This project seems to be bringing me straight to the zeitgeist of digital culture. Everywhere I look I can see a multitude of participants and 'users' all contributing to the web. But what is it that motivates individuals to engage in social media?
Is it for the 30 seconds of fame? Is it to make money? And how are people's motivations changing?
If we look at how our online habits have changed over the recent years, will we understand better where our online culture is going?
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
The Network society
I would like to quote the beginning of Daren Barney's Network Society to illustrate some important factors in this project:
I have included the whole first page of this thesis as it so eloquently opens the various subjects of the book into a conversation. I have also highlighted the particular moments that strike a chord with me and my project.
Like moths to a flame, ambitious minds seek out the spirit of their age. The project that is now well under way is purely that; an ambitious attempt for me to understand and challenge the 'spirit' with which this age will be historically remembered. An attempt to do such a thing is worthy to anyone at any moment in time, as it is a journey of discovery in the present. However, the current climate in which I have the opportunity to explore is rich with fascinating challenges and new perspectives. What is more I will become a product of the spirit of this age. As I take my first steps from being a student of the past into a practitioner of the future, I will mark my age. So this is a rare chance for me to survey the landscape with which I hope to cultivate in the future.
Barney gives spirit a complex of meanings with which to understand it by. His use of Weber's understanding of the spirit of capitalism gives spirit a practical historic being. I am learning that this project, which started as an attempt to look at how digital technology can influence culture, and more specifically, how networked social technology may be implemented to innovate performance practice, is revealing much more about my practice as an individual and how my immediate surroundings are influential to it. I am spending this project looking at various combining and often contradictory sources of information to gage the social practices of now. It is almost saddening to know that historically this may all be boiled down into a stock representative, a character with which future generations can settle their consciences with. I could guess it may well be a converse-wearing, shabby-chic fashionista, with white ear-phones plugging them into an introspective, narcissistic window of the world as they want to see it. This is, at least, how I see the spiritless of industrial capitalism as a being.
The book then goes on to open discussion on the network society, a theory of how one may read the spirit of the age of now. He also gives context to other examples where attempts have been made at identifying the essence of our climate, including post-industrialism, information society, post-fordism, post-modernism and globalization. The network society encompasses elements of all of these into its idea. Barney emphasises that the network society thesis is not the successor to these eras, but "...one star among these others in a constellation of relatively recent attempts to understand and characterise an evolving range of interrelated social, political, economic and cultural forces."
What this book questions is whether we can consider ourselves amidst a 'digital revolution. Have new information and communication technologies given birth to a new form of society, or do they reinforce and extend existing patterns and relationships?'
This book has been a great tool in helping me look at the wider context my project can ring-fence. In a traditional thesis-style it gives a range of arguments that challenge and reinforce the case for the network society. However it concludes that it is too early to tell if this thesis is in fact substantial, and that only time will. Granted this book is considering global economics and industrial values, taking a distant look at society. This will no doubt help my perspective. But this project is the opposite. It must start with each individuals experience, giving an idea of the actual ground-climate is right now.
As this project and the research that must shape it leads me into new discoveries I am realising that simply looking at 'networks' or 'social media' is not an option. There is a broader conversation. I can look at how I see society engaging with social media tools and using computer-aided networks. I can then view how this is impacting the industries and cultural producers of the 20th century. I can then see some higher conversation that puts these observations into economic, or political significance. Above that there is a discourse of more global proportions.
Just as my research had to start close to my previous knowledge and understanding and gradually took wider steps to give me a clearer perspective, the project must start with a close relation to my own capacity and then, as I practically experience more, let it become something of larger scope and thus greater significance to my understanding.
Like moths to a flame, ambitious minds seek out the spirit of their age. The project that is now well under way is purely that; an ambitious attempt for me to understand and challenge the 'spirit' with which this age will be historically remembered. An attempt to do such a thing is worthy to anyone at any moment in time, as it is a journey of discovery in the present. However, the current climate in which I have the opportunity to explore is rich with fascinating challenges and new perspectives. What is more I will become a product of the spirit of this age. As I take my first steps from being a student of the past into a practitioner of the future, I will mark my age. So this is a rare chance for me to survey the landscape with which I hope to cultivate in the future.
Barney gives spirit a complex of meanings with which to understand it by. His use of Weber's understanding of the spirit of capitalism gives spirit a practical historic being. I am learning that this project, which started as an attempt to look at how digital technology can influence culture, and more specifically, how networked social technology may be implemented to innovate performance practice, is revealing much more about my practice as an individual and how my immediate surroundings are influential to it. I am spending this project looking at various combining and often contradictory sources of information to gage the social practices of now. It is almost saddening to know that historically this may all be boiled down into a stock representative, a character with which future generations can settle their consciences with. I could guess it may well be a converse-wearing, shabby-chic fashionista, with white ear-phones plugging them into an introspective, narcissistic window of the world as they want to see it. This is, at least, how I see the spiritless of industrial capitalism as a being.
