Mandatory Blog Post # 22 - Floating Mind Bodies

When on the web, we may as well just be floating consciousness. Sure, there is a person typing all of things we read, but the words themselves are a manifestation of our individual conscious. In theory, we are bodies talking to other bodies, such as the way we normally communicate with our friends, but on the Internet, there are no visual cues to work with. As I type this, you have no idea what I could be doing while you read this. I could be juggling flaming chainsaws or sewing my hands  together, but you have no clue. All you have is the prose in front of you.

That separation, however, is coming to a close. One day, and it is inevitable, we will be greeting each other with handshakes in a virtual realm. What will be strange is the fact that it is still very much a floating conscious, just manifested and shaped into a human. That seems pretty existential if you ask me. That deep integration will be, at its core, the same as it is now. The only difference will be the fact that there is a computer generated version of you or your avatar.

Imagine how weird it would be for you to see me actually talking to you in a VR blog where you can see what I'm doing as I type. It sounds a lot like a webcam, but what if you saw me and I was a purple dinosaur? What if that purple dinosaur could interact with your avatar, who is a hamburger, and you could be a part of my blog? Why would you ever want to leave such a perfect world?

The first reason would be to eat, then to go to the bathroom. Besides that, we need to note this change of separation. Is it a danger? Probably not, but I think it is more important than ever to make that separation between the physical and digital self because they are different. We do not want them to become one, or one to become both. Things would get even more existential than they are now. Eventually philosophers will be talking in a VR chat room about the world that may exist outside of the chat and whether or not it really exists.

Alex Grey

Mandatory Blog Post #21 - Art is the definition

Why do you think people constantly argue the definition of art? Is it because we are all moved and affected by it? Or is it that we truly don't know what is to be considered art anymore? Did we ever know what to consider art? Who knows, but what I do know is that the only thing that has changed about art is the process in which it is created.

There are too many similarities between a digital painting and a hand-painted ones to say that one is more art than the other. There is a medley of colors, brushes and techniques, and the only difference is how they are used. Instead of constant watering down and layering of paints, an artist can now simply choose the color they want from a gradient. Is the artist any less talented and the product any less of an art?  Of course not. The two artists could create virtually the same product, the only difference being the material used... and a physical copy. Maybe people think a painting is more prestigious? I will admit how cool it is to go in a museum and look at some thickly-painted pieces of work, but that does not make it more arty than anything else.

Most people tend to give more credit to artists who have been noticed by scholars and written about, but many internet artists have it the same way. These artists can get just as much, if not more, exposure and feedback when their audience consists of the entire digital world. If anything, I'd say the digital artist has more of a chance and deserves to be written about by "professionals." Anyone can be an artist and everyone should be an artist.

The way I look at art is this: the final product should reflect the effort put into it, not how people rank it or how it is produced. If someone wants to make a realistic face from java foam, let em and then let them frame it and put it online. The Internet is the best museum because it can hold some of the best art any eyes could ever see. It may hold a bunch of crap too, but so do some real museums. To conclude, I leave you this piece of art.

Mandatory Blog Post #20 - Weinberger Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are neat Things.They lead you to other places where you might find related, but different Material. Weinberger claims that these are distracting and can lead someone on an endless, convoluted path, but I think he is Wrong.

Isn't it great that we can hop from subject to subject, site to site and forum to video on just a whim? It is so simple to find connections among all of the things that you want to learn. Is it too much information available all at once? Of course it is, but that's the beauty of it. I've never had my brain fried by clicking on link after link, and neither has anyone else I know.

It is true that everything being hyper-linked to everything else can create an endlessly scattered path of knowledge, but is it really any different than being in library? All those books have so much information and many of books could reference each other; the only thing stopping you from getting up and reading those references is all that work of standing up and looking for it. With hyperlinks, it's right there. That is what Weinberger believed was the cause and he is right about that, but it is not a problem at all.

I like to think of the human brain as a set of hyperlinks. There are tons of neurons leading to other related neurons. Our brain handles all of that information quite well without burning out. Sometimes people go crazy, but that's besides the point. Our brains work pretty good and so do hyperlinks.

You wouldn't want to think your brain is making you crazy would you?

Hyperlinks are cool and hip. They are a party that never ends.

Mandatory Blog Post #19 - OBAMA IS AN ISRAELI TERRORIST FROM KENYA!!!11!!!!!

Did the title get your attention? If it did, than why? Was it that everything was in caps? The actual title itself? The way it ended with exclamation points and numbers? For most people, it was the combination of all three.

It's a simple manipulation of the audience through rhetoric. The caps give it a sense of urgency, the message is wild and outlandish, and the punctuation gives it a sense of excitement. This presentation is not acceptable if you want to be taken seriously, but it will get attention, and sometimes, that is all you need.

