Questions and Answer Time!
Mr Walter Benjamin, come on down! For the prize or posting this blog, how do the ideas from your ‘Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ apply to contemporary digital media? Your time starts… NOW!
>>Propaganda through mass media is still a major issue within contemporary digital media. Most media today is supported by some form of advertising and influential information.
Now, there was a time when ‘art’ was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally, (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for ‘art’?
>>Just because the digital age is growing, it is not threatening to art in any way, its more or less expanding the horizons of what art can be. Creative expression is not justified just by a brush or a guitar in a live band, whilst these are forms of art, all artistic expression of creative process is art. Technology is just a broader expansion.
Whilst a photograph of her majesty the queen with a bikini on gives us a chuckle, is a photoshopped image “authentic”?
>>Whilst Photoshop can be a funny way of manipulating a photograph, its also a great way to perfect images. A photograph may have imperfections, whether is be bad lighting, facial marks or things that where accidently within the picture. Photoshop is a great tool. However, it has been manipulated particularly by paparazzi making up false accusations regarding celebrities and the like. When used properly the authenticity of a photograph can still be in place, the photograph is just enhanced. However when it is abused, photos loose authenticity and can create issues.
And now for the final question, the tie breaker, the one to win, Do digital ‘things’ have an ‘aura’ (in Benjamin’s terms)? (jeopardy music begins to play)
>> Lock it in Eddy! Computer says NO! Walter Benjamin believes that digital ‘things’ DO NOT have an ‘aura’
DING DING DING DING!!!
YOU HAVE WON!
- The satisfaction of a job well done! Go you!
Until next week bloggers, stay away from Brittany Spears!
Kudos!
xo
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Hmm's And Ahh's of Search Engines! (a holida-hobi-whati?)
Phew! Have you recovered from our Google hunt? I thought that a nice relaxing massage by a Swedish masseuse named Fredric and an ice tea was just the thing! But enough about that, let’s review Search engines! How do search engine rank the stuff they find on the internet you might ask? The answer is quite simple, Web Crawler. The we crawler program is specialized to go out on a “Google hunt” such as we have done, attempt to recognise words or phrases and extract them. After the hunt is over, our friend Mr Google keeps them in a safe place for when we need them most, and the links are posted accordingly next to these words. And viola! The search engine, as simple as coin collector!
But then you think, aside from the fact that Mr Google is just an awesome name that I threw in instead of writing technological mumbo jumbo; who or what even makes this search page more useful that another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results (breaths here)? It’s a common fact that we will immediately click on the first link that a search engine gives us because it MUST be the one we are looking for…WRONG. Ha you are so naïve! So just who or what organising these things and who has the right? Look out Charlie Epps, here comes an algorithm! The most common ranking method is exactly that, a lot of numbers that mean something, and is known as TFIDF (term-frequency-inverse document-frequency). It recognises significant words will judge them to see if they are relevant and arrange them accordingly. It’s so smart that it excuses joining words such as or, and, to with, and extracts the important ones. By the way this is all called Weighting. Its not that only way that search engines will organise their information, other forms of arranging include link analysis (which is what our friend Mr Google uses) and it helps to improve the ranking of its results.
Now I think that I have pretty much established my search engine of choice, and the winner is….GOOGLE. I have always used it, its easy to use, is reliable most of the time and always has a funky way of displaying the word Google on the home page. Just puts a smile on your face. I have used ‘Ask Jives’, ‘msn search’, ‘yahoo’ and some others, but I feel so much more comfortable with Google. Well now that you can rest easier at night knowing that search engines are most of the time your friend. I think I shall leaves this blog here!
Until next time bloggers!
TFFN (ta-ta-for-now)
xo
But then you think, aside from the fact that Mr Google is just an awesome name that I threw in instead of writing technological mumbo jumbo; who or what even makes this search page more useful that another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results (breaths here)? It’s a common fact that we will immediately click on the first link that a search engine gives us because it MUST be the one we are looking for…WRONG. Ha you are so naïve! So just who or what organising these things and who has the right? Look out Charlie Epps, here comes an algorithm! The most common ranking method is exactly that, a lot of numbers that mean something, and is known as TFIDF (term-frequency-inverse document-frequency). It recognises significant words will judge them to see if they are relevant and arrange them accordingly. It’s so smart that it excuses joining words such as or, and, to with, and extracts the important ones. By the way this is all called Weighting. Its not that only way that search engines will organise their information, other forms of arranging include link analysis (which is what our friend Mr Google uses) and it helps to improve the ranking of its results.
