Mrcamden1's Blog

Good enough is the new Great

Camden — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:17:50 +0000

I read an article called ” Good enough is the new Great” by Robert Mackey. In this article he talked about a phemonina that he notices with technology in the present that I notice as well. Mackey says that technology has shifted from consumers wanting to have something that works better, to wanting something that is cheaper and more portable. You can by a camera that has 8 megapixels for a reasonable price these days, yet most pictures we see are at los res on the internet or from someones phone. Many people have HD televisions, but spend hours on youtube, watching a tiny screen.

I too find myself doing these things. It makes me wonder if low-tech has not been given enough credit. Most work that I consider making, I want in the highest definition possible, but then if it is going to reach the most people via youtube, well then does it matter? I am wondering if there is some way to embrace this low, cheap tech thinking and either save some time or money.

It seems like people want to be able to take their media everywhere with them and maybe quality has been scarified for the moment. In a few years though, we could have flip open, 10 inch screens and great resolution. This maybe only be something that is temporary.

Videos in Magazines

Camden — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:19:57 +0000

I just read this article that is talking about how they already have the technology to print moving graphic or ultra thin video screens into magazines. What? The only problem is printable batteries. There has never before been a battery that is thin enough to fit into a magazine. This year, a research team at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems revealed a 0.6-millimeter-thick battery.

That is incredible. To think that in just a few year from now, I will be able to open up a magazine and see a video blows my mind. How will this change ads? how will it change Articles? I am just in shock.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/magazine/ideas/2009/#technology-9

Advertisment that watches you

Camden — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:12:10 +0000

I read this article that is describing a new add that has just been released in Berlin. This add is an image of a man beating his wife, but it uses face recognization technology to determine when you are looking at it, and it switches to a happy couple when you look. The text reads, it happens when no-one is watching.

This is some new media. An add that can see when you are looking at it. That is amazing. I reminds me of Minority Report, when the advertisement where scanning your eyes and talking directly to you as you walk by. I am sure that is not far off.

I am sure something like this is not cheap and we won’t be seeing it everywhere for a while but it makes me think about what else could use face recognization technology. Computers that shut off when you look away. TVs. I’m not really sure but it has me thinking.

Jodi.org

Camden — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:05:01 +0000

Jodi. org. What to say. I do not understand this site at all. When I went to it, I was just confused and keep searching for something to click to take to to somewhere else or explain what I was seeing. When I couldn’t find anything, I got frustrated. wwwwwwwww.jodi.org is more interesting, but only because I know to look in the code source. If I didn’t, then it would be meaningless to me as well. All there sites are crazy and alittle to much for me to handle. Interesting ideas, but if no one investigates far enough to figure them out then what is the point. There map site is interesting because I can understand it as a map, but then I don’t know what to do with the information.

wwwwwwwww.jodi.org

http://map.jodi.org/

Facebook

Camden — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:51:56 +0000

Facebook was created in 2003 by Matt Zuckerberg while he was attending harvard. He started it as a site for people to exchange notes and talk to each other. It started with a few members who where his freinds. It is now owned by Facebook Inc.

Facebook has become a monster. It is now so large that it has over now over 200 million active users. I think that the reason it is so popular is that it servers many functions that primarily appeal to college students but also other people as well. The functions it serves are: Allowing people to stay in touch, allow people to basically have their own website without doing much work, allows people to investigate other people, create events and get the word out on them very quickly, and finally, gives people something to look at when they are bored.

It is really crazy to me how large and popular facebook has gotten so fast. And now that it is so large, it has a certain kind of power. Even though it doesn’t cost anything to join, and you can be a part of it without it costing anything, it has become an asset. I have seen more and more businesses on facebook and people trying to advertise that way. If a person is not on facebook it is almost as if they don’t exist.

Facebook is so weird and yet it makes so much sense. With everyone trying to communicate that way, it is almost impossible to not check it regularly. I think facebook has shown the power of social networking sites. Businesses are joining facebook like crazy these days, just because it is highly trafficed.

