midterm Flashcards
1
Q
culture
A
a process or experience, which isn’t fixed, culture is a collection of interactive cultures, each of which is growing and changing, by the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, socioeconomics, class, etc.
2
Q
digital culture
A
contemporary phase of communication technologies, on that follows 19th century print culture and 20th century electronic broadcast culture, and that is deeply amplified and accelerated by the popularity of networked computers, personalized technologies and digital images. This rise of a context in which digital creative processes of different media could converge
3
Q
high culture
A
culture of elite, in the arts
4
Q
low culture
A
popular, mass distributed culture
5
Q
discourse, ideology
A
a social language created by particular cultural conditions at a particular time and place and expresses a particular way of understanding human experience
6
Q
alan turing
A
conceptual machine
A pioneering English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist.
Published a paper ‘On Computable Numbers with Application to the Entscheidungsproblem’ as a response to mathematician David Hilbert
Hilbert wanted to put all mathematics into a structure/set theory/algorithm/program. Kurt Godel, in 1931, found that there was no such system of the type that Hilbert proposed (“Godel’s incompleteness theorem.”
Turing approached the problem by imagining a conceptual machine that could be configured to be in a number of different states, like that of a typewriter.
The difference was that Turing’s machine could be configured into an infinite number of states. With the right configuration, any mathematical question could be solved. This could be likened to conceptualizing a modern computer, as he proposed a binary machine that could be configured in any number of different states. Others had previously thought of this conceptual machine, but Turing’s idea had more conceptual coherence.
Cracked the Nazi code: German coding Machine aka the enigma machine, which was used by the German forces.
7
Q
Charles Babbage
A
- A mathematician/theoretician
- Concerned with the management of labour, e.g.: autonomizing it
- Following the work of Smith he promulgated the economic advantages of the division of labour, as well as the increased use of machinery in manufacturing.
- Babbage was engaged in building, or trying to build, machines, the ‘Difference’ and ‘Analytical’ engines (illus. 4), that are recognizably prototypical computers
- His initial reasons for building the ‘Difference Engine’ concerned the efficient production of mathematical tables, used both at sea and in industrial production
- Both his calculating machines and his management theories were responses to burgeoning capitalism,
- ‘Analytical Engine’, had it been completed, would have been programmable, and able to calculate any formula, and to compare numbers and decide how to proceed with the operation it was performing
8
Q
•George Boole
A
Self taught mathematician
Used algebraic methods to logic, thus allowing logical relations to be calculated in a mathematical manner.
He thought that this algebraic logic worked used only two numerical values, 1 and 0.
9
Q
•Ada Lovelace
A
First Computer programmer
Worked on Analytical Engine with Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage’ Protogé
First computer programmer
10
Q
Norbert Wiener
A
The developer of the concept of Cybernetics.
11
Q
cybernetics
A
Developed by Norbert Wiener. The science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things
12
Q
Steam Engine
A
Invented in the 19th century. Allowed for trains, faster transportation, mass production, and rural industries transforming to urban, which lead to the industrial revolution
1450 – printing press invented by Hans Gutenberg (block print)
13
Q
Dr. Lev Manovich
A
One the leading theorists of digital culture worldwide, and a pioneer in application of data science for analysis of contemporary culture
14
Q
THE CYBERNETIC ERA (aka post war era)
A
WWII was the catalyst for not just the invention of the modern binary computer, but also for the development of a number of remarkable things, such as cybernetics, information theory, general systems theory, molecular biology, AI, and structuralism.
15
Q
•Information theory:
A
Proposed by Claude E. Shannon in 1948 to find fundamental limits on signal processing and communication operations
The mathematical study of the coding of information in the form of sequences of symbols, impulses, etc., and how rapidly such information can be transmitted through ICT. Developed by Claude Shannon, an electrical engineer trained at the University of Michigan.
16
Q
the linear schema of communication outlined in Claude E. Shannon’s work
A
The device that encodes the message / The source of the message
The device that decodes the message
The message’s destination
17
Q
general systems theory
A
Proposed by Bertalanffy
Based upon an open-system model that allowed for the flow of inputs and outputs with the environment.