The book then goes on to open discussion on the network society, a theory of how one may read the spirit of the age of now. He also gives context to other examples where attempts have been made at identifying the essence of our climate, including post-industrialism, information society, post-fordism, post-modernism and globalization. The network society encompasses elements of all of these into its idea. Barney emphasises that the network society thesis is not the successor to these eras, but "...one star among these others in a constellation of relatively recent attempts to understand and characterise an evolving range of interrelated social, political, economic and cultural forces."
What this book questions is whether we can consider ourselves amidst a 'digital revolution. Have new information and communication technologies given birth to a new form of society, or do they reinforce and extend existing patterns and relationships?'
This book has been a great tool in helping me look at the wider context my project can ring-fence. In a traditional thesis-style it gives a range of arguments that challenge and reinforce the case for the network society. However it concludes that it is too early to tell if this thesis is in fact substantial, and that only time will. Granted this book is considering global economics and industrial values, taking a distant look at society. This will no doubt help my perspective. But this project is the opposite. It must start with each individuals experience, giving an idea of the actual ground-climate is right now.
As this project and the research that must shape it leads me into new discoveries I am realising that simply looking at 'networks' or 'social media' is not an option. There is a broader conversation. I can look at how I see society engaging with social media tools and using computer-aided networks. I can then view how this is impacting the industries and cultural producers of the 20th century. I can then see some higher conversation that puts these observations into economic, or political significance. Above that there is a discourse of more global proportions.
Just as my research had to start close to my previous knowledge and understanding and gradually took wider steps to give me a clearer perspective, the project must start with a close relation to my own capacity and then, as I practically experience more, let it become something of larger scope and thus greater significance to my understanding.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Guardian blog about theatre and technology
Maddy costa's blog in the Guardian about several pieces of theatre in progress that are engaging in new media and digital technology to help tell stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/09/theatre-of-the-nerd
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/09/theatre-of-the-nerd
What you need to know about viral video and the law
tech-in-the-arts has released a publication looking at the legal issues around online video footage. Specifically concerned with arts marketing. This article raises some important issues about authorship, the public domain and the new social media landscape. Understandably the format is similar to that of an educational pamphlet and uses a combination of scenarios and diagrams to expand on issues surrounding video, copyright and artists contracts. Although the paper has a forward facing stance, first chronicling the industry complications with radio, then the effect video had on the Hollywood film industry, it seems to elude any potential levelling of the strict laws of the 20th century. Towards the end of the document a diagram basically suggests all who work in arts marketing to get as up to date with intellectual property law as possible and to refer to unions if in doubt. There is no massive pointer to any attempt at re-writing these out-dated forms of copyright laws, only a recognition of the constant threat of lawsuits hanging over any arts organisation of marketer who uses video inappropriately.
There is, however, some salvageable good in the concluding paragraphs:
In the first 10 years of the 21st century, we’ve seen technology profoundly change the entertainment industry, notably the music industry. Although mainstream musical artists are able to thrive without the record companies, it is doubtful that the performing arts as we know them would be able to survive without arts organizations. Performing art forms like theater, opera, and ballet, by nature, have needs that can only be fulfilled by a company that can bring performers and designers together and can provide them with performance space, sets, costumes, props, lights, and, of course, an audience, as well as the means to obtain these necessities through fundraising and marketing.
It is short-sighted not to see the success of the performers and other creators as intrinsically tied to the success of the arts organization. Performers and organizations both strive for the same goal: to bring high-quality art to audiences. With changes in technology comes a change in the way our audiences think about their relationship to art and how they want to experience it. The question is, will the performing arts industry change with its audiences?
What you need to know about viral video and the law
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Research methodology
I'm at the stage in the project where the ethics of my research methodology needs to be established. I have realised, due to the interdisciplinarity, or simply the use of mixed-media involved in this project, it is not a task of plainly picking one root of compiling knowledge. I have a series of approaches that seem to dictate certain ways to form an opinion. Each has their own standards and recognised ways for understanding more.
For instance, considering how blogging and social networking is effecting the news journalism industry, I could compare data on newspaper sales with the amount of blogs that are created daily, thus quantitively comparing results. Or I could interview focus groups and find a qualitative way of evaluating how people learn about current affairs and communicate with each other. Just this question could be approached from an economic, politics, media study, journalistic or cultural stance. I also have the option as an artist to become as close or as distant as I like to this question, or shaping an opinion through a variety of practices. Emotionality and flares of self identity may be a strong way of forming a project with an integral experience to offer.
Furthermore, I am asking about something that is in rapid motion. As huge cultural shifts take place, how can I get a grip on what is happening? I need to be aptly responsive to the social and political climate that develops in real time.
And so with a confusing array of options with which to form knowledge of this project, I sit down to my computer.