Now I think that I have pretty much established my search engine of choice, and the winner is….GOOGLE. I have always used it, its easy to use, is reliable most of the time and always has a funky way of displaying the word Google on the home page. Just puts a smile on your face. I have used ‘Ask Jives’, ‘msn search’, ‘yahoo’ and some others, but I feel so much more comfortable with Google. Well now that you can rest easier at night knowing that search engines are most of the time your friend. I think I shall leaves this blog here!
Until next time bloggers!
TFFN (ta-ta-for-now)
xo
Thursday, April 10, 2008
We're going on a Google hunt!
We’re going on a Google hunt!
Greetings fellow bloggers join me this week for the exciting adventures of SEARCH ENGINES. Now there are some rules that we must follow and these include : NO WIKIPEDIA OR GOOGLE!. Otherwise do not pass go do not collect $200. answer the questions given to you and provide the appropriate search engine you used. Are you ready? On your markie’s, grab your car keys, GO.
Question 1: who was the creator of the infamous ‘love bug’ computer virus?
Onel de Guzman! (Sneaky sneaky man, all he wanted was to share the love)
Question 2: who invented the paperclip?
Johan Vaaler 1899 Norway! (Thanks Johan, now I know that my papers can stay firmly clasped together without hesitation or worry)
Question 3: How did the Ebola Virus get its name?
Question 4: What country had the largest ever recorded earthquake?
Chili 1960, it reached 9.5 on the Richter scale! (Talk about a bumpy ride)
Question 5: In computer memory storage terms, how many kilobytes are in a terabyte?
1024³!
Question 6: Who was the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson 1971 (thanks Tom! You have made the world a better place with the spread of spam and virus’ the world over! Kudos man)
Question 7: What is the storm worm? And how many computers were infected by it?
The Storm worm was not just a normal computer worm; it was more like a worm, Trojan, and bot all rolled into one. It disguised itself as a news article hiding in email attachments stating ‘230 dead as storm takes Europe’. The storm worm was estimated to have infected between 1 million and 50 million computers. (No comment)
Question 8: If you wanted to contact the Prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Prime minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT
(You have to love K-Rudd!)
Question 9: Which Brisbane based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (head of school of arts) apart of?
Black assassins. (Go Stephen, rock on buddy!)
Question 10: What doest the term ‘Web 2.0’ means in your words?
A controlled economically effective one of a kind data source. which software is above the level of a single device. (Really really confusing!)
TADA!! We did it! we did it! we did it! YAY! that was not too hard, though right now i am missing google, im not used to all these unfamilliar search engines, its like dorothy walking through the woods with a scarecrow a tin man and a rather timid dog screaming "LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS OH MY"! But now that i have seen that the lion is just a cowardly small insignificant creature i can now rest alot eaiser at night.
Keep it real New Com Tech Bloggers!
there's no place like home!
xo
Greetings fellow bloggers join me this week for the exciting adventures of SEARCH ENGINES. Now there are some rules that we must follow and these include : NO WIKIPEDIA OR GOOGLE!. Otherwise do not pass go do not collect $200. answer the questions given to you and provide the appropriate search engine you used. Are you ready? On your markie’s, grab your car keys, GO.
Question 1: who was the creator of the infamous ‘love bug’ computer virus?
Onel de Guzman! (Sneaky sneaky man, all he wanted was to share the love)
Question 2: who invented the paperclip?
Johan Vaaler 1899 Norway! (Thanks Johan, now I know that my papers can stay firmly clasped together without hesitation or worry)
Question 3: How did the Ebola Virus get its name?
Question 4: What country had the largest ever recorded earthquake?
