Smellvertising

KFC's new marketing technique.

Didn't really think they could get any (pretty intense --->) worse.

Maybe PETA could send some face masks.

Here's looking at you, Ingrid.

The 305

300 mockumentary by dholecheck. The humor seems very office-ish. Refreshing to see a well done and ridiculous spoof of the CGI blood fest.

Four Legged Friends and Digital Techne

What do we lose in the temporal journey through different forms of techne? Even if we don't technically lose them thanks to non-synchronous production, how does our experience change? How does our abilitiy to acquire capital change?

Maybe they seem like too broad, too general questions, but sometimes it is fun to be romantic about writing with a pen on paper, hand churning blueberry ice cream or threading slick film through gates in a movie projector.

In some ways the argument against digital projection seems similar to many arguments against more extensively mechanized production. As a projectionist I wouldn't be able to feel the pride of completing a specialized task with my hands. I will be more removed from the final product because I put in less of my knowledge and labor into its completion. As the complexity decreases I will become less valuable as a worker. The shelf life on part of my current skill set sucks.

The counter arguments, in many ways, seem similar as well. I will have less work. Ideally less work would also allow for more leisure. Digital projection would save the theatre the costs of shipping heavy reels of film.

Until today it seemed there was more weight on the side of keeping the old technology. We already have it. It seems wasteful to upgrade, and the nostalgic factor is tempting sometimes. It's nice, in a way, to watch a movie on film. Quaint?

Today, wiki and a recipe for cantalope sorbet in the Ingles coupon page informed me that film, from Kodak's to Carmike's, is all made with gelatin. According to Peta's site, there isn't a substitute. Tomorrow a random sequence of events could conspire to inform me that digital projectors enslave nations, but today it is nice to have a change of mind.

TED Talk: Photosynth Promises Digital Revolution

A Brief Hiatus

son volt in philadelphia

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Mapping the Territory

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/web/

Barton & Barton meet Baudrillard. It's not really what I expected from a hypermedia map, but the colonial metaphor seems interesting.

The Precarious Place of Internet Radio

This week Congress entered the fight to save Internet radio.

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0100/t.5809.html

Usually the words "commercial" and "radio" in close proximity leave something close the taste of sweaty garbage in my mouth.

That's assuming the conversation's surrounding a station with an uber tight loop of less than inventive, already over-played tunes--a station's that's licking the fingers of the corporate machines which fuel it.

Internet commercial radio is, in some forms, arguably a different beast.

Take pandora.com for instance.

For the yet-to-be-converted, it's a God in the "box" that, better than I've heard any iPod produce thus far, divinely (and sometimes with a bit of strict displine) selects ecclectic songs that follow musical progressions.

Dilligently prune your station and it might bring forth as opaque an epistemic progression that, personally, I've never experienced from another medium.

In its technology, it's a horse of a radically different color.

So, for the pleasure gained from pandora, for all the other similar and developing technologies, for the progress of audio and online technology in general, let's hope that the two Democratic House members will be successful.

(Un)locking the Symbolic Chain

From AmazingPhil on YouTube.

Maybe useful as part of an argument for the incompatibility of the image/logo centric system to communicate the infinite potential of meaning.

Or, as CriticalHaba responded on YouTube, "ha! congrats, you kept me amused for 2 minutes of my life :D"

Most interestingly, I feel, is that AmazingPhil's video is a response to a new type of automated technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4N7nH6RMNI

Final Version of Film

:)

Mario 3, Technology and Imagination

Been thinking that they should really release Mario 3 again for all the gaming minded youngsters out there.

Releasing old modes of production or repopularizing older modes of production doesn't necessitate a regression; rather it seems to be a sound argument for the compatability of non-synchronous modes of production.

Plus, it was the only computer/ video game at which I haven't totally sucked.

We used to spend hours collecting the whistles, warping to "far away lands," rescuing the princess.

O.K. Maybe they should release a non-gender-biased version of the game. The princess can save Mario (in a non-flying, non-Mario 2 way).

