) a real historical event but still aimed to inspire awe in the technological spectacle Play with other registers of filmic realism. Eg Forest Gump where the character was inserted into a documentary Effects mark irruption of other media (animation) as disruptive force.

Week 10 reading 2
WHAT IS CINEMA?

4/19/2013 10:20:00 AM

Digital cinema and the history of a moving image

Cinema, the art of the index Most discussions of cinema in computer age focus on possibilities of interactive narrative o Majority of viewers and critics equate cinema with storytelling o Computer media understood as something that will let cinema tell its stories in a new way However, this only addresses one aspect of cinema; neither unique nor as many argue, essential to it What used to be cinemas defining characteristics are now just default options with many others available o One can enter the virtual 3D space o Viewing flat images projected on screen is no longer the only option New developments change the identity of cinema Cinemas identity traditionally in the 1970s as a super-genre Fictional films are live action films, consisting of unmodified photographic recording of real live events that took place in real, physical space Now with the onset of the 21st century, those can only be limited to the time of the 20th century During cinemas history, a whole repertoire of techniques (lighting, art direction, use of different film stock, lenses) were developed to modify the basic record obtained by film apparatus Yet, behind those techniques, we can see the bluntness and unoriginality of those photographs No matter how complex, its stylistic innovations, cinema has found its base in these deposits of reality; samples obtained by a methodical and prosaic process Cinema emerged out of the same impulse that led to the rise of naturalism (method of representation based on accurate depiction of detail) Cinemas identity is formed by its ability to record reality What happens now, if its possible to generate photorealistic scenes entirely on a computer to produce something with perfect photographic credibility even though it was never actually filmed? What is the meaning of these changes in the filmmaking process from POV of the larger cultural history of the moving image?

o Manual construction of images in digital cinema represents a return to the pro-cinematic practices of the 19th C when images were hand-painted and hand-animated o At turn of the 20th C, these techniques are now delegated to animation (also defined as a recording medium) o In the digital age, these techniques are becoming commonplace in filmmaking process o No longer an indexical media technology, but rather a subgenre of painting A BRIEF ARCHEOLOGY OF MOVING PICTURES Original names of cinema: kinetoscope (early motion picture exhibition device), cinematograph, moving pictures Cinema was understood form its birth as the art of motion; art that finally succeeded in creating a convincing illusion of dynamic reality This approach allows us to see how it took over earlier techniques for creating and displaying moving images like the i. thaumatrope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv6QArYoHik 2 images tied with a string, and when you move it, the pictures overlap until they look like 1 image) ii. zootrope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHcY_1pRt8 thingy that spins and if you look through the holes in the device you can see the animation) iii. phenakistiscope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUoduIp5My0 when you spin it, it has a certain animation), iv. praxinoscope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez_UJAafRMs spins also like the zootrope and phenakistiscope but this time has mirrors) v. choreutoscope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F66v-669Fmc its like this wind up thing and the inside images move) All that ^ have in common are that the images were hand-painted or hand-drawn Not only created manually, but manually animated Only in the 1890s did automatic generation of images and automatic projection become combined, emerging into cinema. Cinema eliminated the discrete character of both space and movement Pre cinema; moving element was clearly separated from the image; as seen from above Actions limited in range and only affected a clearly defined figure inside rather than the whole image

All of the above devices were based on loops; sequences of images featuring complete actions that can be played repeatedly and they progressively grew longer over time (can see in sequence above, from thauma to choreu)

FROM ANIMATION TO CINEMA Once cinema was stabilized as technology, it cut all references to its origins Everything characterized as moving images pre cinema was delegated to animation, which picked up in the twentieth century Animation openly admits that its images are mere representations its visual language more aligned to the graphic than to the photographic Discrete and self-consciously discontinuous; where characters move against a stationary and detailed background in sparsely and irregular sampled motion Contrast to cinema whos public image was about photographing what existed before the camera rather than creating the never-was of special effects However, blue-screen, matte paintings, glass shots, mirrors and miniatures, optical effects and other techniques that allowed filmmakers to construct and alter moving images could reveal that cinema was not really different from animation

CINEMA REDEFINED Sign of this shift is due to the new role that computer generated special effects have to come to play in the new Hollywood industry in the 1990s New genre of The making of videos and books in Hollywood due to popularity New principles: o Rather than filming physical reality, it is now possible to generate filmlike scenes directly on a computer with the help of 3D computer animation and thus, live-action footage is displaced from its role as the only possible material from which a film can be constructed o Once live action footage is digitalized it loses indexical relationship to prefilmic reality as the computer doesnt distinguish the origins; all pixels and thus live-action footage is reduced to just another graphic, no different from the images created manually o Live-action footage now functions as raw material for further compositing, animating and morphing and thus film now obtains a plasticity that was only previously possible in painting or animation (layers etc, like subtitles, combining images; green screen stuff)

