May 6, 2010 • 3:49 pm 0
Here’s a link to the idea that we presented to our classmates in EMA 6361.
Full Presentation:The Future Museum of Public Art
And here’s a web-based prototype that gives a small window in to what we have envisioned.
Web-based prototype: Public Art Prototype
Filed under: Abimbola O. Ijagbemi, Ben Smithson, Catherine Rodriguez, Chelsea Conway, Nico Smith, Sydnie Montgomery
February 24, 2010 • 10:51 am 0
One of the introductory stories in “Rip! A Remix Manifesto” takes us through a gallery of music clips, detailing how notes, chords and arrangements from blues artists were lifted and used by bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc. If you try to make the case that notes on a musical scale — Do-Re-Mi? – can probably mathematically only hit so many note variations and chord arrangements before it all begins to sound the same, then I might side with you, especially if speaking about the same musical genres. And this is the case that documentary filmmaker Brett Gaylor uses in validating the mash-up artist Girl Talk in his documentary, “Rip! A Remix Manifesto.” He categorized Girl Talk as part of a long tradition of how artists build on the work that comes before them.
And brieftly, the tenants of the Remix Manifesto are:
In the text, “Rip,” Lawrence Lessig discusses the remixes of Girl Talk;
“…between 200 and 250 samples from 167 artists in a single CD. This is not simply copying. Sounds are being used like paint on a palette. But all the paint has been scratched off of other paintings”(p.70).
Yet it would be a crime if you walked into a museum and tried to scratch the paint off a Rembrandt and use that paint for your own work. Lessig goes on to say that his favorite remixes “are all cases in which the mix delivers a message more powerfully than any original alone could, and certainly more than words alone could”(p.71). This dismissive attitude of other opinions on the original work — not taking into consideration the original intent or even time period that the work was released — is not particularly bright. And better than the written word?
I watched “Remix” on YouTube and it was interesting to see the comments on each video section. One comment in particular was in response to Lawrence Lessig’s statement about mashups: “It is literacy for a new generation…. its building a different culture.”
Comment on YouTube: “Sorry lawyer-type dude, but the new generation doesn’t need to be taught literacy – it is already literate. You don’t need other people’s words to write your story. Your OWN individual story is what builds a culture. Mashups by their very definition mash culture into homogenized, McDonalds flavored baby food. The media are already doing a great job of that.”
And the mash-ups do smack to me as a “cultural malaise” – ugh. Yes, culture is threatened, but not in the way this director or the author thinks.
The bottom line issue is content and the emergence of the corporation mind-set in knowledge acquisition. Knowledge is – almost like space – the last frontier. At least for lawyers and people who want to make a buck. It’s the control of the knowledge and content that is at issue.
The acquisition of knowledge is less about the freedom and expression of people and more about corporations who seek to own and nickel-and-dime almost all aspects of daily life.
Filed under: Catherine Rodriguez
February 17, 2010 • 12:35 am 0
Yochai Benkler’s ‘The Wealth of Networks” delves into what the author describes as a “networked information economy” — where content is the new currency and the impact of emerging markets is still being decided by the technology available. Benkley explains that one of the former hindrances to the industrial world were the levels of extreme growth that had to take place to keep society in step with the technology of the time.
“The core distinguishing feature of communications, information, and cultural production since the mid-nineteenth century was that effective communication spanning the ever-larger societies and geographies that came to make up the relevant political and economic units of the day required ever-larger investments of physical capital” (P. 3).
But with the advent of digital society, the boundaries that used to hold back certain segments of society from access are no longer there. For example, complex infrastructures no longer have to be created to get telephone lines built underground; remote areas of countries like Africa and Asia rely on satellite or antenna towers for the use of the ubiquitous mobile phone.
The technology industry has an opportunity to be embedded in many more places than it is already, but needs to move away from the commonly known market strategies and use something that reflects how people are currently using the technology.
The link that Ben provided earlier this evening about the San Jose Museum triggered my memory of reading about SOM currently hosting a contest that seeks the smartest smartphone application that “will put site-specific information at the fingertips of UT Dallas users.” Researching this further, I found that UT-Austin already has an official iPhone app.
One of the features includes using Google Maps on the iPhone to locate artwork on the UT grounds, in particular, students can “locate dozens of mid- to late-20th century sculptures…that are on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.”
This is a great example of taking advantage of technology that is already in hand and putting to use content and information that is already part of a public performance and display.
Filed under: Catherine Rodriguez
February 10, 2010 • 1:35 pm 0
How we structure information is so ingrained into our daily lives that it is taken for granted, but thinking about all that is encountered in our daily lives and one sees the balance that is required: this is because some form of structure is always present. That structure is also needed. In “Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages,” Alex Wright’s platform is that the keys to our information infrastructure lies not only with historical libraries and complex classification systems, but also that this structure is a key to nature itself.
“In 1970 biologist Lynn Margulis proposed a revolutionary hypothesis about the origin of complex organisms, suggesting that the relationship between networked and hierarchical systems is deeply woven into the fabric of life itself (p.11)”.
