Week 4: Pussy Riots

Week 4's lecture discussed the idea of cyberspace and cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a dark genre that predicts the future as a dystopian society as a result of futuristic technology combining with the human being (Cyberpunk review, 2012). Some common themes associated with cyberpunk suggest that machines are the apex of society with direct control over humans through corporate control (Cyberpunk review, 2012). Our lecturer Stephen Stockwell mentioned that a modern day example of cyberpunk can be found in the band Pussy Riot.

Over the past few months the Russian feminest punk band 'Pussy Riot' has created mass media coverage all over the world. According to the guardian.co.uk, three of the six band members have been sentenced to two years in prison after being arrested in February for 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' (Elder, 2012). The women were protesting against Russian president Vladimir Putin's repressive regime through a "Punk prayer" for democracy (Berger, 2012). The act for justice was conducted in a Russian Orthodox Church which was recorded and published on youtube and can be found here.
A quote from The Huffington Post's Rose Marie Berger clarifies the meaning of the women's protests for those who may not understand why:

"The performance on the altar of Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is shocking, evocative. But I'd argue that it is not blasphemy against God. To blaspheme means to injure the reputation of a religious deity or holy person or thing. The punk band actually treated God and Mary with a certain level of respect. However, they do injure the reputation of an institutional hierarchy that too often promotes a theology more akin to a Russian civil religion rather than Christian faith." (Berger, 2012)

These women much like our fictional characters in cyberpunk are fighting against the machine and are trying to restore the natural balance of power in the world we live in. This news is devastating for these women, for their families and for their fellow band members. These women have shocked an entire nation and it is clear that although they will be imprisoned, their mission for change will not be stopped and will be completed.

References:

Berger, Rose Marie. "Pussy Riot Sentencing: Can't Jail Female Fury." The Huffington Post. N.p., 19 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Aug. 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-marie-berger/pussy-riot-sentencing-cant-jail-female-fury_b_1798849.html?utm_hp_ref=pussy-riot.

Elder, Miriam. "Pussy Riot Sentenced to Two Years in Prison Colony over Anti-Putin Protest." The Guardian.co.uk. N.p., 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Aug. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/17/pussy-riot-sentenced-prison-putin.

Unknown. "What Is Cyberpunk?" Cyberpunk Review. N.p., 19 Feb. 2007. Web. 21 Aug. 2012. http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/what-is-cyberpunk/.

Annotation: All of the references used were very insightful and helpful and took my knowledge of the topic to another level. I really enjoyed using all the references as they were very academic and all three gave various perspectives on the topic at hand.

Week 3: The future of computers

In our third lecture for the semester, the subject was based around the history of computers. If I wanted to blog about such a boring and mundane subject I would let my lecturer do it for me, but I thought I would explore into something a little more interesting and that is the future.

A recent article from the New York Times published a new way of writing articles about new computer technologies. The article suggested that rather journalists tell you what they think is the future may be, the readers were given the chance to construct their own theories in an interactive time line (Lin, 2011).The interactive time line (which is linked here: Predicting the Future of Computing) created huge interest and some of the predictions were quite astonishing. One reader predicts that by 2015 'smart clothing' clothes that include fabrics containing computerised weather proofing systems and sunglasses with holographic displays, gps capabilities and a digital display will be implemented into mainstream society (Lin, 2011). Another suggests that by 2024 the brain will be able to connect itself to wifi where memory and communication is limitless-- provided that you don't lose your signal (Lin, 2011). Another article published in the New York Times explored the issues of Artificial Intelligence (A.I) (Markoff, 2011). The issue that society has found as the most troubling idea of new technology is the decrease of human invovlvement in the new world (Markoff, 2011).
 "Traditionally, economists have argued that while new forms of automation may displace jobs in the short run, over longer periods of time economic growth and job creation have continued to outpace any job-killing technologies." (Markoff, 2011)

The world's advancements in computer technology has progressed in leaps and bounds. Although we have not been taken over by alien forces or are living on Mars I honestly don't know where I would be without 21st century technology and I cannot wait to see where it may go from here.

References

Lin, Thomas. "Predicting the Future of Computing." The New York Times. N.p., 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/06/science/20111206-technology-timeline.html?ref=science.

