2010年11月10日 星期三

Digital Games- But are they art?

a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?
        Adam said art is not formula, art should be devided into four types:
        Literary art ( film and TV)
        Fine art ( music, dance, sulpture)
        Decorative art (wallpaper)
        Architecture

       art should not just be a kind of activities, but it should have some thing moral or meaning involve in it. art is the communication between artists and viewers. If the viewres is disturbed, the conversation would come to a halt. art is how to be used, it has its functional purpose. Creativity enhace the utilitarian aspect of art and art itself invoves economic purpose, salesbility is mentioned in the reading. Populart culture cannot be art.

       I agree the point that artwork is a bridge for artists to communicate with the viwers, just like Mona Lisa, the simle that portrayed by Leonardo is to tell people about the beauty of Mona Lisa. also, art has its functional purpose , if their purpose is the same is not neccesary to classify them into fine art, decorative art etc. but i dun think art should involove economic interest or i am afriad that if it really comes true, the artistic production may become marketing-directed. 
b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?
      The video game have narrativeand it can be literary art. If the critirias of fine art can be included in video games that it can be art. Also, the videogames have to challenge the players. they have to motivate and stimulate the viewers to think of issues that they don't know or think deeper to what  they already knew . if the new asthetics visual element, ideas and thought can be added into the video game, than it can be art.

2010年11月5日 星期五

presentation: constructing identity online

INTRODUCTION ISSUES:

l   What is identify? What is a digital or online identify? Different from “in person” identity?
n   One definition from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary of identity: “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining this.” More simply, one might say your identity is the answer to the question “who are you?”
n   Digital or online identity is a portrayal of who you are in a digital or online format. Like any form of identity, this presents only a slice of who you are, and in some ways allows a person to mare carefully control what that presentation of identity is.
l   Questions of authenticity
n   With the ability to construct your online personas, questions are raised related to the intention behind how this representation or conveyed. Is an online identity a “true” identity or is it something inauthentic, simply constructed by the portrayer.
n     “In sum, the selves that we have are composed of multiple identities and contradictory experiences. In late-modern society, it is almost impossible to have a fully unified, completed and coherent ‘self’; rather, we all tend to have fleeting, multiple and contradictory selves”
(Charles Cheung “Presentations of Self on Personal Homepages”, p45)
l   Identity convergence is when you have a crossover between different portrayals of your identity. As many people have multiple online identities this becomes a more relevant issue. Some risks that could come along with this would be if one identity is intended for a specific audience but the audience of a different one of a person’s identities encounters both identities they might question the person’s integrity and character through these contrasting portrayals.
l   Public vs. private sharing of personal info
n   Online identities can blur the line between what we traditionally think of as public vs. private information. It also can challenge comfort zones regarding what we might consider personal spheres.
l   Ethics issues
n   By placing your identity in a digital format instead of a living format it places this information in a place that can potentially be used by others
n   People can hide behind a constructed identity to harm others in ways they might not as their “real life” identities


let's talked about some basic information about Facebook.
according to facebook's own group, it was founded in February 4, 2004
the main ideas of establishing Facebook is:
 "...to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."

a book called Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook (http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx00n8nh88252822/fulltext.pdf)states that : FaceBook in U.S. has been wellcome by thousand number of colleges and high schools, its users is over 9 million  or even more and more. its penetrates into more than 80% of the undergraduate college students!
->from this statement, we can see that facebook, indeed, set a "more open and connected" world.

according to Looking at, Looking up or Keeping up with People?: Motives and Uses of Facebook by Adam N Joinson (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.168.3722&rep=rep1&type=pdf) said:
"...while the vast majority of messages (of Facebook) are sent to friends (90.6%), a large proportion(41.6%) is sent to friends outside of one’s local network."

from above, it seems that facebook can widen people social circle,
but in the same article, it also states that:
"Interestingly, an increased score on the content gratification scale was negatively related to the number of ‘friends’ reported to be linked to one’s profile. This perhaps suggests a sub-set of users gain gratification through the use of applications within Facebook, rather than through the accrual of ‘friends’...many of the applications available in Facebook ...at present...tend to rely on existing contacts, rather than the accrual of new ‘friends’. As such, they may serve to strengthen social ties, rather than acting to increase the overall size of a social network. Thus, investment of time and effort in social applications within Facebook may be
akin to messaging between friends ...rather than creating new links."
the statement state that people happiness is nothing to do with how many "friends" that they have. those application emerges in facebook is just used for strengthen their own social circle, but not really making new "friends".

 the aims of the Facebook may not be able to reach, meanwhile, many inherent problems may arise!