o In traditional filmmaking, editing and special effects were separate activities but now in the new age, the computer collapses this distinction and both involve cut and paste Therefore digital film = live action material + painting + image processing + compositing + 2D computer animation + 3D computer animation Digital cinema is now a particular case of animation that uses live-action footage as one of its many elements History of the moving image thus makes a full circle born from animation, cinema pushed animation into its periphery, only in the end to become one particular case of animation So therefore, production becomes the first stage of postproduction Eg, Starwars, traditional on set filming took 65 days but postproduction took 2 years because 95% of the film was constructed on a computer Computing tools to manipulate the image are important to the digital painter as brushes and pigments are to a painter This fact thus erases the difference between a photograph and a painting Given that an artist is easily able to manipulate digitized footage either as a whole or frame by frame; a film thus becomes a series of paintings What was previously recorded by a camera automatically now has to be painted one frame at a time, and not just a dozen images like in the 19th century but thousands, in this 21st century From Kino-eye to Kino-Brush 20th century, cinema played 2 roles at once o Media technology: capture and store visible reality, due to early difficulties of modifying images once recorded that lent its value as a document; assuring its authenticity Mutability of digital data impairs the value of cinema recordings as documents of reality; back then it was just an isolated accident in the history of visual representation which has always involved and now again involves the manual construction of images Cinema becomes a particular branch of painting - painting in time; no longer a kino-eye but a kino-brush Role played by the manual construction of images in digital cinema is one example of a larger trend the return of pro-cinematic moving-image techniques o Initially marginalized due to the onset of cinema being a super-genre o Therefore, it was relegated into the realms of animation and special effects

But now, with technological developments, these techniques are reemerging as the foundation of digital filmmaking o What was once supplemental to cinema becomes its norm; what was once on the outer limits of cinema becomes the norm

The cinematic realism is being displaced from the dominant mode to merely one option among many THE NEW LANGUAGE OF CINEMA Cinematic and Graphic: Cinegratography In commercial media, 3D animation, compositing, mapping and paint retouching were used mostly to solve technical problems whilst traditional cinematic language is preserved unchanged o Frames handpainted to remove wires that supported an actor whilst filming o Flock of birds added to landscape o City street filled with crowds of stimulated extras Invisible effects: practice of simulating traditional film language o Computer-enhanced scenes that fool the audience into believing the shots were produced with live actors on location but are really composed of a mlange of digital and live action footage When Hollywood introduces various nonhuman characters like aliens etc, we dont really notice the arbitrariness of their non-humanistic ways because they are perceptually consistent with the set (they look like they could exist in a 3D space and thus photographed) Electronic + digital media have already brought about the transformation of cinema no longer needing to manufacture its reality portrayal effect From early 1980s, emergence of new cinematic forms that arent linear narratives that are exhibited on a TV or computer screen as o Music videos o TV shows o CD rom based games CD-ROM based games Designers were aware of the techniques of the 20th century cinematography and film editing but had to adopt these techniques both to an interactive format and to hardware limitations (thus development of cinegratography) 1993s Myst

o unfolds narrative through still images (and sometimes mini animations o o o within the images, just like pre-cinematic techniques) relies on techniques of film editing to subjectively speed up and slow down time Through the game, the user moves around a fictional island through the click of a mouse and each click advances a virtual camera forward When the user begins to descend the underground chambers (as opposed to outdoor LS shots), there are more close ups and the user needs more clicks to explore the area Therefore just like trad cinema, Myst slows down time to create tension and suspense 1995s Johnny Mnemonic o Interactive movie o Featuring full-screen video throughout o Comes closer to cinematic realism than Myst but still distant o Action shots against a green screen and then composited with graphic backgrounds As the speed of computers increases, CD-ROM designers have been able to go from a slide-show format to a superimposition of small moving elements over static backgrounds and finally to full-frame moving images Mirrors the 19th century progression from sequences of still images (zootrope etc) to moving characters over static backgrounds to full motion Exactly after 100 years where cinema was officially born, it was reinvented on a computer screen

The New Temporality: The Loop as a Narrative Engine Underlying assumption: by looing at the history of visual culture and media, in particular, cinema, we can find many strategies and techniques relevant to new media design 3 particular relevant situations in cultural history o An interesting strategy or technique is abandoned or forced underground without fully developing its potential o A strategy can be understood as a response to technological constraints similar to those of new media o A strategy is used in a situation similar to that faced by new media designers. For instance, montage was a strategy for dealing with the modularity (basis of design or construction/how do you join separate shots?) as well as the problem of coordinating different media types such

as images and sound. Both of these situations are being faced once again by new media designers These techniques were used to discuss parallels between 19th century procinematic techniques and the language of new media; also, guides in thinking about animation (underground of 20th century cinema) as the basis for digital cinema 19th century pro-cinematic devices were based on short loops As cinema began to develop, those short loops were banished to the low-art realms of the instructional film, pornographic peep-show and animated cartoon In contrast, western modern fiction avoided repetition forms in general It puts forward a notion of human existence as a linear progression through numerous unique events Early forms utilized loops due to the limitations of hardware As the CPU speed increased and the larger storage media such as CD-ROM and DVD became available, loop usage decreased However, online virtual worlds use loops extensively because they provide a cheap mean of adding some life into their geometric looking environment Animation still utilizes loops when animating limb movements