Markoff, John. "A Fight to Win the Future: Computers vs. Humans." The New York Times. N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/science/15essay.html?pagewanted=all.

Annotation: I found this particular task quite interesting to research. The two references that I used were extremely helpful and academic. Thomas Lin's article was an interactive article that allowed the readers to have a say and help predict the future of technology rather than telling the readers. There was a lot of different ideas and perspectives that gave the article such an edge in comparison to other sources that I had used.

Week 3: The fall of Myspace

One of the tasks set for this week was to research into a social networking community that has faded from popularity. Some of the suggestions included AOL, Napster and friendster, however I had no shadow of a doubt as to what social network I was to choose. Myspace was an old friend of mine, we spent hours together, it knew me so well, and as unfortunate as it sounds, I was at one stage addicted. With 2009's rise of Facebook I was so pathetically reluctant to let myspace go that I was one of the last of my friends to move on, and I am glad to say that I have never looked back.

Many of the links suggested by google were all dated around the same time: 2009. Myspace's decline was so damaging that even the internet has said that it was old news. It is clear that 2009 was not a good time for Myspace. While Facebook had exploded worldwide, the company's user traffic had shriveled to half it numbers in comparison to previous months (Sarno, 2009). Not only was Facebook a contender for Myspace's consumers, but the release of new social networking mediums like Twitter and Bebo really pushed them further into their grave (Sarno, 2009). It is said that the reasons towards its downfall included it's theory to stick to a "portal strategy" which revolved more on the entertainment content of the site whereas Facebook enhanced the social networking experience by providing a "newsfeed" (Smith, 2009). Myspace was continually playing catchup with its advancements in social media technology and therefore could no longer stand as number one (Smith, 2009).

As for the future, I think that the photo sharing app Instagram will rise in popularity and quickly. Currently, there are 30+ million users sharing an average of 5 million photos each day (Abraham, 2012). If that isn't brilliant then I don't know what is.

References

Abraham, Craig. "The Rise of Instagrammers." The Age. N.p., 14 June 2012. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/cameras/the-rise-of-the-instagrammers-20120613-208qt.html.

Sarno, David. "How Myspace Fell off the pace." The LA Times. N.p., 17 June 2009. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/17/business/fi-ct-myspace17.

Smith, David. "MySpace Shrinks as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo Grab Its Users." The Guardian.co.uk. N.p., 29 Mar. 2009. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/29/myspace-facebook-bebo-twitter.

Annotation: David Smith's article on Myspace's fall from the top was very interesting as it possessed several statistics and was written extremely well. I thought that Smith's article was the best out of the three that I had used to create this writing task.

Week 2: Writing task

 Like in most Australian homes, my family is very familiar with the idea of new technology. I have always been surrounded by technology growing up and so my relationship with modern technology is quite strong. Some of my memories of childhood include me and my sisters playing computer games on our home computer. As a teenager now communicating with my family alot of the the time is technology based. Especially with my sisters, parents and grandparents (my grandparents are so technologically savvy it is scary!) when travelling the main communication is through text. However when it comes to finding friends online I will admit to talking to the odd character on omegle or chatroulette, but thats as far as I will go.

When it comes to computer/app technologies such as google and facebook I do not believe that privacy is an issue.  As we live in a democratic society it is believed that we have a choice with what we do with our time and how we chose to share such knowledge is up to us. When creating a facebook account there is a disclaimer letting you know what you are consenting to, therefore without consenting to creating a facebook account or using google, such companies can not pry into our lives unless we let them. These devices such as google or facebook are here to enchance our livelihoods, and not to exploit them.