Chili 1960, it reached 9.5 on the Richter scale! (Talk about a bumpy ride)
Question 5: In computer memory storage terms, how many kilobytes are in a terabyte?
1024³!
Question 6: Who was the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson 1971 (thanks Tom! You have made the world a better place with the spread of spam and virus’ the world over! Kudos man)
Question 7: What is the storm worm? And how many computers were infected by it?
The Storm worm was not just a normal computer worm; it was more like a worm, Trojan, and bot all rolled into one. It disguised itself as a news article hiding in email attachments stating ‘230 dead as storm takes Europe’. The storm worm was estimated to have infected between 1 million and 50 million computers. (No comment)
Question 8: If you wanted to contact the Prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Prime minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT
(You have to love K-Rudd!)
Question 9: Which Brisbane based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (head of school of arts) apart of?
Black assassins. (Go Stephen, rock on buddy!)
Question 10: What doest the term ‘Web 2.0’ means in your words?
A controlled economically effective one of a kind data source. which software is above the level of a single device. (Really really confusing!)
TADA!! We did it! we did it! we did it! YAY! that was not too hard, though right now i am missing google, im not used to all these unfamilliar search engines, its like dorothy walking through the woods with a scarecrow a tin man and a rather timid dog screaming "LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS OH MY"! But now that i have seen that the lion is just a cowardly small insignificant creature i can now rest alot eaiser at night.
Keep it real New Com Tech Bloggers!
there's no place like home!
xo
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The attack of Alphaville...who will make it out awake?
Lecture 3
The attack of the Alphaville screening…who will make it out awake?
As much as I respect French New Wave Cinema, Alphaville was not exactly what I would call my favourite movie of all time. I understood the concept of the film, its representations of expectations for future society, technology and culture however; I don’t think I fully appreciated the complexity the film showed of its time as now I am practically living in the society predicted by Alphaville. Minus living in the ford galaxy which I’m sure our good friend Mr Harrison is thrilled that after his three film stunt as the infamous Han Solo he now gets a galaxy named after him, Kudos Mr Ford. I’m sure the ‘Millennium Falcon’ was estimated to be the choice of vehicle also and that a Wookie was the ideal household pet.
More onto topic, Alphaville was apart of the French New Wave Cinema movement. Directed and created by Jean-Luc Goddard, who at the time was renowned for his contributions for this new slightly bohemian form of film. Set in 1984, Goddard used futuristic looking architecture for his film to lessen the cost of the film and add to the effect of living in a 1984 Paris. Also to make for a cheap budget, Goddard did not use special effects there was no way he could have afforded them in 1965. However I’m sure that if Mr Goddard was given a multi million budget to make this film he would have gone all out but when that’s when you have to make a dollar out of 15 cents.
All that being well and good, sounding amazing right now I know, the story line however was something to be investigated and interpreted. Hold onto your undies, here’s a ride. Utopia, a word which some can relate to the ever popular movie ANTZ which in their case was an overflowing garbage bin in central park, is exactly that. An ideal society, the ultimate form of living and a world in which everything is without flaw.An example of an attempt at a utopian society would be Communism. The society in Alphaville set to influence its idea of a utopian society amongst the Ford galaxy (1984 Paris). Now we have that ‘idealistic’ word out of the way, we can move on to the bigger picture. The film is based around Lemmy Caution (Eddy Constantine), an American private-eye, who arrives in Alphaville and is sitting along the dark side of the ruler of alphaville, an evil scientist named Von Braun, who has created a type of ‘super computer’, named Alpha 60. Dare you shed a tear, have a heart, feel any ounce of emotion and you shall be executed by this ‘Alpha 60’, what a fun way to live I say. Von Braun’s daughter Natacha (Anna Karina) is like the welcome wagon for Alphaville and gives Caution a glimpse of how life runs in this ‘other world’. In turn mostly a shock and awe situation, Caution slightly educated Natacha into believing in free thought. Also the fact that women are treated basicaly like a household applience deffinately brought out the Germaine Greer in me.