Spatial Montage and Macrocinema Spatial montage: involves a number of images potentially of different sizes and proportions appearing on the screen at the same time This juxtaposition doesnt result in a montage; up to filmmaker to interpret Spatial montage = alternative to traditional cinematic temporal montage, replacing its traditional sequential mode with a spatial one Same principle with computer programming breaks a tasks into a series of elemental operations to be executed one at a time Cinema followed this logic by replacing all other modes of narration with a sequential narrative, an assembly of shots that appear on the screen one at a time 20th century uses split screen to show this spatial montage Traditional film and video technology was designed to fill a screen completely with a single image and thus to explore spatial montage, a filmmaker had to work against the technology Some computer games such as Halo3 already used multiple split screens to present the same action simultaneously from different viewpoints The logic of replacement, characteristic of cinema, gives way to the logic of addition and coexistence. Time becomes spatialized, distributed over the surface of the screen

Opposed to spatial montage, where nothing needs to be forgotten or erased Spatial montage can be also seen as an aesthetics appropriate to the user experience of multitasking and multiple windows of GUI Construction of a desktop that presents users with multiple icons all of which are simultaneously and continuously active Result: a new cinema in which the diachronic dimension is no longer privileged over the synchronic dimension, time is no longer privileged over space, sequence is no longer privileged over simultaneity, montage in time is no longer privileged over montage within a shot

Cinema as in Information Space Cinema language, originally an interface to narrative taking place in 3D space is now becoming an interface to all types of computer data and media Elements of language as rectangular framing, the mobile camera, image transitions, montage in time and montage within an image reappear in the general purpose HCI, the interfaces of software applications and cultural interfaces If HCI is an interface to computer data, and a book is an interface to text, cinema can be thought of as an interface to events taking place in 3D space Just like painting, cinema presents us with familiar images of visible reality interiors, landscapes, human characters, arranged within a rectangular space Exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of all aspects of the users experience with a computer; this key experience of modern life the dynamic windows of GUI, multitasking, search engines, databases, navigable space, and others

Cinema as a code Artists and critics point out the radically new nature of new media by staging as opposed to hiding its new properties Vuk Cosics ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) films http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nr9A8Tq9GQ Cosic superimposes digital code over the film images; as opposed to Star Wars, where George Lucas hides those codes under the images; hidden to the audience and Zuse only showing the digital code ASCII films perform the new status of media as digital data Result = double image a recognizable film image and an abstract code all together, both visible at once By juxtaposing ASCII codes with the history of cinema, Cosic accomplishes an artistic compression that is, along with staging the new status of moving images

as a computer code, he also encodes many key issues of computer culture and new media art in these images Cinema, along with other established cultural forms, in this digital age has become a code as it is now used to communicate all types of data and experiences and its language is encoded in the interfaces and defaults of software programs and in the hardware itself. Whilst new media strengthens existing cultural forms and languages, including the language of cinema, it simultaneously opens them up for redefinition. Elements of their interfaces become separated form the types of data to which they were traditionally connected New media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an open source. This opening up of cultural techniques, conventions forms and concepts is ultimately the most promising cultural effect of computerization an opportunity to see the world and the human being anew in ways that were not available to a man with a movie camera

Week 12 reading 1
CHAPTER 3: YOUTUBES POPULAR CULTURE Accounting for Popularity Survey of some of YouTubes most popular content

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establish baseline knowledge of the range of uses people are making of the site Required contextualizing of YouTubes content with everyday media practices YouTube videos generally circulated and made sense of on other websites and are embedded in blogs, discussed in living rooms and are produced in rich everyday or professional contexts This knowledge + analysis of the way particular types of videos move through the systems allow understanding of significant and interesting patterns in YouTubes popular culture Focus on apparent nature of content coded eliminates discrimination between o pure user-created efforts o Supposedly user-created for viral marketing purposes/seized upon by marketing campaigns In practice, indistinguishable and to some participants, perform the same role To find out YouTube-ness of YouTube; shared and particular common culture whilst respecting complexity + diversity

4 categories of popularity accounted for (all required registration + participation on YouTube) Counting eyeballs in front of a screen utilized by mainstream media industries o Most viewed Measure of attention other than those that have predominated in the broadcast era o Most favorite (videos popular enough to be added to users profile) o Most responded (videos that most frequently prompted a video response) o Most discussed (videos with the most comments) Each of the above ways of identifying YouTubes culture constitutes a different version of what YouTube is, and what it is for. Allows simplified + automized model of audience engagement to be calculable and measurable Metrics shape the character of the most popular content; users can o Deliberately attempt to produce content that will achieve mass attention according to preset criteria o Ignore criteria and get dramatically smaller audiences

Mainstream media interpretation: produces a feedback loop between the perceived uses of and value logics of YouTube and its actual uses and meanings

Coding scheme 2 primary categories Apparent industrial origin of the video o user-created o product of a traditional media company Apparent identity of the uploader o traditional media company o o o o small-to-medium enterprise independent producer government organization cultural institution

o amateur user The Two YouTubes (User-created/traditional media)

