iChat

Communication with the world has now been fully opened as I have only just recently discovered iChat. Although I might be behind the times in this discovery I can not believe the possibilities this program has. What I appreciate most out of it is the development in communication. In the past it would either be through Text (e-mail) or Sound (phone,) however now sight has been introduced we communicate on a next level. When on the phone we usually draw, walk in circles, fiddle, or whatever. The communication is purely in the sounds produced. However now with visuals we are more intimate, no escape to do something else whilst talking. My point is that I see communication in digital media moving forward in different levels. As is mentioned in the essay, 1st and 2nd Communication.

Lev Manovich - The practice of everyday (media) life

- It could be said that we all (or a large majority of us) are self conscious,

(customizing appearances on computer's, facebook, myspace, igoogle, RE-ASSEMBLY or REMIX)

and the internet with it's possibilities is what everyone has been waiting for. History has written about great artists and creators and now we can write our own history in our bedroom. It's comforting as we can project our thoughts, ideas, desires, beliefs, creations, problems, anything, and let the world read about it endlessly. The struggle for pride and the projection of yourself is still a task but with the connection of the internet, this issue is lessened.

- With WEB 2.0 culture, there is huge unpredictability because we control it, we can be influenced, however we have the last say. "It's nice to have power."

- Different levels of communication are starting to appear: conversations that happen between people / artists who upload video's on youtube where the 1st Communication - write on someone's wall. Then the 2nd Communication - someone else not involved reads it. It's the ever open doors of the internet where you can become engaged in a conversation that wasn't directed at you at all. There is now a desire to share OR to dominate.

- Is there a difference between reading news from a paper or a blog? The answer could just be left in trust or majority:

Normality equals Majority

Majority equals Information

Chris and Keir + Unity Panda

Seeing the presentations today I had mixed emotions about their work which they had produced in the past and present. One of their project's came across from filming a plank of wood being sawn in two whilst standing on it and then eventually breaking. This sparked a chain mail incident of another film maker showing that he had made an exact film and was accusing of plagiarism. From here the two followed with a snowball effect of their projects being based around this mystery filmmaker further copying his work.

What I learnt today was that the internet facilitates anything that already exists. I liked the project above just because of the spontaneous movement it has within it. Constantly moving forward with no direction of where it's going and the endless amount of possibilities which are so unpredictable.   

However I did find the project of Unity Panda, hard to grasp as it was as if it had lost it's meaning within digital environments. The statement of Online and Offline community made no sense to me as aren't we trying to break down these walls of miscommunication and let communities become closer engaged through the exchanging of different knowledge. The old teaching the young and the young teaching the old, and there is no reason why this can't happen through modern technology today. You can be part of a community with just a blog and never see or speak to anyone however the exchanging of communication and information can be there.

Where do I start?

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After the individual presentations today I was blow away by the amount of information, technology and theories that I was completely unaware of. In my own personal opinion when asked what "Digital is..." the only answer I could come back with was, "is Digital..." as defining this topic seemed not impossible but broad. 

I would like to think that "Digital" could be explained as like a piece of clay, malleable as we apply laws within this virtual environment but have the power to then break them. However I am wondering weather digital is a dangerous process and environment as we advance out of control? 

Painters, sculptor's, illustrators and so on may feel intimitated by this overwhelming of technology taking over traditional and craft worthy arts. However I do believe that drawing on illustrator is no different to drawing on a piece of paper, it's just in a different medium and that they have their own different qualities. I used to work very traditionally within my art but now I see that instead of working against the digital world it's more effective and efficient to accept it and to embrace Digital Mediums to use to our advantage.  

But when is Digital going to be too much?

  

Some of the topics brought up to day did however further my opinion of how digital is becoming dangerous, such as HAPTIC, where the physical feedback from a virtual world can be felt. Where is this next going to take us? Where we can not differentiate from reality and virtual? Not in the near future but what I think we must be cautious about is that it can happen and we as human beings could loose the effectiveness of being in reality, therefore loosing the joys of being alive. The question pressed: "What is living?" or "What is life?" 

Could we live our lives virtually (already slowly happening on facebook) and still say that we have lived?

But discussed today, is this just evolution playing it's part where we are evolving, and as we do we are surrounding ourselves with the evolution/environment we have created? 

I do feel we have to use Digital to our advantage, in all aspects but be sure not to loose our heads and solves the problems at hand whilst advancing.