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Is Digital Media Bad For Us?

Digital Media, like all other things, is great in moderation. The ability to instantly access information pertinent to us is a very useful one. As technology advances, though, we have to avoid becoming reliant on it. Unfortunately, with the new digital age, we are becoming progressively worse, or less receptive at least, to human interaction and face time. While chatting on Facebook with a friend halfway across the country is great, we have to also be able to go outside of our rooms and have conversations with people physically in front of us.

But don’t get me wrong, the advances in technology are great. In the film school alone, I get over 20 emails a day about meeting times, classes, shoot information, etc. Being able to quickly access this information is almost a necessity here. Plans change very quickly, and people need to be informed as quickly as they can be.

Overall, Digital Media is not a bad thing, if we keep in mind that we still need to talk to people in person.

Additional Examples of Art and Artists in the Digital Age

Issa

Issa is an interesting person. In theory, this concept for music distribution would work, but in reality, if every artist did this, I feel like it wouldn’t work. I definitely have bands who I buy every album, but there are also bands whose songs I find alright, so I download them for free.

Atomic Tom

Instruments don’t make the musician, but they definitely help. While I like the way that Atomic Tom has taken their misfortune and worked around it, I feel like they need to have that background on traditional instruments for it to work. If someone learns how to only play on an iPhone, I feel like it defeats the purpose.

The Story of Cosmetics

This is an interesting way in which to distribute lectures and make them interesting. Combining live action and animation helps to add a visual element to the lecture, which makes it much more interesting.

Wikipedia Remix

Oh Wikipedia, always helpful. Partially, I disagree with the reasons songs are remixed for. Sure, they're remixed to be given a second chance on the radio, but the real reason most of them are remixed are to give it a new identity as a song.

Fair Use

Like I've said before, copyrights are important for giving credit where credit is due.

Bound By Law

A unique way to visually show information about copyrights. Very useful and informative.

American Lawbreaking

Once again, showing the importance of copyrights.

Pogo

Pogo has been one of my favorite artists for awhile. Its interesting how he cannot release his Pirates of the Caribbean remix due to something like a copyright. In this case, I feel like it would give attention to movies that people have previously forgot about. For me, I went back and rewatched some of my old Disney VHS’ when I listened to him for the first time.

Creativity, Influence, Ownership, and Art in the Digital Age

What is Digital Media and Why Study It?

The main point I essentially got from this presentation was that Digital Media is discontinuous, while analog is continuous. I knew about most of the information presented, so the presentation wasn’t particularly interesting to me. I did help to refresh my memory about some of the topics presented.

Lev Manovich

An interesting point on what we perceive to be “new media”. I find it interesting that the format in which something is presented causes it to become a certain type of media. A picture on a computer is considered new media while a physical picture is old media. The fact that the Analytical Engine did not take off the same way that the daguerreotype did shows how long it can take for a new idea to take off.

The Ecstasy of Influence

Quotes are always an interesting thing. They are taken, misread, manipulated, and re-quoted back, incorrectly. There is a major difference between plagiarism and remixing. Lets be frank, especially in film, everything has been done already, to an extent. Everything now is how well you can remix something by using bits and pieces of previous movies. But, it all depends on how well you can do it. James Camerons Avatar, for example, remixed the story of Pocahontas. But, he did such a terrible job of concealing it that everyone instantly recognized it for what it was. Essentially he plagiarized the story. That’s just not acceptable. To do something right, it has to take parts from many different stories, not just one.

Lawrence Lessig

To an extent, a copyright is incredibly important. They allow for artists and inventors to protect their ideas from being plagiarized. They are very important for giving credit to where credit is due.

Girl Talk

Girl Talk is great. I love how he remixes songs using existing ones. I don’t really view his work as stealing, more as recreating.

Steve Dixon

While the concept of Digital Performance is interesting, I feel like it ruins the point of a stage performance. To me, a performance is something that you have worked on, trained for, and put your own blood and sweat into. I almost feel like a digital performance is a cop-out.