Group items tagged

This is an excellent resource for researching a variety of primary source documents. Digitized films, rare books, zines, audio recordings from many diverse historical and contemporary sources. Of particular use to New Media Studies are the copious amounts of documents from the so-called "digital revolution" of the 1990s. This includes television programs like "Computer Chroncicles" (1983-2002) chock full of artists and technologists and the ideas that inspired them. The artifacts in this series including the various motion graphics, fashion and even jargon that permeated the computer cultures at this time! There are also fairly recent additions, including the cyberpunk zines "Reality Hackers" and "High Frontiers." These present a 'street-level' pulse on the countercultural charge of new media in the 80s and 90s. Finally, I want to point out a free service offered here that is called the Wayback Machine --- a searchable history of the Internet, billions of websites archived continuously since the Internet went commercial in the mid 1990s! The Internet Archive. "The Wayback Machine" https://archive.org/web/. (Accessed January 24, 2014)

Like the old websites accessed through the Wayback machine, this is another great archival resource for research. Primary source documents offer direct reflection of the language and design from a specific point in time, without the inherent filtering of such content through secondary sources. Specifically, like Radical Software, Whole Earth Catalog was a critical tool within the networked countercultures of the 1960s / 70s. Here, you can skim through digitized collection of Whole Earth Catalogs, subsequent "CoEvolution Quarterly" , "Whole Earth Software Catalog" and other pursuits. Identify recurrent patterns along with curious or lesser known topics of these cybernetically inclined thinkers. The site itself is a remediation of the magazine as "evaluation and access device," using popular categories of the original for navigation. "Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools and Ideas" Accessed February 2, 2014. http://www.wholeearth.com

An echo of early net.art initiatives, the contemporary INC was established in Amsterdam in 2004, in effort to extend research "to design, activism, art, philosophy, political theory and urban studies and [it] is not confined to the Internet alone...the INC maintains that the Internet can only be understood at the conjuncture of these various fields and lines of inquiry." This site is an amazing resource for research and reflection on new and emergent network cultures. The politics of search engines, Wikipedia, social networks, bitcoin, Internet of Things, Gaming and more! The ongoing conferences are backed with anthologies of related essays, most made available for free download on their site. Institute of Network Cultures "Publications" n.d. accessed April 25, 2014. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/

Radical Software was created in the 1970s by Beryle Korot, Phyllis Gershuny, and Ira Shneider to create a network of video sharing. This site has PDF files of the Eleven issues published and distributed by Radical software between the years 1970 and 1974. The website also provides the history of The Raindance Corporation which was created in 1969 by a radical media activist and artist by the name of Frank Gillette. The general Idea behind Raindance Corporation was to created a collection of works and ideas for "implementing communication tools in the project for social change." The website also discusses in detail the intent of Radical Software and fight towards creating a world of free and accessible information.

thanks, this is an excellent example of primary source document, the actual artifact providing visual detail of its historical context that escapes easy translation. This site is equipped with a well organized search and browse function, too!

Marshall Mcluhan's assertion that "we shape our tools and then our tools shape us" mentioned in class, echoed again in the Nicolas Carr reading this week. Here's a handy web version of Mcluhan's influential text from 1964. Mcluhan's quips, probes and puns were quite popular in the 1960s, resonant then with a youth culture immersed in 'new media' and the social-political intersections thereof. In the 1990s, as the so-called 'digital revolution' ramped up, Mcluhanisms were prominently re-surfaced. There are not chapter titles provided in this rendition of the book, so you might want to cross-reverence a table of contents elsewhere. On the other hand, you can use the 'find' function of your browser to seek out sections on a variety of media from the spoken word to the printing press, money, roads, clothing, comics, telephones, television and much more! First part is theory, second part case studies. "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Marshall Mcluhan (1964)" Accessed January 30, 2014. http://www.lab404.com/242/understanding_media.html

Linus Torvalds is one of the principal forces behind the development of the LINUX kernal and now acts as the coordinator for the project. He has also been responsible for the development of several other pieces of software, such as Git, a revision control system, and Subsurface, which is a logging program used by single- and multi-tank divers. He is the winner of numerous awards given in recognition of his contributions, including the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize, and was one of the first inductees into the Internet Hall of Fame. Wikimedia Foundation. "Linus Torvalds." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds (accessed February 7, 2014).

When reading "Open Source As Culture/Culture as Open Source" by Siva Vaidhyanathan I was very interested in the quotes and sources taken from Richard V. Adkisson. When doing some further research I came across this link, which when clicked on, downloads a PDF of his essay "Intellectual Property and Eminent Domain: If Ever the Twain Shall Meet." This essay discusses that strict protection of intellectual property will kill creativity and the government's attempts to take control of the private property. Adkisson also discusses Eminent domain which gives the government access to private material for public use.

"The GNU Project is not limited to the core operating system. We aim to provide a whole spectrum of software, whatever many users want to have. This includes application software. See the Free Software Directory for a catalogue of free software application programs."

This is a testimonial by Debra Michaels, who discusses her first experience with cyber-rape and addresses various other forms and sites dedicated to virtually satisfying violent fantasies. Technology has allowed us to transport our consciousness through space, which intern allows us to be victims of emotional crimes. This article is just further evidence of that very fact. Michaels also discusses how these behaviors are parodies of real life behaviors, and that those behaviors, though done in a virtual world should still have a consequence.

This is a study by Amy L. Gonzales and Jeffery T. Hancock on how exposure to Facebook effects self-esteem. The study analyzes the psychological effect on the individuals as they view their personal Facebook profiles. The article then discusses two different possible reactions. The first would be OSA which is Objective Self Awareness, which is a negative response and the other is the Hyperpersonal Model which enhances self-esteem. The study later concludes that since a majority of the content on the users profiles are selected the individuals experience the Hyperpersonal Model, since the individuals have the satisfaction of preserving themselves selectively.