The graphics were basic. You couldn't make a character that resembled your own face. You couldn't (Wiiiiiii!) wave your wands in the air to play tennis or bowl.

There was that duck-hunt gun. Hmmm.

Either way, it's a great option for contemporary kids. Bring it on, gamers. I'm ready.

From a different angle, I have a friend and fellow Carmike serf who is the beta tester of beta testers for computer and video games.

He spends his entire twice-monthly paycheck on games. He stays up gaming all night almost every night.

It makes me wonder about the technology.

How do we comare my friend's love for computer games with othes' love for books or fine arts? Is playing a computer game a form of reading?

He interacts with a symbol set albiet with pre-determined outcomes. In some ways, the computer game limits the outcomes. It's a puzzle that the user is supposed to solve. It's challenging, yes, but it's already been solved by the programmer. How does this compare to a Pynchon novel?

How do computers affect our capacity for subjectivity, our capacity to imagine new possibilities for ourselves as subjects? On one hand they might challenge our ideas about what is Real, if there even is a reality. On the other hand, computer games require our memory, something that has traditionally been on the other side of the theoretical binary of imagination.

I'm not sure what the answers are, but it sure is an interesting time to ask these questions.

TED Awards: Bill Clinton

He won $100,000 from BMW.

Now TED plays fairy godmother to the winners.

Clinton's wish:

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=b_clinton

A Better Life

In Second Life...

a youtube film by eric519

Skeleton of Final Paper

http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/images/plantar_foot_bones.gif

I. Introduction

a. brief overview of Baudrillard's theory
b. transition to discussion of Second Life

II. Evaluation of Second Light with Reference to Baudrillard

a. how S.L. fits with B.'s terms and causes us to rethink the Real
b. argument for a material system of labeling

1. shapes of our perceptions/interactions
2. time spent not participating in other activities
3. money invested in S.L.
4. physical/bodily effects of participation

III. Process of Making the Film

a. why film?

1. a visual/graphic intense medium similar to S.L.
2. orality
3. new technology- learning this tech. is similar in some ways to first entering S.L.

b. why certain graphics?

1. intro "Star Wars" screen
2. photo negatives of Mymeesis
3. screen shots of familiar social networking mediums
4. real-time video from S.L.

c. why certain songs?

1. Aqua's "Barbie Girl"
2. Kings of Leon's "Milk"
3. Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"

d. why narration?

1. reverb effects
2. word choices

IV. Conclusion

a. what would a material system of labeling look like?
b. how this system fits with S.L. and film as mediums
c. hypothesis of S.L.'s future

Portions of the Second Life Pie

http://aspire.mlml.calstate.edu/aspire04/updates/nov/20nov/happy%20pie.JPG

Some statistics for my research

Cultural stats
http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/second_life_stats_expanded_early_2006/

Economic stats
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-market.php

Numbers. Hooray

R2 USPS

photo courtesy of my friend Sean

Greenville, SC

Yeh!

Chronicle of Higher Education Criticizes Baudrillard

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i29/29b00901.htm

Support for a material system of labeling.

Useful for my research, but it is also a bit uncomfortable to echo The Chronicle's sentiment that "That would have required the spirit of criticism, which he
lacked."

It seems almost mean and nasty-ish.

If Baudrillard lacked "the spirit of criticism," he certainly inspired it.

Internet Killed the Boy Band Star

Re-affirmed what Adbusters had said on its back cover last spring...

"Small is the new big."

In a market of multitudes. The new hit is niche.

It's fascinating...but the media ecologists and anyone with an eye towards the strong 90s onward broadcast/print/record label consolidation have been searching for this trend for a bit now.

TED: the BMW planet?

Technophiles take note.


http://ted.com/tedtalks/

Free videos=praise for the public sphere. Sure couldn't afford the six grand for a ticket to this thing.

Most Recent Version

One More

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tr9WgGBkLE

Article about Baudrillard

http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/03/14/mclemee

A slightly better(?) draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p831qMx-dU

Rough Draft

Baudrillard passed away yesterday. I've been in a bit of a fog about it. Reading his work changed many things for me. It fueled my interest in theory. It led me to drive to Boston to sit in on a conference. Aside from planning for school projects like this one, I think about his work every day. It's a bit awkward for me to write about my progress today.

