Immediacy media

"Virtual reality is immersive, which means that it is a medium whose purpose is to disappear." (Bolter, 2000, p. 21)

Immediacy media is the attempt to try and convince the user of the technology that it is not a machine but is instead just a natural process of life. It attempts to hide any evidence that it is a machine doing different functions but is a living organism that can do what you want it to in the easiest possible way it can. It leads you into a false sense that it is not in fact going through designed programmes that it has been made to follow but instead, seamlessly does them as if it was breathing for you or I.  

Furthermore other technologies such as smart phones we can also witness the seamless nature that we have become use to in our devices. With the touch screen that the majority of smartphones use today we can do whatever we want with just one swipe of out finger. As use the touch screen it feels a though the movements of our fingers on it is more natural than pressing a button. We now do not see it as a device but as an extension of ourselves.

"... ten years ago we thought of computers exclusively as numerical engines... we now think of them also as devices for generating images..." (Bolter, 2000, p. 23)

Computers now appear to us to be more like canvas' to create new pieces of art, instead of the powerful calculators that they originally were designed as. We begin to see them as creative tools that we can use to help express ourselves in new ways. We can use them to create pieces of art that appear to be as realistic as possible without having to use another piece of technology such as a camera to take a photograph with. Tecnology has evolved over the years to become more than a machine, it can now be seen as a brand new creative organism.


Bibliography:
Bolter, J. D., (2000) Remediation: Understanding New Media, 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].

Rise of the Human Machine

"...the concept of 'human' is unthinkable without technology but we act as if it is." (Shaw, 2008, p.81)

Today within the 21st century we are constantly surrounded by a non-stop technology feeding us our media texts. Our lives have become so interconnected with technology that it appears that we can not exist without them what so ever. We would not be able to live our everyday lives without the technology that we have become accustom too, as it has made us live easier lives. Mobile phones especially have become vital to our lives. From these small devices we can continually communicate to people, play games, watch video, listen to audio and download any file we wish.

Furthermore with other technological devices such as computers we can create an online version of ourselves, who is a completely different representation of who we really are. This can be done in many different forms on the internet. We can create avatar's in online games and use them as a representation of ourselves within the game. We use these technologies to reinvent ourselves as we may not be satisfied with our real world lives and decide to start over online. We become more interconnected to technology this way, as it defines the ways we can recreate ourselves.

Moreover Facebook and Twitter as basic and common they may seem also are used to reinvent our self images. And these forms can be easily be accessed through the mobile devices we constantly carry around. so there for we have constant access to these re-inventors of identities. We then see the technologies that let us do so as an extension of our own bodies and there we then become cybernetic as a result. This then causes us to further depend on the technologies that we use day to day as if we lose them, we then in turn begin to lose our self of identity; whether it be real or a digital form of ourselves. 

"Machines... 'R' us." (Shaw, 2008, p. 81)

Bibliography:

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

Video:

Holiday Inn Express- Youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9PYIwPSaj4

We are human, Aren't we?

"The concept of 'human' is unthinkable without technology but we act as if it is"
(Shaw, 2008: p.81)

Shaw opens the chapter with a paraphrase of the quote from Stiegler (1998) where he claims "The human [..] invents himself in the technical by inventing the tool - by becoming exteriorised techno-logically" (p.141)

Shaw is talking about the means which we find out for ourself that we are human. The technological advancements in departments such as health and sports, help us program, monitor and test out bodies to see if everything is running as it should be. The idea that there needs to be blood pumping around out bodies to be alive, only came about after Galem understanding of our veins and hearts. This was later proved to be incorrect, when William Harvey's findings, which were aided by technology, showed that blood came from and to the heart. 