I began my search by seeing what type Media Arts collection the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has. It appears SFMOMA has embraced Media arts and has procured and archived a site called "learning to love you more." The site was in operation from 2002-2009. The site issued "assignments" for participants to post on the site. Some of the subjects people were asked to post include, "take a picture of your parents kissing, "photograph a scar and write about it," and "interview someone who has experienced war." There are a total of 70 assignment subjects with a lot of submissions for each topic. "Learning To Love You More." Learning To Love You More. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

Thanks this is great example of work bridging online / offline space, opening up a participatory platform. This one originated in Portland, I believe, coordinated by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July

Here is the amazingly rich, detailed and resource heavy presentation by designer Tobias Revell. A graduate of the Design Interactions program at RCA, Revell charts a survey of pre-cursors and significant features of Critical Design as well as myriad components of Design Fiction from corporate to speculative futures thinking, including:Diegetic Prototypes, Future Mundane, Agents of Fear, Materials, Synthetics -- each section filled with insight and contextual links! Highly recommended primer! Tobias Revell. Critical Design/Design Fiction Lecture Finally Written Up. (Looooong) Published December 2013. Accessed March 8, 2014. http://blog.tobiasrevell.com/2013/12/critical-design-design-fiction-lecture.html

Zotero is a plugin for Firefox (or stand alone program for Safari and Chrome users) that integrates bookmarking, old-fashioned note taking, and utilities like bibme.org into a single, user friendly interface. A button imbedded in the corner of the browser saves a website into your Zotero catalog, and does its best to peel off all the available metadata and organize it into convenient, easy to see categories. It enables the user to organize sources with full notations and (very exciting) export them into a bibliography in whatever style you prefer. As an added bonus, it can also catalog media: .pdf, images, audio, video. Your library lives online, affording very easy access. Additionally, there is a group function in the case that research need be shared. This program is a very fine add-on to our more accident prone organic brains and beats the hell out of cocktail napkins and self-addressed emails full of cryptic links any day.

An interesting case of design fiction where they have actually programmed a washer to be connected to a smartphone through the cloud so that you may control changes from you phone as well as receive notifications. What they have done which I find interesting is that they have made this video as a way to "start a conversation" about this instance of design fiction. Unlike some design fiction they are not claiming to know what the future will look like or pretend like they have already created the product and worked out all of the bugs. Their approach to design fiction is very simplistic and honest. ""Cloudwash is a prototype connected washing machine. We prototype products at Berg to help us understand how our platform should work, and to encourage better design in connected things…" BERG, "Berg Case Studies/ Cloudwash." Accessed March 20, 2014. http://bergcloud.com/case-studies/cloudwash/.

This piece of design fiction by Cisco called "The Internet of Everything" is probably closer to a sci-fi movie than design fiction but I found it interesting to contrast with the BERG Cloudwash prototype that I posted. Its pretty ridiculous, but it would also be cool if some of these things became realities. Just watch it and you'll see. "The Internet of Everything." Cisco 2014. Web, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt5VulFqBm4.

Titanpad is one of several free online collaborative text editors. Great for real-time or asynchronous writing but particularly useful for editing a block of text within a group setting. This may be a useful tool for collaboratively editing design fictions. You can't save in a typical word-processing fashion, but there's a 'time slider', and you can export to various document types. These type of web-based applications are a bit unstable, so export often! Titanpad. http://titanpad.com/ Accessed March 14, 2014

An interesting TED talk by Neil Harbisson, a man who is completely color-blind. He built himself a device with a camera which reads color, and translates the colors into different frequencies. He considers the device to be an extension of his brain, part of his cyborg self. Eventually he was able to train his brain to hear more colors than normal human beings can even "see," and in essence is able to tell more about his surroundings than a normal person. http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color Harbisson, Neil. "I Listen to Color." Ted.com, video. Filmed June 2012, accessed March 2014. http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color

On October 24, 2013 Julian Bleecker, James Bridle, Nick Foster, Cliff Kuang and Scott Patterson participated in a round table discussion during Near Future Laboratory's event, "Design & Fiction". In this link, there is the full video of their discussion (lasting about and hour and a half) as well as a synopsis and several key points from the discussion put together by the host site, core77.com. Each participant in the discussion brings up really interesting ideas and it is nice to have the option to watch or listen to the discussion in full, or just get a brief overview through the written synopsis. Ray, . "Near Future Laboratory Presents Design & Fiction (A Near-Past Event Recap)." Core77 (blog), February 21, 2014. http://www.core77.com/blog/strategy_research/near_future_laboratory_presents_design_fiction_a_near-past_event_recap_26484.asp (accessed March 12, 2014).

Thanks! This is indeed a great resource, concise and legible overview of core concepts from some of the key figures involved with this mode of design. The section with James Bridle provides strong echoes and parallels with Sterling's concept of "Spimes," too!

This website catalogs the growing trend of utilizing animated infographics to convey information. Not only is it becoming necessary to continuously filter the great amounts of data we experience into slick new ways of perceiving, a database that houses these new tools of perception becomes useful. Of particular interest to me is the combination of database with social media on vizualizing.org - the site hosts contests and challenges to better suss out interesting new designs in organizing information.

One of several excellent online collections of Data Visualization endeavors. Browse the many different categories, keywords, authors and approaches to comprehending 'big data'. Along with aesthetic variation along the metaphorical to modernist continuum, there are many new media trends covered. Those of you exploring social media in your final research paper may well find this useful reference, too! Visual Complexity. Last updated February 19, 2014. www.visualcomplexity.com/vc. Accessed April 6, 2014