I wasn't really able to use it in any other blogs except the one where we were specifically asked to make the connections. If I were given infinite time and resources, I would try to extend Ong's article to the digital age. I believe that just as writing did before, now hypermediation in the form of websites, video games, and other digital forms (save for the traditional) are restructuring our consciousness. This would be quite the undertaking because it would involve surveys and cognitive ability tests of different age groups and different computer habits. As for the final project, I don't know if I'll be able to work it into my final project. I would have loved to have done the theory I stated above, but when I tried to research it, I didn't find much information to help support that claim.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Blog post 11
Throughout the course we read a bunch of interesting articles, but the ones that I found most interesting were the ones by Ong, specifically how "Writing Restructures Consciousness". It's strange for us to think about writing as a technological advancement and the cognitive side effects that came about because of it. I also found it interesting how Ong described the evolution of the alphabet, as well as other scripts and writing systems. Even though I'm a linguistics major, a lot of this information, the writing systems and the timeline from oral to literate cultures was completely new to me and furthered my knowledge of historical linguistics.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Digital (Final proposal)
Through history we have gone through many media phases. We started out as an oral culture, then with the advent of writing, we saw how writing has restructured our consciousness and changed us into a literary culture. Now we have come to the digital age and with it, many new mediums. I believe that humans are migrating away from pure text or speech cultures and are becoming a digital culture.
I will use Ong's "Writing restructures Consciousness" to show the similarities between the switch from an oral culture to a literary one, and the switch from a literary culture to a hypermediated one. Just as Plato argued that writing subjects down "enfeebles the mind the mind by relieving it of too much work", the baby boomer generation and perhaps some in Gen X believe that the internet does the same thing.
The next thing I will do use use a University of Idaho page to reference what makes a culture unique. http://www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=88955 . I will use the bullet points (Communication, Space, Time, Social organization, etc) as my main catagories of proving that this new digital culture is unique.
Then I will use "Language and the Internet" By David Crystal, to talk about how the internet has brought about a new language and what the new language entails. Crystal uses the term "Netspeak" to describe the language that has emerged from the internet and other digital mediums of communication and discourse.
Because there is no physical space in a digital environment, I will use the idea of internet privacy, or lack thereof, to talk about the idea of the use of space as a culture. I will use Anne SY Cheung's article titled "Rethinking Public Privacy in the Internet Era: A Study of Virtual Persecution by the Internet Crowd" as a source of the current state of privacy on the internet and how it differs from current American ideals.
There are many different subcultures on the internet. They range from more real world type societies, like myspace or facebook, where the social structures might seem relatively normal, to online communities, like digg, reddit, 4chan and the pirate bay, where anonymity allows all social norms to go out the window. Ya-Ching Lee's article titled "Internet and Anonymity" talks about how being anonymous on the internet has allowed a culture of brutally honest people to prosper.
I will then talk about how this culture is becoming more prominent and things like Twitter and Facebook are now staples in news reporting. Then and talk about possible naysayers and how it's just a subculture instead of being a fully formed culture on its own.
I'm hoping to find at least one more source per culture point for my final paper.
I will use Ong's "Writing restructures Consciousness" to show the similarities between the switch from an oral culture to a literary one, and the switch from a literary culture to a hypermediated one. Just as Plato argued that writing subjects down "enfeebles the mind the mind by relieving it of too much work", the baby boomer generation and perhaps some in Gen X believe that the internet does the same thing.
The next thing I will do use use a University of Idaho page to reference what makes a culture unique. http://www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=88955 . I will use the bullet points (Communication, Space, Time, Social organization, etc) as my main catagories of proving that this new digital culture is unique.
Then I will use "Language and the Internet" By David Crystal, to talk about how the internet has brought about a new language and what the new language entails. Crystal uses the term "Netspeak" to describe the language that has emerged from the internet and other digital mediums of communication and discourse.
Because there is no physical space in a digital environment, I will use the idea of internet privacy, or lack thereof, to talk about the idea of the use of space as a culture. I will use Anne SY Cheung's article titled "Rethinking Public Privacy in the Internet Era: A Study of Virtual Persecution by the Internet Crowd" as a source of the current state of privacy on the internet and how it differs from current American ideals.