Systems theory thus serves as a bridge for interdisciplinary dialogue between autonomous areas of study as well as within the area of systems science itself.
18
Q
Turing test
A
Someone communicating with a machine to an invisible correspondent. The person in the Turing test was tasked with determining whether the person they were ‘talking to’ through the machine was a real human being or a computer. If the computer could fool its correspondent into believing it was human, then it might be considered intelligent. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Turing’s idea constitutes the conceptual basis of what later became known as Artificial Intelligence or AI. The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
19
Q
structuralism
A
Emerged in France in the 1940s and 1950s, presented a powerful framework developed by Ferdinand de Saussure, where different things could be formalized and presented in abstract terms.
20
Q
importance of cybernetics
A
- Allowed for the removing of the understanding of mental processes from the brain to the disembodied logical processes of the mind, leading to the invention of Artificial Intelligence.
- Cybernetics was of great interest to the American military. Became the model for military command in the cold war
21
Q
jay Forrester
A
was the person who created the Whirlwind computer system. Whirlwind, the computer that ran the SAGE Early Warning System was one of the main proponents of cybernetic thinking
22
Q
cybernetics
A
Theory of control and communication in the animal and machine, with particular concern for issues of feedback and self-regulation.
-The science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things
23
Q
The work of art in the age of technical reproduction - Walter Benjamin
key points:
A
• the emergence of cinema was a game-changer, it moved us from
the ‘individual contemplation’ of artwork to mass-appreciation,
Benjamin believed this had political implications
• just like the factory was changing labour, mass-produced images
were changing how we see and how we appreciate aesthetics
• Benjamin believed ‘the aura’ and ‘ritual quality’ of hand-crafted art
of the past was lost when there was no longer an original and just
copies (and copies of copies)
• Benjamin believed the viewer of the mass image was perpetually
distracted
24
Q
benjamin on structuralism
A
AI and semiotics
In addition to enabling advances in computing, AI was beginning to influence our own understanding of mental processes (Gere, p.60)
Ferdinand de Saussure: “For Saussure the sign itself is arbitrary, and meaning is found in language in the differences between signs, not in any positive terms.
25
how does benjamin locate authenticity in art
in the uniqueness of an artistic object, and its inability to be in more than one place at one time.
26
Benjamin
Benjamin locates authenticity in the uniqueness of an artistic object, and its inability to be in more than one place at one time.
But when cinema comes along and movies can be showcased at many different places, the idea of art is challenged into becoming something else.
Benjamin writes that photography is the first medium that devolves art into using a camera.
At the end of section IV on his essay, he writes, “the moment the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production, the whole social function of art is turned about. Instead of having its foundation in ritual, its foundation steps into different practice: namely, its foundation in politics.”
Benjamin says that movies in cinema are experienced for the amount of time they are up. Paintings are not. Benjamin is a very insightful man
Benjamin says that material changes in the media of art are not reflections of political or social changes but rather perform the “directing, instructing stance” that defines the political tendency of art in “The Author as Producer.” Benjamin’s theory of art is an account of such a tendency as it manifests itself in the contemporary direction of art.
He is spooked by the idea of new mediums of art. He concludes that art can manifest in many different forms and that he’s cool with it.
27
Aura
'Aura' is the concept of the strange interplay of space and time in early photography. A strange weave of space and time: the unique appearance of a distance, no matter how close it may be. Spatial existence is defined according to a particular moment in time, thereby making what is seen as unique. In the case of photography, the opposite is true because the experience of the image is no longer restricted to a specific place and time but can exist in different places at different times yet remain unchanged. This is a change in perception. And made possible by means of its reproduction. Photography then emphasizes an experience based on transience and reproducibility. (eg., A print made 10 years ago and one made today are essentially the same; the question of the original disappears.)
28
technological determinism
In the initial stages of the adoption of a particular technology, that the technology will generate social change based upon the implicit values, virtues, or vices possessed by that technology. This line of thinking is often referred to as technological determinism.