A few kudos though have to be shouted out in relations to Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1965 Masterpiece. The editing was ingenious and original, the breaks of random neon flashing words which the whole way through I had not a clue what they meant, added a sense of amusement whilst viewing. The translation from French to English, apparently it was not quite accurate as throughout the film as I was watching with my fellow students, we had a little giggle at the randomness and confusing script whilst a French girl was sitting beside us cursing asking us what was so funny about the film.
All in all I appreciate the views in which were portrayed in this film. The idea’s of a furturistic society run by computers, has in some ways sadly come true. I’m sure that in 1965 this film was outrageous, slightly intimidating and scary for those who viewed it. Well Congrats guys, this is one estimation that has come true.
Yes I realise this is really long but so was the 90 mins that I had to watch this film in the coldest lecture theatre in history and this silly goose forgot a jumper!
Promise next weeks wont be this long, so until then…
See you later alligator!
Ciao!
The attack of the Alphaville screening…who will make it out awake?
As much as I respect French New Wave Cinema, Alphaville was not exactly what I would call my favourite movie of all time. I understood the concept of the film, its representations of expectations for future society, technology and culture however; I don’t think I fully appreciated the complexity the film showed of its time as now I am practically living in the society predicted by Alphaville. Minus living in the ford galaxy which I’m sure our good friend Mr Harrison is thrilled that after his three film stunt as the infamous Han Solo he now gets a galaxy named after him, Kudos Mr Ford. I’m sure the ‘Millennium Falcon’ was estimated to be the choice of vehicle also and that a Wookie was the ideal household pet.
More onto topic, Alphaville was apart of the French New Wave Cinema movement. Directed and created by Jean-Luc Goddard, who at the time was renowned for his contributions for this new slightly bohemian form of film. Set in 1984, Goddard used futuristic looking architecture for his film to lessen the cost of the film and add to the effect of living in a 1984 Paris. Also to make for a cheap budget, Goddard did not use special effects there was no way he could have afforded them in 1965. However I’m sure that if Mr Goddard was given a multi million budget to make this film he would have gone all out but when that’s when you have to make a dollar out of 15 cents.
All that being well and good, sounding amazing right now I know, the story line however was something to be investigated and interpreted. Hold onto your undies, here’s a ride. Utopia, a word which some can relate to the ever popular movie ANTZ which in their case was an overflowing garbage bin in central park, is exactly that. An ideal society, the ultimate form of living and a world in which everything is without flaw.An example of an attempt at a utopian society would be Communism. The society in Alphaville set to influence its idea of a utopian society amongst the Ford galaxy (1984 Paris). Now we have that ‘idealistic’ word out of the way, we can move on to the bigger picture. The film is based around Lemmy Caution (Eddy Constantine), an American private-eye, who arrives in Alphaville and is sitting along the dark side of the ruler of alphaville, an evil scientist named Von Braun, who has created a type of ‘super computer’, named Alpha 60. Dare you shed a tear, have a heart, feel any ounce of emotion and you shall be executed by this ‘Alpha 60’, what a fun way to live I say. Von Braun’s daughter Natacha (Anna Karina) is like the welcome wagon for Alphaville and gives Caution a glimpse of how life runs in this ‘other world’. In turn mostly a shock and awe situation, Caution slightly educated Natacha into believing in free thought. Also the fact that women are treated basicaly like a household applience deffinately brought out the Germaine Greer in me.
A few kudos though have to be shouted out in relations to Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1965 Masterpiece. The editing was ingenious and original, the breaks of random neon flashing words which the whole way through I had not a clue what they meant, added a sense of amusement whilst viewing. The translation from French to English, apparently it was not quite accurate as throughout the film as I was watching with my fellow students, we had a little giggle at the randomness and confusing script whilst a French girl was sitting beside us cursing asking us what was so funny about the film.
All in all I appreciate the views in which were portrayed in this film. The idea’s of a furturistic society run by computers, has in some ways sadly come true. I’m sure that in 1965 this film was outrageous, slightly intimidating and scary for those who viewed it. Well Congrats guys, this is one estimation that has come true.
Yes I realise this is really long but so was the 90 mins that I had to watch this film in the coldest lecture theatre in history and this silly goose forgot a jumper!
Promise next weeks wont be this long, so until then…
See you later alligator!
Ciao!
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