Problem of authrity:

here we've got a interesting clip in Youtube, talking about what things we can do in facebook.

like uploading your photos, adding friends, joining different groups, writting on people's wall, tagging post.
but by the time,, the lyrics of the song uploaded in Youtube points out an important point.
" how do you know this person? did you heard of this person? do u need to request confirmation? or just you think they look cute in the photo they posted on facebook?"
the lyrics points out that people are attracted by others with appealing appearance, but do those photo uploaded in Facebook is one's true self? that remains a questions. Meanwhile, people attentiom other's attention by using celebrities' photo or stealing from orther people's websites may arouse a problem of violation of intellectual perperties!


ethic problem:



forming opposing group to isolate people with different attitude is common in facebook, in which people often comment with hostillity, intend to provoke disputes and humiliate the guy who being isolated, this kind of opposing group constructing online is reguarded as a kind of social isolation or cyber bullying. this offense the mission of Facebook: make the world more open and connected.

identity convergence:

Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook also said that  also said that :" its privacy default settings are very permeable: ...participants' profiles are searchable by anybody else
on the FB network, and actually readable by any member at the same college and
geographical location. In addition, external access to a college FB community
(e.g., by non-students/faculty/staff/alumni, or by non-college-affiliated individuals)
is so easy , that the network is effectively an open community, and its
data effectively public."



here is a clip about a case in reality proofing that facebook has its own disadvantages

an editor of a famous kid fashion magazine "kongfu"said it is hard to separate her job and private life from facebook. because her staff  can add her facebook. by the way, she can't control what her friends said may on her photos and wall. also, she may not be able to stop her friends from uploading some embarassing photos which may demage her image in office.

-> from the evidence above, we can see  constructing identities in Facebook gives rase to many sensitive problems like ethics problem, problems of identity convergence and problems of viewing authority.

Reference list:
1) Concise Oxford English Dictionary
2) Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/facebook?v=info)
3) Imagained Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook
(http://www.springerlink.com/content/gx00n8nh88252822/fulltext.pdf)
4)  Facebook Song, Youtube,  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSnXE2791yg)
5)  Looking at, Looking up or Keeping up with People?: Motives and Uses of Facebook by Adam N Joinson (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.168.3722&rep=rep1&type=pdf)
6) Opposing forum of Amina Mariam Bokhary in Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/fan-dui-bao-zhi-jin-zhi-zhi-nu-zhi-pan-gan-hua-ling-fa-kuan-ji-ting-pai-yi-nian-zhi-suo-wei-zhong-pan-xing-fa/149723398374745)
7) Oposing forum of Mrs Chow in Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes.php?id=118559834822868&notes_tab=app_2347471856)
8)  Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on Facebook, (privacy.cs.cmu.edu/dataprivacy/projects/facebook/facebook2.pdf)
9) Facebook is good for making friend but may damage the career reputation, Youtube, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSGiBfowoc)

2010年11月3日 星期三

ethics of video games~~
















 there are the clips called Game Revolution.




              according to the film,  game is a way for people to relax themselve and have a moment to escape from the reality, just do what they can't do in reality~
               according to the film, some video games, like SIM does encourage aggressive value and anti- social action. for example, people can kill other man for no reason, actually, we all know that  murder is strictly prohibited and belongs to a serious crime, but in the game people can do what they like, which , in a certain extent, nurturing their violent tendency when they play these kind of game for a long time everyday!

               also according to the film,  the interviewer that that Us military use the game to "train" teenagers in order to nurture their desire of being on the war !!so ironic is that US is a country of chasing peace, many people oppose the war, but at the same time, US Government encourages teens to be a solders through different violent and military games. in my point of views, why us have such a lot of gun attack at school and different places is that the provenance of military game create these anti -social actions!

                i do think that government should have a right to ban certain games, especially for those which intend to blow up some social danger, and to provoke the contradiction between different races and groups.

