October 1

Lecture notes and comments

Week #5

Date: October 1

Outline: Today’s lecture was given by our instructor, Bill Kuykendall. He spoke of the sequence of courses that we will be taking later on down the road in our new media career.

Comments: The lecture today was helpful. I liked being able to see the layout of what I would be doing in the years to come, and getting the chance to start thinking about what classes I want to take later in my career. However, that wasn’t the main focus of the lecture, though I believe it was the main message that Bill was trying to get across. The lecture mainly consisted of Bill showing us a project that one of the classes did, and what the significance to the program was.

The project was a two week trip to Machias, where the students had to engross themselves in the society and culture of Machias and photograph them living their lives. The goal was to tell a story in a striking and creative way through the sequence of photographs taken on their trip. The collection of photos was very impressive, and stunningly beautiful too. However, I have very little experience with that medium, so i couldn’t take as much from the lecture as opposed to others in the class who already knew some of the basics of photography.

How did that project tie in with new media? I think that that project showed how you can implement new media technologies to do in-depth reporting and data collecting all on your own. It is a way to reinvigorate the faltering career of journalism using new media. A good lecture.

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September 29

Lecture notes and comments

Week #5

Date: September 29

Outline: In today’s lecture, Jon Ippolito was our guest speaker. He teaches new media courses here at the University of Maine, and spoke today about the issues of internet sharing and distributing of copyrighted material. My notes on the lecture can be found here. Journal for September 29.

Comments: In today’s lecture, I thought Jon brought up some very interesting points to think about. What is copyrighted material? How does copyrighting work? What system do they use to determine what is copyrighted? How do you copyright something? The questions went on and on, but the most intriguing question he brought up was does the copyright system we have now work?

This is a pretty tough question. First off, we don’t know all the details. He’s had a lifetime of research on this material, so he definitely has a head start when it comes to thinking about this issue matter-of-factually. But even intuitively, we can feel if the system of copyright law we have in place now works for us or against us. Frankly, I’m torn.

I see the benefits to the system we have. With the copyright laws in place, it makes it harder for big media giants like Disney or Time Warner to steal the ideas straight from the little guys who come up with them. With the system we have now, those companies still have to pay to use the idea, which means they can’t steal anything they want. This can be a good thing when you have such large media giants, because of the tremendous power they already wield.

The downside is that it restricts the little guys, such as independent film makers, who don’t have the money to spend on labels and copyrighted material. If these laws weren’t in place, making a movie would cost much, much less than it does now, which would allow some movies that would never have had the budget before to grow and blossom just as much as others.

So how does this dilemma concerning copyright law affect new media? If we had a more liberal system, we’d have an entirely different way of sharing ideas and claiming property over them. Many things within the sphere of new media would be radically different than they are today, for better or for worse. That’s why it’s so important that we talk about these ideas, so when they are raised again at a later time, we already have a basic understanding of both sides of the issue. Another thought provoking lecture in NMD 100.

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September 27

Lecture notes and comments

Week #5

Date: September 27

Outline: For today’s lecture, we had Nate Aldritch come in and speak to us. He is a professor here at the University of Maine, and has done many experiments that combine artistic creativity and new media technologies and principles. Here are my notes on the lecture. Journal for September 27

Comments: This lecture was cool. There are many other ways to describe it, like intellectually stimulating, thought provoking, challenging your views on society and culture, but the best word to describe it is cool.

I found that I connected to Aldritch because of his musical background. I originally had thought during high school that I wanted to be a music major, but decided against it later on in my career. Because of this, I could connect with his passion for music, and that made what his life story was a little more interesting than some of the other lecturers we’ve had in the past.

Another thing I found very interesting was what he was trying to prove with each experiment. Specifically how his message and idea of what each experiment was supposed to be and what it was supposed to say to the viewer changed with every experiment. He stayed within a certain theme, using “music” as a medium with which to show how the exhibit was interacting with the environment or itself. This resonated with me, because I had had some of the same thoughts as well when I thought about what I wanted to do in the new media program. I think sound is a great medium, especially music, and the experiments he did were fascinating in how precise his message was he was conveying through his art.

So what might this have to do with new media? His experiments could be described as one man’s exploration of what new media meant to him and to his partners that helped. They could also be described as Aldritch’s method of getting his message of what new media was to him out to those who might not understand new media the way he does. It could be both and more. In my opinion, it’s the last option, because I’m not even sure Aldritch could answer that with absolute certainty. But I see that as just another aspect of new media; everyone has there own view and description of what new media is to them. Yet another good lecture period in NMD 100

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