Taking the Pill

Social-Policital Worries

In my WikiLeaks text assignment, I talked about the effects WikiLeaks was having on the international community and the United States government. WikiLeaks has been wreaking havoc on the complex relationships that exist between these international communities, throwing the globe into unrest.

I worry about the effects Digital Media will have on our society. Will it make us grow, or throw us into the arms of our rulers?

In the Middle East, these questions are being answered as we speak. Millions of protestors are using digital media to enhance their message and get it to the rest of the world. Likewise, their oppressive government are using digital media to spew propaganda and block their citizens from the rest of the world.

In terms of WikiLeaks, I believe that the social-political aspects of digital media will only help us grow as a global society. Bring the secrets of governments and people out in the open will only make them more accountable for their actions.


Social-Interpersonal Worries

With my generation especially, I feel like online communication is becoming more and more acceptable. With young people nowadays talking more online than they are in real life, it is important to embrace new communication technology.

At the moment, I have online friends in 4 different countries (not including the United States): Canada, England, China, and Scotland...including many different states within the United States. I cherish my relationship with each and every one of them--and know a lot of them more than I do some of my "real life" friends. Just because a relationship is based online, doesn't degrade the quality of the relationship.

Psychological-Emotional Worries

In a world that is becoming increasingly connected, the appeal to stay online is great. With online worlds being built that take us away from the worries of the real world, internet addiction is becoming more and more popular.

I often worry about my own constant tie to the connected world. When I leave my room and forget my phone, I feel completely disconnected and even naked. It's scary how much these things affect all of us.

Psychological-Cognitive Worries

As we continue to delve deeper and deeper into the connected age, it is a worry of some that our cognitive abilities will begin to decrease.

There are two sides to this, I think. On one hand, we have people that use the internet to think for them. They use services like Google to find information and sites like WikiPedia to copy information from.

On the other hand, we have people that use the internet to increase their thinking and intelligence. They use services like Google to find information and sites like WikiPedia to gather resources from.

I don't buy all of the talk about the internet eating our minds out. To me, this debate is just a mirror from the one years ago about the television.

Behavioral-Practical Worries

I guess this category goes closely along with the previous.

It is quite easy to get wrapped up in our digital environments, as Len Masterman points out. We must conserve our time on the internet--if we don't we face becoming addicted or completely absorbed in it.

We also face the dangers of becoming physically hurt by the time we stay connected. If we do not use the right postures and equipment, our body can become permanently harmed by the time we spend connected.

Personal Experience

I try to strike a nice balance between real life and connected life.

As a film student, that has been increasingly hard as of late. Most of our assignments are online, since the school has gone completely paperless.

However, even with all of the obstacles trying to keep me constantly connected, I cherish the time I get to disconnect. Spending time with my friends and family will always come before being online. I plan to keep things that way.

Keeping Up

I agree with you that it's important to study Digital Media, especially since it's so profound and prevalent in our modern lives. I definitely enjoyed listening to your insight and thoughts on Digital Media.

Lev Manovich's articles and readings are always interesting, but I really didn't enjoy either of these chapters. I thought they were a bit too technical.

A lot of the stuff covered in this article had already been covered in my Sound Editing class, but it's always good to get a refresher.

I've also seen this particular scene in my American Cinema class and I think it goes nicely with our discussion on keeping up with the digital age. I feel like people over a certain age are just like Charlie, striving to keep up with all of the new information and technology that is always being updated.

As with the previous scene, this short video covers the same topic. I think it's awesome that these bandmates improvised and were able to continue making music (art!) with their digital instruments.

I'm absolutely in love with Girl Talk and have been for a while. I love the blending of multiple tracks into one coherent track.

Focus

I'm going to focus on the Charlie Chaplin scene, because I love the implications it has. I love the scene in general, but I especially love what it has to say about technology now-a-days. I know all of us have--at one point in our lives--felt like Charlie.

I know that both of my parents feel his pain. Just recently, my dad gave his smartphone to my brother, while he bought a "regular" phone. My mom also gave up her BlackBerry in favor of a simpler phone. My brother and I are the only one in our immediate family with the data plan--all because my parents feel so overwhelmed with the technology of the day.

Even as someone who uses technology everyday, I often feel overwhelmed at the vastness and complexity of technology. It is truly scary how far we've come in the past few years.

