Ten Questions to Ask about Technology

Here are Ten Questions (ok there are more, because some questions are kind of nested) to ask about a new technology tool that help us think about it in its wider cultural context. I am working off of, as usual, Cultural Studies founder Stuart Hall's idea of the circuit of culture, in which production, consumption, regulation, representation, and identity are all mutually informing. When we combine this with the historical trajectory perspective I am always harping on--which puts any given cultural text (game, device, app, film, dvd menu, etc) in a lineage of antecedents, looks for its peak if it has had it yet, and then speculates wildly on what might come next--we will always have a lot to talk about when we talk about any new aspect of technology, beyond the thumbs up/thumbs down reaction from which we might start and then come back to at the end, perhaps more thoughtfully.

Ten questions to ask about a new technology:

1) What is its purpose?

2) What was its analog, if there was one? How does a mediated, digital, or networked version of the tool or technique change it?

3) Who uses it? How? When? Where? Why? Does the use change over time? Do different users use it differently?

4) How does a user learn how to use it?

5) Who makes it? Who profits? How?

6) How is it regulated?

7) How does it spread?

8) Does it create or fill a need?

9) What is the interface? Is it also an object? Or a practice? Both? (think cell phone)

10) How does the user change the technology as he or she uses it? (mods and hacks and appropriations) How does the technology change the user? How does it become part of a person's sense of self?

Onward and Forward with Digital Narrative

Projects are due today, so I am completely excited to see what everyone has created. In class, we'll see those, and also come up with a group working definition of digital narrative, now that we are all digital narrative makers.

Some useful links to help us in our endeavor:

Georgetown Narrative Wiki

CATMA markup and analysis software

Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies

Center for Digital Storytelling (at the other Berkleley)

Adobe Guide to Digital Storytelling

Realism, Not Possible in Real Life, Spectatorship, Participation, & Digital Narrative

Our specific assignment for today as we continue mining Manovich for insights and outposts is to focus on the section on "Synthetic Realism and Its Discontents" that begins on page 184. Manovich makes the important point that the real break with the history of visual representation of realistic depictions of objects and places so they are indistinguishable from a photograph (in itself a modern way of defining it) happens not with the still image but when a person can experience him or herself moving around within the generated simulation of a 3-D space.

Manovich's approach highlights production and technological techniques that are used to create the illusion of realism, and quite rightly explains that because of the way 3-D computer graphics render "reality"--construct from scratch as opposed to record from reality the way a camera does--it is "practially impossible" to simulate photorealistic detail (192). Certain aspects have to be prioritized.

"New realism is partial and uneven, rather than analog and uniform" (196). Think about that for a while.

Today in class, we'll also talk about the icon, a la Scott McCloud:

ALSO, the new Second Life viewer has new media capabilities for putting media on prims. See my blog posting for a video that shows a uStream broadcast (done with my iPhone!!) on one side of a prim and twitter on the another face of the same prim in L1's SL space. The prims also can show Flash content and two or more avatars can interact with the content on the same prim--ie type or play on it. How does this offer more realism? More Not possible in real life possibilities? Hmmmmmm.

What Is New Media?

Manovich Manovich Manovich I wish we could be in a version of Being Lev Manovich and go on a trip into his head, but reading The Language of New Media will have to suffice. I love the Prologue, that dips into the book to pull out pieces about Vertov, long an interest/obsession of mine. Our responses to watching Man with a Movie Camera last Thursday reinforced the importance of Vertov's work, and I am looking forward to bringing in my virtual kino-eye material next week as we connect cinema to virtual worlds and gaming.

In defining new media, let's consider this. Manovich writes:

PRINCIPLES OF NEW MEDIA (pages 19-61 of LNM)

1) Numerical Representation

2) Modularity

3) Automation

4) Variability

5) Transcoding

Let's look at Manovich's section on the myth of interactivity (page 55).

On Thursday, we will meet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Please look at the museum website, because we will discuss and analyze it, and use it as an example of interface, database, transcoding, the use of digital narrative and forms in traditional spaces and contexts, etc. MFA

Welcome to LHUM P433: Digital Narrative Theory & Practice

This course blends theory and practice in an exploration of digital narrative: how stories can be told with digital and new media technologies. We will work critically and creatively with linear and nonlinear narratives in a range of media: writing, graphics, animation, games, multimedia, virtual worlds, and interactive media.

The overall theme of the course will focus on moving image narratives--both linear and non-linear--that explore ideas about storytelling, time, and memory. In particular, we will consider how interactivity changes narrative, and whether there are new kinds of digital narratives and aesthetics emerging. Students will make movies, websites, DVDs, movies and online installations that illuminate ideas about story, plot, character, time, and narration, comment on their creative work using the critical concepts they learn, and experiment with word processing, graphics, and web design software programs.