29
•The Social Determination of Technology aka Symptomatic Technology:
This refers to a form of determinism whereby social conditions create environments in which technologies are seen as either necessary by-products of social processes or, as early sociologist of technology William Ogburn argued, were inevitable, given the correct set of social conditions.
30
technological enablement
New technologies are looked for and developed with purposes and practices in mind. These purposes are intended to change things and influence society: that is their point
31
technological enablement
| - In general, one can suggest new technologies are developed to:
1. Fulfil a need or solve a problem.
2. Bring about a certain condition in the future.
3. Create a profit or some sort of personal gain.
32
Technologies can be seen as setting up a system of enablers with two potential outcomes:
- ‘Preferred’ -> conventional or intended uses.
| - ’Unexpected’ applications and novel cultural form.
33
Base, Superstructure, infrastructure
Digital communication technologies have importance as a system of infrastructure that enables certain practices and social relations. Infrastructure refers to the underlying framework or basic foundation of an organisation or system. Infrastructure can be seen as contributing to the economic base of society (the relations of production) upon which the superstructure of society (culture) is built, thus enabling both economic relations and ways of life.
34
key elements of digital media
•Technical Processes
The technological aspects of production, distribution and consumption which contribute to the shape, character and potential of digital media.
35
digital
Digital: All information is represented in 0–1 digital code. Digital media can be ‘tinkered with’ in a way that is extremely difficult with traditional analogue media (as any user of Photoshop is aware) and is alterable in several ways. It can be compressed and decompressed using algorithms, allowing for large amounts of data to be stored and distributed in an efficient manner. Can be manipulated or copied, and is transferable between different sources, objects and means of technological delivery.
36
•Networked Technical Process
Digital media tends to be networked (produced, distributed and consumed through two way networked infrastructures) in a variety of ways such as the internet, mobile phone, or WiFi networks, whereas broadcast media tends to be consumed on one-way analogue infrastructures. Whether it be the multitude of web pages, blogs, forums and the like on the internet, or the hundreds of channels available on digital television, digital media expands choice immensely compared to the previous broadcast era where choice available for sources of information was severely limited to, for example, five terrestrial television broadcasts on the analogue spectrum.
37
•Interactive Technical Process:
Interactivity’ can be defined in a number of ways, most generally as ‘responsiveness’; as in the responsiveness of a media object or piece of information to the preferences, needs or activities of the user.
User takes an active role in digital media.
38
•Hypertextual/Hypermediated:
Hypertext is a form of text that is composed of nodes or blocks of text (or media, in the case of hypermedia) which form the content, the links between these blocks of content, and the buttons or tags that enact the link from one node to another (such as the links or tags embedded in web documents). As one follows the different links, paths are created within the network of nodes. Hypertext by nature is a non-linear form of text, and it begins to blur the distinction between ‘writer’ and ‘reader’.
39
automated
Digital products and media can be automatically modified or even created through software and programs instead of being specifically created or modified by people. Happens is through the increasing personalisation of media. When using a service like Google, personalised targeted advertising is automatically generated on our screens based on our web footprints and email content
40
databased
A database can be defined as ‘a structured collection of data, or ‘a container of information’ . i.e. Any satellite navigation system, MapQuest, Multi-Map, Google Maps or the AA Route Planner. A database is composed of three elements: the storage element (hardware storage in the case of computers), the means to retrieve and filter data (software which can sort information on the basis of certain parameters), and the means to turn that data into meaningful information (the user who creates meaning)
41
variability
The uniqueness of digital media objects not only emerges from this ability to personalise, but from the fact that most digital media objects change over time. Manovich refers to this as the property of variability. “digital media objects tend to be characterised by variability. They are not finite or finished products (let alone mass produced material ones), but instead are objects that are continually updated, reassembled and recreated and exist in potentially infinite versions.