Still need to enter SL, film residents and start editing. I'll be using a tutorial from http://www.machinima.com/article.php?article=433 to capture real-time video in SL.


Outline for Video

I. Introduction to Baudrillard's work in virtual reality
a. title page/ music from Hummingbird Cafe in Second Life
b. fade to residents dancing to music
c. cut to cover of book and Baudrillard's quote about "the desert of the real"
b. voice over and Montage of Second Life images

II. Introduction to Second Life

III. Filmed interviews with Second Life Residents
IV. Montage of residents in second life with voice over of argument

SL Interview

My first extended chat with another SL resident. Was too shy to find someone random. Interviewed a volunteer at The Shelter for newbies. I cut out the 'noise' from other folks' convos.

[11:06] You: hi dylan
[11:06] Dylan Rickenbacker: Hiya mymeesis
[[11:06] You: if you're not too busy can i ask you a few questions
[11:07] Dylan Rickenbacker: sure you can :-)
[11:07] You: cool
[11:07] You: i'm a student and entered SL for class...so the questions might be a bit dry, sorry
[11:07] Dylan Rickenbacker: okay hehe
[11:08] You: how long have you been a resident?
[11:08] Dylan Rickenbacker: about 5 months
[11:08] Dylan Rickenbacker: lets get out of the way and sit at the table
[some of convo got cut out on accident]
[11:12] You: what does a shopping mall manager do?
[11:13] Dylan Rickenbacker: finding tenants for the shops and seeing to it that hey are happy :-)
[11:13] You: ahh nice
[11:13] You: how much time do you spend in SL typically
[11:13] Dylan Rickenbacker: typicalls too much lol
[11:13] You: lol
[11:14] Dylan Rickenbacker: several hours a day
[11:14] You: do anything outside of SL while you're logged in?
[11:15] Dylan Rickenbacker: yeah, sometimes I have it just running in a small window and listen to the music while I'm working
[11:15] Dylan Rickenbacker: just reacting to incoming IMs
[11:15] You: what kind of music do you like?
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: oh my taste is very broad
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: I like the music here
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: I got a piece of land where I'm streaming my own music from my web space
[11:16] You: how do i listen?
[11:17] Dylan Rickenbacker: do you see the music control above your chat line?
[11:17] You: ummm no?
[11:17] Dylan Rickenbacker: then you have to enable music in your preferences
[11:18] You: ahh. thanks :)
[[11:18] Dylan Rickenbacker: ctrl-p, Audio & Video tab
[11:19] Dylan Rickenbacker: they play an 80s mix here
[11:20] You: nice. can hear it now
[11:20] Caterpillar Uggla: !stand stevan
[11:20] Dylan Rickenbacker: takes a few secs sometimes for the music to start
[11:21] You: sorry brb
[11:21] Dylan Rickenbacker: kk
[11:24] You: ok. sorry about that. i'm in a former closet/now office and someone came in
[11:24] Dylan Rickenbacker: lol np
[11:25] You: do you have a job outside of SL?
[11:25] Dylan Rickenbacker: sure, I'm a freelance book translator
[11:26] You: which language(s)?
[11:26] Dylan Rickenbacker: English to German
[11:26] You: what type of books?
[11:27] Dylan Rickenbacker: novels mostly, some biographies, a self-help book now and then
[11:28] You: anything i might have read/heard of in English?
[11:28] Dylan Rickenbacker: well, I suppose so ...
[11:28] Dylan Rickenbacker: recently I've been doing new translations of the Narnia books
[11:29] Dylan Rickenbacker: Steve Turner's Johnny Cash biography
[11:29] You: awesome
[11:29] Dylan Rickenbacker: some novels by Dale Cramer
[11:30] You: what's the English to German demand like compared to German to English?
[11:31] Dylan Rickenbacker: considerably more I should think
[11:37] Dylan Rickenbacker: sorry, I was on the phone
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: the lag kills me today lol
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: about your last question:
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: there's a constant influx of English and American books in Germany
[11:45] You: sorry. Was trying to copy the chat stuff into pages. I've gotta run to a class in a bit and going to grab a bite first. Thanks so much for chatting with me.

