“I know culture, and You certainly don’t!”

Last Saturday,  19th of December,  the venue of Paradiso was dedicated to the symposium of  “Me you and everyone we know is a curator.” This symposium addresses questions about quality in an age of visual overload. With an impressive line up of speakers, this symposium set their aim high. In one day time the focus was upon the problematics of web 2.0 applications which allow non experts, hobbyists and amateurs to question and undermine the authority of the professionals and gatekeepers.

“iWATCH my neighbor, because iTHINK he is up to no good.”

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

Last week I came across an internet posting about the new commercial for a new campaign by the Los Angeles Police Department. This commercial shows different kinds of American people all promising to do their best in order to keep America safe. In order to reach such a kind of safety, these Americans all promise to watch their surroundings. This need for new security can according to the LAPD lead to prevent terrorist attacks.

Gender trouble in a virtual criminal world

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

The video game Grand Theft Auto IV (1) breathes violence. Not only does the title, which is the police term for motor vehicle theft, indicate this matter of unlawfully conduct. Also the story line and goals that need to be fulfilled in order to complete the game are dripping with blood. Now this violent character holds a connotation. That being that a violent world is usually filled with though and merciless male gangsters.

Commercial twitter: or how to get a lot from a little

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

Almost every new media form undergoes different levels of different uses. Some new media is invented with a certain goal, take for instance a heavily used tool for communication as internet. This medium was invented in order to establish a connection between universities or army bases. Nowadays almost everybody is online and the internet is no longer strictly confined to two major knowledge institutions.

Online representation: or how come I look sophisticated online.

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

Everyday it is the same routine, as soon as I open my Firefox browser the first thing I will type is the address of Facebook. To see what all of my friends are up to or what their status is for the time being. Furthermore I try to keep my online self as smart looking as possible, after all this is my representation of myself to the whole world. And I surely don’t want to look bad in front of such a large crowd.

Ich don’t think so, or different viewpoints on Wikipedia entries

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

Although the homepage of Wikipedia invites one to participate in the growth process of Wikipedia, this notion is being prevented by different thresholds. For instance there is the threshold of the technical; as easy as it is to click the edit tab, it is not as easy to conform to the Wikipedia code. In order to create a nice looking post on Wikipedia one needs to practice with a variety of code and conformations.

Kanyegate

Ok, too much has been said about Kanyegate, time to move on. Although Bill Maher had the best explanation why people at this moment in time react so heavily. “According to cracker nation, West didn’t take the white girls vma he took her virginity!” Watch the  Real Time with Bill Maher episode of friday 18 september. I laughed out real loud. Till then entertain yourself with this:

Book review of The Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader

This post also appears on the Masters of Media blog, as part of an assignment for the course New Media Theories.

Art comes in a lot of different divisions. Mostly related to a culture, often a critique of an era. The fact that this reader focuses on culture is immediately noticeable from the title. Carrying “Aotearoa” in the title, which is the Maori word for New Zealand, defines a work like The Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader as a true culture based derivative.

Murakami

One of my favorite Japanese artists, Takashi Murakami, exhibits @ Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

The Mickey Tee

Gary Warnett of Crooked Tongues writes a very interesting piece about the Mickey tee, do read.

http://tinyurl.com/m748hd

Mickey Mouse as portrayed by Roen