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First thoughts about the "90 pages". If this is
Tuesday, this must be Belgium" -- talk about an
*attempt* at a mental world-wind tour. You could
spend an entire semester on McCluan (and indeed
many do ;), Focault, etc. Anyway, here's a start
(more to follow).....
Hmmm, just call me an old crumudgeon, but...
The idea of "new" media is pretty much just the old media,
but wearing a new hat (for the most part). Also, there
are always new mythologies to go along by what most
people see as change.
For example, on P.11 we are presented with:
"A de-centering of established and centralised geo-political
orders: the weakening of mechanism of power and control
from Western colonial centres, [emph mine] facilitated
by the dispersed, boundary-transgressing, networks of new
communication medai. P.11.
What the authors are skirting around is the idea that areas of
the world which were once "just" colonies (ie, Korea, Japan,
Taiwan, etc) are now begining to "dominate" the economic systems
of the world. More importantly they are the new *slaves* to the
world; one only has to *glance* at the life of the typical
male Japanese worker to see that. ????WEB-REF??? Meanwhile
China, much of the orient and Mexico continue to supply slaves
to the world, and of course Africa is even more eviserated by
the big oil and mineral concerns, and all the while the quiet
little tortures that go on behind closed doors (or not), and
of course "Re-education Through Labor" (RTL) is the rule of
the day. D.F. Jones warned us about "Colossus" a computer that
would rule the world, don't worry between the mega-lithic
multi-national conglomerates, we could only pray for a
comparatively well-meaning monster like Forbin's Colossus
Computer.
Realistically speaking, those that have held power for the last
100 years (mostly white, euro-decended captialists or their
corrupt/decadent oppressive equivalents in the Soviet Union)
are still in place. It is thoroughly a false illusion that
just because a few "techie" companies around the world have
new ideas (and new uses for technologies) that the power holders
will just up and die. The people with 90% of the wealth don't
really care if IBM, AT&T go by the way-side, they've already
moved their money into more profitable centres of investment.
And of course the new companies (and countries; notablly
China and African nations) all want to be "in on the action".
As such the number of incidents of human rights violations
continue un-abated or actually increasing.
Also, the illusion that "idea" or "information" is the new
currency is another straw horse. It takes only a few minutes
to look at recent legal actions by Fox New & company (Mulridge),
Disney (Eiser), etc. to see who is *really* pulling the strings
behind the scenes. Yes techies (like artists) create, but the
"new media" that is hyped, packaged and pushed like at no
time in the past is the same old story that the distributers
make out like bandits -- nothing new here.
Further, the illusion that *everyone* has access to the new
media, follows like a reading of the Annex to the Kyoto
Treaty: If you're already a technological, aggressively
capitaliisic country, you already have access to the new media.
How are the so-called third-world countries (the ones that
*aren't* listed in the Kyoto Annex) to view this "new age".
Even in the remotest parts of the world, the invasion
of "movie star worship", the in-culcation of the DESIRE
to have new music, etc is pushed with all of the fervor
formerly reserved by missionaries attempting to convert
the heathen.
Further, if we "strip down" the supposed uniqueness of
the "new media", we then see that they really are just
the "old thinking" with a new hat put on it.
Digitality. As if the method of encoding automatically
distinguishes it as *modern*. Analog encoding
was limited only because of the cost of the technologies.
It might supprise many to know that one of the first
digital telephone network systems (Danray) used an
digitally coded message carried on an analog carrier.
And in fact, much of the modem traffic is based on this
same idea. The primary advantage of *digitality* is the
use of digital computers. The technological *choice* to
push the development of digital technology has been almost
entirely driven by the limited thinking that "this is
the way to do things, this is modern, this is the
digital age". Since almost all efforts at developing
corresponding analog (or even alternative technologies)
have been abandonded, we simply *can not know* what the
other possiblities are. For example, audiophiles have
long argued that the music CD lost much of the "warmth"
of LP records; and despite evidence and theory to that
effedct, most of the world will *only* know their music
through the digital world. Oddly enough, attendance at
LIVE concerts still continues to rise, if one simply
dismisses this as the need for group interaction and
ignores the fact that almost all performances are
analog in nature then one misses at least *part* of
the point.