User-created videos 40% vlogs 15% user created music videos (fan vids + anime music videos) 13% live material (music performances + sports + slice of life videos) 10% interviews, video-game reviews, newscasts 8% sketch comedy, animation, machinima (video game animation)

Debunking of myths Very little cat videos (LOL) No videos of children hitting each other

Traditional media sources (videos produced within the established media industry and frequently taken from an original source such as TV broadcast/DVD and then uploaded with minimum editing) 30% informational programming news clips 21% scripted materials (sketch comedy, animation, segments from soap operas from Turkey and Philippines) 17% live content (sports footage, US primary debates) 13% music videos which came mostly from US top 40 artists 11% promotional materials (trailers for films/advertisements for products)

Clips and quotes: Uses of Traditional Media Content YouTube context: something people make use of in everyday life Bruns: participatory culture and digital tools mean audiences no longer need to resort to auxiliary media forms to respond to the culture around them Everyday experience of media audiencehood needs to be rethought to include new forms of cultural production that occur as part of ordinary media use New forms of publishing o redaction: production of new material by the process of editing existing content o Due to too much instantly available for everyone to see the whole world

Hartley (2008): origin of meaning migrated along value chain of the cultural industries From author to producer and the text to the citizen-consumer so that consumption is a source of value creation and not only its destination Therefore, media consumption becomes not read-only but read-write Redaction provides an alternative to the discussion of copyright infringement Also suggests that uploading is a meaning-making process rather than an attempt to evade the constraints of mainstream media distribution mechanisms uncertain could be due to violation of copyrights under YouTubes terms of use Suggests that there may be a larger proportion of traditional media YouTube introduction of HD viewing to improve video experience 10 minute limit on YouTube to allow users to draw attention to the most significant portion of a program Best way for users to quickly catch up on public media events like 2008 presidential elections and break new stories and raise awareness as citizen journalists

Music and its role in postmodern identity formation Music videos most common under most favorite category Dual status as a marker of individualism and signifier of group participation Also been central to the formation of other social networking services o Significant role as a marker of identity in user profiles particularly teens

Particular patterns that emerged from the content survey hint at the shape of YouTubes common culture a structure of feeling neither unique to YouTube nor synonymous with web culture or popular culture, however those categories are understood Vaudeville to Vlogs: User-Created Content Makes up more than 2/3s in Most Responded and Most Discussed categories Aesthetics mainly concerned with experimentation with the video form Foregrounding of the medium itself that has historically been associated with the emergence of new media technologies that resembles the technological and aesthetic experimentation of Vaudeville (type of US entertainment popular in the US in the early 20th century) Most of the most popular user-created content has a noticeable focus on video as a technology and on the showcasing of technique rather than technology o Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0LtUX_6IXY Original Human Tetris

Most of these frequently forgo narrative and resembles something most akin to parody or video art. Logic of cultural value centered mostly around novelty and humor Vlogs: an emblematic form of YouTube culture The form has antecedents in webcam culture, personal blogging and confessional culture that characterizes TV talk shows and reality TV focused on the observation of everyday life More conversational as compared to traditional media, which doesnt particularly invite conversational and inter-creative participation Vlog as a genre of communication invites critique, debate and discussion o Frequently responses to other vlogs o Carrying out discussion across YouTube o Directly addressing comments on previous Vlog entries In Most Discussed and Most Responded: o informational content (user-created newscasts, interviews, documentaries; things that bleed into the Vlog category) o Frequently critiquing popular media or comment on YouTube dramas through visual juxtaposition or adding commentary/on-screen graphics Music videos o Sharing of experiences in creating the music video o Invitations to comment suggest and subscribe o Most artists use this to communicate with their fans like all those who join American Idol and are eliminated; to allow their fans of the show to follow them

Beyond the Professional and Amateur Divide Existence of content that are unable to fit in the boundaries of user-created content and traditional media o E-lectures by USW and UOC Berkeley o Online presentations by Google o Footage of military aircraft landing by Royal Australian Air Force Model also fails to appropriately characterize uploaders seeking talent like Ford Models (provision of all things fashion like make up tutorials how to catwalk etc) Category of user also complicated by web-v start-ups like o NoGoodTV that produces risqu programming (or MadTV!) Resembles traditional TV producers using the internet as a way to distribute niche programming or specialized content without needing to negotiate cable or TV distribution deals

Some users also use YouTube as a business venture by participating in YouTubes advertising sharing scheme and draw revenue from their presence on YouTube o Success attributed to grounded knowledge and effective participation within YouTubes communicative ecology

Practices of audiencehood Quoting, favoriting, commenting, responding, sharing and viewing all leave traces All have effects on the common culture of YouTube as it evolves Those who insist on treating YouTube as if it is a broadcasting platform are probably less likely to achieve the aims of their participation

CHAPTER FOUR: YOUTUBES SOCIAL NETWORK Most people use YouTube to watch videos Existence of YouTube as a social network; categorized as YouTubers Argument that the activities of YouTubers are very important drivers of the attention economy of YouTube, and significant in the co-creation of a particular version of YouTubes emergent culture

