The other day I was thinking about porn. Now these weren't the typical thoughts I usually have about porn but surprisingly were more geared toward our new media class. I began to think about how porn stars, male and female, alter their bodies. Similarly to the way in which Harraway talks about how the cyborg remakes themselves, porn stars remake themselves into the way that they wish to be.
Harraway states that cyborgs are "an ironic, political myth" rebuilding themselves in a way that is separate from the conventions (culturally, physically and ideologically) that make up current and existing culture. They live in a world that is not entrenched in the "myths" of a culture but are able to rise above those conventions and remake those ideologies and themselves in a way that best serves the current technological world.
In a sense, porn stars do the same thing. First, they are not encumbered by notions of gender and the ideologies that accompany them. The instances in which gender does necessitate a form, they fashion those roles into new experiences. Next, porn stars remake their own bodies. Of course many people have cosmetic surgery that are not in the porn industry, but what separates porn stars from other people is the length to which they sometimes take their alterations. They have taken the norm of what is considered to beautiful and sexual and created a hyper-real version of it. They are not striving to be the most beautiful, they are striving to reconstruct themselves and their image into a idealized version of themselves, one based upon their own ideals.
I do not know how much of the porn industry is based strictly upon the emergence of digital technology (or any specific technology for that matter, after all it is the oldest profession), but digital technology is going to continue to increase exponentially and so to, most likely will the porn industry. It will be interesting to see how the proliferation of porn via the internet will shape our culture. It will also be interesting to watch if the "freedom to come into your own" attitude, exemplified by many in the porn industry, will bleed into culture on broader scale.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Research 3
“Interactivity is the property of the technology, while participation is the property of culture” –Henry Jenkins (8)
Henry Jenkins wrote an article in 2006 for the Macarthur Foundation. The paper, entitled Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (referred to as The White Paper by the author), shifts the focus of media education within our society from that of a technological stand point to that of a cultural standpoint. I found the above quote to encompass not only the overarching theme of the paper but it also serves as a reflection of our societies views of digital technology and why many controversies surrounding implementation of digital technology are confusing to the public.
The article states that much of the youth of today are involved in many forms of what Jenkins calls participatory culture. Examples of participatory culture come in four forms: affiliations, expressions, collaborative problem-solving, and circulations. Affiliations include any activities including metagaming, game clans, MySpace and Facebook. Expressions are “producing new creative forms, such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups” (Jenkins 3). Collaborative problem solving involves individuals working as teams to complete tasks and “develop new knowledge” (3) such as wikipedia. Participants in circulations are involved in “shaping the flow of media, such as podcasting and blogging” (3). Jenkins goes on to acknowledge that much of our society feels “that children and youth acquire these skills and competencies on their own by interacting with popular culture” (3). This assumption is obviously false based upon many controversies surrounding cyber culture, controversies which are beyond the assumed technological growing pains.
Jenkins views three primary concerns in terms of media education, The Participation Gap, The Transparency Problem and The Ethics Challenge. First, Many people in the world wish to be involved with the internet revolution but due in part to either inadequate availability to equipment or lack of knowledge to use the equipment some individuals are restricted from participating. The second and third issues are quite possible where much of today’s problems, such as internet piracy and Digital Rights Management (DRM), arise.
Most media education seems to focus on learning the technology and the skills to be able to use the technology. This is a very worthwhile endeavour but seldom are people taught "to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world" (Jenkins 3). Furthermore, media education, though it does instruct skills for using technology it fails to instruct people to approach their participation in cyber culture with responsibility in regards to society on a whole. These are issues that "might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants" (Jenkins 3).
One prominent challenge facing participatory culture right now is internet piracy. Many major media companies have resorted to suing other companies and individuals for copyright infringement and theft via file sharing. The media industry is at fault for wanting to secure what is legally theirs, but the fault lies their inability to see what this participatory culture is creating (and thus proliferating the media companies content). Likewise, the people responsible for copyright infringement are not trying to steal, for example music, for the sake of stealing, but are reaffirming the product media company has released by including it in their new "mash-up." What the individual fails to realize is the larger effect that this behavior has on our society and our economy.
Media education needs to stem from the culture not from the technology; from the participatory not from the interactivity. If our society would stop allowing our media to instruct people on how to act and expecting the "magic black box" (Jenkins 7) to automatically instill education and start becoming invested (participating), we will be in a much better position to address some of the current and future problems.
Jenkins, Henry. MacArthur Foundation. The White Paper
Henry Jenkins wrote an article in 2006 for the Macarthur Foundation. The paper, entitled Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century (referred to as The White Paper by the author), shifts the focus of media education within our society from that of a technological stand point to that of a cultural standpoint. I found the above quote to encompass not only the overarching theme of the paper but it also serves as a reflection of our societies views of digital technology and why many controversies surrounding implementation of digital technology are confusing to the public.
