One to Another

"The representation of one medium in another" (Bolter, 2000 pg 45.) This is talking about the fact that we no longer just use are phone as a conventional ring and message it has now become our lives. We find ourselves not simply watching television we find ourselves watching it but also on our phones at the same time. It has come to the point where it just doesn't seem good enough to watch a television but that we now have to be on our phones checking Facebook or on twitter. We even find ourselves turned into cyborgs by the fact that we don't even read things on Facebook we find ourselves sitting there pointlessly scrolling.

We find that old media such as the television has been transformed as we can now interact with it bringing television from old media into the new media with the whole thought of second screens coming along but we find that second screening isn't enough any more as there is people out there who are trying to make a third or even fourth screen for us as become more and more active. 'At some point in the future we'll start thinking more strategically about the marketing value associated with a second or multi-screen content experience.' ( Forbes. 2012. The Big Problem with the Second Screen. [ONLINE] Available)

So we now find ourselves not happy with the conventional way of viewing but that we have to make our lives around phones and new media. Its like the fact when you are out with your friend you don't spend your unconditional attention to them but i bet that you are texting the whole time and eve on Facebook when you are with your friends. We never actually leave our phones down anymore. New media has took over society and culture as we know it.

Bibliography

Forbes. 2012. The Big Problem with the Second Screen. [ONLINE] Available at http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmartin/2012/02/23/the-big-problem-with-the-second-screen/. [Accessed 06 November 13].

Bolter, J.D. (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press)

Are we too far to turn back?

Bolter, speaks of remediation in terms of technology and uses this to make examples. This is something which is not seen as much with theorists such as Jenkins or Manovich. So taking what Bolter is saying about technological mediation, I want to look at how this would transfer into the way our society and culture looks at remediation and how we accept that along side technological advances.

Bolter says remediation is "the representation of one medium in another" (Bolter, 2000: 45). So this is taking one media form, the example he uses is paintings and photography, and representing them in another, digital picture galleries.

When reading through Bolters work, I couldn't help but draw parallels between this and the Convergence Culture which Henry Jenkins writes about (Jenkins, 2008). Although Jenkins talk about the formation of multiple mediums into one.

"By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms" (Jenkins, 2008, p2)

Inline with Bolter's writing, these "multiple media platforms" would show representation of their Old Media forms in this New Media platform. How we can stand beside the Mona Lisa painting and either take a photo of it or download a photo of it will just never be the same. 

I came across a video shared on Facebook which outlines how mobile phones have taken over the human existence. Its portrayals different events where humans are on their phones or video recording a gig, when they would enjoy it much more if they didn't use their phone



Its shows the convergence and remediation of going to a concert (Old Media) and capturing it on video (New Media) even though you may never watch it again.

Remediation is really in the advancement of technology, but this advancement can often be for the worst. We can get so engaged in finding ways to interact with the media easier that we start to lose the sense of our own human beings. Soon they will be lost in cyberspace, forever

Bibliography
Jenkins, H., 2008. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Revised., NYU Press.
Bolter, J.D. (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press)
CharstarleneTV, (2013) I forgot my phone [Online Video] 22 August. Available from; <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8> [Accessed: 6 November 2013].

A world without technology, could you manage?

Without today's technology's, as a society we would struggle to survive and evolve, we are dependent.  Stelarc notes the "idea of human evolution aided and determined by technology", such as within the last 100 years through technological advancements we have evolved more than the previous 1000 years (Shaw, 2008, pg.81). Although there is also an argument that "we may have 'made' these machines but now, in a very real sense, they make us" (Shaw, 2008, pg.88). Technologies which have allowed us to understand the human genome have changed our understanding of what it is to be human. Such as how we can sum up our attributes, our humanity into "Different combinations of 'code'", just as we understand computers through binary code (Shaw, 2008, pg.89).

Societal structures have also formed around the functionality of technology's , such as how Foucault identifies how "the solider is 'manipulated, shaped, trained' so that it 'obeys'", referring to how the functions of technology can be implanted into human behavior (Shaw, 2008, pg.82). This concept can be applied to how we are socialised into society, such as school children trained to move from class to class at the sound of a bell, to store required information, to obey, to become part of the "specialized machine"(Shaw, 2008, pg.82). We try and conform to the ideal, what society expects of us while also judging others who don't fit the mould, in order to "reconfirm what is 'I' by bringing close to us and then rejecting all that has been deemed 'Not-I'" (Shaw, 2008, pg.100).

Marxists argue further that "the worker's body is a commodity", labour to be bought and sold, body's that show "the marks of social status and social class"(Shaw, 2008, pg.83). That our physical appearance, class, gender and status can separate us from the "norm that is invisible and assumed", the perfect image projected by society (Shaw, 2008, pg.85). Our consumer culture permits us to consume products such as fake tan, make-up and fitness products to come closer to this ideal norm. A temporary means of achieving this goal is is that of the "bodiless exultation of cyberspace", leaving our flesh behind for a world where we can become unmarked (Shaw, 2008, pg.86). Explaining the popularity of social networks and online community's such as Pinterest, where we can create new identity's and be validated for technical skills which aren't as valued in real life.

Shaw, D, (2008) Technoculture: The key Concepts (Oxford: Berg Press)

Digital Theory

Glen Creeber (2009) discusses the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century and the changes that took place with modernism. the concept of modernism which was industrialised by the end of the nineteenth century is defined as,

"umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes"(Creeber, 2009,p.11)

As the indication of technology and science started to develop rapidly, so did the style of art movements, example Futurists that embraced the speed in which technology transforms. Although not just the style of art itself changed, the location also changed in the mass culture of society. Art can be found in printed icons and various screens, therefore blurring high culture with low culture, creating a mass culture that attracts the same interest.

"technology and science transformed our conception of society and ourselves, so artists and intellectuals sought new ways to represent and articulate.....'brave new world'." (Creeber,2009, p.12)

The Frankfurt School, who evacuated Germany due to the Second World War, came to American. They were interested on how the mass culture was relating to products of mass production, for instance mobile phones to date are mass produced which is available for consumers in new media. The Frankfurt School associated aspects of Fordism with the similar connecting of mass culture.

"Fordism was a term coined to descried Henry Ford's successes in the automobile industry,...became more accessible....were exactly the same." (Creeder, 2009, p.12-13).

As McLuhan reflects that consumers themselves can interact with media content, though new media to voice their opinions on any storyline at the presides moment, giving the consumer the ability to have more control and influence over media text.

"transforming us all from 'voyeurs to participants'"(Creeder, 2009, p.15)

The consumers' browses through virtual worlds, here they can create their own personality. Therefore portrays versions of themselves on social network sites, as a result of getting away from what is 'real', this can be seen as another life. However the consumer knows that it is 'unreal', although in the virtual space there are items that can be bought. In the series Lost (2004-2010) the consumers' could interact with buying items that appeared on the series, respectively these can be physically held in reality. Justifying that both the digital and real world are intertwined. Due to the circumstances that consumers can't differentiate one reality from the other.

"our sense of what is 'real' and what is 'unreal' is clearly undergoing a dramatic transformation...now place advertisements..."(Creeder, 2009, p.18)

Bibliography
Creeber, G .Digital Theory: Theorizing New Media (Maidstone: OUP)