While traditional media companies are well represented in the Most Viewed List, the list of Most Subscribed channels is dominated by YouTube stars whose brands were developed within YouTubes social network

YouTubers as User Innovators Striking feature of YouTubers community is that they take place within an architecture that is not primarily designed for collaborative or collective

participation; as compared to other SMS designed for collaborative or collective participation Architecture of YouTube does not overtly invite community-building, collaboration or purposeful group work YouTubes visual design consistently dominated by thumbnails of videos, not user profiles, groups or conversations Seen as an alternative broadcaster as compared to a social network Ban on downloading and absence of user-control over licensing creates barriers to collaborative production and there are no overt invitations to collaborate with other users, or to remix or quote each others videos YouTubes design focus on usability and a simple and limited set of features o However, people workaround the lack of features using other third party sites o Showing that YouTubers, as cultural agents, are not captive to YouTubes o o o o architecture Also demonstrates the permeability of YouTube as a system Connects with surrounding social and cultural networks Users embedded within these networks move their content and their identities back and forth between multiple sites YouTube has never functioned as a closed system From beginning, offered embedding tools into other websites

Other competing video websites have more features like annotations over the text; YouTube was late in jumping on to this bandwagon YouTubers themselves came up with innovative ways around these problems; they interacted with the tags themselves o Shows YouTubers desires to embed their video practice within networks of conversation rather than just to broadcast themselves User-led innovation in YouTube includes content innovation; creative adaptations of the existing conventions of online videos o Eg: most basic form of Vlogs are a talking head, basic editing and a camera o Vlogs have grown increasingly innovative with the use of more advanced video editing skills like shot-reverse-shot and green screens to make the videos look more professional

Content survey of the above study show that the more popular ones are those who consider themselves as activists and active participants in the ongoing process of shaping and negotiating the meaning and uses of YouTube

At least 10% of the most popular YouTube videos (between June and November 2007) were explicitly concerned with YouTube itself More than 99% of this were user created and not traditional media meta YouTube videos range; 2/3 Vlogs entries implicitly addressing an audience of fellow YouTubers and a wider imagined audience Vlogging also tends to be canny and knowledgeable about YouTubes attention economy, with all its many faults Also critiques some aspect of the way the website measures and awards attention o Companies that are willing to get videos viral for a fee Shows that the most active participants on YouTube are highly knowledgeable; some possibly even more so than the company itself of the specific ways in which these measures of popularity can work to support or disturb what they see as the authentic bottom-up culture of YouTube

Literacy and the Social Network Digital literacy is one of the central problems of participatory culture Due to the digital divide Most discussions of New Media Literacy are characterized by historically unresolved tensions between critical or enlightenment views of literacy o Critical view: Literacy as a normative and exclusionary construction o Enlightenment view: As an aid to progress and equality, we should extend to all people on the other side Ubiquitousness of digital technologies means creative practice is necessary for both critical awareness and informed participation in the media o Young people may be learning new media competencies through YT o Active and creative participation may also allow a critical viewpoint of media messages Literacies are produced by and practiced in, particular social and historical contexts o Too many types of literacies; visual, media, multimedia, network Approach: Aligned with the New Literacy Studies Movement; where instead of literacy being a technology of the mind or set of skills, it is considered a social practice o ***understanding that new media literacy is not a property of individuals but a system that both enables and shapes participation Being literate in YouTube means not only being able to create and consume video content but also being able to comprehend the way YouTube works as a set of technologies and as a social network

These competencies are not in-born natural attributes of the so-called digital natives (most of the lead users are adults in their 20s or 30s) Geriatric1927 80+ year old that uses YouTube to tell the tales of old people (hes seriously very cute) o You can see his progression in YouTube literacy as he grows more used to the technology

Week 12 reading 2
THE GLOBAL FLOW OF VISUAL CULTURE Circulation of images globally

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Global image flows allow increased circulation of concepts, ideas, politics and images Helps to foster the growth of multinational corporations Fosters expansion of political influence by powerful nations over distant domains with fewer resources Transnational cultural flows create a homogenization of culture Also fosters diversification, hybridity and new global audiences Yet, flows are never equal Flows have increased the rich-poor divide

Media and visual images as forces regarding the changing status of the nation-state and the globalization of capital Transnational and diasporic cultures dispersed across national boundaries are linked in part by consumption patterns and media culture Religious communities linked across broad geographic areas through programming that includes webcast services, internet radio websites and blogs Television news globalized with: o CNN International o Al Jazeera o BBC world Web provides a globally linked network through which images, media forms, cultural products and texts circulate the world Artworks, music, films also circulates around the web Global ideal world without borders does not match social reality in the 21st century Mobility may have increased (planes trains etc), but national borders have tightened since 2001 2001: democracies have increasingly responded with distrust, hostility, extradition to immigrants and exilic subjects who cross national borders seeking opportunity or asylum from political repression Media, information and images travel when people cant Therefore visual culture is key in this climate of escalated globalization Different flow in different countries and cultures

