Has Social Media Revived or Revolutionized Salon Scholarship?
10 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in Salon Thoughts Tags: Academia, Answer, Change, Communication, Culture, Emerging Media, Energy, Literature, Participants, Philosophy, Question, Revival, Revolution, Salon, Scholarship, Shift, Society, Students, Teachers
This week’s theme and blog post highlight various readings which address Shifting Models of Creation/ Participation in Art & Pop Culture.
As I set out to prepare and review my notes and ideas for my Case Study presentation, admittedly, I struggled to find a new media object that would best capture my presentation’s theme and compliment the assigned readings. Bunnies, Cookies, and Podcasts had been all used up so I thought harder. I am interested in International Communications; we’re going to discuss shifting models of creation/participation amongst art and pop culture… How do these things relate back to EMAC 6300?
When a very kind and brilliant professor advised me took back and explore how Lev Manovich describes a new media object, I heeded her guidance and stumbled upon this little nugget which began to solidify things-
“What is new media? We may begin answering this question by listing the categories, which are commonly discussed under this topic in popular press: Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMs and DVD, virtual reality. Is this all new media is? For instance, what about television programs which are shot on digital video and edited on computer workstations? Or what about feature films which use 3D animation and digital compositing? Shall we count these as new media? In this case, what about all images and text image compositions — photographs, illustrations, layouts, ads — which are also created on computers and then printed on paper? Where shall we stop?”
Courtesy of Dean Terry ; Flickr.com
What about a classroom where students transcribe their musings and observations into a rolling feed stream via the Internet while at the same time analyze and critically discuss various other media platforms such as videos, paintings, literature, and song? Could this not also be a new media object? I’m inclined to vote yes; but that’s not where this case study is headed.
To a certain degree I would qualify our Wednesday evening class that meets at 7pm every week as a new media object. Our class incorporates technology in to the traditional components of communication and media so therefore it retains a ‘new media’ aura. However I think the more appropriate label is something I like to refer to as ‘Salon Scholarship’. Salon Scholarship occurs when academics congregate at any given time to converse, theorize, collaborate, observe and record thoughts on a certain topic or idea. Salon Scholarship requires participating using communication to express one’s ideas to those gathered. More often than not addressing these concepts amongst a group leads to inspirational creativity. And so the question presents itself.. Has Social Media Revived or Revolutionized Salon Scholarship?
When we look at all the online platforms we participate in every day (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, FlickR, SlideShare, Prezi, YouTube, etc.) we’re participating as online citizens who converses with our peers, family and friends about relevant topics and at times create art, opportunities, or other expressions of life that thrive amongst the technology that pushes us forward. As we see things today are Convergence and Salon Scholarship a nostalgic throw back to the times of The Renaissance, Moileré, and Mary Shelley? Or has social media revolutionized the model to a point of no return and altered the idea entirely? We’ll participate in a lively debate over these questions and create our own conclusions. Of course this also means we’ll celebrate as scholars in fantastic salon fashion!
Til Soon-
AM
Would We Have Creativity without Adult ADD?
03 Nov 2010 4 Comments
in Salon Thoughts Tags: 1978, Adult ADD, Art, Attention, Chaos, Communication, Confusion, Creativity, Distraction, Focus, Generation, Multi task, Research, Twitter
Tonight’s blog post is going to be short, fast, and a little jumpy not unlike the medical, pop culture phenomena termed ‘Adult ADD’ that I am going to reference in this blog post. Grab some retiling and let’s go!
Some of the most brilliant minds I know within the communications realm who I look up to as a mentors, leaders, and those to be feared and followed on Twitter without question have some form (maybe mild, maybe not so mild) so Adult ADD. Some people fall into that ‘Artist’ category but that’s because they’ve made a ton of dough and get to wear berets without people thinking its weird. Others are simply genius, have a short attention span and can multitask like none other.
Yes Adult Attention Deficit Disorder deserves serious medical research and attention but for just one moment I am going to have a little fun with it. After reading an article from WebMD I am even more convinced that the Hayles essay we read in class will come in relevant during discussion. She has some great insights about attention span in context with new media. I would love to know if she has ADD.
To get some neurons stimulated and in giving a shout out to David Letterman’s beloved Top Ten list tradition, see below my Top Ten Reasons Why Creativity would not Exist without Adult ADD;
I can already tell tomorrow’s lecture is going to need a full battery blackberry because we are going to get crazy conversation going…
Top Ten Reasons Why Creativity Exists thanks to Adult ADD—
#10: Thanks to Adult ADD, we have a way to understand Jackson Pollock’s ‘Splatter Series’
#9: Without Adult ADD, who would Change employers frequently and perform poorly then become gajillionaire artists?