LTLYM

Camden — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:51:20 +0000

Learning to Love You More is a very interesting site. The site to me is an idea site. The site is made up of the creators ideas. But instead of making or creating something themselves, they created a site that allows anyone to submit there own creation from this idea.

This site deals a lot with interpretation. It also deals with Community and the site has kind of created a community of contributers. You can submit and see others submissions. They have shows of the submitted work. It seems like they made the site into like a community. The art or the creators peice is the website itself, and coming up with interesting topics.

This is a site that is saying anyone can make art or have some type expression, which is different from the veiw point I see that not everyone can make art, and only got art should be shown. I find the site intersting.

Second Life

Camden — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:42:35 +0000

Second Life is a online, social networking/ alternate universe program. You if you sign up for it, you get to join the site with a real or fake name, and then create a avatar which basically acts as you, in the vitual enviorment.

I have actually been on Second Life, and created an avatar. I walked around and even visited the Univestiy of Delaware Second Life Island. It was kind of cool but also it was difficult for me to figure out how to travel from one place to another and talk to people. It was very frustrating to be talking to someone and then they just run away.

I think that second life was created with the hope that once alot of people joined, it would become practical for people to use. People might use it to meet for business meetings when they were over seas and other things like that. I don’t think it has really acheived that. I think it is still perceived as a game, or an enviorment to explore. For I while I think it was something cool and people wanted to check it out. ‘ Is this the next big thing?’.

Even though it is still growing, I don’t think it will be the next big thing. People want things that help them in there lives. They want tools to help things work better, not something to replace or reprent the life they already have.

Example of SecondLife Avatar

New media Inpiration

Camden — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:52:48 +0000

In this entry, I am going to share about some things that I have found that inpire me that use new media. I’m going to put the links at the bottom.

The first site, (themaninblue.com…etc.) is just a really cool uses of flash. And It involves typography, my first love. The interactive quality is really engaging. Check it out.

The second link is to one of the most amazing web designs I have ever seen. After seeing this site, I was like “this is what is possible”. It was designed by Lisa Strausfeld of Pentagram for Diller and Scofidio, probably two of the greatest architects of our time. The website does them justice by showcasing the work in an very simplistic way.

The website after it is another cool type of displaying information in web.

The last link on here is just an awesome animation made in flash, that inspires me. It’s not interactive, but the vector images are super cool.

Cassandra C. Jones

Camden — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:57:25 +0000

I did not get a chance to go to Cassandra’s talk, but I did get to meet her and visit her pieces in the gallery. Her work is made with ordinary found photographs, and then makes something beautiful pieces. Here videos use a group of photographs with a similar element, like a sunset, or a snowball, and creates almost a stop motion with them. She also use found photography of birds or things, and creates new form from the small photo pieces.

Her movie work to me is about how somethings are universal, or maybe its better said that there are common experiences that people have. By using only found images, she is showing the commonality random pictures that maybe for different countries, or different time periods.

Her photo-work, while still using found images, is doing something different. It is using birds or whatever, as stylized elements to build a totally different form. The thing is that she hasn’t stylized them, but only repeated them.

Cassandra’s work is very different then most of the work that I have seen and is using the medium of video in a way then is normal. My thoughts have been provoked.

The reading from “You are Here” by Katherine Harmor impacted my think about maps and a journey. I was thinking of maps as real at least in an attempt to be accurate to the physical word. The reading also includes maps that are attempting to represent non-physical things or maps that aren’t really trying to anything else but a map. The map, as a art form, is very compelling when after giving up that it has to be based on something in particular.

Mind mapping, or thought mapping really interesting. The section by Stephen S. Hall, where he talked about a thought that lead him to another thought, that reminded him of this, became very interesting and creating a map of that would be very interesting. A map of something as fleeting as a thought pattern is just cool.