               for example, a famous game from Japan using crazy man as a main character.  Everyone can be crazy man and can rape women or flirt them when them are walking on the street, which arouse people attention and serious critiques!

                an other example example is a game called little fighters, in which there has been  some element which are suspected teasing at Muslim god, which also arouse Muslim serious oppositions and require the author's apology @@

               i had just had an interview with my classmates talking about what games they would like to play, Edith said that she likes playing SIM City @@ she said that in the game, she can use the weapons to hit the passerby, like old women or lock people in a kitchen, if they can't cook by themselves, she can burn and kill them all ==!! so terrible, she also said that the game in a certain extent ( i think in a very large extent!!) would encourage people tendency in violence!! i do think it can be real!! because a few years ago, there was a news happened in Hong Kong that a boy who kill a guy who were suspected stealing his weapon in online game!! i think it is because the boy was so indulged with those violent game which blur the boundary of reality and fancy, so he acted like that!!

                from those examples, we can say that if the game which aims at provoking social and racial disputes, government have a right to ban these games!!

crazy man game in japan

little fighters

2010年10月29日 星期五

Stelarc, Artist talk - Transmediale 2007



pay attention to 00:48 of the clip, which domonstrates how the transmediale work!!
 oh my god~ only the professor pressed the buttons of the remote control on his hand, the man who wore the machine would do action which he didn't intented to do!!! amazing work~ huh?!

by when we look into what Stelarc have done.. i think.. he is an artist who sacrifies for art sake!!


according to website named Stelarc's talk at Transmediale- We Make Money Not Art, (http://arts.kosmix.com/topic/Stelarc)   Stelar is a performance artist whose home town is in Australia. what he is try to do is that through implanation (==") with medical equipment, prosthetics (for example: faked arms) and internet to explore human capacity.


wow! if i were him, i juz can't imergine how painful it is !!!


=.= awful!! it is the wounds left by the performance.


In 2007, Stelarc had a surgery cultivating a ear on his left arm.





in the clip, Stelarc fully explains and domonstrates his idea of making "the body is performaning as a slipped body" (03:16) by implanting cells into people's stomach or other body parts, like arms which demonstrated in the first clip. in his thinking, body is "obsolete". this idea could be proved by the first clip, he implant a cells into the student's both arms and connect the cells with the remote control by using electricity strings, so that students can to what he might not want to do, which that the body of the student is a "segregated body" because it is controlled by Stekarc but not the student himself!!!

why i don't it is most interesting because what way Stelarc act reminds me of a taboo in society nowadays, that is body modification, people who like implanting something into their body in order to chase for a sense of excitment and "asthetic feeling"


more interestly, Stelarc's art work, walking head (2003) make me think of Doctor Octopus in Spiderman 2!! they are just too similar~!! aren't they?! huh?

2010年10月26日 星期二

constructing identity online~

http://www.mouchette.org/index.html


have you guys ever seen this website before?~
oh god~ the author of the website is a "so-called"  13 YEARS OLD Amsterdam little girl.
 when i first come to the website, hell~ there is a background sound effect of women's choking=.=
also, the background is annoying also, lots of flies creeping around the screen and the visual impact brought by the background somehow makes people feel awful because there are many bloody objects, like the dish contains some blood-like liquid.
 somepage, like flesh ad blood, the background is a person who try to use hie/her tongue to lick somethings, which promp people thinking of sexuality .
in the blog of digital flesh and blood, she said:
"Want to know what my tongue tastes like? Try it on your screen and tell me"


<-oh my god ~it doesn't like what a girl at the age of 13 said!!!






more importantly, a 13years old girl should be innocent and pure~ how come she would ask people what is the best method to commit suicide~ which also arose people attention and publish different opinions.


some said she might regret if she really commit suicide~ and some talking their discontent towards their relative and family members, like sister, and really want to die also. the discussion lead to over 771 page of comment. wow~ it's amazing!!!

but generally, me and my classmate like yeung kin, both of us think that the "13-years old" girl  just intended to draw people attention on her, there is no way for us to proove if her information~

2010年10月20日 星期三

online identity

i have found 3 different  students in my Digital Media class, they are Ka Ki, Fung, and ku ching. as a result, all of them have they account in Msn, facebook and hotmail.
View Image

i think the main difference between online identity and "in person" identity, like the identity card is that, online identity can be fake, but "in person" identity have to be real. because those information construced online is not mainly used as official record or financial uses. like MSN and facebook, they mainly use for connecting friends, relative and  for widen horizon, or it is for expressing opinion online community unity, like forums.



