Brenda Laurel’s “Six Elements” hearkens to Aristotle’s Poetics as its touchstone. This is nothing particularly new. Aristotle is a cultural monolith, and academics refer to his work ad nauseum and, it seems, ad infinitum. For Laurel, the use of Aristotle makes her … Continue reading →
Poo-tee-weet?
Listen: Bill Viola has come unstuck in time. Admittedly, my mind leaps to Vonnegut often, no matter the subject, but Viola’s “Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?” immediately brought to mind Slaughterhouse-Five and the Tralfamadorian understanding of time: ‘The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only […]
the sacred, the profane, and the porcupine: thoughts on Bill Viola’s ‘Will there be condominiums in data space?’
I must admit, this piece by Bill Viola really speaks to me. Like many others, I was utterly unfamiliar with his work prior to this week’s reading; however, also like many others, I am glad to have had the chance to explore his thoughts on art, media, and porcupines. I *think* I get the porcupine […]
Porcupine Condos
Originally posted on Sirius Reflections:
Bill Viola‘s “Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?” is one of the richest and most perplexing readings we engage in the New Media Seminar. As rhetorical questions go, “Will there be Condominiums in Data Space?” is a bit consternating, since the point of view behind it is not immediately…
Inevitable Media
For the NMS this semester, just read Kay and Goldberg’s (1977) “Personal Dynamic Media,” which was more or less a product review for their proposed and in-the-works “Dynabook.” It had its interesting aspects: seeing that in 1977 the concept of…
McLuhan and Determinism: I really have little choice!
Marshall McLuhan’s media work has been criticized as being technologically determinist. In other words, he supposedly argues that new media technologies (such as the printing press, radio, and TV) effectively dictate the actions of people who use the technologies. In a determinist approach, human choice is minimized or disappears altogether. In the world of the […]
Kay & Goldberg: I’ve been a fool
I loved this reading. It was one of those readings that made me realize that there was a lot of thought about things that I take for granted long before I was born. In particular, I enjoyed the way in…
Legacies Found and Lost. Wikipedia and Laika
I have a thing for space dogs, especially Laika, the first living being to orbit the earth. Less than a month after the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957, the Soviets sent Laika to the great beyond in Sputnik 2. The fact of her voyage made her an instant celebrity as well as a […]
Like a Pizza, or maybe a Theremin?
Originally posted on Sirius Reflections:
Last wednesday’s class kept me thinking well into the evening. (Yes, this post has been in the works for a while. I’m thinking of this as an elastic week.) I loved how Janine and Nathan framed our discussion — there was just the right balance between supplementary / explanatory nuggets…
Tangential post with Asimov
I ran across this amazing essay by Asimov today, which I think I can tie into the new media seminar, we’ll see. It is something he wrote on creativity in the 1950s and is filled with wonderful take-aways, aka nuggets.…