#8: Because Adult ADD leads to a higher incidence of separation and divorce; we can be thankful for all the world’s artistic rage
#7: Bottom Line: Without Adult ADD, Peter Griffin would simply not be funny. At all.
#6: Adult ADD aka the new way to express ‘I’m procrastinating so I can doodle the next big idea..’ which then becomes worth millions
#5: With the rise of Adult ADD came the great invention of the :30 TV commercial, then then TiVo – would you last in the days of a 1 minute commercial?
#4: Shorter attention spans are known to lead to relationship problems; lonely people tend to adopt dogs. Adopted dogs make the world a better place. Happy people like to draw.
#3: Adult ADD can also stand for Adult Artist Denying Death
#2: Adult ADD has led to the Chick-fil-A cows, the Aluminum can, and the Pope Mobil…
#1: 1978: Adult ADD becomes a noted medical condition and a new artistic freedom sets in
Why Bother with an EMAC M.A.? I’ll Give You A Reason Why and then some
27 Oct 2010 6 Comments
in Salon Thoughts Tags: architecture, Aristotle, Blogs, Chris Brogan, classroom, EMAC, Facebook, Freud, international communications, Jay Z, knowledge, learning, LinkedIn, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Marvin Gaye, Moileré, Mozart, Paste Magazine, Perez Hiloneducation, Sasha Baron Cohen, Steve Jobs, The New York Times, Twitter, UTD
Where are the sewing kits and baking instructions?
When the 2010 Fall Semester began in August, I had lunch the first week of class with an old friend who was in town on business. After catching up about summer travel, family, and football as the caring friend they are, she asked me how my grad school program was going…
“It’s going really well. I am so thankful I began working on an Emerging Media & Communications Masters. UTD has a great program and my summer classes were awesome.”
“You’re getting a Master’s in Emerging Media & Communications at UTD? Are you taking Twitter 101 as a core requirement?” She laughed and took a bite of her Spinach salad.
“Not exactly. It’s a little more complicated than that.” I retorted, and then we changed subjects about whether Nordstrom Rack was having a sale or not.
When I looked at this week’s scheduled readings, dear old EMAC6300 was covering ‘Shifting Models in Knowledge and Learning Part Deaux’. The above conversation from August immediately sparked inspiration. As my classmates, are any of you wondering why in the world you’re pursuing what some ignorantly tote the Twitter 101 Degree? I’ll confess that I’ve had to defend my program’s validity more than once, and I did it with gusto. Those who jabbed fun at the Doctoral class I took this summer on Bob Dylan are also dense on other matters of life but I let their judgments go and I have no problem expressing why. I want to hear your reasons as well so feel free to jump in whenever via ‘Leave a Comment’
Applying to this program at UTD was quite literally a blind leap of faith in the purest sense. A fellow intern was in the Undergrad program and when I was lamenting about applying to graduate school she made mention that UTD had a similar program to what I was looking for, it was brand new and modestly priced. I made an appointment to meet Julie Larsen that day. I applied, got accepted, took a Doctoral level Summer School and wouldn’t change a single iota of these decision to save my life. I love my job and am incredibly satisfied professionally but the moment you stop learning outside your work environment and growing as a professional and individual that’s when one falls behind and will forever struggle with playing catch up. That reason alone is why I am proudly earning a Masters in Emerging Media & Communications. Tweeting as part of class participation is cake icing.
Yes, we discuss Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social networking sites as a cultural and technological force but guess what? We also discuss Aristotle, Freud, Moileré, Mozart, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Steve Jobs. My classmates and I have heated debates about everything from blogs, architecture, Sasha Baron Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Jay Z, Chris Brogan, The New York Times, Paste Magazine, Perez Hilon and as you can imagine that list goes on for quite a while.
We are in a fraternal order deemed with the task of banding together to better understand the never ending, evolving technology and how it relates back to communications. We do Tweet in class because if we didn’t we wouldn’t be able to give feedback or collaborate as quickly as we do. If that’s not enough to justify how my program is helping support how education, knowledge and learning are changing then I don’t know what is. If you’re an undergraduate getting ready to graduate this Spring allow me to offer a bit of unsolicited advice: Graduate. Take a year off and go work, consider what you want to specialize in professionally, apply to 2 or 3 graduate programs in February a year later, go to graduate school and never stop learning or continuing to grow. The EMAC M.A. illustrates the entire reason why we should never stop extending our education.
What exactly does Mark Zuckerberg Own and is He really as Powerful as we think He is?
