December 1

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #14

Outline: In today’s lecture, we had one of Bill’s old students come in and speak with the class. His name was Ron Kozlowski and he spoke with us about the program he had been working on called Synapse. Here are my notes for today’s lecture (Journal for December 1.) During the lecture, he showed us Synapse and what his hopes for the program would be in the future application of the program. The goal was to create an online server where data could be taken down and used by a pool of people, which is ideal for a classroom setting. He also mentioned how important scalability will be in the future, making sure that an application will work on multiple sized platforms.

Comments: I though Synapse was cool, but the most important thing I got from this lecture was the importance of scalability. I’d never really thought about the issue before, but it makes a lot of sense after thinking about it. With technology going into everything, having that kind of flexibility becomes less of a extra quality and more of a necessity. I can easily see this being a big part of any job in new media in the future.

How does this effect the field of new media? As I mentioned above, the issue of scalability is paramount. Synapse might come and go, but the issue of scalability will not. This is definitely something to keep in mind as we continue in our new media career.

Next

Previous

November 29

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #14

Outline: In today’s lecture, John Ippolito came in and spoke with us about open source media, and then Bill Kuykendall spoke with us about the influence that the media has made in many different areas, such as politics. Here are my notes from this lecture (Journal for November 29.) John spoke with us first, and showed a website he and some other faculty and students had just finished creating called nmdnet.org, which is an open source news sharing site that new media students could use as a resource, or just a way to keep up with news in the new media field. Bill spoke afterward about the influence that media can have, especially in politics. Nixon’s “Checkers” speech was an example he used to convey his point.

Comments: I thought this was a cool lecture, mainly because of the nmdnet.org resource that we were given. This site is incredibly handy, and is the perfect example of open-source websites working for the good of society, rather than the opposite. I agree with John in his view of open sourcing being a good idea. I think we’re going to see more and more of it as time goes on, so to have good websites already up and running to be used as a mold is a great thing to have. I enjoyed the Checkers speech as well, because I know how effective the media can be in a political campaign, and this is the perfect example.

Are these topics important for us as new media students? Definitely yes, and especially open source websites. As I mentioned before, these are going to become more and more prevalent as the years go by, so this is a topic that we need to follow closely as more of these start appearing. We’re going to have to change the way we think about possessions, and this will be very interesting to watch indeed.

Next

Previous

November 22

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #13

Outline: For today’s lecture, Bill Kuykendall’s son, Adam Kuykendall, came in and gave a lecture on movies and the evolution of editing and filming that has occurred over time. Here are my notes from the lecture (Journal for November 22.) Adam showed us many different movie clips that highlighted certain aspect of the movie industry that he wanted to highlight, like the long shot from Spielburg’s Jaws, or from the movie Catch 22. He also made reference to a lot of different movies we might want to see as new media majors.

Comments: I thought this lecture was fun and interesting, but didn’t really have too big of an effect on how I was going to continue my career in new media. Film is a fascinating medium, but it’s just not where I want to focus. The clips that he showed were very relevant to the points he was making, and he spoke in a very clear and concise manner that I found easy to understand. Overall a good lecture, but not one I plan to contemplate much further.

Next

Previous

November 17 + 19

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #11

Outline: I’ve combined my posts on these lectures because for these lectures we watched the movie “The Cutting Edge.” Here are my notes for these lectures (Journal for November 17, Journal for November 19.) The movie was about the editing process that goes on during the movie making process. They talked about the history of editing, important figures in editing, how editing is done, the importance of editing in the movie process and the evolution of the importance over time, among with other factors that influenced the evolution of this field.

Comments: I found the movie fascinating. Like the creation of the mouse that we learned about in NMD 295, I knew practically nothing about this topic before it was presented in class. After seeing the film, however, I had a much deeper understanding of all the work that goes into making a movie. I found it very interesting how closely an editor works with the director, and how big of an effect that the editor has on how the movie turns out in the end. I would never have guessed they had such a large effect.

Though this is an important topic, it really holds more weight if this is the field of study that you’re going to choose as you progress through the new media program. It’s crucial that we all understand to some extent about the editing process, but to me this isn’t the most crucial issue to keep in mind as we continue our college career. Still, a very good and informative movie overall.

Next

Previous

November 8

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #11

Outline: In today’s class, Bill Kuykendall lectured on the topic of citizen journalists, or participatory journalists as they like to call themselves. Here are my notes for this lecture (Journal for November 8.) Bill talked about the strengths and weaknesses of both corporate journalism and its counterpart, citizen journalism. With a corporation, you have very skilled and trained writers who know how to write clearly and objectively, and who follow the rule set that the corporation sets up for them. The disadvantage to this is in some cases you get the message being tailored by the corporation, and a restriction of the creativity of the writer. With citizen journalists you get none of the rules and restrictions that the other type has to deal with, but you get a reduction in quality, in exchange for more quantity of writers. They also don’t have the same professionalism as the other type of writers would have, never having the training and requirements that the other has. Which is better? We have to decide for ourselves.

Comments: This argument is a really interesting one. I’m not quite sure where I stand in this battle, but I would probably stand right in the middle. Both sides have good and bad aspects, so I think an equal balance of both would serve us best. The professionalism is huge to me though, so in the end if I had to decide, I might have to go with the corporate journalist.

Is this subject important to new media students? While I think it’s less important than other issues, it is one that will increase in importance over time. As more and more people start turning towards citizen journalists for their news, the issue of professionalism will become more and more important and will have to be dealt with in some way.

Next

Previous

November 10 + 12

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #10

Outline: In these two lectures, our instructor Bill Kuykendall spoke in depth about the camera, and the power that the camera has to produce the illusion of truth, and the power that effect has on us and society. Here are my notes for these lectures (Journal for November 12.) I’ve combined my posts into just one because the topic material didn’t really change day to day, but simply continued into the next day. The main point that Bill started off with in class was the history of the camera, and how it has evolved technologically from the early stages of development. He focused on the technical aspects of the camera, such as pixels and color ratios next, highlighting these features so that we would better understand how a camera can produce an image. After this, he showed advances in photography technology that allowed the photographer to change or distort the picture so that the essential meaning could stay the same, but the actual makeup of the picture was different. After this, he went on to discuss why this was important, and how this affected societies view of truth and reality through this medium.

Comments: This was all new information to me, having never actually messed around with photography technology before. I especially liked the point that Bill made about when the camera first came out, any photo taken with it was considered to be truth. How could it lie? It couldn’t manipulate the scene, it could only show what was there. This had a strong affect on society, and film makers like Dziga Vertov took that idea and ran with it. A very interesting idea to think about and ponder, and wonder how this has changed as the years have gone by.

What can we take as new media students from this lecture? We need to realize the power of the media that we use, and we need to start thinking about how what we makes affects those that view our media. We should also ponder if our society has gotten any wiser when it comes to the truth portrayed by the media. Are we any further along than we were, or has nothing changed? Certainly an interesting topic to keep in mind.

Next

Previous

November 1

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #10

Outline: In today’s lecture, our professor Bill Kuykendall finished his two part lecture on the history of blogging. Here are my notes from the lecture (Journal for November 1.) In this lecture, Bill talked much more about how the technology was spread from the Eastern portion of the world where it originated to the Western hemisphere. He talked about the Jewish people and their diaspora, and their ability to survive under incredibly stressful situations, and how this aided them in spreading their religion around the world. He also mentioned the  Gutenburg press as a major innovation that aided the proliferation of the written text as a medium. He finished his lecture by linking the importance of media to modern day figures such as MLK and Ghandi.

Comments: This was a really neat lecture, and my favorite part was when Bill linked what he had been talking about with present day figures. I agree completely with the argument that media has influenced these modern day figures. Without the media to spread their message, Ghandi would never have spread his message of passive resistance. Without media, Martin Luther King couldn’t have inspired so many people to take the peaceful approach to segregation. Their power comes not just from their words, or their message, but from the ability to get their message out to the world. And they wouldn’t have that power without new media.

Is this theory important to us students of new media? Yes, entirely so! In this lecture, we’ve talked about how powerful the media can be to get a message out to people across the world. As we study new media, we need to understand that power, and keep that in mind as we start creating more and more media that can be shared with the world. The consequences of our actions are not always immediately apparent. But that power should not deter us from using it to do as much good as we can.

Next

Previous

October 29

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #9

Outline: For today’s class, we had Micheal Grillo come back and speak more on how the evolution of new media technology was very much affected by social concerns outside of the field of new media. Here are my notes on today’s lecture (Journal for October 29.) Grillo changed his focus a little in this lecture to talk more about the social concerns that influenced the evolution of new media technology. The main social force that influenced nearly all new media evolution during the middle ages was the Catholic Church. He spoke at length about the creation of the printing press and movable type, and how slowly we moved out of this era of fear from the Church into a more enlightened period after the middle ages.

Comments: All in all, this was a good lecture with lots of background information and specific details that helped explain our origins. At this point however, I began to get a little tired of discussing only our past. I was waiting to see how all of this information we had been given this week linked to the present, and perhaps the future, of new media. Towards the end of the lecture, Grillo finally started making connections to the present and the future with the points that he was making, and for that I was grateful.

What, as a new media student, did I get out of this lecture? After hearing Micheal Grillo speak, I now have an even deeper understanding of the social impacts that affect the field of new media, and how drastic an effect they can have on the future of my field. This is incredibly important to understand as I continue to study and learn about his field, because when I go out and get my career in new media, I will understand that my work and my progress will be the culmination of the mold of society and the evolution that has occurred, plus any innovation I can create myself. This inspires me to push the limit, and break the mold. For if nobody does, no innovation will occur.

Next

Previous

October 27

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #9

Outline: Today in class, Micheal Grillo came in and spoke with us about what we define new media to be, and where it has evolved from the past to the present. Here are my notes on the lecture (Journal for October 27.) It had a very similar theme to the previous lecture’s theme, and talked about some of the same key points as Bill’s lecture. Regardless, the information was different, and the focus was very much on the technological innovations that brought about changes in the field of new media. One of the mediums that Grillo focused heavily on was painting, and how painting was a medium used for thousands of years to illustrate values and ideas that were important to the age. The church was the main controller of the messages that were created by artists, and influenced Western technology and media for a long time.

Comments: This lecture was really cool, and I especially liked Grillo’s style of lecturing. He had a very crisp and precise manner of speaking that made his lectures very interesting to listen to, even if the information itself was a little boring. The links he made between the church and the evolution of the technology of the medium of paint was really cool as well. One thing I wondered was how long it took him to compile all of the information that he shared with us. It must have taken years of study and research to get to the point where he could comfortably lecture in front of a class about this subject. Very impressive all around.

Was this lecture’s material important to the field of new media? Without a doubt yes! Like the previous lecture, we learned more about the roots of new media, and as I mentioned before, I think it’s very important to know the roots of whatever you’re a part of. A very good lecture, and a good segue into Grillo’s second lecture on the evolution of new media technology through the middle ages.

Next

Previous

October 25

Lecture Notes and Comments

Week #9

Outline: Today in class, our instructor Bill Kuykendall gave the lecture on the history of blogging in a slide show presentation format. Here are my notes from today’s lecture Journal for October 25. His focus on this portion of the lecture was the dawn of typing and writing, which began way back in the early century’s of human civilization. Writing and other forms of visual communication originated in the Eastern portion of the world, and was the dawn of the written word for the west. The rest of the points can be seen in my notes linked above.

Comments: I found this a really interesting look at where our technology originated. And by technology, I mean the written word. I had already accrued some knowledge about this field of study from my world history class in high school, but I had never gotten this information with the focus of new media technology before. That aspect was fresh and new to me, and I found that very interesting indeed. The information was good, and the lecture, while a little dull at times, was very clear and concise. That always makes it easier for me to concentrate, so that was a nice touch.

As new media students, what could we take away from this lecture? Quite a bit, actually. It is always important to know your roots, in any situation, and the field of new media is not exception. We might not be history majors, but that is no excuse for us not understanding where the roots of our field lie. If we’re going to create the future, it will go much easier for us if we understand the past first. A very interesting lecture, and a nice segue into part two of this lecture.

Next

Previous