I open safari (my internet browser), and go to the top right google search box and type 'social media'.
Up come a series of results: the obligatory wikipedia page; a handful of marketing websites that "hold the secret to social media success"; a few blogs; some videos; some images and some journalistic news results. Each one asks a different approach to it's significance in the context of this project. It is worth noting, that by now (4 weeks into the project) I have become skilled in the art of trawling the isles of google. I have no doubt that every scholar and every professor, every notable scientists, art maker or politician utilises search engines, or rather the contents of the world wide web to form an opinion.
I give this project full access to as much of the diverse and varying virtual landscape of the internet I can explore. Whilst doing so I have found communities of specialists and little clusters of information. I use a combination of trusting google's algorithmic responses to my searches and my own sense of judgement to lead my inquiry.
The question is can the internet be reliable? I can hear the warnings of every secondary school teacher giving out homework; "Remember that anyone can write anything on the internet and it's not always true!" I remember one teacher banning wikipedia, as it was not accredited with any institutional stamp of approval. I could use a variety of research ethics to evaluate this perspective against arguments that stand for crowd-credibility. This however would need to consider how this teacher came to this decision. Was it advised by the school? Did he read a compelling article in the newspaper?
In the internet I can find continuous cycles of meta-research, both giving me first hand experience of all it's relatively new media, as well as links to evidence of others research and findings.
One of the ways I have been broadening my research is through a pattern of media-trawling. I call it this, because I cannot find a better way to describe this action. That is not to say however that I am simply putting the bare minimum effort into it. As I discussed in an earlier log entry, I have been having difficulty situating my research amongst a published literary field. Admittedly I am not the most familiar person with the library but from my attempts it is quite a challenge finding current texts relating to computer aided networks and technological effects on society. I am learning that there is an anxiety I feel from the pressures of academia I perceive that make this 'trawling' seem ilegitimised. I throw caution to the wind at this stage allowing influences from all directions to shape my research path. I will clearly outline my influences along the way, and possibly upon reflection I may find that some discoveries are less credible than others, but for now I see no other way but like this.
For instance, considering how blogging and social networking is effecting the news journalism industry, I could compare data on newspaper sales with the amount of blogs that are created daily, thus quantitively comparing results. Or I could interview focus groups and find a qualitative way of evaluating how people learn about current affairs and communicate with each other. Just this question could be approached from an economic, politics, media study, journalistic or cultural stance. I also have the option as an artist to become as close or as distant as I like to this question, or shaping an opinion through a variety of practices. Emotionality and flares of self identity may be a strong way of forming a project with an integral experience to offer.
Furthermore, I am asking about something that is in rapid motion. As huge cultural shifts take place, how can I get a grip on what is happening? I need to be aptly responsive to the social and political climate that develops in real time.
And so with a confusing array of options with which to form knowledge of this project, I sit down to my computer.
I open safari (my internet browser), and go to the top right google search box and type 'social media'.
Up come a series of results: the obligatory wikipedia page; a handful of marketing websites that "hold the secret to social media success"; a few blogs; some videos; some images and some journalistic news results. Each one asks a different approach to it's significance in the context of this project. It is worth noting, that by now (4 weeks into the project) I have become skilled in the art of trawling the isles of google. I have no doubt that every scholar and every professor, every notable scientists, art maker or politician utilises search engines, or rather the contents of the world wide web to form an opinion.
I give this project full access to as much of the diverse and varying virtual landscape of the internet I can explore. Whilst doing so I have found communities of specialists and little clusters of information. I use a combination of trusting google's algorithmic responses to my searches and my own sense of judgement to lead my inquiry.
The question is can the internet be reliable? I can hear the warnings of every secondary school teacher giving out homework; "Remember that anyone can write anything on the internet and it's not always true!" I remember one teacher banning wikipedia, as it was not accredited with any institutional stamp of approval. I could use a variety of research ethics to evaluate this perspective against arguments that stand for crowd-credibility. This however would need to consider how this teacher came to this decision. Was it advised by the school? Did he read a compelling article in the newspaper?
In the internet I can find continuous cycles of meta-research, both giving me first hand experience of all it's relatively new media, as well as links to evidence of others research and findings.
One of the ways I have been broadening my research is through a pattern of media-trawling. I call it this, because I cannot find a better way to describe this action. That is not to say however that I am simply putting the bare minimum effort into it. As I discussed in an earlier log entry, I have been having difficulty situating my research amongst a published literary field. Admittedly I am not the most familiar person with the library but from my attempts it is quite a challenge finding current texts relating to computer aided networks and technological effects on society. I am learning that there is an anxiety I feel from the pressures of academia I perceive that make this 'trawling' seem ilegitimised. I throw caution to the wind at this stage allowing influences from all directions to shape my research path. I will clearly outline my influences along the way, and possibly upon reflection I may find that some discoveries are less credible than others, but for now I see no other way but like this.
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