42
rhizome
The internet possesses features such as hypertext, networking and variability, the internet, and many parts of it, articulate the concept of the rhizome. Rhizome is a metaphor that is used to describe a form of organization that is not based on hierarchical structure, but a kind of horizontal network of relations.
43
process
The internet is in a continual state of transformation. Digital media is in continual transformation as it is always being updated, modified, compressed, decompressed, linked and databased, and in that sense has the potential to exist in infinite versions. These three concepts of becoming/transformation, variability and unfinished artefacts/continuing processes all point towards the same key characteristic of digital media: constant change.
44
immersive experience
Telepresence:
the experience of presence in an environment by means of a communication medium. Being in two places at the same time: physical environment in which our body is located and the conceptual or interactional ‘space’ we are presented with through the use of a medium.
45
virtuality
‘The real’ or ‘The actual’. The practice of contrasting the virtual with the real is problematic, as ‘reality’ is made up of both the concrete and the virtual in many ways, including the practices of religious rituals, abstract planning, and even in the imaginings of our own and other communities”
46
simulation
The simulational qualities of digital media can be considered in three different ways:
As a technical or mathematical process often performed by computers.
As a tradition in visual culture.
As part of a historical progression away from ‘the real’ within media-laden contemporary culture.
47
hyperreality
a thing where the real and the virtual collapse on each other.
48
HORRIGAN’S DIGITAL DIVIDE ‘CONVERGENCE AND THE CONTEMPORARY MEDIA EXPERIENCE’
In the context of new media, convergence is a term that has been used in a variety of ways: as a technological process associated with digitization; as a regulatory trend among governments; as a process among the media and telecommunications industry; and as the soon to be dominant form of media culture. To ‘converge’ is to come together or meet, or become similar. It is all physical forms of media becoming digitized and converging into becoming something similar to each other.
49
•Technological Convergence:
The movement of almost all media and information to digital electronic formats, storage and transfer: the digitization of all media, communications, texts, sound, images and even currency into a common digital format or language.
50
•Why digitizing is efficient:
Networkable it can be easily distributed through networks
Compressible Uncompressed digital data is very large, and in its raw form would produce a larger signal
Dense Another spin-off of compression is the density of digital data in the sense of how much information can be stored in a small space
Manipuable Digital information is easily changeable and adaptable, because all manner of text, sound and image are essentially the same
Impartial and/or homogenous What is meant by this is that no matter what the source, no matter what the content, no matter who or what the creator or the original intent of the content, all digital data is inherently the same thing … zeros and ones
51
•Regulatory Convergence:
“deregulation of the media and telecommunications industries.”
Happened due to technological convergence, and everything becoming digitised many industries, such as, media, telecommunication, and computing were starting to erode. This posed a problem for governments who, because of these technological changes (along with economic imperatives under globalisation), needed to change the legislation that governed these separate industries. This led to a second kind of convergence sometimes referred to as regulatory convergence, which is a deregulatory strategy in the media and telecommunication industries adopted by the governments of many industrial economies.
52
Media Industry Convergence:
Once everything started becoming digitised, it was important for larger industries to try that as well, which meant that larger corporations would swallow the smaller ones, leaving the larger ones to dominate the global media market. Two forms of expansion:
53
horizontal integration
| -
in which a firm in one industry (for instance, telecommunications) expanded across to another industry (such as television broadcasting)
54
vertical integration
in which a firm that is concentrated on one point in the production chain of a sector (for instance, film production) expands into another part of the production chain in the same industry, such as film distribution.
Both of these types of expansion drove a general strategy of industrial convergence within the media and telecom sector”
55
•Concerns about Media Convergence:
| Two Separate views:
Broadcast Format Concern
•The concern, for authors like McChesney and Shiller, is the inherent threats to democracy and accountability that follow when media and the public sphere become dominated by a small number of large corporations.
Rhizomatic Format Concern
•Many would suggest that the internet, because of its networked (or rhizomatic) nature and the ability of internet users to be both producers and consumers of media, can never be controlled to the same degree by large corporations, and in that sense is an antidote to the continued trend towards oligopoly in mainstream media.
