Author Archives: kthorson

A Remedy for Stagnation?

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As I read Lev Manovich’s Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data, I kept wondering if Manovich was going to address how big data could be accessible and used for all researchers, not just people in special positions in particular companies and with special skills. I was rather disappointed when he ended his article with that question and no answer. This question of accessibility and usefulness for all people seems to be a rather important one. Manovich addresses that if big data research is limited to these people in specified areas of work and knowledge, it is almost going to waste, but I really do think that the above question needs an answer.

Manovich’s only answer to this question is about how the people themselves need to change in order for big data to be used. On page 14. Manovich states, “However, this requires a big change in how students, particularly in humanities, are being educated.” He is talking about how, in order to understand and manipulate the data, the user must know programming. They must, essentially, be computer scientists. Though I don’t disagree with this, I think, however, that most of the change needs to be in how accessible it is for people to get ahold of these pieces of data. It appears that, according to Manovich, it is impossible for an ordinary person to get most of the information that is collected.

If this problem cannot be remedied, then it is pointless to attempt to have students educated differently in order to be able to analyze and interpret the data. Is there truly a way for this big data to be available to more people? I completely agree with Manovich that this data is there and should be used for research. Currently, it seems to be going almost completely to waste. It is available to such a small network of people that, compared to how much information there is, it seems to be being rendered useless. So, is there a way to make this information available to researchers, including students? Is there any growth in the availability of this data? If not, perhaps this whole conversation is pointless. Perhaps we are stuck.

Speculat1on

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As I have started to play speculat1on, I find myself rather confused. I’m not entirely sure what I expected, especially considering that I have never played an ARG, but this is certainly not what I thought it would be like. I wasn’t entirely shocked when I came across the page of eight passwords needed, but I certainly had not predicted that. As I started to find my way through the passwords, I became increasingly proud of myself as I solved them. I got sucked into it rather quickly and began to think that I was on a great track. As I came upon the eighth password, however, I got stuck. I downloaded the Audacity audio editor and managed to input the audio file into it, but from there, I couldn’t proceed. I could not figure out how to do anything with the file. I guessed that I needed to either speed the file up or slow it down, but I could do neither. I spent quite a while on it and never made any progress on it.

As I said, I’m not entirely sure what I expected but this was not it. I understood things (such as looking at the source code) that I would not have understood apart from this class, but I (apparently) do not know enough to get through, or even into, this game. I don’t know whether these passwords are even a part of the game. I kept thinking that perhaps this is just how to begin, or enter, the game. I got excited when I began to see connections with our readings and this game, and then I felt utterly lost and aggravated when I couldn’t proceed. I wanted to succeed and talk about different aspects of the game. But here I am: lost and confused. Perhaps that is the point. Tedious, slow progress could be the point of this game. Perhaps this game is supposed to be confusing and something to get lost in. Perhaps I am exactly where I should be.

Technology, a Force to be Reckoned With?

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In Nick Montfort’s article, Interactive Fiction’s Fourth Era, Montfort goes into great detail about the history of Interactive Fiction as well as some of its unique qualities. The statement that stood out to me the most was, “This version [of Adventure] came out in 1976, complete with puzzles and fantasy elements, and it was an instant hit — work in the computer industry supposedly ground to a halt while practically every person with access to a computer tried to solve Adventure.” My question, after reading that statement, is,

What does this say about our society? 

This game came out in the mid-seventies, and, even then, the computer industry came to a halt as every person that could get their hands on a computer, stopped and played this game. If this happened in the seventies, and technology and the obsession of it has only increased, then if something revolutionary came out in the technology world, what would society do today? Perhaps our society was and is too obsessed and engulfed in technology. Perhaps we rely on it too much. There aren’t very many things in this world that make work stop. A family crisis or  an attack on our nation’s Capital cause work to stop. But a piece of Interactive Fiction? It seems too extreme to be true.

As time has progressed, have we let ourselves become taken over by technology? We do most of our work on computers; I’m even writing this blog post on my MacBook Pro. We have our iPhones and our Droïds hooked to our sides at most times. We can now post our pictures instantly to Instagram. The iPad has made portable computers even more portable. Perhaps we are so constantly using our technological devices that we no longer notice that we’re stopping work to see something new, or, even, something old but so readily available because of our advances in technology. How much less work do we get done because of our phones and our computers? It is so easy, perhaps too easy, to open a browser and look at anything.

As our successes in technology continue, how will it affect our ability to work and get things done? We may just be setting ourselves up for failure.