If we could talk to the animals...

Heard this in the car the other night.

"Some philosophies fuel a belief in the self, constructed to keep one's goods on one's own shelf...
If something in the deli aisle makes you cry, you know I'll put my arm around you. And I'll walk you outside, through the sliding doors...
You're not a baby if you feel the world. All of the babies can feel the world. That's why they cry."
The Blow, "Parentheses"

Thanks, WSBF (88.1 FM)

http://www.vegcooking.com/

They are Twins. That is Why. Group X does Super Mario

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mario.php

In this animated flash video, Group X uses seemingly basic visual language to represent the visual interface of Super Mario Brothers 3.

It appears to be a step down from the graphic art of the actual game.

Holistically speaking, however, Group X may have chosen an ideal style of visual language to appeal to their intended audience.

From the beginning, the animation seems silly and childish. "Shiggity, Shiggity, Shwa" doesn't seem to fit.

The video begins with a close up of cartoon feet.

The childish style is appropriate to this video because the target audience members for Group X were probably children when the game came out. It's the same demographic that have Mario Brothers ring tones. It's my age group.

The feet are appropriate because Mario's feet (and maybe his P-wing and racoon tail) propel him through the boards. It's a linear mission. Move from left to right. Don't run out of time. Get some coins. Feet matter here.

The improvised music matches the rough sketch style of the animation. It's not supposed to seem perfect or professional. It's self-aware fun.

Stealing my Avatar's Soul

Took a few shots of Mymeesis in the new digs.

Spent 23 years in my first life and haven't acquired a "normal" fashion sense.

Yeah, this one might take some time. For now, I like my new red jeans, Egyptian fabric top and black extensions. Black hair makes me feel tough. It's much longer than I would bother to grow in my "first life."

Many of the female avatars have very fancy outfits. I've seen women with wings, tall boots and glittery jewelry. I don't think I would feel very comfortable in an outfit that called attention to myself in Second Life. However, I think that I might fit in less right now because I'm not wearing a skirt or a different top. I want to assimilate, but I also want my character to look somewhat professional or academic. Not sure on which side of that divide my character currently resides.

Sky of blue, sea of green

"I could've sworn I saw a yellow submarine. But that's not logic now. Is it? It must've been one of them "Unidentified Flying Cupcakes." Or a figment of me imagination. But I don't have an imagination." Ringo, Yellow Submarine, 1968

In the archaeology of counter-culture, this film remains one of the most elegant fusions of the popular and the experimental.

Preview, synopsis, persuasion(?)

A read of the title sequence of one of my current film infatuations.

The dynamic of this animated film depends on the marriage of the visual and the auditory. Think adult swim inside of itunes visualizer based on Aldous Huxley's 1954 essay "Doors of Perception."

On the scene catalog screen, we are introduced to the feel of the film. A yellow submarine seemingly hovers over a background of radiating and bright color-morphing sunbursts. Spatial, ambient sounds intermittently create a still and slightly eerie tone.

After selecting "play" on the DVD, a large, blue cartoon hand sweeps across the bottom portion of the screen from the left and a colorfully attired cartoon man pops into the screen from the bottom right. The tone immediately changes from one of waiting and uncertainty to confusion and chaos.

The film begins with a black screen which reads "Once Upon a Time." A narrator then says, "Or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland," and the black screen gradually dissolves into a petri dish of swimming pastels. The language mirrors the content. The visuals and music are certainly "unearthly."

As the pastels become lighter, they transform into a cloud-covering that soon reveals a colorful landscape. Six cartoon men in tuxedos stand in two groups facing opposite directions. Chimes sound in the background. Then bands of color pour out of their top hats and form a rainbow.

The camera zooms in, through the top hat rainbow, and "Love" appears on the field behind the men. The word is striped in flashing/alternating bands of bright colors. Symphonic music plays.