Audio Composition

I did my audio project based on the theme of my text composition and my overall feeling of the whole WikiLeaks situation.

My text composition was based on international reaction--something that has been the talk of the community as of late. It's too much to keep up with and confusing at times.

My audio composition is basically just a bunch of youtube clips laid out on top of each other, to act as a constant attack of information. Under all of that I put "Hand Covers Bruise" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to give the listener something to hold on to while they listen.

Video Composition

The inspiration for my remix video was the same for my photo and audio remix: my text assignment.

In the video, I focus on the international communities reaction to WikiLeaks and the absurdity of keeping up with it all.

Boundary Dissolution

After reading about the dissolution between intelligence and creativity, and trying to think about about what boundaries have been broken in my life, I could think of only one: digital technology and art.

As a student in the School of Filmmaking, I am used to using technology everyday to make art. Cameras, editing software, and recording equipment makes it possible for us to tell the story the script has laid out. It's an interesting dissolution since--at least to me--it seems the most logical. As digital technology advances, films and the stories they tell will grow.

The Readings:

The first video, "The Empathic Civilization" was an interesting commentary on the blur between thought and emotion. I think it's great that we're finally waking up to the greatness of our own kind.

Jonathan Lethem had a great discussion about the blending of our own thoughts and the thoughts of others, which plays really nicely into filmmaking and storytelling. There is no original story. All stories play off of thoughts other authors have had. We are just retelling the thoughts of others.

Andrea Lunsford's article on the dissolution between learning and living was inspiring. To know that my generation is writing more than any generation is amazing. It really shows that the boundary dissolution truly is fading.

Randy Kennedy's piece on Helene Hegemann is very interesting. The boundary of plagiarism and original work seems to be blurring more and more.

I definitely agree with Lawrence Lessig's stance on privacy and ownership. We should get with the times and adopt new rules for the 21st century.

I didn't read the entire graphic novel, but I thought the concept was interesting and unique--especially for something from Duke U.

Lev Manovich's video on the blurring between technology and humanities was pretty close to what I was saying about the blurring between technology and art. It was interesting.

The Old Spice Guy's videos are an awesome representation of the blurring of technology, media, and art. I'm glad that those lines are being blurred.

The last three or so articles were interesting as well.

WikiLeaks Photo

My WikiLeaks text assignment focuses on the impact WikiLeaks is having on the international community and within the United States government. While working on this photo assignment, I came across an article comparing Julian Assange to our founding fathers. I thought the idea was interesting, so I went with it.

The background of my collage shows the blurred faces of our founding fathers, along with the presidents. Their faces are blurred to show the disregard by our modern government to the ideals our country was founded on. I feel like our founding fathers would have been proud of Mr. Assange and supported his cause whole-heartedly.

The foreground of the collage holds a fragmented picture of Mr. Assange, along with a simple line from the Declaration of Independence. I felt that it was important to fragment the body of Mr. Assange, to show how he's been fragmented between countries. I thought that the line from the Declaration of Independence only hit home the fact that our founding fathers would have supported the WikiLeaks cause.

WikiLeaks: A Change in the Exchange of Information and a Short History

In 2006 Julian Assange, a young journalist and whistle-blower, founded the site WikiLeaks with the help of a few unnamed partners (scribd.com). This radical new site was slow to be noticed by big media outlets and the general public, but in 2007 the site published "a never-before-seen military manual detailing the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Military's Guantanamo Bay...(wired.com)." After that, WikiLeaks cemented its place in history.

To help explain how WikiLeaks works, one must look at another history website: wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is maintained solely by volunteers--any of the articles can be edited by anyone and the website is paid for by public donation. WikiLeaks works in a very similar way. Volunteers and fellow journalists/whistle-blowers contribute to the site and volunteers help to edit the information. In fact, in 2008, WikiLeaks had over 1,200 registered volunteers (mirror.wikileaks.org). Since then, WikiLeaks has been going strong.

The real trouble came to WikiLeaks in mid to late 2010, when thousands of confidential diplomatic cables were released to the public. These cables came directly from the United States and held information on myriad countries (wikileaks.org). The United States government was quick to condemn the release with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton saying, "...it is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity... (bbc.co.uk)."

It is clear that WikiLeaks has both changed the way private information is handled and how citizens view their governments. And as governments begin to ramp up their attack on WikiLeaks, only the coming months will tell WikiLeaks' fate.