There are many different subcultures on the internet. They range from more real world type societies, like myspace or facebook, where the social structures might seem relatively normal, to online communities, like digg, reddit, 4chan and the pirate bay, where anonymity allows all social norms to go out the window. Ya-Ching Lee's article titled "Internet and Anonymity" talks about how being anonymous on the internet has allowed a culture of brutally honest people to prosper.
I will then talk about how this culture is becoming more prominent and things like Twitter and Facebook are now staples in news reporting. Then and talk about possible naysayers and how it's just a subculture instead of being a fully formed culture on its own.
I'm hoping to find at least one more source per culture point for my final paper.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Video games vs Electronic literature. FIGHT!
In reading the first chapter of Hayles' book titled "Electronic Literature: What is it?" you get some mixed signals about the validity of video games as a form of electronic literature. Hayles even says, "The demarcation between electronic literature and computer games is far from clear;" My question is, after reading the first two chapters of Hayles book, where do you stand on video games as electronic literature?
On one side of the argument we have people like Markku Eskelinen who were paraphrased to say "with games the user interprets in order to configure, whereas in works whose primary interest is narrative, the user configures in order to interpret." I on the other hand, believe that video games have just as much literary validity as any other form of electronic literature. Electronic literature is literature that is "digital born" and is made on and usually read on, a computer. Hayles goes on to describe interactive fiction by saying "The interactor controls a player character by issuing commands. Instructions to the program, for example asking it to quit, are called directives." I believe that video games are just an expansion of interactive fiction.
Let us go back to the Eskelinen quote for a minute. The order that he has for games are interpreting in order to configure the story. While this might be true about some of the old games like Super Mario, games in the 21st century have become more complex in the story and how it's presented. In modern role playing games, or RPGs, you guide your character from narrative to narrative by solving puzzles related to the theme of the story, or perhaps by fighting, but no matter what you do to progress to the next narrative section, it helps progress the story. It helps you configure the story so that you can interpret it.
While there might be video games that lack any story telling mechanisms, and believe me a lot of games today do, there are still a lot of games who's fundamental goal is to tell a story. In that aspect I believe that video games are indeed a good example of electronic literature.
On one side of the argument we have people like Markku Eskelinen who were paraphrased to say "with games the user interprets in order to configure, whereas in works whose primary interest is narrative, the user configures in order to interpret." I on the other hand, believe that video games have just as much literary validity as any other form of electronic literature. Electronic literature is literature that is "digital born" and is made on and usually read on, a computer. Hayles goes on to describe interactive fiction by saying "The interactor controls a player character by issuing commands. Instructions to the program, for example asking it to quit, are called directives." I believe that video games are just an expansion of interactive fiction.
Let us go back to the Eskelinen quote for a minute. The order that he has for games are interpreting in order to configure the story. While this might be true about some of the old games like Super Mario, games in the 21st century have become more complex in the story and how it's presented. In modern role playing games, or RPGs, you guide your character from narrative to narrative by solving puzzles related to the theme of the story, or perhaps by fighting, but no matter what you do to progress to the next narrative section, it helps progress the story. It helps you configure the story so that you can interpret it.
While there might be video games that lack any story telling mechanisms, and believe me a lot of games today do, there are still a lot of games who's fundamental goal is to tell a story. In that aspect I believe that video games are indeed a good example of electronic literature.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Darnton 2.0
According to Adams and Barker, the publisher has "the initial decision to multiply a text or image for distribution." Then according to Darnton's communication circuit, the publisher would then hand the text off to the printers, then to the distributors, and so on through the cycle. Adams and Barker continue on to explain that one of the main duties in commercial publishing (the most familiar form of publishing) is to weigh the pros and cons of a particular piece of literature and decide if it is financially worth it for the company to print it. When you have a physical book that doesn't sell, the company is at a loss because of the cost of the materials it took to print and transport the book.
In the 21st century we have an (almost) free method of "printing" and "distributing" literature. Publishers have a medium for books that they aren't sure will sell. Instead of rejecting the books outright, they have a way for the company to make money off of these iffy books with very little overhead cost. While there are still traditional publishers like Random House and Penguin Press, there are now many on-line publishers who will publish your work for (sometimes) free. So now a publisher is not just merely the person who says ya or nay to your book being distributed, but instead become a nonjudgmental distributor.
A publisher has changed from being someone who decides weather it is fiscally responsible to print a book to an indiscriminate website that is fused with the printers, shippers, and sellers.