The scene cuts to green tree tops. Birds striped in small bands of rainbow color perch among the foliage.

The scene cuts again to butterflies dancing among tropical-dream vegetation. A manifesto for the creative spirit.

The narrator says, "Beneath the sea it lay." The camera pans across the sky from a moving kite, to a young boy, to the people of pepperland. A pink and red reptile with yellow teeth chomps his ways across the screen from the left. On his back sits a clown-attired four-legged creature, the green trees with the striped birds and a white logo for "Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band."

The camera pans left to four string musicians playing. The camera pans again to two a piano with two men. Piano music plays in the background. A main picks flowers. A lady plays a harp. Two children dance for a woman in a rocking chair.

The scene cuts to a concert of brass musicians. A crowd sits in folding chairs below the stage.

The scene cuts again and we are introduced to the antagonists of the film, the blue meanies. The meanies resemble blue cotton balls with large claws, blue boots, and black elongated Mickey Mouse ears.

The first character dialogue begins when the chief blue meanie argues with a meanie-pawn. The chief blue meanie says, "we only take no for an answer." This scene's dialogue and the expressive, toothy-faced, swirly-eyed meanies sets up a key feature of the film. How do we interpret the meanies? What do we do with the potential Disney/commercialization/government reference? Do we take the dialoge as serious?

It's completely possible to listen to the words and watch this film without paying careful or questioning attention to the meaning or the plurality of possible interpretations the visual and auditory content potentially holds; however, by this point in the title sequence, the audience is asked to make a choice. Will the film be real or Other this time? The animated nature of the film, similar to metaphor in literature, allows for the author to safely present a message that might not be, if it were more exoteric, within discourse conventions.

Again, adult swim inside itunes visualizer based on Huxley's Doors of Perception. Though different modes, they all contain the possibility for seemingly infinite interpretations, but we are asked to choose whether or not we'll allow our imaginations to look out the periscope of our yellow submarine.

the sign as such: my new favorite font

Bodoni SvtyTwo ITC-TT-Bold

A clean, strong font. Reminds me of hand-written bubble letters, but it's traditional and reminscent of the high-age of print. I like the juxtapposition of the thick and thin lines.

a continued project

Unskilled photographer, shy subject. Mymeesis.

She's part of a project this semester.

I would like to make a short film which examines Jean Baudrillard’s argument in Simulations in terms of contemporary virtual reality, specifically the virtual world Second Life.

"And after a thousand years these and those alike come to the allotment and choice of their second life, each choosing according to her will, then does the soul of a man enter into the life of a beast and the beast's soul that was aforetime in a man goes back to a man again." Plato, Phaedrus

I plan on using my prior research on Baudrillard and Second Life and the paper I wrote in fall of 2006 “For material systems of labeling: Second Life’s players as active participants in the real.”

In the paper, I argue that Baudrillards claim that “we are in the desert of the real” and “the real...is no longer real at all” evidences the double nature of our relationship to technology. On one hand we recognize virtual reality as a “precession of simulacra,” but this system of labeling poses serious risks for us as subjects because they limit and potentially prevent our access to understanding the real, material power of images.

Examples of this material power of images in relation to Second Life includes Congress’ recent interest in taxing in-world assets and individuals’ physical, economic, emotional and mental states that have been (according to them) influenced by participating in Second Life.

I would like to expand my prior research through incorporating more scholarly material (from Greek philosophy to contemporary theories of technology), news articles, interviews with Second Life participants and the novel Snow Crash.

For the film, I plan to use clips from Second Life, segments of my interviews with gaming participants, and Short Keynote Flash segments to present text.

After the project is completed, I hope to learn more about visual design, specifically film production, the personal experiences of Second Life participants, and theories of virtual reality and simulations.

Print Advertisements (et l'histoire d'un petit journal)

Still reading Lester.

In regard to print advertising he writes, "Small newspapers with their tighter budgets are more susceptible to advertising pressures than are large-circulation newspapers...Although journalists seldom like to admit it, there is evidence of correlation between advertisers and editorial choices."

