Fullam-Stone, Fernando

Ok so what is nothing? and what on earth does it have to do with new media?

I have been thinking about this and believe there can never really be ‘nothing’ as it is essentially an absence of something else, which I believe makes it a space filler.

Looking at wikipedia it defines nothing as:

Nothing is the lack or absence of anything. Colloquially, however, the term is often used to describe a particularly unimpressive thing, event, or object.

In regards to physics it states:

In physics, the word nothing is not used in any technical sense. A region of space is called a vacuum if it does not contain any matter. But it can contain physical fields. In fact, it is practically impossible to construct a region of space which contains no matter or fields, since gravity cannot be blocked and all objects at a non-zero temperature radiate electromagnetically. However, supposing such a region existed, it would still not be "nothing", since it has properties and a measurable existence as part of the quantum-mechanical vacuum.

Another site ‘Howstuffworks’ has a similar idea, that nothing really is something. In the process defining the term “true nothing”

"True nothing" is that immeasurable, zero-energy, non-existent thing that did not exist before the universe, and all the space in it, came into existence.

So essentially nothing is something, it is space that prohibits another object from being there. In new media and old media too this can be quite useful.

An example of this is can be seen in illustrating the principles of design, which have a category called 'white space'. An example of these can be seen at http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/l/aa_pod2.htm

In particular I find this image a good example of using 'nothing' to create a more interesting layout for the article.

This image shows the power that can be created by using ‘space’. Dropping the text down a few lines, emphasises the impact of the basketball player as it appears to tower over the the text. These principles of design and composition apply to new media as well as old.

I found this interesting new media 'sculpture' titled Soul

Soul is an artwork that collects web cam and CCTV feeds and live audio from London in real time. These real time images are fed into a software system where a series of specialized channels rework these images. The channels are always on, and always changing, a constant view of London changing and evolving around the clock. The system uses specially created software and technology to randomly travel London and to integrate the images from the cameras. The images are taken from live web cams in real time and will evolve forever (or until the cameras break).This is never the same again always different....forever. The channels are always on, and always changing, a constant view of the world changing and evolving around the clock.

It becomes an online global repositioned world view unfolding in real time. Soul is a work about real time data in networks and cities and about the ownership of these image rights. This new work incorporates live London images and data to make Soul. The idea is to capture the soul of the city of London and represent these images as a piece of sculpture in a constantly evolving data sculpture.

http://www.stanza.co.uk/ideasrus/soul/index.html

They are currently seeking funding but could be a very interesting sculpture when finished, and I believe a quite innovative way to use new media on one of the oldest art forms imaginable in the sculpture.

wikipedia has a section on its site titled ‘What’s New, New Media?’ it was created in May of 2006, so it is relatively new, and I think may become a good resource in the future as it appears to be continually evolving with new articles able to be published by the community before being reviewed by wikipedia.

http://newmedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

and it defines new media studies as:

The study of "New Media" can also be understood as the exploration of social change associated with the evolution and cultural adoption of new forms of media.

Just thought it might be a useful resource!

As the others have already stated, this is a very hard term to define. This I believe is mainly due to two factors.

• The Term New Media itself is ambiguous. What is “New” and how do you define it? What is new today is old tomorrow, so what was new media five years ago, is that still new media now?
• New Media is an industry driven by technology, and as we all know this is evolving at a faster rate than ever before, which accentuates the problem of using the term “new”.

So just who came up with the term new media? This is something I have been wondering and I thought google might be able to help me out with but.. to no avail! Instead I have come across a new term which some people are using instead of the term new media in parts of the cyber world. This term is “social media” which I find interesting in that its states its social qualities, but places a rather large emphasis on this element.

Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist and employee of Podtech.net, prefers the term, but also acknowledges its inadequacies on his blog.

The biggest criticisms folks have against Social Media is that Media can’t be social, I first heard that from Dennis. I’ve thought about some other terms such as “Socializing Media”, but that just sounds odd. “Conversational Media” doesn’t work either, as not all of the tools exhibit conversational traits, some have unwritten gestures. To me, the term “new media” is even worse, as how long will any technology or trend be new? Help me come up with some better terms, but please, don’t say “Web 2.0.

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/01/31/hate-the-term-social-media-help-come-up-with-a-better-term/

The website www.newmediamusings.com has recently relocated its site to www.socialmedia.biz

Is it a term that will spread more? I think so.. as googling social media seems to find a lot of results, but I don’t think it will replace it, perhaps as a sub category of new media? I think it just emphases more the inadequacies of the term new media.

Hello there!
Just a bit about who I am, and what I am doing here!
My name is Fernando, and I have spent the last twelve or so years in sunny Canberra! I have always been interested and passionate about design and films. After finishing school I went on to study TV production at UC, learning a lot about short films, documentaries, music videos etc. but at the same time realising more and more that at this point in life, design and new media is what I want to be involved in. So I signed up for this masters course at CNMA in ANU.. and here I am!