This is a tactic that has gained popularity recently, due part to Internet. The example I will use is the titles of YouTube videos. I'm sure you are all aware of those videos by various Vbloggers and Let's players where the titles are as extravagant as mine and the thumbnails have hardly anything to do with the content.  Like this video by Shane Dawson. (I don't recommend you watch it, but you can if you want. I was just giving evidence.)

Personally, when I see a title like "13 and PREGNANT?!" I know that it is going to be a complete waste of my time. The same goes for the thumbnail of the video. But in reality, part of the reason why these YouTubers get so many views, is exactly what I have shown you. Their content may please a particular audience, but first they build that audience by using rhetoric.

My particular title is not too outlandish as we have actually seen people believe such statements. I'm actually curious if I will receive readers outside of my class because of the title. I also wonder if I'll get more views from the class because of it. It would again show that titles can be manipulative.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't do what you have seen here. Make a creative and accurate title. If there are any images, use ones that re relevant. Also, make sure that your content matches the title.

Mandatory Blog Post #18 - The room is a genius

So, as we all know, the smartest person in the room is not actually a person at all, it is the room itself (Weinberger). Before the Internet, everyone was dependent upon experts to solve their problems. If you need to sue someone, get a lawyer; if you need to understand terms and conditions, get a lawyer; if you need to get out of jail, get a lawyer. Lawyers are professionals and experts of technical language and law. Once you meet with you lawyer in his office, he was the smartest person in the room, not you. Now let us imagine that you have a smartphone or a laptop with internet access.

You can now go on a forum where people have asked legal questions and people with experience in your situation and even lawyers post answers online, for free. Outside of getting out of trouble and suing someone, why would you ever pay $100/hour to understand a legal contract ever again? The value of the lawyers work has just gone down, along so many other professions: publishers, critics and even mechanics. The average-Joe (he he), can now accomplish what only experts could before.

Now, are the people responsible for the current state of professionalism on the Internet, or is it the Internet itself? Well, people are responsible for the Internet, so they are the ones responsible. It isn't the individual that allow for such vast information, but the insanely large amount of information that is available overall. No select group of people could create this much knowledge. It was a collective effort by millions of users and that effort has created too much information. That is not a bad things by any means; it just means that we have more knowledge to choose from. That cannot be a bad thing.

The Internet isn't sentient...yet, so it cannot be the smartest person, but it is the smartest place. I think libraries look pretty smart and I'm not sure that the Internet itself would look as smart, considering pornography and stupid opinions, but under its harsh and dirty exterior is the smartest place you will ever see. The internet is so smart, that libraries are now dependent on it.

When the Internet does become sentient, it will do all the thinking for us and maybe it can organize all of this information. Until then, it isn't that smart, it's just a place where smart things happen. It serves a great purpose now and will serve a greater one in the future.

And speaking of purpose (skip to 1:44 if you want to get to the part)...

 
 
   

Mandatory Blog Post #16 - Welcome Back Class

Hello everyone,

Welcome back for break. I don't want to be academic or thought provoking this post. This one is just for fun.

I hope you has a break void of too much academic use of technology. May your break be full of Facebook and YouTube and not of papers and EBSCO. We deserve a break from it, even if we can't avoid it anymore (see last blog post)

See you in class and see you in a more academic post later in the week.

Mandatory Blog Post #15 - What A Webcomic Can Do For You

Since it is nearly free to publish anything on the Internet, creative people have taken full advantage. With websites like DeviantArt and Tumblr, artists have found a place to publicly post their art. Before the Internet, an artist had to get noticed by selling their art on the street or doing some crazy performance art. Now, even without people buying the art directly, artists are able to make money through commission and ad revenue, all because of the Internet.

An art enthusiast can now say to themselves "Why go out on the gross and dirty streets for art when I can go on the gross and dirty Internet to see it?" That art enthusiast is right; there are no boundaries or dirty streets getting in the way of an artist and his/her audience.

A glowing example of artists free from boundaries are web-comics. If an artist/writer wanted to get noticed, they had to: A) know someone in the industry; B) Go to yearly conventions and submit portfolios; or C) get lucky and get noticed. Most of those are hard to accomplish, but not anymore. If someone wants to get noticed, they can host their content on a website for anyone to view at any time. They may not get discovered, but their chances are higher; they will also be seen by so many others.

The artists also have more freedom with their content and share the majority, if not all, of the profit.  

I'm not going to get too far into the theory of the Internet and how it has cut out the middleman in publishing a work, but I will give an example of my favorite web-comic.

ExplodingDog

This is a web-comic based entirely off of titles that fans send in to Sam, the creator. Each comic consists of one image with the title and maybe some additional words. He has been making comics since 2000, an is still going. He has had a good amount of success by selling merchandise, framed drawings and now he has a children's book. His sense of humor is off-beat and you are often left wondering why you are laughing. It is smart, silly and non-vulgar.