Is Digital Media Bad For Us?

A simple question in essence: is the Digital world we live in really detrimental? Initially, one would seem to agree that it is bad.  Lack of social contact with families, friends, and peers would lead to a disconnected, fragmented social landscape.  Lack of control of data online in both the political and commercial realms would lead to a breakdown of the system. The constant exposure to the internet would lead to addiction many times as powerful as the lure of television. And finally, and most importantly, the detrimental cognitive impact that digital resources would have on our memories and processing skills.  But after the initial impact of all the negatives that are associated with the digital age, it becomes clear that our modern age does have effects in all these categories, but the change is not detrimental.  Like any other shift in history, it is first viewed negatively, but after further incubation, it becomes clear that it was a positive evolution.
Just as the shift from a spoken-history based society, to a written based one was initially perceived negativly, the gains outweighed the losses, namely a more expansive memory.  The social realm has expanded due to digital media.  Friends are in more contact now than at any time in history, and interests bring people from all over the world together online.  Business is more easily conducted, memories shared instantly between relatives across the world.  Though face to face contact has been reduced, the gain of instant, and more constant digital contact outweighs the loss. In the commercial realm, businesses have been able to protect their merchandise, and expand their business.  Online shopping has given access to consumers worldwide, and digital distribution has allowed instant gratification for consumers.  And, finally, the addiction to technology has become constant-email, texting, facebook. But it is not negative: it increases productivity and creates a more unified world where anyone can be in contact with anther person at a moments notice.
All in all, the positives outweigh the negatives, and thus, the question is answsered: digital media is not detrimental to the individual and society.

Classic and Contemporary

Comparisons.  What our perceptions of society are based on.  When faced with the assignment to create a compelling piece to compare contemporary and Classic ideas, I could have chosen any number of things: the perception of patriotism, womens' rights, capital punishment.  But all these comparisons are cliche, and do not represent society as a whole, and how it has evolved.  Instead, I chose air-travel as my subject: specific, yet it shows how society has moved from a prim and socially proper manner, to the freer codes of conduct that we enjoy today.

Arts and Capital

In examining the arts, one can see almost all art falling into either for-profit or non for profit categories.  Before the digital age, the divide between the two was distinct.  Pop singles, rock bands on tour, big and bright Broadway shows, shoot-em up westerns, all clearly made by corporations to make money, and fund future artists, who will, in turn, develop more capital for the company. Non for profit art is more avant-garde, cutting edge, and since it is not financed by corporations, or aimed at making money, important social messages can be addressed, such as toxic chemicals in cosmetics, or tobacco lobbyists supporting candidates in Washington. Not concerned with profit, harsh tactics were employed to preach on social and societal issues. But with the coming of the digital age, the lines between the two have become blurred.  As media developed by corporations became legally available online, according to fair use copyright laws, capital-based art became more prominent in consumer created content, such as Justin McIntosh's Disney-based remixes. At first, companies saw these consumers as a threat, but slowly the tide is turning: marketing tactics in commercial art has begun to employ these non-for-profit, consumer tactics.  'Flashmob' dances to advertise a company, or a band, such as Atomic Tom, playing in a public place, in their case a subway.  Stretching even further, companies are beginning to let consumers dictate the price they pay for a good.  Like many non-for-profit forms, which are supported by donations or patronage, record companies, spearheaded by select artists including Issa, are letting the buyers decide how much they should pay for a song, and they are making more money than before. In turn, as corporations realize the value of consumer based art that utilizes their content, fair use laws are becoming more liberal than their counterparts depicted by Duke students.  As the two forms continue to blend, a day will come when the differences between consumer and capitalist art will dissolve, and the two will become one.

What is New Media, and Who Owns Digital Creativity in the Modern Age?

According to Lev Manovich's "What is New Media?," it is any previous media translated in a new, computed manner, that can be stored as a series of codes and numbers, and then accessed by computers.  This convergence of computer and art creates digital graphics, sound, music, images, and films, all which live under the umbrella of 'New Media.'