20 Oct 2010 3 Comments
in Salon Thoughts Tags: Advil, Communications, Facebook, Forbes, Ownership, Power, Social Media, Zuckerberg
Hello there La Vida New Media Enthusiasts, hope this Tuesday finds you well. In the spirit of relating this week’s new media question back to our #emac6300 class readings I am daring to enter the Facebook domain, analyze CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ask the tough questions. WARNING: This Blog Post May Require 2 Advil Gel Caplets. It’s about to get deep.
This week’s reading materials open a discussion about how models of ownership are changing and evolving in regards to the bevy of information now readily available in the public domain. Any person with Internet access can search for terms like ‘credit history+their name’ and within seconds a slew of reports pop up on Google. Who owns this information? The individual? The Government? The Credit Bureau marketing their services? It’s not entirely clear, but that’s not even half the issue. One cannot address means of ownership without also considering the factor of ‘Power’. These two issues naturally coincide and make issues surrounding ‘Net Neutrality’ even more complex.
After compiling the 2010 Forbes ‘“World’s 100 Most Powerful Women List” journalist Mary Ellen Egan posted a blog entitled Rethinking Power and asked readers to submit feedback regarding this year’s list, what power means to them and how does one accurately measure influence. The blog makes an excellent point…
“This year, when I was charged with restructuring our “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list, I had to reexamine the notion of power. In the past, power was very much tied to title and wealth. But today, thanks to the Internet and Social Networks, you don’t have to be rich or important to reach a mass audience. So Lady Gaga, who has 6.5 million Twitter followers, has her own sphere of influence. But it’s a very different one than say, Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and the only female head of a G8 economy. Putting this list together has been an interesting exercise in thinking about power and how it’s measured. Did we succeed? Did we fail? I’m interested to hear your thoughts, complaints, or faint praise.”
After reading this post a million thoughts flooded my conscious and I needed to step back so that I could accurately reflect about how this relates to the Facebook King himself, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg.
My skepticism towards Facebook’s and Mark Zuckerberg’s perceived values only increased after watching The Social Network (a documentary film about Facebook’s conception based on the best selling novel Accidental Billionaires written by Ben Mezrich) earlier this month. As a New Media Enthusiast/Investigative Social Media Reporter I still find it hard to believe that economists have put a $25 Billion dollar value on Facebook. Sure there is Ad Revenue, global influence, and an invaluable vault of web traffic statistics and consumer demographics companies would sell their children for, but does Mark Zuckerberg really own as much information as we think he does? And more importantly because he (rather his company) perceivably owns this wealth of information, does a vast amount of power come with ownership? I have to say, there’s a stout amount of evidence which leads to answer a cautious, resounding yes.
However on the other side of the equation, a significantly large audience still doubts that Facebook dictates the amount of influence it reportedly has for a variety of reasons. As frivolous as their reasons may be (Zuckerberg’s too young, There is no way it’s possible, etc.) these lingering doubts provide evidence that the battle is still being fought and people are still hesitant about the information ownership issues Zuckerberg controls. The below graphic, compliments of valleywag.gawker.com made me laugh outloud:
So weigh in readers and let me know your thoughts. What exactly do you think Mark Zuckerberg owns? Is he really as powerful as we think he is? If you wanted to own Facebook tomorrow, how much would you shell out? The questions are there, I look to you for potential answers/feedback.
Where Did All the Parisian Summer Grad School Classes Go?
29 Sep 2010 3 Comments
in Salon Thoughts Tags: Emerging Media, Paris, Research, Social Media, Study Abroad
Friends, Scholars, Paris Lovers – Lend Me Your Ears. As graduate students taking a course in Emerging Media and Communications, I personally invite all of you to contribute your thoughts, musings, and speculations to this week’s New Media Question, which is simply the following…
Where Did All the Parisian Summer Grad School Classes Go…
While I was torn between writing about the new BlackBerry Playbook (too easy), Remediation (too repetitive) and New Media around TX-OU weekend (too risky- I went to Alabama), I decided to focus on a question that has personally been bugging me since I began to navigating the new world channels within the labyrinth of Graduate School Bureaucracy.
At this point I am sure you’re asking, why does Amanda even care about Parisian Summer Grad School classes? You raise a good point so let me explain further why I inquire about the above:
As many of you readers may remember from when we went around and played the ‘Hello/Intro’ game on our 1st day of EMAC6300, I shared with the class that I have a particular interest focused on International Communications. In the past, I have traveled to Europe extensively and also lived there in college while interning with a boutique agency, Comms-Unit. When you combine a person who loves to travel and emerging media with a rising international social media firm like Social Media Delivered where I currently work – You can bet two cents that I will do everything in my power to plan and complete a cultural emersion internship and course that which will cover the 6 hours of class credit that I need for Summer 2011.