56
•PROCESS:
- Small media companies acquired by larger media companies (media industry convergence).
- Larger company’s large # of resources allow for greater output of media across various channels. I.e.: Mobile, Laptop, Advertising.
- Increase in consumption of media.
- Monetization of cultural phenomena.
57
The creation of cross-media experiences
A fundamental characteristic of convergence culture is the move towards cultural objects and information being increasingly consumed or experienced across several forms of media, and on a variety of devices.
Is the process of information being increasingly consumed or experienced across several forms of media, and on a variety of devices.
58
The creation of cross-media experiences
how?
“the larger trends of digital and media industry convergence have made this possible, by encouraging the development of very large cross-sector global media companies
that have the resources to create and market cultural commodities across several media platforms. But the ability to think in this manner is a consumer phenomenon as well, one in which consumers themselves generate cross-media experiences through ‘participatory culture’.
59
•Participatory Media Culture:
Convergence is also a consumer-driven process, seen largely as an extension of fan culture. In all of these cases, the experience of the object has spun out of the exclusive control of the producer. This is evident of how contemporary audiences seek to engage with media increasingly on their own terms and, will seek out new information, alone or in collaborative groups, in order to enhance their enjoyment of the product.
60
collective intelligence
A third facet of an emerging convergence culture, as a result of the interactivity and networking involved with converged media, is a new form of knowledge production and problem solving in which individuals collectively pool together their interests and expertise towards the solving of common problems, the creation of common resources or the pooling together of information for mutual benefit. When individuals come together to solve a problem.
61
producers
those that produce content and cultural objects
62
consumers
the audience or purchasers of such objects
63
produsage
“information and cultural products are ‘prodused’ in a networked, communal environment involving both traditional consumers and producers, and where such information or products are not finished products owned and controlled by an author, but communally owned, unfinished ‘processes’.
64
For Bruns, ‘Produsage’ has four key elements:
* Open participation/communal evaluation, which allows diverse individuals to contribute to the product in question.
* Fluid hierarchy/ad-hoc meritocracy, in which all participants, whether equal in skill or not, have equal ability to contribute.
* Unfinished artefacts/continuing process, which involves the move from conceptualising media products and objects not as finished or finalised ‘products’, but as ‘artefacts’ that are continually in construction.
* Common property/individual rewards, where content is less seen as owned by an author or producer in a traditional sense, but has become more communal in nature, having been created by a produsage community, and providing rewards for that community.
65
•Digital Divides and Access:
The gap between those who do and those who do not have access to computers and the internet.
66
•Causes for Digital Divides:
- Levels of Education
- Levels of Income
- Geographical location (urban vs. rural)
- Economic location (developing vs. developed)
- Level of Population (high population density vs. remote communities)
- Should access to high-speed broadband internet be a basic human right?
67
domestic digital divides
During the mid 1990’s enthusiasm about digital technology and the internet in particular were reaching almost fever pitch. Investment in technology was increasing and there was shift to an information-based economy. Within this environment, the spectre of those who would be left out of the information age began to creep into public and academic discourse.
‘We challenged the nation to make sure that our children will never be separated by a digital divide’. (Clinton, 1996).”
This was one of the first uses of the term within public discourse and is now known as domestic (or social) digital divide.
68
global digital divides
This disparity, based primarily on the geography of ‘haves and have-nots’ in the ‘developed’ versus the ‘developing’ world, is often referred to as the global digital divide, defined as ‘the divergence of internet access between industrialised and developing societies.
69
mobile phones, access and the developing world
Many developing countries do not have fixed telephone lines. The mobile phone is the most successful type of info technology in terms of closing global digital divides. Low income countries are able to access mobile phone technology more readily than computers.