We can also look at different objects which hold a similar principle. For example, gender, race, age, class. These are things which are highlighted in our society, more than what they should be. Of course, race and gender have their obvious technicalities, but society uses these to categorise humans into separate groups, as if to divide us. Shaw re-refences to the quote made ealier in the chapter, which said that "bodies are obsolete", (Shaw, 2008: 81) and pushes this even further, saying that the human body in society is "dependent on accepted differentiations" (Shaw, 2008:87)

Gender is the most prolific of this differentiation. As with the first 30 seconds of being born, a baby is judged on whether it is male or female. Its a baby, a human, but according to society, it has already been deemed as to which class it will be placed in.

I can never imagine a society without these classes. It will never happen.

Bibliography
Shaw, D. (2008), Technoculture: The Key Concepts, Oxford Press.
Stiegler, B. (Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

New Media

Media and technology have been growing and ever changing along side one another for many, many decades. They have also influenced how one and another has been developed and precised over these many, many years. Whenever technology is enhanced it can help lead to new and varied ways that we can produce and also consume media in our lives. Then in turn as we produce and consume more and more media we then try to invent new technologies to help us do so in easier, better ways and also even new ways. So this back and forth between media and technology has helped they both grow over the year.

Furthermore due to this continuous back and forth between technology and media that causes them to enhance the other further they help to then create new media. This also helps to create new ways in which we enjoy and consume our media. Also as it has helped to create new media much easier and effects that we add to various media texts. On such computer programmes as Photoshop makes it as simple as clicking a single button to create the desired effect who wish to add to your media text. So it then removes much of the involvement we human put into our media texts. "Thus human intentionally can be removed from the creative process, at least in part." (Manovich, p.53). Technology and media have developed so far together that they now come in hand in hand with one another.

Moreover new media, thanks to the interweaving of technology and media over the decades, has lead to use to use our technology to consume our media texts. We can use our technology to develop a device that we can use to ingest several forms of media at once. This is down to media and technology becoming one and the same over their long history together.


Bibliography:
Manovich, L (2002) What is New Media and Principles of New Media From The Language of New Media

Automated Media

Lev Manovich has shown us how media function has changed through the years and how media actually first begun. From the daguerreotype to computerisation, media has come a long way in this time. Manovich "reduces all principles of new media to five: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability and cultural transcoding" (Manovich, 2002, p.44). Computers were invented at first to be used as a calculators and store date but now they are used to store, make, view and distribute  media and data etc. Media back then when computers where just calculators hadn't crossed paths with computers until they met when "The tape Zuse used was actually discarded 35mm movie film" (Manovich, 2002, p47) This was kind of the beginning f the "new media revolution" (Manovich, 2002, p.43).

Humans are no longer needed to actually make media forms as we have been replaced as the 'new media revolution' takes over and we are being surrounded by programs that used to do what we do and at the click of the button we can edit any photo in anyway or we make a film without really doing much due to templates and other sorts of editing.

Automated media has come to be the most revolutionary part of media development as we are seeing a computer communicate with us in real life and it can also "guess user's emotional state and to adjust the style of interaction accordingly." (Manovich, 2002, pg54) this means that people are now able to game and communicate in many different ways now as they can play against 'someone' without their actually being anyone with you or playing online you can now play against the computer as it is called "AL (Artificial life) software" (Manovich, 2002, pg53).

 Without Media access we would basically be lost because think about the amount of times you have needed a picture for a picture and you have just simply gone to 'google images'. We all have the most remarkable ability to just pull a picture off the internet without having to contribute to it in anyway financially or creatively.  This is what Is the automated revolution contributing to the new media revolution.

Convergence Culture is here... Ready or not.

"By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms..." (Jenkins, P.2)

Just over a decade into the 21st Century the way in which we now consume our media has come along within leaps and bounds. We are at the forefront of a digital age that has rapidly developed the way in which we live our day to day lives. None more so than how it has helped us consume media. We can all now go online, watch a film, listen to radio, listen to our music, read books and communicate with others while we do these. 