But this digital revolution has lead to a new debate: digital ownership.  In the two decades following the explosion of digital media online, two camps have emerged on the issue .  On one side are the proponents of proprietary ownership: corporations and developers who do not want to see their products taken without some sort of compensation.  On the other are those who believe data online is for the taking, citing the fact that for centuries, artistis have borrowed and manipulated fragments of other pieces to augment their own work.  In Jonathan Letham's essay, he cites that Blues players create in an open community, borrowing riffs and melodies, and augmenting them for their own songs.  But there is a fundamental difference between a trumpet player taking and using a melody in their own song, and someone downloading a song and using it in a digital creation.  The instrumentalist is physically creating the sounds coming out of their trumpet, and by virtue, is slightly changing it. On the other hand, the digital pirateer is taking a finished piece, and using it without changing the fundamental base of the piece, even if they modulate the piece, or layer other items with it.  Furthermore, by allowing a digital artist such as Girl Talk to take pieces and use them, that opens the floodgates for anyone to steal music, videos, or programs and use them illegally.  In an increasingly digital world, where most music, video, and applications are bought online, how can companies afford to develop new programs or invest in new artists, and why would they if there was no profit motivation.  Furthermore, by saying that items should be legal to download without cost, society would be acknowledging that art and creativity does not have value, which would directly affect me as a lighting designer, which would translate to not being paid for my design work.

To be clear, there is a difference between a home-video with a copyrighted music track playing in the background, and someone illegally downloading music, and augmenting it, and then selling it as their own creation.  As a compromise, consumers should pay for the goods they take, but should be allowed to disturb them in their own non-commercial creations, but as soon as they being presenting them as something comercial in any way, that product should no longer be refereed to as legal.

Project Brief: Exploring the Montagnard Connection to the Vietnam War.

I find the circumstances revolving the Montagnard expulsion from their native Vietnam and the explusion's relation to the Vietnam war to be interesting.  Over the next few weeks I will be exploring what their culture was like before the war and how it related with mainstream Vietnam and the country's history with the French.  Then I will move to an exploration of how the country's political split affected these people, and how the war, with an ever-advancing North Vietnamese presence, affected life, and how the American presence worked with the Montagnards.  Finally I will research how the Montagnards arrived in the United States as a result of the war.

A lot of raw data can be mined from libraries, databases, and the web, but to give emotional meaning to the research I have to look at the personal aspect of the time, and the most effective way would be to work with a Montagnard who has lived thorough the war. Finding these emotional responses what I still need to learn to make my project successful.

I already have several resources at my disposal. Helpful so far has been Vietnam Military Studies site, which explains the Montagnard connection to the Americans in the war. Another site on the Montagnards as Viewed by American Soliders gives personal information on their relation to the war, as well as basic information on the people, and how they live.

Framing

Framing is the subconscious process in which all humans relate an action, thought, or event with an emotion which influences the conscious opinion. Framing is encountered by all Americans in everyday life, through advertising.  A car set among trees and blue skies subconsciously produces a serene, calm feeling when looking at the advertisement, where as the same car set in a metropolis at night may give a person a rushed, cosmopolitain view of the vehicle.  Depending on the demographic trying to be persuaded to purchase the car, advertisers would choose one or another.  In the Frontline documentary, The Persuaders, marketers hope to sell the airline to a specific subset of woman, an archetypical 'Carrie.' To appeal to this type of person, their advertisements offer a specific set of images and sounds, and the airline offers specific services, to subconsciously make the traveller choose Song over another airline, even if the fares are the same or higher than another carrier.  Framing began to be employed in this way, in the advertising industry, in the 1960's, when Marshall McLuhan and his cohorts began to shift advertising from the older methods of comparing brands straightforward to one another, to a new method of evoking an emotion and connecting to a brand with advertising. Advertising's public perception began to shift from cold and corporate, to an art form.

Framing is useful in theatre because it is a collaborative art form.  Decisions are made daily on design choices for a show, and depending on how you present an option to a team, they may more quickly decide on your option if it is presented in the correct manner.