Understanding how images circulate and what role they play in a global information economy is thus crucial to understanding practices of looking in the 21s century

The Global Subject and the Global Gaze Key historical demarcation (fixing the boundary/limits of something) of the concept of the globe came from space travels Those space travels by USA and Soviet Union produced the first photographic images of earth as seen by space (originally a Cold War space race mission) 1970 declaration of Earth Day o Marked moment in History when the idea of a unified planet carried a strong humanitarian appeal to the mostly North American and European advocates of this celebration Whole earth image sent by NASA The Blue Marble became an icon of the peace movement symbolizing global unity and harmony Idea of one world Satellites played a key factor in changing perspectives of visualizing the earth

Satellite transmission Satellite initially a spying machine for Soviet Union Started to be a mean of transmission for TV and news images, through which most telecommunications (cell phones particularly) can take place Beginning of 21st century, over 8000 satellites in space 1970s, satellites became standard mean of broadcasting important news events Lisa Parks: satellites help to create a global presence where liveliness and presence were indistinguishable from Western Discourses of modernization Developing nations could only declare themselves as modern if they were in the range of American, Western European, or Japanese satellite TV signals, earth stations or networks New perspective (up, looking down) changes our relationship to objectivity and subjectivity in regard to knowledge about ourselves and the world Gods eye view Suggests an enhancement of objective knowledge Stronger sense of the subjective experience of living down inside the conditions we observe from above Google Earth o Part of the history of modernity of visuality

o Early fascination with photography was organized around a fascination with technologies for seeing things to small, too far away, or too hidden for the unaided human eye to see Development of remote sensing in the commercial context as an aspect of the commercial satellite industry in the 1990s Involves convergence of satellite, TV and computer imaging in the production of images from above Initially, access of these images only limited to government and military to spy Can be used for campaign; showed us directly how global warming affects us o Data about city lights to map the effects of urbanization on biological productivity; correlation is between energy usage and light; so we are able to see urban areas that consume the most energy o Such images serve dramatic visualizations of changes taking place in the natural and built environment o Thus, important historical and political documents of changes in consumption (of energy) wrought by industrialization and modernization

GPS (Global Positioning System) Developed for use by US department of defense Released to the world after Korean Flight 007 (commercial plane) was mistakenly shot down after it accidentally entered Soviet space in 1983 President Reagan argued that if the world had GPS for free, this could have been avoided Also, if satellite images could help track enemy movement, they could also help us to track our everyday paths, allowing us to plot our movements more carefully in a world whose borders are more permeable but not necessarily more free of restrictions and defenses

Rapid increase of satellite imagery provides the visual data for a society deeply invested in the practice of surveillance at every level Embedding of this data into mobile phones cause rise to leisure activities such as geocaching GPS crosses military, science, service and leisure because the system provides comprehensive yet specific mapping data Allows the subject to put himself/herself at the center of the world contained in any given map

Cultural Imperialism and Beyond Cultural Imperialism: how an ideology, a politics or a way of life is exported into other territories through the export of cultural products Tv is a mean through which world powers like USA and USSR invaded the cultural and ideological space of a country with images and messages in place of an all-out military invasion Therefore, TV is able to cross boundaries and literally invade cultures in ways that bodies cannot USA: TV created global markets for US products and promote global acceptance of US political values o CNN having footholds in various regions (CNN en Espanol, CNN Asia) o While retaining a globally unified brand and a major world player with branded networks, services to 1.5 billion people in >212 countries by 2008 Dynamics of global transmission, televisual and cultural = more complex than the simple one-way model of cultural imperialism as suggested previously o Ugly Betty, Columbian US adapted TV show o Dallas, CBS primetime aired in 130 countries by the end of its run Paradox: the fact that globalization by liberalization and policies of open flow media have not created a more democratic flow of information for the people Instead, its used to shape worldwide view on topics o When national conflict aired, coverage becomes crucial in generating foreign support o Facts may be more fluidly generated Harder to verify independently in a media climate in which the flow of information is fast and thick but nonetheless highly monitored, restricted and generated by countries maintaining strict control over media o CNN China March 2008

o Tibetan protesters in Chinas Tibet autonomous region rumoured to have been killed; reporters blocked from region o Tibetan supporters sent incriminating video clips but Chinese mandate contested by providing own accounts + images of Tibetan violence o CNN Asia protest broadcast blacked out Show the limitations in broadcasting, even by CNN o 2008, Reporters Without Borders French protestors interrupted the ritual lighting of the Olympic games (Beijing 2008) for the Tibetans; getting worldwide coverage; suggests boycott o Message: China has already jeopardized the international spirit of fair competition and sportsmanship among nations National and global are in constant fluid tension o National interests using global media to shape international opinion o Global forces struggling to work within the continued laws and rituals of the nation-state Hollywood, central source of entertainment programming around the world o Hollywood gains much more globally as compared to within the US o LOTR Two Towers earned $921m worldwide, of which $341m USA Outsourcing of production and labor around the globe has many consequences on changing economies and on the kinds of cultural products that are generated in the studio system o TV + cinematic depiction of places; increasingly generic o Certain locales (eg, Toronto) used to simulate other places around the US and elsewhere Global Brands Increased global marketing of key American brands in postwar years Suggests other places being colonized by American Capitalism o McDonalds, Coca-Cola symbols of this Cokes marketing strategy: Coca-Cola business; a local one o Generating hundreds of brands across 200 countries under the umbrella of Coke o Hiring their people boosting their jobs American global brands as symbols of protest o France: Mecca Cola marketed as the anti-US cola brand o Boycott of products of those global brands to show discord Multilocal, an idea of the global village

