McKenzie Wark’s description of a hacker relates the idea that they are able to “create the possibilities of new things entering the world.” Hackers create new and innovative things in many areas such as art, science, technology by apply abstraction to specific information. To some extent this description fits to what I had perceived a hacker to be, someone who was able to manipulate a preexisting feature to meet their desires. Although I thought a hacker to be someone who would only gain access to computer programs for manipulation, Wark says that a hacker can also affect culture, art, and science. One can use the term hacker to identify themselves with simply changing something old and innovating it to become something new and beautiful; it’s not all just about illegally gaining access to a program to make it do something you want or to see what information it holds.

I agree with Wark when he says that “to produce is to repeat; to hack, to differentiate.” His description of what it means to be a hacker releases its negative meanings and allows the reader to see a hacker as an artist. Although the work is preexisting in some cases, the hacker has the talents and imagination to breathe new life to create something so unique and pure that audience would have forgotten the original tracks of the work itself. By breathing new life into the work, Wark says that hackers “free” the information previously held by restricting properties. This reflects back to my perception of a hacker being someone to gain access to a restricted entity. He says that information inherently wants to be free and as a result, hackers are becoming worthy because they allow for that release. They are seen as producers rather than the owners of the works.

http://youtu.be/0BSU3o_cnm0

In Cameraless Animation it is said that “the comic strip creates a vocabulary for the animated short.” Using a comic strip allows the images to be organized in a way similar to that of a flipbook where it allows for the still images to come to life. I have always enjoyed watching animations and cartoons, especially by Disney. While growing up because I was fascinated to learn how the drawings on paper came to life as real moving characters on screen. I remember how eager I was when Disney would show the behind the scenes of how the created their animations. I would try to mimic the way they drew the characters because I was in awe of the imagination behind the works. As I got older I was interested in the programming behind the works.

Seeing just how the animators were able to manipulate still images through software to basically create a really long flip book which could tell a story by taking each image and putting them together frame by frame. This technique is mainly seen in cartoons but there are other manipulations which allow for 3-D animations. Taking shadows and adding multiple frames to create depth brings to life these basic drawings to create three-dimensional figures. Even using physical models and adding digital frames have also allowed for 2-D creations to “come alive.”

I think that we are able to create many characters and portray different emotions through animation which we would not otherwise be able to through movies with real life characters. How else would we have been able to experience the adventures of a talking sponge or even our famous superheroes that we have read about in comics? Animation clearly allows us to let our imagination come to life so that we can experience what was thought about in our minds.