The article states that much of the youth of today are involved in many forms of what Jenkins calls participatory culture. Examples of participatory culture come in four forms: affiliations, expressions, collaborative problem-solving, and circulations. Affiliations include any activities including metagaming, game clans, MySpace and Facebook. Expressions are “producing new creative forms, such as digital sampling, skinning and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups” (Jenkins 3). Collaborative problem solving involves individuals working as teams to complete tasks and “develop new knowledge” (3) such as wikipedia. Participants in circulations are involved in “shaping the flow of media, such as podcasting and blogging” (3). Jenkins goes on to acknowledge that much of our society feels “that children and youth acquire these skills and competencies on their own by interacting with popular culture” (3). This assumption is obviously false based upon many controversies surrounding cyber culture, controversies which are beyond the assumed technological growing pains.
Jenkins views three primary concerns in terms of media education, The Participation Gap, The Transparency Problem and The Ethics Challenge. First, Many people in the world wish to be involved with the internet revolution but due in part to either inadequate availability to equipment or lack of knowledge to use the equipment some individuals are restricted from participating. The second and third issues are quite possible where much of today’s problems, such as internet piracy and Digital Rights Management (DRM), arise.
Most media education seems to focus on learning the technology and the skills to be able to use the technology. This is a very worthwhile endeavour but seldom are people taught "to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world" (Jenkins 3). Furthermore, media education, though it does instruct skills for using technology it fails to instruct people to approach their participation in cyber culture with responsibility in regards to society on a whole. These are issues that "might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants" (Jenkins 3).
One prominent challenge facing participatory culture right now is internet piracy. Many major media companies have resorted to suing other companies and individuals for copyright infringement and theft via file sharing. The media industry is at fault for wanting to secure what is legally theirs, but the fault lies their inability to see what this participatory culture is creating (and thus proliferating the media companies content). Likewise, the people responsible for copyright infringement are not trying to steal, for example music, for the sake of stealing, but are reaffirming the product media company has released by including it in their new "mash-up." What the individual fails to realize is the larger effect that this behavior has on our society and our economy.
Media education needs to stem from the culture not from the technology; from the participatory not from the interactivity. If our society would stop allowing our media to instruct people on how to act and expecting the "magic black box" (Jenkins 7) to automatically instill education and start becoming invested (participating), we will be in a much better position to address some of the current and future problems.
Jenkins, Henry. MacArthur Foundation. The White Paper
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
New Media Venacular is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Affiliation, affinity, multitasking, participatory, interactivity, semiotic,transparency,...
All of these are words are not new, but the meanings of them are now new. So I suppose that they are in fact "new words." What these words all have in common (besides being reissued words, fresh out of the box of cyberculture and smelling like plastic) is that I have had repeated encounters with them as I have studied the new medium of video games. All of these words are obviously not new and have been around for ... well, a long time I'm sure. But as media evolves so to does our language. The words that we use now to describe current forms of media will most likely be different than the words we will use in the future.
There are many words that are not even currently within our vocabulary or just have not been developed yet. Take for instance the piece "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush. Throughout that article Bush is describing in depth what sounds like our current computers and more specifically their ability to hyperlink, one of the tenents of the digital age. What Bush did not have was the vocabulary. The words we use today did not exist in 1945 when Bush was writing. In fact, Bush's vision is so far a head of its time that many of the words today didn't even exist fifteen years ago.
It has been difficult to find words that to describe the cognitive and social processes of video games. Much of the venacular surrounding media criticism is still being developed and no doubt there are many words that will develop before our society reaches digital adulthood.
With all that having been said though, it is an exciting time to be in media studies. And who knows, with wikiality poised like a 10 ton load of crap hangning over our societal heads, I might be able change the meanings of a few words. Or, I just might come up with a few words of my own, ... hmmm.
All of these are words are not new, but the meanings of them are now new. So I suppose that they are in fact "new words." What these words all have in common (besides being reissued words, fresh out of the box of cyberculture and smelling like plastic) is that I have had repeated encounters with them as I have studied the new medium of video games. All of these words are obviously not new and have been around for ... well, a long time I'm sure. But as media evolves so to does our language. The words that we use now to describe current forms of media will most likely be different than the words we will use in the future.
There are many words that are not even currently within our vocabulary or just have not been developed yet. Take for instance the piece "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush. Throughout that article Bush is describing in depth what sounds like our current computers and more specifically their ability to hyperlink, one of the tenents of the digital age. What Bush did not have was the vocabulary. The words we use today did not exist in 1945 when Bush was writing. In fact, Bush's vision is so far a head of its time that many of the words today didn't even exist fifteen years ago.
It has been difficult to find words that to describe the cognitive and social processes of video games. Much of the venacular surrounding media criticism is still being developed and no doubt there are many words that will develop before our society reaches digital adulthood.
With all that having been said though, it is an exciting time to be in media studies. And who knows, with wikiality poised like a 10 ton load of crap hangning over our societal heads, I might be able change the meanings of a few words. Or, I just might come up with a few words of my own, ... hmmm.
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