Finally, i would say that there *is* much for the analog
performance since we are (despite SF concepts to the
contrary) analog creatures.
Interactivity -- I think the authors mean *modifyability*
here. All games have been interactive,
even if it's "only" Monopoly or Chess. The powr of the
new "interactivity" is that the end user can (within
limits) change the LOOK AND FEEL of the way that the
device works. Actually, we're still a long way from the
kind of modifications that can be made with a simple
set of children's building blocks. Actually, i would
maintain tthat the degress of configurability of the
new systems is only 10% (at most 20%) than anything in
the past. For example, most web forums are hardly
differnt from the old bulletin board systems of the
1970's -- despite the glossy look and feel, and the
ability to have ICONS and use SMILEYS. As far as being
radically different, the technolgies give us the option
of doing NEW things, but so far they are only slightly
stretched silly putty versions of the original images
of what we've been doing since the invention of the
etching plate, printing press, and colour lithography.
Hyper-textuality -- This is probably the one great
triumph of the digital age. The
idea of linking and corss linking information to form
the "new age of the library" is quite breathatking.
That I can go on line and "check out" a book from a
library around the world, or translate (albeit badly)
from one langauge into another would have made every
librarian of the past envious. (Tips towel three times
to Hypatia of Alexandria; once to the woman, once to
her works, and once in rebrance of her tragic death).
Now that I have wrritten that above. The reader might
scratch her/his/its head (or other equivalent centre
for sentience) and then wonder who was this "Hypatia"
and of course they could google. The phrase "tips
towel three times" *might* be a bit more difficult to
find; prob not.
Dispersal -- This is obvious in light of the internet
the ability to "publish" on-line, send and
receive information (1:1, 1:many) at the speed of light
(well, the speed of light reduced for transmission
through a physical medium; not wishing to lose signal
strength due to Cherenkov radiation ;)
Probably enough said. Well, i could go on about blogs,
forums, on-line gaming MUD's, etc. but why bother?
Virtuality -- As an ecologist this has the highest
value to me of the "new age". This is due
to the fact that i need not burn up gasoline in my SUV
by commuting into THE CITY to perform my routine task,
for which i receive a physical check, etc.
Indeed, that need not be the way that it's done. But,
one only has to look at the freeways in the morning
to see that (as i do, ride-ing the bus to campus;
owning a SUV!! -- ludicrous, eh?).
That we can create PURE information in a virtual world,
and that information can then (through input/output
and processing) be converted to perceived performance
in a *virtual* way: This is the promise of the new
era. Out theatre group can peform Hamlet with 15
people in every location on the planet earth (and
if we'd get our spare-faring butts in gear, on
the 10+ planets). All, with a minimal outlay of energy.
Further (going back to dispersal element), we can then
profer that performance to the world (universe? universes?).
Concluding Remarks
So, with all of that said, then what *are* the advantages
and/or promises of the "new media"?
I believ it was Senator Newt Gingrich who wanted to give
homeless people lap top computers so that they could
"network". Regardless of the political motivation for
such a move, the idea was brilliantly radical. If indeed
"idea" and "information" are the new currency, then this
would clearly level the "playing field" for everyone.
As Calvin Collidge pointed out "The world is full of
educated derelicts" -- and that is not to say that their
knowledge is obsolete (which it can be), but then to
be ignorant of the past is (as H.G. Wells pointed out)
is to "make the same mistakes of history" again.