(Adventure can supposedly be found here, though, I couldn’t find it, as hard as I tried: http://ifarchive.org/)

DAWN

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In Alan Sondheim’s, DAWN, the viewer is faced with a rather odd poem that appears to be, at first glance, rather depressing. The lines of the poem fade in and out, some quicker than others, overlaid on top of changing pictures of nature. The sound that plays while the poem runs is an annoying, crunching or clicking sounds of some sort. It’s not a sound that one would normally hear in every day life. It’s a constructed sound, which is very different from the rest of the experience of the poem and visuals that go with it. The poem and the visuals are organic and from nature. The sound takes the viewer out of the realm of nature. It’s almost as if the author is trying to tell you that he does not want you to view this as beautiful. That there’s a deep meaning behind his words. The poem itself is a mixture of beautiful and sad. With the visuals in the background, I believe it would be easy for the viewer to come away with a sad, but hopeful view, but the intrusive sound does not allow this. The feeling becomes panicky and uncomfortable. The longer the poem went on, the more uncomfortable I felt. The three different parts of the poem (the lines, the visuals, and the sound) work together to create a very powerful piece about life, death, and the beauty and sadness of this world. I don’t believe that there is any easy way to interpret what the author is trying to convey. The author does, however, seem intent on finding some sort of balance between the good, beauty, evil, and sadness of the world. The poem is fraught with these concepts.

One other thing that I noticed was that the second to last picture had a figure in it. All of the other pictures are different variations of flowers, fields, trees, and water. In this picture, there is a female standing with her head down. It has a very different feel to it than the other photos. The lines of the poem that appear with this picture are about a woman who will rise when the character, “I,” dies, and will sleep when “I” dies. Perhaps the “I” will sacrifice himself for this woman. It is a very powerful moment in the poem with the visual of the woman accompanying those lines. The lack of human figures in the other visuals makes this one so much stronger.

Race and Technology?

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In Tara Mcpherson’s, “U.S. Operating Systems at Mid-Century: The Intertwining of Race and UNIX,” Mcpherson seems to draw a parallel with the changes in technology and the changes in racism. I must confess, however, that I did not entirely understand this article. Mcpherson kept coming back to this point that these two changes in the mid Twentieth Century were interrelated and connected, and yet, I don’t believe that I understand why these two events are related.

On page 23, Mcpherson states that, “Both exist as operating systems of a sort, and we might understand them to be mutually reinforcing.” But my question is, why is this statement true? How are these two important changes in American history and culture connected? Mcpherson also suggests that the main people involved in these two groups of changes seemed to have no awareness of each other. The people involved in the tech-world, creating UNIX, were not thinking of racism or the racial tension of America. According to Mcpherson, they appeared to be in their own world as they created their software.  If this was so, then clearly the people themselves were not having an effect on each other. She later suggests that perhaps these “particular forms of electronic culture” (page 24) could themselves encourage these racial movements, taking the people out of the equation entirely.

Mcpherson draws the parallel between UNIX and racial segregation by showing that UNIX, especially as time went on, suggested an idea of separate but equal in technology. As segregation became worse, this was America’s excuse for themselves. As I read these things, I am comprehending what she is saying, I just am really not sure how these conclusions were drawn. I can see the similarities between the development of UNIX and the racial tension and segregation in the U.S., but after reading the article, I can’t make light of how these things could have led the other to occur. And if they did cause each other to happen, which came first? How did racial segregation have an affect on the developers and development of UNIX? How did the developers and development of UNIX affect the racial tension in the United States?

The Infectious Emotions of New Media Literature

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In Donna Leishman’s Deviant:The Possession of Christian Shaw, Leishman captures the viewer, or player, from the moment she/he begins this story. I was immediately swept up into the life of Christian Shaw, a girl that just appears to be depressed at the beginning, and later turns out to be possessed by some sort of demon. This particular piece of media, however, does not make it easy for the viewer to interact with it. It is not immediately obvious as to what you should do or what the goal is. After aimlessly clicking on everything for a minute or so, something finally worked, as the screen zoomed in on one of the buildings in the setting. At every step, though, it took quite some time to move forward. I spent about an hour on this particular piece, and I never came to any conclusion. This got me thinking that, perhaps, the difficulty in navigating this is possibly more the point of this story than the actual story of the character, Christian. It is clear that Christian Shaw is having a hard time, but the difficulty with which I had in moving forward in the story is what truly made me connect with Christian. I became aggravated, angry, and slightly disturbed in a matter of five minutes. Not only was the layout difficult, the images and the music pulled me into these odd feelings. As I interacted with Christian more, I became increasingly aware that she seemed to be feeling these emotions as well. So, perhaps, she was not the one feeling my emotions, but I was the one that was relating to her, through these emotions evoked purely from the layout of this piece.

From this piece, I begin to think that new media is a new (no pun intended) way of evoking emotions from the viewer. I’m not suggesting that this is a better way of evoking emotions than regular literature, but it does seem that new media literature can evoke emotions in quite a different way than a hard copy of literature. Leishman’s piece definitely pulled strong feelings out of me very quickly. These emotions also seemed to fit perfectly with her story. I do not believe that, for this particular story, I would have felt the emotions that I did in the time that I did if I had just been reading this story. The platform that the story was presented within is the key to its impact on its viewer.