uwants.com is one of the most famous forum in Hong Kong.

also, when somebody have different sexial tendency, like lesbian and gay, they may feel isolated by society, since many people oppose to homosexuality, then they can find partners and get support by getting around in a certain community unity. in Hong Kong, TT1069.com is the most famous gaypeople forum.

tt1069.com


of course, constructing online identities online may have some risk behind. just like our information maybe stolen by other people, or our online idenitity, like facebook, may sell our identity for commercial profit.
morover, people who have some special opinion towards some social issue may arouse poele attention and opposition, thus cyber bullying emerged. one famous example is Ruby accident. Ruby had constructed a youtube clip condemning the english oral standard of the examiner, the clip arouse people attention can raise a series of condemnation in the net.




 ruby Youtube clip


people make a clip writing lots of rude language to huminiate Ruby.

the Ruby Incident stimulate people in the Net revealing her privacy, including her real name, where does she study, where does she live, etc.. inhttp://hahavdo.blogspot.com/2010/04/ruby-profile.html, it record the general comments of the people-onlined towards Ruby and her privacy. thus don't look down on the risk of the net people!!

from the comments given by the net people towards Ruby, we can see people generally dislike her, saying that her english and prounciation is not that good and have no qualification to critice the examiner. wow~ @@

2010年10月6日 星期三

bus uncle proves Youtube power @@



plz dun mind that i use such rude but famous videos to prove the power of Youtube. ~.~
Up to this moment, about 1,061,196 viewers  are estimated to have watched the Youtube video, which reveals by Youtube itself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsYRQkmVifg, Hong Kong Bus Uncle with English and Mandarin Subtitles, 2010/10/ 06) . Well, in my point of view, it is never a high quality in technical terms. it is not aesthetically interesting both in camera angle and use of light. From the camera angel and the texture roughness of the scenes, it seems that the clip is just a candid clip. In the perspective of narrative, I think.. the gaggling of the person who takes the clip is the only narrative. For me, I really don’t appreciate this kind of candid clip, because it is rude, no meaning, it not only intends to show the embarrassing of the victims, said, the man being seriously condemned by Bus Uncle in the clip, but also showing indifference of people , how sad that we should feel when we laugh at it at the same time!! ;((((((
However, this rude candid clip, indeed, have raised the socio-cultural issues!
let's see the following clips uploaded in Youtube.







                                                                                                                                                          




the second Youtube clip is one of  the clips which  respond and moderfied the original Bus Uncle clip.
the third clip is an advertisment in refer to the Bus Uncle clip.


the fourth clip is the interview about the confession of Bus Uncle which recorded by the TV broadcast.
from above we can see not only is such a short ordinary arguing clip can blow up such a "Uncle Craze"! "not yet settled! not yet settled!!" become a famous slogan of Hong Kongers, but also inspires the raise up creativity of Hong Kongers, we can prove it by seeing such lots of songs uploaded on the net are talking about Bus Uncle, like the Diu song and the advertisement about World Cup 2006 made by TVB, which implies that Hong Kongers like using social-cultural issue  (like the dialogue between the passenger and the Bus Uncle) to promote products or to share their comments and creativity.
 at the same time, different critiques are around the behave of Bus Uncle, the clips also draw the mass media's attention and interest in revealing his daily life and his thinking, like the forth clip is the interview about how the Bus Uncle thought of our Hong Kong government. actually, it is just for catering the taste of the public in order to raise the viewing ratio and boost more profit from adertisement.


in my point of view, i don't think such a rude clip deserves such a vast attention from internet community, Bus Uncle Craze, just like the Teen Model Craze, keep drawing the attention of Honk Kongers on such a meaningless topics, or even burning both of the time and money on that. it only facilitates the inapproprite value of Hong Kongers, such s revealing people 's ugly behave as a kind of entertainment and keep discussing and criticizing women's physical fetures (like breast and hips) are not uncivil behave. wht a pity if people only focus on reveling people's privacy! ;(( OMG..


(Photo of Hong Kong Teen Model)