Please allow me a war story and some reflections.

In the spring of 2004 Playboy came to Clemson's campus. Before their arrival, the publication contracted with a national advertising firm, 360 Youth, to run a full-page color advertisement in Clemson's student-run publication, The Tiger.

Upon learning of the advertisement, The Tiger editorial staff pulled the ad copy. Sure, come to town, but you're not using this publication to make our students look foolish. It wasn't about being prudish; it was about preserving the publication's reputation. It was about standing up to corporate pressures to preserve editorial integrity.

Similarly, a week prior, The Tiger decided to relinquish the student activity fee that previously provided approximately $30,000 of its $150,000 budget. It was the first time in 97 years that the publication relied solely on its own generation of revenue. The paper is currently in its third year of financial independence.

I believe The Tiger's story is not unique.

Media consolidation, the acquisition of smaller media by larger corporate media and the creating of monstrous media conglomerates, makes decisions like this one more difficult. Their advertisers can afford to be much more persuasive. The large companies' responsibilities are much greater. As in the case of Knight Ridder, even once untouchable giants risk death (and rebirth?) through consolidation.

Or, as Adbusters put it. "Small is the new big." (Think zines here)

Small, niche publications can afford, because they are small, to maintain integrity. It takes less to keep them going and their clients are, in some senses, easier to replace.

It's about the study of media ecology.

From the Media Ecology Association site, "It is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques, modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs."

When we synthesize media ecology with Jameson's non-synchronous modes of production, it is possible to see that Lester has keenly observed (and maybe incorrectly labeled) the "visible antagon[ism]" between competing modes.

Maybe the digital age, which some fear will kill print, has allowed us to better recognize this competition between communicative modes and the ways in which these modes "play a leading role in human affairs" (our stage?).

Media scholar czar Marshall McLuhan used to tell the story (originally Aristotle's from On the Soul) of the fish who would not have known she was surrounded by water.

Maybe.

Or maybe it takes a waterfall, a rush of powerful moving water which surrounds the fish, before she realizes the water's presence.

KTF.

have a seat

Took this picture on Sunset Rock in Highlands, NC in September, 2005. Former facebook pic and current myspace pic. Liked it for those forums primarily b/c many folks have large pics of their faces. But like the pic for other reasons as well.

According to Paul M. Lester in his recently published (2006) textbook Visual Communication: Images with Messages, the brain reacts more quickly and readily to 4 visual attributes: color, form, depth and movement. He says, "these four visual cues are the major concerns of any visual communicator when designing a picture to be remembered by a viewer."

I believe Lester is correct to the extent that these four characteristics can most strongly influence an audience's reaction to a visual work. For example, the eye can begin with the closest object in the picture, the left knee in the left corner and follow the line made by the right foot to the two sandals or to the small bush at the edge of the rock which leads to the edge of the rock and the trees. The tan bush at the rock's edge light color pulls the eye.

I also like the balance between the blue on the pants in the foreground and the blue in the sky in the background.

The picture could be much better, of course. It could be more balanced between the sky and the rock. Currently the shot is split into rough thirds. The knee begins at one third and the rock ends at the second third. It would be nice to have tried this shot in fourths.

Pretty pleased with the colors, but can't take any credit for them. Didn't plan to wear neutral shoes and jeans simply to make a nice shot.

And, being more honest, didn't think about much except that I liked what I saw through the lens.

A bit more honesty--(vous ne voyez pas mes amis et notre vin rouge).

I'm not buddying up with Hunter S. here, just saying that Lester (and certainly many others before him including Hubel and wiesel with the cat experiments :O!) is correct. My audience, in this case, was only me. I naturally preferred a shot that included movement, depth, and some balance of form and color.

What Lester does not describe in his work, that I am not left wondering, is why we naturally have these preferences. How do they work with (or against) post-modern design? Is art anything more than techne? Is there a remainder? Why do natural landscapes evoke emotion?

?

A Visual Raison D'Etre: Triplets de Belleville

Not a spoken word in the film, but it conveys a moving and brilliant story. If I had to live inside an illustrated world, it would be the Triplets of Belleville.