Here in lies the problem… from the extensive amount of research I’ve done, virtually every Summer Abroad program in Paris I looked up and collected data from was designed for an UNDERGRADUATE… which I am not. And to add salt to the wound, I discovered this fact after sending a very comprehensive/detailed email to both my abroad and academic advisors who are working tirelessly to help me make my way abroad.
So I decided to turn to you, my fellow colleagues and classmates. Perhaps you may have run across certain opportunities which offer concrete details about Parisian Summer Classes for GRADUATE students. Through this investigative journey I am also interested in documenting how social media’s role effects this research question, because virtually all information available can be found online in social networking vehicles like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You would think there would be a LinkedIn group focused on Graduate Students Studying in Paris… I intend to start one if I don’t find it next week.
This scholarly voyage is also an extension of the research paper I eventually hope to conceptualize and develop as we move toward the end of the semester. I intend to write my final paper for EMAC6300 on what criteria is key for developing a strong & well-rounded Emerging Media program. It seemed natural to also consider students who had attended programs where completing abroad fieldwork was not only a requirement but encouraged because it gives students a broader idea about the holistic global village we all play a role in.
The French are also famous for one of the more primitive forms that could be considered a pioneer in social networking communication: the salon. So if you do know where the Parisian Summer Grad School classes are, I am begging you, PLEASE send me any of the following:
Their Twitter Handle / Facebook Fan Page / LinkedIn Group / Email Address / YouTube Account / MySpace Info / Gowalla Link / Yelp Review / 4Square Badge / Contact Name
– As the French would say so eloquently: Merci.
Art’s Originality: Is it Blowing Away Like Dust In the Wind?
21 Sep 2010 1 Comment
in Salon Thoughts Tags: Art, Benjamin, Bob Dylan, Communication, Creativity, Critic, Death, Emerging Media, Loss, Lover, Perception, Philosophy, Remediation, Scholar, Walter
Walter’ Benjamin’s article touched on a point I struggle to understand as an Art Lover and Critic. Let’s be honest… we’ve all purchased prints famous painting replicas of Art by the Old Masters because unless you’re planning to also acquire the Vatican, you more than likely can not afford the original.
Like I said as an Art Lover and Critic I walk a fine line between appreciating the process of mass reproduction which at points in my life has allowed me to purchase mementoes in the form of paintings, prints and pictures which I have tastefully displayed around my house. If it had not been for the technology evolutions that allowed these images to be distributed amongst the masses then my walls would be bare.
On the other hand however, there is nothing quite like walking into London’s National Portrait Gallery or Paris’s Musée d’Orsay as you spend hours gazing at the Monets and Rembrandts that through careful preservation still display the final brush strokes from the oil pigments against the master’s palette.
So the new media question at stake of course goes back to a point made within Benjamin’s article about the work of art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Does an original work depreciate as old and new media spread the image/video/composition/script/film through the society at large. I’m inclined to say… Kind of.
Let’s look at a prime example analyzing the true original artist you would never call out for being a sell out- Bob Dylan. Did you know in addition to being one of the world’s most revered singer, songwriter, poet, and Folk star that Bob Dylan also painted? It’s true, this is a great site that features his work: bobdylanart.com
I took a summer school class on Bob Dylan and the reason why I bring him up as an example is because for 4 weeks all I heard about was Bob Dylan’s poignant personality and real authenticity. When we covered the ‘painting’ aspect of his career, which began in early 2004… the fans in my class ironically became quite disappointed, dare I say enraged and went as far to denounce the man they once held on a pedestal.
New Media allowed me to learn about Bob Dylan’s career as a painter, (http://ow.ly/2HULI) but when I began to study how his career developed and how this medium was simply an outlet he tapped into later, I understood his paintings better and thus appreciated their originality. It’s a fine line, but I think every artist will walk it at some point thanks to the continuing development of technology and information sharing.
Benjamin’s article also references the following quote…
“Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven will make films… all legends, all mythologies and all myths, all founders of religion, and the very religions… await their exposed resurrection, and the heroes crowd each other at the gate.”
I have to admit, if I could host a new media salon in my new house’s burnt orange living room, you could bet that Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven, Francis Ford Coppola and Bob Dylan would all be there. Can you imagine what philosophical musings these guys might have about the meaning of art evolving toward an Age of New Media? I hope Bob brings his guitar.
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