Thus, we are faced with a crowd of "old fogies" (mostly
again the middle bourgeoise in various countries of
the upper crust of industrialised nations), who feel
that they have a "grip on things", that they are
in fact the cognescenti, and "above the fray". At the
other end of the spectrum are the dis-advantaged whose
number grows daily. Ass well as the fact of rogressive
depletion of the earth's resources/ecological-state/etc,
deterioriation of social structures as people are lulled
by the mindless tedium of pop culture that slowly slips
into an abyss of what Minnow refered to as "a vast
wasteland".
When we look at the avant garde we see things like: Rap,
music, theatre, dance, and art are all derrogated by
the mass culture (the power holders). Indeed, as
the social critic/philosopher Elayne Rapping pointed out
after her visit to Disney world ["A Bad Ride at
Disney World", Progressive (Nov 1995), P.36;
as quoted in "The Mouse that Roared", by Henry A. Giroux,
LCCN PN'1999.W27'G57'1999, ISBN 0.8476.9109.8
(Rowman, Cumnor Hill, Eng, 1999), P.33-34]
As a simulacrum of society, purged of conflicts,
differences, and **complexity** [emph mine],
Disney World eleiminaes the need for the public
to utilze any of theose compacities that mark
them as social agents. Instead, it positions them
within a cultural landscape, as Rapping points
out, "in which no trace of anything un-commodified,
non-simulated, non-regulated, non-smiley-faced,
is visible or reachable". And yet it is precisely
this editing-out of conflict, this concern with
control, this over-determined emphasis on the
familiar and the uniform that appeals to the
white, middle class families that make up most
of the visitors to Disney World". -- P.40
Thus, the culture of the American Middle Crass [sic]
is to be distributed by the power holders to turn the
entire world into consumers that can thus be "sold to",
"moderated", "manipulated", and of course ultimately
controlled. Huxley saw this when he spoke of the
Brave New World where we are all made into infants.
(Where-upon the learned lecturer, and part-time
table dancer got off of his soap-box and fell
face-first into a recently deposited load of
horse hockey)
--42--
************************ BONUS TRACK **********************
(from random thoughts about web-based authoring systems)
hr color="#009900" width="42%">
Wish List
First-off there should be the maximum freedom and yet the
maximum safety -- this is from the pov of artistic creativity.
Sev views present themselves: single-person projects, multiple
person projects, critiques, spin-offs, commentaries, etc. Add
to this the ability to create web-site-lets (mini-web worlds
attached to the main web-space).
In addition, there should be pubs and cafès as well were people
can gather. In addition, lecture rooms, galleries, performance
spaces, theatre, music, dance halls, etc.
Under-lieing this would be the wiki concept of total involvement
possiblities. That is, anyone can make *any* modifications at
any time.
Thus, for a team to be working on a project (which might be
kept:
*private* - by invitation only, team-only, etc. NOT visible
note as an option, the team librarian/publicist
could post "abstracts", "trailers", "teasers", etc.
*rfc* -- request for comment. Published, but may not be copied,
comments can be added, etc.
*published* - a snap-shot is taken and presented for
viewing/commentary, can be copied (to a new
area, thus spawning spin-offs, extracts, etc.
*released* -- versioned, released, copy-righted, or what-ever that
means. Possibly as "final edition".
An important aspect of these communities is the AHEM action. If
a person publishes an idea as their own and "forgets" to reference
the original work, they can be subjected to "ahemming" (minor
flaming). If the person continues to do this, they can be
*warned* eventually, they may be even *bannished*; this usually
only needs to be done to trolls and bullahs.
The Tools Bin
In addition to the stuff (text/sound/vid/games/etc), there
would be a up-/down-load area for TOOLS. Of course, it would
be nice if most of these were OPEN SOURCE; if not, then the
pay-as-you-use, etc thingies have to be addressed (by others,
natch i haven't the time for materialistic money grubbers).
I'll be back later, have to go work on a public-domain (OPEN SOURCE)
text processor in ansi c, later froods. -- Frank. 2005.09.02-05:05pm CaDST.
Script libraries
Next: eof.