Dimcevski, Andrej

DUST 07

work done by a student from dust

the main arena

It is difficult to reflect on a large amount of thinking, exploring and reading. This semester has been filled with interesting information for myself and I am sure for the other students.
The topics for this semester were authenticity and further pursuing our chosen research. Iam not going to say that i know all about Authenticity in art but what I do know is that my originality and my ability to appreciate new media art from a different lens one which is sharper and clearer than ever before. I was very pleased to see a number of books which we were presented on net.art and this gave me the inspiration from another angle. These artists are a lot of the time activists not just artists and to be an original artist one must also have a very powerful effect by showing ideas in a stronger than normal form. I chose for my research interest to continue with the internet and this was a little hard as the internet always takes many different areas and combines them. This led to a kind of presentation which was somewhat put together to resememble something incomplete but in fact quite early on I changed from identifying a next generation social network to identifying some of these characteristics.
The internet on many occasions is used interchable with new media but this isn’t accurate since although it is a certainly a powerful way for new media arts to be experienced it shouldn’t be confused with what media art is! A good reason to have second think when watching the news, tv or movies. I think the reason new media is seen interchangeable with internet is that it is seen as a communications form rather than an artistic form. Sometimes when someone asks me to explain to them what new media is im often tempted and do actually try to fit my answer with what they have been presented with from TV, NEWS etc. But this is wrgong because this is only the surface of what new media is. I have seen that new media can be anything from a 50 year old invention Memex to the breaking away tiny scientific information from an old turner painting. We are in a field that is very broad but which is considered as the next field to encircle the planet and produce change. It began with industrialized technologies and it is ending with knowledge and new media workers using information technologies to produce arts which are completely new but as we have seen they are not actually that new.

Good luck with your future career s and as one famous statement says “the more i learn the more I know I don’t know”

Selected Entries:
1. The Need For a New Interface
2. The Mobile Interface – Internet
3. Mobile Networks and Public Spaces
4. The Internet and the Interface
5. Imagining Online Social Networks
6. Comments part in answer to mobiles by faith

At first enrolling into the two units by Eleanor i was told we would discuss issues in new media and society and we would write an essay and that would be it. But the units were quite different from this as i think we were taught how to think like artists. I noticed my imagination getting better after being exposed to the course material where ideas could flow and i was quite fond of seeing my shift of purely psuedo- scientific way of thinking that i used to have to one where its appropriate for art. Some of the focal points of this semesters course were being introduced to a book “Imaginary Media” and writing on the blog. I think i have gained enough inspiration from these two units to fulfil my future practical studies.

This blog entry is about sally pryor website,

Sally Pryors website is oriented around her Phd Thesis. Her research is about picture writing and as she says on her website answering the questions of Integrationlism through new media. This is a new theory of how we communicate developed by the oxford scholar Roy Harris.
The field of communications is a huge feild and integrationlism has a lot to say on this.

First i was inrigued by this modern theory of communication and the multimedia that was presented had to rsearch into what it actually was. so where does integrationalism fit into the academic theories?

"Integrationism is a (post-structuralist) semiology of communication"
wiki states that semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.

for me the big questions that this theory can answer is how to improve our communication through the merger of writing and pictures and understanding what writing actually is?

Firstly i will discuss the website www.katepullinger.com

Kate Pullinger
Kate is a multidisciplinary writer that writes for the digital medium wether it is a website, a digital book or LED display.

i think writing for the computer screen or other similar devices is a powerful skill. There are many tricks that are used for writing for the web. This writing is not only the long text or essays on the web but any text that appears in electronic format.

The perceptual skill to be able to understand the in between factors of text for screen is what Kate uses. The field Human Computer Interaction often has many hints and researchers looking into how to best write text that is usable. For example one might consider the nature of the words on a website such as contact details and change that to just contact to make it simpler for users navigating on the site. There are many more tricks and as part of my previous degree we were taught mainly how to write for the web. However writing for the web is not only a HCI factor there is also creativity to consider and Kate as a writer has tapped into this and been able to launch a successful career.

ok now to the 3 articles on Armani, Turner and Software for Dunces. The first article writes that the company Armani has launched into a different business area which means they will be making TVs and Mobiles. making a phone is not surprising because phones are a fashion device and are actually worn so Armani and Phones would be something even i would buy what i find interesting is that they will be launching TVs? when did TVs become a fashion statement. they stay in ones living room and what you really want is the picture to be clean and big screen?

"We make as much of a personal statement with the mobile phones that we carry or the televisions that we have in our living rooms as we do with the shoes and bags we wear or the furnishings we choose," Armani said in the statement.

The second article discusses using old paintings to study global warming and weather. Particularly the paintings of turner as he was around when much of the volcano activity happened which apparently effects global warming. who better then to study paintings done by someone who devoted their entire career painting weather?
some Turner images below

finally

finally the article computer turns prosaic dunces into lyrical poets was quite interesting as it considers the authenticity but also the nature of text communication. I dont think changing the structure of someone’s words will produce better results because words the order of the words are tied to thinking and when you take away this order and make it mechanical using AI you are producing a different effect and loosing the authenticity and feel for what the writer was trying to say. Even badly written language can be poetic.

refernces
google images
Armani to launch TV, mobile phone with Samsung
http://www.theage.com.au/news/articles/armani-to-launch-tv-mobile-phone-withsamsung/
2007/09/24/1190486268095.html

How old masters are helping study of global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/01/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange

Computer turns prosaic dunces into lyrical poets
Software claims to hone anyone's written English
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/30/software