Media Boundaries

A beautiful map by xkcd. click & drag to see more. For the cheaters/completionists, here is a zoomable version: http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/

The Guardian posts about Renaissance nudes altered to fit contemporary ideals.

If you've not enjoyed an episode or several of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (or MST3K), this article provides and excellent overview. Hodgson teaches a master class on riffing, focusing on the art of storytelling and relating it both to the story being told (film) and the audience experience. Interesting points are also lightly touched on regarding the implications of something like movie riffing in the age of social media.  Also, if you've not done so previously, I recommend RiffTrax, the downloadable mp3 tracks meant to be played along with popular, contemporary movies, as opposed to the B-list flicks riffed on in MST3K. (These tracks are not paired with the movies themselves due to, of course, copyright issues.)

(CNN) -- Remember earlier this year when Wikipedia went black in protest of anti-piracy legislation moving through the U.S. Congress? Yeah, well, that may be nothing compared to this. A group called the Internet Defense League, borrowing a page from Batman, is trying to create a "bat signal" for mobilizing open-Internet activists against similar legislation.

The battle for "internet freedom" continues! This time Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian will introduce the Internet Defense League just in time for Congress to visit the CISPA legislation, which allows the U.S. government, in cooperation with certain tech companies, to access various personal internet traffic information. The president has already threatened to VETO this bill due to concerns for confidentiality and civil liberties.

Jonathan brought this up in class. Information on suits, claims, etc. around copyright infringement and the "chilling effect" on creativity.

A discussion on the expectation of a standing ovation at the end of [Broadway] shows, and an argument for the "seated ovation." Who set these cultural expectations to begin with? Who/what sustains them? 

Lulled into somnolence by five hundred years of print, literary analysis should awaken to the importance of media-specific analysis, a mode of critical attention which recognizes that all texts are instantiated and that the nature of the medium in which they are instantiated matters. Central to repositioning critical inquiry, so it can attend to the specificity of the medium, is a more robust notion of materiality. Materiality is reconceptualized as the interplay between a text's physical characteristics and its signifying strategies, a move that entwines instantiation and signification at the outset. This definition opens the possibility of considering texts as embodied entities while still maintaining a central focus on interpretation. It makes materiality an emergent property, so that it cannot be specified in advance, as if it were a pre-given entity. Rather, materiality is open to debate and interpretation, ensuring that discussions about the text's "meaning" will also take into account its physical specificity as well. [End Page 67] Following the emphasis on media-specific analysis, nine points can be made about the specificities of electronic hypertext: they are dynamic images; they include both analogue resemblance and digital coding; they are generated through fragmentation and recombination; they have depth and operate in three dimensions; they are written in code as well as natural language; they are mutable and transformable; they are spaces to navigate; they are written and read in distributed cognitive environments; and they initiate and demand cyborg reading practices.

Let's read this at the end of the term!

A collection of fake badly painted Disney, Looney Tunes and other character paintings found on Ice Cream vans and other places!!

The Portland Mercury and historic Hollywood Theatre have come together to bring you HECKLEVISION, an all-new series that will permanently change how you think about movie-going. Here's how it works, in three easy steps: 1) We (Merc & HWT) pick a hilariously horrible movie (but one we secretly love). 2) Through the magic of MuVChat technology, you text your heckles, jokes, and commentary from your seat and they appear onscreen below the film 3) We all drink beer and laugh a lot.Sound awesome?  Then charge up those cellphones, limber up your thumbs, and get ready to launch your best text lobs at our screen!

Richard Prince is an art world superstar. His paintings sell for millions, and many hang in the world's great museums. But one recent series of works cannot be shown in public - at least, not lawfully. Last year, a judge found Prince liable for copyright infringement for using the photographs of another artist without permission. A federal court in New York is set to hear Prince's appeal Monday, and the outcome of that appeal could have major implications for the art world and beyond.

speaking of patents, inventions, creators, radio, and SCIENCE...

Another piece from The Oatmeal. This time, the comic honors Nikola Tesla, trumpeting his triumphs, his willingness to share knowledge, and his ability to remain quiet on the subject of how much of a jerk Einstein was. A humorous but relevant piece when read alongside Lessig.

Nice find...I saw this earlier, but did not make the connections to our readings!

boundaries of physical object vs. ideas, technical literacies