In the 21st century we have an (almost) free method of "printing" and "distributing" literature. Publishers have a medium for books that they aren't sure will sell. Instead of rejecting the books outright, they have a way for the company to make money off of these iffy books with very little overhead cost. While there are still traditional publishers like Random House and Penguin Press, there are now many on-line publishers who will publish your work for (sometimes) free. So now a publisher is not just merely the person who says ya or nay to your book being distributed, but instead become a nonjudgmental distributor.
A publisher has changed from being someone who decides weather it is fiscally responsible to print a book to an indiscriminate website that is fused with the printers, shippers, and sellers.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
I pledge allegiance to the cow?
I pledge allegiance, to the cow, of the United States of America.
We are a nation centered around our flag. American's today believe that anyone who defiles a flag is a communist Al Qaeda member, who hates America and all it stands for. In America we seem to almost have a flag fetish. I tried to find another country that had such strict etiquette with regards to their national flag, but I was unable to find one. As a matter of fact, I only found one sight that talked about the etiquette of other nation's flags other than America.
While A might stand for Apple Pie or An Archer, the US flag stands for freedom and democracy, to Americans at least. But I ask, would things be different if we made a pledge to a different object? Would we still care so much about flags? Instead, what if Francis Bellamy decided that America's national symbol was not the flag, but the cow. Now we find ourselves pledging allegiance to the cow of America. After 9/11 there was a back order of cows because of the upwelling of patriotism. There are numerous laws that tell you how to handle your cow and how to dispose of an old one. This sounds rediculious because we have been reciting the pledge almost daily in primary school. I believe this is one of the reasons why flags are so important in American culture.
We started every school day by pledging our allegiance to the flag. Crain talks about how these images are ingrained in us from childhood. Passing on our culture and heritage. Crain says that "the child is similarly the medium through which the alphabet permeates culture." (p.56) We can see how the previous generations try to instill upon us the importance of the American flag.
We have the idea that the flag is the symbol of American, but it could just have easily been another figure. We try to convince others that the US flag represents liberty and freedom, but wouldn't a cow do just as good of job?
We are a nation centered around our flag. American's today believe that anyone who defiles a flag is a communist Al Qaeda member, who hates America and all it stands for. In America we seem to almost have a flag fetish. I tried to find another country that had such strict etiquette with regards to their national flag, but I was unable to find one. As a matter of fact, I only found one sight that talked about the etiquette of other nation's flags other than America.
While A might stand for Apple Pie or An Archer, the US flag stands for freedom and democracy, to Americans at least. But I ask, would things be different if we made a pledge to a different object? Would we still care so much about flags? Instead, what if Francis Bellamy decided that America's national symbol was not the flag, but the cow. Now we find ourselves pledging allegiance to the cow of America. After 9/11 there was a back order of cows because of the upwelling of patriotism. There are numerous laws that tell you how to handle your cow and how to dispose of an old one. This sounds rediculious because we have been reciting the pledge almost daily in primary school. I believe this is one of the reasons why flags are so important in American culture.
We started every school day by pledging our allegiance to the flag. Crain talks about how these images are ingrained in us from childhood. Passing on our culture and heritage. Crain says that "the child is similarly the medium through which the alphabet permeates culture." (p.56) We can see how the previous generations try to instill upon us the importance of the American flag.
We have the idea that the flag is the symbol of American, but it could just have easily been another figure. We try to convince others that the US flag represents liberty and freedom, but wouldn't a cow do just as good of job?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The End of Cartographers
When first thinking about this assignment, I found it very hard to think of other examples other than those in the text. I believe this is because in today's world, maps aren't really payed attention to. Sure we use our GPS systems while driving, but it is still very rare that we actually look at a map, especially a physical map.
This is an internet meme that went around a website called reddit. This was the first thing I thought about when reading the question. The meme is in the form "I'm from _____ and this is how I see America." The picture above was made by someone from southern California. The person who posted this image took a stock map of America and reduced it to a map of stereotypes. Almost a caricature of America. It was posted on-line as a joke, but some of these maps really do show how the rest of the country/world views the United States. The outcome of these types of maps are usually taken with a grain of salt. Since we live in the digital age and can easily access an accurate map, I don't think anyone would mistake this for a real map of America.
