Month: November 2014

Final Proposal

I plan to create an interactive campaign of how technology is disrupting and impeding people’s ability to communicate. There is no longer a need for talking directly to one another when we can easily text and video chat on our devices. Although technology made our lives much easier and convenient, it is becoming a big problem of where does technology goes over the line. The campaign will feature the most convenient time where every family member is at home. Dinnertime is always seen as a time for family to gather around the dinner table and eat together while talking about their day. Now, each one of them is surfing the web or watching tv. Eventually, this will hurt our relationships with each other, leading to awkward silence and brief responses like, ” Yes, no, or ttyl”. I will use animation and sound art to portray this specific scene.

Blog 10

Whenever I hear the word remix, I think of djs who take original music and alter it on their fancy machines by changing the pitch of the tone. They can filter the original track by adding background music or noise so it can be “original” I think the main reason people do remixes is to maybe show alternatives of the original in unique ways or to just give it a twist. When I watched Rip: A Remix Manifesto, it gave off a very unique perspective in how they introduced the topic. The introduction was like how I imagined it would be ; it gave off a vibe that a DJ was present cranking up the music and mixing them. Later, it introduced the term “copyrighting” which means that it is protected as intellectual property in which the creator has complete control of its work and ideas. If someone were to steal the creator’s ideas without any acknowledgement or credit, then it would be considered infringement. In the video, it described copyrighting as “a battleground of the Internet”. The Internet is where we get access to all types of information in a quick way. This enables people to connect with others from all over the world. Back then, people would pay good money to just listen to a song from a record but now people can easily download a song illegally. That’s where the argument comes along. Someone stated that we are so absorbed with technology that we can ” download our world’s culture ” meaning that whatever is posted online, we are capable of getting it from a click of button. Today’s culture is so different from 20 or 30 years ago.

One interesting point that was discussed in the video was ” culture always build on the past”. I agree with this statement because we get our ideas from the past  but we just fail to recognize its existence. For example, all of our favorite characters from Disney were built on historical figures and references ; Disney just adapted it to fit the needs of today’s audience. A good example would be Steamboat Bill who was an actual man on a boat. Ten to twenty years later, Steamboat Willie came along portraying Micky Mouse on the set. The subtle references of  Micky then became prevalent and installed into our minds thinking that Walt Disney originally created these loveable characters. Just by watching the video, I now discovered that the idea of Mickey Mouse was based on the past and then recently introduced. What I found disapproving was how people were charged for a large sum of money for  just downloading like five songs illegally. One mother was charged like $3000 for the song ” Journey” and may even risk losing her house. I mean we have to pay like $8.95 for buying either  a short version of a song’ s album online but that much is just ridiculous.  The quote ” If you want to create art from the public domain, you must pick before 1915″. This shows how too much information can be hazardous due to anyone having access to it.  So sometimes hearing mashups on the radio makes me wonder if that’s even considered art since you’re basically taking bits and pieces of original music and adding other music to an improved version. It may be a considered a form of expression but we sh0uld be cautious of when to stop.