Wright talks about the libraries of the 1800’s and how much of their basic structure that emerged from the industrial revolution has lasted into current system. He is also quick to point out the complexity of keeping information relevant. The digital age is making possible the creation of searchable databases of archives, but it’s also making information, especially on the Internet, more ephemeral and harder to collect.
The point that Melvil Dewey was “obsessed with efficiency” seems almost appropriate for the internet.
“He even changed his name from ‘Melville’ to ‘Melvil’ as a time-saving gesture…[he] once even scolded his secretary for wishing him a good morning, admonishing her for such a frivolous use of time that could otherwise have been spent doing work. (p. 174)”.
Does that mean that Dewey would have been a big fan of URL shortener, bit.ly? Probably so!
It was interesting that Wright only discussed Google and its algorithms only twice throughout the book. ‘Intuitive’ seems to be a key word in many applications and software programs in an effort to somehow replicate and mimic human action and interaction. To the author’s defense, this book was published in 2007 – almost eons in digital history.
As for the museum of the future, archivists will be necessary not only for the structure of the information, but also what information is considered relevant. Will communities be the new proprietary owners? As some sort of hierarchy should be in play, it does not seem like that form of “group think” should be part of the answer.
Filed under: Catherine Rodriguez
February 3, 2010 • 8:48 am 0
While reading Bolter and Grusin’s Remediation, the idea of immersion seemed to be a common theme through each medium presented, whether it is literary hypertext, digital hypermedia or repurposing stories. Specifically, mediums are wanting for people because “a medium in our culture can never operate in isolation”(65). I want to challenge the idea that museums are being basically challenged for so-called quality time (in the same way that TV and movies might be challenged) and where we seem to be lumping them in with other industries that are competing for, basically, our advertising dollars.
Most view the museum experience as less theme park and more cultural and community-oriented; it also may become politicized when you add the necessity of benefactors who are courted to display the “marquee” exhibits.
The museum of the future should be looked upon as less ‘cyberworld’ and more along the lines of finding a common agreement of what the museum should be to both the benefactors, the patrons and the communities involved.
What’s needed is an arena where “the artist [or museum curator] defines a space through the disposition and interplay of forms that have been detached from their original context and then recombined”(39). Where not only art work, historical documentation and other archival material can co-exist, but also is presented and detailed in a way that the museum’s patrons can become an instrinsic part of the exhibit’s experience.
One such example was the recent Dallas exhibit of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.” The entrance to the exhibit was designed to mimic an entryway to the pyramids in Egypt and began where only about twenty patrons could enter a small, darkened room. It is here that the story of King Tutankhamun is told through video, images and with a voice-over of Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. Once the story ends, the exhibit opens a small panel door – similar to the panels that closed off the Egyptian mummies in their tombs – and the patrons enter to a much larger room that is filled with the intricate, beautiful and treasured collections of King Tut and his era.
The end of the exhibit even featured a CSI-themed section, where the story of several mummies being excavated and then submitted to CT scans was featured. This tie-in to a popular form of cultural entertainment – the American “CSI” franchise television series that has made DNA and forensic science part of the cultural lexicon – brings the patron closer to the subject matter in ways that helps them to understand it more intimately.
Filed under: Catherine Rodriguez
January 27, 2010 • 11:30 am 0
[Per the assigned readings of "Paper Machine" by Jacques Derrida and "The Future of the Book" by Geoffrey Nunberg.]
It does strike me somewhat strange that I’m summing up these articles about the future of the book on the day that Apple will soon detail news about their new tablet, possibly a new content delivery revolution in the making. I’ll stick to my iPod Touch for now…
Reading Derriada’s articles about the question of books as we know them today and their future left me wondering, “But does there have to be an end? Can the book not co-exist with new technology? Nunberg’s introduction in “The Future of the Book” answered my query with reference to the co-existing and longevity today of other technologies that had threatened to remove others from their perch. “…by the end of the decade all our current talk of the ‘end of the book’ will sound as dated and quaint as some of the other forecasts of this type… – photography will kill painting, movies will kill the theater, television will kill movies, and so on.”
So, if the book does live on but alternatively does not have to be in paper form, does the museum need to be a building in one central location? Can the museum come to you and your community? Just as I can go online and see a live concert broadcast on YouTube or UStream, can the social and cultural ideologies of Museum X, come to my home via the internet? And, in turn, I can then interact socially with others in a chat stream or live video conferencing.
Further researching this train of thought, I found online a webinar on “Gaming the Future of Museums,” which included a video speech by Dr. Jane McGonigal, a ‘gaming and futurist aficionado’ who discusses the social framework of gaming as applicable to the museum experience. The title of her presentation is “Should Museums be Happiness Engines?,” which delves into how museums would benefit from the social interactions of the gaming community and could tie that into the future of their acquisitions, exhibits and installations. This is a great concept, however, I do take a step back from the overall idea of happiness and how it might tie into both museums and gaming.
Other key words that might be appropriate are cooperation, interaction with the ____________ community, (anthropology, world history, American Indian culture, etc.). And just like with online communities, it would be advisable to have a moderator to direct the interactivity and provide direction to resources.
Cmr
Filed under: Catherine Rodriguez
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