It seems that in our time the map is reasonably stable. I found a wikipedia article that lists the changes to the world map from the last 3000 years. It seems that since the fall of the Berlin wall and communist Russia, there haven't been many changes to the map that aren't countries splitting or name changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_map_changes
This is an internet meme that went around a website called reddit. This was the first thing I thought about when reading the question. The meme is in the form "I'm from _____ and this is how I see America." The picture above was made by someone from southern California. The person who posted this image took a stock map of America and reduced it to a map of stereotypes. Almost a caricature of America. It was posted on-line as a joke, but some of these maps really do show how the rest of the country/world views the United States. The outcome of these types of maps are usually taken with a grain of salt. Since we live in the digital age and can easily access an accurate map, I don't think anyone would mistake this for a real map of America.
It seems that in our time the map is reasonably stable. I found a wikipedia article that lists the changes to the world map from the last 3000 years. It seems that since the fall of the Berlin wall and communist Russia, there haven't been many changes to the map that aren't countries splitting or name changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_map_changes
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Harry Potter and the Internet Pirate
In today's society piracy is rampant. With access to the internet we also get access to movies, music, books, and just about anything else we want that can be seen or heard through a computer. Though intellectual piracy is not a new concept, it is done in different ways than it was in the past few centuries.
In the Johns article we read about the dispute between Tycho Brahe and Nicolai Reymers Baer on who first made certain astronomical observations. It came down to one accusing the other of plagiarism. This sort of thing could happen quite easily due to how slow information traveled. If one of them received a copy of the other's work, they could easily reprint it with their name on it and claim it theirs. This is very different in today's society. Authors now-a-days tend to copyright everything they can that is related to the story they wish to tell or the information they wish to convey. It is rare for there to be a dispute about who was the original author (though they do happen on occasion). The problem authors have now is not other people claiming the work as their own, but distributing it without their consent. It would take any internet literate person about 30 seconds to find a copy of just about any popular book that has came out in the last 50 years. There is also a problem with books being leaked to the public before they are meant to be. There was a big deal a few years back of someone copying down the new Harry Potter and posting it on-line before the release. This release ended up being a fake.
Before the advent of the printing press fixity was a very hard thing to maintain. After making a copy of a copy of a copy, you don't know exactly how accurate your version is from the source. Since the printing press was invented, documents could be easily copied exactly raising the level of fixity from copy to copy. Since remediation is so prevalent in our time, it is hard to believe that there is any difference in the book we read from the author's original words.
Although intellectual piracy is still around today, it has changed its shape. It no longer pens books in other authors' names, but instead distributes the books for free and it no longer is a mystery as to who the original author is. Times have changed and so has piracy.
Although it's not common in Western cultures, it seems to be popular in China to write your own bootleg books to take advantage of a popular franchise.
In the Johns article we read about the dispute between Tycho Brahe and Nicolai Reymers Baer on who first made certain astronomical observations. It came down to one accusing the other of plagiarism. This sort of thing could happen quite easily due to how slow information traveled. If one of them received a copy of the other's work, they could easily reprint it with their name on it and claim it theirs. This is very different in today's society. Authors now-a-days tend to copyright everything they can that is related to the story they wish to tell or the information they wish to convey. It is rare for there to be a dispute about who was the original author (though they do happen on occasion). The problem authors have now is not other people claiming the work as their own, but distributing it without their consent. It would take any internet literate person about 30 seconds to find a copy of just about any popular book that has came out in the last 50 years. There is also a problem with books being leaked to the public before they are meant to be. There was a big deal a few years back of someone copying down the new Harry Potter and posting it on-line before the release. This release ended up being a fake.
Before the advent of the printing press fixity was a very hard thing to maintain. After making a copy of a copy of a copy, you don't know exactly how accurate your version is from the source. Since the printing press was invented, documents could be easily copied exactly raising the level of fixity from copy to copy. Since remediation is so prevalent in our time, it is hard to believe that there is any difference in the book we read from the author's original words.
Although intellectual piracy is still around today, it has changed its shape. It no longer pens books in other authors' names, but instead distributes the books for free and it no longer is a mystery as to who the original author is. Times have changed and so has piracy.
Although it's not common in Western cultures, it seems to be popular in China to write your own bootleg books to take advantage of a popular franchise.
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