Global Village (Marshall McLuhan): concept that the media extend our reach across political and geographic boundaries; bringing the world together o Body Shop Specializing in selling products produced in specific developing locales to consumers throughout the world Emphasis on education and awareness of other cultures through the consumption of their products However, in China, McDonalds seen as modernization and a symbol of emerging capitalism o Chinese cities now where young people want to congregate Starbucks o Creation of urban, modern spaces that signify global youth culture o Linking patrons to their peers sipping lattes or specialty teas in similar looking Starbucks in other urban centers like New York or Paris o Draw to appear like a savvy participant in global youth culture who appreciates the best of coffee and tea products worldwide o USA: seen for promoting good tastes o Tokyo: signify new freedom to participate in capitalist signifiers of consumption and western tastes in a society whos popular drink is not coffee, but tea

Ultimately, model of cultural imperialism is no longer a viable one for understanding how culture travels

Concepts of Globalization Seen as a set of conditions that have been escalating since post war period o Increased rates of migration o Rise of multinational corporations o Globalization of capital and financial networks o Development of global communications and transport systems o Consequent sense of the decline of the sovereign nation state o Formation of web-based communities, not geographically bound Terms often used in globalization o Diaspora (ethnic communities separate from country of origin) o Hybridity (mixing of people and cultures) o Deterritorializtion (separation of people from their traditional territories, often by force) o Cosmopolitanism (subjectivities beyond the nation identified with travelling/global)

o Outsourcing (of labor) o Transnationalism (people moving increasingly around the world as global citizens) Through these, we understand ourselves as living within a global context, even as we identify ourselves as belonging to particular nations, regions, and gultures Two aspects of identity global/local are not contradictory but independent Thomas Friedman: Golden Arches Theory; no two countries with McDonalds have waged a war against one another o National gains motivate mutual cooperation Charles Norchi (director of international league for human rights): globalization is not just about global communication and markets but a global discourse of rights; also progression of forces that have accelerate the interdependences of peoples to the point that we can speak of a true world community. However, there is a sharp escalation in the rich-poor divide Globalization doesnt make sense if it doesnt address and reduce extreme poverty Most striking feature is the runaway quality of global finance where per capita incomes declining in Africa is relative to changes in incomes in the industrial countries Arjun Appadurai: Model for understanding dynamics of globalization across a number of social and cultural realms: suffix, scapes: derived from the geographical metaphor of landscapes as a framework for thinking about particular sorts of global flows o Ethnoscapes: groups of people of similar ethnicities who move across borders in roles such as refugees, tourists exiles and guest workers o Mediascapes: movement of media texts and cultural products throughout the world o Technoscapes: complex technological industries that circulate information and services o Financescapes: flow of global capital o Ideascapes: technologies that circultate Analyzing through scapes allows a critique of the different power relations within these cultural and economic movements and exchange of products, people and capital; also provides an alternative to the traditional model of one-way cultural flow, allowing us to see the complex directions and scope of an images or texts global circulation beyond one-way reach of broadcasting/imperial rule Postcolonial theory: key theoretical interventions into these issues o Considers culture/social context of decolonized countries

o Entities analyzed not only in terms of pre colonial mindset but also in light of changes to national forms of cultural expression Eg, Indians in Great Britain to understand a postcolonial analysis of Indian culture as much as those who continue living in India Result: hybrid cultures and large diasporic communities often connected to country of origin through the global network Cultural imperialists cannot control the complex movements of an image or media texts flow Rather, viewers make meanings based in part on the context in which they experience images Meanings also shaped by experiences and knowledge brought to the circumstance of viewing Therefore, responses cannot be accurately or easily predicted or controlled by producers Global flow of images is central to how we understand visual culture today; as are the global aspects of image production and the increased cosmopolitanism and globalization of cultural narratives and texts

Visuality and Global Media Flow Cultural products that appear national like Hollywood movies are made and circulated through global network Increasingly, popular diasporic culture from Hong Kong cinema to Bollywood are also made for global audiences and made to be circulated Genres of popular culture also travel across national boundaries franchise culture o Reality TV and programs air in different markets in the form of franchises across the globes and become nationalized in their particular iterations in other national networks (eg Singapore, American, Pilipino Idol) Cultural forms are also created in multinational and transnational contexts; films and their production personnel and talent travel globally o Hong Kong cinema; 1980s and 1990s mainly produced by filmmakers from Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Mainland China and Philippines o Influence of HK film industry increasingly evident as HK stars and directors moved to Hollywood in 1997: The Matrix Showed that Hollywood no longer has the global monopoly on popular film culture that it had in the middle of the 20th century o May be the case the some of the dominant film industries around the world are named after Hollywood

