Can technologies be neutral? This question, which we discussed in Networked Media Symposium 8.0, was a tricky one. To be able to answer the question, we first need to decide on what actually is neutral. Let’s start off by actually looking at the definitions, and see if they can help. “not supporting or helping either side… impartial.” “having no strongly marked…
Tag Archive for Networked Media
Power Packed
This week’s Networked Media course reading by Duncan Watts was an interesting one at that. Why do I care for how the power system works in the USA. Generators are all over the place, and numerous power cables connect from the generators to countless places all over the country. Intriguing, right? Yeah, not really. For the majority of the population, how…
My Amigos’ Thoughts
I’ve been scouring through my colleagues’ blogs, and admittedly some of the material I’ve found is amazing. Let’s take Mia’s post about 3D printing as a first example. She explores the debate on whether technology advances due to, or independent of society and culture. Her analysis of how a simple Nike runner is now produced as an artificial model constructed…
Now fetch your stylus and write this down
Everyday I’d look down at my watch and study the second hand intently, waiting for it to hit 3.30 when the final school bell rang. This meant freedom. This meant a stop at the Milk Bar for an ice cream (usually a Bubble-o-Bill or PaddlePop). It meant not having information forced down by throat. In primary (or elementary) school, from…
Explorers, not readers.
I pick up a book. My eyes scan the page, beginning with the left side and moving to the right. Then I move my visual focus one line below and repeat. Left, right, down, repeat. What am I doing? I am reading, probably a book, or perhaps a smaller type of text; a magazine, newspaper, or instruction manual. That is…
What’s all the Hype about?
After having a look through George Landow’s words on Hypertext, I was left feeling a little overwhelmed with all the information to intake. Not in the sense that it was convoluted and uninterpretable, but more so that there were so many discussion pathways I could take from it. Here’s one. What is Hypertext anyway? The first time I heard the word…
Who and what can we trust?
In the week 4 Networked Media symposium/lecture/spectacle, we discussed what to deem as valid, credible and trustworthy when it comes to the internet. There is no rulebook or authority that deems exactly what is considered safe or dangerous, accurate or misleading, in terms of online content. The only effective analyser is us, and decisions are formed by our knowledge and experience.…
The Mechanical Hand
After reading Ted Nelson’s 1992 chapter on Literary Machines I asked myself a question: How do computers actually simplify our lives? We type on instant-access screens, and have witnessed the “revolution” that Nelson spoke of. Older generations typically argue that computers have complicated our lives, however I disagree, I think they have made daily living easier. Young people take technology…
‘a computer is a trained squirrel’
“A computer is essentially a trained squirrel: acting on reflex, thoughtlessly running back and forth and storing away nuts until some other stimulus makes it do something else… We make the computer do our bidding”. I will admit, that quote made me chuckle a little, before I realised how accurate is really is. Ted Nelson’s early published work on Hypertext…
Let’s make a Network!
Network literacy means linking to what other people have written and inviting comments from others, it means understanding a kind of writing that is a social, collaborative process rather than the act of an individual in solitary. It means learning how to write with awareness that anyone may read it: your mother, a future employer or the person whose work…