"Ready or not, we are already living within a convergence culture." (Jenkins, P.16)

We truly do live within a convergence culture whether we like it or not. We may not like it but we come into contact with it on a daily basis. As we watch television we are now reminded to follow the programmes we enjoy on Facebook or Twitter so as we are kept up to date. Some television channels inform us to watch episodes again by going online on websites such as 4oD and iPlayer. As we enjoy socializing on Facebook pages we have liked of our favourite music artists link us to their lastest music video upload onto YouTube or to tell us we can download their album online from such sources as the all mighty iTunes store. 

We seem to be connected to all forms of media even if at that moment in time we only want the function of one. This does not seem as if it will stop at anytime soon as the new generation of technology is trying to become more multi-functional than the previous. An example is the Xbox One. It is by no mean the first Xbox, it is 12 years late for that title. It is called this as it is the all in 'one' home entertainment system and there is likely more to follow.

Bibliography

Jenkins, H (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York University Press)

Critical reflection on the introductory chapter of Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Reading through the Introduction of Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins, it is noticeable that Jenkins does not think of convergence as being a principally technologically driven mechanism. Moreover, he states that a cultural shift is occurring whereby the media producers are losing their power at the expense of the media users. It is of course self-evident that consumers play a significant role in the process of convergence, as they decide how media content and media technology will be used, but can we truly state that an active “participatory culture” is more important than the technology and the media producers carrying out the convergence in the first instance? It might be better to put it in a way that these three components are all equally important in the phenomenon of convergence: on the one hand, media producers integrate the voice of the public, use this to develop new ideas and set out the lines of the media offer. On the other, however, media consumers contribute by evaluating the content or product and deciding for themselves what to do with it.

The fact that the media audience is not the exclusive crucial part in this convergence development became clear by reading through Jenkins’ review on the New Orleans Media Experience. People knew little about the coming changes and the event seemed to be set up for the media industry only to inform the public about what was ahead of them.

In this context it is worth noticing that although it might seem as an exclusively positive phenomenon that the broad media offer allows a wide variety of possibilities both for the producers and the consumers, it also should  be taken into account that the process of convergence causes some new sort of difficulties. For instance, producers now experience a new kind of stress caused by their new multifunctional responsibilities.


Bibliography

Jenkings, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide, revised version. NYU Press.

Convergence Culture - An Introduction

"The centralised, dinosaurian one-to-many media that roared and trampled through the twentieth century are poorly adapted to the postmodern technological environment ... (and) have died on the barbed wire of technological change" (Jenkins, 2008 pp.13)

This quote, from science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling, is broken down and put to good use by Jenkins as he attempts to describe the process of convergence. Contrary to the somewhat downbeat opinion of Sterling, Jenkins uses this as an opportunity to declare that only the "tools we use to access media content" become obsolete and replaced, calling these particular tools "delivery technologies" (ibid.) It is at this point we are given a definition of what is meant by the term "delivery technology" and how it interacts with media as content.

Delivery technology is defined as being the physical medium used to convey media content, for example a CD being the physical medium used to convey recorded sound. Media as content is described as evolving depending on the medium used to convey it. Continuing with the example of recorded sound then, we track its evolution from vinyl to MP3 via 8-track and CD along the way. Applying Jenkins' logic to this, the sound remains the same, only the delivery technology used to access the media has changed. This evolution has in turn also enabled greater accessibility, as it is much easier now to gain access to music via MP3 compared with vinyl records. According to Jenkins then, "old media are not being displaced, their functions are shifted by the introduction of new technologies" (2008 pp.14).

Jenkins continues in a similar vein, introducing what he calls the Black Box Fallacy to contradict the old idea of convergence, which foresaw the development of a central hub that did everything for the user. In this, he simply makes the statement that we now have far more black boxes than previously envisaged by what was previously understood by convergence. This "fallacy" also backs him up when he makes the argument that convergence is not simply just driven by technological development but also "alters the relationships between existing technologies" (2008 pp. 15) as the multitude of new "black boxes" need to be designed with backwards functionality in mind so they can work with the existing ones.



Jenkins, H (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (NYU Press)