Week 2: La Jetée

I dont know how conincidental this is, but on the Monday that was my New Communication Technologies lecture, our lecturer decided to present this french short film by director Chris Marker. The film possessing a sci fi genre is based on post apocalyptic paris where an imprisoned man travels through past and future time. What I wasnt aware of until researching this film for this post is that Chris Marker on the 29th of July had sadly passed away at the age of 91. So, in memory of him I decided on writing a little post on the film he directed called 'La Jetée'.
After the world war III,  a completely deserted land remains where the only connection to the past is through invaluable and fragile memories (Fort, 20120). Through these memories it was believed that one could travel into the past however finding subjects was dificult (Fort, 20120). The main character in the short film, a prisoner in a underground concentration camp is chosen by authorities to be apart of such groundbreaking technologies  (Fort, 20120). Haunted by two polarisig moments in his childhood of beautiful woman by a pier and witnessing the death of a stranger he travels back to his childhood to find the woman he had dreamed of since his youth  (Fort, 20120). Once the authorities were done exploiting the prisoner for his memories, the man meets humans from the future who tell him that they are able to grant him another chance to meet the love of his life (Fort, 20120). As he travels back into time he finds her staring off into the ocean as he had originally seen her (Fort, 20120). Running towards her he finds an agent near the end of the pier in the exact place where he had witnessed a shooting, and soon he realises that he is the stranger that died in front of his younger self  (Fort, 20120).

This film has inspired a vast amount of films through its creativity and imaginative story line. A report from The Courier Mail reported that "Many critics count Marker, with his experimental documentary style, as among the most influential French filmmakers of the post-war era. His 1962 classic La Jetee - a 28-minute post-apocalyptic movie comprised almost entirely of stills - is often ranked among the best time-travel films ever made." (Jenkins, 2012)
R.I.P Chris Marker, 1921-2012

References:

Fort, Jeff. "Only (a) Memory Can Save Us Now? The Instant of Death in Chris Marker's La Jetée and Maurice Blanchot's L'instant De Ma Mort." Taylor and Francis Online. N.p., 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 5 Aug. 2012. http://www.tandfonline.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/17409292.2010.500910.

Jenkins, Steven. "Famed Director of La Jetee Dies." Couriermail.com.au. N.p., July 2012. Web. Aug. 2012. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/famed-director-of-la-jetee-dies/story-e6freoo6-1226438967391.
Annotation: I did not fully understand Jeff Fort's article on La Jetee. I found the article confusing and it did not analyse the film as well as had hoped for. The article was good for a summary of the film but not much else unfortunately.

Hey guys!
Just found this video on the history of communication technologies which is crammed into a fun, creative and cute little one and a half minute video  (which is above ^). This video is so cheeky and inventive, I love how it presents a film about communication but does not actually communicate this through the conventional youtuber way. 

Week 1

The first introductory lecture of New Communications Technologies began with Lecturer Stephen Stockwell leading into the history of communication, from ancient oral transfer of story telling and songs to the modern technology of cinema and the internet. As Stockwell was winding down, he mentioned a very intriguing point by Marshall McLuhan-- That technology is an extension of the human body. Several students including myself were confounded by the idea that 'The wheel is an extension of the leg' or that 'A book is an extension of the eye'. Therefore I thought I should take it upon myself to widen my knowledge and explore what this concept was about.

I found an article by the Academy of Media and Arts in Cologne, Germany who interviewed a very interesting artist by the name of Stelarc, an Australian performance artist who creatively interprets McLuhan's  ideologies.
Stelarc continuously searches for new ways to break the boundaries of the human body by exploring various electronic and technological ways of living (Atzori, 2012). Stelarc argues that the new technological era should embraced by human bodies who are just as equally advanced (Atzori, 2012).

"Technology is what defines the meaning of being human, it's part of being human." Especially living in the information age, "the body is biologically inadequate." (Atzori, 2012).

Stelarc points out that for thousands of years, we have been exploring the human body looking for a window to the future, to evolve and to change (Atzori, 2012). Mentally, the human race have reached a broad capacity for new knowledge but unfortunately for the overall physique of the human, this has ceast to change(Atzori, 2012). Stelarc suggests that we shouldnt close off the idea of radically redesigning the body. We are not selling our soul because we are using foreign objects, "my attitude is that technology is, and always has been, an appendage of the body"(Atzori, 2012).

References:

Atzori, Paolo. "Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc." Digital Delirium. N.p., 2007. Web. July 2012. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/stelarc/a29-extended_body.html.
Annotation: The reference used for this task was extremely helpful. As the article was an interview session with the artist it provided the actual quotes which I have then reqouted in my task. The article was a highly academic piece of work and I felt as if the article gave me all the answers I needed.