Framing versus Transversality

The way in which our lives have been shaped and the reasons why we are where we are today is no doubt due to the framing of the aspects around us. One particularly large influence on our life which shapes our understanding of issues is the way the media is framed. The framing of the media and what is portrayed to the public is heavily affecting our lies and what we value in it. This is also related to the types of technologies that we are exposed to. Whether it be a newspaper, the television, computers or smart phones, the way we use these instruments and what is presented to us from them is all part of the framing of our lives.

In regards to transversality, there is quite a distinction between it and framing and the way it affects us. Andrew stated in the lecture that,

              “grasping as much from infinity as we can is TRANSVERSALITY, whereas rejecting infinity as much as we can in favour of what are known, given structures is FRAMING.”

Transversality can be defined as “a line that cuts across other lines, perhaps across entire fields – bringing the fields together in a new way, recreating fields as something else” (Murphie 2006). This concept can be used to help define the way in which aspects of our media, although separate, can be linked together.

Gary Genosko, adds to this idea as “he takes this question of transversality into an understanding of the dynamics of institutions”, where it leads to the reforming of institutions when new lines cross between older disciplines and cultural practices.

A modern day example of a transversal technology and one which we can all associate with is the organization of data in our music libraries. Today we simply log onto iTunes and can purchase a whole library of music that is specific to our favourite genres. This can also be associated as having a new set of framings as iTunes is a result of apple technology, which is what has consequently resulted in the decrease in CD shops. This “line” that links different fields can be an example of our own ecologies of practice as what we choose to do and our what our prior knowledge and understanding of issues are, leads us to be able to use media in the way can today.

References:

Genosko, Gary. Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction (London and New York: Continuum, 2002)

Murphie, A 2006, 'Editorial'. The Fibreculure Journal. Issue 9, <http://nine.fibreculturejournal.org/>

Mixed Realities

Reality is what we experience of the world as produced by our sensations, habits and mind. The readings this week covered the topic of reality and how virtual reality and augmented reality have become such an integral part of our everyday lives.

In recent years the sense of the word reality has been constantly changing as new meanings and terms associated with reality keep altering, due to the continual development of technology. Very basically, reality refers to the state of things as they exist. This includes anything that is observable or comprehensible and everything that has existed, exist or will exist. ‘The real’ refers to the world as it is, whether we can/choose to engage in it or not.

This means that virtual reality refers to computer-simulated environments that present a physical sort of ‘real’ presence in an imaginary world that is displayed through a computer screen or another equivalent. Virtual reality became very popular during the early 1990s due to the success and technological advancements in such films as The Matrix. It was this platform and rapid speed of technological progression that led to the development of further forms of this ‘replicated’ reality.

More recently, augmented reality is a further adaptation of virtual reality, which focuses more as a live and direct view of a physical ‘real-world’ whose elements are amplified by replica sensory inputs such as sound and graphics. In a sense it is the mergence of reality and virtual reality. A current example of this is the Google glass. Our sensations (touch, smell, hear, taste, speak) all play an integral part in our understanding and perception of reality. However, it has been in more recent times when our sensors have become more imperative, due to virtual and augmented reality and how we use it. This Google glass is a way in which reality and virtual reality is combined into one and is control through voice activation and movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE

It is through these everyday practices and technological devices that we can now choose to live our lives in a more ‘virtual’ way by accessing elements of technology and ‘reality’ that make the types of experiences we now have even more ‘real’ than they really are. 

Media Ecology

This weeks readings and the material covered in the lecture brings about the topic of media ecology.

The first thing I associate media ecology with is this picture that was shown in the lecture of a nuclear family in the 1950s or 1960s, all sitting around the television harmoniously, watching a television program.

What is interesting to note is the fact that if you compare this image to a modern day family watching television, the scene is quite different. I can discuss my family watching television on a typical night. We are more than likely multi-tasking as one of us is usually on our phones on Facebook or texting, or someone’s on the iPad or mum or dad are on the telephone. We can hardly ever agree on something we all want to watch due to the large number of media flows that are presented to us through pay tv networks.

Just comparing these two scenarios depicts how media ecology has transformed due to the new technologies in the media available to us. Matthew Fuller (2005) describes media ecology as a euphemism for the allocation of informational roles in organizations and in computer-supported collaborative work. In other words, it describes how information flows are used to sustain what we now call a relatively stable notion of human culture.

Stuart Hall’s writings on Encoding and Decoding also link to the notion of media ecology and how modern day machinic and digital aesthetics have assisted in its development. Hall’s work is linked to fact that media ecologies can be broken down into separate parts of a process, and at each point undergoing treatment and filtering by specialization of interests.

It is interesting to note that due to these new technologies and new era of media and the way in which we use it, media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affects human perception, understand and feeling and how this interaction with media affects our lives.

Ideas about media change

What I am most looking forward to about taking ARTS3091 Advanced Media Issues, this semester is how we will be looking at issues that we are dealt with in our everyday life and ways of appreciating and understanding them further. This course is set out to discuss and look at the ideologies surrounding the types of advanced media issues that we deal with on a daily basis and question the quality of the types of technologies that we use. 

As individuals, we all process information differently and the way in which we perceive things varies. Each individual’s personal learning context is crucial in developing our skills and the way in which we explore information that we come across.

Change is something that has occurred since the beginning of time. Nothing has remained constant, especially in today’s society. We live in an era where new phones come out every month as well as different laptops, tablets and computers. As well as physical new technologies evolving, the way in which we use them is also changing. Technology is evolving so constantly that we are forced to learn how to adapt and use newer versions of devices that we have only just come to be familiar with.

The readings this week addressed the issues regarding how we live with technology and interpreting cultural history. What I found interesting was how Andrew Murphie describes technological determinism refers to the belief that technology is the agent of social change which is also linked to the idea of progress. As well as the fact that society is shaped by its dominant technologies. It is this sense of how technologies are changing that represent how society and its culture change over time. 

The reading by Jussi Parikka also demonstrates how different forms of media and technologies change over time. She suggests that 'Media archaeology' has been introduced as a way to investigate the new media cultures through insights from past new media. The key themes and contexts relating to media archaeology and the idea of it changing over time includes modernity (as a process of technological, social and economic components has proved to be a key ‘turning point’ in various media- archaeological theories), cinema, histories of the present and alternative histories. These key themes help us to understand that there are many avenues that technological change can go down, due to the large number of media that we are familiar with and how it has originated from the past. But even more so than the things we are familiar with, issues such as events can also be defined as changing.

An event can be defined as something that has a beginning and an end. In this case, almost anything can be called that, such as a human experience, activity or an idea.

While the concept of an event has been one that can be found in history, each one comes and goes at different times and they are each constantly changing. The way in which society and the culture within it has been depicted in the present day context has led to events and all types of technologies and devices being subject to change, and constantly fighting to stay new and updated.

I hope that this course helps me to question and understand more of what the values and meanings are behind all of these ideologies and issues surrounding media today. There is no question that change is around us everywhere we go, it’s just how we choose to deal with it that will help us accept it.