Session 11: Form and Subject

This week, we looked at minding the gap between three different platforms. The three platforms we looked at were:

1. ORLAN
2. SIMMEL
3. MORI

I have had the "pleasure" of learning about ORLAN in my Producing Culture course. Her form of artistic expression is kind of crazy and makes me quite nervous to look at. It is very interesting for she uses plastic surgery as her chosen medium. Not only does she have the surgery as part of her creation, but she also documents the surgery on film (images and motion picture) while staying awake for the whole thing! Her take on the process of beauty and plastic surgery is "the objective is unattainable and the process horrifying". She definitely opens up a different side of the study of beauty. I agree with her take on the process, although her art does make me nervous.

This is the first time I have heard of SIMMEL. His theory plays on the form of existence and looks at the "aesthetic dimension of social life". Tim writes about the dimensions of Simmel's characterization of the aesthetic realm of society. These two dimensions consist of:

1. "The playful appreciation of apparent social/cultural forms 'for their own sake' not their meaning"; and
2. "The construction of a totality (a form) from fragmentary information"

The platform of MORI is also new to me. It refers to weird stuff, such as "uncanniness". To me, an example of this platform is a doppelganger. I know we have studied this in previous weeks, but these last couple of weeks seem to always incorporate much of the semester. Tim suggests that in our digital world, a doppelganger can be created through digital art. Tim gave us an example of this with the digitally enhanced version of Homer Simpson.

Session 12: Cultural Memory

Tim quotes Cultural Memory as "the interplay of present and past in socio-cultural contexts". For this entry, I thought it would be a cool idea to look at architecture that recognizes the idea of cultural memory.

Architecture is a strong example of cultural memory because the style usually relates to the time and culture of the surrounding community.

The Sydney Opera House was built in the 1970's. Designed by a foreign architect, the structure shows a change in time and innovation. The amazing piece of architecture shows the cultural shift of that time period, when it was "out with the old and in with the new".

Flinder's Street Station was built in the early 1900's when Melbourne was becoming a city for people to migrate to. The style represents the culture of the city and the time period. The purpose for the building represents the innovation in transportation - using the building as a central station for the newly invented tram.

Session 10: Experimental Imaging in Sound and Vision

In today's tutorial, we focused on software as a "culture of activity". We had to get into groups of four or five and choose five pieces of software. Each group member took on a different role; camera person, software user, note-taker and live commentator. Each piece of software that we looked at, we rotated roles and since we had five members, rather than four, we had two note-takers each time.

The first round, I was one of the note-takers. Below is a picture of the notes that I took while Britt perused on Facebook; our first piece of software we examined.

On our own, we had to complete five more examinations of software for a total of ten. The following is the list of software that I "interrogated", although I will only include five in my blog entry:

1. Facebook


2. iPhoto


3. Blogger


4. Audacity


5. Pages


6. Microsoft Word


7. Garage Band


8. Adobe Photoshop Elements


9. Blackboard


10. iDVD

These pieces of software range from social networking sites, -to image-editing software, -to sound-editing programs, -to software with educational purposes. Although one could argue that all of these pieces of software can be used for educational purposes.

For each piece of software, we were asked to answer three questions:

1. What does the software "do"?


2. Who wrote the software and who "uses" it?


3. If you wanted to buy the software
   a. Is the software "free"?
   b. What does "free" mean?

Facebook:

1. Facebook is a social networking site that keeps people in touch with each other.
2. The software was written by Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg.
3. The software is free and can be used by visiting www.facebook.com and creating a profile. Once you have created a profile, there are various features that have a fee to use. These features are optional.

iPhoto:

1. iPhoto is a Mac program that helps users organize their photos. The program also allows users to alter images.
2. This software was written by Brian Webster.
3. iPhoto comes as part of a Mac program package called iLife. iLife can be purchased from the online Mac Store or in-person at a Mac Store for between US$79.00 and US$99.00.

Blogger:

1. Blogger is a social networking website. It allows people to document various topics in an online journal that can be made available for people all over the world to read.
2. This software was written by
3. Blogger is a free service that you simply sign-up for using an email address and password. You just create a profile and start writing.

Audacity:

1. Audacity is a sound editing software. It allows people to sample sounds and experiment with changing them.
2. This software was written by a group of volunteers. Their names could not be found on the Internet.
3. Audacity is a free program that can be downloaded off the Internet at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/

Pages:

1. Pages is a word processing program that is used on Mac computers.
2. The software writer could not be found on the Internet.
3. Pages is part of a Mac program package called iWork that can be purchased online or in-store for US$79.00 or US$99.00 for the Family Pack.

All of these programs will be familiar to many people in our class. Since they have used them for either personal or school use at some point.

With this exercise, it was really interesting to see how much we paid attention to our actual practices of the programs. With software such as Facebook, its uses are a second nature to us. We don't have to pay close attention to what we're doing. Whereas with Audacity, the software is not as familiar to us and we have to concentrate on our movements and what items we choose from the toolbar.