70
mobile phones are successful for 3 reasons
economic reasons
Mobile telephony has lower installation costs, thus making it more immediately profitable for companies to invest in the infrastructure. Telecoms companies are able to achieve a return on their investment in comparably little time, making them more likely to invest in further infrastructure”
71
mobile phones are successful for 3 reasons
social reasons
Mobile phones can be purchased for low up-front costs in ‘pay as you go’ payment schemes or, as mentioned above, a variety of other models that lowers the entry barrier for those on low incomes. Consumer friendly
72
mobile phones are successful for 3 reasons
legislative reasons
Governments have put obligations on companies to expand mobile phone infrastructure to certain minimum requirements as part of their ‘Rollout’ obligations for telecommunications licenses
73
•The Benefits of Mobile Telephony for Developing World:
It’s cheap and helps them get access and bridge the digital divide. Downsides: most mobile phones get used for personal reasons rather than business reasons.
74
mechanical reproduction
resistance
75
sign
A simple object that is understood in a given society to mean something. A semiotic unity which is made up of a part (the signifier) which is perceptible to the senses
76
semiotics
The study of signs and symbols and their use/interpretation
77
The Division & Abstraction of Labour and Capital
Typewriter: Invented in late 19th century.
- Created in response to the growing information needs of businesses.
- Standardized and mechanized the production of language by reducing the elements out of which it is composed to abstracted signs.
- Typewriter and Turing’s devices both based on abstraction, standardization and mechanization, to ensure universal use — capable of treating disparate problems as equal.
- This is found within the exchange value of commodities: treated for their exchange value as opposed to their use value.
- The abstraction allows for the flow of goods & money necessary for a capitalist society.
- Goods are no longer valued by their embodied usefulness, but rather their exchange value.
i. e: Coins are valued not by their intrinsic worth in metal, but in their actual exchange value.
- Labour is considered a commodity now, as it too is exchanged for money.
78
Conceptualization of the modern computer
- Turing positioned a binary machine that could be configured in any number of different states.
- Developed methods and technologies for decrypting German U-Boat signals.
- Keystones of the development of digital technology: Entscheidungsproblem paper
- His thought experimentation is of particular importance for the development of modern technology, as his machine was intended for universal use.
- Conceived the idea of a universal machine though the example of a typewriter, which could be configured in 2 states: uppercase, lowercase.
- The idea of a universal machine had already been imagined by predecessors such as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, and work by George Stibitz, Konrad Zuse and Claude Shannon.
- Turing had little interest in the social or cultural implications of his choice of technology as a model, yet he chose the typewriter which withholds a certain network of social and cultural meaning, and is one derived from contemporary capitalism.
- Therefore, we can see how the context of capitalism allowed for technologies such as the computer to develop.
79
Capitalist Production / Manufacturing
In production, division of labour is crucial to efficient use of resources. 18 individual parts divided amongst 18 different workers allows for:
- Repetition allows each individual action to become a repeatable and interchangeable sign.
- Operations of production can be better controlled and understood.
- Helps reduce reliance on high-skilled labour
The same can be said for automated production, in which the division of labour was embodied in a machine. It also allows for:
- Reducing the cost and difficulties of employing living labour, by embodying the labour processes in fixed capital.
- Individual skill is no longer a factor of production
i. e: Joseph-Marie Jacquard’s pattern-weaving loom of 1804
80
analytical engine
-Had it been completed, would have been programmed to calculate any formula, and to compare numbers.
81
The Consequences of WW2
forced the development of a digital computing machine more rapidly than might have been the case.
-WW2 was imminent by 1930.
Advancedments in ballistics, telecommunications and weapons of mass destruction were going to dictate the result.
i.e: Radio (1870) could transmit messages through the air without the aid of wires. Invented by Macroni.
-Commanders and troops could signal to each other without the necessity of laying physical lines of communication. (++ Movement)
-Enemy could easily intercept any signal broadcast by radio. Thus, attention began to be paid to cryptography and cryptoanalysis
i.e: Through the commitment and intelligence of Alan Turing and others, the German codes used in radio transmissions were broken.
-Led to solutions involving mechanized calculating devices, capable of running through possible solutions with unprecedented speed.
82
Manchester Mk 1
- first proper digital computer
| - exploited a method of storing data using cathode ray tubes