The illustrations and the sounds are seamless. Visually, it is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. The precision is amazing, from the bicycle wheels to the riders' form to the triplets movements as they play their fridgerator, vacuum and newspaper on stage.

Muted colors and intricate scenery delight the eye. The film has visual ambience. It's pleasing the view without seeming to try too hard. It's subtle. The film shyly flirts with the scopophile. "You're welcome to gaze at my beauty. Look and believe."

A must-see. A favorite.

Productive(?) Censorship

A defense of Plato and possibly an argument for our nation's (don't mistake this for a party's, partial in other words) policy towards images that excite, Judith Butler's "Implicit Censorship" argues for the formative (hello Foucault) power of censorship.

At first her argument sounds like political philosopher Leo Strauss who threatened the possibility of the creative act by connecting individual ability to suppression. He said, "literature (here I include all forms of art) is essentially related to a society which is not liberal."

Think theory/criticism has nothing to do with everyday life? Check out his former teachers/students. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss

Ok. What if we're not ready to sign up for Strauss' camp?

Butler allows for censorship. She doesn't necessarily argue that we should censor; rather she says it happens. Again, think Foucault here. Instead of complaining about this censorship we should "embody the norms that govern speakability." This censorship can be "formative of subjects." Essentially, through discipline and not speaking, we will eventually be able to speak and speak powerfullly and meaningfully.

Then we can "compel the terms of modernity to embrace those they have traditionally excluded."

She seems to suggest that we should seek change internally; we should change our internal states first and subsequently seek internally to change our republic.

I believe she is correct to the extent that some are capable of embodying these norms that govern speakability. However, some do not have the option to embody norms. It, of course, depends on where you draw a line.

For Strauss the line stops after embracing only "the young men who might become philosophers." I'm not willing to make that concession, but I don't know how to reconcile the underclass, who because of their inherent status, are not allowed access to the avenues toward subject status.

power of images

Tonight we watched September 11 footage in class. It reminded me of what we don't see. The prevented power of certain images.

mouse or potato?

Technics and (the end of?) Time: A Response to Stiegler's Technics and Time, 1

If there is a teleology of technics that is not a human process (72), then we must redefine the meaning of organic and inorganic (76).

This redefinition is the necessary counterpart to the anticipation that is a "dynamic proper to the technical object tending toward its concetization" (81).

Either way we are future oriented beings. Either way we will experience anxiety and a concern about time.

If this teleology, if the end of the process of technology, is not a human end, then we need a terminology that will enable our active participation in a material sense. This terminology (technological supplement?) will help us to transform our anticipation into a positive catalyst to a necessary process.

This redefinition would present itself as a blurring of the definition between living and non-living.

Mankind after internal posthetic evolution mounts prosthetic matter (see above). The two states of matter combine to the mutual heightened release of potential energy.

A position that considers particular matter nonliving forgets Heisenberg. Stiegler's position--"The evolution of the 'prosthesis,' not itself living, by which the human is nonetheless defined as a living being, constitutes the reality of the human's evolution, as if, with it, the history of life were to continue by means other than life: this is the paradox of a living being characterized in its forms of life by the nonliving--or by the traces that its life leaves in the nonliving."

We seem to solve the paradox when everything is living, in different states of potential energy reserve. If we have any interest in technology, if we want to resist participation in "culture that has made itself into a system of defense against technics" (66), then we must reconcile the non-human teleology of technics through the application of a more-encompassing system of calling.

Evolving Maps and Dissolving Territories

A bit of searching so far. Can't tell where Baudrillard has written about Second Life, but the more I learn about the virtual world, the more I wish he had. It seems like he should care about it. On the other hand, his more recent writings have also focused on the war. Guess he has plenty to fill his time.

A Second Life blog:
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com
And, in another post from today, Tateru Nino writes about Zefrank. If you haven't, check out www.zefrank.com. Ridiculous, existential, genius...and duckies!

