Cultural Practice & New Media Media Cultures 1 Week 1 – 21 July 2009

Introduction: New Media and Cultural Practice Live – Analog – Digital What is ‘culture’? What Is New Media Culture? Theories of Representation Reading ‘culture’ from Images

Live – Analog – Digital

What is ‘culture’?

What Is New Media Culture?

Theories of Representation

Reading ‘culture’ from Images

(New) Media: Analog vs Digital Analog technology responds to a live signal (voice, visual image) and translates it into electronic impulses or chemical reactions: eg phonograph records, film, non-digital cameras. Digital technology breaks the live signal down into a binary code and then via a receiving device (monitor, phone) it reassembles them into the original pattern. Analog may not get replication completely ‘right’, as digital does, but analog does still allow a warmer, richer range of replication http://telecom.hellodirect.com/docs/Tutorials/AnalogVsDigital.1.051501.asp

Analog technology responds to a live signal (voice, visual image) and translates it into electronic impulses or chemical reactions: eg phonograph records, film, non-digital cameras.

Digital technology breaks the live signal down into a binary code and then via a receiving device (monitor, phone) it reassembles them into the original pattern.

Analog may not get replication completely ‘right’, as digital does, but analog does still allow a warmer, richer range of replication

http://telecom.hellodirect.com/docs/Tutorials/AnalogVsDigital.1.051501.asp

So why “new” media? Available New Technologies : A coming together of numerical calculating technology, cinema and broadcast. New and Emerging Ways of Thinking: Postmodern, Poststructural Eg. Intertextuality – ‘all texts only make sense to us in relation to other texts, that we understand them as a part of a web of textuality’ (Lister 28) :Not so much the death of the author as the rise of the reader

Available New Technologies :

A coming together of numerical calculating technology, cinema and broadcast.

New and Emerging Ways of Thinking:

Postmodern, Poststructural

Eg. Intertextuality – ‘all texts only make sense to us in relation to other texts, that we understand them as a part of a web of textuality’ (Lister 28)

:Not so much the death of the author as the rise of the reader

What Is Culture? The way in which people communicate and live together, including the tools they use to communicate and live together : language, film, fashion, houses, cities, music, visual art, computers, transportation, and all the various discourses which people use to organise the world (and other people). Definitions of Culture (also in Readings)

The way in which people communicate and live together, including the tools they use to communicate and live together : language, film, fashion, houses, cities, music, visual art, computers, transportation, and all the various discourses which people use to organise the world (and other people).

Definitions of Culture (also in Readings)

Defining Concepts in New Media (Lister et al.) Digitality Interactivity Hypertextuality Dispersal Virtuality

Digitality

Interactivity

Hypertextuality

Dispersal

Virtuality

Manovich’s Principles of New Media Manovich, Lev (2001). Language of New Media , Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England:The MIT Press, pp 27-48 Numerical representation Modularity Automation Variability Transcoding

Numerical representation

Modularity

Automation

Variability

Transcoding

Other Key terms VR – Virtual Reality Convergence Cyberspace

VR – Virtual Reality

Convergence

Cyberspace

New Media Culture Diversified, mass distribution but relies on individuals passing information on -a viral process. Individual to individual to individual to individual …. Communications via new media have the potential to continue ad infinitum Mass audience for the sublime and the dreadful, the amateur and the professional (how to distinguish between the 2?) Portable, mobile and personalised points of access Increasingly becoming less expensive: a lot can be done on old machines

Diversified, mass distribution but relies on individuals passing information on -a viral process. Individual to individual to individual to individual ….

Communications via new media have the potential to continue ad infinitum

Mass audience for the sublime and the dreadful, the amateur and the professional

(how to distinguish between the 2?)

Portable, mobile and personalised points of access

Increasingly becoming less expensive: a lot can be done on old machines

Theories of Representation (a) Reflective/Mimetic ‘ the truth is out there’ and language or some other system of communication can accurately imitate it. Intentional The person who does the communicating (speaking, drawing, web-design, filmmaking, sculpting etc) is in total control of the ‘message’. Meaning is fixed.

Reflective/Mimetic

‘ the truth is out there’ and language or some other system of communication can accurately imitate it.

Intentional

The person who does the communicating (speaking, drawing, web-design, filmmaking, sculpting etc) is in total control of the ‘message’. Meaning is fixed.

Theories of Representation (b) Constructionist Language, art, the web are all ‘signifying practices’: The symbols that are used in these signifying practices can all be used in many ways to mean many things. The way we make the message is not the message itself and no message is ever ‘fixed’ forever. People construct ‘meanings’, and often very different ones, from the same symbol.

Constructionist

Language, art, the web are all ‘signifying practices’:

The symbols that are used in these signifying practices can all be used in many ways to mean many things.

The way we make the message is not the message itself and no message is ever ‘fixed’ forever.

People construct ‘meanings’, and often very different ones, from the same symbol.

New Media and Representation A new signifying practice based on digital technology New Media offers various ways of representing the world, whether by immersing our senses in fictionalised ‘real life’ or fantasy or by allowing us access to ‘live’, ‘happening now’ information and dialogue

A new signifying practice based on digital technology

New Media offers various ways of representing the world, whether by immersing our senses in fictionalised ‘real life’ or fantasy or by allowing us access to ‘live’, ‘happening now’ information and dialogue

Reading Culture from Images Denotation: what is denoted by an image, what it ‘literally’ refers to Connotation: the many meanings that are available from the image, depending on our own personal experience, the viewing context, cultural assumptions.

Denotation:

what is denoted by an image, what it ‘literally’ refers to

Connotation:

the many meanings that are available from the image, depending on our own personal experience, the viewing context, cultural assumptions.

Today’s screenings Come to Daddy (Aphex Twin), Chris Cunningham Elektrobank (The Chemical Brothers), Spike Johns

Come to Daddy (Aphex Twin), Chris Cunningham

Elektrobank (The Chemical Brothers), Spike Johns

The Yes Men

Bush Mechanics

Come to Daddy (Aphex Twin)

Elektrobank - (The Chemical Brothers)

Adapted by Tracey Meziane from the original presentation by Dr. Catherine Summerhayes Credits: