Multimedia Art History

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Week #10

Title: In this post, I’ll be commenting on the multimedia found at http://smarthistory.org

Comments: I found this site fascinating. As a new media student, one of my favorite aspects of this field is the use of multimedia as a technique to share information or new ideas in a new and interesting way. This is exactly what this site did. Usually, I have no real interest in art history. However, after viewing this site, I found myself wanting to watch more and more. The desire to soak all the information that they provide is very strong after watching just one video. The layout of the website is aesthetically appealing and artfully designed. The videos are interesting, though the speakers that I heard had the annoying habit of tripping over each others words like it was a race. Other than that minor complaint, I really enjoyed this site and plan to revisit it in the future. As a possible field for me to go into as a new media student, this is an excellent example of the work that is being done in this field. It displays the strength of this medium very well. Before viewing the site, I thought it was going to be exactly the same as mediastorm.net, but it had a different approach and a different feel to it’s site. I found this comforting, knowing that multimedia sites could be different and unique, and yet present their information in the same fashion. I plan to see much more use of multimedia technologies in the future, and I plan to follow them very closely.

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The Threat of Netflix

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Week #10

Title: This post will be commenting on an article found on http://www.nytimes.com called “Netflix’s Move Onto the Web Stirs Rivalries” by Tim Arango and David Carr.

Comments: This was a nice, short, and concise article about the concerns that large network providers like Time Warner are having because of Netflix’s move to the web. The main concern, as it always is with large and small corporations alike, is with money. A company like Time Warner has to pay 2$ to 3$ for the same service that Netflix can provide for it’s customers, while only paying 15 cents. This has made Netflix some powerful enemies, and they’ve already begun looking for ways to halt Netflix’s rapid growth. As a new media student, this is an interesting to look at because we can see a great example of Capitalism at work. As one company becomes too powerful, you see the reaction from other companies that are being hurt in that particular market. As time goes on and technology continues to improve, I think we will see more and more of this contention between old technologies like the networks provided by Time Warner and new technologies like Netflix. It is an issue that should be considered more and more as we see more issues pop up. I don’t think we’re even close to finding out who deserves what between these two technologies, and something needs to be done. It’s up to us to figure out who gets what.

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Movie Makers and Movie Goers

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Week #10

Title: In this post I’ll be commenting on the article posted on http://www.nytimes.com called “Hitchcock Would’ve Had a Website” by Manhola Dargis

Comments: This article was fun to read and informative, though none of the information was terribly ground breaking for me. The internet is a huge medium of communication, and it seemed only natural to me that movie makers and movie goers would be building stronger connections through this all encompassing medium. I might be biased on this subject, however, because of the generation of which I’m a member. For my generation, we take the internet and all of it’s communicative ability for granted. It seems natural for us that these figures that used to be such an enigma to the general public would be able now to get immediate feedback from the public about their recent film. I assume that this article was directed towards those of an older generation, or those who are not as familiar with the movie industry. There’s nothing wrong with the article, it just wasn’t anything that I would post to my Facebook for all my friends to read. Then again, few things are these days.

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Web 2.0 and the Apocalypse

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Week #10

Title: In this post, I’ll be commenting on the post from http://www.richardmiller.com called “Web 2.0 and The Apocalypse; What the Terminator Has to Teach Us About Our Future” by Richard Miller

Comments: This article sparked some interest in me because I had only heard the term “web 2.0″ once or twice, and had no real idea what the term referred to. The article itself didn’t illustrate what this term was, but instead reflected on whether this new technology was something that could initiate the apocalypse, or whether it was something that wasn’t as large of a threat. Miller’s post first talked about the language that those who believe in them use when they talk about society’s impending doom, which was very eye opening in of itself. He talks about the assumption among these believers that time is both linear and finite, and that this new technology would disrupt this motion of time. He uses the Terminator films and Skynet as an example of how these laws were broken in pursuit of the perfect machine. He does a much better job than I explaining, but the explanation is still a little difficult to follow. It’s clear that he believes that those from an older generation should help build up these new technologies, instead of condemning them like the Catholic church in the middle ages. An interesting topic, but a dense topic and a little hard to understand from the article.

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