V i SUAL COMMUN i CATION

What does it mean to communicate visually? Visual comm./graphic comm. seems to be a trendy field these days. Clemson's graphic comm. major has a 100% job placement rating. The students paint, print and practice layout among other things. They create. In some ways the major seems similar to fine arts.

Thought that visual comm. this semester would be similar to the digital side of graphic comm. Not so much. We're working in the virtual world Second Life and creating projects such as websites, games and films.

I expect that when we study(?) Second Life, we will find that questions of visual appeal influence every aspect of the program. In this way, I do not believe that Second Life is different from the "real" (outside of the program) world; questions of visual appeal influence every aspect of existence. However, with Second Life, the visual is (virtually) all we have access to. The visual is the conditioned sense (of the main six...excluding, say, common sense, memory, sense of style). In the arguably more-interactive non-Second Life world, the other five senses are able to compete with the visual. The visual becomes seamless. I would suppose that those who pay attention to the visual in every situation would have an advantage.

For example, it would seem that visual communication includes the furnishings we choose and the way we arrange them. The visual space we choose to create for ourselves and our guests. Take a walk through an office building. Notice the different ways people have chosen to arrange their furniture and belongings. Unless these workers' guests will touch/interact with the objects, the design of space is mostly visual design.

V i SUAL COMMUN i CATION isn't new. It isn't a secret formula that originated in the 60s or a market that McDonald's, Coke, and Apple have cornered. Rather, visual communication and questions of the aesthetics of appearance, have become more easily apparent in our scopophilic world.

Nebraska researchers posit hotdog/cancer link

http://www.newsnetnebraska.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/14/44e1313101214

Note that the risk depends/varies according to the level of sodium nitrite present. Not very helpful. Went to Ingles last night to look into this.

Every brand of hotdogs (even the Kosher brand) at the Central, SC, Ingles contains sodium nitrite. On every package it is listed last or second to last in the ingredients.

Got curious.

Every pre-packaged meat except two brands of sausage contained sodium nitrite. Almost every time the ingredient was listed last.

If you don't want to consume sodium nitrite and you still want the dog (or meat-ish material on a stick), check out Morning Star Farms dogs/ corndogs or Smart Dogs.

Mmmmm. Dogs.

A Second Life for an Argument with Baudrillard

Final paper from Literary Theory last semster:

Have been following threads from Baudrillard's Simulations since May. It lead me to drive to Boston and later to two projects. The most recent one [right] also addressed Second Life.

Now, in Visual Comm. we're focusing on/ working with Second Life.

I'm hoping to continue the argument against Baudrillard (and for a different conception of the virtual) with a multi-media presentation (maybe a short film).

We'll see. Either way, isn't it strange how things connect?

Where's Prospero? The Prestige as a Critique of Scientific Invention

If you're interested in humanity's relationship to technology, then you should definitely check out The Prestige. Or, if Christian Bale's leather-tastic performance in Batman Begins only whetted your appetite, then Christopher Nolan's most recent film, which also stars Bale, should satisfy your longings.

It seems that the Nolan brothers might have taken some lessons from Derrida when they wrote the screenplay. Throughout The Presitge Bale and Michael Caine's characters reference "the secret." They tell us that once the audience knows your secret, you will be nothing to them.

So, the secret constitutes something for the audience only when it remains a secret. The substance is lost as soon as the trick is revealed.

In magic the prestige is the reappearance of the signified/signifier at the end of the trick.

The Tesla coil [pictured above] provides the final, yet-to-be revealed (magic?) technique. With it, Hugh Jackman's character is able to duplicate himself. Because of it, we are challenged to question the ethical implications of invention.

Whether or not this ultimate or absolute prestige should be explained by science, magic or cheap plot tricks, the Nolans seem to suggest that magic is simply technique which few understand.

An argument for empiricism, we are told that a close visual read will produce all answers.

It's not a Romantic sentiment, but whether you're a fan of Romanticism, a (post?)modernist advocate, a follower of the cloning debate, a post-structuralist disciple, or a victim of Bale's Batmanly backside, do yourself a favor and see The Prestige.

the fall