Bollywood (Hindi-language sector of the Indian film industries) Nollywood (Nigerian film industry of the digital era) However, film cultures are not derivative of Hollywood

Bollywood films: genre-based with many similar elements repeated and borrowed from film to film: lavish musical numbers, melodramatic love stories, themes of father son conflict, redemption and the assertion of moral values, revenge and happy endings o Pre 1990s, Bollywood productions regarded as low in production values compared with those of Hollywood despite films huge budgets and lavish sets o Changed due to changes in state and private support and funding structures o HKs film industry experiencing an exodus of talent after change in status from British Crown Colony to one of Chinas Special Administrative Regions allowing Hollywood and Bollywood to buy top figures over

Bollywoods changes are indicative of larger circumstances under globalization and trade liberalization: cinemas formerly understood to be representative of a nation-state or a nationstates region now characterized as global and diasporic, representing a range of national and cultural influences In contrast, Nollywood films (handheld camera + basic editing) straight-to-DVD films achieve market success very quickly as well o Despite limitations, its the 3rd largest producer of films a year, only behind Hollywood and Bollywood Bond franchise as transnational o Each movie featuring at least 3 countries o Bond women from all nationalities Michele Yeohs career path to illustrate the dynamic of globalization as it affects an individual media star o Malaysian born but studied drama and dance in London o At time she starred in Bond franchise, was already established as one of Chinas top female stars o Upon returning, became Miss Malaysia and Miss Mooba (Melbourne) o Commercial in Hong Kong with Jackie Chan o Breakthrough in Hollywood as well

Indigenous and Diasporic Media Movement of people + images around the world increasingly complicated in the 21st century

Immigration and asylum for refugees as heated topics for political debates Cultural products still have the power to reaffirm ethnic and local values over the homogenizing forces of a vast national communication system o IBC (Inuit Broadcasting Corporation) arising in North Canada to provide a powerful alternative media, despite the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation introducing an accelerated coverage plan designed to provide Canadian programming throughout the country o IBC shows that indigenous and autonomous practices of looking can not only survive in an era of globalization but can also thrive by using global technologies in a manner that rethinks what local means o Use of this links people who are geographically diverse o Also helps to preserve and reinstate cultural traditions and language practices that have been dying out

For ethnic people living across the country in small villages and separated, these kind of communities can provide a vital lifeline Local programming across the geographic expanses of a diaspora provides what for some viewers may be a virtual home; particularly for viewers living in exile (due to them not being able to afford going home or because the homeland no longer exists) This kind of programming; opposite to model of cultural imperialism by supporting local culture in a virtual community that is globally dispersed without a unified geographic base Globalized networks of electronic media and the web have also provided the means for political movements to disseminate their ideas and build support throughout the world; constituting global communities of support o Zapista National Liberation army achieving worldwide support o Proposing a broader global vision of civil society o Used style (ski masks) to mask identities from Mexican Government o Images of figures with black ski masks: signifier of indigenous political movements

Other examples of the webs role in the democratization and globalization of information Cultural interests Fandom Health and disability issues etc o Experience of illness and healthcare has changed dramatically with the rise of websites geared towards self-diagnosis and self-care

o Shows that the understanding of the various syndromes and diseases no longer rely primarily on expert knowledge offered in medical and educational settings Borders and Franchises: Art and the Global Cities using art as a form of cultural tourism Art as cultural capital has become a key factor in the transformation of urban centers into post-industrial cities o Guggenheim Museum and its branches in the northern Spanish City of Bilbao and in Venice and in Berlin o Draw to the place is via the buildings itself o Tourists drawn to see the new lifestyle of commerce, design and consumption of which the museum has become symbolic Post industrialization; linked to globalization, creates economic contexts such as this; where gentrification (renovation) and creative capitalism are seen as the answers to failing formerly industrial cities and economies The use of museums to create the image of urban centers as the locus of creative global economies have risen over the past 2 decades all over Europe The museums joined a globalizing economy in which new governments and new businesses saw benefit in acquisition of the cultural capital that would come with a vast government funded institution with strong historical and site-specific iconic importance to the world Also a form of showing, through expansion and building into Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai as an exception to the dominant trend in politics between the Middle Eastern Nations; which distrust arose from the events of 9/11 The desire to situate oneself within the local and the national is always in tension with an embrace of the global The movement of cultural products and visual images throughout the world is always about the way that cultural meanings and values change and power is negotiated

As shown from the above examples, the complex history shows us how difficult it is to predict the future of images in the twenty-first century Convergence of industries and technologies as the focus of industry However, also the case that people have important ritualistic relationships and distinct phenomenological experiences with different media that make them resistant to media and institutional convergence and conglomeration; as well as the sense that the visual varies from culture to culture

At the same time, the image can never in itself encompass all that is entailed in living in the world Material environment crucial to understanding and grounding of a global world view Building and engineering become more than just tropes of change